*Yawn...*
One year later -- is Microsoft "Trustworthy"?
A year after Bill Gates called for Microsoft to make its products more "trustworthy," executives are touting myriad initiatives as proof of the software giant's new resolve. The company has spent millions to train staff in privacy concerns and secure programming, while building new tools and processes to help create reliable software. But critics -- and Microsoft's own executives -- said much more work remains. "A year after, the verdict is mixed," said Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer for managed-security company Counterpane Internet Security. "Some stuff, it's too early to tell; some stuff, they haven't gotten; and some, they've improved." That's an assessment Microsoft readily concedes.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-981015.html
Brains gather to outsmart spam
If experts here get their way, spam may soon be dead meat. Unsolicited e-mail messages, or spam, are on track to make up the majority of traffic on the Internet. But a group of researchers and developers gathered here Friday hopes to halt that by coming up with better ways of blocking those messages from consumers' in-boxes. The Spam Conference, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was originally intended to be an informal gathering of 30 people or so. But more than 500 registered to discuss and debate the best way to battle the problem. "Spam-filtering is shooting at a target that is not just moving, it's taking evasive action," said Bill Yerazunis, a research scientist at the Mitsubishi Electronics Research Lab and the author of the CRM114 Discriminator, a spam filter.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-981177.html
Will tech titans derail Web services plans?
Disagreement over intellectual property issues could derail a new Web services standards effort. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) this week established a working group to define and establish rules for an area known as Web services choreography, which seeks to map out how Web services interact to form business transactions. Web services is an increasingly popular way to build and link business software. The W3C hopes that by establishing a standardized language for choreography, businesses will be able to more quickly build complex applications that involve interlinking several Web services. Without a common language for choreography, the world of Web services risks balkanization, the W3C warned.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-981059.html
Apple muzzles iTunes P2P plug-in
Apple Computer has forced a developer to stop distributing a plug-in that turned its iTunes music player into peer-to-peer music-sharing software. The plug-in, called iCommune, allowed iTunes users to browse the music libraries of other Macintoshes over a network and stream or download music from them. On Wednesday, Apple notified developer James Speth that he was violating the terms of his software agreement and ordered him to stop distributing the plug-in and to return Apple's development tools. Speth removed the iCommune download from his Web site. Apple's move comes amid increasing hostility between the entertainment industry and music-swapping applications such as Kazaa and the now-defunct Napster.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-981147.html
Book publisher tries out open source
Prentice Hall, a technical and academic book publisher, has embraced the open-source philosophy for a new series of books, the content of which may be freely distributed. Six books will be released this year with the Bruce Perens Open Source Series moniker, said Mark Taub, an editor-in-chief within Prentice Hall. The material of the books may be copied and updated under the strictures of the Open Publication License, and Prentice Hall will release electronic versions on the Web. "We sell a lot of books into the open-source community, so it's natural for us to want to contribute to the open-source community," Taub said.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-981018.html
Agency scouts for tech hotshots
Are you the Tom Cruise of tech stars? If so, Steven Pfrenzinger wants you on his team. The longtime consultant is building a tech staffing company based on the Hollywood talent model. Unlike traditional staffing firms, which match people to specific job openings, the Carrera Agency scouts hotshot tech jocks with the idea of developing a long-lasting relationship during a string of consulting jobs. After applicants are invited to participate in the plan, the company puts them through a series of tests, background checks and interviews. It turns away those who won't command top jobs. People who make the cut will get job placement, concierge services and opportunities for speaking engagements. Carrera's ideal candidates are experienced technologists who've worked independently and possess sophisticated technological skills.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-981121.html
It's a LinuxWorld, after all
Linux advocates will convene at a trade show in New York this week to promote their wares, tout customers, swap business cards and make their case that the operating system is growing up. The computing industry has become better adjusted to Linux and the collaborative, sharing, open-source philosophy that underlies the software. While the heart of Linux itself legally must be available for free, nearly every major computing company is trying to find ways to profit from it. Those methods will be on display Wednesday through Friday at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo as Linux customers are trotted out to illustrate that the operating system is for established companies, not just for the uber-techies that originally created Linux. Leading Linux seller Red Hat will share the stage with Morgan Stanley, HP will announce consumer products maker Unilever is buying its Linux servers, and oil company Amerada Hess is using Ximian's Red Carpet service for updating software.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-981287...g=fd_lede1_hed
And now, continuing our serie "How to NOT solve a global media sharing crisis:"
Microsoft unveils new CD copy protection
