by Tom Regan

Now, folks, we've been through this before. Here, at the Monitor, we have tried very hard over the years to warn you against answering any e-mail that comes from anybody in Africa that offers you a chance to get rich very quickly in exchange for a little skulldugggery on your part.

Better known as the Nigerian Bank scam (although these days it can come from lots of different countries, as in the example below), it's also called 419 scam, after the section in the Nigerian criminal code that covers these situations

Because here's the important part. Are you paying attention?

IT'S A SCAM, A RIPOFF, A CON, A LOAD OF ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS.

Here's how it works. You mysteriously receive an e-mail asking for help, usually from a deposed African ruler, leader of a failed coup, or one of their close relatives. They've got to get a lot of money out of their home country, fast. And if you help them, you can make millions.

If you bite, the con artists play you along, until the point arrives when suddenly, they ask you to send them a little money to help expedite the process (bribes for local officials, etc.) You send them the money, and then you never hear from them again. (In fact, the 419 Coalition site says that the bad guys have taken in more than $5 billion US world wide using this scam.)

While it's hard to believe anyone actually falls for this con –Remember Regan's Ist Paradox: If it looks too good to be true, it inevitably is too good to be true – people do. Very smart people in fact. A good friend of mine, a seasoned journalist, almost got fooled. He smelled something funny at the last second and backed off.

Even academics from Harvard get fleeced. Here's a piece from Wednesday's Boston Herald about a Harvard Professor who allegedly scammed $600,000 from 35 friends and pals (one even mortagaged his house) by telling them the money was for a SARS project in China. He then sent the money to the 419ers, believing he would soon be a multi-millionaire and could pay them back easily. Now it seems he may do a little hard time, while the con artists laugh all the way to the bank.

What do these e-mails look like? Well, lo and behold, I received one not an hour ago. I reprint it below for your edification:

CONFIDENTIAL LETTER
Tel: 234-1-472-2080, Fax: 234-1-4401176
DEAR SIR,
MY NAME IS CHARLES -TAYLOR. I AM THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF
LIBERIA. I WAS FORCED TO RESIGN AS THE PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA IN WEST-
AFRICA BY THE UNITED NATIONS / INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES
WHICH WAS SPEARHEADED BY THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, MR. GEORGE
- BUSH.
PRESENTLY I AM IN EXILE IN CALABAR - NIGERIA WHERE I AM
STAYING UNDER CLOSE WATCH BY THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT WHO
KINDLY OFFERED ME ASYLUM.
I NEED TO TRANSFER WHAT I CALL, MY FUTURE HOPE, THE SUM OF
FIFTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS [USD 52,000,000,00] WHICH IS WITH
A SECURITY/FINANCE COMPANY INTO YOUR ACCOUNT OR ANY THAT YOU
CAN GET FOR ME.
I AM BEING MONITORED AND I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE CHANCES. FOR
YOUR INFORMATION, MY COMMUNICATION AND MOVEMENTS ARE UNDER
STRICT SURVEILLANCE THEREFORE MAKE ALL YOUR COMMUNICATIONS
TO ME THROUGH MY ATTORNEY, BARRISTER. [BARR.OLUWANI JOHN]
TEL NO: 234- 80-334-48597 Fax:234-1-759 8673.
(oluwani@mail.com) MY LAWYER WHO IS ALSO MY CLOSE CONFIDANT
WOULD BE ALBE TO ESTABLISH AN INVESTMENT WITH YOUR
ASSISTANCE ON MY BEHALF UNTIL I COME OUT OF MY TRAVAIL AND
TORMENTORS.
THIS IS TO ENSURE MAXIMUM CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECRECY.
PLEASE I AM PROMISING TO SHARE THE FUNDS 50/50 IF YOU CAN
QUITELY GET THIS FUND OUT INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.
I WAIT PATIENTLY FOR YOUR RESPONSE.
YOURS TRULY.
CHARLES TAYLOR.
EX- PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA

The ex-president of Liberia! I feel deeply honored. Why, if this e-mail were made of organic material, I could use it to fertilize my garden.

Here are a couple of pieces we've run on this scam in the past, one by me (written three years ago). Our International editor, David Scott, wrote about it 11 years ago when he was the Latin America correspondent for the Monitor (which tells you how long this scam has been in operation).

