C'est tellement simple qu'on a des doutes. Une nouvelle technologie propose de remplacer les "mots de passe" par des "faces de passe", littérallement. Au lieu de demander à l'usager une enième variation faite de chiffres et/ou de lettres sur sa date de naissance, le nom de son chien ou le personnage de roman qui l'a le plus marqué, Passface l'invite à se rappeler une série de portraits choisis au hasard. Selon les responsables: "L'avantage fondamental de Passface est que la reconnaissance des visages est entièrement intuitive (de fait une partie du cerveau humain y est entièrement consacrée). Tout le monde peut se rappeler les "faces de passe". Des expériences menées de façon indépendante à l'Université de Londres ont montré que les usagers qui utilisaient Passface étaient capables d'établir une connection avec 100% de succès, même après plusieurs mois." Lire l'article dans netsurf.

According to Gartner Group analysts. A $450 personal digital assistant, or PDA, can run your company up to $2700 in total cost of ownership per year. Handhelds are selling like hotcakes and unprepared businesses are the ones getting burned.

For one thing, that little handheld isn't as innocent as it looks. Since it is a miniature computer, it can hold an impressive amount of corporate data. PDAs, like notebooks, come with processors, disk drives, and e-mail. As the demand for handhelds grows, sensitive company information is being stored in an insecure environment, one unprotected by standard business safeguards. PC World

More that 50% of adults in five U.S. cities log on to the Internet, according to a report from Scarborough Research in New York. Washington topped the list, with 59.9% of adults on the Net. San Francisco (56.1%, Austin (55.5%), Seattle (53.3%) and Salt Lake City (50%) also have more than half of their adult population on the Internet. (Computer World - October 18)


Wise & Wired
LivePerson
LivePerson makes it easy for everyone on the Web to implement and use instant customer service technology. (cf Can I help you? a Click and Chat feature)


Daily Quiz
Do You Yahoo, You Yahoo?
How well do you know Yahoo? Take this quiz and find out.

Because some of the most entertaining news stories have come from ebay this year n/e/tsurf is opening eBAYWATCH, a "daily odd/clever auction item from ebay" section. Today's featured item:

Intel-Inside.com. The listing appears to be attracting bids far short of the $400,000 the current owners had hoped to extract from Intel themselves, and less even than the $150,000 allegedly bid by "another Chip maker." [ 7 am.com - October 18 ]


Chris Hiers
Editorial Cartoons
"Ahead in the Polls"