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By employing an unusual technique called a "Dutch auction" to price its initial public offering, Google could be making the process too difficult for the small investor, according to some critics.

The Google Dutch Auction works like this: The company and its advisors set a price range for a share of stock. That part has already happened. Tom Taulli with IPO research site CurrentOfferings.com takes it from here:

TAULLI: You will then call your broker up, get a bidding number, and you can start placing bids on that IPO based on where you think the price should be. If you bid at a price higher or at the price that the company ultimately sets for the price of the IPO, you will get shares. You may not get all the shares you want, but you should get some of the shares at whatever the final price is. Everyone gets the same price. If you bid above that price you still get the lower price.

In its IPO prospectus, Google says it wants to let small investors in to the game. But Taulli says investors are so unfamiliar with Dutch auctions that many will be left out.

TAULLI: If you look at the prospectus, they've set the terms of how the auction will operate. And it's long. And it's complicated. And there's a learning curve about how this auction will operate in terms of how you put in a bid, reconfirm a bid, back out of a bid. There are a lot of extensive rules here that will be intimidating to a lot of individual investors, and I think even institutional investors who are not familiar with this system may even be intimidated themselves. On the one hand it's an open system, but it's so new and there are a lot of complications here because there are a lot of rules, it may be in a
way exclusionary because people may get frustrated and just give up.

In the San Jose Mercury News this week, technology columnist Mike Langberg lamented the complexity of the Google IPO.

LANGBERG: Google has made a big deal about wanting to do the right thing about giving small investors a fair shot at getting into the IPO process, and as anyone who has followed this knows, in the dotcom era there were a lot of abuses. Small investors were routinely denied access to IPOs. I think Google has started out with noble intentions, but just got totally tangled up in the process.

To better figure out the Google IPO, Langberg is seeking a front row seat.

LANGBERG: I am going to become a participant in the Google IPO. This goes against our normal ethics policy where we are not allowed to own stocks in companies we cover. I got an exemption from my editors. I am going to become a bidder for the minimum order of five shares and I will sell the shares shortly after the IPO. I'll donate any profit to charity. I'm hoping that by actually going through it myself, I'll be able to see exactly how it works, which is something I haven't been able to figure out up to now.

Google declined to comment, citing its federally mandated quiet period restrictions.

Microsoft's Hard Drive Search Tool Microsoft is demonstrating a new tool that searches hard drives as well as the Web. It's similar to a technology being developed by Blinx, a Silicon Valley startup.

E-Voting Critic Urges Hackers to Expose Flaws From CNET News.com:

"Electronic voting systems have major security problems and hackers should make it their mission to find the flaws, an e-voting critic told security researchers on Thursday. Speaking at the Black Hat Security Briefings here, Rebecca Mercuri, a fellow at a Harvard-affiliated research center and a noted e-voting critic, called the current voting process a statistical game of shells, one that e-voting machine makers are playing for profits."

Bangalore Bigger than Silicon Valley? The Indian tech capital is threatening to overtake Northern California's Silicon Valley region in the number of technology jobs, according to some estimates. One word: offhsoring.

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Declan McCullagh with CNET News.com has examined Federal Election Commission records to see who Silicon Valley bigwigs are supporting in the presidential campaign.

Michael Dell of Dell Computers gave his $2,000 (the limit for an individual contribution to a candidate) to President Bush, as did eBay's Meg Whitman. Walter Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard fame, has thrown his support to John Kerry. Ditto for former Intel CEO Andy Grove.

McCullagh says Silicon Valley appears evenly split between Bush and Kerry.

Apple "Stunned" by iPod Hack Real Networks' move to make songs from its digital music service compatible with iPods has left Apple gasping. Apple is considering an action under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, saying it is "stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod."

Hackers Target RFID RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags are used to track inventory. Privacy advocates say retailers could invasively track consumers with RFID. A story on CNET News.com talks about a different problem: mischievous RFID hackers.

"...hackers and those with less pure motives could use a handheld device and the software to mark expensive goods as cheaper items and walk out through self checkout. Underage hackers could attempt to bypass age restrictions on alcoholic drinks and adult movies, and pranksters could create confusion by randomly swapping tags, requiring that a store do manual inventory."

Not Your Song This is sad. The company that owns the copyright to the Woody Guthrie classic "This Land is Your Land" is demanding the JibJab remove from the Internet its parody of the U.S. presidential campaign, which is set to the Guthrie song.

