The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Another paper. One two, one two three four:

Group plugs Linux into interactive TV
Some of the largest makers of chips and interactive TV software have teamed to design Linux-based set-top boxes, aiming to create a lower-cost product than that from software giant Microsoft. Motorola and Pace Micro Technology represent the set-top box makers in the 24-member venture, dubbed TV Linux Alliance. By creating a standardized framework for Linux-based software for interactive TV, the alliance hopes to bring the technology to market more quickly and with lower development costs and fewer integration issues than by working alone.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...092552,00.html

Is BSD getting lost amid the open source salvos?
When listening to the verbal sparring between open source advocates and Microsoft, it's interesting to notice what's not being talked about. Look at any side of the debate. Do you see any mention of BSD? Quite a few licenses qualify as open source, according to those who define the term. In attacks on open source, such as the recent commentary by Microsoft's Craig Mundie, the headline and opening comments target open source in a general way. But one doesn't have to read far to see that the only open source license under attack is the GNU General Public License (GPL).
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...772296,00.html

Viva la P2P
Here stands the manager of corporate information systems: an autocrat, a dictator of data who rules with an iron fist. It's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it's probably in the job description. Order and predictability have always been business imperatives in managing information technologies, which has led to aggregating data on massive, powerful and centralized computers--the ubiquitous client-server model. Now the walls of the information technology glass house are being cracked open by peer-to-peer (P2P), a distributed information architecture that seems, at first glance, to be chaotic, unstable, uncontrollable -- everything a responsible IT professional would avoid.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...771379,00.html

AT&T's animation gives spam a new image
Mention video e-mail, and some people picture seasonal greetings from distant loved ones singing Jingle Bells over the Christmas turkey. But the images that will be flowing through AT&T WorldNet Service's new video e-mail service are certain to include a large side dish of spam. Instead of simply telling you about the beaches of Bermuda, travel agencies can send the waves lapping over your laptop. AT&T officials think consumers will continue to accept or ignore unwanted advertising as a trade-off for an entertaining new service.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...772081,00.html

General-purpose processors take center stage
The same microprocessor that lets your burn through a game of "Gran Turismo" may soon be running your PC's printer, as electronics manufacturers increasingly rely on general-purpose processors. "Standard" processors and system-on-a-chip designs that combine the function of several chips in one piece of silicon dominate the new offerings on display at the Embedded Processor Forum, which began Tuesday in San Jose, Calif. Chip manufacturers and designers at the forum are expected to announce about 30 new microprocessors, digital signal processors and other chips meant to power devices such as video game consoles, handheld computers, set-top boxes and networking equipment.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Fake McVeigh video infects computers
If you get an offer to see a video of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's execution, be careful. It probably isn't a video clip, just an old trick. In an Internet chat room Monday, hours after McVeigh's death, some participants followed a posted Web link to see a bootleg video of the execution. They wound up inadvertently downloading a malicious program that can allow a hacker to take control of another computer. Brad Chapman, a Brigham Young University computer science student, said that by visiting a Web site at Internet provider Concentric Networks, he unknowingly prompted his computer to download the program, known as SubSeven.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Free Speech vs. Privacy
Freedom of the press and free speech carry a lot of weight in the courtroom, but as with everything in law, there are exceptions. Fortunately, these limitations haven't damaged our core understanding of these rights, and like healthy trees, the rights have grown in stature and importance, even as they have been trimmed around the edges. An opinion handed down last week by a California state court of appeals opens the way for a new case that, if successful, may trim the scope of freedoms normally accorded to the press.
http://www.ecompany.com/articles/web...,12297,00.html

Microsoft unbound
Any day now, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will rule on whether Microsoft should be broken up per Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's orders. No one is absolutely sure what will happen, but when one takes into account this court's well-established antipathy to antitrust enforcement, and considers the tart, aggressive questioning the appellate judges tortured Department of Justice prosecutors with earlier this spring, the smart money is on Microsoft.
http://salon.com/tech/col/leon/2001/...dux/index.html

China quashes anonymous surfing
The soft glow of computer screens lights the faces of hundreds of students and 20-somethings crammed into the Feiyu Internet cafe near Peking University, 24 hours a day. The basement cafe is one of roughly 1,000 in Beijing, where young Chinese can anonymously log onto the Internet and browse any site they fancy, such as news or sports--or even banned pornography sites. To Beijing, these cafes are a dangerous window into an electronic world beyond the Communist Party's control, and in April the government launched the second major clampdown against the popular venues in just over one year.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Can't Scan Without a Warrant
If the feds want to spy on your home using whizzy tech gadgets, they'd better get a warrant first, the Supreme Court said on Monday. In an important 5-4 ruling that extends privacy's shield to radiation not visible to the human eye, the court said federal agents should have obtained a warrant before using an infrared imaging device to snoop on Danny Lee Kyllo, an Oregon man they later arrested for growing marijuana.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44444,00.html

