Just last month we were talking about how new evidence showed that brain controlled implants worked in the human brain, and now a company is moving forward with human brain control tests by implanting chips into the brains of people who are paralyzed people to see if they can control a computer with their thoughts. Some see this as a step forward, while others are afraid that it's going too fast - noting that any kind of problem could set back the entire space for years.

A California state senator today said she was drafting legislation to block Google Inc.'s free e-mail service "Gmail" because it would place advertising in personal messages after searching them for key words.

"We think it's an absolute invasion of privacy. It's like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home," Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont, California, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

In late March, the world's No. 1 Web search company announced plans to launch Gmail -- a service that would offer users 1 gigabyte of free storage, more than 100 times the storage offered by other free services from Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

But in return for the extra storage, users would agree to let Google's technology scan their incoming e-mail, then deliver targeted ads based on key words in the messages. For instance, a user receiving a message about a friend's flu symptoms might also receive ads for cold and flu remedies.

US-led forces in Iraq have issued new casualty figures confirming that the country has seen the bloodiest period of fighting since Saddam Hussein fell.

US Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said about 70 coalition troops had been killed in Iraq since 1 April, while casualties among insurgents were 10 times as high.

President Bush, speaking after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, told reporters: "The situation in Iraq has improved. But... it was a tough week, because there was lawlessness and gangs that were trying to take the law in their own hands."

NEW YORK — A storm has erupted in the embedded community, with real-time operating systems house Green Hills charging that Linux is fundamentally insecure and wide open to security breaches by "foreign intelligence agencies and terrorists."

"If Linux is compromised, our defenses could be disabled, spied upon or commandeered," O'Dowd continued. "Everyday new code is added to Linux in Russia, China and elsewhere throughout the world. Everyday that code is incorporated into our command, control, communications and weapons systems. This must stop."

Several programmers on the Linux street are also giving O'Dowd some pushback. In a reader's forum on the LinuxDevices.com Web site, a developer who identified himself only as "Concerned citizen" posted a lengthy rebuttal. "[Linux] has features, security, and strengths that are not easily compromised by a foreign agency," he wrote. "Let's not forget that the terrorists that Mr. O'Dowd refers to used proprietary software for attacks on the USA. They have Windows machines and Flight Simulator, you might recall."

"Mr. O'Dowd makes the common mistake of confusing obscurity with security," said Ready. "Open Source is actually more secure than closed source proprietary software because the oversight of technology content is broader and deeper. Instead of just one company monitoring its own contributions — or potentially hiding security holes and exploits — a worldwide community of interested parties actually oversees Linux to make it strong and secure. That's why the NSA — the most security-conscious organization in the world — chose to standardize on Linux, and even supplies its own version of secure Linux."

Apparently the controversy AOL generated when they added Wild Tangent to their AOL Instant Messenger client wasn't enough. Users in our Security Forum point out the company is now bundling Weather Bug as well. Both Weatherbug and Wild Tangent are now installed by default unless you specify otherwise. Wild Tangent got under the skin of many users because the uninstallation process is a twenty four step nightmare that requires a blow-torch, some fishing line, and a team of highly trained archaeologists. One would think that software makers would learn a lesson from Real's popularity plunge, and try to keep the bloat to a minimum.

Advertising software company Claria, formerly known as Gator, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to go public, in a sign of further momentum for Internet IPOs.

Claria, whose advertising platform (or adware) has come under legal fire from multiple Web site operators, filed an S-1 document with the SEC, seeking to raise an unspecified sum through an initial public offering. According to its filing, the company said it had a net income of about $35 million on revenue of $90 million in 2003.

Claria said that it has 43 million people active on its ad network. The company has eight offices in the United States and Europe.

Claria is fighting many battles in court over its practices.

For example, a European court recently issued a preliminary injunction against Claria that prohibits the company's pop-up and pop-under ads from appearing over German rental car Web site Hertz Autovermietung without the agency's permission.

Telstra is using the prices charged for its music downloads as a means of boosting its broadband sales, the Australian Music Retailers Association claims.

"For years the industry has been battling the scourge of illegal downloads, so it is hard to imagine that consumers are unaware of the ability to buy music online," he said. "Telstra wants to sell broadband subscriptions, and they want to use music to do it."

On April 1, Telstra announced that it would be offering tracks at 99 Australian cents each for the month; uptil then the regular price for downloads had been $1.49 per track for BigPond members and $1.89 for others.

"The wholesale cost for chart tracks from major suppliers generally ranges from $1.05 to $1.17 so by no stretch of the imagination can you say that Telstra is doing anything but selling the music.. below cost so they can attract more broadband subscribers," Bonouvrié said.

It's scary sometimes to realize just how much the recording industry doesn't get the internet. The latest is that all of the major record labels are working on ways to raise the prices for downloadable music. In some cases, downloadable CDs on services like iTunes now cost more than the CD itself - despite the fact that there are no physical materials and no shipping costs to build into the price. Clearly, the industry still doesn't realize that part of the reason people flocked to online sharing services was because the price of a CD with one or two good songs was way too high. Among the other braindead and backwards ideas from the industry to make downloadable songs more expensive is to force buyers to buy a bad song with every good song. It's amazing. The slight success of iTunes already has the industry working on ways to kill the one just-barely smart enough idea they've had (and even that's been pretty weak overall) concerning online music.

NEC Corp has developed a battery that can be recharged only in 30 seconds, company sources said. Called an organic radical battery, it can be recharged to the same level of power as that stored in nickel-hydrogen cells, which are widely used in digital cameras, portable MD players and other electronic devices.

The company plans to convert existing production facilities into ones able to manufacture the new product. The company expects the price of the new battery to be about the same as nickel-hydrogen cells when mass production starts, since it does not contain any expensive materials.

The company will initially try to commercialize the technology for using the battery as an emergency power source for computers, according to sources at NEC.

Frequent sexual intercourse and masturbation protects men against a common form of cancer, suggests the largest study of the issue to date yet.

The US study, which followed nearly 30,000 men over eight years, showed that those that ejaculated most frequently were significantly less likely to get prostate cancer. The results back the findings of a smaller Australian study revealed by New Scientist in July 2003 that asserted that masturbation was good for men.

Another theory is that frequent drainage of prostate fluid stops tiny crystalloid microcalcifications - which have been associated with prostate cancer - from forming in the prostate duct, says Leitzmann.

Giles notes that neither study examines ejaculation during the teenage years - which may be a crucial factor. But he says: "Although much more research remains to be done, the take home message is that ejaculation is not harmful, and very probably protective of prostatic health - and it feels good!"