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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Psssst, wanna catch a tagger? Satellites and super-sensitive sensors are now tuned to the sibilant hiss of spray cans in a space-age effort to eradicate one of the oldest and most persistent urban problems -- graffiti. TaggerTrap, a graffiti eradication system being tested in several California cities, uses global positioning system technology, cell phones and sensors that recognize the ultrasonic pitch of spray cans to alert police when vandals begin their work, representatives said. "The tagger, when he pushes down on that spray can, he's calling police," said George Lerg, co-founder of TrapTec, the Escondido, California-based...

Is WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) here to stay or merely a passing fad, ripe for replacement by more flexible and capable technologies?There is no doubt that it is one of the hotter developments of the past year endorsed by a string of leading companies including International Business Machines, Intel and Microsoft. It is expected to a be a powerful talking point at the Cannes 3GSM World Congress this month.The Boston Consulting Group says it: "threatens to spark a new revolution in the telecommunications industry." WiFi products are already numbered in the hundreds and some pundits predict it could undermine the...

I have a D-Link Airbus 650+ wireless network card, with 128-bit WEP encryption. I use the card in a Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop. The card works fine for the first hour or so. Then, the computer slows to a CRAWL. In fact, the system time starts lagging by a few hours. If I restart the computer, everything is fine again and the system clock is correct. What's going on, and how can I correct it? Their technical support has no idea of why it's happening. Thanks.

The U.S. government is supporting a move to a new standard designed to create a single point of contact for telephone and Internet communications. The new electronic numbering system, also known as ENUM, would give consumers a single number for all their telephone numbers, e-mail and instant messaging addresses, fax numbers and mobile phone numbers. ENUM would give each consumer what is being called a "single identifier." But before the system goes into effect, there will be a review by domestic and global communications security experts on the issues related to consumer data protection. The Federal Communications Commission will...

Researchers in Europe have made advances with a new technology that could one day be used to detect explosives or biological weapons in parcels, locate cancers beneath the skin, reveal the state of wounds beneath dressings and see through fog. As part of an effort sponsored by the European Space Agency, which works to bring the continent up to speed in outer-space research by coordinating multinational projects, scientists were able to take the first "photographs" using terahertz radiation. Researchers with the StarTiger project released on Tuesday images of a human hand taken through a 15 millimeter stack of paper, as...

Attention Junkyard Warriors! Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for… Junkyard Wars is looking for a few good men and women to compete for the 2003 season. If you think you're rusty enough to make it on our junkyard, send in your application ASAP! Please note: Unlike previous seasons, competitors will be chosen this year as individuals, not as complete teams. If you have the skills, the know-how, and the courage it takes to win on Junkyard Wars, send in your application right away. Click here to download the application form. If possible, please fill in your application on...

Microsoft is in the process of applying for a wide-ranging patent that covers a variety of functions related to its .Net initiative. If approved as is, the patent would cover application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow actions related to accessing the network, handling Extensible Markup Language (XML), and managing data from multiple sources. APIs are the hooks in software that allow applications to work with another system. Microsoft declined to elaborate on its plans for the patent, but intellectual property attorneys said that if it's granted, the company could dictate how, or whether, developers of software and devices can link...

Executive Summary While the Java language provides many advantages over C and C++, its implementation on Solaris presents barriers to the delivery of reliable applications. These barriers prevent general acceptance of Java for production software within Sun. A review of the problem indicates that these issues are not inherent to Java but instead represent implementation oversights and inconsistencies common to projects which do not communicate effectively with partners and users. Within Sun, the institutional mechanism for promoting this sort of communication between partners is the System Architecture Council codified in the Software Development Framework (SDF). We propose that the process...

<p>Floppy disk drives will soon be history at Dell Computer Corp.</p> <p>The company plans to stop installing the drives on high-end Dimension computers next month and offer them only as an option, Dell spokesman Lionel Menchaca said Wednesday.</p> <p>For years, computer users stored data on portable 3-1/2-inch floppy disks. The plastic square disks can hold up to 1.44-megabytes of information.</p> <p>But Round Rock, Texas-based Dell has seen customers moving toward newer, larger capacity technology _ especially portable hard drives and rewriteable CDs.</p>

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Coming to a home or office near you could be an electric Internet: high-speed Web access via ubiquitous power lines, of all things, making every electrical outlet an always-on Web connection. If it sounds shocking, consider this: St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. and other utilities already are testing the technology, and many consider it increasingly viable.This truly plug-and-play technology, if proven safe, has the blessings of federal regulators looking to bolster broadband competition, lower consumer prices and bridge the digital divide in rural areas.Because virtually every building has a power plug, it "could simply blow the doors...

