From the “shooting yourself in the foot” department:

A recent development in the “virus wars” has a new virus-attack in the news. Yes, yes, virus plagues as a problem is no longer in debate. What is new is the vector for viruses and spams: Your cell phone.

According to published reports, a security firm in Russia discovered a virus designed to target cell phones using the Symbian operating system. The Symbian OS powers some cell phone models manufactured by Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Panasonic. One report states that among other things, “the user must launch the file that is transmitted, and ignore two messages warning that the source is unknown.”

Hell-OH!?! Self inflicted. Just as with most (computer) virus infections in the past, the “victim” has to do something that users are warned never to do, to whit, opening attachments to email programs that they are not certain were intended for them. Or not having up to date, activated anti-virus software.

From the “well, DUH!” department:

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) email newsletter reports this shocker:

“The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission ruled on June 11, 2004, that a long-distance company offering service using a form of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) is required to register as a telecommunications company under Washington law.

The company, LocalDial Corporation, offers a dial-around long-distance service. Users dial a local telephone number, hear a second dial tone, and dial the long-distance number they wish to call. LocalDial contended that it offered an enhanced service rather than a telecommunications service and that it was not subject to regulation as a telecommunications company.

The WUTC’s decision was limited to the specific “phone-to-phone IP telephony” offered by LocalDial. It ordered LocalDial to register with the WUTC within 10 days or cease doing business at that time. (www.wutc.wa.gov).

Yes indeedy, “voice over IP” (VOIP) is indeed telephone service subject to WUTC rules and regulations.

So let me get this straight. A service designed to transmit voice calls between points, for a fee, on a commercial and widely available basis is telephone service. Regardless of how the technology transmits the conversation over copper or fiber; when the voice call is delivered to your telephone handset, and initiated by a telephone hand set it is telephone service.

From the “I told you so” department:

“One third of all PCs connected to the internet are infected with hacking software,” according to a published report.

A survey of home computers was carried out by internet service provider EarthLink and email company Webroot. Of more than 420,000 PCs scanned in the study, nearly 134,000 had the software, known as spyware, present. The company believes each computer has an average of 30 pieces of spyware installed.

These software programs can be used to record and report every keystroke from you keyboard as you enter personal and financial information online, such as for online purchases using credit cards, or online banking.

Another use is one reported here in an earlier column. The network of hijacked computers is used to commit denial of service attacks on servers and networks, which causes outages and damage to businesses around the world. Billions of dollars are lost because of it (spam, hacking, DDOS attacks) not including the money lost due to fraud and identity theft.

From the “you gotta be kidding!” department:
Reported at www.newscientist.com: “A microscopic biped with legs just 10 nano-meters long and fashioned from fragments of DNA has taken its first steps.“

“The nanowalker is being hailed as a major breakthrough by nanotechnologists. The biped’s inventors, chemists Nadrian Seeman and William Sherman of New York University, say that while many scientists have been trying to build nanoscale devices capable of bipedal motion, theirs is the first to succeed.”

Just how big (long) is a nanometer, you ask? A nanometer is a unit of spatial measurement that is one billionth of a meter. One billionth. Which is Teenie-Tiny. Or really, really, really small. Those science fiction movies that show scientists shrinking people and equipment and sending them into a human body seems just a bit less far fetched. Scary stuff, but exciting too.

From the “Get to the Point” Department:

Other than dropping some interesting tidbits to you, is there a point to be made here? Well yes. The point is a bit of a cliché as well, but valid none the less.

Technology is taking us places we never dreamed we would go in any number of ways we could not anticipate. And the process continues to accelerate.

From the fairly mundane regulatory issues raised by new uses of the internet (VOIP), to the truly astonishing advances in entirely new areas of science (nano science), to the cautionary tale of poorly understood and carelessly used technology (on-line identity theft and computer hacking), the lessons are clear. You can no more avoid the rapidly evolving technologies that surround us than you can avoid breathing.

It is important that you recognize them and do your best to understand them. Those who do not, are bound to pay unforeseen and unhappy consequences for their inattention and complacency.