Top Advantages of a Proxy

Proxies are not always well-understood. Many people learn of proxies through learning how they can be abused, but this is obviously not what they are intended for. The following are some of the basic advantages that can be gained by employing a proxy in a business context.

A VPN proxy is a useful tool, first of all, for continuity. When your network goes down, it takes a lot of functions offline, particularly those that are useful for communication. When those communications are time sensitive, this can result in data lost. However, a VPN will not be on the same network as your primary machines. This means that when people try to contact you or fetch information, they won't just hit the internet equivalent of empty air. Instead, they'll hit your VPN, which can be configured to inform them of the situation. This allows you to maintain continuity through outages.

Further, while anonymity on the web can certainly be abused, it has legitimate uses as well. A VPN can protect your business by allowing the points of exposure to the open internet to be mitigated. Instead of routing your employees through various web services, which may or may not be compromised, you can send them through your private VPN, shielding their internet usage from competitors and cyber criminals.

Proxies are misunderstood, but the security benefits they can offer can make all the difference in keeping your business rolling when the worst happens, and it is more than worth it for any dedicated business owner to investigate them.

Internet Improving Quality of Life

Technology has helped our society in many ways. It has improved the quality of our lives; help us communicate more efficiently and stay in touch with people far away, allows for cheaper goods and services, helps us entertain and so much more. The Internet is one of the major technological advances in the last 30 years. Though it has been around for a while now, it can be argued that it is among the top technologies, in terms of quality-of-life impact.

Just think of how much you depend on the internet. We won't even include the many, behind-the-scene functions the Internet performs (transmitting credit card transactions, powering various kiosks and more). Businesses depend on the Internet to connect with customers, manage their daily operations, store data and advertise. People rely on the Internet for information. All kinds of information. People look for health information, entertainment, relationship information and people love to shop (among other things).

Shopping on the Internet is one area that has help it's rise in popularity. It allows you access to products and services that may be located in another continent. Before the Internet, you may not have even been aware of 'that' store or the fact that they had prices 'that' good. Along with shopping came the coupon and discount resources that could be found on the Internet (check here). I believe, these two things have provided a major boost in the popularity of the Internet and the continued rise in the number of people that use it regularly. Shopping on the Internet is such a big deal because it benefits the shopper and the business owner!

Choosing an Ad Agency: Consider their handle on Technology

It's the top of the year and many companies are planning out their strategies for increasing their success. One area that many companies, small and large, will be planning is how to spend their advertising dollars. 

This is not a business blog, but technology plays a role in just about everything in this day and age. Even when looking for an advertising agency, you must consider how well the agency is able to incorporate technology in creating advertising solutions and how well they incorporate technology in operating their business. This does not mean that, in choosing an ad agency, you go with a company that ignores and does not used 'old media' (print, television, etc.), but you want a company that has the expertise to use the best of new technologies and media and merge that with effective 'old media'.


You want a company that can do the follow things for you:

1. Internet Marketing - The Internet is a technology that is firmly entrenched in our lives. People shop, socialize, learn and work on the Internet. You want a company that through search engine optimization, or SEO, and pay per click management, or PPC, we can position your website to intercept those consumers searching for the products and services you provide.
2. Public Relations - You ant a company that can help you manage your reputation and build your brand. This can be done using 'old media' and new technologies as well.  
3. Marketing ROI - You want a company that can provide return-on-investment from your marketing dollars and are able to show you where your money is spent and how effective your advertising is being. You want a tech-savvy company to use technologies to help you maximize your return-on-investment and  track your campaigns effectiveness.

Old and New Media: Create a Buzz

As with everything else, industries are evolving with technological advances. The Internet has changed the way people get their information and that has changed the advertisers' strategies. An advertising agency must approach their ad campaigns in new and different ways. That Advertising Agency is a company that understand the power of the Internet, but also understands that the most effective ad campaigns are a mixture of old-media and new-media.

The key is to use the internet, it's tools and surrounding technology to get exposure for your for your product or services. Internet marketing, website building, search engine optimization and banner placements are very effective ways to reach your target audience. A good advertising agency with utilize all those tools in ad campaigns tailored to the client's specific needs.

A great advertising agency will also use old-media, in conjunction with new media to take an ad campaign to the next level. Old-media include television, radio and print. These forms of media are still very effective at conveying an advertisers message. Along with the power of the Internet and it's many forms of distribution, mixed-media campaigns are most effective.

