HOW TO: DISABLING POPUPS THROUGH WINDOWS MESSENGER

Spammers have discovered a hole in Windows Messenger which enables them to send popup ads and bypass any popup blocker. It's so bad that even Congress is demanding action.

Here's how to disable Messenger in XP:

Click on the Start button and open the control panel.
Open the Performance and Maintenance control panel and go to Administrative Tools.
Now double-click on Services, then scroll to Messenger.
Double-click Messenger and click Stop to stop the service.
Change the startup type to Disable.

FRIDAY'S ROUNDUP:


RETURN TO THE MOON?
Congress is holding hearings on space and going to the moon is back in style!


HAH HAH, YOU BELIEVED
Turns out that Billion Dollar McDonald's iTunes story was a hoax. Or was it?

Meanwhile, iTunes seems to be holding an 80% market share on the digital mp3 download market, but claims it isn't making a dime.

DVD DEMYSTIFIED
Confused by all the formats available for burning to DVD? Here's some enlightenment.

THERE SHE IS, MISS AMERICA ...
... in cyberspace? Well, organizers in Italy are looking for the most beautiful pixels in the world with MISS DIGITAL WORLD, the first beauty pageant for digitally created beauty queens.

WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTER?
No matter what Steve Jobs would have you believe, if you ever wondered who the creator of the computer was ... here he is.


RED PILL ... HIT OR MISS?
The reviews of MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS is out and so far, people either love it or hate it. One thing is certain though, why see it on a normal screen when you can see it on IMAX!


MOD OF THE WEEK - A DVD turned HE PC!
Joaquin turned a Pioneer DV-525 DVD player into a Home Entertainment PC!

V'GER
Voyager 1 phoned home this week to let us know, that after 26 years of travel, it may actually have left our solar system and entered interstellar space. It's sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, isn't far behind - but going in nearly the opposite direction, of achieving that.

WOW. Think about that. Initially designed to operate for just 5 years, both spacecraft have been sending back data on our solar system for over 5 times that.

Here's are two spacecraft that have traveled some 8.4 billion miles, transmitted over five trillion bits of scientific data (enough to fill 6,000 complete sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica) using an ailing backup radio transmitter, visited 90% of the planets in our solar system and some 48 moons, made measurements of the solar wind, store images and data on a VCR type recorder which can last for over 22 years of playing without failure (and it's way beyond that), taken literally thousands of photographs and scientific measurements and beamed them back to earth on a radio signal the strength 20 billion times weaker and using with less computer memory than a digital wristwatch, and all costing total, less than .20 for every American.

Now THAT's exploration.

THURSDAY ROUNDUP-O-RAMA:


VIRUS ALERT!!!
PC WORLD WARNS of a new worm, called "Mimail.C" which comes in an attachment under the innocent subject heading "OUR PERSONAL PHOTOS." Once infected, your computer will launch denial of service attacks against anti-spam sites.


RUNNING SCARED
According to USA TODAY, over 1.4 million file sharers are so afraid of getting sued by the RIAA they are deleting their entire MP3 collection from their computers.

No word yet on if CD- sales have risen as well.

I guess terror really does work.


YOU DON'T TUG ON SUPERMAN'S CAPE ...
The Death Star didn't seem to get the message ... until NOW. The FTC just smacked ATT with over $750,000 in fines for violating the National Do Not Call rules.


REVOLVING AROUND YOU
Now that EARTHLINK has successfully abated pop-ups to their subscribers, they suddenly want to collect more information on their users in order to market to them exclusively.

"I see your true colors shining through ..." - Cyndi Lauper


HEAR KITTY, KITTY - COLLEGE EDITION
Penn State is offering legal music streams to their students via THE KITTY. Costs will be included in tuition fees.


WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?
McDonalds' will be giving away ONE BILLION music downloads via iTunes. According to sources, Apple isn't even giving them a price break.

Hopefully, Apple can convince them to dump that stupid "I'm lovin' it!" campaign.


Meanwhile, Walmart jumps on the music download bandwagon by launching it's own music download service.


TOTALLY
According to PIXAR, the Disney summer hit "FINDING NEMO" is still smashing records as it sells over 8 million DVDs in it's first day of release - about twice as much as the last king of the hill - Pixar's MONSTERS INC.

Sweet!


SPAM, WONDERFUL SPAM
Here's a story on how SPAMMERS get ahold of you.


CALLING DICK TRACY
A Japanese company has demo'd a wrist/watch cellphone.


ACHOO
Yahoo's Tech Tuesday is a primer about Computer Viruses.


BLACK FLAG
The FCC has voted to require a "digital broadcast flag" in HDTV signals which would prevent copying of TV programs. By 2005, you're VCR and DVR must have technology incorporated into it which would prevent you from permanently archive a recorded flagged program. Next in the crosshairs for Hollywood? You're lookin' at it.


WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?
With help from DirecTV, TIVO has sold over a million DVRs! Now you know why the FCC is acting.

