The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

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Ahhh the joy of reading
MS faces tougher battle in Europe
Tougher antitrust enforcement by European Commission regulators could mean trouble ahead for Microsoft, experts warn. Last week's appeals court ruling lifted from Microsoft the immediate threat of a breakup. But, in the coming months, Microsoft will face a tough battle in Europe, experts said. Two cases are pending there, relating to allegations Microsoft's desktop operating systems gave the company unfair advantage in the server market. The EU's decision to block the proposed $43 billion merger of General Electric and Honeywell on Tuesday due to antitrust concerns is a sign of renewed vigor on the part of regulators, said Peter Alexiadis, an antitrust attorney with Squire, Sanders and Dempsey in Brussels.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093662,00.html

Cell phone rivals team for games
Wireless phone makers Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and a Siemens business unit jointly announced Tuesday a new effort to create common standards for wireless games. The handset giants have created the Mobile Games Interoperability Forum, an outgrowth of the Universal Mobile Games Platform group formed in March by Ericsson, Motorola and Siemens. The new group is charged with designating specifications that would allow developers to create network-based games capable of working on several different wireless networks and various mobile phone handsets.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093677,00.html

Steering cell phones in the right direction
Steering his Range Rover from San Francisco to Mountain View, Calif., Brian Bogosian has a message for politicians and safety advocates who want to stop drivers from talking on cell phones: Don't tell me what to do. The chief executive of mobile access company Visto is irked by mounting political pressure to ban the use of wireless devices in automobiles. Every morning, Bogosian uses his Range Rover as an office on wheels to call colleagues on the East Coast -- while petting the muzzle of Cobey, his faithful Vizsla who commands the front passenger seat.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093625,00.html

Hitachi to cash in on money chip
Hitachi has developed a chip that could be woven into paper money to help identify counterfeits, and which could also have wide ramifications for identification and surveillance technologies. The chip, called Mew, measures just 0.4mm on a side, and stores information such as identification and security code. It includes 128 bits of read-only memory (ROM) and RF wireless circuitry that allows it to transmit over a distance of about 30cm or 12 inches. If inserted in money, a reader unit would be able to instantly detect authentic bills. Most identity chips are currently several millimeters on a side. While the chip currently requires a reader unit to work, its size carries big implications for the future of identity technology.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...782211,00.html

Standard to ease Linux programming
An industry group has released the first version of a standard designed to make it easier to write Linux software by guaranteeing that different versions of Linux work similarly. The Free Standards Group released version 1.0 of the Linux Standard Base specification Friday, a move aimed at reducing the difficulties of getting software such as Oracle's database to run on versions of Linux from Red Hat, Debian, SuSE and others.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093615,00.html

Hackers learning to can spam
Several small Internet service providers have been shocked to see some of their most unlikely users turn into spammers. But it turns out the users are unwitting tools of a new virus that experts say is the first case they've seen of hackers finding a way to commercially exploit their skills. The scheme -- seemingly spread across desktops in the form of a virus -- was tested by hackers throughout June, apparently to explore the possibility of infecting home machines with software that would generate unsolicited bulk e-mail without the knowledge of the machines' owners.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...781893,00.html

Napster keeps music on pause
Napster continued a self-imposed shutdown Tuesday, as the company struggled to fix technical problems related to its efforts to stop unauthorized file swapping on its service. The hiatus comes shortly after Napster disabled old versions of its software. It pushed its members to a new version that rendered the service all but unusable, blocking even the most obscure, uncopyrighted works from being traded. But people logging on this week were unable to trade even the few songs left. The company posted a message on its Web page saying that "file transfers have been temporarily suspended while Napster upgrades its databases."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

