Intel Signs Up For EU 'Safe Harbor' Agreement
Intel Corp. has signed the European Union-U.S. "safe harbor" agreement that allows data transfers to continue uninterrupted between U.S. companies and EU citizens, breathing new life into a hard-won agreement that U.S. firms have been slow to embrace. The law officially went into effect July 1, 2001. Intel signed the agreement June 22. The safe harbor agreement, reached after much hand-wringing and tough discussions between EU data protection authorities and U.S. Commerce Department officials, was drafted to help U.S. e-commerce companies and other corporations comply with an EU policy that prohibits international data transfers to companies that do not adhere to EU-style data privacy policies.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167541.html
Internet Helps Germany Kill Restrictive Retail Laws
The pervasive global force of the Internet has claimed yet another victim. This time it was an antiquated German retail system of laws, which dates back to the pre-Nazi era, which basically outlawed discounts and rebates. The lower house of the German Bundestag (Parliament) on Friday abolished the laws, which helped keep prices high for consumers and protected German retailers from foreign competition. Among those cheering loudest on the news was Steve Bechwar, managing director for the German operation of U.S. mail-order and online clothing retailer Lands' End.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167539.html
Wal-Mart Intros Disposable Digital Camera
Retail giant Wal-Mart today took the wraps off a throwaway camera that allows shutterbugs without digital models to view and send photos online. The cameras, available at Wal-Mart stores and at Walmart.com, are priced at $6.84 each. That includes the Pictures Online service, which usually costs $2.74. A user takes the disposable 35-millimeter camera to a Wal-Mart store, where the photos are uploaded to the Walmart.com online photo service to be viewed and sent by e-mail. Prints cost extra.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167534.html
XP Critic: Microsoft Misses The Point On Security
SmartTags may be headed to the scrap heap, but raw sockets are alive and well in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system - and that's a problem, a security expert said in a message posted to his Web site Sunday. Steve Gibson, operator of GRC.com, a consumer-oriented site about personal computer security and privacy, said on his Web site that Microsoft engineers have given a final thumbs down to his request that the company drop support for an advanced networking technology called raw sockets in the home version of XP. The new operating system is scheduled to ship in October.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167528.html
Could Microsoft Win By Settling?
A settlement of the Microsoft antitrust case might let the giant continue to bundle new programs with its Windows software while permitting PC makers to substitute rival offerings for those products, legal analysts say. People familiar with the matter say no settlement talks are scheduled. But both Microsoft and prosecutors voiced an interest in coming to the bargaining table in the wake of an appeals court's mixed ruling last week. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the 19 plaintiff states will confer this week with one another and possibly the Justice Department.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167519.html
Today's Cyborgs Get An Eyeful
Thad Starner is lying flat on his back on his office couch, staring at the ceiling. Don't bother him. He's working. If you were to walk in on him, you might not know that — at first. But a closer look would reveal the signs: The fingers of his left hand are gliding over a funny little one-handed keyboard called a Twiddler. His glasses aren't just ordinary help-you-see glasses; attached to them is an actual monitor, about the size of a Chiclet. Starner's view through the "MicroOptical" display, as his particular brand is called, is that of a computer-screen display. He can see words, pictures — whatever you might see on a computer screen.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167524.html
Internet Key To Do-It-Yourself Fake IDs
Computer-savvy teenagers are creating millions of fake driver's licenses despite the holograms and other high-tech security features that states now put on licenses to thwart forgers. Using the Internet, anyone willing to break a few laws can be a mass producer of fake IDs, the gateways to underage drinking that received new attention in late May, when President Bush's 19-year-old twin daughters were cited in Austin, Texas, on charges of alcohol violations. Gone are the crude, cut-and-paste fake IDs common a few years ago that were so obviously bogus. They have been replaced with replicas whose detail and accuracy often astonish authorities.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167520.html
Microsoft May See Flood Of Civil Lawsuits
A torrent of new civil lawsuits may drown Microsoft in the wake of last week's appeals court ruling that upheld an earlier finding that the software colossus is an illegal monopoly. It was a huge win for consumers and rivals of Microsoft. Their attorneys now need not spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars trying to prove Microsoft broke federal antitrust law. "All (consumers and businesses) have to do now is show causation — or how they were injured by the violation — and prove damages," says leading antitrust expert Herbert Hovenkamp of the University of Iowa. Legal experts say lawyers for Sun Microsystems, America Online's Netscape and other rivals of Microsoft can argue that the software firm's dominance hurt their market share and cost them opportunities to bring new products to the market.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167522.html
Virus hoax aims to dupe MP3 users
A hoax virus warning that preys on the gullibility of computer users who swap songs via the web is circulating on the internet. A note posted to several newsgroups says that "music fans around the planet will receive a shocking surprise on their computers on American Independence Day, 4 July, but only if they have downloaded unauthorised songs from Napster, Gnutella or other file swapping applications on the internet."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1415247.stm
[b]
Intel Signs Up For EU 'Safe Harbor' Agreement
