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U.S. Residents will throw away more than 500 million personal computers this year. But information on the computer's hard drive can come back to haunt the machine's former owner, so a Tampa company, Viatek Solutions, specializes in destroying computer parts. The company uses an industrial hammermill that pulverizes computer hard drives into tiny pieces no bigger than a dime. "Any material is unidentifiable once it goes through this machine," said employee Mark Cardamone. "What it was originally, whether it be a hard drive, tape drive or circuit board, it's totally destroyed along with the serial number associated with it." Viatek...

Sept 11, 2007 TORONTO -- Commercial director Joseph Kosinski is in final negotiations to develop and direct "Tron," described as "the next chapter" of Disney's 1982 cult classic. Sean Bailey is producing via the Live Planet banner, as is Steven Lisberger, who co-wrote and directed the original film. Kosinski, who last month signed on to helm the remake of "Logan's Run" for Warner Bros. Pictures, will oversee the visual development of the project and have input on the script, which is being written by "Lost" scribes Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Story details are being kept secret. The original, about...

The Fly Wrangler   My brother tells me I have too much time on my hands.  The other brother says "You need to get a life".   I tried.  I opened a worm ranch.   It went smooth however, I hated branding time.  Each of my worms had "Bobs quality worms" branded on their side, so I could identify them.   But then the thunderstorm came up.   All of my worms stampeded.  Gone.  I was heartbroken.   All I had was my computer, and adverising for my lost worms.   And then a fly landed on my monitor screen.  Just...

What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus. Although over the next 25 years, Skrenta started the online news business Topix, helped launch a collaborative Web directory now owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX)'s Netscape and wrote countless other computer programs, he is still remembered most for unleashing the "Elk Cloner" virus on the world. "It was some dumb little practical joke," Skrenta, now 40, said in an interview. "I guess...

Under terms of the agreement announced Monday, Acer will purchase all of Gateway's outstanding shares for $1.90 per share. The deal has already been approved by the boards of directors at both companies and should be completed by the end of this year, subject to government approval, Acer said in a statement. Gateway's shares ended at $1.21 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. "This is the biggest acquisition in Acer's 30 year history," said J.T. Wang, Acer's chairman, speaking at a news conference in Taipei. "After this acquisition, we are solidly number three in the global PC market," Wang...

Installing a second h/d to a computer. 2nd HD is from pc with dead MB. 2nd HD is formatted with OS (XP) installed. I want to use the #2 HD as a slave and for storage only. HD's are matching ATA/IDE 80GB, 7200 RPM.Question...should I fdisk and reformat before I install as a slave?

The founder of a publicly funded school for some of D.C.’s most vulnerable students faces up to two years in prison for his role in a computer-theft ring. Charles Emor is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court this morning. He was convicted last year of conspiracy charges after a jury found that he had bought computers stolen by his friends from the loading dock at the Gateway computer plant in Hampton, Va. Emor, 46, is the founder of SunRise Academy, a private school in D.C. that takes in learning-disabled and emotionally disturbed children from the public schools. Almost all...

I came across this today. A web site that helps you get through phone menus and get to a human. The "F"'s are their grades. http://www.gethuman.com/

Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You By VAUHINI VARA July 30, 2007; Page R1 Admit it: For many of us, our work computer is a home away from home. It seems only fair, since our home computer is typically an office away from the office. So in between typing up reports and poring over spreadsheets, we use our office PCs to keep up with our lives. We do birthday shopping, check out funny clips on YouTube and catch up with friends by email or instant message. And often it's just easier to accomplish certain tasks using consumer technology...

A single bottle broke the calm, shattering in the late-afternoon sun. Then another...and another. :SNIP: Bob Tur, a pilot and photojournalist, hovered above the unfolding chaos in his helicopter, along with his copilot, his camerawoman wife, his lawyer, and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol... There was Larry Tarvin, who was pulled from his truck and kicked in the ribs, shoulder, and face. That's when the shots started. Tur's chopper began taking hits as the throng below pummeled another trucker, Reginald Denny, with a cement block, a tire iron, and a fire extinguisher.:SNIP: Over the years, he estimates, the Denny tape has...

