P2P-Zone - View Single Post - The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

walktalker · 07-09-01, 02:20 PM

Microsoft Still Faces Feds' Regs
Microsoft has dodged a breakup, but it may soon become the software industry's first regulated monopoly. Justice Department officials announced Thursday they had abandoned their original goal of carving Microsoft into halves, saying they now want a complex set of "conduct-related" regulations to govern the company's future behavior. The goal, according to the government, is to avoid the legal wrangling involved in defending a breakup order and to "streamline the case with the goal of securing an effective remedy as quickly as possible."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46619,00.html

Code Blue Targets China Firm
A retooled version of the Code Red worm called Code Blue, discovered in Chinese computer systems Friday, is programmed to launch a denial-of-service attack against well-known Chinese security firm NS Focus. Central Command, an antiviral software firm, has analyzed the new worm and located the DoS attack code. "We are monitoring systems for Code Blue but at this time, we have yet to see any Code Blue-like activity here at Central Command," Vice President Steven Sundermeier said. "The worm so far seems to be limited to China."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46624,00.html

The U.S. Recruits New Hackers
The government desperately needs experts to fight hackers. So they've recruited a 63-year-old retired aerospace engineer, a midwestern mother of three, and a long-haired former teen golfing champ to do the job. The National Science Foundation is handing out $8.6 million worth of two-year training scholarships in computer security, in return for two years of government service. These three -- all students at the University of Tulsa, one of six participating institutions -- are among the first of an expected 200 people to begin their studies. Julie Evans found the inspiration to fight computer viruses from a human disease -- her daughter's cancer.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46567,00.html

New Evidence for Life on Mars
Hungarian scientists claimed on Friday to have found evidence of living organisms on Mars after analyzing 60,000 photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor probe. The three-man team said the pictures showed evidence of thousands of dark dune spots, similar to organisms found near Earth's South Pole, in craters in Mars' snowy southern polar region. "These spots indicate that on the surface below the ice there are such organisms which, absorbing solar energy, are able to melt the ice and create conditions of life for themselves," biologist and team member Tibor Ganti told Reuters.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46628,00.html

Quantum Crypto to the Rescue
This week has been big for cryptography. It's seen both technical and theoretical advances in next-generation quantum crypto systems and technology. It's seen a prototype enter its testing phase that could send secret crypto keys through open air to a satellite or across town. And it's seen the announcement of a new breed of laser that could someday form the backbone of secure, long-distance quantum cryptographic communications over fiber-optic lines. Exploiting the cagey nature of matter at the atomic and subatomic scales, quantum crypto offers to repair what its cousin the quantum computer promises to break.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,46610,00.html

Judicial Net monitoring plan comes to a head
Federal judges are typically a staid lot, known for restraint and public decorum. But the black robes are off and a veritable shouting match has erupted over whether they and their staffs are entitled to privacy when using court computers to send e-mails and access the Internet. It's a clash familiar to millions of other public and private workers who are subject to monitoring on office computers. But now electronic monitoring is hitting home with a privileged group that often sets privacy rules for the rest of the nation. And much of the controversy is playing out publicly, with some not-so-judicious sniping.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...monitoring.htm

Euro spam vote in limbo
The European parliament has bungled its latest attempt to outlaw spam. Yesterday MEPs voted in favour (259 for, 210 against and 6 abstentions) of an amendment that would have prohibited the sending of unsolicited email without prior permission. The so-called "opt-in" system is favoured by many who have lobbied against spam and who want to curtail the activities of online marketeers. However, because the result of a series of amendments proved unacceptable to a majority of MEPs, the whole matter was referred back to the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs to debate further the draft directive on privacy protection in electronic communication.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/21539.html

Fuel cell system could help nab drunk drivers
If engineers at Texas Christian University have their way, drunk drivers may soon have a new nemesis: cars with fuel cell sensors. An engineering team at the Fort Worth, Texas, school has developed an electronic technique that enables policemen to identify drunk drivers among passing motorists remotely. The technique not only provides probable cause for law enforcement agents to pull over impaired drivers, it also gives society a means to deal with an epidemic that kills thousands of people every year. The technology is also expected to be well-received by automakers concerned over liability claims caused by drunk-driving accidents.
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010906S0167

High Court bid by biotech firm
Biotech company Aventis has appeared at the High Court in London to stop the UK Government forcing it to disclose the risks of genetically modified crop trials. UK ministers want the company to reveal the health and environmental impacts of a chemical used in its experimental crop growing programme. However, the company is seeking a judicial review. Several trials are taking place throughout Britain, including a number in the north of Scotland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1530219.stm

