The right derivative will block the RIAA

Two derivatives of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing service now actively attempt to block scans by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other agencies, escalating the P2P war to a new level, reports Extreme Tech.

Both Kazaa K++ and Kazaa Lite, two similar modifications to the Kazaa file-sharing system by Sharman Networks, now contain hooks to the PeerGuardian database of IP addresses. Both updates were published on the Web at the end of last week.

The two developers of the program once worked together, but have decided to release different versions, according to postings by the two authors. Neither is affiliated with Sharman Networks. Freenet, another network, was also designed to allow anonymous, encrypted sharing of files and other information.

Sore-thumbed Swedish players have swept two of three finals in the Electronic Sports World Cup held in central-western France. AFP reports the Swedish "Team 9" beat the US "Zex" at counter-terrorist operations in the game "Counter Strike", winning the team $100 000.

Contestants sported names like Mad Frog and Heman. In total, 400 competitors from 37 countries thumbed their control pads in front of 8 000 spectators.

The development by an Australian university of laughter-recognition software had us wondering: Can you crack someone`s voice signature?

The Register quotes New Scientist as saying that the software, SoundHunter, was developed by computer scientists at Monash University in Melbourne to make it easier for employees to log on to computers in a network. The software recognises a person`s voice or laughter and logs that person on to the nearest computer on a network.

The reports say that a person`s voice or laughter is picked up with microphones on each computer and the individual is located by "intelligent agents" or pieces of computer code programmed to move through the network from computer to computer.