'Virtual human' comes out to play

Microsoft has shown off its "virtual human" that reacts to a person's emotions, body movements and voice, reports the BBC.

Milo, as he is known, is designed for use with the firm's hands-free Xbox 360 motion controller called Kinect.

The technology is the brainchild of veteran UK games designer Peter Molyneux, who says he wanted to create a character "that seemed alive, that would look me in the eyes, and feel real".

Warnings about a worm called “Knob Face” that poses as supposed footage of an outrageously unlikely affair between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, are causing confusion about a real threat, reveals The Register.

The real malware, Koobface, has menaced Facebook and members of other social networks for months. Prospective victims are typically encouraged to download malware disguised as a Flash update from a third-party Web site.

By warning about "Knob Face" and including two inaccurate pointers to how to identify the attack, well-meaning users are doing more harm than good, Internet security firm Sophos notes.

The legendary comedian, George Carlin, who died in 2008, was slapped down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the 1970s for his "Seven Dirty Words" monologue. The US Supreme Court concluded the 12-minute monologue was illegal to broadcast, writes CNet.

However, since then, the Internet has grown faster than the federal deficit, wireless devices have flourished, and American consumers were forced to pay for V-chips in their televisions.

Which is why a federal appeals court this week said technological advances have ripped away the underpinnings of the FCC's "indecency" regulations.

When they conceive their illicit plots, hackers know where people like to go online and what brands the average Internet user responds to. This time around, it's eBay users they've targeted, Internet News reports.

The scam is using a bogus request for payment from eBay as a front to infect users' PCs and mobile devices with a variety of spam and malware.

According to researchers at security software vendor Sophos, the ploy begins with an unsolicited e-mail with the subject line "Payment request from" with a phony "eBay@reply1.ebay.com" return address.