My colleague Jim Bencivenga always replies: "Ha Ha Ha Ha," when he receives one of these messages. Sometimes he makes a counter offer for a time share on a bridge he knows of in Brooklyn, offering them the best times - 4pm to 6pm. Remember, if it seems too good to be true...

by Tom Regan

Normally, I'm not a person who minds change. Most of the time I quite welcome it. But I'm not so sure about one of the latest changes in my life - the new look of Google.

I live on Google. I use it for work (it helps me write Daily Update two or three times a week), for personal research (which branch of the Milton, MA Fire Department I should take my cats to for their free rabies shots this weekend) ) and for fun (camping sites in National Parks in New Hampshire). I had grown comfortable with its friendly, simple interface. It was like seeing an old friend everyday.

But yesterday that old friend looked different. Lost some weight? New shoes? A hair piece?

No, it was new clothes. A new look.

I'm not sure I like it yet. Sort of like getting used to someone wearing tweed and then they switch to paisleys.

EContent writes about the new changes, and the techonology behind them which is actually pretty cool:

Google Inc. has released three new features: a search engine that uses user preferences to match search results to their interests, a service that delivers search results via email, and an enhanced interface for Google Web sites worldwide. Google Personalized Web Search and Google Web Alerts, both debuting on Google Labs, are designed to enable searchers to specify what interests them and to receive customized results based on those interests.

Google also wants to do more to feature its personalized shopping feature, Froogle.

Yet, as CNR notes, it's all about staying number one in the market. (The BBC says Google owns 70 percent of the search market) Because you'll never guess who is trying to take over search? That's right, Mr. Bill and those happy folks at Microsoft want to rule this world as well.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer recently acknowledged that the company was slow in getting into the search market, but indicated the company plans to invest heavily in developing new technology for the lucrative market.

Many tech watchers think Microsoft wants to incorporate search into its next desktop operating system, code-named Longhorn. (Note to EU Commission and US Attorneys General: Might as well start your litigious engines now.) But AP says it's not time to start counting the end of Google's days yet.

"Google very much wants to let everyone know that it's still doing some exciting things in search and it's too soon to start making the (company's) tombstone yet," said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, an industry newsletter.

Good things come in pairs.

This spring two comets make their first appearance in our solar system. They will grace the starry night in late April and May.

Seeing one comet is a thrill, but two, and possibly on the same night, albeit at different times, well – be still my beating heart.

They are officially known as C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) but go by the popular names NEAT and LINEAR.

Both have been tracked by powerful telescopes reports the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) which hosts the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, a comet monitoring program.

Of the two, chances are better for a spectacular view of NEAT. It will be high in the western evening sky of the northern hemisphere during the latter part of May. The nights of the 18, 19, and 20th around 10 p.m. should be ideal to observe it because there will be no moon. Just find a dark field away from city lights.

LINEAR’s trajectory stays close to the sun and will be fairly low on the eastern horizon in April and early May. It will be visible in the pre-dawn hours and will require a flat, open expanse for good viewing.

Though both will be in the night sky on the same nights, it is unlikely they will be visible simultaneously (unless you can hitch a ride on the International Space Station).

Because NEAT and LINEAR are "newcomers" transiting our solar system, it remains to be seen just how visible they become. Their orbits are not fully known. But in a few weeks astronomers will more accurately predict their paths and their magnitude.

Magnitude is of greatest relevance if you don't have a telescope. It is a scale of an object's brightness. The unaided human eye under very dark skies can see an object at 6.5 magnitude. The lower the magnitude, the greater the visibility.

When comet NEAT was first seen in August 2001 by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program (NEAT and hence the comet’s name), it was visible at 20th magnitude - only the most powerful telescopes could see it. NEAT is likely to shine at 1 or 2 magnitude according to the CfA. That would equal a very bright star, and of course, it will have a white tail.

Comet LINEAR was discovered by the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research program (LINEAR and hence its name) in October 2002. It is currently visible under very dark skies at about magnitude 6. Binoculars or a telescope are necessary for most city dwellers or anyone living in a large metropolitan area.

Comets are frozen balls of ice and dirt that typically originate in the far reaches of the solar system (well beyond the planet Pluto, but still under the influence of the Sun’s gravity). They are leftovers from when the planets were forming, sweeping up all matter in their orbital paths. Comets escaped the gravitational fields of the major planets, and were never incorporated into planets.

This is one of the facets that makes them of such keen interest to astronomers as they harken back to a time before the planets were formed, more than 4.5 billion years ago. Investigating comets is a way to study the origins of matter in the universe.