Microsoft announced on Saturday new digital rights software aimed at helping music labels control unauthorized copying of CDs, one of the biggest thorns in the ailing industry's side. Stung by the common practice of consumers copying, or "burning," new versions of a store-bought CD onto recordable CDs, music companies have invested heavily in copy-protection technologies that have mainly backfired or annoyed customers. For example, most copy-proof CDs are designed so that they cannot be played on a PC, but often this prevents playback on portable devices and car stereos too. Last year, some resourceful software enthusiasts cracked Sony Music's proprietary technology simply by scribbling around the edges of the disc with a Magic Marker pen, thus enabling playback on any device.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981279.html?tag=fd_top
RIAA: ISPs should pay for music swapping
A top music industry representative said Saturday that telecommunications companies and Internet service providers will be asked to pay up for giving their customers access to free song-swapping sites. The music industry is in a tailspin with global sales of CDs expected to fall six percent in 2003, its fourth consecutive annual decline. A major culprit, industry watchers say, is online piracy. Now, the industry wants to hit the problem at its source -- Internet service providers (ISPs). "We will hold ISPs more accountable," said Hillary Rosen, chairman and CEO the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in her keynote speech at the Midem music conference on the French Riviera. "Let's face it. They know there's a lot of demand for broadband simply because of the availability (of file-sharing)," Rosen said. As broadband access in homes has increased across the Western world, so has the activity on file-sharing services.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981281.html?tag=fd_top
Canada blocks free Net TV
Canadian regulators ruled Friday that it is illegal to put broadcast TV signals onto the Internet without permission, dashing the hopes of entrepreneurs hoping to create new Net TV businesses. The long-awaited decision helped close what some had seen as a loophole in international copyright law, potentially allowing American and Canadian TV signals to be streamed online without the TV stations' or copyright holders' permission. However, regulators said they were wary of undermining traditional producers and distributors of TV content by allowing it to be distributed on the Net without regional restrictions. "At present, there is no completely workable method of ensuring that Internet retransmissions are geographically contained," the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission wrote in its decision. "The likelihood that a program retransmitted over the Internet would become available worldwide could significantly reduce the opportunities" for copyright owners.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981254.html?tag=fd_top
Game server flaw poses attack threat
Multiplayer game servers that let players attack each other in virtual worlds could be the latest tool for online scofflaws to digitally attack other computers on the Internet, a security firm said Thursday. In an advisory posted to the company's Web site, security consultancy PivX Solutions stated that popular multiplayer games that have servers supporting the GameSpy network -- such as "Quake 3: Arena," "Unreal Tournament 2003" and "Battlefield 1942" -- could be used to magnify a denial-of-service attack, in some cases by as much as 400 times. "This attack will go right through a lot of firewalls right now," said Geoff Shively, chief technical officer for the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company. "A single server can theoretically produce enough data to flood a T-1 (connection, or 1.5 Mbps)." The flaw occurs because servers that include the GameSpy networking code automatically send responses to queries for status information and don't verify the sender's address.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-981255.html?tag=fd_top
Senators vow to halt 'data mining' project
Reflecting increased alarm about a Pentagon plan to find terrorists by trolling the electronic records of all Americans, several senators took steps Thursday to rein in the project and halt other "data mining'' efforts until Congress can review the implications on civil liberties. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., drafted an amendment Thursday night to the $390 billion federal spending bill now being considered by Congress to temporary stop the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...al/4969039.htm
Pedal-powered e-mail in the jungle
Early next month, a villager in the mountainous jungles of northern Laos will climb onto a stationary bicycle hooked to a handmade, wireless computer and pedal his people into the digital age. It will be the first time a human-powered computer has ever linked a Third World village to the Internet by wireless remote. And the two Americans who will make this possible -- one a Navy veteran who became a leader in the Vietnam anti-war movement two generations ago, the other a founding pioneer of Silicon Valley -- plan to be at his side as he pedals. Long ago, when their hair was jet-black and the '60s were hot, these two graying Boomers -- Lee Thorn of San Francisco and Lee Felsenstein of Palo Alto -- were in the forefront of the raucous Berkeley left. Today, they still want to change the world.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...17/MN86676.DTL
IBM aims to get smart about AI
In the coming months, IBM will unveil technology that it believes will vastly improve the way computers access and use data by unifying the different schools of thought surrounding artificial intelligence. The Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) is an XML-based data retrieval architecture under development at IBM. UIMA will greatly expand and enhance the retrieval techniques underlying databases, said Alfred Spector, vice president of services and software at IBM's Research division. UIMA "is something that becomes part of a database, or, more likely, something that databases access," he said. "You can sense things almost all the time. You can effect change in automated or human systems much more." Once incorporated into systems, UIMA could allow cars to obtain and display real-time data on traffic conditions and on average auto speeds on freeways, or it could let factories regulate their own fuel consumption and optimally schedule activities. Automated language translation and natural language processing also would become feasible.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-981256.html?tag=cd_mh