Reactive Glass
A new class of "bioactive" glass can act like an intelligent system — it not only senses its environment but reacts chemically and physically to it. At Southern Illinois University, Bakul C. Dave (pronounced Da-vey) has formed a transparent glassy material from an organically modified silica gel solution. Mixed with water at room temperature, the sol-gel solution hardens in about five minutes into a solid yet elastic transparent gel. The sol-gel glass is honeycombed with microscopic pores that can absorb biomolecules such as proteins or enzymes and release them in response to environmental stimuli. This property could bring closer a smart drug-delivery vehicle able to regulate dosages to maintain proper therapeutic levels.
http://www.techreview.com/web/mason/mason080601.asp

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, You?
Currently, about 230,000 people live in the nation of Britannia: soldiers, tailors, blacksmiths, musicians — people from every walk of life. Of course, Britannia does not exist anywhere but in the minds of the people who live there. Britannia is a virtual world, also known as a Persistent State World, a place where online computer gamers compete and interact with hundreds of thousands of others, simultaneously. It's called persistent because the world exists independent of any individual player's presence.
http://www.techreview.com/web/mcdona...nald090701.asp

With A Web Full Of Free Content, Canadians Balk At Paying
A new survey suggests that it won't be easy to wean Canadian Internet users from their traditional diet of free Web content. Research company Ipsos-Reid, sizing up the task ahead for Web publishers and Webcasters contemplating subscription fees, said today that just 5 percent of online Canadians are clearly open to the idea of coughing up cash for content. The survey, summarized in the company's latest "Canadian Interactive Reid Report," found that 79 percent of Internet users are strongly opposed to paying annual or monthly subscription fees for Web content, saying they were "very unlikely" to pay. Another 15 percent said they were "somewhat unlikely."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169871.html

Security Expert's DMCA Protest Rallies Supporters
Dug Song's protest against restrictive copyright laws may only be skin deep, but it has touched a nerve with other security researchers who feel threatened by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). On Sunday, Song, a security architect with Arbor Networks, replaced the front door of his personal site with a message that reads, "Censored By The Digital Millenium Copyright Act." Clicking on the large, all-capital red letters on a black background takes the visitor to Anti-DMCA.org, a Web site critical of the controversial 1998 US law which attempted to update copyright protections to include digital media.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169829.html

