AOL to Give Away Spammer's Porsche
A spammer who bought a Porsche with his spam-generated money had the car taken in a lawsuit settlement with AOL. AOL plans to give the car away in a sweepstakes that began on Tuesday.

Congress Again Targeting Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
Last Thursday, Senators Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy introduced a bill that will make it easier for the Justice Department to prosecute those who share files online. In the draft bill, dubbed "The Pirate Act", Hatch says the operators of P2P networks lure children and young people with free music, movies and pornography. If the law passes, anyone sharing 2,500 or more pieces of content could be fined or thrown in jail. So far in 2004, Leahy and Hatch have each received more that $150,000 in donations from the entertainment industry.

New Version of Bagle Virus Appears
If your Hearts card game launches and you don't know why, you may have the latest version of the Bagle virus. Though the worm has been around since January, this new version can still infect your machine if you double-click on the randomly-named executable. A possible feud between the authors of the Bagle and Netsky worms appears to be spawning new versions of the virus.

National Terrorist Database May Be Used to Screen Event Attendees
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have been working to combine several lists of terrorists into one database that could then be used by the private sector. Companies who run large facilities could submit lists of attendees to the FBI Terrorist Screening Center, to ensure that terrorists would not be attending company events.

U.N. Forum Discusses Spam and Developing Countries
Delegates at a two-day U.N. forum on Internet Governance agreed that Spam is a nuisance and on little else. Developing nations argued for a bigger role in the Internet: from security practices to domain naming to help with building a stronger backbone in their countries. The recommendations will be compiled and used at a summit in 2005.

Congress Targets Spyware
Congress is debating a bill that likens spyware to trespassing on private property. Spyware can be installed automatically and without your knowledge, and can track your keystrokes or the Web pages you visit. The bill, proposed by Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, would require a user's permission to install spyware and to use the information that's gathered.

Witty Worm Spread Faster Than Others
The Witty worm appeared on the scene last week, sprouting from a vulnerability in firewall software. The virus spread more quickly than a typical virus, prompting companies to consider relying less on patching holes in their software and more on other methods of prevention. The virus infected relatively few computers but targeted machines that were specifically meant to prevent these threats.

Make a Screen Saver Slideshow in Windows XP
Instead of a run-of-the-mill default screen saver, use your digital pictures and run a slideshow when you're away from your desk. To create your slideshow: on an empty area of your desktop, right-click and choose "Properties." Then choose the Screen Saver tab and from the Screen saver list, choose "My Pictures Slideshow." Choose the "Settings" button to make customizations. The slideshow will go through your "My Pictures" folder, so make sure that any pictures of your boss that you save in that folder are flattering ones.

Disabling Stacked Windows on Your Windows XP Taskbar
If you're running Windows XP and you like to open several browser windows at once, you probably noticed that they pile one on top of the other on your taskbar. Instead of being able to click between windows you have to click a down arrow and choose from the list of open windows. To disable this feature, choose Start, Control Panel, Taskbar and Start Menu. Then uncheck the box called "Group similar taskbar buttons." Choose OK and you will see all of your browser windows, side-by-side on the taskbar.

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