NASA worker caught in act of sabotage on ISS bound computer Posted Jul 26th 2007 5:33PM by Joshua Topolsky Filed under: Transportation According to breaking news from NASA, a space program worker is alleged to have deliberately damaged a computer that was meant to fly aboard the Endeavor in less than two weeks, in an apparent act of sabotage. NASA says the unnamed individual, who works for one of the space agency's subcontractors, cut wires inside a computer that was headed to the International Space Station (ISS) on the shuttle. The alleged tampering occurred outside of NASA operations in Florida,...

WASHINGTON--Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat" because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers. At a hearing on the topic, Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, without offering details, that he is considering new laws aimed at addressing the problem. He said he was troubled by the possibility that foreign governments, terrorists or organized crime could gain access to documents that reveal national secrets. Also at the hearing, Mark Gorton, the chairman of Lime Wire, which makes the peer-to-peer software LimeWire, was assailed for...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man who startled his neighbours when he hurled his computer out of the window in the middle of the night, was let off for disturbing the peace by police who sympathised with his technical frustrations. Police in the northern city of Hanover said they would not press charges after responding to calls made by residents in an apartment block who were woken by a loud crash in the early hours of Saturday. Officers found the street and pavement covered in electronic parts and discovered who the culprit was. Asked what had driven him to the...

A jury has found a 13-year-old Canadian girl guilty of murdering her parents and her younger brother in revenge for being grounded and having her computer privileges revoked. A jury in Medicine Hat, Alberta, found the teenager guilty on three counts of first-degree murder after only three hours of deliberation. The bodies of her father, 42, mother, 48, and brother, 8, were found in the family home in April 2006. They had been stabbed 41 times. During the trial, the girl told the jury that her boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, who was 11 years her senior and had claimed to friends...

My wife is in Hong Kong, and took her Toshiba Satellite R15-S822 notebook computer. It has a power supply that's supposed to be auto-sensing. Therefore, she plugged it directly into an outlet, using only a physical plug adapter, not a converter. Yesterday and the day before, while using it, she felt as though she was being bitten by mosquitoes, that is she felt stinging sensations on the outside of the computer. Just now, however, she has found the computer to be "dead." Whether the battery is in or not, nothing happens when she turns on the switch. Even the "battery...

<p>Copyright 2007, NewsBank. All Rights Reserved.</p> <p>IBM said it developed a system that can reach the latest holy grail of supercomputing -- it has designed a supercomputer that can surpass a sustained performance of one quadrillion operations per second, also known as a petaflop.</p>

Homeland Security Department Acknowledges Own Computer Break-Ins, Virus Outbreaks The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to Congress. In one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. The agency's headquarters sought forensic help from the department's own Security Operations Center and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team it operates with Carnegie Mellon University. In other cases, computer workstations in the Coast Guard and the Transportation...

Think that all of the great Web sites have already been invented? Think again. The Internet is evolving in new and inventive ways thanks to mashups that pull data from all over the Web and to AJAX-based interfaces that give sites the same degree of interactivity and responsiveness that desktop apps possess. To keep you ahead of the curve, we've rounded up 25 innovative Web sites and services that are well worth watching. Some of them help you design your own personalized Web site mashups; others enable you to create video mixes, build wikis, share personal obsessions, and more. But...

The keyboard on my VAIo lap=top= has gone nuts. When I typ=e a p=, I get the p= p=lus the equal sign , and the cursor jump=s to the first line of typ=e. The direction keys don-' t work, nor does the backsp=ace. The enter key causes the little box with undo to drop= down. I already p=layed around with the numlock key and fixed the worse of it, which was the letter keys tpy=ing numbers. But it is still messed up=. Any suggestions?

How does Skype compare with other PC-to-telephone VoIP options, such as Net2phone? What has your experience been? I see wireless Skype phones that work when someone is in a hot spot. However, suppose I don't have wireless, but DO have a regular internet connection and a computer. Do any of those phones have USB adapters so that I can still make non-wireless calls? Thanks.