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Microsoft this month is marking the 15th anniversary of its research lab, saying Microsoft Research is critical to the company's future. MSR grew to be a leader in computer research at a time when other technology companies were cutting back on R&D. In the last few years, however, competitors such as Google and Yahoo have stepped up their research efforts, creating more competition for research talent.

Microsoft researchers have published some 3,700 academic papers over the years. The department is staffed with 700 people -- from computer scientists to anthropologists. Their job is to push technology forward.

Past research has found its way into products such as Windows Vista, the next Microsoft operating system; it helped create anti-spam filters in the Outlook email program; and helped start streaming audio and video on the Internet.

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The Tech Museum Awards recognize projects that make the world a better place. The Museum, located in San Jose, California, recently named 25 winners. They come from all over the world, including Nigeria, Japan, India, England, Brazil and the U.S.

At a ceremony in November, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will receive the museum's Global Humanitarian Award for the work his foundation has done in health and education.

This year's winners include an effort to squeeze drinking water from fog; a refrigerator for an African desert that gets its power from evaporation; a project to archive all of the Internet; and a plan to monitor and map mosquitoes to cut down on Dengue fever.

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The University of California, Berkeley is delivering a smattering of course lectures and other video free of charge through Google Video. UC Berkeley is the first school with its own page on the Google Video Web site.

Visitors can view a half dozen Berkeley courses, including "Physics for Future Presidents, "Integrative Biology," and "Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business." More classes will be added in the coming months. Google Video also feature public lectures and other Berkeley campus events.

The collaboration with Google is an example of how technology can expand the role of public universities, says Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley's executive director of public affairs.

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A new survey by computer security company Symantec finds the number of attempted email "phishing" attacks doubled in the first six months of this year. Phishers send emails that appear to come from a financial institution or other legitimate organization. The messages ask for personal information such as account numbers and passwords.

Dean Turner runs Symantec's Security Response team, and is author of the semi-annual Internet Security Threat Report. He says criminals are increasingly targeting home users, and stealing information and money by exploiting security holes in Web browsers and other computer applications.

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Scientists at the Rochester Institute of Technology are using the latest imaging technologies to digitally restore a 700-year-old palm-leaf manuscript containing key elements of Hindu philosophy. The project led by P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton will digitally preserve the original Hindu writings attributed to scholar Shri Madvacharya.

The document, a series of palm leaves bound together with braided cord, is turning to dust.

Mukund, an electrical engineer and Hindu scholar, first became involved with the project when his spiritual teacher in India told him about the decaying documents.

Mukund and his colleagues employed several methods to preserve the text for future generations, including printing it on long-lasting wafers made of silicon, the material used to make computer chips.

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The Pew Internet and American Life Project says nearly one-fifth of American adult Internet users spent some time reading about politics or the coming U.S. election last month. That's a big increase from November 2004.

Pew Internet's John Horrigan says the latest figuree are noteworthy because August is typically a quiet month in political campaigns because of summer vacations.

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Global Voices, a Web site that spotlights news and daily life in underreported parts of the world, is the winner of the Knight Batten Awards grand prize.

The awards honor the creative use of the Internet to involve citizens in public issues.

Other winners this year include Health News Review, a health news site started by a University of Minnesota professor to help journalists write accurate medical stories and help consumers find reliable health news; TC Daily Planet, which aggregates news from neighborhood and community press in the Twin Cities; and IBIS Eye, a storm tracking Web site.

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After a tornado devasted the town of Rogers, Minnesota on Saturday, the local branch of the county library opened its doors the next day, when it's normally closed, and is extending its regular hours through October so residents have a place to get on the Internet. Hennepin County Library spokeswoman Judy Hohmann says the Internet is becoming a basic need in the aftermath of natural disasters. Hohmann says the library is also offering free faxing to help people file insurance claims.

Across the country libraries are playing a bigger role in disaster relief. John Bertot from Florida State University is lead author of a new report that examines the role of libraries in disasters. Bertot says libraries are a logical place for people to get online after a disaster, in part because library buildings are often the sturdiest in many towns. And there's another reason...

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USB keys, also known as thumb drives, are increasing the risk of security problems for businesses. Employees who plug the tiny storage devices into their computer's USB ports at work can unwittingly spread viruses and worms.

Guest: Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine

Also today:

Law Underground is a new web site that seeks to provide answers to specific legal questions, such as "Am I eligible to become a U.S. citizen?" Law Underground's objective is to provide free access to legal information. Content for the site is being written by volunteer attorneys and law students. Users are asked a series of questions until the site provides an answer.