FCC: Open up TV waves to wireless
The Federal Communications Commission is quietly considering opening the television broadcast spectrum for use by other wireless devices, including Wi-Fi products. The proposal, revealed in a notice of inquiry adopted last month, would allow devices using unlicensed spectrum -- bandwidth not licensed to broadcasters -- to operate in the TV broadcast spectrum. However, they would tap into only those parts of the TV spectrum not being used and only be allowed to do this when they wouldn't interfere with authorized services. The Dec. 20 notice will take effect when it is published later this month in the Federal Register, said an FCC representative. At that point, the agency will kick off a 75-day comment period. The regulatory body is expecting a dogfight from TV broadcasters who in the past have been very protective of their territory -- opposition that could derail the proposed changes or delay them.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-981047.html?tag=cd_mh
Senators add Wi-Fi to broadband debate
Two U.S. senators are proposing Wi-Fi networks as an alternative to digital subscriber lines and cable modems for getting broadband Internet access to rural areas and small cities. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and George Allen, R-Va., on Tuesday proposed the Jumpstart Broadband Act, which would allocate additional radio spectrum for unlicensed use by wireless broadband devices. The two senators had been promoting the legislation as a means of bringing broadband access to the masses. The bill proposes the use of an additional 255MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 5GHz band. Wi-Fi, also known as 802.11b, is a technology that allows the creation of wireless networks with a radius of around 300 feet. The launching of broadband access has primarily been a two-horse race between DSL and cable modems.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-980890.html?tag=cd_mh
Millions of short text messages lost
Millions of short text messages sent between mobile phones in the United States are lost every month, and the chance of two users connecting depends on which network they are on, according to a new study. In a study to be released Wednesday, Internet performance measurement company Keynote Systems says that 7.5 percent of all short text messages sent between wireless phones go missing. The increasingly popular service known as SMS (Short Message Service) lets mobile phone users send brief messages instantaneously. It typically costs 10 cents to send a message, and pennies to nothing to receive one.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-980790.html?tag=cd_mh
Court: Network Associates can't gag users
In a victory for free-speech advocates and product reviewers, a New York state judge has ruled that Network Associates can't prevent people from talking about its products. New York state Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Shafer issued a ruling, made public this week, prohibiting the security software specialist from trying to use its end-user license agreements to ban product reviews or benchmark tests. The judge called the company's attempted ban "deceptive" because it implied consumers who conducted the reviews would be violating the law, when they would not. Shafer has not ruled on damages. The New York attorney general's office began investigating the case after Network World Fusion magazine published an unfavorable review of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's "Gauntlet" firewall software in 1999.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981228.html?tag=cd_mh
Windows Media 9 gets Sundance showing
Microsoft plans to screen four independent movies at the Sundance Film Festival with its Windows Media 9 Series software, as part of the company's ongoing efforts to warm Hollywood to its technology. The software giant's media playback technology will be used with four films, "Masked and Anonymous," "The Maldonado Miracle," "A Foreign Affair," and "Milk and Honey." Sundance, which began Thursday and runs through Jan. 26 in Park City, Utah, will also use Windows Media 9 to deliver short films on its Web site. Microsoft has been wooing Hollywood for years in hopes that the industry will adopt its multimedia playback technology when offering their films on PCs. The company unveiled Windows Media 9 in September at a star-studded presentation featuring "Titanic" director James Cameron, Beatles producer Sir George Martin and musician LL Cool J.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981130.html?tag=cd_mh
Military worried about Web leaks
The U.S. Defense Department is worried that sensitive information remains exposed on its Web sites. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned in a directive sent to military units this week that too much unclassified but worrisome material was popping up on the Web, and said Al Qaeda and other foes were sure to take advantage of it. The directive, drafted as the U.S. is readying troops for a possible attack on Iraq, reminded military Webmasters they must adhere to the department's 1998 policies and procedures. Rumsfeld's order further restricts what information will be publicly available on military sites, effectively tightening controls that have been in place for at least five years and that became far more strict after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981057.html?tag=cd_mh
Hidden ad-skipping feature found in TiVo
A hidden feature on remote controls for TiVo digital video recorders lets viewers skip ads more easily. The "Easter egg" -- industry jargon for a feature that is revealed when an unlikely series of keystrokes is entered -- allows subscribers to make 30 second jumps in recorded programming. The special sequence of key commands is being promoted on TiVo enthusiast Web sites, such as TiVo Community Forum. The pattern consists of pressing the following buttons in sequence: Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select. Entering the same pattern again also deactivates the capability. The recorder "bings" three times to acknowledge the activation of the feature. Pressing the advance key on the remote control skips 30 seconds of recorded television programming.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-980829.html?tag=cd_mh