April 2001 Technology Updates
1. E-filing
On March 15, 2001, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report detailing potential security problems with the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) E-filing system. E-filing allows taxpayers to submit their return to the IRS electronically, instead of in the traditional paper form. As part of an overall test of government computer security, GAO investigators attempted to hack into the IRS system. In many cases they were able to guess passwords that gave them access to taxpayer's confidential information.
The IRS has taken steps to improve security for E-filing, though it points out that there have been no unauthorized security breaches since the E-filing program began in 1986. The IRS expects about 42 million taxpayers to file their return electronically this year.
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2. PC Tips — Click and type in Word 2000
Word 2000 contains a new feature called click and type. It will automatically format your text based on where you begin typing. To use click and type follow these steps:
- Open Word 2000
- Click on Tools and then Options
- Click on the Edit tab
- Check the Enable click and type "box"
- Click on OK
As you move your cursor from left to right over a blank area of a document, the I-beam cursor will change to show the type of formatting that will be used. At the far left, left justification is used. A bit farther right and the text will be indented. Toward the middle of the page, center justification is used, and right justification is used at the far right of the page. Once the correct cursor appears, just double-click and start typing. The text is automatically formatted.
3. Anti-spam bills considered
If you're tired of receiving unsolicited e-mail, known as spam, help may be on the way. Congress is once again considering a bill that would impose penalties on those who send spam. The bill, called the "Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act," passed in the House of Representatives last year by a vote of 427-1. However, the Senate failed to vote on the bill. The new version introduced in the House at the beginning of January would allow internet service providers (ISP) that have anti-spamming policies to sue spammers for as much as $500 per e-mail sent. The total amount of damages is capped at $50,000. A Senate version of the bill is expected shortly.
A number of businesses, including Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, are concerned over the scope of the proposed legislation. They fear it will hamper their efforts to keep in touch with customers. In addition, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is concerned that the bill does not provide for mass e-mails to previous customers.
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4. Identity thief strikes the rich and famous
On March 20, 2001, the New York Post reported that a 32-year-old busboy has allegedly committed one of the largest identity thefts in history. The suspect, Abraham Abdallah, used computers in the public library and a Web-enabled cell phone to get the major credit reporting companies (TRW, Experian, and Equifax) to divulge personal information about some of the richest people in the world. Abdallah then used this information to establish phony bank, brokerage, and credit card accounts.
Abdallah's reported victims include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Warren Buffet. Buffet is the fourth richest man in the world. Abdallah was caught in a police sting operation on February 23, 2001. He denies all charges.
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5. Grpff descrambles DVDs
Over the past several months, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has successfully challenged, through the legal process, the right of Web sites to offer or even link to a program called DeCSS. This program decrypts movie DVDs and enables anyone with the right equipment to make copies. Now a new program, called grpff, poses a potentially bigger threat than DeCSS. Grpff contains just seven lines of programming code in the Perl language. It is so compact that some people have begun distributing it in the signature line of their e-mail.
The program was written by a 19-year-old MIT sophomore, Keith Winstein, and an MIT alumnus, Marc Horowitz, for a seminar on decrypting DVDs. Winstein has suggested that the program can be handed out on business cards and printed on T-shirts, making it virtually impossible for the MPAA to stop its spread.
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6. Monitors may shock
On March 29, 2001, Hewlett Packard (HP) announced a program aimed at fixing or replacing defective monitors that may cause an electrical shock. The problem monitor is the HP 71, 17-inch monitor, model number D8903A. HP has indicated that about 0.01 percent of these monitors may cause an electrical shock if a person comes into contact with a specific part of the top of the monitor casing. These monitors were sold in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Latin America.
HP 71 customers can call a special toll-free number (800-428-2446) to receive instructions on how to determine if a particular monitor is defective. HP will replace all monitors that have the defect.
For more information click on this link:
7. Apple OS X
Apple Computer released its long awaited upgrade to the Macintosh operating system on March 24, 2001. The new operating system is called OS X (pronounced OS 10; the X is the Roman numeral for 10). This is the first completely revised Macintosh operating system since the first Mac was released in 1984. Apple still has some work to do on the new software. It is currently missing some components, such as a DVD player and CD-ROM burner. However, these are expected by late spring.
OS X is built on the Unix operating system and features a new user interface called Aqua. Apple has developed OS X for a worldwide market. The operating system supports seven languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, and Dutch). It retails for $129.
For more information, click on these links:
8. Iridium flies again
The Iridium satellite phone network, which went through bankruptcy and shut down last year, is set for a comeback. Iridium Satellite, LLC, the new owner of the network, has announced that voice communication will be available immediately and that data communication should commence in June 2001. The Iridium system consists of sixty-six main satellites and seven spares. This set-up provides continuous worldwide communications coverage. Iridium Satellite has already inked a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense and will market its service primarily to governments and major corporations.
Access to the Iridium system is not cheap. The phone, a Motorola Satellite Series 9500, will retail for about $1,000. A lighter version, the Satellite Series 9505, will be available in August and retail for about $1,500. The cost for voice communication has been set at $1.50 per minute.
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9. Panic and relief for H1-B visa holders
During the boom over the last few years, high-technology companies have had a hard time filling jobs, so they lobbied Congress to increase the number of H-1B visas. These visas allow non-U.S. citizens with high-tech skills to work in America. With some technology companies now going out of business and others falling on hard times, some people with H-1B visas face not only the loss of their job, but deportation as well. Workers with an H-1B visa who are laid off must either leave the country or find a new job within 10 days.
This problem has spawned a new industry called "body shopping." Body shoppers put out-of-work H-1B visa holders on their payroll. They then subcontract the workers' services to other firms and collect up to 20 percent of the employees' salaries for their efforts. Responding to the problem of displaced workers and their potential exploitation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is relaxing the 10-day period and will now allow workers to remain in the U.S. for three years from their date of entry.
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10. New database software
Two new database management systems (DBMS), one from IBM and the other from Oracle, are due in the next few months. Both systems represent a change in business strategy for the companies. In the past they sold their DBMS and data analysis tools separately. With these new versions both companies are planning to integrate database management and data analysis. They are both playing catch-up with Microsoft's SQL 2000, which was released late last year.
In its new version of DB2, IBM has integrated portions of its data-mining tool, called DB2 Intelligent Miner. Oracle plans to release Oracle 9i in June. The new version will include Darwin and Oracle Express. Darwin is used for data mining and Oracle Express for forecasting.
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