The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Sun to give StarOffice Java flavor
Sun Microsystems is building a Java-based development kit for its StarOffice software to help corporate programmers customize desktop applications, a move that better pits it against Microsoft's dominant Office. The software development kit will be available in the middle of next year as part of a minor upgrade to the business version of Sun's StarOffice 6.0, said Joerg Heilig, director of engineering for StarOffice at Sun. Business customers routinely automate tasks such as generating charts in a spreadsheet by writing individual macros, or small programs called scripts. Macros in Microsoft's Office, for example, are written with Visual Basic for Applications, a language that is simple enough for many people to learn and that lets them share scripts with colleagues.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-975529.html

PCs shape up as masters of disguise
Got a burning desire to build a PC out of a gas can? Here's your chance. This week, Via Technologies released a new version of its Mini-ITX motherboard. Because of its comparatively small size, the Mini-ITX -- a circuit board complete with the processor and many of the other components necessary to build a PC -- is altering what desktops look like. Smaller PC manufacturers in Europe and Asia are putting the board into desktops clad with aluminum cases, so they look more like stereo equipment. Universities are using it in class projects, where students have to incorporate PCs into electronics systems inside cars. And do-it-yourself types are also getting into the act, building Mini ITX-based PCs inside shells such as a desk drawer, a cigar humidor and an old E.T. doll, as well as in lunch pails and briefcases.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-975555.html?tag=fd_top

Feds, firms unveil test for security pros
A new certification program for entry-level computer-security professionals will officially get up and running Monday, said representatives of the combined industry-government group behind the exam. The Security+ certification, brainchild of the Computing Technology Industry Association, could become a minimum requirement that would help companies and government agencies hire knowledgeable network administrators. CompTIA is made up of two dozen trade and government security experts, including representatives from Microsoft, IBM and the FBI.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-975556.html?tag=fd_top

State e-tax plans worry taxpayer groups
California will expand government-provided services for online tax filing next year, despite opposition from tax preparation companies and taxpayer groups. The state's Franchise Tax Board voted Tuesday to provide residents with online versions of all major state forms by next year. Currently, only the 540EZ form -- the state equivalent of the federal 1040EZ for the simplest tax returns -- is available for direct online filing. The state's 540A will be ready in an online version by next January, according to Tax Board spokesman John Baird, with the 540 form online by summer, for those filing under an extension.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-975534.html?tag=fd_top

Firms team to win Homeland Security bid
In a deal involving the new Department of Homeland Security, two companies teamed up to win a multimillion-dollar contract to create a system for patching security flaws in software used by U.S. government agencies. Information-system provider Veridian and security company SecureInfo announced the $10.8 million contract this week. Under the deal, they'll create a Web-based service for the secure dissemination of software patches to network administrators within the federal government. The service, as part of the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, will be managed by the Department of Homeland Security, created by President Bush on Monday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-975523.html?tag=fd_top

Rights group looks at China and techs
Human rights group Amnesty International has fingered a handful of tech companies that allegedly have sold products used in government censorship of Internet speech in China. In a report released Tuesday, Amnesty said 33 people have been detained in recent years for downloading or distributing politically subversive information via the Internet, three of whom died in custody. Many of these detainees are associated with the Falun Gong spiritual movement and with pro-democracy activities. Web surfers in China have long reported problems in accessing Web sites, sending and receiving e-mail, and using search engines. It is unclear what technology, if any, the Chinese government currently uses to filter content.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975517.html?tag=fd_top

BofA sets off on digital check trail
Bank of America's customers are getting a crack at moving checks off the paper trail and into the digital realm, part of a trend that could end up saving banks millions of dollars. The bank announced on Wednesday that online customers in Georgia and Tennessee can view and print images of their canceled checks and deposit slips. This is a first step in a national rollout around the United States, planned for completion by March 2003, which would make the Bank of America the largest bank to provide online digital check imaging nationally.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-975522.html?tag=fd_top

Firm pays $1.6 million in Net scam case
A California billing company has agreed to give up $1.6 million to settle charges that it improperly billed thousands of dollars for Internet pornography, the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday. Privately held billing company Integretel and its subsidiary eBillit prompted thousands of complaints in September 2000 after they placed charges of up to $4,000 on consumers' home telephone bills without their knowledge. Consumers incurred the charges after visiting a Web site run by U.K. company Verity International that offered pornographic movies, the FTC said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975526.html?tag=fd_top

Immobots Take Control
Deep Space One had something Mars Polar Lander lacked: an onboard robot able to think autonomously and handle the unexpected. Using its engineering knowledge, the robot tried to repair the switch by toggling it on and off. When this failed, it devised a successful plan to complete the navigation maneuver, and the craft proceeded unharmed. The robot that saved Deep Space One was in the vanguard of a new breed of machines poised to have a big impact in space and here on Earth. Quite unlike the metallic contraptions that march stiffly through sci-fi movies or the mindless, stripped-down devices that heft parts on our assembly lines, the new robots have more brain than brawn. Each possesses a detailed picture of its own inner workings — encoded in software-based models — that gives it the ability to respond in novel ways to events its programmers might not have anticipated. Because many of these inward-focused, self-reconfiguring machines don’t move, some computer scientists call them immobile robots, or “immobots.”
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/roush1202.asp

Forging Terror
Last summer Madrane pleaded guilty to being a key figure in a forgery ring that allegedly helped sustain an al Qaeda terrorist cell with operations in Chicago, Detroit, and Iowa City. According to federal court documents in Chicago, Madrane stole data from his steak-house patrons by swiping their credit cards through a pocket-size magnetic card reader known as a skimmer. Madrane allegedly passed the numbers to Youssef Hmimssa, described by federal agents as a brilliant counterfeiter and an al Qaeda operative. Hmimssa used the card data and some cheap off-the-shelf technology to create scores of bogus credit cards, just part of a counterfeiting operation that also included passports, identification papers, and other documents. The phony credit cards helped Hmimssa raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for his group, which the government, in a separate federal indictment filed in Detroit, has charged is the first "sleeper operational combat cell" ever uncovered in the United States. The money, the government says, was spent "to engage in or support holy war."
http://www.business2.com/articles/ma...,45486,FF.html

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