Microsoft preps for Windows XP bash
Microsoft on Friday will host a celebration marking the release of Windows XP to PC manufacturers, but the big question is how much interest the company can generate for the software. At a lavish ceremony at the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Jim Allchin, group vice president and head of the Windows effort, are expected to present each PC maker representative with a Windows XP-branded briefcase containing a master disc with the operating system's final -- or gold -- code. But the big question is whether the public will take to the software. Analysts and beta testers are offering mixed reviews.
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New judge named for Microsoft case
A federal court on Friday randomly assigned U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to preside over the Microsoft antitrust case. Earlier in the day, a federal appeals court, as expected, returned the Microsoft case to the trial court for further proceedings. That order, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, opens up another chapter in the antitrust saga. The assignment of Kollar-Kotelly means the case can move forward fairly quickly, say legal experts. "We are pleased the case is back in District Court, and we're anxious to proceed," said Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona.
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Carnivore to add wireless to its menu?
Federal law enforcement officials may use a controversial surveillance technology to monitor e-mail and other text messages delivered through wireless devices, such as cell phones -- a fact that has one telecommunications group concerned. In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) warned that the FBI may start using its DCS1000 surveillance system, originally known as Carnivore, to eavesdrop on wireless communications as early as October. The CTIA fears the FBI might start using the DCS1000 system because the wireless industry has so far been unable to develop a standard for law enforcement agencies to monitor e-mails sent between handheld devices.
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Trojan horse breaks Windows PCs 
A malicious program that masquerades as a Web page or HTML e-mail has dire consequences for those who fall for its ruse, antivirus experts said this week. Known as Trojan. Offensive, the program takes advantage of a 10-month-old flaw in Microsoft's version of the Java Virtual Machine to overwrite critical system settings -- called the registry -- leaving Windows computers unusable. The operating system on the victimized PC must be reinstalled or repaired through an arduous process. "No data loss actually occurs, but the computer is basically hosed," said Craig Schmugar, a virus researcher for security software maker Network Associates.
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Fujitsu hard drives as fast as 'pixie dust'
When it comes to capacity, hard-drive manufacturers can hardly contain themselves. Several of the leading hard-drive manufacturers have been professing that they have been innovating technologies that will allow them to store more than 100 gigabits per square inch on a platter, the current ceiling for storage density. A platter is one of the key components in a hard drive and is where data is stored. Fujitsu will be the latest to join them. On Tuesday, the hard-drive maker will announce that it has broken the 100-gigabit ceiling and plans to begin using parts of the technology that allowed it to break the barrier as early as November.
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Egghead sale could crack on privacy issues
The proposed sale of Egghead.com to Fry's Electronics could be in jeopardy if too many customers decide they don't want to be on a Fry's mailing list, according to bankruptcy filings. As part of the proposed $10 million sale, Fry's is requiring that no more than 10 percent of active customers -- anyone who bought something at Egghead in the last two years -- can "opt out" of a plan to transfer their information over to Fry's Electronics, according to a bankruptcy filing at U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. Complicating the matter is Egghead's privacy policy, which says that the company will not "sell or rent customer information to any outside party under any circumstances." Unlike statements from other companies, Egghead's policy does not make any exceptions for the sale of the company or its assets.
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Security firm discounts password threat
Network security company SSH Communications said Friday that it is investigating claims that advanced pattern recognition can be used to weaken the security around an encryption standard used to protect connections between computers. The standard, known as secure shell, or SSH, encrypts the data traveling between an administrator's computer and a remote server, allowing for much more secure communications, even over the Internet. That security, however, was called into question at a technical security conference last week, when three University of California-Berkeley researchers outlined a process by which guessing passwords sent using SSH can be made an estimated 50 times easier.
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New worm poses as helpful program
A destructive new worm that purports to rid computers of malicious viruses actually leaves the viruses intact and chews up files instead, security experts said Friday. The worm, dubbed Win32.All3gro.A, poses as a "good worm," experts said, highlighting the dangers of a new fad for creating self-propagating applications to delete malicious programs that resurfaced after the Code Red II worm scare early this month. Code Red II installs a "back door," leaving computers vulnerable to attacks. While it sounds like an attractive concept, the "good worm" notion is actually a bad idea, experts concurred. "Even if it's with good intent, it's not a good idea," said Vincent Weafer, director of Symantec antivirus research center. "It could have unexpected results. And there's no centralized control to update it."
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Compaq signs deal with open-source firm
Compaq Computer has signed a deal with Covalent Technology to jointly develop and market Covalent's Apache Web server software, the companies plan to announce Monday. Apache is an open-source program that's used to house Web sites, delivering pages to browsers across the Internet. According to Internet research company Netcraft, Apache is the most popular Web server. Covalent sells proprietary add-ons to Apache, such as modules for encryption, virus screening, and easier management. Under the agreement with Compaq, the two companies will jointly develop and market Covalent software for Compaq's ProLiant line of Intel-based servers running the Linux operating system. The announcement will be made in conjunction with the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.
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Start-ups take control of home devices
As industry heavyweights alternately invest in and abandon the nascent home-networking market, a growing number of start-ups are testing the waters with products that integrate and manage media types in the home. Mediabolic, based in San Francisco, and Ucentric, of Maynard, Mass., are among a handful of companies that have recently attracted venture capital backing to take on this uncertain market, amid fierce competition and the warnings of scattered naysayers. A home server is designed to consolidate and link various devices and media types through a single hub. The term "home networking" originally referred to a method of linking PCs sitting under the same roof, but it now is used more broadly to encompass the pan-media ambitions of home servers.
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U.S. keeps PC surveillance under wraps
The U.S. government for a third time is seeking to cloak a report that would reveal surveillance techniques used to obtain computer passwords and indict an alleged mobster. The government, in the case United States of America v. Nicodemo S. Scarfo, has refused to disclose information about the covert installation of a key logger system. By capturing the keystrokes made on a computer, this technology can be used to discover encrypted passwords. The motion responded to a mandate from Judge Nicholas Politan in a Newark, N.J., court to produce a report "detailing how the key logger device functions" by Aug. 31. The move is the latest salvo in a two-year case that could have broad implications on public privacy and the government's tactics of monitoring computer use in federal investigations.
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