2 Students Are Accused of Altering Grades in Computer Hacking Case

加大女生扮駭客 修理教授惹官司

洛杉磯時報二十五日訊

加州州立大學北嶺(Northridge)校區兩名亞裔大學女生闖入一位教授的電腦，為將近三百名學生打成績；並訂披薩、雜誌、光碟片送到這位教授家。

來自托倫斯(Torrance)的陳蘭娜(音譯，Lena Chen、20歲)和設籍阿罕布拉的珍妮佛‧顏(音譯，Jennifer Ngan、19歲) ，8月21日將以非法闖入電腦輕罪(misdemeanor)及其他罪名出庭。如果被判有罪，將面臨一年監禁處分。

加州州立大學校警表示，陳姓學生承認在電腦上回答一個例行安全問題後，更換了教授電腦的密碼。

她還承認，為近三百名學生打成績；她把顏生的政治學成績從「D+」改成「A」，該校未公布這位教授的姓名。

市檢察官辦公室發言人瑪特詹(Frank Mateljan) 說：「因為她們認為該教授不公平，她們是為所有學生抱不平。她們企圖當學校的搗蛋鬼。」

調查人員表示，該教授在學校的電郵被傳到這兩名學生共同設的電腦帳號，她們在北嶺分租一間公寓。

學校發言人史威希(Ken Swisher) ，過去沒發生過這種事。

今年全國大學80萬人敏感資料曾經遭30次企圖闖入。

這兩名女學生利用學校人員識別資訊向Domino及Pizza Hut訂披薩送教授家，她們為教授訂的雜誌包括Time、Newsweek、Ebony、Sports Illustrated以及空白光碟片送到教授家。教授收到賬單，但是最後並未付費。

【2006/07/26 世界日報】

2 Students Are Accused of Altering Grades in Computer Hacking Case

By Stephen Clark, Times Staff Writer
July 26, 2006

Source: L. A. Times

Two Cal State Northridge students have been accused of hacking into a professor's computer, giving grades to nearly 300 students and sending pizza, magazine subscriptions and CDs to the professor's home.

Lena Chen, 20, of Torrance and Jennifer Ngan, 19, of Alhambra are to be arraigned Aug. 21 on misdemeanor charges of accessing computers illegally and other counts. If convicted, they face up to a year in prison.

According to Cal State police, Chen confessed to getting access to the professor's account by answering a routine security question and changing the password.

"They felt the professor was unfair, and it was on behalf of all the students," said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorney's office, which filed the charges. "They were trying to be college pranksters."

Mateljan said Chen also admitted assigning grades to nearly 300 students and giving Ngan, who was earning a D-plus, an A in the professor's political institutions course. The school would not release the professor's name.

Investigators said the professor's campus e-mail was being forwarded to an account created by Chen and Ngan, who were sharing a Northridge apartment.

Ken Swisher, a campus spokesman, said he knew of no previous incidents like this one. Political science professor Jane Bayes, who has worked at the school since 1968, said she remembered only one student hacking into a computer to change grades in the 1970s.

Nationwide this year, more than 800,000 people at colleges and universities have had sensitive information exposed in more than 30 security failures.

Chen and Ngan allegedly used the professor's personal information found on the university system to order pizza, more than 20 magazine subscriptions — including for Time, Newsweek and Ebony — and a shipment of blank CDs for delivery to the professor's home.

The professor received bills for the orders but was not charged.

"Identity theft and computer tampering are serious matters," Mateljan said. "We want to send a clear message that this type of behavior is unacceptable."

Google's unknown artist has huge following

黃正穆 Google商標化妝師

【編譯倪婉君/綜合報導】

黃正穆(Dennis Hwang)可能是全球最紅的「無名藝術家」，他的作品沒有放在畫廊或博物館展覽，卻已被人瀏覽成千上億次，因為他是知名搜尋引擎Google的商標設計師。

大家打開Google網頁時，一定曾發現它的商標設計會隨特殊節日或事件而轉換，像新年、耶誕節、世界盃等。這些異想天開的創意設計，全出自28歲的美籍韓裔設計師黃正穆的手筆，可說是Google創意商標的幕後推手。

美國有線電視新聞網 (CNN)報導，大學主修藝術的黃正穆在2000年加入Google當網站管理員 (webmaster)，其中一項任務就是在特別日子替公司「裝飾」商標。

黃正穆回憶當初是Google創辦人佩吉和布林主動找上他，對他說，「嘿，丹尼斯 (黃的英文名)，為何不試試看？」這句話，讓黃正穆一頭栽進Google的網路世界。

設計商標只占黃正穆工作的五分之一，過程有趣卻累人，他說，「過去幾年來，我挖空心思設計不同款式的Google商標，將獨特設計加進這6個英文字母內，實在是有趣的挑戰」，但他強調，他常常要不眠不休找設計靈感。

但黃正穆的辛苦有代價，像他替世界杯32支隊伍個別設計的Google商標，就大獲好評。他還收到全球網友寄來讚美他的電子郵件，而且不少人希望他能夠多出一些新設計。

黃正穆自己最滿意的設計是藝術家的誕辰系列，像梵谷、米開朗基羅、畢卡索等大師誕辰，都可見到黃正穆用大師經典作品替Google增添藝術氣息。當然，如果問到黃正穆最愛哪一個設計，他就像任何自豪的父母一樣選不出來，他說，「如果你硬要我挑一個，我做不到，它們全都獨一無二」。