Guerilla Drive-In Movies Circuits reports on the new trend of using a jumble of digital equipment to organize impromptu outdoor movie screenings.

"For three years, cult-movie buffs have been organizing "guerrilla drive-ins" in a number of cities, rigging together a nest of digital projectors, DVD players, and radio transmitters or stereo speakers, spreading the word online, and assembling on parking lots or fields to watch obscure films beneath the stars."

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The Google initial public offering frenzy is building. In a filing this week, Google said 24.6 million shares will be sold for $108 to $135 each. Google expects to raise up to $3.32 billion in the sale, which could take place next month. It would give the company a market value of up to $36 billion. That puts it on par with companies like Sony and McDonalds. It would be the eighth-largest IPO in history, bigger than most that took place during the 1990s dot-com boom.

But Google is no Pets.com or Webvan, according to Barry Randall. He's portfolio manager of the First American Technology Fund at US Bancorp Asset Management in Minneapolis. He says the price range for a share of Google stock is reasonable.

Another Reason to Fear E-Voting Florida election officials have lost nearly all the records from Miami-Dade county's first widespread use of touch-screen voting. Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News says the people who run Florida elections are "...buffoons at best. At worst? The thought is frightening."

Microsoft Newsbot Microsoft is developing an automated Internet news service to rival Google News.

Mozilla Security Flaws Mozilla is certainly more secure than Internet Explorer, but it ain't perfect.

DVR Endangered? The Electronic Frontier Foundation says if you want to own a fully-capable digital video recorder, you might have to build one yourself.

It's Good to be Rank and File An analysis by the Merc says the average post-IPO worth of average Google employees will be more than $2 million.

Kinda Like Redmond Apple: The Microsoft of Music.

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Software like Adobe Photoshop makes it easy to alter digital photographs. Even the moderately skilled person can make a fake image that looks real.

Associate professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, Hany Farid, has developed several algorithms that detect subtle changes to digital images. These techniques could help guarantee the authenticity of news photos, crime scene photos, spy satellite images and political propaganda.

I am not Borg! Doctored image by Tom Gau

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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch says Congress must pass legislation that will kill digital file swapping companies like Kazaa.

That legislation is called the "Induce Act," and it's perhaps the boldest campaign by the entertainment industry so far to put an end to what it sees as lethal copyright infringement of music and movies.

The bill would allow entertainment companies to sue file-sharing networks for enticing people who use their software to illegally share and download copyrighted material.

The Induce Act has strong bipartisan support, but detractors say it could be disastrous for consumers. They say it could have the effect of outlawing digital music players, DVD players, and other devices.

A Real iPod Score one for beter compatibility. Real Networks has announced that songs purchased from its music service will play on Apple's digital music devices. Interestingly, Real acted without Apple's approval.

Quest for Nonlethal Weapons The New York Times Magazine reports on the Pentagon's plans to develop weapons to disable enemies without killing them.

"In an era when the American military increasingly finds itself in situations where civilians and combatants can be difficult to distinguish between, and when the line between soldiering and policy has blurred, nonlethal weapons could prove useful. At the same time, such nonlethals might be abused, like any other weapon. Still, in a world where the tolerance for 'collateral' casualties is fast diminishing and where soldiers return home haunted by their 'kills,' such novel weapons, if made to work, could well make war less hellish."

Highly Lethal Weapon A UK company is developing technology that would allow a fighter pilot to command up to five pilotless drone airplanes during a mission.

Breaking the Digital Gridlock CNET News.com has begun a four-day special report on the development of broadband networks in the U.S.

"High-speed Internet access is rapidly evolving from a Web-surfing luxury into an everyday necessity. But the development of broadband remains stunted by market uncertainty and mind-numbing bureaucracy. This special series identifies the crucial elements of any policy agenda aimed at building a national broadband network."

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Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed a rollicking two-minute online animation that savagely pokes fun at both George W. Bush, who the film labels a "right wing nut job," and John Kerry, referred to as the "liberal sissy." The film is set to the Woody Guthrie classic, "This Land is Your Land."

(Image from www.jibjab.com)

Hatch Wants to Ban P2P Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch says a ban on file-sharing networks is urgently needed. The tech industry is mortified.

