PCIN.net Update

From Time magazine:

When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing child pornography.

But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program.

Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to give up the password, but doing so could violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by revealing the contents of the files.

Experts say the case could have broad computer privacy implications for people who cross borders with computers, PDAs and other devices that are subject to inspection.

From USA Today (with a great picture):

Technology that doctors expect will help detect precancerous cells faster and less painfully also could someday take cameras to parts of the body where no camera has gone before.

Cameras the size of pills could “put eyes on tools” for laparoscopic surgery, snake inside a bile duct or fallopian tube, or weave their way deeper inside a person’s lungs than any non-surgical device has been able to go.

Unlike a standard endoscope, which is almost a centimeter wide and can only be inserted into the esophagus after a patient is sedated, a new device invented at the University of Washington consists of seven fiber optic cables encased in a capsule about the size of a typical pain killer.

From ReportOnBusiness.com:

Microsoft Corp. revealed plans for a surprise $44.6-billion (U.S.) cash and stock takeover offer for struggling Internet search pioneer Yahoo! Inc., in a move that would not only dramatically increase its share of the global Web search business but would have serious implications for top dog Google Inc.

The world’s largest software company made the announcement Friday morning after sending a letter to the Yahoo board of directors dated Jan. 31. Microsoft is offering Yahoo shareholders $31 per share for all outstanding share of Yahoo! common stock, which represents a 62 per cent premium above the price that Yahoo! shares closed at last night.

Yahoo confirmed that it had received the offer and said its board would consider the deal.

From ComputerWorld:

LAN technology recently passed a milestone — it’s been around for 30 years, some of them tumultuous. But while the LAN seems ubiquitous now, there are those who think its future may be more troubled than its past.

“Comparing the present environment to our original vision, the temptation is huge to say that we foresaw all this,” commented Bob Metcalfe, one of the inventors of Ethernet (by far the best-selling LAN protocol) and now a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners in Waltham, Mass. “But I will resist and say, ‘duh, wow, look what happened.’”