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Filed under: Features

Top 10 Web Moments of 2005

In December 1990 there was a single web site on the Internet, and by the end of 1991 that figured had jumped to ten. Today there are millions of sites and billions of pages, and the web is a universe unto itself. It's impossible for any one person to keep track of even one percent of the interesting stuff happening on the web, but still we try until our favorites folders are overflowing, our social bookmark sites crash, and our inboxes choke on forwarded links. Occasionally, though, all of that collective interest organizes itself into something more orderly and, for a moment, it seems like everyone on the web is thinking about the same thing. Below are ten moments from the past year that the people who make the web found coolest, most interesting, funniest, and most throught-provoking.

10. Numa Numa Dance

Numa Numa DanceWhat do you get when you combine a Romanian chart-topper, an American teenager, and a webcam? The Numa Numa Dance. New Jersey 19-year-old Gary Brolsma found Internet fame when he not only lip-synched, but did a slick choreographed routine—albeit without leaving his chair—to "Dragostea Din Tei," a dance track by Romanian pop trio O-Zone.

Though Brolsma ultimately shunned his fame, his performance is among the most-linked, forwarded, and immitated videos of the the year, even earning him a profile in the New York Times.

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Filed under: Security

Sony settles in rootkit class action suit

Sony rootkit fiascoSony BMG has proposed a settlement in the class action lawsuit concerning the XCP rootkit that many of its music CDs were installing on users' computers without their permission. If passed, the settlement would have Sony recalling all XCP CDs and replace them with non-DRM CDs, plus ensuring that all XCP CDs are "promptly removed from the market" by offering owners incentives in the form of three free downloaded albums or $7.50 in cash. Sony will not be recalling CDs with MediaMax DRM, which also installs itself on consumers' computers without asking permission, but they're offering to give owners of those CDs DRM-free MP3s of the CDs' contents, plus free download of one album. I'd have loved to see this make it to court, but it was pretty much a given that it would end in a settlement. Hopefully, though, the rest of the record industry will take notice that consumers aren't kidding around anymore about invasive DRM.

Filed under: Security, Windows

Lavasoft testing Sony rootkit remover

sonydrmNot to be outdone by Microsoft, Lavasoft, makers of the Ad-Aware malware removal program are a beta program called ARIES Rootkit Remover designed to get rid of the XCP rootkit installed by some of Sony's DRM-encumbered CDs. Members of Lavasoft's beta testing program were alerted of ARIES' release by e-mail today, and the stand-alone software can be downloaded directly from the Lavasoft Research site.

[Via Digg]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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