Business

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, February 24, 2008 Technology notebook T-Mobile to test out new landline service in Seattle and Dallas Cell-phone carrier T-Mobile USA is going to try its hand at being a landline phone company. It has started offering wired phone service for $10 a month, plus taxes and fees, to its wireless subscribers in the Seattle and Dallas-Fort Worth areas. The service, called Talk Forever Home Phone, provides unlimited local and domestic long distance calls. It will piggyback on the customer's high-speed Internet connection, in much the same way voice-over-Internet providers like Vonage Holdings Corp. sell phone service. Customers will need to buy T-Mobile's Internet router for $50 when signing up. The router has two phone jacks where standard corded or cordless home phones can be plugged in. An existing home number can be transferred to the new service. Subscribers will also need to be signed up for a wireless plan costing at least $39.99 a month. In a similar vein, T-Mobile last summer launched the HotSpot AtHome program, which allows subscribers to place calls over their Internet connection using special Wi-Fi-equipped cell phones. That plan also costs $10 a month for unlimited calls. Hackers recruit for local language skill: Wanted: computer virus writers. Must be fluent in Mandarin. Or Russian. Or Portuguese. These hacker help wanted ads are appearing on underground Internet channels as malicious code designers increasingly want programmers with foreign-language skills to help launch country-specific attacks, security vendor McAfee Inc. said in a report Thursday. Hackers want to craft compelling and grammatically correct Web pages and spam e-mails -- which are crucial in fooling people to download viruses or reveal personal information like credit card numbers, according to the report. By localizing their attacks, hackers can better target software and sites popular in specific countries -- such as peer-to-peer network applications in Japan, online gaming sites in China and banks in Brazil. They can also limit their attacks to countries where law enforcement is more likely to be lax. Brain-reading game headset coming soon: Hands cramping up from too many video games? How about controlling games with your thoughts instead? Later this year, Emotiv Systems Inc. plans to start selling the $299 EPOC neuroheadset to let you do just that. The headset's sensors are designed to detect conscious thoughts and expressions as well as "nonconscious emotions" by reading electrical signals around the brain, says the company, which demonstrated the wireless gadget at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The company, which unveiled a prototype last year, says the headset can detect emotions such as anger, excitement and tension, as well as facial expressions and cognitive actions like pushing and pulling objects. The headset will be sold with a game developed by Emotiv, but it can also be made to work with existing PC games, the company said. Users will also be able to access an online portal to play more games, chat or upload their own content such as music or photos. Service taps users to help filter sites: You can now help decide what Web sites your boss should block. A new service from OpenDNS lets users tag sites under categories such as "gambling," "hate" and "social networking." Others can weigh in on whether they agree with those classifications. If there are enough votes, the site gets added to a system used by companies, schools and other organizations to block access. OpenDNS says its approach is better than commercial software because more people are reviewing sites and can do so quickly as new ones pop up. OpenDNS already has a filtering system for "phishing" scam sites using a similar, community-based approach. It contracts with a vendor, St. Bernard Software, to filter pornography sites, and those sites will not be part of the new tagging program. The system is free to use. The filters are part of OpenDNS' main service providing the directories necessary to translate a Web site's domain name into its actual numeric Internet address. OpenDNS estimates it has more than 4 million users worldwide. From Herald news services

1. Fireworks blamed in house fires; three people injured 2. Mill Creek lawyer pursuing lawsuit for island nation 3. Everett may have to lobby for Lincoln's replacement 4. Mortgage relief slow in coming for strapped homeowners 5. Fireworks blamed in Marysville house fire 6. Fourth proves a day for colors 7. Landlords should read up before they rent out 8. Marysville postpones remodel of high school 9. Officials in fever to keep Boeing 10. Credit card companies cut debtors some slack 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

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