Sony Dash Wi-Fi touchscreen device

Sony will be introducing its Dash Wi-Fi touchscreen device to the market. You are able to receive real-time, personalized Internet content regardless of whether you are at home or at the office. The Sony Dash is about $199 and you can purchase it online from SonyStyle.com or pick it up from other Sony Style retail stores.

7″ color touchscreen displays all the relevant information being shown. The Dash will rely on a current wireless internet connection in order to receive a continuous display of your selections from more than 1,000 free apps. These include news, calendars, weather, sports, and social networking. With the use of BRAVIA Internet Video, the Sony Dash is able to allow you to enjoy TV episodes, films and additional video content and music from a host of providers such as CBS, Netflix, YouTube, Pandora and Slacker.

The Sony Dash is also an alarm clock, letting you wake up to your favorite music videos, internet radio or other video content instead of the standard alarm clock buzzer. Also, multi-tasking is also supported, meaning you can refer to a recipe in the kitchen while having some MP3 files playing in the background.

Cyber Attacks: Denial of Service attack

How a denial-of-service attack works
* By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer

How does this type of cyber attack work? And how can people make sure their computers are safe?

Here are some questions and answers about the attack.

Q: What is a "denial-of-service" attack?

A: Think about what would happen if you and all your friends called the same restaurant over and over and ordered things you didn't even really want. You'd jam the phone lines and overwhelm the kitchen to the point that it couldn't take any more new orders.

That's what happens to Web sites when criminals hit them with denial-of-service attacks. They're knocked offline by too many junk requests from computers controlled by the attackers.

The bad guys' main weapons in such an attack are "botnets," or networks of "zombie" personal computers they've infected with a virus. The virus lets the criminals remotely control innocent people's machines, which are programmed to contact certain Web sites over and over until that overwhelms the servers that host the sites. The servers become too busy to respond to anything, and the Web site slows or stops working altogether.

It's different from what usually happens when you try to access a Web site. Normally, you just make one request to see the site, and unless there's a crush of traffic from something like a big news event, the servers respond well. Hijacked PCs, on the other hand, are programmed to send way more traffic than a normal user could generate on his or her own.

Q: How often do these attacks happen?

A: People try denial-of-service attacks all the time — many government and private sites report being hit every day. Often the assaults are unsuccessful, because Web sites have ways of identifying and intercepting malicious traffic. However, sites really want to avoid blocking legitimate Web users, so more often than not, Internet traffic is let through until a problem is spotted.

Denial-of-service attacks are noisy by design, and they intend to make a statement. They're not subtle attempts to infiltrate a Web site's defenses, which can be much more insidious because that gives hackers access to whatever confidential information is stored there.

Often the attacks take a site out for a few hours, before Web site administrators can respond. What made the most recent attack notable is that it was widespread and went on for a while, beginning over the July Fourth holiday weekend and running into this week. It's not yet clear how the attack was able to last that long.

Q: Some organizations appear to have fended off these recent attacks, while other Web sites went down. How can this be?




A: The sites that went down probably were less prepared, because they are less accustomed to being hit or aren't sensitive enough to warrant extra precautions.

Popular Web sites, like e-commerce and banking sites, have a lot of experience dealing with denial-of-service attacks, and they have sophisticated software designed to identify malicious traffic. Often that's done by flagging suspicious traffic flowing into the site, and if there's enough of it, preventing it from ever reaching the site's servers.

Another approach is to flag suspicious individual machines that seem to be behind an attack, and ban any traffic from them from reaching the site.

That can often be difficult, though, because criminals use "proxy" computers to route their traffic, masking the source of the original requests. Proxy computers are often other infected computers that are part of a botnet.

Q: Is there usually evidence of who the culprits were? Or is the nature of the attack such that it leaves few fingerprints?




A: It's usually easier to stop a denial-of-service attack than it is to figure out who's behind it. Simply identifying where the malicious traffic is coming from won't get investigators very far, since the infected PCs that get roped into a botnet are owned by innocent people who don't know their computers are being used for nefarious purposes.

Pat Peterson, a security researcher and fellow at Cisco Systems Inc., says sophisticated attackers have also been adding a more subtle approach to evade detection.

Instead of directing huge amounts of traffic at a target site, they'll make more complicated requests one at a time that eat up more of the site's computing power, like trying to log in using bogus user names and passwords. If enough of those requests are made, on a site that requires a lot of computing power, the effect can be the same, and the site gets knocked out.