GM's OnStar inks deal for speech software
General Motors is taking another small technology company for a test drive. OnStar, GM's mobile communications division, announced a deal Tuesday to purchase text-to-speech software from Boston-based start-up SpeechWorks. The software will eventually help GM translate text-based e-mail, stock quotes, news and sports updates into speech so that drivers do not have to take their eyes off the road to consult a screen or touch pad. SpeechWorks' products, including its flagship Speechify text-to-speech engine, allow people hands-free operation without displays. People can pick from a male or female voice to deliver information in the car.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Innovation Drought
Sixteen months ago, Andy Hertzfeld launched a promising company called Eazel. The idea was to make Linux, the powerful server software, simple enough that consumers could use it in their PCs. And Hertzfeld was no wet-behind-the-ears, freshly-minted MBA: He was one of the key designers of the software that made the original Macintosh easy to use. And he had another startup, General Magic Inc., under his belt. Last year, he raised $13 million from big-name venture investors, including Accel Partners and Dell Computer Corp. Today, Eazel is dead. Hertzfeld had to shut it down in May after failing to raise more money. "It was heartbreaking to see our team of talented developers scatter to the winds," says Hertzfeld. "Especially when I'm pretty sure we could have made a really big difference if we had another year or so to work together." No one will ever know, and that's what's troubling.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...8/b3740602.htm

State puts brakes on GPS speeding fines
A Connecticut group has sided on behalf of consumers in a case where a driver was fined for speeding in a car outfitted with a global positioning system. The state's Department of Consumer Protection sided with renters against car rental company Acme Rent-a-Car, of New Haven. In an administrative complaint filed against the car rental company on Monday, the department charged Acme with violating state law when it fined drivers who exceeded the posted speed limit while driving a rental car. Acme installs global positioning system (GPS) in its cars to find stolen rental cars and charge customers for "dangerous" conduct. When a rental customer drives faster than the posted speed limit, that information is sent to the company.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Echelon Furor Ends in a Whimper
In the end, a year of hard work boils down to this: Echelon exists and the Europeans don't like it, but there isn't much they can do except wring their hands in impotent fury as the Americans continue spying on whomever they please. The resolution approved Tuesday by a European Parliament committee set up to investigate the satellite-based surveillance system condemned Echelon's existence but, aside from agreeing to step up meaningful rhetorical pressure on the Americans, achieved very little.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44984,00.html

Dumped Workers Find Revenge
Some disgruntled, recently laid-off geeks are taking a break from frantically scanning the want ads to file software piracy reports against their ex-employers. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international organization that investigates program piracy for software developers, has noted a dramatic increase in the past year in the number of reports filed by ex-employees against technology companies. And there are a lot of employers using illegally obtained programs to report. At least one out of every three software applications installed on computers around the world is pirated, according to a study released last month by the BSA.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44906,00.html

Taking the 5th on the 4th
The Supreme Court has split Fourth Amendment experts into two camps after ruling last month that cops can't use spy technology to search homes without a warrant. One group believes the ruling dramatically extends the Fourth Amendment's reach, placing new limits on technology-assisted searches in all sorts of cases and places. They interpret the June 11 decision, to mean the use of new, magnetic imaging technology to scan crowds for concealed weapons, for example, could be unconstitutional. Scanning for the faces of felons, as authorities did at the Super Bowl -- or slipping into home computers through Internet connections -- might be, too.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,44785,00.html

Spinning the Biz of Genomics
Genomics has been a buzzword since the Human Genome Project began making headlines, but investors are increasingly uncertain how genomics firms will ever stay afloat. One firm, however, has confidence in its business plan despite being lumped into the genomics category by many reporters and investors. Human Genome Sciences CEO William Haseltine says his company will succeed by sticking to the business model it has always had: old-fashioned drug discovery.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44972,00.html

Man Receives Artificial Heart
An American on the brink of death has received the first self-contained, mechanical, total- heart replacement in a landmark experimental operation, a source said Tuesday. Surgeons from the University of Louisville implanted the titanium and plastic pump into the patient at Jewish Hospital on Monday, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Experts hope the experimental heart will lead to new hope for patients with failing hearts.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44980,00.html

Most Hacking Hides Real Threats
The high profile of such relatively inconsequential online political warfare as denial-of-service attacks and playful site defacement has the general public distracted from much graver risks. That's especially true in Europe, according to experts, where many Internet users are newer to the medium and less attuned to the dangers of such threats as smart viruses. "Do Europeans care about information warfare?" asks Christiane Schultzki-Haddouti, a German journalist who specializes in information warfare. "Not much. Compared to America, Europe is still sleeping."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44955,00.html

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