Two new sites I’ve just opened accounts with

[b”>sms2email.com[/b”>
Allows you to receive a text message to a number with a keyword in the message and have the contents emailed to you or define you own http POST script – how cool is that?

(The http POST was an undocument feature until I opened the account and was a hell of shock – developer paradise!)
https://www.sms2email.com/

[b”>Half decent UK Virtual Web Hosting[/b”>
Surely – that’s impossible? Value for money, stunning functionality and tech support.
I dunno – but it sure looks cool to me.
Await the QOS report in a few months.
http://www.gradwell.com/

K prgramming language

A Shallow Introduction to the K Programming Language (Columns)
By jjayson
Thu Nov 14th, 2002 at 05:58:07 AM EST

About two years ago I was introduced to a programming language that I really didn’t like: it didn’t have continuations, I didn’t see any objects, it had too many operators, it didn’t have a large community around it, it was strange and different, and it looked like line noise, like Perl, and I don’t like Perl. However, I gave it a try.

I had to learn that continuations may not be there, but first-class functions are; it may not have a normal object system, but that is because the language doesn’t need it and gets it power by cutting across objects; all the operators are the functions that make up its standard library; it’s community may not be large, but it is incredibly intelligent; it only looks strange until you understand its concepts; and well, it will always look like line noise, but you will stop caring because this also make the concise code easier to read. K has since become my language of choice.


http://www.kx.com/

Big Money for Cyber Security (US tax Dollars)

Big Money for Cyber Security (Technology)
By imrdkl
Wed Nov 13th, 2002 at 02:58:20 PM EST

This week, House Bill 3394, the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, passed in the Senate, and is now headed for the White House, where the President is expected to sign it without delay. Almost a billion dollars are allocated by the bill, for scholarships, grants and research on the topic of Cyber Security.

While much of the existing knowledge and many of the working implementations in this area have been developed over the years as part of existing Free Software implementations, the government has found that there simply is not enough funding, or talent, behind those efforts. They’re quite concerned about vulnerabilities in the critical infrastructure of the US, including telecommunications, transportation, water supply, and banking, as well as the electric power, natural gas, and petroleum production industries, all of which rely significantly upon computers and computer networks for their operation.

The bill itself may be studied at the Library of Congress, using their search engine, or directly. This article will present an overview of the exciting and profitable opportunities which will soon be available to researchers with an interest in Cyber Security.

——————————————————————————–

Some of the other important findings of the bill include:

The US is not prepared for coordinated cyber attacks which may result from war
Federal investment in computer and network security research must be increased to decrease vulnerability, expand and improve the “pool” of knowledge, and better coordinate sharing and collaboration.

African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans comprise less than 7 percent of the information science workforce, and this number should be increased.

I consider the second finding particularly interesting. Given the history of security research, when the bill finds that better sharing and collaboration is necessary, one might conclude that the government intends to support the continued and expanded efforts of Open Source software, to accomplish the task. While there are certainly closed implementations for security, it’s just “commonsensical” to put the money behind the open and freely-available efforts which are already shared, and collaborated upon.

In general, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which will be the director of the foundation which distributes the funds, will be directed to award monies for research and study on the following topics, during the next five years:

authentication, cryptography, and other secure data communications technology
computer forensics and intrusion detection
reliability of computer and network applications, middleware, operating systems, control systems, and communications infrastructure
privacy and confidentiality
network security architecture, including tools for security administration and analysis
emerging threats
vulnerability assessments and techniques for quantifying risk;
remote access and wireless security
enhancement of law enforcement ability to detect, investigate, and prosecute cyber-crimes, including those that involve piracy of intellectual property.
Now, that’s certainly a broad list. It introduces significant possibilities for improving and enhancing existing implementations, as well as finding new and improved techniques. The applications which will be considered are to be evaluated on a “merit” basis, and may be undertaken by universities and other non-profit institutions, as well as partnerships between one or more of these institutions along with for-profit entities and/or government institutions.

Criteria for acceptance of any proposal submitted will be based upon:

the ability of the applicant to generate innovative approaches
the experience of the applicant in conducting research
the capacity of the applicant to attract and provide adequate support
the extent to which the applicant will partner with government laboratories, for-profit entities, other institutions of higher education, or nonprofit research institutions, and the role the partners will play in the research undertaken by the Center.
It seems a fair question to ask, why is the amount of “partnership” important? If the end result of the research is to be “shared and collaborated”, then perhaps the amount of partnership is not so critical as the first three criteria. In any case, there’s soon to be a lot of new money for study and work related to computer security. The application process itself, while not yet established, has provisions for each of the distinct topics mentioned previously, both for graduate study and training, as well as undergraduate internships and programs.

Have you an interest in Cyber Security? What programs or software could be improved, and how would such a large capital infusion for research affect these projects? What are the political ramifications of the government getting involved with the projects, either directly or indirectly? And what about the shortage of minorities in the profession? What can be done to encourage young people in general, and African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native-Americans in particular to study and learn about Cyber Security?