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Microsoft's effort to compete against Apple's dominant iPod will focus on the idea that people want to be able to easily share music with friends and family.

Microsoft says its portable 30-gigabyte Zune media player will include wireless technology to let people share some of their favorite songs, playlists or pictures with other Zune users who are close by. Those users can listen to the songs three times over three days before deciding whether to purchase it themselves.

The Zune is scheduled to go on sale in time for the holiday shopping season.

Brian Cooley with technology review site CNET says Microsoft's Zune Marketplace music service, designed to compete with Apple 's iTunes store, will let users buy songs individually or listen to unlimited tracks for a flat subscription fee.

Bonus: I've posted an extended version of my interview with Brian Cooley here. (MP3).

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A nonprofit group called the Sunlight Network says it will pay a $1,000 bounty to anyone who can persuade a U.S. Senator or Representative to publish their daily schedule, including meetings with constituents, lobbyists, and fundraisers, on the Internet.

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AOL caused an uproar last month when it disclosed Internet search terms of 600,000 customers. Although users were identified only by number the New York Times was able to identify one customer by name after studying her searches. The searches of AOL members included private, intimate, and embarrassing information about users.

All major Internet search providers, including Google and Yahoo, maintain detailed databases of users' search histories, and privacy activists worry this information will again fall into the wrong hands.

You can keep your searches private, but you'll have to change your habits and do a little technical work. The following advice comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

* Don't put personally identifying information like your name, address, credit card number, or Social Security number in your searches.

* Don't use a search engine operated by your Internet service provider (ISP).

* Don't log in to your search engine or its related services. So, if you have accounts with services like GMail or Yahoo! Mail, don't use Google or Yahoo!'s search engines, respectively. Or, use one browser for your searches and a different browser for your other activities.

* Block "cookies" from your search engine.

* Vary your IP address.

* Use web proxies and anonymizing software that masks your IP address and other information that can be used to track you.

For more detail, see the EFF's white paper.

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Lala, which fosters the trading of CDs among its members, claims to have signed up several hundred thousand users since its debut earlier this year.

Lala members compile two lists on the site -- one for all the CDs they own, and one for CDs they'd like to own. Lala charges $1.75 when members make trades. The fee includes postage-paid envelopes for shipping CDs.

Company founder Bill Nguyen says Lala plans to use the growing database of CDs requested by members to move into sales of new CDs and digital downloads.

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In a new survey, top scientists predict major advances in robotics, weather forecasting and computer graphics.

The Institute for the Future and IEEE Spectrum magazine surveyed 700 IEEE Fellows - a group from academia and industry that's regarded as a vanguard of technology.

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California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says a crime was committed when private investigators hired by computer company Hewlett-Packard obtained the personal phone records of board members and reporters who wrote a story about HP's strategic planning.

HP admits to a practice called "pretexting." The investigators posed as HP board members and reporters to persuaded phone companies to release personal phone records.

Pretexting is a common practice among private eyes, and is used by identity thieves as well. The overall legality of the practice is a bit murky.

Joel Winston, associate director of privacy and identity protection at the Federal Trade Commission, says the FTC has filed lawsuits against several companies allegedly involved in pretexting.

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Content-poor sites created only to generate pay-per-click advertising revenues are known as "spam blogs," or "splogs."

Sploggers get paid when users click on ads situated next to the content, which is usually just a bunch of nonsense words strung together. The scammers try to game the system so these sites show up prominently in search results.

Observers say the rapidly-growing "splogosphere" threatens the Internet.

Journalist and author Charles C. Mann writes about splogs in Wired.

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Wikipedia is the controversial but popular online encyclopedia written and edited by dedicated volunteers and the Internet public. Co-founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales has said a core group of about 500 volunteers are responsible for most of the content, but Aaron Swartz has concluded that's not exactly true. Swartz, a programmer who is vying for a seat on the board of the Wikimedia Foundation, decided to find out exactly how a Wikipedia article comes together.

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California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign a bill that forces manufacturers of wireless Internet equipment to warn consumers about the dangers of not securing their wi-fi networks.

Companies would also have to provide instructions on how to configure the devices to prevent unauthorized users from piggybacking on open networks. Putting that information in a manual will not be enough -- manufacturers will have to include the instructions in the software setup routine, or affix a warning sticker to the device that consumers would have to remove before the equipment can function.

California's law could become a defacto U.S. standard since manufacturers are reluctant to produce multiple versions of the same product.

Ken Baylor with computer security company McAfee says the California measure is designed to make it harder for malicious hackers to do mischief. Baylor says a McAfee survey shows that half of all home wi-fi networks are unsecured.