WEDNESDAY-PALOOZA:


VIRUS ALERT!!!
PC WORLD WARNS of a new worm, called "Mimail.C" which comes in an attachment under the innocent subject heading "OUR PERSONAL PHOTOS." Once infected, your computer will launch denial of service attacks against anti-spam sites (evil bastards).


TAKE THE RED PILL, ALICE
Matrix Revolutions opens today. All good things must come to an end.


WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
REDMOND is offering a hefty bounty on Virus Writers .

CATCH A WAVE
Personal websurfing can be good for employee morale at work.

GETTING IN LINE
Seems like everyone wants to knock off the king. Sony is the latest with a $60 digital music player to compete with iPod. The PSP device will also go after the GameBoy market.

According to LEOVILLE, SONY PSP (PlayStation Portable) will be driven by a dual-processor, have a cool 16:9 24-bit screen, and maybe even a cell phone.

YIKES. Considering they invented the WALKMAN, if anyone can knock the Apple from the tree, they can.

UPDATE: Here's what it looks like:


THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE
But is it really a good idea to violate the law and counter SPAM with denial of service attacks?


PASSED LIKE IT WAS STANDING STILL
Legal Downloads have now passed CD Single sales by a factor of 2:1. No word yet on if RIAA subpoenas have done the same.

TUESDAY ROUNDUP:


VIRUS ALERT!!!
PC WORLD WARNS of a new worm, called "Mimail.C" which comes in an attachment under the innocent subject heading "OUR PERSONAL PHOTOS." Once infected, your computer will launch denial of service attacks against anti-spam sites (evil bastards).

So be sure to delete the attachment, and update your AVGs, folks.


A PIECE OF THE ACTION
If you'd like to own a piece of the Concord ... you can.

OOGLING GOOGLE
Do a search for how much Google is worth, at least according to the Economist, and you'll find out ... $15 BILLION!

Bill's got that in his wallet, doesn't he?

A TIGER BY THE TAIL
An Israeli man is being charged with hacking the Mossad. There are just some people you don't want to mess with.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Amazon is creating online petitions for movies you want to see on DVD. Talk about creating a demand!

BY THE NUMBERS
The Wall Street Journal has announced that it plans to count online subscribers in their subscription totals.


I WANT MY MTV ... ONLINE
MTV is going to offer music downloads. Wouldn't that be MPC?


COPYCATS
Alera Technologies is making a DVD Copier for about $600.

On top of that, The Register (via AkibaLive) is reporting that double-layer, double-capacity DVD+R drives and media will be available in stores by Spring. You know that -R formats will follow almost as quickly.

The MPAA is gonna love this.


CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?
Fuji had developed a 2 megapixel SuperCCD Camera for Cellphones.

Does ANYONE care about dropped calls anymore?

BAD FORM, COOL STYLE
HardOCP reports that ITunes will automatically render MusicMatch unusable for iPod if you have both download service programs on your box.

Well that's not nice.

DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF HYPOCRISY
The Big Media company's are file-sharing!

Oh, and for you purists out there, here it is:

hy·poc·ri·sy (hi-'pä-kr&-sE also hI-) n.
1 : a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion
2 : an act or instance of hypocrisy


DR. PHIL ALERT
The most over-hyped daytime tv man thinks we are addicted to gadgetry. What a crock. I can quit anytime I want. I just don't want to.

Now, where's my iPod/PDA/Gameboy/Cellphone?!

MONDAY ROUNDUP


VIRUS ALERT!!!
PC WORLD WARNS of a new worm, called "Mimail.C" which comes in an attachment under the innocent subject heading "OUR PERSONAL PHOTOS." Once infected, your computer will launch denial of service attacks against anti-spam sites (evil bastards).

So be sure to delete the attachment, and update your AVGs, folks.

XBOX GOES IBM
Microsoft announces that the next generation XBox will be powered by IBM chips instead of Intel. And considering that the next generation MACS will be powered by IBM as well, does this represent a shift in the paradigm?
Enquiring minds want to know.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
SETI thinks ET will phone home in our lifetime.


IT'S ALL OUR FAULT
Bill Gates tells itbusiness.com that if people don't have firewalls on their computers, they've got nobody to blame but themselves for holes in Windows security.

That's what controlling 95% of the marketshare allows you to say, folks.

PRESS ONE, NOW - PRESS TWO, NOW - PLEASE HOLD
As a public service, E-R presents CNN Money's Column on how to get out of recorded message loops ("press one, now") and to a live voice.

IT'S HURTS WHEN I DO THAT
BBC News has a report about a new ailment known as "Nintendoitis."

ABANDON IN PLACE
CNN Tech reports that the Internet is "littered" with abandoned and out of date websites as users simply lose interest.

ON THE RISE
The Gray Old Lady reports that Technology Spending is finally on the rise as investors shed their skittishness about another "dot bomb."

A LIFE OF SERVICE
The RIAA is going after more college tuition.

SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER
On this date in history, Laika, the first space dog, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Thanks to LEOVILLE for this space update.