Good news: MyDoom may expire by next week
The internet computer virus MyDoom will continue to infect e-mails until Feb. 12, when it is programmed to stop, says the anti-virus firm F-Secure. If tainted computers are dated correctly, the virus will stop spreading that day. The worm, also known as “Novarg,” spreads in e-mail attachments on computers using Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. It is activated when people check their e-mail. No one knows where the worm originated, or who created it. On Thursday, Microsoft offered a whopping $250,000 in cash to anyone who could help authorities find and prosecute the author of the virus. This is the third award under a $5 million program sponsored by the company to provide an incentive for people to help U.S. authorities catch the authors of seriously damaging internet viruses aimed at consumers of their software products. The original MyDoom.A worm is still the most dangerous and widespread, while MyDoom.B has proven milder and more contained. Experts don’t know if Mydoom.B will end at any specific time.

Let's slam spam internationally, OECD urges 
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will tell an anti-spam summit that governments around the world should pool resources to fight spam. Half of all email now comes in the form of spam, unsolicited commercial offers promising everything from low-interest mortgage rates to discount Viagra. The nuisance has become even more problematic as junk e-mails have been used to spread viruses capable of intercepting consumers’ credit card and bank details and other sensitive information. Paris-based OECD will tell hundreds of delegates at its Brussels workshop this week that it is time for coordinated international action. The European Union passed a law in 2002 making it illegal to send unsolicited email unless internet users explicitly asked for it (the opt-in approach) while the new U.S. anti-spam law takes a more advertiser-friendly opt-out approach.

Forget Jr., poor geek's kid is named Version 2.0
In naming his newborn son, self-described engineering geek Jon Blake Cusack opted not for the traditional Jon Blake Jr. or even Jon Blake II, but rather convinced his wife Jamie to name their son Jon Blake Cusack 2.0. Version 2.0 was born Tuesday at Holland Community Hospital, and the proud parents took him home Friday. Cusack, who is self-employed with Westshore Design and Cusack Music, came up with the idea a few months ago and had spent much of that time trying to get his wife to go along with it. Jamie Cusack didn't concede until just a week before the birth, saying that since she had picked out the theme of the baby's room and other things, she would let the father have his way. After Version 2.0's birth, Cusack sent out an electronic birth announcement in which he informed recipients that Version 2.0 had many of Version 1.0’s features, along with additional features from Jamie.