MP3 Creator Has Something New Karlheinz Brandenburg, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Technology in Germany, is showing off a new audio technology called "iosono," according to an article on CNET News.com.

"He and his team are touting their new product as true 'three dimensional' audio, which can give the impression of, for example, a horse galloping through the center aisle of a movie theater, or pinpoint a noise so that it sounds exactly like a person shouting from outside theater walls. The best existing surround sound speakers can approximate this only for a small 'sweet spot,' perhaps a few feet wide, while the Ionsono system would create the same realistic illusion for everyone in the room".

Homeland IT Security Weak An internal report from the Department of Homeland Security says failures by the National Cyber Security Division have left the country highly vulderable to cyber attacks.

The Love "Texting" Across the Pond Britons sent 2.1 billion text messages from their phones in June, setting a new record.

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Internet phone service, known as Voice Over IP or V-o-I-P for short, is going mainstream. Giant phone companies like AT&T sell VoIP. Verizon is jumping on the bandwagon, too. Consumers are attracted to low-cost calling plans and innovative features.

But consumer advocates warn there are significant drawbacks to VoIP.

Verizon Will VoIP Verizon Communications is expected to roll out nationwide Internet phone service soon. It will be the largest traditional telephone service to make the move to VoIP.

Play Station "Chipping" Ruled Illegal A UK court has ruled that modifying Play Station video game console with new chips violates Sony's intellectual property. Sony had sued a man who sold modified chips to help users skirt copy protection on games. The chips could be used to play games from other regions of the world.

Wal-Mart Ramps Up RFID The retail giant is expected to require more suppliers to use Radio Frequency Identification technology, and expand RFID use overseas.

AirPort Express Reviewed David Pogue likes Apple's wireless base station.

CD Piracy Trade Hits $4.5 Billion A new study says street peddlers sold more than one billion pirated CDs last year, making it a $4.5 billiopn dollar trade.

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Internet users typically flock to "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa to share music, movies, software and even pornography. A 2nd year student at St Johns School of Law in Queens has found a very different use for file-sharing.

Thad Anderson is disseminating hard-to-find government and court documents on the Kazaa, Limewire and Soulseek networks. They include memos about the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib; a Senate Intelligence Committee report on what the government knew about weapons of mass destruction before it invaded Iraq; and details of contracts awarded to Haliburton Corporation for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Anderson is a Democrat but says file-sharing can be useful for people all political persuasions.

Scary Internet Parents underestimate the dangers of the Internet, according to a new report by the London School of Economics. Fifty-seven percent of U.K. children have seen Internet pornography, but only 16% of parents think their kids have encountered it, according to the study.

High-Tech Homers Would you spend $300 for a softball bat? BusinessWeek reports on the chase for the juiciest bat.

The new bats have "totally revolutionized the game," says Dell, a 27-year-old registered nurse in Norman Park, Ga., who spends $2,000 a year on bats. "They've taken guys who can't hit the ball out of the ballpark and turned them into giants." High-tech bats have quickly become must-have equipment for nearly every slow-pitch softball player, from recreation league novices to elite sluggers.

Duke Students Get iPods Incoming freshmen at Duke will be issued iPods. The gadgets will be loaded with school-related information, freshman orientation details, the academic calendar, virtual campus tours and Duke's fight song.

Gates to Give Away $3 billion The Microsoft chairman's share of the company's planned $32 billion divident to stockholders is more than $3 billion. But's he's giving it all to his foundation. "The pledge today is recognition that our world, the nation and our region--now more than ever--can and should dramatically improve equity in health, education, and access to information and human services for vulnerable families," Gates says. Cool.

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The release of a new version of the bloody, kill the monsters-from-hell game "Doom" is a major event in the world of computer gaming. Doom sets the standard for visually stunning games, and for hardcore violence. Doom 3 is due in stores the first week of August. Time Magazine says the makers of Doom are the "spiritual and technological fathers of the modern video game, and says about Doom 3: "There has never been a game that looks this good."

(Doom 3 Screenshot)

What kind of computer do you need to play Doom 3? Dwight Silverman tells.

Bagle Bites Computers A new variant of the "Bagle" virus is spreading to computers worldwide, according to anti-virus companies. It spreads through e-mail as an attached file, coming alive when users click on the attachment.

The Emperor Has Clothes Again Wal-Mart will try its hand at selling apparel online again, after an aborted attempt three years ago.

