- MIT has invited 60 people from 16 countries to convene in Cambridge, MA February
6-7, to explore higher education in developing countries by leveraging the Internet,
television, and radio technologies. The two-day workshop plans to establish LINC,
the Learning International Networks Consortium, an MIT-managed project that will
bring together academics and practitioners concerned about eLearning in developing
countries - http://ken.mit.edu/linc

- The latest wide-scale Internet attack exploited a weakness in Microsoft's SQL Server
2000 and used network connections rather than email to propagate itself. The "Slammer"
or "Sapphire" worm that hit last weekend, slowed down Internet traffic significantly. The
worm can be defeated simply by turning off an infected machine, but other measures must
be taken to prevent the machine from being reinfected. (Associated Press, 27 Jan 03) - http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Attack.html

- Several hundred high-level programmers attended a conference at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) devoted to the latest tactics to fight spam. According
to Ferris Research, spam costs businesses in the United States $8.9 billion and in
Europe $2.5 billion annually. The conference centered on a language touted as nearly
100% effective, that "hashes" messages by matching incoming phrases with previous
text sent by the user, thereby identifying inconspicuous spam. Another programmer is
working on code that will recognize disguised text as spam. (New York Times, 18
Jan 03) - http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Ending-Spam.html

- The 2.25 billion eRate program has helped to connect thousands of schools and
libraries to the Internet (particularly in rural and impoverished communities,) but a
recently released report by the Center for Public Integrity in Washington states that
implementation of the program may be filled "with fraud." Recent investigations by
the Federal Communications Systems have revealed a number of questionable incidents.
eRate was created in 1996 by Congress to offer subsidies like Internet connection
fees and wiring classrooms. More money is being considered for auditing and oversight. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/10/education/10FRAU.html?todaysheadlines (New
York Times, 10 Jan 03)