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Company can restore cookies users remove

The company behind those floating ads that dance across Web pages has developed a way to restore the data profiles that many privacy-conscious users try to delete from their computers.

Most users don't know what they are doing when they run antispyware programs that delete the profiles, known as cookies, said Mookie Tenembaum, founder of United Virtualities Inc.

By deleting cookies, he said, users thwart efforts by Web sites to prevent the same ads from appearing over and over. Tenembaum said visitors also are forced to repeatedly enter user names and passwords, which sometimes are stored in the profiles.

United Virtualities calls the product Persistent Identification Element. It taps a separate profile system that is found in Macromedia Inc.'s Flash and isn't generally affected by antispyware programs.

Using the product, when a Web site discovers a cookie missing, it can look for a backup in Flash and restore the cookie.

Richard M. Smith, a privacy and security consultant in Cambridge, Mass., was critical of United Virtualities.

"Companies should respect people's choices," he said. "If a consumer makes the effort of getting antispyware software, they don't want this stuff."

Macromedia responded by issuing instructions for turning off the profile system (www.macromedia.com/go/52697ee8)

Maybe people are numbing to spam.

People are getting more spam since Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act more than a year ago, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. But people mind the junk e-mail less.

Fifty-two percent complain that spam is a big problem, 53 percent say it lessens their trust in e-mail, though that number has improved in a year, and two-thirds say it makes going online unpleasant or annoying, though again, there is improvement in that category.

Although 63 percent of the respondents say they have received porn spam, that's down 8 points in a year, and 29 percent say they are getting less porn spam.

Soon after Sony released the PlayStation Portable handheld gaming console in North America last month, store shelves began to bulge with gleaming new extras for it.

Among the standouts is the PSP Pro Gamer's Kit by Intec. The $30 kit is an aluminum case with a molded interior. At 11.5 inches wide by 9.5 inches deep by 3.5 inches high, it is large enough to pack away the PSP, an extra set of retractable ear buds, a neck strap, a screen protector, a car adapter and a pocket-size case for PSP game discs, with room to spare for accessories not yet conceived.

Intec, of Miami, also has introduced a smaller case for $20 that cradles the PSP and an $8 collapsible docking station for recharging the console while viewing movies on its 4.3-inch screen.

"What we have now with the PSP is the first really high-end handheld gaming console," said Mark Stanley, Intec's senior vice president for marketing. The console's elegant design has inspired accessory makers to try to match its style and performance, he added.

The Intec PSP accessories are widely available at Wal-Mart and other stores. Stanley said the company was scheduled to release a powered stereo speaker system for the PSP.

KW Media Group in Oldsmar has changed the name of its Mac Design Magazine to Layers, The How-To Magazine for Everything Adobe (www.layersmagazine.com/) The magazine will include tutorials, tips and tricks about Adobe's design, video and photo applications. The first issue will be available May 10.

In a related move, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, which has its home at KW Media, started the online Photoshop CS2 Learning Center (www.photoshopuser.com/photoshopcs2.html) which includes free videos, articles and reviews of Photoshop CS2.

And in one other change, KW publisher Jim Workman, 47, has retired. He will pursue a master's degree and hopes to teach eventually.

Web site content often changes, moves or disappears, but archiving tools can help you save and manage collections of Web pages that you want to keep permanently or peruse offline.

ScrapBook, a free add-on to the Firefox browser, available as a download at www.mozilla.org lets you archive Web pages about as simply as creating bookmarks.

The program opens a pane along the left side of the browser; you can drag pages into it or capture them with a couple of mouse clicks.

The archived pages can be organized in folders, viewed offline and edited with tools that may be useful to researchers, like a yellow highlighter and an in-line commenter for adding notes to selected areas. The pages are saved in HTML format; they retain links and other qualities of Web pages.

ScrapBook (amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook) is one of an assortment of free add-ons, or extensions, for Firefox, a free open-source browser that has gained popularity as an alternative to Internet Explorer. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks plans to start a music-downloading service this year to tap surging demand and compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes.

Users will be able to buy music through a subscription or single purchases, MTV Networks Group president Van Toffler said. Toffler, 46, also unveiled changes to MTV.com that debut this month, including adding content such as excerpts from TV shows.

Viacom is seeking to parlay the MTV channel's popularity with young viewers into higher sales from its online sites. Apple has sold more than 300-million songs since April 2003, and the number of Web sites selling legal music downloads quadrupled in 2004 to more than 230, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry trade group in London.

MTV Networks, which runs cable-TV channels such as MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, said the service won't use the MTV name. Toffler declined to comment on the name or start date. MTV.com on April 25 will unveil a new site called MTV Overdrive that features music videos, movie clips, segments from MTV News and excerpts from MTV shows such as Punk'd.

Readers with questions and comments about tech news of the day can submit them to Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Times' Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback)

[Last modified April 8, 2005, 11:01:02]