The News Kiosk Thursday 13122001
 

Some interesting news for you while WT is being occupied... :)

MS rolls out security obscurity bribe program

MS has rolled out its Faustian bargain for security vendors. Sign up with the Microsoft Certified Security Partner Program and saddle up with a heap of free software and deep discounts worth many thousands of dollars. All you have to do is keep silent about any Microsoft security bugs you might discover, until Redmond authorizes you to speak.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23366.html


Sony is killing PlayStation mod-chips

Sony is cracking down on PlayStation mod-chip makers, forcing them to halt the distribution of their products or face the wrath of its corporate legal might. Two UK-based companies, Channel Technology and Playstationmods.com, have halted sales of their products with immediate effect. A third company, Italian-based Origa, has reportedly been contacted as well to stop selling its product.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/23334.html


Were DrinkOrDie Raids Overkill?

To hear the federal government and piracy experts describe it, DrinkOrDie, the network of software crackers that was the focus of worldwide anti-piracy law enforcement action on Tuesday, is the al-Qaida of Internet software theft. But according to the evidence available from several cracking sites, Internet newsgroups and members of the Warez -- or "software cracking" -- community, DrinkOrDie was small potatoes in the world of software theft. The group made its name in 1995 by cracking Windows 95 before it was released; since then, it has kind of disappeared.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,49096,00.html


Independence Day for Indie Bands

Finally, the Internet is starting to pay real dividends to musicians who haven't signed deals with major labels. Big subscriptions are here, but out-of-the-way bands have made it, too.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,49103,00.html


FBI confirms working on Magic Lantern spy app

An FBI spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the U.S. government is working on a controversial Internet spying technology, code-named "Magic Lantern," which could be used to eavesdrop on computer communications by suspected criminals. "It is a workbench project" that has not yet been deployed, said FBI spokesman Paul Bresson. "We can't discuss it because it's under development." The FBI has already acknowledged that it uses software that records keystrokes typed into a computer to obtain passwords that can be used to read encrypted e-mail and other documents as part of criminal investigations.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,49102,00.html


Madcap Maneuvers Halt MS Hearing

A highly-anticipated Senate hearing on the Justice Department's antitrust settlement with Microsoft came to an abrupt end soon after it began Wednesday morning. What happened was, well, bizarre...
http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/...,49091,00.html


A no-fly zone for terrorism

By taking pilots out of the loop, can software prevent planes from being used as bombs? To a true geek, the best defense against planes being transformed into suicide bombs is a software solution. Let computers keep us safe. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have already inspired one University of California at Berkeley professor, Edward A. Lee, to create a proposal for "virtual no-fly zones" he calls "soft walls." The soft wall plan would make it impossible to fly a plane into a skyscraper or military installation, simply by altering some of the code that already exists on newer commercial aircraft.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...s/index.html?x


Distributed computing's prime moment

A 20-year-old in Owen Sound, Canada, has found the world's largest known prime number using a mere desktop computer. But he didn't work alone: His system was part of a 210,000-machine quasi-supercomputer stretched across the globe.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02


Is someone reading your instant messages?

New software designed to allow parents to better track children's online activity pushes Internet monitoring into fresh territory: instant-messaging conversations. Ascentive, a closely held Philadelphia software firm, last week released a new version of its BeAware computer monitoring software. The updated version offers a ChatWatch feature that allows the owner to view any instant-messaging sessions or chat-room conversations that take place on the machine.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...831733,00.html

- tg ;)

Weeeeeeee the news are out :app2: :app2: :app2: :LE: :app2:

Thanks for the news Fireball. :V:

(my plea to you to untie WT is a bit late I guess. He seems to have wriggled free.)

Hmm Tankgirl..Seems today's news is dominated by big brother stories watching over and cracking down on the computing/internet scene.:shk:

Hi guys :W: and thanks for the thanks! :tu: :)

A good observation Oscar... and it is not just my selection of the news but the various commercial and political Big Brothers have been pretty active lately around the world... :sus:

- tg ;)