Computer

Philadelphia's new sheriff says the biggest problem facing his office is its need for a new computer system, and he already is frustrated at how long it is taking to put one in place. "My job is to make that office work, to make it as transparent and open as possible," Jewell Williams, a former state representative, said Monday after taking his oath of office. "The biggest problem we have is, there's no computer system yet, and there are still problems with accounting, policies, and procedures.

Albert Rusko, 86, of Oxford Circle, a retired computer engineer, died of complications from sepsis Thursday, Dec. 15, at Aria Health-Torresdale Campus. Mr. Rusko, whose parents emigrated from what is now Slovakia, grew up in Port Richmond and graduated from North Catholic High School. At 17, he joined the Army. He served in the South Pacific in World War II and saw action in the Philippines. After his discharge, he earned an associate's degree from Temple University and then joined Burroughs Corp.

A Pottstown man convicted of putting spyware on his father's computer to capture passwords to e-mail accounts was sentenced Wednesday to two years' probation. Parth Ingle, 25, installed the program in an effort to find out if his father, Arunkumar, was having an affair. The elder Ingle was later found slain, a crime that remains unsolved. Parth Ingle also was given 80 hours of community service and ordered to pay court costs. In 2008, Arunkumar Ingle, 55, was found dead by his wife in the bedroom of their Middletown Township home in Delaware County.

A Delaware County man convicted of putting spyware on his father's computer to capture passwords to e-mail accounts was sentenced Wednesday to two years probation. Parth Ingle, 25, of Pottstown, also was given 80 hours of community service and ordered to pay court costs. The sentence was not what the prosecution had wanted. Joseph Lesniak, assistant district attorney, said the case was about privacy and a violation of one of the most fundamental rights. Defense attorney John Kusturiss said the law was meant to be applied in cases of identity theft and his client was just helping his mother and trying to keep their family together.

ATLANTIC CITY - The authors of New Jersey's proposed sports betting law said Monday they were willing to drop portions that would permit people to bet from their home computers or cell phones, to overcome objections by Gov. Christie. Sen. Ray Lesniak (D., Union) said he would drop those provisions if he could not persuade Christie, a Republican, to go along with them. The bill is due for final votes in the Senate and Assembly on Thursday. Soon after Lesniak made his comments, Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a South Jersey Democrat who has sponsored a similar bill in the Assembly, said he also would drop Internet and phone betting when his measure came up for a vote Thursday.

Musician Roger Davidson wouldn't usually make it into Tattle - he's neither a drug-addled rock star nor prone to wardrobe malfunctions. He's the founder and president of the Society for Universal Sacred Music. But lose $20 million to a con and you're bound to catch Tattle's eye. The scammers, near Davidson's home in Katonah, N.Y., used a virus he found on his own computer to convince him of threats against him from Central America, Opus Dei and the CIA, a prosecutor said yesterday.

A former Chester County first-grade teacher and camp director charged with having pornographic pictures of children on his computer has pleaded guilty, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday. David Devine, 35, now of Chester Heights, admitted that he sent videos of children being sexually abused over the Internet. He had more than 600 images on his computer, according to officials. - Mari A. Schaefer

WASHINGTON - America's critical computer networks are so vulnerable to attack that it should deter U.S. leaders from going to war with other nations, a former top U.S. cybersecurity official said yesterday. Richard Clarke, an adviser to three presidents, joined a number of U.S. military and civilian experts in offering a dire assessment of America's cybersecurity at a conference, saying the country simply can't protect its critical networks. Clarke said if he was advising the president he would warn against attacking other countries because so many of them - including China, North Korea, Iran and Russia - could retaliate by launching devastating cyberattacks that could destroy power grids, banking networks or transportation systems.

THOMAS M. Hageman's formal education ended after Roman Catholic High School, but he went on to become a leader in the world of computers and oversaw installation of the Aegis Combat System in Japanese ships in the 1990s. Tom was also an electronics wizard who once built his own television set. But his biggest achievement, as far as he was concerned, was his family, to which he devoted his energies, hard work and dedication in a lifetime of love and concern. Tom Hageman, who retired in 1997 as a supervisory computer technician for the Lockheed Martin Corp., was a dedicated traveler, an Air Force veteran of the Korean War and a runner who competed in a number of races.