technology consultant

British police have made the first European arrests connected to the spread of a data-thieving virus thought to have infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide, Scotland Yard said Wednesday.

The electronic crimes unit of London's police force said a man and a woman, both 20, were arrested in the English city of Manchester on Nov. 3 on suspicion of helping infect computers with programs sometimes known as "Zbot" or "ZeuS."

One expert described the viruses as the "most notorious pieces of malware of recent times."

When China's authoritarian leaders are on top of their game, they can make awesome feats look breathlessly easy, lacing the coasts with bullet trains, throwing up vast airports seemingly overnight, plopping scores of power plants on the landscape like some giant farmer setting out rice shoots.

When they are off their game, it becomes apparent that managing a billion-plus people is not easy at all, even with near-absolute power.

Days before a deadline abruptly imposed by China, computer makers are scrambling to comply with an order to supply Web-filtering software with PCs and worrying what it might do to their reputations.

Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Inc. and Taiwan's Acer Inc. -- the top three global producers -- are asking regulators for details of the order that takes effect July 1 to provide the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software with every laptop and desktop PC sold in China.

The shutdown of U.S. analog TV service on Friday appears to have gone relatively smoothly, but as expected, a lot of viewers are having problems getting the stations they want.

The problems have ensnared even the technologically sophisticated.

Wally Grotophorst in Hamilton, Va., got a "digital" antenna for his digital TV last year. But on Friday, he lost the Washington-based ABC and CBS stations, channels 7 and 9, which he could pick up digitally before the transition.