Bruddah Iz on iTunes A Hawaiian singer who weighed 1,000 pounds when he died in 1997 is a top-seller on Apple's iTunes, according to an article on Wired News. "Bruddah Iz ("bruddah" is "brother" or "pal" in Hawaiian pidgin), as he is known to his fans, is hardly a household name outside Hawaii. Though he never had the radio saturation of major-label artists or captured paparazzi flashbulbs with his aloha shirts, his gentle voice and ukulele continue to make a lasting impression on music fans.

That's one of the benefits of digital music stores. While radio and television tend to promote big-label pop stars, these lists give the curious a quick glimpse into the musical tastes of the digital music audience."

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Offshoring of technology jobs is here to stay.

It's firmly entrenched in the country's tech economy engine, Silicon Valley, according to a report from Stanford University and two San Francisco Bay area think tanks.

The study found that 94 percent of Silicon Valley companies in the semiconductor and software industries use overseas personnel.

Russel Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, one of the groups that sponsored the study, says despite a growing outcry over the export of high-tech American jobs offshoring shouldn't be considered a problem.

iPods Nation Apple is out with cheaper, beefier iPod digital music players. Battery life is supposed to be better, too. Meanwhile, Newsweek has a special report on the rise of the iPod.
"In just three years, Apple’s adorable mini music player has gone from gizmo to life-changing cultural icon."

Beware VoIP Sure, Internet phone calls are cheaper. But VoIP has many drawbacks, says a commentary on CNET News.com. "If you have a home alarm system, need to dial 911, use TiVo or simply want your phone number included in the phone book, you're likely to be out of luck."

Not Enough Google to Go Around A new report says the ad revenue business models at Google, Yahoo! and other search companies will soon be in peril because they are running out of space for ads. Analyst Ken Cassar tells the New York Times: "In the long term, we'll hit a wall where a lot of the search buys that make sense today won't make sense anymore because prices will have risen so high. So for the search engines to grow their revenues, they'll have to increase supply."

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President Bush has signed a bill that increases penalties for identity theft, saying criminals who steal someone's name can now expect to go to jail.

Officials estimate that last year alone, ten million Americans had their identities stolen. That often happens as a result of online scams, in which thieves steal personal information or trick users into revealing their Social Security and credit card numbers.

Chris Hoofnagle is deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group that works to fight identity theft. He says the new law is a mixed bag.

That's SIR Tim Berners-Lee to You, Pal The creator of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has been knighted by the Queen. At the ceremony, the modest genius downplayed his creation. "I suppose it's amazing when you think how many things people get involved in that don't work," he said. "It's very heartening that this one actually did."

Sir Dell Steps Down Michael Dell, twenty years after starting computer behemoth Dell Computer in his University of Texas dorm room, is giving up his job as CEO. Dell leaves the job with the company in good shape.

Take That, Spam Dude! Microsoft has won a $4 million judgement against a spammer.

Why Fight It? A new study says offshoring of tech jobs is here to stay.

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The world's two largest personal-computer manufacturers are taking a step forward in recycling.

Hewlett-Packard and Dell have announced free programs to encourage U.S. consumers to recycle computers and electronics. HP has teamed with Office Depot stores to offer free recycling for any make of computers, monitors, digital cameras, fax machines, cell phones and other electronics. Consumers can drop off electronics at any Office Depot store between July 18 and Labor Day.

Beginning next week, customers who buy a new computer from Dell can recycle their old computer free, and Dell will pick it up from your house. The offer expands on a free recycling program the company has had for printers since last year.

Hundreds of chemicals and metals are used to manufacture technology equipment. Computers usually contain lead, cadmium, mercury and flame retardants.

Missing from Google The New York Times is risking cyber-irrelevance to protect a lucrative contract with Lexis-Nexis, according to Adam Penenberg in Wired News. Penenberg says the Times' user registration policy and fee-based archive prevent articles from prominent display on Google, which he says is a kiss of death.

iPod is Blazing Hot The iPod is going great guns. Apple's quarterly profits have tripled, driven by demand for the digital music player.

Works for Apple, Why not eBay? eBay will soon begin selling downloadable music, according to the Merc. "The move into digital music -- now dominated by competitors such as Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store and WalMart.com -- will present a unique challenge for eBay, analysts said. The company will need to get consumers to view its site as a music store, not just a place to get good deals on electronics or clothes."

