New Newsletter Writer Requests Feedback
I've recently taken over the role of newsletter writer here at SurfSecret, and I'd like to know what you're interested in learning about each week. If you have any ideas about what you'd like to see as part of this newsletter, or tips and tricks you'd like to share, let me know at suzanne@surfsecret.com.

Canada Legalizes P2P Downloads
At least for now, it seems you can freely download music in Canada. However, the government there will require a fee for using MP3 and other hard-drive-based players, a fee that will go into a pool to compensate musicians and songwriters. Canada has received criticism from copyright-holders for not enacting more stringent digital copyright protection. The new Federal Heritage minister has vowed to quickly change this.

New Google Service Raises Privacy Issues
Google plans to offer free web-based email, complete with ads to suit your tastes. Google's computer will view the text of your email, search for keywords, and send you ads related to those keywords. You will get more storage space than with competitors Yahoo and Hotmail, and though viewing the text of personal emails raises privacy issues, Google says your email will not be monitored by humans, only machines.

Feds Propose VoIP Regulations
State and local governments will not be able to tax and regulate broadband phone calls if Sen. John Sununu's bill passes. The bill, proposed on Friday, limits state, local, and FCC involvement in regulating VoIP, and puts these powers in the hands of the federal government. According to the bill, fees charged by the feds will be used to provide cheaper phone service to low-income Americans.

Visitors to the U.S. Will Be Fingerprinted, Photographed
By September 30th, citizens of 27 countries, including many close U.S. allies, will be fingerprinted and photographed upon entering America by plane or sea. People from these countries could previously enter the U.S. without a visa. The Department of Homeland Security expected these nations to have passports with fingerprints and iris identification by October, but found out that the deadline isn't possible. The procedure takes an average of 23 seconds and is not expected to be copied by other countries.

Jacksonville Airport to Use RFID Tags
Instead of traditional bar-coding, the Jacksonville, FL, airport is going to use thin, disposable RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips to track luggage. While bar-coding only has an 85 percent success rate, RFID technology is 99 percent accurate. The airport hopes that installing the new technology by next spring will allow them to lay off the 30 part-time temp workers who re-route lost luggage for the airport.

Government Linking Databases to Help Prevent Tax Fraud
State revenue agencies have tools that are scanning more and more databases, looking for keys to people's income. For example, the government may check car registration databases to see how expensive your car is, relative to your reported income. Aggregating this information is getting easier, according to tax officials, and eventually they hope to have the ability to gather enough information to fill out your tax forms for you, simply sending them to you for endorsement. Privacy groups worry about this information getting into the wrong hands.

Bluetooth: What's It To You?
Bluetooth technology enables wireless communication between devices. Imagine uploading contacts from your PC to your cell phone, without crawling under the desk to connect a wire. How about receiving an email when your washing machine breaks down. Or playing with a remote control toy car, using your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to drive it. These products and others with Bluetooth technology built-in are already available.

Using the Command-Line to Complete Simple Tasks (Part 1)
You can complete a variety of tasks from the Windows command-line, from renaming files (with the ren command) to finding strings of text (findstr) to listing the contents of a directory (dir). To open a command-line, choose Start, Run, and type cmd. When the command-line appears, you should see a prompt for your default directory, usually c:\>. You can change to different folders by using change directory (cd) followed by the folder name, for example, cd my music will take you to the "My Music" directory. To see a list of all available folders, type dir, and to return to the root directory, type cd\. If you want to export command-line information, you can save it to a text file. For example, navigate to any directory and type dir > c:\myfiles.txt to save the file list to a file called "myfiles.txt" on your C: drive. Then you can open the text file from the command-line by simply typing the filename.

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If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding this newsletter, email suzanne@surfsecret.com.