SETI Upgrades ET Search

The search for little green men will get a boost next week when the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project releases SETI@Home 2.0, an overhaul to its screensaver that scans radio signals from space for signs of alien life.

New Scientist Feature: Tune in, turn off

From the stratospheric IQ of Hawking to the amazing talent of the autistic savant....JAMES CAN TELL YOU the precise time--to the second--without looking at a clock. Jennifer can measure anything to within a fraction of an inch just by glancing at it. And Christopher can speak 24 languages--including a couple of his own devising. Amazing? Definitely. But unusual? Not necessarily. According to a controversial new theory you too can do these things. Or at least you could--if only you could just stop being so clever for a moment.

A brief history of the future

Will we colonise the universe? Are aliens out there? Can computers outsmart us? In a unique interview, Professor Stephen Hawking, who has spent a lifetime applying his formidable intellect to the big questions, gives Nigel Farndale his predictions for the human race

The definitive Top 10 gadget list of all time By Gary Krakow, MSNBC. One man’s opinion of devices that have changed our lives... and the world. Dec. 31 — Here it is. Just what everyone needs. Yet another Y2K, end-of-the-millennium list. But, I feel I’m entitled to do one. Especially since I’ve spent a good amount of time whittling the list of every gadget ever made down to a somewhat manageable Top 10.

News: Lucky2000 Visual Basic Virus Computer Associates International Inc. [NYSE:CA] today warned computer users of yet another virus that's been released into the wild in time for Y2K. The virus has been named "Lucky2000" and it overwrites Visual Basic scripts. Then it redirects the user's browser home page to the Lucky2000 web site in Russia.

News: Privacy Complaint Against Amazon An Internet security expert has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Amazon.com, alleging that its Internet software subsidiary Alexa violates existing privacy laws. The Alexa software keeps track of which sites a consumer visits and searches for similar patterns in those of other shoppers, compiling information in the aggregate to gauge shopping behavior and offering subscribers information on other sites they might like to visit.

Digital Theatre: Disney refuses to step down Rebuffed by operators of the only Imax theater in central Los Angeles, Disney is taking the extraordinary step of building a temporary theater to showcase "Fantasia/2000." The new theater, a steel and fiberglass tent constructed at a cost approaching $4 million, opened on New Year's Day in West Los Angeles, off the 405 Freeway near Howard Hughes Parkway.

Y2K gives some admins a security education The threat of online assaults had IT staffs on guard, but midnight came and went without any serious security problems cropping up, according to experts monitoring systems.

Prank or Profit? Web Name Auctioned Off for $10 Mln -- Peter de Jager was called a lot of things over the last six years while evagelizing about the dangers of the "millennium bug", many of them only four letters and not to nice. If this deal, auctioning off the domain name year2000.com, goes through he'll be called another four letter word -- RICH.