BY MIKE BAZELY

So you're finally ready to venture into the online dating world, and you want to put your best face forward. But admit it, your digital self-portraits aren't up to snuff.
If you're not a whiz with one of the high-end photo editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop, then LookWow may be your salvation.
The free online service allows you to upload digital photos to the company's servers and then crop and retouch them. Want a little more sparkle for your smile? The "brighten smile" button will take care of that. Skin tone not quite right? Or do you want to show off a more vibrant tan? The "skin tone" and "suntan effect" features will set you right.
The service is aimed at online daters. But it's useful for any photo that you need to retouch quickly and easily...

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NEW YORK TIMES - February 20, 2003
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Safe Opens With a Touch,
but Only if It's the Right One

BY JUDY TONG

If you have nightmares about standing in front of your high school locker, fumbling with the lock as the bell rings, or if you just want the latest in security, the Inprint safe from 9G Products might interest you.
9G Products, founded by former aviation workers, started with military-grade fingerprint recognition technology and then pared it down to a size suitable for the nonspy who wants maximum security in minimal space.
The aluminum and steel safe has a spring-loaded door that literally opens at the touch of an authorized finger.
The safe, which costs $395, was introduced at a firearms trade show earlier this month, and the company says it will arrive in stores in the next few weeks...

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LOS ANGELES TIMES - March 15, 2002
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Theater Beat Review

BY PHILIP BRANDES and F. KATHLEEN FOLEY

'The Dumb Waiter' Serves Up Humor, Terror Harold Pinter's early one-act, "The Dumb Waiter," contains all the elements that Pinter would later amplify in his full-length plays. There's the hallmark interplay of dominance and submission, the existential terror of characters trapped in increasingly inimical circumstances, and, most importantly, the caustic humor that underscores the prevalent dread. The challenge of Pinter's plays is that they are blank slates that must be etched with the acid intent of their interpreters. The current production of "The Dumb Waiter" at St. Stephen's Church in Hollywood is a case in point--well-staged, finely focused and hissing with purpose. In the play, two working-class hit men, holed up in a bare room, await the go-ahead for their latest "job." The pun in Pinter's title is evident. Both men are "waiters," but only one is "dumb" enough to question his dominant counterpart about the "organization" that employs them--a line of inquiry that proves lethal. Meanwhile, a dumbwaiter in this supposedly abandoned building creaks and clatters, bearing cryptic notes from an unseen entity upstairs.
Brief and riveting, "The Dumb Waiter" is a curtain-raiser for Pinter's later career, a blueprint for the dramaturgical mastery that was to come. In director/designer Brian Eatwell's current staging, the tone is both ludicrous and terrifying, as well it should be. An arena for disorientation, Eatwell's rat-trap set, lighted with appropriate harshness by Don Fauntleroy, echoes with the dripping water and running toilets of Tyler Bowe's disturbing sound design. The technical elements are solid down to the ground, but Eatwell's true coup is his cast. Stage vets with extensive credits on both sides of the pond--Derrick O'Connor, who plays Gus, the hapless underling, and Michael O'Hagan, who plays Gus' controlling partner, Ben--are perfectly cast as two British proles whose business just happens to be murder...

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BUSINESS 2.0 - November 07, 2002
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E-mail , as I'm sure you know, is getting flattened by spam. This is having serious ramifications for businesses that want to keep in touch with customers who are loath to give out their e-mail addresses for fear of being put on yet another junk-mail list.

Relevant Reach is trying to help software companies solve this problem. Most applications these days ask users for their e-mail addresses so they can get updates, notifications, special offers, and, sadly, sometimes junk mail too. According to William Frankel, president of Relevant Reach, 50 percent of e-mail users don't give out their address, for just that reason. Relevant Reach sells a product that connects software publishers with users through a channel embedded in the application itself. It's essentially a small e-mail client to which the publisher can send updates, offers, and so on. A subtle (or garish) indicator can alert users to new e-mail, or the message window can be accessed from...

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Associated Press - October 14, 2001
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NEW YORK (AP) - Smart cards, with their embedded computer chips, caught on more quickly among European and Asian credit card holders than Americans, who've seemed reluctant to stop swiping bank cards with low-tech magnetic stripes. But in a terror-shaken country where security is now a priority, computer chip cards are gaining favor for a new purpose: as secure ID cards to be checked at borders and airports - and to keep tabs on immigrants. Some corporate leaders have even called for a national identification cards that uses the technology, now found mainly on credit cards such as American Express Blue. Proponents say the chip cards, which can hold far more data more securely than a magnetic strip, represent the best available technology for a tamperproof ID.

Store a personal biometric on the card - a digital scan of a thumbprint, iris or hand - and check it against the real thing, and the identity of the cardholder is airtight, proponents say. "It's like a PC in your pocket," says Donna Farmer, president of the New York-based Smart Card Alliance. "It's the best tool to protect privacy and fill security gaps."

Farmer's group says North Americans' smart card use jumped 37 percent in 2000, fueled by increases on corporate and college campuses, where chip cards are used for identification and building access as well as payments in cafeterias, parking lots and online. Experts caution, though, that the technology's real-world performance is less reliable than advocates suggest.

``They're not hack-proof,'' said Kevin Poulsen, editorial director of SecurityFocus, a security technology firm. Over the past few years, satellite broadcaster DirecTV has been locked in an escalating technology war with hackers who have defeated the company's smart card system and helped themselves to free TV programming, Poulsen said. Still, the cards are already being used as identifiers by U.S. military personnel and frequent international travelers registered with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

There is also discussion of using chip-embedded cards as airport "travel ID cards," allowing fliers to register with a biometric scan and avoid time-consuming manual checks. Keyboard manufacturer Key Source International announced last week that it was providing at least three major U.S. airlines with keyboards with built-in smart card readers and a biometric fingerprint scanners. The keyboards would be used to confirm identities of frequent fliers and airline crew members. A Senate bill also seeks to create smart card visas for foreign immigrants and visitors...