A Japanese scientist has developed a coat which appears to make the wearer invisible. The illusion was part of a demonstration of optical camouflage technology at Tokyo University. It is the brainchild of Professor Susumu Tachi who is in the early stage of research he hopes will eventually make camouflaged objects virtually transparent. The photograph was taken through a viewfinder that uses a combination of moving images taken behind the wearer to give a transparent effect. It's hoped the technology will be useful for surgeons frustrated their own hands and surgical tools can block their view of operations and pilots...

Though many people have never heard of them, the emerging realm of micro-scale devices -- called microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS -- could completely change the medical, automotive and aerospace industries, except for one thing. No battery yet exists that will provide long-lasting power and still fit inside devices smaller than the width of a human hair. Bruce Dunn, a materials science professor from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, believes a radical new design for a lightweight, rechargeable battery -- a design based on three-dimensional geometry -- will provide power to a host of devices so...

Charity donations from major corporations reach Bin Laden Several major international corporations contributed funds to a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Al-Qaeda network. Former Director of the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), Enaam Arnaout, will go on trial next month for transferring donations made by Microsoft, UBS and Compaq to terrorist organizations, reported the US Justice Department. According to the US government, the foundation, a Saudi charity that established Chicago headquarters in 1992, received both direct employee donations and matching grants from those companies. Microsoft revealed that it contributed close to $20,000 to BIF over an extended...

US Customs and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are looking into the possible transfer of thousands of Sony PlayStation 2s from US retail stores to Iraq, military intelligence sources have reported. An astounding 4,000 PlayStation 2s have apparently been shipped to Iraq in the last two to three months, according to a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report. With the under-whelming shipment of PS2s that have hit North American shores, this recent news makes strange sense. But is this the real reason that Sony can't meet US gamers' demand? Or is the news really real at all? According to the news...

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is once again delaying the shipment of a long-awaited microprocessor chip that is vital to its competition with Intel Corp., Monday's Wall Street Journal reported. The chip, part of a new family that has carried the code name Hammer, was originally expected to be available in personal computers at the end of 2002 or early in the first quarter of this year. In September, however, AMD reset the delivery date to late in the first quarter or early in the second period. Friday, AMD said PCs based on the chip, formally called the Athlon 64,...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- As technical devices become smaller, basic processes like fluid flow become more difficult. University of Arkansas researcher Steve Tung is creating a novel solution to this problem by incorporating living bacteria into microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to form living motors for pumps and valves. These tiny bioMEMS devices could be used in systems for drug delivery or DNA sequencing. "It is hard to move fluid on a micro scale because it takes a lot of pressure," explained Tung, associate professor of mechanical engineering. "Current systems are expensive and inefficient, requiring high voltage or very good seals." Tung is...

Leading IT firms donated to terrorists By Nick Farrell [03-02-2003] Microsoft and Compaq unwittingly gave funds to al-Qaeda front Microsoft and Compaq appear to have accidentally sponsored Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. According to Russian newspaper Pravda, the two companies gave donations to the Benevolence International Foundation. But the 'charity' was a front for the training of al-Qaeda terrorists. Pravda stated that Microsoft donated $20,000, but that it is uncertain how much Compaq donated. The contributions came to light when the FBI investigated the Foundation's activities. It became interested in the fact that, for the four first months...

The Bush administration is quietly assembling an Internet-wide monitoring center to detect and respond to attacks on vital information systems and key e-commerce sites. The center, which has been in development for the past 15 months, is a key piece of the White House's national cybersecurity strategy and represents a major leap in the federal government's effort to achieve real-time tracking of the Internet's health. The "Global Early Warning Information System," (GEWIS, pronounced "gee-whiz") is being built by the National Communications System (NCS), a Defense agency established in 1962 to ensure that the government has access to adequate communications systems...

ASHINGTON, Jan. 30 — Law enforcement officials across the country will soon have access to a database of 50 million overseas applications for United States visas, including the photographs of 20 million applicants.The database, which will become one of the largest offering images to local law enforcement, is maintained by the State Department and typically provides personal information like the applicant's home address, date of birth and passport number, and the names of relatives. Advertisement It is a central feature of a computer system linkup, scheduled within the next month, that will tie together the department, intelligence agencies, the F.B.I....

Huge data sets examined interactively yet remotely   Sandia “Be There Now” hardware enhances long-distance collaborations   CYBERSPACE DOOR — Lyndon Pierson (left) and Perry Robertson examine their group’s video encoder and decoder. (Photo by Randy Montoya)Download 300dpi JPEG image, ‘Internet-Speed.jpg’, 1.6MB (Media are welcome to download/publish this image with related news stories.) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A surgeon in New York who wants the opinion quickly of a specialist in Los Angeles probably would send medical MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] files as e-mail attachments or make them accessible in Internet drop zones. Unfortunately for patients on operating tables, extremely...