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Car buyers must be told about 'black boxes'

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has passed a regulation requiring car makers to inform customers when their car has been equipped with an Event Data Recorder. CNN

Artificial muscles light up TVs

Arrays of thousands of tiny "super prisms" controlled by robotic muscles could bring real color to TV screens for the first time. BBC News

17 Microsoft Office killers

Upstarts are taking on the A-Team of the desktop software world: Microsoft Office. Do they have a chance? Red Herring

DJs in the desert

While soldiers once deployed with little more than a backpack and a rifle, today's crop of infantry troops pack along MP3 players, digital cameras, DVD players, video games, movie collections, and computers of their own. The personal electronics have made modern American warfare the most comfortable it has ever been, but they've also brought a new set of problems onto the battlefield. Ars Technica

How biotech is driving computing

The most super of supercomputers are folding proteins, not crunching numbers. That's because the life sciences have overtaken physics as the source of the most challenging computing problems. Business 2.0

Friendster gets $10 million infusion for revival bid

Friendster, the pioneering social-networking company that has lost ground to newer rivals such as MySpace.com and Facebook, plans to announce today that it has received $10 million in venture-capital funding, the latest move by investors to resurrect the company. Wall Street Journal

Privacy debacle hall of fame

AOL's decision to release hundreds of thousands of search records ranks among the worst privacy breaches of all time. We surveyed the field and offer 10 other examples that rival or even exceed it. Wired News

Three workers depart AOL after privacy uproar

update Net giant fires two, CTO resigns after disclosure of members' search data prompts widespread criticism.

• Tips for Protecting Privacy Online NPR News
• Group files FTC complaint against AOL (AP) Yahoo! News
• Beyond The Privacy Outcry, AOL Search Data Actually Is Interesting Info Techdirt

Are plasma TVs the next BetaMax?

LCD is now in plasma country, and this means war--a war some say plasma can't hope to win. Slashdot

Ricky Gervais joins Microsoft

Microsoft has hired the Office's Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to do a training video. the INQUIRER

Online music holdouts give in to iTunes

Bob Seger turned the page, and Metallica finally found justice for online fans. Now, only a few remaining big-name musical acts refuse to make their songs available on Apple Computer's popular iTunes Music Store. Yahoo! News

Help wanted: Mainframes seek new programmers

IBM looks to retrain, reframe and retool systems and the work force. eWeek

SanDisk unveils 8GB music player

update Latest Sansa device costs $249; SanDisk also reduces prices across the board to compete with iPod.
Photo: SanDisk's 8GB music player

• Taiwan market: iPod sales down DigiTimes
• Will SanDisk sour Apple's tune? BusinessWeek
• Samsung, SanDisk prep iPod Nano clones The Register
• Taiwan market: 2GB MP3 players ruled by big brands DigiTimes
• Switched On: The music, the money and Microsoft Engadget

Planet vote to draw from rival definitions

Rather than pitting two competing definitions against each other, the International Astronomical Union has decided to let members vote on components from each. New Scientist

Screwed for sure

Why Microsoft's new Zune digital music player will force the next sale of Napster. Wired News