Horizon highlights – Versus edition
Our regular roundup of sci-tech stories from across the Web includes: Website popularity vs. income, space program practicality vs. prestige, and Sunni hacker vs. Shiite hacker. Let’s kick it off:
Close calls: The flaw at the heart of the Internet
"Dan Kaminsky discovered a fundamental problem and got people to care in time. We were lucky this time." [via Technology Review]
E-conflict: A Sunni-Shiite battle of the website hackers
"Sunni-Shiite tensions have been on vivid display in cyberspace as hundreds of religiously oriented websites on both sides have fallen prey to retaliatory hacking raids. The cyberassaults temporarily defaced websites of prominent Muslim clerics, including those of Iraqi Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the late Sunni mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz Abdullah bin Baz. More recently, Shiite hackers attacked the website of Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates." [via CSMonitor World]
Web business: Popularity or income? Two sites fight it out
"In the aftermath of the dot-com bust, many chastened venture capitalists pledged never again to finance an idea scribbled on a cocktail napkin with no viable business model. Too many poorly conceived companies like Pets.com and Webvan had flamed out. The new breed of Internet start-ups needed to have a clear path to profitability. The discipline did not last." [via NYTimes]
Rising nations: Moon mission takes India's space program in new direction
"When India's first unmanned mission to the Moon left its launchpad shortly after dawn Wednesday, much of the world heralded the success as the crowning achievement of India's space agency. Thousands of Indians, however, might disagree. They are residents of India's remote archipelagoes who have had access to first-class medical treatment through satellite uplinks, or eager engineering students who have asked questions of some of the most respected professors in the country from hundreds of miles away." [via CSMonitor World]
How-to: 'Real Deal' podcast on gadget disposal
"What should I do with the stuff? Disposal tips. Remove HDs. Don't throw out batteries. Recycle it. Sell it." [via The Real Deal]
Space Oddities: Outer space 'smells like steak'
"Outer space smells like fried steak, hot metal and welding a motorbike, according to scientists. NASA has commissioned Steven Pearce, a chemist and managing director of fragrance manufacturing company Omega Ingredients, to recreate the smell of space in a laboratory." [via MSN]
