Filtering too much

School filters overdo it, was the basic take-away from a study of US high-school English students' research. The study, conducted by Lynn Sutton, library director at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, found that "Internet filters are apt to block legitimate educational content," eSchool News reports. "Tech-savvy students … argue that administrators should have more faith in their judgment and ability to deal with inappropriate content, and they blame the school - not their teachers - for prohibiting them from conducting sound, unbiased research," according to eSchool News. The students, in both advanced rhetoric and basic composition classes, experienced both overblocking (of sites needed for their research) and underblocking (inappropriate content got through) in their Internet work. Sutton, whose study was part of a PhD dissertation, concluded that schools should "carefully consider" if filtering is necessary, at least at all grade levels. [See this item for the latest from Consumer Reports on filters.]

Zombie masters caught

I know, I sound so sci-fi. But there's nothing other-worldly about zombie masters, unfortunately. An awful lot of family PCs like yours and mine are "zombies" (computers that have been infected by Trojan software that gives control of them to the senders of the Trojan carrying worm or virus), unbeknownst to us! The "zombie masters" are the people who control whole networks (called "botnets") of these hijacked PCs to send spam (to make money) or launch denial-of-service attacks (against retail and other Web sites, sometimes for extortion money). Zombies in people's homes are by no means unusual. Microsoft, which has been working on this problem, believes "more than half of all spam is sent by zombies" and that there are tens of millions of zombies worldwide," CNET reports in an article about the company's progress in tracking zombie masters and shutting them down. Microsoft has identified 13 different spamming operations that use such zombies" so far, according to CNET. The US's Federal Trade Commission has been encouraging the Internet industry to take more action in this area. For example, it has asked Internet service providers (ISPs) to quarantine zombies and help us customers clean our infected PCs. For its ongoing investigation, "Microsoft intentionally created a zombie computer" - a PC not unlike one in anyone's household. "Over a three-week period, the PC was accessed 5 million times by its remote controllers and used to send out 18 million spam messages advertising more than 13,000 Web sites" (though Microsoft reportedly blocked the spam before it got sent). For more on this, see the latest from the Washington Post on local tech support and my "What if our computer's a zombie?!"

Samantha's bully-proofing tips

This week in the NetFamilyNewsletter, Part 2 on bullying and cyberbullying: some practical tips for kids and teens when confronted by a bully - online and/or offline. They're from Samantha Hahn, National American Miss Teen 2005, who shares these pointers (learned from her own multi-year experience with bullying), whenever she gives talks at schools.

Virtual real estate mogul

Now, here's an example of where the line between virtual and real is getting blurry. British-born, California-based indie film director and gamer Jon Jacobs just paid $100,000 for a piece of "real estate" in the Sweden-based MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) "Project Entropia," UPI reports. Apparently, Jon considers the purchase of this "resort" (on an asteroid and still under development) an investment (or filmmaking inspiration), since the property "comes with mining and hunting taxation rights" in the "treacherous, but mineral-rich" Paradise V Asteroid Belt." As for other revenue streams, the as-yet-unnamed resort also comes with "a 1,000-unit apartment complex, a shopping mall, sports stadium and night club," a billboard marketing system and naming rights," the BBC reports. According to Sci-Tech-Today, Entropia, which has 299,359 registered players, "is known for its commercialization of virtual goods in the game. Most MMORPGs such as Everquest [which rely on subscription fees] discourage the sale of their virtual goods for real world currencies." Entropia, it adds, "sells tools and weapons that players use in the game for Project Entropia Dollars (PEDs)." The BBC says "typical items sold [in Entropia] include Repedge battle axes at 4.55 PEDs and Angelic Flakes at 1.48 PEDs" (10 PEDs = $1 US).

Amazing gamers' lives

There are gamers who make a living "leveling up" other gamers' characters. I realize this begs a question, so here's an example: Qing Xuwei in China "used to make 10,000 yuan [about $1,200] a month by power-leveling other people's game characters while they are away from the game. He wrote and runs software programs (on seven computers) that increase the strength and status of clients' game characters while they're on vacation or otherwise not playing (so they don't lose any ground in the game), the BBC reports. Another gamer earns $70,000/year creating female characters' clothing (aha! designers of virtual fashion now!). Yet another, the BBC reports, is "a 'robot tailor,' designing robot costumes" for game characters - a niche market, "but he still earns $250 a month." Back in the States, here, the Washington Post describes the more "traditional" way of making money as a gamer: just being very good and going pro. Referring to Kyle Miller in Virginia, the Post says, "He drives a Bimmer. He attracts the ladies. He's got sponsors. He trains hard. He plays harder. He's 21." And for four years he has "consistently dominated Counter-Strike, an online shooter game whose 2.8 million active players generate more monthly Internet traffic than all of Italy." And here's CNET on "getting girls in the game."

Porn on video iPod?

It's hard not to be skeptical, but Wired News reports that "the adult industry is largely staying away" from this new video venue. The article cites the view of L.R. Clinton Fayling, president of Brickhouse Mobile, "a Denver company that is licensing adult material for mobile phones," saying the adult industry's "largely staying away" out of concern about litigation and legislation (that would happen because the iPod's so popular with young people). But Wired News does name some smaller adult-content companies that are jumping right in. And Playboy and other companies are already producing for PlayStation portable handheld game device (see my 4/22 issue). [Thanks to Bob Dahlstrom, CEO of Kidsnet, for pointing this piece out.]

11-year-olds networking

Remember when networking was a new concept, something we grownups were told to embrace in order to be successful? Well now, the Los Angeles Times points out, "if a typical 11-year-old heard such advice presented as innovative strategy, he or she would collapse laughing." Today's middle-schoolers are networking-proficient - online and off. And their social circles are huge compared to ours, when we were kids. "Now kids' ability to reach out to those they've just met, hold onto those they know, and bring disparate parts of their lives together with the touch of a key has changed the boundaries and definition of social life," according to the Times, and they are enabled by IM, email, cellphones, and online games - even "new kids." For example, "a 7th-grader hands the new kid in school a dozen IM screen names, and within a week, she's 'talking' to all her new classmates, even the ones she's too timid to approach in person." Check out the article for other fascinating examples. But the New York Times reports that some parents are concerned that all this online socializing might be "interfering with growing up." And the Richmond.com in Virginia zooms in on kids' preference for IM and phone texting over email.