Your Health Records to Go Online
President Bush wants everyone to have an electronic medical record within the next ten years. Cisco's CEO says healthcare costs could decrease by 25% if the medical field would implement better technology. But the healthcare industry is fragmented, patients have privacy concerns, and it's costly for doctors to take on the infrastructure expenditure. With so many errors caused by disparate systems, and the benefit of technology in this industry becoming more and more apparent, insurers, lawmakers and employers are beginning to advocate, and even pay for, change.

Boston Ready with Cameras for Democratic National Convention
For the coming DNC in Boston, the city police have installed 30 cameras, the Coast Guard will be prepared with night-vision goggles, and the federal government will have 75 video cameras that will allow them to focus in on minute details while sitting at their desktop. Other cameras will be used by state police, as well as the transit authority, to monitor the subway and bus stops. While the ACLU has voiced privacy concerns, the government has spent the money to buy the cameras and they intend to use them. Boston has a policy of destroying tapes as soon as they are confirmed to not contain evidence of criminal activity, according to the Boston police officer who heads convention security.

Microsoft Awarded $4 Million in Anti-Spam Case
On Friday, Microsoft was awarded a $4 million settlement in a case against a spammer who mailed MSN and Hotmail users with messages about downloading a desktop toolbar. Microsoft has filed a barrage of suits against spammers in the past year, and has been awarded more than $54 million. In this particular case, the spammer sent mails from addresses that were similar to Microsoft's, using names like hottmail.com and wwwwindows.com to try to trick users into reading their emails.

Content Based on Where You Live: Good or Bad?
Companies are using what's called "geolocation technology" to control the Internet content you receive and limit it to where you live or even who you are. So if you live in Florida and want to buy flowers, you might get search results limited to florists in the Florida area. And you might also be charged higher prices than someone who lives elsewhere. There are companies who are dedicated solely to determining which computers are in which parts of the country, based on IP address. These companies match this information with demographic and census information in order to market differently to people in different areas. There are many useful applications of this technology, including fighting fraud and phishing scams.

Readers Skirting Online Newspaper Registration
Users are looking for ways to skirt the registration forms that are required to read some newspaper web sites. Several web sites have popped up to address this demand, including sites that provide fake usernames and passwords for people who want to access the news sites anonymously. Newspapers that require registration say they don't receive many complaints about the registration requirement, and that they need to get reader information in order to sell site advertising.

Japanese Company Rushing to Finish ID Cards for the Olympics
A Japanese company is working day and night to produce the 80-100,000 identity cards required for this summer's Olympics. This same company began making U.S. passports in 1997, and since then, no forgeries have been found. A series of holograms that are embossed on the person's picture are partially to thank for this success, along with a special ink that reflects ultraviolet light.

IM Providers Decide to Cooperate
Microsoft plans to launch a new product called Live Communications Server (LCS) that will include Instant Messaging (IM) collaboration with AOL and Yahoo. Users of LCS will be able to chat with their Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo buddies, but won't have the unique features that currently come with the standalone messaging clients. The move to collaborate took many people by surprise, because these three IM providers have traditionally been fierce competitors. Microsoft sees the move as part of a bigger effort to bring computing to people, no matter what their location.

Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft!

It is more important than ever to keep your computer free from pests, Adware, Trojans, and hacker to ols. Why? Because these pests are becoming increasing more sophisticated and dangerous and often stay under the radar of the average computer user. SurfSecret PestPatrol is designed to clean your system, protect your privacy, and make sure key loggers, Trojans, an d denial of service attacks don't leave you vulnerable. SurfSecret PestPatrol complements your existing antivirus software - and pre vents attacks that pass by conventional AV solutions.

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Download XP PowerToys
Microsoft publishes extra "toys" for users who want to add functionality to their current installation of Windows XP. You can find these toys for on this Microsoft web page. Some of the useful tools in this release: an advanced calculator, a more detailed "Alt+Tab" option to switch between open programs, and a virtual desktop tool that lets you manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar.

Turn off Auto-Complete in Internet Explorer
When you begin typing a web address in your IE address bar, you may notice that IE tries to finish the line for you. There are times when this is convenient, and there are other times when you wish that people couldn't see the sites you've been visiting. To turn off auto-complete, in Internet Explorer, choose Tools, Internet Options. Click the Content tab and then the Auto-Complete button. From this page, you can decide to stop using auto-complete for web addresses, forms, and user names and passwords on forms. Note: This isn't the same as clearing your Internet history, which can be done on the General tab by choosing the Clear History button.

Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft!

It is more important than ever to keep your computer free from pests, Adware, Trojans, and hacker to ols. Why? Because these pests are becoming increasing more sophisticated and dangerous and often stay under the radar of the average computer user. SurfSecret PestPatrol is designed to clean your system, protect your privacy, and make sure key loggers, Trojans, an d denial of service attacks don't leave you vulnerable. SurfSecret PestPatrol complements your existing antivirus software - and pre vents attacks that pass by conventional AV solutions.

Use SurfSecret PestPatrol to Clean Your system of spyware and Adware! - Download your free 30 day t rial now! For a limited time, we have discounted PestPatrol to $37.99 -
it will go back to its regular price of $49.99 soon. Act now!


Download a Free Trial of PestPatrol!

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