Get ready for Microsoft, cable and phone companies, and quite a few other people to know a lot more about what you do on your computer, thanks to House Bill 2083.

It’s supposed to protect you from predators spying on your computer habits, but a bill Microsoft Corp. helped write for Oklahoma will open your personal information to warrantless searches, according to a computer privacy expert and a state representative.

Called the “Computer Spyware Protection Act,�? House Bill 2083 would create fines of up to a million dollars for anyone using viruses or surreptitious computer techniques to break on to someone’s computer without that person’s knowledge and acceptance, according to the bill’s state Senate author, Clark Jolley.

“The bill has a clear prohibition on anything going in without your permission. You have to grant permission,�? said Jolley, R-Edmond. “You can look at your license agreement. It will say whether they have the ability to take that information or not.�?

If you click that “accept�? button on the routine user’s agreement, the proposed law would allow any company from whom you bought upgradable software the freedom to come onto your computer for “detection or prevention of the unauthorized use of or fraudulent or other illegal activities in connection with a network, service, or computer software, including scanning for and removing computer software prescribed under this act.�?

That means that Microsoft (or another company with such software) can erase spyware or viruses. But if you have, say, a pirated copy of Excel — Microsoft (or companies with similar software) can erase it, or anything else they want to erase, and not be held liable for it.

Source: okgazette.com

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have determined what factors turn on protein production in bacteria, a finding that provides new targets for the development of antibiotics.

In the study, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, researchers Sean Studer and Simpson Joseph in UCSD’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry report how the messenger RNA instructions to make a protein are unfolded in a bacterial cell, so that they can be read by the cell’s protein-making machinery. Since unfolding the instructions is an essential step in the making of a protein, the researchers say that drugs designed to interfere with this step would make ideal antibiotics.

Source: Science Daily

In the first 12 hours since “Landrush” registration of .eu Domains begun at 11:00 CET, over 1 million have been registered. Predictions of .eu becoming the second biggest domain after .com look like they may become true, with Nominet being responsible for “over four million” .uk domains, the second biggest namespace.

Source: Slashdot

Microsoft Research has released a new tool to help pinpoint large-scale typo-squatters that are known to be gaming pay-per-click domain parking services.

The lightweight prototype, called Strider URL Tracer, builds on the work within Microsoft’s Cybersecurity and Systems Management group to keep tabs on a sophisticated typos-quatting scheme that uses multilayer URL redirection to make money from Google’s AdSense for domains program.

Source: eWeek

Now enriched with hefty cash reserves thanks in large part to booming iPod sales, Apple Computer isn’t about to let California tax collectors take too big of a bite.

The Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered firm has taken an unknown portion of its portfolio and set up shop in the veritable tax haven of Nevada.

Source: News.com