ITBusiness Elsewhere is a collection of unusual technology stories from around the globe.
Fighting spam-fighting with spam
Wired News
Blue Security provides a product that inundates spammers with opt-out messages – a sort of reverse-spam. Naturally, spammers retaliated with a DoS attack and a reverse-reverse spam campaign. Oh, wait, isn’t that just spam?
Because transmitting video, e-mail and voice traffic isn’t enough
New Scientist
Scientists say that the interference in signals between cell phone masts can be used to measure rain activity more accurately than weather radar and more cheaply than rain gauges.
Give it away, give it away, give it away – not
The Register
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea posted a letter on the Web site of the band’s fan club saying that if fans downloaded illegal copies of the Peppers’ new album, it would “break his heart.” (The Peppers, by the way, have sold 50 million CDs or thereabouts.)
Wish we’d had that excuse for our blank stares
Christian Science Monitor
A University of Michigan professor discovered the cause of the blank stares that greet his questions in class – 85 per cent of them were online at the time. This is the downside of the wireless campus.
Virtually rich
Yahoo News
Players of the online sci-fi game Entropia Universe will be able to withdraw the virtual cash they’ve accumulated in the game in real, folding money from ATMs.
Comment: info@itbusiness.ca