Congress Working Toward Driver's License Standardization
The House and Senate are proposing bills to standardize the information required to obtain a driver's license, and the information required to be on a driver's license. A bill recently passed by the Senate gives the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) the authority to make these decisions. The DHS would not have the ability to enforce states to follow these guidelines, but they can enforce the use of these licenses at airports. The House has passed a bill that allows all of this personal information to be gathered in one nationally-linked database. Privacy advocates are up in arms about these decisions, and the two bills will now go to a House-Senate conference committee.

U.S. Monitors Chat Rooms
As part of the anti-terrorism effort, the U.S. government is funding a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as he monitors chat rooms and develops mathematical models of the conversation that goes on. The professor hopes that this large-scale monitoring effort might take the mass quantity of conversation that takes place in chat rooms and make it more manageable. The government hopes it will make it easier to spot terrorist activity.

Peer-to-Peer Networks Not Just for File Sharing
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing has gotten a bad rap for music sharing. But the same P2P concept can be used to transmit phone calls, block spam, and spread useful information. For example, if a group of computers are all running a small bit of software, when an email arrives to all of the computers at once, there is a greater chance that it is spam, and the software flags it as such. This method is different than usual methods of detecting spam, which are targeted because of the content of the message or the name of the sender.

Pay Pal Problems
Since last week, PayPal has had trouble processing payments and creating new accounts, according to the company. eBay's message boards were full of comments about the glitches, and the company said they're working as fast as possible to fix them.

T-Shirt Senses When You Fall
A man has developed a t-shirt that contains tiny sensors that know when you fall and send wireless signals to your caretaker. His main customer for the shirt is the elderly, but he sees other applications for the technology, including monitoring athlete's heart rates, or military uses.

Privacy at Work Now a Court Issue
An employee who installed spyware on his boss' computer was fired after he reported that the boss was playing Solitaire all day. Now a court will decide on the larger issue of how much privacy you can expect at work. Many companies monitor their employees' email, but how much are they allowed to do? Many lawyers agree that if the company has a clear policy on the use of technology at work, then they have the right to enforce it.

National ID Card May be In the Future
The House and Senate are proposing bills to standardize the information required to obtain a driver's license, and the information required to be on a driver's license. A bill recently passed by the Senate gives the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) the authority to make these decisions. The DHS would not have the ability to enforce states to follow these guidelines, but they can enforce the use of these licenses at airports. The House has passed a bill that allows all of this personal information to be gathered in one nationally-linked database. Privacy advocates are up in arms about these decisions, and the two bills will now go to a House-Senate conference committee.

Moving Files from One Computer to Another
Windows XP comes with a wizard to help you move files from a non-Windows XP computer to your Windows XP computer. To access the wizard, choose Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. This wizard leads you through the process of bringing files and settings to your new computer.

Print a Part of What You're Reading
If you're browsing the web and you find something that's interesting, you may want to print only a portion of the greater page. Not all printers support this, but try highlighting the text and/or graphics you want to print. Then choose File > Print. In the Page Range section, there is an option called "Selection." Choose this option to print only the highlighted text and graphics.

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