This type of attack is trickier because it doesn't involve the sort of massive traffic surge that would normally tip off network administrators.

This advanced tactic wasn't necessarily used in the most recent attacks. In fact there are signs the attacks were relatively amateurish. The programming code appears to have been patched together largely from material that has been circulating in the criminal underground for several years, according to Jose Nazario, manager of security research for Arbor Networks.

Q: If these attacks make use of compromised computers corralled into a "botnet," should I be worried about whether my PC is one of them? What could I do to prevent that or fix it?




A: If your computer is being used in a denial-of-service attack, you're likely to see a significant slowdown, because your processing power is being siphoned for the assault. But there aren't always obvious signs that your computer has been infected.

So the best thing is to focus on prevention, namely by having up-to-date antivirus software. In particular, make sure your antivirus software gets updated over the next few days.




If you're concerned your machine might be infected, it's wise to run an antivirus scan. Many antivirus companies offer a free scan from their Web sites.

Woman love their tech too!

I would never claim to be an expert on what woman want, no matter what the topic was... but the statistics paint a picture of what the 'average' woman looks for when it comes to her tech.

What technology brands are most admired among women? Apple and Sony take the prize with Microsoft and Dell tying for third place, according to a recent "Women & Digital Life" study conducted by the Solutions Research Group.

About 20 percent of women reported that Apple was the technology brand or company they admire most, followed by Sony at 14 percent, and Microsoft and Dell at 10 percent. Hewlett-Packard came in at 6 percent, followed by Verizon and Google, which each earned 2 percent of the vote.

SRG polled 2,000 women ages 12 and up on six areas: attitudes/use of technology, TV and entertainment, gaming, wireless/mobile, broadband and social media.

When asked about the technology that has had the biggest impact on their lives in the last two years, 26 percent of women said the Internet, followed by computers at 22 percent, and cell phones at 18 percent.

Women polled said they spent an average of 22.9 hours per week online. When asked what they did online in the last month, 61 percent of women said they watched short video clips, 58 percent said they surfed the Web with their kids, and 57 percent said they purchased items online.

About 50 percent used social media Web sites like Facebook and MySpace.

About 17 percent of women are using smartphones, and 18 percent have regular mobile phones. LG was the top brand choice, with 20 percent of the votes, followed by full keyboard BlackBerry devices at 15 percent and the BlackBerry Pearl at 13 percent.

About 12 percent of respondents used the iPhone, and 7 percent were on Palm devices.

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Overall, mobile activity has increased since SRG conducted a similar poll in 2007. Texting has increased from 49 percent to 61 percent, as has taking photos on mobile phones, which jumped from 46 percent to 55 percent.

About 36 percent of women have bought a new gadget like a computer, cell phone, or digital camera in the last six months. About 42 percent of women 25 to 39 have made such a purchase, eclipsed only by the 44 percent of women with kids aged 12 and under.

On the video game front, Sony's high market share among the tech brands most admired by women was largely due to the popularity of its PlayStation 2 gaming systems. Of the women with gaming consoles, 49 percent had the PS2, followed by the Nintendo Wii with 40 percent, and the Nintendo DS and Xbox 360, both with 30 percent.

Wal-Mart's effort to buoy its electronics department has apparently paid off among women. About 32 percent said they used the retailing giant to make their technology purchases, followed by Best Buy at 29 percent, and the now defunct Circuit City at 7 percent. Also on the list was Target at 7 percent, the Apple Store at 5 percent and K-Mart at 4 percent.

SRG also asked women about their thoughts about ease of use and purchase. About 59 percent of those polled believed that today's technology is easier to use, compared to 18 percent who felt the opposite. About 32 percent of women found the number of choices intimidating, but 47 percent were comfortable with the selection.

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The women were also asked if technology was a "guy thing" - to which 77 percent overwhelmingly replied that it was not.

The Broadband Have-Nots

Millions of Americans—many of them also residents of the inner city—remain on the other side of the chasm that separates those who have high-speed Internet access from those who don't. President-elect Barack Obama has taken to delivering a weekly address not only over the radio but also through videos on Google's (GOOG) YouTube. Yet almost half of U.S. adults don't have the necessary broadband connections that make it easy to view those messages, according to recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. A survey by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation ranked the U.S. 15th on household broadband penetration, having slipped from fourth place in 2001, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. (Denmark ranked No. 1.)

