Archive for the 'New York Times' Category

the problems with Sitekey and Motorola

Monday, February 5th, 2007

Password’s don’t cut it anymore. But neither does a new security scheme called SiteKey, in which users are asked to recognize a single image each time they log into their bank’s Web site. In today’s paper, I write about a new study, by Harvard’s Rachna Dhamija and MIT’s Stuart Schechter, which found most users don’t respond when their image is absent.
On Saturday, I tackled Motorola’s recent problems.

the market for zero-day

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

You can buy stolen credit cards, spammable email addresses and key-stroke loggers online. So why not the very foundation of all those Internet attacks - the vulnerabilities in software programs like Windows and Internet Explorer? In today’s Times, on the day of Microsoft’s Windows Vista release, I write about this potentially dangerous emerging marketplace.

those darn dancing cowboys

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

eiffellmbad1.jpg  They make it completely impossible to read online, and they are dancing for no perceptible reason. The various illustrated characters (including those two-stepping cowboys) in the maddeningly omnipresent ads from LowerMyBills.com were driving me a little nuts. I was also curious about the company’s business model and how it was able to wallpaper the Web with its ads. I write about the company in today’s paper.

Yesterday, I wrote about the newest generation of set-top TV boxes from cable and satellite companies beginning to get a little worried about oncoming competition. Cross your fingers that we will soon have some choices for the most important piece of technology in the home.

guilty as charged

Thursday, January 11th, 2007

When I joined the New York Times in November, I told one of the paper’s IT guys that I would be forwarding my work email to Gmail. He rolled his eyes and sighed wearily, as if he had heard that many times before. “Employees are not supposed to do that,” he said.

That moment inspired my story today: Firms Fret As Office E-mail Jumps Security Walls. Web email services like Gmail have gotten so good they are simply better than what many companies, concerned primarily with security, can provide to their employees.

off to CES

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

140,000 geeks; 2,700 exhibiting companies; cab lines a mile long. I’m off to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which Damon Darlin and I write about on the front page of today’s newspaper.

the next myspace or a parent’s worry?

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

Stickam.com looks alot like MySpace, with one big difference: users can communicate on their home pages via live Web cameras. It sounds harmless, but live Web video, for reasons perhaps known only to sociologists, seems to bring out the worst in people. In Tuesday’s paper, I wrote about stickam and other video sites stretching some online boundaries.

back from New York

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

For the last month, I’ve been learning the ropes at the New York Times. I wrote or cowrote a few stories along the way, including one on the marked increase in spam, and on eBay’s decision to close its site in China.

In more important news, Jen has been named the sexiest geek of 2006 by Violet Blue on her Tiny Nibbles blog!

BitTorrent and Wal-Mart. In the same sentence.

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

My first day at the New York Times, and my first story. Peer-to-peer file sharing firm BitTorent and retail giant Wal-Mart each announced plans for separate online video stores, to launch early next year.