此外，每當有新設計在網站亮相，與設計題材相關網站的點擊率就會節節上升，甚至造成網路塞車。像4月的Google商標以西班牙畫家米羅為題，藝術網站Artcyclopedia.com的瀏覽次數，就比平常多出成千上萬次。

黃正穆說他每年會跟Google職員開會幾次，討論未來有哪些節日或特殊事件可以設計，除了國際節日和有趣假日外，熱門新聞事件或其他酷題材都是黃正穆的設計來源。

【2006/07/21 聯合晚報】

Google's unknown artist has huge following

By David E. Williams
CNN

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/07/19/google.logo

(CNN) -- Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world -- his work doesn't hang in galleries or museums, but it's been viewed hundreds of millions of times.

The 28-year-old webmaster designs the whimsical logos that decorate Google.com's otherwise Spartan Web site on special occasions.

"It's always a fun kind of challenge to incorporate the logo into the design. Over the years, just because I kind of push myself to use different types of design if I can," Hwang said. (Have a look at Hwangs's Google logos)

He has been manipulating the six letters in the Google name into shamrocks, fireworks, hearts and goblins since shortly after he got an internship there in 2000. Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin found out that he was an art major in college.

"They said 'Hey Dennis, why don't you give this a shot,' and I've been doing it ever since," he said.

Now he's in charge of all Google's webmasters, and designing the logos is only about 20 percent of his job -- but that doesn't mean it's not a lot of work. Hwang said he had to do a string of all-nighters after he had what he called his "brilliant" idea to do individual designs for each of the 32 teams in this year's World Cup soccer tournament.

The logos link to Google search results about the topic, which can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.

"Sometimes we unfortunately take some sites down, so we have to cycle through different search queries midday," he said. "But, yeah, it's kind of the fun aspect of it that users can do more research about a topic or find out more about it on their own if they're not as familiar about what we're recognizing."

John Malyon, president of the online art guide Artcyclopedia.com, said his site got a huge surge in traffic in April when Google featured Spanish surrealist painter Joan Miro. He said he got tens of thousands of extra clicks.

"It didn't cause any server problems or anything. It just took me a while to track down what was happening," Malyon said. "You sort of come in, you turn on your server and look at your stats and they're wildly inflated, so you then have to do some detective work."

Malyon said most of the traffic appeared to be "curiosity clicks" -- people who were more interested in the logo than in the artist's work. He said the surge probably didn't help his business much, but he appreciated the interest.

"I'm quite happy, and every webmaster in the world is happy to have as many people as possible see their babies, but it's not the most targeted traffic in the world," he said.

Hwang said users e-mail from all over the world to praise the designs or petition for new ones.

Hwang said they did a logo for the Persian New Year after a huge online campaign and that the National Library Day design was very popular.

"That one was a huge hit among librarians across the whole country," he said. They even sent me library-related cool toys and hats things like that. One was even a librarian action figure with 'shushing action' so that was really funny."

He said he meets a few times a year with a small group of Google staffers to decide which events to cover.

"We talk about interesting holidays that are coming up, or various international holidays or any current events or news events that we think are cool and geeky or 'Google-y' in some sense and then we just sort of give it a go," he said.

Hwang said his favorite was the birthday series honoring Michelangelo, Picasso, Van Gogh and other famous artists.

"Having been a student of art history for a long time those are a little bit more personal," Hwang said. "Of course, trying to mimic the style of a master is always difficult and humbling, so it does take a lot more time to do those, but it's also a lot more fun."

But, like any proud parent, he would not say which one was his favorite.

"If you had me picking just one, I don't think I could. They're just all kind of special in their own little way."

山豬窟泳池 五區市民免費

山豬窟泳池 五區市民免費

記者楊正敏／台北報導

台北市南港山豬窟溫水游泳池昨天啟用，這是環保局的回饋設施，設籍南港、內湖、文山、士林及北投區的市民可以免費使用，其他民眾亦可付費使用。

山豬窟游泳池工程民國93年12月8日開工，民國94年12月19日完工，工程經費約7000餘萬元，為地上二層的建築物，一樓約1400平方公尺的游泳池，還有兒童池、SPA池、三溫暖及烤箱；二樓設有健身房、韻律教室及閱覽室等設施。

泳池長25公尺，寬21公尺，水深1.1至1.5公尺，設有身心障礙入水設備。泳池全票110元，優待票80元，內湖、南港、文山、北投、士林區民憑身分證明免費。65歲以上老人憑身分證明半價優待。

山豬窟游泳池地址為，南港區舊庄街1段290巷32號，可搭乘212公車在田園綠莊社區站下車，電話：26548933或26517412。 地圖


【2006/07/23 聯合報】

其它回饋設施附設游泳池：

洲美運動公園（北投焚化廠）附設游泳池：臺北市北投區洲美街271號　地圖
葫蘆洲運動公園（內湖焚化廠）附設游泳池：內湖區安康路290號　地圖
博嘉運動公園（木柵焚化廠）附設游泳池：文山區木柵路4段159巷16號（博嘉國小旁）地圖