A single orbit for some of thse comets can take tens of thousands of years. Their appearance is totally unpredictable until they transit the inner solar system in a journey around the sun and back out beyond Pluto.

Since most of a comet's orbit is distant from the Sun, its nucleus is frozen. This is why comets are sometimes referred to as "dirty snowballs." More than half of a comet's substance is frozen liquid.

As a comet nears the Sun, solar radiation in the form of heat boils surface material, which then surrounds the comet in a coma, or head. The heads and tails of gas and dust are visible because they reflect sunlight, giving a comet its signature trait. The visible white tail is on the side of the comet opposite the Sun. The luminous material grows brighter the closer the comet comes to the Sun and extends for millions of miles.

Each time a comet orbits the Sun, it loses some of its ice or liquid material. Astronomers call the molecules that comprise these liquids, "volatiles." Eventually, after eons, the volatiles burn off, leaving the comet just another rocky mass in the solar system. For this reason, comets are said to be "short-lived, on a cosmological time scale." Many scientists believe that some asteroids are extinct comet nuclei, comets that have lost all of their volatiles.

So bear in mind that as you gaze up at a comet, it is making a sacrifice. By allowing itself to be seen, it literally burns up. You couldn't offer a better expression of thanks for this cosmic gesture than to look long and wonderingly at NEAT and LINEAR in the starry night. (by Jim Bencivenga)

A couple of years ago, when the Justice Department's lawsuit against Microsoft was stopped, and a weak settlement put in place (although it is still under appeal), there were many tech commentators, and more than a few attorneys general, who worried that the settlement would change Microsoft's predatory practises very little.

Now that the European Union Commission has give Microsoft a $613 fine, the Economist asks the question "Can Microsoft be tamed?" And basically, the answer is no – that Microsoft will continue with its tactics of trying to destroy any and all competitors it finds in areas that it wants to control.

Most important of all is what the ruling will mean for Microsoft's plans to conquer yet more markets. The company is believed to be integrating an internet search facility like Google (which Bill Gates greatly admires) into its new version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn. The European Commission has not specifically banned any further bundling – it says this will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Perhaps this week's ruling will prove strong enough to stop Microsoft from tying its products to Windows in order to storm new markets. But if the past is a guide, that seems unlikely. And with the appeal process set to last for years, it is hard to see Microsoft being swayed from its usual strategy: bundle now, litigate later.

EUBusiness says Microsoft rivals, like Bob Kimball, vice president and general counsel at RealNetworks, are very happy with the ruling.

"This decision is fundamentally significant because the European Commission has formally declared that Microsoft's media player bundling strategy is illegal and has established the guideposts for future bundling cases," said Bob Kimball, vice president and general counsel at RealNetworks. RealNetworks was a key firm in the EU case because it complained that Microsoft's "bundling" of its media software for audio and video within the Windows operating system was an abuse of the Microsoft monopoly position.

For its part, Reuters reports, Microsoft says it will continue to try and reach a settlement with the EU Commission, regardless of the fine.

"We've worked extremely hard to arrive at possible remedies to address their concerns, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told reporters in a conference call. "The commission nonetheless decided to pursue the much riskier course of litigation," Ballmer said, adding that Microsoft would appeal the decision.

ZDNet has an interesting piece about Mario Monti, the EU's top antitrust enforcer. Mr. Monti apparently sat down one on one with Mr. Ballmer recently, and while Ballmer tried to intimidate Monti, the Monti apparently was unmoved by the "boisterous" Ballmer.

Information Week says the EU fine is not the end of Microsoft's troubles.

For me, it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. Microsoft won't change one bit. (by Tom Regan)

Walmart has announced that it will start selling songs online for the price of 88 cents, which is 11 cents cheaper than Apple's iTunes price of 99 cents.

But Walmart, whose online division is based in Brisbane CA, doesn't want the Mac or Linux audience. Walmart is aiming directly for Windows users. Walmart will offer 300,000 songs in its intitial online catalogue.

Walmart may be the 800 pound guerilla of retailing, but it's more like a hamster in the online music business. The San Francisco Chronicle quotes one expert who says that the 11 cent difference won't matter to consumers.

"For Wal-Mart, this is more of a defensive move,'' he [analyst Michael Goodman] said. "We're in a transition period. Slowly but surely, music is going to be increasingly digitally distributed, and you're either in the game or not in the game. (For Wal-Mart), being out of the game is not really an option.''