Find Your Pets with GPS The New York Times reports on a new use for GPS: tracking your dog. "In the United States, only a small percentage of animals separated from their owners are reunited, according to the American Humane Association. But wireless technology may one day provide some help both for animals and the humans who cherish them, whether the pets have strayed across town or across the border."

Sick of It Why do people confess their life fatigue to Tired.com?

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The company that makes the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner is out with a new line of cleaners. The company says the new machines clean longer between chargings; can seek out dirt; and pick up more of it.

(Image courtesy of iRobot Corp.)

The Roomba shows that the market for personal service robots, after years of false promise, is starting to develop, according to Dan Kara, president of Robotics Trends.

Darker Side of Spam Spam is shifting from a nuisance to a hotbed of illegal activity, according to a report on the BBC.

Worse than Bombs? Spam and viruses are a bigger threat to businesses than terrorists, according to Australian business executives surveyed by AT&T.

Intel Still a Bellwether? Intel is sitting on a rising pile of chips. Its growing inventories are fueling concern that the tech economy recovery may be stalling.

Another Day, Another Security Warning Microsoft issued seven new security alerts Tuesday. Two of them are rated "critical." Install them, will ya?

Computer Ate My Vote Activists have presented 350,000 petition signatures to election officials, urging secretaries of state to mandate voter-verified paper audit trails.

Recycling Fight Dell and HP are trying to outdo each other in computer recycling. HP will accept old electronics equipment, from computers to televisions, at Office Depot stores from July 18 to Sept. 6. It's free. Dell, meanwhile, will pick up old computers at customers homes when they buy a new Dell machine.

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Thanks to the Internet, statistic-hungry baseball fans have more information at their fingertips than ever before. The official Web site of Major League Baseball, MLB.com, is one of the most popular sports sites on the Internet, and actually makes a profit. Fans can listen to games, watch video highlights, check detailed box scores, and more. The most popular MLB.com product is "Gameday," a free service that lets fans follow any game in near real-time. They can see the location of every pitch, what happens to every ball that leaves the batters box, and get just about any stat imaginable.

Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB.com, says "Gameday" requires an army of stat-keepers.

Sleepy Worm You almost have to admire a new mass-mailing worm called "Atak." Almost. It goes to sleep when it's being hunted by anti-virus programs.

Sweet Revenge! A group fed up with the "419" scams (those ubiquitous e-mails that claim to be from some exiled Nigerian prince and seek access to your bank account) is turning the tables on the scammers.

Clinton 2008? Hillary Clinton is increasingly active in technology issues, and has been cozying up to tech CEOs. CNET's Declan McCullagh says it's part of Clinton's strategy for the 2008 presidential contest.

Fight the Newsbots Wildly popular Google News, in which content is selected by computers, has a new human competitor. News.com Extra's slogan is "The Web filtered by humans, not bots."

New Roomba The updated Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner charges itself at a docking station, figures out the best cleaning pattern for a room, and can seek out and suck up dirt particles the size of finely ground pepper.

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The United States is responsible for more than half of all spam messages worldwide, according to a new analysis from Israeli anti-spam vendor Commtouch. But Websites promoted within spams are overwhelmingly based outside the U.S, typically in China. Commtouch CEO Gideon Mantel says spam outbreaks have increased 43 percent in the first six months of the year.

Security problems are beginning to take their toll on the world's dominant Web browser, according to a report on the BBC. Seems that rival browsers are beginning to dent Microsoft's IE browser.

Speaking of Microsoft, its Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is supposed to fix security holes in XP and IE, will be late in coming.

Speaking of security holes, California is suing electronic voting machine maker Diebold for selling equipment that exposed voters to hackers and software bugs.

Happens all the time: A couple of years after a new technology hits the market, the creative set figures out how to use it as a tool to make art. This time it's mobile phone digital cameras. A London artist likes phone-cams because they produce images reminiscent of pointilism; in L.A. there's a new gallery show devoted to phone-cam art.

A new industry survey says one of of four Internet users has illegally downloaded a Hollywood movie from the Internet. Call me skeptical. I don't buy it. Then again, I once thought eBay was a dumb business concept.

From the department of Whaaaaaaa? New Scientist says decades-old recording technology could result in beer that's more clear.

Is that the sound of a bursting tech bubble I hear?

