Friday's Futurama

News is now... Ozzie married Harriet in 1935. Happy Birthday! Chevy Chase is 61. Sigourney Weaver is 55.

1. More good news from Congress. The House passed anonther anti-spyware bill, its second in three days, adding penalties of up to five years in prison for people convicted of installing the bogies without a computer user's permission. The "Internet Spyware Prevention Act," passed 415-0.
2. And the FTC is suing its first spyware companies. The FTC requested a temporary restraining order against Seismic Entertainment Productions, Smartbot.Net, and uber-spammer, Sanford Wallace, claiming the companies secretly installed software that pops-up dozens of ads, and then sends a message offering to stop the pop-ups with $30 software. Nice.
3. Sun and Kodak have settled out of court. Sun will pay Kodak $92 million to license the patents Kodak says were infringed by Java. Kodak was asking for one billion.
4. Dell is recalling some of its laptop power adapters because they can overheat posing a fire hazard. 4.4 million AC adapters sold between September 1998 and February 2002 are affected.
5. Secunia is reporting that there is a critical flaw in Microsoft Word for Windows 2000 and possibly 2002 that could allow a malicious Word document to place a trojan horse on your system. No patch from Microsoft as yet.
6. Now that the Ansari X-Prize has been won, it's time for a new X-Prize - this time aimed at stimulating developments in technology. The WTN X-Prize hasn't yet specified the challenges or prize amounts.
7. Google is testing a new SMS search. Send your query as a text message from your cell phone and Google will reply. The number is 46645 (GOOGL on most phones).
8. ThinkSecret claims Apple is in production of a new 60GB PhotoPod - an iPod with a color screen and photo synchronization software that works with Apple's iPhoto. The pod will reputedly have a video out connector for playing slide shows on your TV. Toshiba has confirmed that Apple has ordered its 60GB mini-drive "in quantity."

Tune in tomorrow at 7:45a Eastern for my weekly visit with John Donabie on 1010 CFRB Toronto. And, of course, listen to my show every Saturday and Sunday, noon to 3p Pacific on KFI, Los Angeles.