Fox is running a 30-second television spot with just one static image in an effort to reach viewers who fast forward through ads using digital video recorders such as TiVos.
U.K. advertisements for Fox’s new drama, “Brotherhood,” which premieres in Britain in October, simply shows an image of Providence, R.I., where the show is set, and the program’s logo. Viewers fast-forwarding through the ad would see the image for a few seconds; those watching it normally would hear dialogue from the show in the background.
Jon Hollett, a Fox International spokesman, said the company was experimenting with ways to get its messages to DVR users who routinely breeze through ads without antagonizing real-time viewers by broadcasting a flat, silent image for thirty seconds.
“This is something that is going to have to be addressed one way or the other,” he said. “Making sure that you can get to your viewers when they’re fast forwarding … is of crucial importance.”
Television executives fear the new technology could make ad-supported free programming obsolete. In the United States, DVR users could dodge as much as $8 billion of the $74 billion in television ads shown this year, according to Jupiter Research, a technology consulting company.
“Virtual keyboards” vulnerable to snoops: In hopes of fighting Internet fraud, some online banking sites make customers use “virtual keypads” – a method of entering passwords on the screen, generally with a mouse. The system is designed to thwart keystroke-logging programs that capture everything a user types.
Now those virtual keypads appear just as vulnerable to snoops.
A Spanish security company, Hispasec Systems, has revealed details of “Trojan horse” programs that can capture video imagery of an unsuspecting person’s computer use. If the user enters a PIN on a bank’s virtual keypad, the dastardly program is a witness.
Like most Trojan horses, the ones detected by Hispasec are slipped onto users’ computers when they visit certain Web sites, often through spam links, said Hispasec researcher Bernardo Quintero. Often you’d have no clue if you were hit. When Quintero’s group tested whether more than 30 anti-virus programs would block a recent video-logging Trojan, only six did so.
Gartner Inc. security analyst Avivah Litan said screen-capture programs that attacked virtual keypads emerged as early as 2003, when banks in Brazil fell prey. She said the technique has remained relatively rare because the programs consume a lot of bandwidth and storage, and there have tended to be a lot of easier targets.
But that may be changing. Quintero said Wednesday that a newly detected Trojan combines keystroke-logging and video-capture functions – and instead of recording the entire screen, the program just grabs images of the immediate area near where the user clicks the mouse. The spy receives a smaller file, making the attack easier to pull off.
Nissan safety measures utilize sensors: New technology from Nissan could help drivers worried about missing a red light or being hit by cars darting out from hidden alleys.
The world’s automakers are all working on automatic braking and other safety measures to reduce accidents. Nissan’s technology is different because it takes advantage of sensors already in place to monitor traffic congestion in Japan.
This island nation, with numerous narrow roads often jammed with bumper-to-bumper traffic, has infrared sensors hanging from street poles relying information to car navigation equipment so drivers can map out the quickest routes.
The still-experimental vehicle-alert system from Nissan uses the sensors to detect dangers such as unexpected cars zipping out. That information is then beamed into the driver’s vehicle.
In a recent demonstration, the car’s navigation equipment emitted a beep, then an electronic voice warning, “A car is coming from the left ahead.” A picture of a car in an alley also popped up on the navigation monitor.
The alert system also warns about upcoming yellow or red lights if the driver isn’t slowing down. Also in consideration is a system that warns drivers when they enter a school zone.
Zillow allows homeowners to update data: Zillow.com, a real estate site that publishes estimated values for some 68 million U.S. homes, is now giving homeowners the chance to add newer information about their properties to its vast database.
Since the Seattle-based startup launched in February, many homeowners have contacted the company challenging the accuracy of certain home values and suggesting that Zillow allow them to enter updates on things like remodeling projects that don’t appear in public records.
“Opening up Zillow’s massive database and allowing homeowners to contribute factual information and commentary should, over time, dramatically enhance the quality and relevance of Zillow to buyers, sellers, and homeowners,” Rich Barton, Zillow’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.
Barton became the first homeowner to publish such an update. He said his house had 3.5 bathrooms, not 2.25 as public records indicate, and that he’d remodeled the basement and two bathrooms, and added a home office, laundry room and wine cellar.
With the changes, Barton estimated his own is worth $3.25 million, a value posted below Zillow’s $2.84 million “Zestimate.”
To get access to the database, homeowners will have to register and “claim” their home’s record through an online verification process. If they decide to publish their updates, the information will be displayed alongside Zillow’s existing data for that home. They can also choose to keep the updates private or share it with only certain people.
Ripped off? Rip it right back: An e-commerce startup that sells property seized by police is asking college students to register their iPods, bikes and laptops just in case those items get stolen and later show up.
StealItBack.com, a free service offered in conjunction with seven-year-old police auction site PropertyRoom.com, is asking students to provide serial numbers, photographs, sales receipts and other identifying data.
“Properly documenting valuable goods is a necessary step to recovering them, whether they find it through StealItBack, their local police department or the university lost and found,” said Tom Lane, a former detective and founder of both sites.
StealItBack.com has so far reunited more than 30 owners with stolen property, including an electric guitar from a Japanese punk band and an antique class ring from the Illinois College of Pharmacy from the 1890s.
Three weeks ago, radio-controlled off-road car enthusiast Glen Krause of Chula Vista was reunited with his Mammoth ST truck and a Mugen MBX5 Pro Spec buggy, each worth $1,500. The cars were pinched at a race in February, when Krause – known on the circuit as RacerNine – turned away from his pit table.
“I had no hope of getting them back – none, zero, hopeless,” said Krause, 44. “But then this guy who knows me said, ‘Dude, I found your cars on PropertyRoom!’
Americans turning to the Internet for political news: Despite generally less interest in politics during the summer months and for midterm elections, Americans were as likely to look up political news and information online in August as they did during the peak of the 2004 presidential campaign.
Nineteen percent of U.S. adult Internet users, or 26 million, sought such information on a typical day in August, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said Wednesday. That’s about the same as the 18 percent recorded in November 2004.
There was a jump from the last midterm elections – 13 percent sought political information in July 2002.
John B. Horrigan, Pew’s associate director, credited greater availability of high-speed Internet connections at home, which tends to boost usage of just about everything online, along with better political materials from campaigns, news organizations, activists and bloggers.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