Intel Corp. has signed the European Union-U.S. "safe harbor" agreement that allows data transfers to continue uninterrupted between U.S. companies and EU citizens, breathing new life into a hard-won agreement that U.S. firms have been slow to embrace. The law officially went into effect July 1, 2001. Intel signed the agreement June 22. The safe harbor agreement, reached after much hand-wringing and tough discussions between EU data protection authorities and U.S. Commerce Department officials, was drafted to help U.S. e-commerce companies and other corporations comply with an EU policy that prohibits international data transfers to companies that do not adhere to EU-style data privacy policies.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167541.html
Internet Helps Germany Kill Restrictive Retail Laws
The pervasive global force of the Internet has claimed yet another victim. This time it was an antiquated German retail system of laws, which dates back to the pre-Nazi era, which basically outlawed discounts and rebates. The lower house of the German Bundestag (Parliament) on Friday abolished the laws, which helped keep prices high for consumers and protected German retailers from foreign competition. Among those cheering loudest on the news was Steve Bechwar, managing director for the German operation of U.S. mail-order and online clothing retailer Lands' End.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167539.html
Wal-Mart Intros Disposable Digital Camera
Retail giant Wal-Mart today took the wraps off a throwaway camera that allows shutterbugs without digital models to view and send photos online. The cameras, available at Wal-Mart stores and at Walmart.com, are priced at $6.84 each. That includes the Pictures Online service, which usually costs $2.74. A user takes the disposable 35-millimeter camera to a Wal-Mart store, where the photos are uploaded to the Walmart.com online photo service to be viewed and sent by e-mail. Prints cost extra.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167534.html
XP Critic: Microsoft Misses The Point On Security
SmartTags may be headed to the scrap heap, but raw sockets are alive and well in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system - and that's a problem, a security expert said in a message posted to his Web site Sunday. Steve Gibson, operator of GRC.com, a consumer-oriented site about personal computer security and privacy, said on his Web site that Microsoft engineers have given a final thumbs down to his request that the company drop support for an advanced networking technology called raw sockets in the home version of XP. The new operating system is scheduled to ship in October.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167528.html
Could Microsoft Win By Settling?
A settlement of the Microsoft antitrust case might let the giant continue to bundle new programs with its Windows software while permitting PC makers to substitute rival offerings for those products, legal analysts say. People familiar with the matter say no settlement talks are scheduled. But both Microsoft and prosecutors voiced an interest in coming to the bargaining table in the wake of an appeals court's mixed ruling last week. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the 19 plaintiff states will confer this week with one another and possibly the Justice Department.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167519.html
Today's Cyborgs Get An Eyeful
Thad Starner is lying flat on his back on his office couch, staring at the ceiling. Don't bother him. He's working. If you were to walk in on him, you might not know that — at first. But a closer look would reveal the signs: The fingers of his left hand are gliding over a funny little one-handed keyboard called a Twiddler. His glasses aren't just ordinary help-you-see glasses; attached to them is an actual monitor, about the size of a Chiclet. Starner's view through the "MicroOptical" display, as his particular brand is called, is that of a computer-screen display. He can see words, pictures — whatever you might see on a computer screen.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167524.html
Internet Key To Do-It-Yourself Fake IDs
Computer-savvy teenagers are creating millions of fake driver's licenses despite the holograms and other high-tech security features that states now put on licenses to thwart forgers. Using the Internet, anyone willing to break a few laws can be a mass producer of fake IDs, the gateways to underage drinking that received new attention in late May, when President Bush's 19-year-old twin daughters were cited in Austin, Texas, on charges of alcohol violations. Gone are the crude, cut-and-paste fake IDs common a few years ago that were so obviously bogus. They have been replaced with replicas whose detail and accuracy often astonish authorities.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167520.html
Microsoft May See Flood Of Civil Lawsuits
A torrent of new civil lawsuits may drown Microsoft in the wake of last week's appeals court ruling that upheld an earlier finding that the software colossus is an illegal monopoly. It was a huge win for consumers and rivals of Microsoft. Their attorneys now need not spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars trying to prove Microsoft broke federal antitrust law. "All (consumers and businesses) have to do now is show causation — or how they were injured by the violation — and prove damages," says leading antitrust expert Herbert Hovenkamp of the University of Iowa. Legal experts say lawyers for Sun Microsystems, America Online's Netscape and other rivals of Microsoft can argue that the software firm's dominance hurt their market share and cost them opportunities to bring new products to the market.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167522.html
Virus hoax aims to dupe MP3 users
A hoax virus warning that preys on the gullibility of computer users who swap songs via the web is circulating on the internet. A note posted to several newsgroups says that "music fans around the planet will receive a shocking surprise on their computers on American Independence Day, 4 July, but only if they have downloaded unauthorised songs from Napster, Gnutella or other file swapping applications on the internet."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1415247.stm
Napster Apologizes For Dwindling Supply Of Songs
Napster apologized to its users on Friday for "a temporary but dramatic" reduction in the number of songs available through its system, blaming kinks in the implementation of new song-screening technology. At the same time, Napster is forcing all of its users to switch to the latest version of its software, the first to use the new screening technology known as acoustic fingerprinting. Napster filters now examine music files' content, rather than their user-defined filenames.
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/digital...444886&index=0
More news later on