In a Dec. 6 speech, Obama called the current state of U.S. broadband access "unacceptable" and said plans to "renew our Information Superhighway" would be a priority of his Administration. To deliver, Obama will need to address the wide swaths of the U.S. that remain unconnected. In some places—most of them rural areas with low population density—people who are willing to pay for service can't get it because telecom providers can't justify the necessary investment.

In the case of the urban poor, service may be readily available, but many families can't afford the $30 to $50 it costs each month to get broadband. Many also lack computers at home. Among households with an annual income of $50,000 or less—about half the country—only 35% have broadband service, according to Free Press, a technology advocacy group. Households with annual incomes above $50,000 are more than twice as likely to have broadband service.

Why Home Access Is Essential

For some people, there's no substitute for having access at home. "It's pathetic trying to research health issues on a computer in a library with no privacy and a 30-minute limit," McConnell says. Having a computer at home made all the difference for 17-year-old Christine Davis, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and a regular at a computer clubhouse run by HCCI. Her family bought its first PC this year. "Having it [at home] is a big help with homework," says Davis, a resident of Bradhurst. "When I didn't have it, it was so frustrating, and I can work on college applications late at night." Getting to a computer outside the home can be especially difficult in neighborhoods like Davis's where gangs are active.

OneEconomy also tries to ensure that computer users in low-income areas have useful content, wherever they log on. TheBeehive.org contains articles and demonstrations on such practical matters as writing a check and using a debit card. Another site, Public Internet Channel, hosts video programming, including an upcoming 12-part dramatic series called Diary of a Single Mom that chronicles the lives of three women raising children on their own. It begins Jan. 27. The point, says OneEconomy Chief Executive Officer Rey Ramsey, is to encourage adoption of broadband among low-income people. "You have to give them a reason to think this is something that will help their lives in a meaningful way," he says.

Research also points to educational benefits. One study by the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2004 found that nearly half of high school graduates who had computers and Internet access at home went on to college. Among students who didn't have computers and Internet access, the college enrollment rate fell to one in four. "Kids who have access at home can do things like search for scholarships and apply for college and for financial aid more easily than kids who don't," McEwen says. "When kids have access at home it gives them a different outlook on school. It broadens their horizons. They tend to think more about life beyond the neighborhood."

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

Movies on Demand..... direct to my tv

Movies delivered direct to your set-top devices is gaining momentum. Everyone is getting into the movie distribution business and using the internet to make the movies easily delivered right to your television. You can find sights that stream movies now, the trend is going toward removing the PC from the loop and going straight to television set. This trend was evident to me when I began to here XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 where both looking to position there entertainment systems to provide social experiences and streaming content.

Netflix and LG Electronics said they are joining forces to develop a set-top box for consumers to stream movies and other programming from the Internet to HDTVs -- bypassing the need to use a PC.

The collaboration is expected to yield fruit in the second half of 2008. Netflix said the partnership supports its core strategy of offering a service that gives its more than seven million members several ways to view movies and TV shows.

"Internet to the TV is a huge opportunity," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement. He added that Netflix explored the possibility of offering its own Netflix-brand set-top box, but concluded that it would be better to offer devices from companies such as LG Electronics.

Netflix Hybrid Offering

Netflix offers a catalog of more than 90,000 titles on DVD delivered through postal mail, and a growing selection of more than 6,000 movies and TV episodes for download to PCs. When the LG product becomes available later this year, Netflix subscribers will be able to watch movies streamed from Netflix on their HDTVs.

Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, called the Netflix-LG partnership an "interesting development." However, he said, consumers should keep in mind that the technology is not yet available.

It's customary for electronics companies to make major announcements around the Consumer Electronics Show, he noted, but because the product won't come to market until later this year, there won't be any immediate impact on the way Netflix members view their movie rentals.

Not Just LG Electronics

"Netflix has decided the LG deal isn't the only deal it is going to make," Leigh said. "LG Electronics is only one example." He added that Netflix apparently has discovered that other consumer electronics manufacturers are receptive to the idea of developing products similar to what LG and Netflix are planning.

"We can expect more of this type of collaboration. It is an indication that the movement toward Internet distribution of video to the television is gaining momentum. But it doesn't mean the dam broke today," Leigh said.

Another recent indication about Internet-delivered video is Apple's rumored deal with 20th Century Fox to partner on video-on-demand options for iTunes. Amazon last year struck a deal with TiVo to let consumers download video to TVs. The service, Unbox on TiVo, has been available since last March.

