Technology: Carl Icahn’s Battle for Yahoo | Newsweek From Forbes.com

Building a Better Password
Nick Summers 10/9/2009 12:00:00 AM
My password is gr8199. I've been using it for more than a decade, ever since a Web site first required me to create a string of six to 12 characters, with a mixture of letters and numbers. At that moment the only sequence I could think of had to do with the Wayne Gretzky vanity license plate my family happened to be considering: the Great One, No. 99, which yielded gr8199. As the requirements for passwords evolved over the years, I added extra nines, cobbled on a question mark, and blended it with my alternate password (which is, insanely, my Social Security number). Until last week, gr8199 and its descendants got you into my laptop, my e-mail, my Scrabble, my bank accounts, my blog, my work PC, my health insurance, Facebook, Skype, Snapfish, Hulu, my tax returns, and at least 39 other sites across the Internet. I can tell you my secret code because I'm changing it; I'm changing it because I'm telling you. My password system is a mess—and I bet yours is, too.
High-Tech Diplomacy
Evgeny Morozov 9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM
As Barack Obama continues to put his stamp on U.S. foreign policy, he would do well to use the growing role that high-tech firms have been playing lately on the world stage to his advantage. In the age of Facebook and Twitter, U.S. firms project a lot of digital soft power, which could be used to advance America's foreign interests.
Moore’s Law Doesn’t Matter
Daniel Lyons 8/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
Back in 1965, Intel cofounder Gordon Moore predicted that the semiconductor industry could double the number of transistors on a chip every 12 months (he later amended it to 24 months) for about the same cost. And for half a century, Moore's Law has held true, making computers cheaper and faster and more powerful. It seems almost that long that experts have been warning that Moore's Law would eventually run smack into the laws of physics, bringing everyone's giddy ride to an end. It hasn't happened yet. Justin Rattner, the chief technology officer at Intel, insists the company can keep doubling the number of transistors on a processor through several more generations of chips over the next decade.
Start Your Own Business, Now
Nancy Cook 8/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
With the national unemployment rate near double digits and credit markets tight, now is a great time to start a business. Really, it is. Think about it: thousands of workers can't find jobs, so the talent pool is large and cheap. Good jobs seem less secure as companies cut hours and salaries so people are more likely to risk working for a startup. True, loans and venture capital funding are harder to secure. But even that is more of a hurdle than roadblock. Bootstrapping an entrepreneurial idea with your own capital is often the best way to go, says James Shein, a professor at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. "It's so hard to raise money during a recession that people now have to sort through their ideas."
Software Crackdown
Christopher Werth 7/25/2009 12:00:00 AM
Cyber attacks seem to be getting more sophisticated by the hour. A few weeks ago Microsoft announced a previously unknown vulnerability in its Internet Explorer and Windows operating software that allows criminals to take control of a computer without being detected. The operation involved what is known as "drive by" attacks, in which visitors to what are supposed to be legitimate Web sites are redirected to a page that secretly downloads the malicious software. Serious threats like these make software makers tremble not just because they're difficult to fix but because the firms fear that legal action and tough government regulation on security issues could be right around the corner.
Eighty Is the New Fifty
Daniel Gross
Have you noticed that CNBC is dominated by frisky septuagenarians? Last Wednesday, Carl Icahn, the 72-year-old corporate raider turned hedge-fund manager/ shareholder activist, was terrorizing the whippersnappers at Yahoo, accusing the executive team of foolishly torpedoing a merger with Microsoft. The day before, the network aired testimony of legendary trader George Soros, 77, who was lecturing Congress on the oil spike. Earlier in the month, Warren Buffett's annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting, known as Woodstock for Capitalists—with Buffett, 77, strumming a ukulele rather than Jimi Hendrix wailing the national anthem—received blanket coverage. Kirk Kerkorian, 91, who amassed big stakes in Chrysler and General Motors and agitated for change, is amassing a large stake in Ford.