Your DNA in a Database
DNA fingerprinting was discovered 20 years ago and has since been used to solve countless crimes. England has created a national criminal database which contains 2.5 million DNA samples, and the U.S. and Canada are following suit. Even people who have been acquitted have their DNA samples stored in the British database, a practice that the man who discovered DNA fingerprinting disagrees with.

Online Extortion Growing
Hackers have been trying to extort money from online companies, threatening denial-of-service attacks on those who don't meet their demands. A man from Maryland faces up to 20 years in jail for trying this type of extortion, and several others have been caught in the past year. Unfortunately it looks like the trend has no signs of slowing, according to this article's survey.

Listen to Your Cell Phone without Sound
Scientists are testing "bone-conduction" technology, which sends sound waves through bones around the ear, rather than through the air. Though this technology has been around for quite some time, applications directed at the general public are being developed. For example, with one cell phone you can listen by pressing it against your jaw or other areas of your head, and no one can hear the conversation except you. Another possible application is having a small cell-phone-like device on your wrist that transmits the signals, and then plugging your ear with your finger to transmit the sound.

What is it Like to Put Spammers Out of Business?
Louis Rush, an Earthlink employee, talks about all the excuses he's heard from people who send spam. Some are innocent-- people have viruses on their computer and were not aware they were sending large amounts of email-- and others are not so innocent. Rush does everything from charge a $200 cleanup fee, shut down user accounts, file charges if credit card fraud is involved, to contact the FBI in more advanced cases.

Purdue Students Get Legal Downloads
Purdue on-campus students who use the university's Internet service will receive a legal and easy way to download music. The service provides over a million songs, which cost 89 cents a piece to download. Though the campus IT group doesn't monitor specific user accounts, they know that much of their bandwidth is taken up by students downloading music, and they are trying, in collaboration with record companies, to get the students to download it legally.

MyDoom Writer Looking for Work
Two British technicians found a request for work in the code of the "MyDoom-U" and "MyDoom-V" viruses. The line of code, whether meant in jest or not, said that the writer was looking for work in the anti-virus industry.

Airlines to Give Traveler Information to Government
Though a previous plan to cross-reference passenger information with terrorist lists was called off because of privacy concerns and technical issues, the Transportation Security Administration is going to order U.S. airlines to give up passenger information so it can test a system that performs a similar task. Congress gave the TSA the authority to make this request, and the new system is expected to go live by next spring.

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Start a Program Each Time You Start Windows
In Windows XP, right-click Start and click Properties. On the Start Menu tab, click Classic Start menu, and then click Customize. Your start menu will look different from now on, if it wasn't already set to Classic. Click Advanced. You will see the Start Menu folder. Expand this folder to view the Programs folder. When you see the program you want, drag is to the Programs\Startup folder. From now on, this program will launch each time you log into Windows. You can drag other files (like sounds) into the Startup folder too, and they will play when you log in. (Beware: doing this may take a lot of memory and slow down your computer).

Play a Sound Each Time You Start Windows
If you aren't the only one who uses your computer, you may want to play a welcome message each time someone logs on (see Win32 News Issue 68: Record Sounds to Amuse Family and Friends). To change the sound that plays when you first start Windows, go to start, Settings, Control Panel, and choose Sounds and Audio Devices. Click the Sounds tab. In the Program Events list, you can choose to customize many of the sounds on your computer. In this case, choose "Windows Logon." Then click the Browse button to find an audio file on your computer. You can press the Play Sound button for a preview of what the person who logs on will hear. Click OK to commit your changes.

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