07-09-01, 02:20 PM	#2
walktalker The local newspaper man Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,036	You're not done yet !!! Microsoft Still Faces Feds' Regs Microsoft has dodged a breakup, but it may soon become the software industry's first regulated monopoly. Justice Department officials announced Thursday they had abandoned their original goal of carving Microsoft into halves, saying they now want a complex set of "conduct-related" regulations to govern the company's future behavior. The goal, according to the government, is to avoid the legal wrangling involved in defending a breakup order and to "streamline the case with the goal of securing an effective remedy as quickly as possible." http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46619,00.html Code Blue Targets China Firm A retooled version of the Code Red worm called Code Blue, discovered in Chinese computer systems Friday, is programmed to launch a denial-of-service attack against well-known Chinese security firm NS Focus. Central Command, an antiviral software firm, has analyzed the new worm and located the DoS attack code. "We are monitoring systems for Code Blue but at this time, we have yet to see any Code Blue-like activity here at Central Command," Vice President Steven Sundermeier said. "The worm so far seems to be limited to China." http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46624,00.html The U.S. Recruits New Hackers The government desperately needs experts to fight hackers. So they've recruited a 63-year-old retired aerospace engineer, a midwestern mother of three, and a long-haired former teen golfing champ to do the job. The National Science Foundation is handing out $8.6 million worth of two-year training scholarships in computer security, in return for two years of government service. These three -- all students at the University of Tulsa, one of six participating institutions -- are among the first of an expected 200 people to begin their studies. Julie Evans found the inspiration to fight computer viruses from a human disease -- her daughter's cancer. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46567,00.html New Evidence for Life on Mars Hungarian scientists claimed on Friday to have found evidence of living organisms on Mars after analyzing 60,000 photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor probe. The three-man team said the pictures showed evidence of thousands of dark dune spots, similar to organisms found near Earth's South Pole, in craters in Mars' snowy southern polar region. "These spots indicate that on the surface below the ice there are such organisms which, absorbing solar energy, are able to melt the ice and create conditions of life for themselves," biologist and team member Tibor Ganti told Reuters. http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46628,00.html Quantum Crypto to the Rescue This week has been big for cryptography. It's seen both technical and theoretical advances in next-generation quantum crypto systems and technology. It's seen a prototype enter its testing phase that could send secret crypto keys through open air to a satellite or across town. And it's seen the announcement of a new breed of laser that could someday form the backbone of secure, long-distance quantum cryptographic communications over fiber-optic lines. Exploiting the cagey nature of matter at the atomic and subatomic scales, quantum crypto offers to repair what its cousin the quantum computer promises to break. http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,46610,00.html Judicial Net monitoring plan comes to a head Federal judges are typically a staid lot, known for restraint and public decorum. But the black robes are off and a veritable shouting match has erupted over whether they and their staffs are entitled to privacy when using court computers to send e-mails and access the Internet. It's a clash familiar to millions of other public and private workers who are subject to monitoring on office computers. But now electronic monitoring is hitting home with a privileged group that often sets privacy rules for the rest of the nation. And much of the controversy is playing out publicly, with some not-so-judicious sniping. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...monitoring.htm Euro spam vote in limbo The European parliament has bungled its latest attempt to outlaw spam. Yesterday MEPs voted in favour (259 for, 210 against and 6 abstentions) of an amendment that would have prohibited the sending of unsolicited email without prior permission. The so-called "opt-in" system is favoured by many who have lobbied against spam and who want to curtail the activities of online marketeers. However, because the result of a series of amendments proved unacceptable to a majority of MEPs, the whole matter was referred back to the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs to debate further the draft directive on privacy protection in electronic communication. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/21539.html Fuel cell system could help nab drunk drivers If engineers at Texas Christian University have their way, drunk drivers may soon have a new nemesis: cars with fuel cell sensors. An engineering team at the Fort Worth, Texas, school has developed an electronic technique that enables policemen to identify drunk drivers among passing motorists remotely. The technique not only provides probable cause for law enforcement agents to pull over impaired drivers, it also gives society a means to deal with an epidemic that kills thousands of people every year. The technology is also expected to be well-received by automakers concerned over liability claims caused by drunk-driving accidents. http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010906S0167 High Court bid by biotech firm Biotech company Aventis has appeared at the High Court in London to stop the UK Government forcing it to disclose the risks of genetically modified crop trials. UK ministers want the company to reveal the health and environmental impacts of a chemical used in its experimental crop growing programme. However, the company is seeking a judicial review. Several trials are taking place throughout Britain, including a number in the north of Scotland. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1530219.stm Reactive Glass A new class of "bioactive" glass can act like an intelligent system — it not only senses its environment but reacts chemically and physically to it. At Southern Illinois University, Bakul C. Dave (pronounced Da-vey) has formed a transparent glassy material from an organically modified silica gel solution. Mixed with water at room temperature, the sol-gel solution hardens in about five minutes into a solid yet elastic transparent gel. The sol-gel glass is honeycombed with microscopic pores that can absorb biomolecules such as proteins or enzymes and release them in response to environmental stimuli. This property could bring closer a smart drug-delivery vehicle able to regulate dosages to maintain proper therapeutic levels. http://www.techreview.com/web/mason/mason080601.asp Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, You? Currently, about 230,000 people live in the nation of Britannia: soldiers, tailors, blacksmiths, musicians — people from every walk of life. Of course, Britannia does not exist anywhere but in the minds of the people who live there. Britannia is a virtual world, also known as a Persistent State World, a place where online computer gamers compete and interact with hundreds of thousands of others, simultaneously. It's called persistent because the world exists independent of any individual player's presence. http://www.techreview.com/web/mcdona...nald090701.asp With A Web Full Of Free Content, Canadians Balk At Paying A new survey suggests that it won't be easy to wean Canadian Internet users from their traditional diet of free Web content. Research company Ipsos-Reid, sizing up the task ahead for Web publishers and Webcasters contemplating subscription fees, said today that just 5 percent of online Canadians are clearly open to the idea of coughing up cash for content. The survey, summarized in the company's latest "Canadian Interactive Reid Report," found that 79 percent of Internet users are strongly opposed to paying annual or monthly subscription fees for Web content, saying they were "very unlikely" to pay. Another 15 percent said they were "somewhat unlikely." http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169871.html Security Expert's DMCA Protest Rallies Supporters Dug Song's protest against restrictive copyright laws may only be skin deep, but it has touched a nerve with other security researchers who feel threatened by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). On Sunday, Song, a security architect with Arbor Networks, replaced the front door of his personal site with a message that reads, "Censored By The Digital Millenium Copyright Act." Clicking on the large, all-capital red letters on a black background takes the visitor to Anti-DMCA.org, a Web site critical of the controversial 1998 US law which attempted to update copyright protections to include digital media. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169829.html __________________ This post was sponsored by Netcoco, who wants cookies, cookies, cookies and, you guessed it, more cookies