Sony LocationFree LF-PK1

Just as Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been designed to handle music, photos, video and recorded TV, we'll expect similar multimedia mastery from Sony's PlayStation 3. In fact, the US version of PSM magazine has been stirring up the fan-boy excitement with an article that speculates about the PS3's multimedia abilities.

"The PS3 will supposedly have full DVR functionality," report our colleagues at CVG, "meaning you'll be able to digitally record all your favourite TV shows for later viewing in much the same way as Sky+. What's more, it seems you can use your PSP to control the DVR functionality."

But that's not the interesting part. At CES, Sony CEO Howard Stringer demonstrated the latest incarnation of its LocationFree technology, which enables you to watch TV over the Internet on a PC or PSP.

The system works using a LocationFree base station as a digital hub. This router-style device plugs directly into your content source - typically a broadcast feed, but the package includes an IR blaster for controlling set-top boxes and other AV gadgetry, such as DVD players. The base station then transmits the video signals over a LAN or the Internet.

P2P sharing networks.... Dangers

AS ALWAYS, CONSIDER YOUR SOURCE! GREAT REPORT... GOOD INFO, BUT A LITTLE OVER-STATED!!!

People who use popular file-sharing software at home, in school and in the workplace to download music and videos are likely to expose their own personal and corporate data stored on their computers' hard drives. The ability of peer-to-peer software to hunt for and grab personal and corporate information is now raising concerns by government and military agencies worried that these file-sharing programs could pose threats to national security.
People who store any type of sensitive data on their home computers, particularly computers to which children, teenagers or college students might have access, confront circumstances similar to those faced by governmental or corporate IT managers, warns a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) report.

"P2P depends on the availability of files on the network. P2P intentionally dupes users into providing these files," Safwat Fahmy, CEO and president of SafeMedia, told TechNewsWorld.

Fahmy presented testimony to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology on Dec. 5. That hearing focused on using technology to reduce digital copyright violations. His testimony, in part, addressed the issues raised in the USPTO report.

SafeMedia has developed Clouseau software and the P2P Disaggregator technology it uses to prevent computers from uploading personal and sensitive documents while blocking illegal downloads of copyrighted music and videos.
At a Glance

The USPTO report was prepared by Thomas D. Sydnor II, John Knight and Lee A. Hollaar in November. It contains introductory comments by Jon W. Dudas, undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO, about the need to further review the report's findings. The report reviews public data about the behavior of five popular file-sharing programs -- BearShare, eDonkey, KaZaA, LimeWire and Morpheus.

It poses two questions about privacy and file-sharing issues. First, the report asks whether distributors of these file-sharing programs used features that had a known or obvious propensity to trick users into uploading infringing files inadvertently. Second, it asks if further investigations are needed into the intentions of any particular distributor over the use of such duping schemes to induce users to illegally share copyrighted material.

The report concludes that the distributors of these five file-sharing programs have repeatedly deployed features that had a known propensity to trick users into uploading infringing files inadvertently.
Targeted Features

All five programs studied in the USPTO report use either the same share folder or search wizard features. The report described these features as being uniquely dangerous. The targeted features can cause users to inadvertently share infringing files and sensitive personal files like tax returns, financial records and documents that contain private or classified data. By late spring of 2005, the Department of Homeland Security Latest News about Department of Homeland Security reported that government employees using file-sharing programs had repeatedly compromised national and military security by sharing files containing sensitive or classified data, according to the report.

All five P2P programs studied employ a feature that lets users store downloaded files in a folder other than the specified default folder the programs create. However, the programs fail to warn users that all files stored in the selected folder will be shared. In most cases, the sharing caused by this feature includes not only the files stored in the designated folder but also all files stored in any of its subfolders, said the report.

At least three of the programs use a feature that searches users' hard drives and recommends that users share folders that contain certain file types. These file types trigger uploads of document files, audio files, audiovisual files and image files, noted the report. Further, some search-wizard features activate automatically, while others require the user to trigger them.

Another problem revealed by the report is that some of the features are activated during a program's installation and setup process. However, others are an option that a user can activate after the program is installed and running.
Other Problem Areas

The report cited concerns about the partial-uninstall features found in at least four of the P2P programs analyzed. If users uninstall one of these programs from their computers, the process will leave behind a file that will cause any subsequent installation of any version of the same program to share all folders shared by the "uninstalled" copy of the program.

Privacy violations are not limited to the user profile, warned the report. Whenever a computer is used by more than one person, this partial-uninstall feature ensures that users cannot know which files and folders these programs will share by default.

