Semo.net Weblog

If you feel like your inbox is suddenly overrun with spam again, you are right.

Not long ago, there seemed hope that spam had passed its prime. Just last December, the Federal Trade Commission published an optimistic state-of-spam report, citing research indicating spam had leveled off or even dropped during the previous year.

Instead, it now appears spammers had simply gone back to the drawing board. There’s more spam now than ever before…

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Fight Spam!

Apple will likely have some wiggle room to cut retail prices on the iPhone, if a report from iSuppli proves correct.

The consulting firm on Thursday released an analysis of what the total component budget will likely be for the Apple iPhone. The $499 iPhone, which comes with 4GB of memory, will likely have a component budget of $229.85. Assembly costs will raise the total manufacturing price to $245.83, according to the analysis.

Meanwhile, the $599 iPhone, sporting 8GB of memory, will have a component budget of $264.85, with a total manufacturing cost of $280.83, according to the report.

The large margins make price cuts inevitable…

Digg story

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If you’re a home owner or renter, a secure inventory of your possessions should be a big part of your theft or disaster recovery plan. Having an up-to-date home inventory will help you get your home owner insurance claim settled faster, verify losses for your income tax return and help you purchase the correct amount of insurance.

Creating a home inventory can be a challenge. StuffSafe makes it easy!

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iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

Link

Geni is a unique approach to solving the problem of genealogy, which is the question of how everyone is related.

Geni lets you create a family tree through our fun simple interface. When you add a relative’s email address, he or she will be invited to join your tree. That relative can then add other relatives, and so on. Your tree will continue to grow as relatives invite other relatives.

Each family member has a profile which can be viewed by clicking their name in the tree. This helps family members learn more about each other and stay in touch. Family members can also share information and work together to build profiles for common ancestors.

Geni is a private network. Only the people in your tree can see your tree and your profile. Geni will not share your personal information with third parties.

Check out Geni today!

The award-winning Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life. Firefox 2 delivers helpful new features to make your online experience more productive. Firefox continues to lead the way in online security, and now includes active protection from online scams to keep you safer. Choose from over a thousand useful add-ons that enhance Firefox. It’s easy to personalize Firefox to make it your own.

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Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista, the software giant’s first major upgrade of its operating system in five years, is complete and will be available to retail customers on January 30, a senior executive said on Wednesday, November 8th.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061108/tc_nm/microsoft_vista_dc

Most of the time if you see virus and computer or electronics in the same sentence it is bad news. However some researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have created a transistor with very fast switching speeds. They have done this by coating 30-nanometer-long chunks of tobacco mosaic virus with platinum nanoparticles. They say it could eventually be used to make memory chips for MP3 players and digital cameras. A device fitted with such a virus-chip would access data much more quickly than one using flash memory.

Activist group Defective By Design is calling for an international day of action against digital rights management (DRM) technology on 3 October.

They want to highlight the threat DRM poses to open-source software development, consumer rights, and the way it could be used to control and track consumer viewing habits of future next-generation DVD formats.

Via MacWorld

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced yesterday that iTunes Music Store will now be carrying movies from Disney, Pixar, Miramax and Touchstone Pictures. The movies will be viewable from iTunes, as well as video capable iPods.

From Apple News:

Apple today announced iTunes 7, delivering stunning new features such as the new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies. In addition, the iTunes Store is now offering over 75 movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films, which customers can purchase and download to watch on their computers and iPods, and soon on their flat screen televisions with Apple’s upcoming iTV player. [Sep 12, 2006]