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Half of Americans object to the online availability of graphic war images, though millions have actively sought them out, a new study finds.

In a report released Thursday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project also found a major cultural divide: Men, Democrats and younger Americans were more likely to approve of having such images on the Web.

Television, newspapers and the Web sites of mainstream media outlets generally refrained from using the most graphic images of Iraqi prisoner abuses and the killings of Nicholas Berg and other Americans in Iraq.

Special Report: Technology and Medicine

Security Hole Found in Mozilla Browser

The Tech Behind Lance Armstrong's Bike

Mortgage Industry Should Fight Spam

U.S. Computer Firms Shed 13,500 Jobs in 2nd Quarter

China Agrees to Phase Out Tax on Imported Chips

Video, Software Downloads Overtake Music

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Suppose you've got the next killer business concept.  All you need is a couple million dollars to get started, but getting the ear of a venture capitalist can be tough.  California venture capitalist Tim Draper, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, wanted to know what he might be missing.  He put a call out on his weblog, and that soon turned into a contest called "Pitch Tim Draper On Your Billion Dollar Idea."  The pitches came in fast and furious, including one for a flying car that caught Draper's attention. (Jeff Horwich guest-hosts.) Image: MPR Graphic

Googles fights Google

Mars rovers might get further lifeline

Los Angeles clamps down on cybercafes

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Both the Democratic and Republican parties are inviting authors of weblogs to cover their upcoming conventions. Weblogs -- also known just as "blogs" -- are self-published, online journals that discuss everything from sexual escapades to business trends. And a large number of them are devoted to politics. About 60 bloggers have applied to cover the Democratic National Convention at the end of this month; a spokesperson for the Republican National Convention says blogs are too popular to ignore. (Jeff Horwich guest-hosts.)

1. United Nations Aims To Thwart Spam Epidemic In Two Years

2. Senate bill goes after peer-to-peer applications

3. Wikipedia Hits 300,000 Articles

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The window is closing for people wanting to swap their home recordings of Regis and Kelly with like-minded friends.

A year from now new rules take effect that require all digital video recorders to respond to a "broadcast flag." The flag prevents a recorded show from being played on another machine or over the Internet. The Motion Picture Association of America says the measure prevents illegal Internet trading of perfectly reproduced copyrighted shows.

But the Electronic Frontier Foundation urges consumers to buy up as many pre-broadcast flag machines as they can now. Wendy Seltzer is a staff attorney for EFF, a non-profit online civil liberties organization. She says equipment available now will allow digital television watchers to get around the new mandate. (Art Hughes guest-hosts.)

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This summer, Microsoft is expected to release a major security upgrade to the Windows XP operating system and the Internet Explorer browser that's part of XP. The "Service Pack 2" software is designed to fix dozens of problems that allow malicious hackers and virus writers to attack XP computers. Service Pack 2 will not work with Windows 2000 or older versions of Windows.

Computer security expert Bruce Schneier is founder and chief technology officer at Counterpane Internet Security.

Microsoft to Pay Millions to Minnesota Schools, Consumers

Fahrenheit 9/11 Sparks File Sharing Flap

Google Bans Gmail Sales

Apple Delays New iMac

New Cell Phones Get Tiny Keyboards

Kerry Raises Scads of Money Online

Sweden Has More Cell Phone Subscriptions Than People

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit says e-mail providers have the right to copy and read any message before it is delivered to customers.

Experts say the ruling could expand e-mail monitoring by the government and employers.

Interloc, an online bookseller that also offered an e-mail service to customers, made it a practice to surreptitiously read messages to its customers from rival Amazon.com. A company official was indicted on charges of intercepting messages, which is barred under the Federal Wiretap Act.

Sony Plans Walkman to Rival iPod

Special Report: Future of Computing

MSN Revamps Search Engine

Ruling Threatens E-Mail Privacy

Microsoft-U.S. Antitrust Battle Finished at Last

Another Tech Wag is Finished with IE

Video Games Go Political

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Intelligent machines will replace an ever increasing number of entry and mid-level service jobs in the coming years, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, a research firm that studies the impact of technology.

The report says that if you work in customer service, on a help desk, or in another support role, you should be looking over your shoulder at something called "embedded intelligence."

Harvey Cohen is president of Strategy Analytics, and author of the report. He says embedded intelligence is a bigger threat than so-called "offhshoring."