Oops, supper time... be back later

[walktalker]

New AltaVista App: Too Invasive?
A new line of business software introduced Tuesday by AltaVista will let workers scour corporate networks, e-mail accounts and personal computers by stitching together valuable and sometimes embarrassing information scattered on far-flung office systems. AltaVista hails the new product as a desirable tool for increasing productivity. A prominent computer privacy expert said it could backfire, hurting employee morale by making it easier to fish out personal e-mails and other sensitive data stored on hard drives. The software also could raise legal issues and create new security headaches.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,44461,00.html

Launching the Web into outer space
Vint Cerf, known as the father of the Internet, has got his eyes on the stars. The senior vice president for Internet architecture and technology at telecommunications company WorldCom is working on a proposal to create a network of Internets to facilitate communication between planets, satellites, asteroids, robotic spacecraft and crewed vehicles. While it may sound like the stuff of science fiction, Cerf's participation lends a certain gravity to plans for the stellar Net system.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201...html?tag=bt_pr

Building a Better Bio-Supercomputer
The mapping of the human genome has triggered an explosion in data about the nature of life. As pharmaceutical and biotech research companies like NuTec struggle to understand the workings of tens of thousands of genes and the hundreds of thousands of proteins they produce, biology is overtaking nuclear weapons as the field demanding the most sophisticated computers. Every other day seems to bring a new discovery - like last week's announcement that a biotech company located a gene thought to be responsible for heart-attack-inducing cholesterol.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27032,00.html

TI and Compaq Launch iPAQ Music Center
In its continued effort to expand the scope of digital music and grow its market position in digital audio, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) today announced that Compaq Computer Corporation selected TI’s industry-leading programmable digital signal processor (DSP) technology to enable audio encoding and decoding in the iPAQ Music Center, a digital audio device that serves as Compaq’s first home entertainment system and extends Compaq's iPAQ™ product line. The iPAQ Music Center, the first TI-enabled product that allows users to digitally record music from almost any source, will store and organize thousands of digital music files without the use of a PC.
http://news.mp3.com/news/liststory/?...8&month=200106

Who Rules the Internet in Mexico? Why, It's America
Mexico's fast-growing Internet market is still dominated by a network of sites that originated in the U.S., and only one of the country's top destinations specifically targets a Latin audience, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Top American sites, including MSN, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft.com, were popular in Mexico. The StarMedia Network, based in New York, was the only popular destination that catered to a Spanish-speaking audience.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27096,00.html

Song about 13-year-old’s love of instant messaging to hit music stores
Thirteen-year-old singer Brittney Cleary wanted to debut with a song most kids her age could relate to. So she picked a tune about love, right? Wrong. Her song is called "I.M. Me," a reference to instant messaging, the online technology that allows computer users to carry on typewritten, private conversations in real time. Cleary, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., says she and her buddies talk online about "everything."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/586497.asp?0dm=C12QT

Sony-Universal web-music service negotiates for Microsoft technology
As Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group named a management team for their joint-venture online music-subscription service, people familiar with the matter said the company is in talks with Microsoft Corp. about using its technology in hopes of boosting the site’s audio prowess and consumer base. According to people familiar with the matter, the companies are talking with Microsoft about using the software maker’s Windows Media Player as the site’s audio format, although the talks are continuing and it isn’t clear whether the parties will reach a deal.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/586281.asp?0dm=C1EQT

Net users are saddos
People prefer to stay at home rather than go out and enjoy themselves, claims a new report by Telewest. Don't ask us how, but they say people go out on the beer 100 times a year instead of the 160 times a year they used to two years ago - a drop in being sociable of some 40 per cent. And what's this got to do with Telewest which is, after all, a cable TV and Internet outfit and not a chain of pubs or restaurants? Well, it seems the reason people are staying more is because they want to watch TV or use their PC.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19648.html

Blair's hired the wrong e-minister by mistake!
Tony Blair has made a terrible error in hiring Douglas Alexander as e-minister - he actually meant to hire Douglas' sister Wendy. That at least can be the only explanation as to why Douglas was given the high-ranking job when he knows next to nothing about the Internet, while his sister Wendy, four years his senior, holds the post of e-minister in the Scottish Parliament. How embarrassing.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/19638.html

[Tom9504]

Thanks again WT!! I can never get enough of these newspaper threads...

[TankGirl]

Thank you WT!

An excellent issue again, what a wonderful contribution you are doing to us!

- tg

good job wt.