smart computer use?

Imagine that. A striptease, a trojan, and code cracking. Not as kinky as it sounds. I guess this whole thing is just an example of the dark underbelly of the internet.

A nifty little program that Trend Micro detects as TROJ_CAPTCHAR.A disguises itself as a strip-tease game, wherein a scantily clad “Melissa” agrees to take off a little bit of her clothing. However, for her to strut her stuff, users must identify the letters hidden within a CAPTCHA.

Read the rest here.

I signed up for a hassle on hassleme.co.uk recently. I had the hassle set up to remind me to clean my fish tanks roughly every seven days. I guess I didn’t really need the reminder too much. I was just more interested in seeing how the hassling service worked. I expected to get hassled about once per week.

I didn’t get a hassle for a few weeks. Then suddenly I got hassled about 4 times within 3 days. Crazy.

The whole thing seemed rather random, but I didn’t think it’d be that random. I may give it another run to see what happens again.

Pretty accurate depiction of how it all happened.

Many young people around the world use the internet every day, and yet they have no memory of the history that led to the creation of the global network. Many have no understanding of how or why the internet has developed. As part of out continuing efforts to combat ignorance around the world, The History of The Internet

Read the rest and view the time line here.

If you use Facebook, you could become prone to highly targeted ads. It sound crazy from an article standpoint, but time will tell if the reality of the new ad system will affect users of Facebook positively or negatively.

The wait (and hype) is finally over. After weeks of speculation and red herrings, Facebook’s new ad system (imaginatively titled “Facebook Ads”), has been revealed. So, what is it? Put simply, it’s an ad system that allows businesses to track users’ activities on the web (and on Facebook) to deliver product referrals and targeted advertising.

Read the article here.

From the 20Q.net web site:

20Q is an object, a website, a company, and a phenomenon. It first gained popularity as an online game (20Q.net) where users log onto the website and play against an artificial intelligence (A.I.) foe. Players think of an animal, vegetable, mineral, or other object and 20Q guesses what the player is thinking in twenty questions or less.

Try to stump the artificial intelligence here.