The coerced-sharing features of P2P programs further worried the report writers. Four of the P2P programs have features that make it far more difficult for users to disable the sharing feature of the folder used to store downloaded files. This folder may be the default download folder created by the file-sharing program or an existing folder selected to store downloaded files through a share-folder feature, according to the report.

In each case, the feature can provide misleading feedback that incorrectly indicates that the user has disabled sharing of the download folder. However, in each case, an obscure mechanism appears to allow sophisticated users to avoid the coerced-sharing feature and stop sharing the download folder. The report was critical of the level of technical skill users need to fully turn off the shared download folder feature.
Report Conclusions

All five of these programs can cause users to share infringing files inadvertently, warned the report. Redistribution and coerced-sharing features can cause users to share downloaded files inadvertently.

"Even when parents know that their children are using popular sites like LimeWire, eMule, uTorrent and dozens of others, most of them are not techies enough to understand these illegal P2P networks' features," explained Fahmy. "The problem is, on the surface they appear to be so easy to use. Parents believe that they are safe.

"The damage being caused by P2P networks goes unnoticed because it's free, and most often it is an illegal transfer of copyright-protected files," explained Fahmy. In addition, research by the security company TruSecure found that 45 percent of popular downloaded files concealed malicious code, he said.
Devastating Industry

P2P file-sharing is enormously detrimental to the entertainment industry. Last year more than US$2 billion worth of illegal music downloads and movies were pirated at more than $20 billion loss to the industry, according to Bob Werden, publicist for Independent Films in Hollywood.

"In Los Angeles, one can go not more than five miles from any of the major studios and find DVDs of films not even in release being sold for as little as $10. Major efforts are underway to stop that part of the piracy. But someone who has purchased 'SpiderMan 3' or 'Ocean's 13' or 'Pirates of the Caribbean' can now send it to their friends for downloading. The music industry is in equal jeopardy," Werden told TechNewsWorld.

That kind of piracy has devastated both the music and film industries, offered David Bortman, a Beverly Hills entertainment attorney. Billions of dollars have been lost, he said, and many people have lost their jobs because of such piracy. It is an extremely difficult problem because many people believe they are doing nothing wrong by downloading a record or a movie. They feel nothing has been taken from anyone, he said.

"People who do these things feel no guilt whatsoever, even though they are destroying careers. It would seem clear, based on experience over the last few years, that this is not going to change. For this reason, the only thing that is going to protect the artists and their partners and coworkers is the development of technology that prevents the unlawful downloading," Bortman said.
No Innocent Bystanders

P2P downloaders are not innocent bystanders, asserted Werden. Security efforts in the entertainment industry are getting tighter and stronger, but films are still being stolen and moved onto the Internet, he said.

"I do believe that those people who download DVD and CD films and music that are not legal know that. There are very few tech-unaware Internet users out there. Perhaps some 80-year-old guy and his wife might not realize that the film they send to their grandchild at college is illegal, but the majority have read and heard about Internet piracy of films and music," Werden told TechNewsWorld.

Artist and songwriter Eddie Money could not agree more.

"Music piracy is illegal and extremely detrimental to all of those who make a living creating original musical works," Money told TechNewsWorld. "If you truly like music, don't steal it. Support the industry by downloading your music legally."

Pandora - The Music Genome Project

This is a great site to sample music. The site has you input a song or artist and it produces a play list of similar music, based on tonal qualities, genre, and overall sound. It allows the listener to give the songs a 'thumbs-up' or a 'thumbs-down'; teaching the software what you do and don't like.... the more music you rate the better tailored your play list will be. It is streaming music so it is best suited for times that you will be able to just let the music play.... work is a good place, if you can listen to music. If you are savvy enough you can record the streams if it is music you want... just need the right software!!!! check the site out: www.pandora.com

New service by TiVo - bridges Internet to the TV

Reports that TiVo today plans to announce a new set of Internet-based services that will allow users to download movies and music to their video recorder's hard drive. "We're fully committed to developing an entertainment experience you can't get over normal broadcast television. This is what we think the future of television is," said Michael Ramsay, chairman and CEO of TiVo. According to the article, the move may be intended to insulate TiVo from potential competition from DirectTV, which may move to develop its own video recorder. Netflix, RealNetworks and Blockbuster are looking into Internet video distribution as well, says the article. Also, phone companies are looking for ways move video and television programming via D.S.L.