Other Coverage: UPI, InfoWorld and GovExec

Nickel Exchange: P2P Micropayments

Nickel Exchange: P2P Micropayments (MLP)
By higinx
Tue Nov 12th, 2002 at 12:14:34 PM EST

Many companies have tried to implement micropayment solutions before, but none have really succeeded. The Nickel Exchange introduces a completely new approach to micropayments that tries to address the flaws we’ve seen in previous systems. And best of all, it’s a free service.

http://www.ginx.com/nx/

Just checked the site July 14th 2003
They’ve paused the site ATM due to no one reaching 100 units 🙁

Next best that I can see is :

http://www.centipaid.com/

July 16th 2003
http://www.bitpass.com/

July 22
http://www.amazon.com/webservices/

“We are almost ready to kick off the beta for our payment system. The payment system will allow visitors to your site to use their Amazon account to pay you for any product or service. You can also offer subscriptions and controlled access to content. You will be able to verify the status of any transaction to make sure that the user has not rescinded it. We will provide you with a base-level API and you can construct your business logic on top.”

http://www.dashes.com/anil/index.php?archives/006765.php

Blogs referral marketing – bastards

Spam meets blogs (MLP)
By kpaul
Mon Oct 28th, 2002 at 07:33:29 AM EST

Michelle Delio at Wired has an interesting article (When the Spam Hits the Blogs). In it, she explores another somewhat new phenomena in the blogosphere. According to the article, spammers have begun hitting sites furiously to get links on a lot of sites’ backlink lists.
….

When the Spam Hits the Blogs – Michelle Delio – Wired original article.

How to present ReferrerLinking on your web site

Just read two books that I think most people in the US and UK should read

Stupid White Men … and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! by Michael More

Now the More book started off fine, but lost it 3/4 way through.

It’s an interesting book, but you have to be careful, he neglects to say the Bin Laden’s family disowned Osama years ago. He fails to point out what would have happened if the Bin Laden family hadn’t been evacuated from the US after 9/11 – a lynch mob, that’s what. A few family members killed in the heat of the moment who hadn’t anything to do with it.

A great book spoilt by a patriotic ending.

The book is important in my opinion because we tend to follow the US. It’s on the best sellers and justifiably so.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Stupid+White+Men

Closely followed by :

War on Iraq by Scott Ritter & William Rivers Pitt

This book should be PDF’d and developed as a virus and sent to the electorate in the US and Britain that have email. (With a read receipt back to their conscience.)

This book is just a truely shocking, scary book.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=war+on+iraq+ritter+pitt

Sendo ditches closed source Micky$oft

http://www.sendo.co.uk/news/newsitem.asp?ID=61

SENDO CHOOSES NOKIA’S SERIES 60 PLATFORM FOR ITS SMART PHONES
Thu Nov 7 2002
Sendo, a British mobile phone manufacturer, today announced that the company has decided to license Series 60 Platform from Nokia for its smart phone category. The Series 60 is a software platform for feature- and application rich smart phones that Nokia licenses to mobile handset manufacturers. The platform is optimised to run on top of the Symbian OS. Sendo joins as the newest member to the Series 60 licensing community with Matsushita, Samsung, Siemens and Nokia.

“Earlier this fall we reviewed our smart phone strategy. While our mission of providing customers with feature-rich and ubiquitous devices remains unaltered, seeing that the Series 60 fully embraces both our mission and the new strategy we decided to approach Nokia,” said Hugh Brogan, Chief Executive Officer of Sendo Holdings Plc. “The platform utilises open standards and technologies, such as MMS and Java , jointly developed by the industry. The platform is robust, yet uniquely flexible, bringing great benefits to licensees, operators, developers and consumers.”

“We welcome Sendo, a pioneer in smart phone development, to join our Series 60 community. We see that a combination of Sendo’s technical expertise and growing market presence will bring significant contribution to the mobile market with Series 60 devices. Interoperable solutions that are built on open and common industry standards are proving to be the winning formula in meeting demands of business users and consumers alike,” said Niklas Savander, Vice President and General Manager, Nokia Mobile Software.

Nokia licenses Series 60 Platform as a source code. The model enables licensees to contribute to the development of the platform while fully executing their individual business strategy, brand and customer requirements in fast developing and highly competitive mobile communications market. Licensees will be able to include the Series 60 into their own smart phone designs, thus speeding up the rollout of new phone models at lower costs.

The Series 60 is a comprehensive software platform for smart phones, created for mobile phone users that demand easy-to-use, one-hand operated handsets with high-quality colour screens, rich communications and enhanced applications. The Series 60 platform consists of the key telephony and personal information management applications, the browser and messaging clients, as well as a complete and modifiable user interface, all designed to run on top of the Symbian OS, an operating system for advanced, data enabled mobile phones.

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For further information, please contact

Marijke van Hooren
Sendo
Phone:+44 (0) 121 251 5060
Mobile:+44 (0) 7968 820 701
[email”>mvanhooren@sendo.com[/email”>

Nokia Corporate Communications (Americas)
Phone:+1 972 894 4875

Nokia Mobile Software Communications
Phone:+358 7 180 08000
[email”>nokia.mobile.phones@nokia.com[/email”>
www.nokia.com

——————————————————————————–

About Sendo
Sendo, headquartered in the United Kingdom, started shipping its first terminals to operator customers in Europe and Asia in May 2001. The company is now shipping five products in over twenty countries in Europe and Asia, with the USA soon to follow. Sendo offers high-performance, competitively priced, reliable products and services to the cellular market. Sendo has been established with the needs of the wireless carriers and consumers in mind. The company offers a complete custom program, from exclusively branded phones, matched fulfillment programs and software with dedicated services. Details of the company are available at www.sendo.com

About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and reliable solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed broadband and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.