The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

Ashcroft warns of possible attacks
Attorney General John Ashcroft warned Monday that the FBI has received information about possible attacks “within the United States and against United States interests abroad within the next week.” He didn’t give details on what the planned attacks might be, but asked Americans and law enforcement officials to be on their highest guard. The FBI issued a similar alert earlier this month.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/633205.asp

Patent holder could derail tech titans
A patent held by a little-known programmer from New Jersey may complicate -- at least temporarily -- the grand visions of Web services touted by titans such as IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Charlie Northrup, the chief executive of software developer Global Technologies, holds one of the earliest patents that describe how diverse computer systems can talk to servers connected to the Web and run software on multiple platforms. Sound familiar? That's just the kind of service Microsoft is pushing with its .Net strategy, a wide-ranging plan for moving business computing applications such as calendars, word processors and e-mail onto the Web.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

AOL volunteers lose battle
The Labor Department has decided not to further investigate charges that AOL Time Warner unfairly used volunteers at its Internet unit. "We decided not to pursue the case from an enforcement angle due to the limited resources here at the Labor Department," said Stuart Roy, a spokesman for the government agency. AOL has traditionally used volunteers, or "community leaders," to monitor chat rooms, solve problems and act as guides throughout the service. Volunteers are given free membership to AOL in exchange for their services and get access to many proprietary areas of the site. For this reason, volunteer accounts have been targets for hackers trying to access confidential information.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Is Microsoft losing its grip in Asia?
These days, any abnormal behavior in your PC or server will likely be blamed on that ubiquitous "bug in the system." Sadly, the never-ending task of downloading patches only seem to delay the inevitable, as new security holes -- in Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) software, for example -- are still being discovered. The problem appears more pronounced for Microsoft operating systems, as the software giant controls over 90 percent of the global operating systems and desktop productivity software markets.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Song-swappers stay in tune
The downing of the popular Internet music site Napster has curbed Europe's song-swapping appetite, Jupiter Media Metrix reported on Monday. According to the report, Jupiter said that the level of Internet file-sharing activity has dropped by 50 percent in Europe since February, the point at which the popular song-swapping service Napster hit its peak. The decline in Europe coincides with an upswing in the United States during the same period, the company said.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Gamers compete in pre-holiday frenzy
Mitch Bartlett whooped it up when he thought his quest for Nintendo's new GameCube was over. "Yes, I got it!" he hollered at his PC. "It's mine." Legions of video game enthusiasts are logging on at Web stores all over the Internet, hoping to snag an advance order of one of the hot new game consoles debuting next month. Nintendo's GameCube goes on sale Nov. 18, three days after Microsoft's Xbox.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Small companies mute Net radio
Even as its audience grows by leaps and bounds, the Internet music industry is facing a swift contraction that is causing numerous companies to curtail their services or close outright. In a scenario familiar to other sectors of the Internet business, many smaller online music ventures are watching their limited treasuries run dry as investors increasingly view their businesses as radioactive. This month alone has seen the demise or reduction of nearly a dozen services, with consumer-oriented Web radio stations bearing the brunt of the shakeout.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=tp_pr

[b]Yahoo set to charge for streamed content[/b
Yahoo said Monday that it has added more free video programming to its site, but the Web portal said it would start charging consumers for some streamed content by the end of the year. Through a syndication deal with Carsey-Werner Distribution, Yahoo visitors can now watch episodes of the little-known sitcom "Townies" as well as classic commercials, celebrity interviews, movie clips and music videos. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company also said it plans to Webcast a Sting concert, air a conference for victims of the Sept. 11 tragedies, and Webcast cooking videos through a deal with Allfood.com. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Microsoft belatedly opens access to MSN
After being shut out of one of the most popular sites on the Internet last week, many non-Microsoft browsers on Monday were finally able to access the software giant's MSN.com page. As first reported by CNET News.com, some Mozilla and Opera users were enraged Thursday when they could not reach the upgraded MSN site. Instead, they were given the option of downloading a version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. That same day, Microsoft buckled to protests and said it would open its site to other browsers. But the uproar spilled into Friday as many Mozilla and Opera users found themselves still locked out.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

eBay sees Taiwan, China in its future
While the world has hit the brakes on expansion, eBay has set its eyes on Asia. The San Jose, Calif.-based online auction company, which last week launched eBay Singapore, also plans to extend its reach into Taiwan and/or China, according to a company executive. However, Matthew Bannick, eBay senior vice president, declined to say when or how these plans will be carried out. "China and Taiwan are rapidly growing markets with huge potential, and we are an established name with the right kind of formula for success," he said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Gamers compete for new video consoles
Legions of video game enthusiasts are logging on at Web stores all over the Internet, hoping to snag an advance order of one of the hot new game consoles debuting next month. Nintendo's GameCube goes on sale Nov. 18, three days after Microsoft's Xbox. Bartlett was among the lucky few to put a GameCube in his virtual cart at a presale earlier this month at Toysrus.com. All he needed to ensure that he would be shipped a console once it was available was to press one last button. He clicked and... nothing. The GameCube had vanished from his cart. In less than four minutes, the site had sold out.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=cd_pr

Car sites pick up speed
Sparked by special zero-percent financing rates and other incentives for new cars, Web surfers swarmed to carmaker sites last week, according to Internet audience measurement service Nielsen/NetRatings. The incentives are drawing visitors to the Web sites of DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor, General Motors and Toyota Motor. "After the events of September 11, several car manufacturers established special zero-percent financing rates in an effort to help stimulate the economy,'' said Dawn Brozek, Internet analyst for NetRatings. "In recent weeks, we've seen traffic to the manufacturer sites grow, with the promotions attracting potential car buyers online to research car models, price quotes and financing.''
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Report: Qualcomm's anti-hijack setup
Wireless-technology company Qualcomm is working on a satellite-based system that would be able to broadcast real-time jetliner cockpit conversations, flight data and video of passengers to controllers on the ground. The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition Monday that the system would be unveiled in San Diego the same day. It will combine Qualcomm's digital technology with satellite-telephone company Globalstar Telecommunications' low earth-orbit satellite constellation to provide high-speed security links for commercial aircraft, the report said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=cd_mh

MTV to cut at least 8 percent of staff
Music-video pioneer MTV Networks, owner of the popular cable TV stations MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon, said Monday that it would cut between 8 percent and 9 percent of its work force. According to an internal memo, the cuts entail absorbing MTV Networks' online operations into its core business and moving out of separate downtown Manhattan offices. Jeanine Smartt, a spokeswoman for MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom, said she did not know the exact number of jobs that would be eliminated under the plan.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Community colleges to apply for .edu
The U.S. government said Monday that it plans next month to hand the education-focused .edu Internet domain to Educause, a nonprofit group representing college technology departments. Educause will expand the domain to allow the nation's 1,600 community colleges to register for .edu addresses, the group said in a statement. The domain has been reserved until now for four-year colleges and universities. Community colleges will be able to sign up for .edu names starting Nov. 12, the day of the handover, the Commerce Department said in a statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on