Encryption

Source: Linux Security

A nice article that describes how to use PGP to verify the signature of a program before installing it. "PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. It is a computer program that uses mathematical algorithms to encrypt files and protect them from unauthorized access. It is also used to digitally sign and verify documents. Versions of the PGP program are available for most popular computer operating systems Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and UNIX, to name a few.

Source: PC World

Pretty Good Privacy will go on, despite a move by Network Associates to shelve the encryption product after it couldn't find a buyer, PGP inventor Phil Zimmermann says. Although Zimmermann sold PGP to Santa Clara, California-based NAI in 1997, the protocols for the encryption code are open to all on the Internet.

A newly proposed MPEG-4 licensing plan is sending jitters through multimedia circles, raising cost concerns about a new standard that promises to bring powerful interactive features to digital video.

Some MPEG-4 backers praised the licensing plan for removing lingering uncertainty over the costs of implementing the new format, but others said a proposed per-minute streaming fee, equivalent to 2 cents an hour, makes the plan all but unworkable.

Source: CNN

It may only hover a few feet above the Earth right now, but the inventor of the SoloTrek XFV hopes that one day it will allow people to swoop and dive at distances comparable to a small airplane.

But unlike a plane, the SoloTrek "jetpack" is being designed to land on a dime with more maneuverability than a helicopter.

Source: Wired

Smart robots equipped with energy-sucking fangs and big appetites will soon be locked in a struggle for survival as they attempt to create their own civilization.

In an experiment that sounds like a science-fiction film plot but is actually as close to real life as artificial intelligence can get, several dozen "predator" and "prey" robots will be released next month into a prepared habitat at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in the north of England.

Source: ZDNet

Depressed, lonely, in need of a pep-up? Stroke Paro. Tired of doing the housework? Meet AIBO.

Japan's economy may be slowing down but its innovators are not, the country's director general of industry and technology, Atira Itoh, said on Thursday at the opening of a new exhibition at London's Science Museum.

"Japan: Gateway to the Future" gives a preview of the home, the car and the pets of the future

Source: ZDNet

Motorola hopes to prove that it can teach an old chip new tricks.
On Monday, the company launched a new 1GHz PowerPC 7455 chip that is the engine for a new lineup of Apple Computer Power Macs, as well as for new networking equipment.

Source: Wired

Foreign executives and other individuals who are frequent kidnapping targets in Latin America will soon be able to use implantable ID chips and personal GPS devices in an attempt to thwart their abductors.

Applied Digital Solutions announced Thursday it had reached an agreement with a distributor to sell its VeriChip and Digital Angel products in three South American countries.

Source: CNN

A coalition of scientists and technology companies is asking people around the world to use their computers' extra processing power to help search for a cure for anthrax.

Source: CNN

L33tdawg: Now this is really something useful... I just hope their website (with 128-bit encryption) has been secured. It would be a real 'problem' if someone managed to gain access into the system and perhaps sell off the user database to a medical company or something. Am I just paranoid? Perhaps I've watched too many espionage movies or it's just really early in the morning... :)