Thursday's Thumb Wrestler

Midnight news service. We never sleep so why should you? Happy Earth Day!

1. OK, yes there is a fatal flaw in TCP that could bring the net to its knees, but the security researcher for Rockwell Automation who discovered the flaw, says the risks are being overstated. A patch exists and most big ISPs have already applied it.
2. The Feds launched a coordinated attack on piracy sites yesterday. The US, with the help of International officials, conducted 120 searches in 10 countries and 27 states in the US. Operation Fastlink busted sites like Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class, and Project X which were alleged to be the starting point for pirated music, movies, and software.
3. California State Senator Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) has introduced a bill to block GMail - Google's new free email service, saying it should be illegal to scan email contents even if users agree to the practice. The bill allows scanning of outgoing mail, but prohibits examination of incoming mail except to block spam and viruses. The California Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings May 4. I hope they ask Tim O'Reilly why he thinks the privacy issues are bogus.
4. California state officials have recommended banning some Diebold electronic voting machines and recommended the state Attorney General investigate the company for civil and criminal liability. One member of the state Voting Systems and Procedures Panel said "I'm disgusted by the actions of this company." The panel's chairman said he found Diebold's testimony "ludicrous and offensive." As reported here earlier, the Diebold machine's were allegedly responsible for the loss of thousands of absentee ballots in last month's California primary.
5. Big Brother lives. The Chinese government is installing camera in Shanghai's 1,325 Internet cafés to make sure customers don't look at forbidden web site. If a camera reveals a user visiting a banned site, it will automatically send a message to a "remote supervisory centre." And the thought police will be dispatched immediately.
6. Toshiba has announced a new 100GB hard drive for laptops.
7. Who needs men? Scientists have created a baby mouse using genetic material from two mothers. No poppa mouse was involved. This is the first example of parthenogenesis in mammals. And I can't say I like the trend one little bit.

Listen in tomorrow at 8:35a Pacific for my weekly news commentary with Bill Handel on KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles.