The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

What I've brought back from my daily news safari
DSL switch to send video via phone
With a small change to its high-speed DSL network, SBC Communications is laying the groundwork for a much more prominent role in a world of video on demand, music services and online gaming. The company, one of the nation's largest local phone companies, is in the early stages of testing a technology that will change the way its high-speed customers connect to the Internet. Traditionally, a DSL (digital subscriber line) customer has linked directly to an ISP, through which Net content flows. But with new software, which will be installed sometime next year, SBC will allow surfers to access services directly from SBC's network in addition to their own ISPs.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...chkpt=zdnn_tp_

Napster pauses music transfers
Struggling to make new song-blocking software work, Napster on Monday temporarily stopped all file trading on its once-popular 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 Monday morning were unable to trade even the few songs left. The company posted a message on its Web page Monday, saying that "file transfers have been temporarily suspended while Napster upgrades its databases."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093597,00.html

Windows XP enters final testing
Microsoft on Monday started distributing one of the final testing versions of its Windows XP operating system to about 100,000 testers. Since the Redmond, Wash.-based company released Windows XP Beta 2 in March, Microsoft has kept a tight lid on additional testing versions of the operating system. But Microsoft completed Windows XP Release Candidate 1 days ahead of schedule, despite the turmoil by Thursday's appeals court ruling. Release candidates are final testing versions before the software is sent to manufacturing and to PC makers. A second release candidate is expected in late July or early August.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093544,00.html

Intel plans 2GHz Pentium 4
Intel on Monday announced the release of a pair of high-speed Pentium 4 processors. As previously reported by CNET News.com, the chipmaker is trumpeting the availability of 1.8GHz and 1.6GHz Pentium 4 processors. Intel is also slated to launch a 2GHz Pentium 4 chip in a few months. Analysts have said that PC makers will use the new chips to differentiate their systems from one another or from PCs using Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon chip. Still, some critics have said that the extra speed in the latest chips may not do much to boost Pentium 4 sales, which have been sluggish overall.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093555,00.html

MS: It's business as usual in Redmond
Thursday's appeals court decision, which spared Microsoft a breakup but said it illegally maintained an operating systems monopoly, seems to have landed with a dull thud on the company's Redmond, Wash., campus. While Microsoft employees contacted over the weekend voiced relief that the appeals court threw out a lower court's decision to split Microsoft in two, most said they are more concerned with the business of building the software giant's new products than the immediate affects of the ruling. So indifferent were some Microsoft employees to the court's decision that few of those contacted said they followed Thursday's news coverage of the court's decision or read the 125-page court ruling.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093564,00.html

Kodak tangles with Microsoft over Win XP
Shortly after Thanksgiving last year, Philip Gerskovich, who was deep into the design of a new digital camera for Eastman Kodak, discovered his company was headed for a collision with Microsoft. His team was developing new software to manipulate digital photos and needed to make sure it was compatible with Microsoft's latest version of Windows, the basic software that runs most new computers. An early version of Microsoft's newest software, code-named Whistler, had just arrived at Kodak's software labs. When Mr. Gerskovich and his team loaded it onto their computers, they were shocked by what they saw.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...781900,00.html

Watchdog grants pirates a reprieve
A software-industry trade group says that disgruntled or former employees make the best informants in the hunt for companies that are using unlicensed software. Over the weekend, the Business Software Alliance kicked off a campaign centered on what it calls a "software truce" during July for businesses in several U.S. cities, including New York, Atlanta, Portland, Ore., Kansas City, Mo., and Oklahoma City. With the truce, the BSA said it will refrain from imposing penalties on businesses using software they haven't paid for, if they acquire licenses by July 31.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093557,00.html

Porn outsmarts search filters
Search companies are increasingly turning to censorware to court G-rated customers such as corporations, schools and parents, but they're still showing too much skin. The shortcomings of porn filters were on display last week when Google launched a test version of a search engine for images with an optional filter for what it terms "inappropriate adult content." Even with the filter turned on, Google is serving a healthy dose of pornographic images, often for keywords with primarily nonsexual meanings.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093523,00.html

Stemming the DoS flood
One the most aggravating Internet security threats today is a distributed denial-of-service attack--a flood of bogus network traffic that can effectively shut down a Web site. Far from going away, the phenomenon is evolving in different permutations. But new tools are emerging to help Internet administrators fight the problem. DoS attacks are the Internet equivalent of someone placing thousands of crank phone calls per second to a switchboard. Whatever the psychology that lies behind them, DoS attacks have succeeded in felling the biggest sites on the Web, including those of Microsoft, Yahoo and, more recently, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...781055,00.html

[walktalker]

Solaris blueprints still open to viewing
Sun Microsystems has reversed a decision to stop allowing scrutiny of the underpinnings of its Solaris operating system. When Sun released Solaris 8 in January 2000, the company tried to tap into some of the energy of the open-source movement by announcing that people would be able to examine, though not change, the source code of Solaris. While the move didn't grant people the right to modify and redistribute the software, as is the case with Linux, it was a step closer to openness than the hard-line policy of Microsoft, with its proprietary code and campaign against open-source software. Last week, though, Sun posted a note saying it planned to cancel the Foundation Source Program, believing that interest in it had waned. But the move triggered numerous requests to keep the program alive, spokesman Russ Castronovo said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

NASA claims teen hacked into computer
Federal authorities have accused an Albuquerque teenager of hacking into a NASA computer at the Ames Research Center in Northern California. Jason Schwab, 18, has been charged with computer abuse and conspiracy to commit computer abuse, according to documents filed in Children's Court in Bernalillo County. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said the computer system was compromised during the alleged attack in April 2000. They said files were modified and illegal accounts were added.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Going deeper with brain power
What fuels the incredible speed of change today? How does knowledge flow -- and what makes it "stick"? These are the kinds of questions that badger John Seely Brown, chief scientist of Xerox. In a wide-ranging talk delivered at Harvard Business School on April 19 at the school's annual Leatherbee Lecture, Seely Brown drew on everything from architecture to linguistics to hard-core science in describing his efforts to pin down some fascinating yet elusive concepts about interactions within and around organizations and technology.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-201...html?tag=ch_mh

More news later on... supper time

[walktalker]

End of supper time
Spy-tech on Tampa streets
Tampa is using high-tech security cameras to scan the city's streets for people wanted for crimes, a law-enforcement tactic that some liken to Big Brother. A computer software program linked to 36 cameras began scanning crowds Friday in Tampa's nightlife district, Ybor City, matching results against a database of mug shots of people with outstanding arrest warrants. European cities and U.S government offices, casinos and banks are already using the so-called face-printing system, but Tampa is the first American city to install a permanent system along public streets, The Tampa Tribune reported Sunday. A similar system was used at Super Bowl XXXV, which was held in Tampa last January.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

PCs vs. TVs in the 21st Century
Residential broadband access was slow to take off, but companies are making major bets on building broadband applications to reach all those potential customers. The technology and its potential uses have been the main points of interest to date, but now companies need a realistic view of the economics that underlie broadband applications, the ways those applications will affect the industry’s development, and the size of the opportunities likely to emerge over the next few years. Some long-cherished beliefs -- such as the idea that broadband would finally bring about the convergence of PCs and TVs in a single device -- will be dashed.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201...html?tag=cd_mh

Report shows lack of faith in Bluetooth
The majority of businesses polled by consulting company Frost & Sullivan say they have no plans to purchase products using the Bluetooth wireless data-transfer standard. Frost & Sullivan interviewed network managers and other IT executives at 120 large companies across the world, including 40 Asian business. Questions focused on plans for Bluetooth, a growing technology for wirelessly connecting computing devices over short distances. Only three out of the 120 companies were testing Bluetooth products and all were Europe-based. "It was clear from other parts of the research that Europe is likely to be the early market to target," Frost & Sullivan said in a statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Spam Blockers Pass It On
A controversial list that helps e-mail administrators block traffic from spam-friendly servers has now passed to a third generation of volunteer activists after a second-generation operator was sidelined. Earlier this month, New Zealander Alan Brown closed down his Open Relay Behavior-Modification System (ORBS) after two local companies won legal injunctions against him for listing them. Now, at least three volunteer foot soldiers elsewhere have picked up where Brown left off. Open mail relays are Internet e-mail servers that forward -- without restriction -- e-mail aimed at third parties. Thus, the activists' strategy for plugging this spam hole in the Internet is simple: Test the relays. If they're open, publicize them so server administrators elsewhere can refuse e-mail from them.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44876,00.html

The Truth Behind A.I.
It seemed like a good idea: Take an artificial intelligence expert to see the new Steven Spielberg movie A.I., then pepper the fellow with questions about what in the film is conceivable -- given the state of "machine intelligence" today -- and what's outright rubbish. Alas, as soon as the movie began, the brightness of the whole idea seemed to dim. It turns out that despite its title, A.I. isn't really about artificial intelligence at all. It's a heavy-handed, saccharine film about what might happen when man meets machine eye-to-eye: Man kicks machine around is what happens, and machine -- while trying desperately to pinch its voice and sound cute so man will love him -- ends up junked.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,44946,00.html

Quantum Mechanics' New Horizons
Seventy-five years have passed since the physicist Neils Bohr said, "Anyone who isn't shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." Of course, back then people could still remember a time when just a glimpse of stocking was considered something shocking. Today, the University of Michigan hosts a quantum conference that brings Bohr's old saw into the shock-jock age. The first Quantum Applications Symposium proposes to address the question, "Will quantum effects dominate the course of technology development in the 21st century?"
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,44891,00.html

Who Owns What at Media Lab Asia?
Media Lab Asia -- a joint venture between the Government of India and Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- was created to take technology to the masses. But while producing products to enhance the quality of life in this country is a goal Indian corporations would love to help achieve, the fuzzy issue over intellectual property rights (IPR) appears to be an obstacle.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,44823,00.html

Anybody Got Some Spare Spectrum?
Three months ago, Michael Powell told University of California at Berkeley students that the FCC had no "clear vision" of how to regulate the telecom industry. Now Powell is head of the Federal Communications Commission -- and the FCC still doesn't have a clear-cut policy on spectrum allocation. In October, Powell criticized the FCC for giving away airwaves to the broadcast industry, which is migrating from an analog system to a digital one. Spectrum is a scarce resource and 80 percent of Americans have satellite dishes or cable, he said. Yet even though U.S. telcos are willing to pay billions of dollars for such airwaves to offer next-generation wireless services, the FCC has nothing to give them.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,44885,00.html

More Hope for Wannabe Moms
Scientists appear to have found a way for women to become mothers after they no longer can produce viable eggs, a potential advance in breaking the last great barrier to fertility treatments. The technique, described Monday at a conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lausanne, involves taking a cell from an infertile woman's body, and inserting it into an emptied donated egg. The resulting egg contains the genetic material of the woman wanting the baby, not of the donor. Scientists warned that the work is still in the preliminary stages, and it could be years before the technique produces a healthy baby, if ever.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44963,00.html

The feds crack down on a human cloning lab
For Brigitte Boisselier, cloning a human being isn't just good science –it's a religious imperative. As a trained chemist and a bishop of a sect that believes scientists from another planet created all life on Earth, Boisselier and other followers of the "Raelian" religion say cloning is key to humanity's future. Despite warnings from scientists who say such practices are fraught with potential health risks, some Raelians have built a secret U.S. laboratory and vowed to create the first human clone this year. They also believe the feds have no legal right to stop them. Washington, unsurprisingly, disagrees.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/0...news/clone.htm

Building a Database of Specimens
In a windowless back room of the Australian Museum, there's a place called the "Spirit House." Thousands of animal specimens are kept there, preserved in jars of alcohol. Most are identified by little more than dusty paper cards or crusty labels --# a tribute to pre-computer-era science. Around the world, roughly 3 billion such animal and plant specimens sit in places like the Australian Museum,# with no comprehensive electronic means for researchers to share data about them. Now, after nearly five years of negotiations, a major effort is underway to create an international electronic lingua franca for this sleeping scientific bounty.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,44777,00.html

Open Season on Web Music Firms
Like bargain hunters swooping down on a sales rack, giant information and entertainment companies have been moving to snap up online music companies--often at fire-sale prices. The deals, including Vivendi Universal's proposed purchase of MP3.com Inc. and Yahoo Inc.'s pending purchase of Launch Media Inc., signal a wave of consolidation that's thinning the ranks of online music suppliers. And several other online companies already find themselves on the auction block as well. Price is driving the deals. Another factor, some say, was the labels' aggressive use of copyright-infringement lawsuits. MP3.com has paid more than $100 million to settle copyright infringement claims, and Launch was hit with a lawsuit the day it was due to close a life-preserving $5-million loan.
http://www.latimes.com/business/2001...000054578.html

Microsoft Wages War on Open Source
Microsoft's battle against open source software has reached a fever pitch. Company officials have called open source software a "cancer" and "potentially viral software" that threatens intellectual property. All of the name calling, however, only highlights the notion that Microsoft considers open source software a threat to its own business rather than a scourge on the entire software industry. With open source software, programmers can view and modify the source code, or the underlying blueprints, of the program. That's precisely why Microsoft has a problem with open source. Microsoft believes that if you include open source code with its own proprietary code, the open source software could infect Microsoft's.
http://www.business2.com/ebusiness/2...opensource.htm

Upstream: Video Searching
Every day, a river of video floods the airwaves, courses through cables and streams over the Internet. Add to that all the films ever made, plus all of the video material created for private use, and you've got an ocean of light and sound. But how can you ever find and retrieve a particular video clip? With text documents, you can type in a query, and a piece of software finds the matching text strings. Searching video is much tougher. Unless someone has gone back and somehow marked the video data, it's now nearly impossible to find a specific image.
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/jul01/upstream.asp

more news later on

[walktalker]

Intel Signs Up For EU 'Safe Harbor' Agreement
Intel Corp. has signed the European Union-U.S. "safe harbor" agreement that allows data transfers to continue uninterrupted between U.S. companies and EU citizens, breathing new life into a hard-won agreement that U.S. firms have been slow to embrace. The law officially went into effect July 1, 2001. Intel signed the agreement June 22. The safe harbor agreement, reached after much hand-wringing and tough discussions between EU data protection authorities and U.S. Commerce Department officials, was drafted to help U.S. e-commerce companies and other corporations comply with an EU policy that prohibits international data transfers to companies that do not adhere to EU-style data privacy policies.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167541.html

Internet Helps Germany Kill Restrictive Retail Laws
The pervasive global force of the Internet has claimed yet another victim. This time it was an antiquated German retail system of laws, which dates back to the pre-Nazi era, which basically outlawed discounts and rebates. The lower house of the German Bundestag (Parliament) on Friday abolished the laws, which helped keep prices high for consumers and protected German retailers from foreign competition. Among those cheering loudest on the news was Steve Bechwar, managing director for the German operation of U.S. mail-order and online clothing retailer Lands' End.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167539.html

Wal-Mart Intros Disposable Digital Camera
Retail giant Wal-Mart today took the wraps off a throwaway camera that allows shutterbugs without digital models to view and send photos online. The cameras, available at Wal-Mart stores and at Walmart.com, are priced at $6.84 each. That includes the Pictures Online service, which usually costs $2.74. A user takes the disposable 35-millimeter camera to a Wal-Mart store, where the photos are uploaded to the Walmart.com online photo service to be viewed and sent by e-mail. Prints cost extra.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167534.html

XP Critic: Microsoft Misses The Point On Security
SmartTags may be headed to the scrap heap, but raw sockets are alive and well in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system - and that's a problem, a security expert said in a message posted to his Web site Sunday. Steve Gibson, operator of GRC.com, a consumer-oriented site about personal computer security and privacy, said on his Web site that Microsoft engineers have given a final thumbs down to his request that the company drop support for an advanced networking technology called raw sockets in the home version of XP. The new operating system is scheduled to ship in October.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167528.html

Could Microsoft Win By Settling?
A settlement of the Microsoft antitrust case might let the giant continue to bundle new programs with its Windows software while permitting PC makers to substitute rival offerings for those products, legal analysts say. People familiar with the matter say no settlement talks are scheduled. But both Microsoft and prosecutors voiced an interest in coming to the bargaining table in the wake of an appeals court's mixed ruling last week. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the 19 plaintiff states will confer this week with one another and possibly the Justice Department.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167519.html

Today's Cyborgs Get An Eyeful
Thad Starner is lying flat on his back on his office couch, staring at the ceiling. Don't bother him. He's working. If you were to walk in on him, you might not know that — at first. But a closer look would reveal the signs: The fingers of his left hand are gliding over a funny little one-handed keyboard called a Twiddler. His glasses aren't just ordinary help-you-see glasses; attached to them is an actual monitor, about the size of a Chiclet. Starner's view through the "MicroOptical" display, as his particular brand is called, is that of a computer-screen display. He can see words, pictures — whatever you might see on a computer screen.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167524.html

Internet Key To Do-It-Yourself Fake IDs
Computer-savvy teenagers are creating millions of fake driver's licenses despite the holograms and other high-tech security features that states now put on licenses to thwart forgers. Using the Internet, anyone willing to break a few laws can be a mass producer of fake IDs, the gateways to underage drinking that received new attention in late May, when President Bush's 19-year-old twin daughters were cited in Austin, Texas, on charges of alcohol violations. Gone are the crude, cut-and-paste fake IDs common a few years ago that were so obviously bogus. They have been replaced with replicas whose detail and accuracy often astonish authorities.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167520.html

Microsoft May See Flood Of Civil Lawsuits
A torrent of new civil lawsuits may drown Microsoft in the wake of last week's appeals court ruling that upheld an earlier finding that the software colossus is an illegal monopoly. It was a huge win for consumers and rivals of Microsoft. Their attorneys now need not spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars trying to prove Microsoft broke federal antitrust law. "All (consumers and businesses) have to do now is show causation — or how they were injured by the violation — and prove damages," says leading antitrust expert Herbert Hovenkamp of the University of Iowa. Legal experts say lawyers for Sun Microsystems, America Online's Netscape and other rivals of Microsoft can argue that the software firm's dominance hurt their market share and cost them opportunities to bring new products to the market.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167522.html

Virus hoax aims to dupe MP3 users
A hoax virus warning that preys on the gullibility of computer users who swap songs via the web is circulating on the internet. A note posted to several newsgroups says that "music fans around the planet will receive a shocking surprise on their computers on American Independence Day, 4 July, but only if they have downloaded unauthorised songs from Napster, Gnutella or other file swapping applications on the internet."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1415247.stm

[b]Intel Signs Up For EU 'Safe Harbor' Agreement
Intel Corp. has signed the European Union-U.S. "safe harbor" agreement that allows data transfers to continue uninterrupted between U.S. companies and EU citizens, breathing new life into a hard-won agreement that U.S. firms have been slow to embrace. The law officially went into effect July 1, 2001. Intel signed the agreement June 22. The safe harbor agreement, reached after much hand-wringing and tough discussions between EU data protection authorities and U.S. Commerce Department officials, was drafted to help U.S. e-commerce companies and other corporations comply with an EU policy that prohibits international data transfers to companies that do not adhere to EU-style data privacy policies.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167541.html

Internet Helps Germany Kill Restrictive Retail Laws
The pervasive global force of the Internet has claimed yet another victim. This time it was an antiquated German retail system of laws, which dates back to the pre-Nazi era, which basically outlawed discounts and rebates. The lower house of the German Bundestag (Parliament) on Friday abolished the laws, which helped keep prices high for consumers and protected German retailers from foreign competition. Among those cheering loudest on the news was Steve Bechwar, managing director for the German operation of U.S. mail-order and online clothing retailer Lands' End.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167539.html

Wal-Mart Intros Disposable Digital Camera
Retail giant Wal-Mart today took the wraps off a throwaway camera that allows shutterbugs without digital models to view and send photos online. The cameras, available at Wal-Mart stores and at Walmart.com, are priced at $6.84 each. That includes the Pictures Online service, which usually costs $2.74. A user takes the disposable 35-millimeter camera to a Wal-Mart store, where the photos are uploaded to the Walmart.com online photo service to be viewed and sent by e-mail. Prints cost extra.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167534.html

XP Critic: Microsoft Misses The Point On Security
SmartTags may be headed to the scrap heap, but raw sockets are alive and well in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system - and that's a problem, a security expert said in a message posted to his Web site Sunday. Steve Gibson, operator of GRC.com, a consumer-oriented site about personal computer security and privacy, said on his Web site that Microsoft engineers have given a final thumbs down to his request that the company drop support for an advanced networking technology called raw sockets in the home version of XP. The new operating system is scheduled to ship in October.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167528.html

Could Microsoft Win By Settling?
A settlement of the Microsoft antitrust case might let the giant continue to bundle new programs with its Windows software while permitting PC makers to substitute rival offerings for those products, legal analysts say. People familiar with the matter say no settlement talks are scheduled. But both Microsoft and prosecutors voiced an interest in coming to the bargaining table in the wake of an appeals court's mixed ruling last week. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the 19 plaintiff states will confer this week with one another and possibly the Justice Department.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167519.html

Today's Cyborgs Get An Eyeful
Thad Starner is lying flat on his back on his office couch, staring at the ceiling. Don't bother him. He's working. If you were to walk in on him, you might not know that — at first. But a closer look would reveal the signs: The fingers of his left hand are gliding over a funny little one-handed keyboard called a Twiddler. His glasses aren't just ordinary help-you-see glasses; attached to them is an actual monitor, about the size of a Chiclet. Starner's view through the "MicroOptical" display, as his particular brand is called, is that of a computer-screen display. He can see words, pictures — whatever you might see on a computer screen.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167524.html

Internet Key To Do-It-Yourself Fake IDs
Computer-savvy teenagers are creating millions of fake driver's licenses despite the holograms and other high-tech security features that states now put on licenses to thwart forgers. Using the Internet, anyone willing to break a few laws can be a mass producer of fake IDs, the gateways to underage drinking that received new attention in late May, when President Bush's 19-year-old twin daughters were cited in Austin, Texas, on charges of alcohol violations. Gone are the crude, cut-and-paste fake IDs common a few years ago that were so obviously bogus. They have been replaced with replicas whose detail and accuracy often astonish authorities.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167520.html

Microsoft May See Flood Of Civil Lawsuits
A torrent of new civil lawsuits may drown Microsoft in the wake of last week's appeals court ruling that upheld an earlier finding that the software colossus is an illegal monopoly. It was a huge win for consumers and rivals of Microsoft. Their attorneys now need not spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars trying to prove Microsoft broke federal antitrust law. "All (consumers and businesses) have to do now is show causation — or how they were injured by the violation — and prove damages," says leading antitrust expert Herbert Hovenkamp of the University of Iowa. Legal experts say lawyers for Sun Microsystems, America Online's Netscape and other rivals of Microsoft can argue that the software firm's dominance hurt their market share and cost them opportunities to bring new products to the market.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167522.html

Virus hoax aims to dupe MP3 users
A hoax virus warning that preys on the gullibility of computer users who swap songs via the web is circulating on the internet. A note posted to several newsgroups says that "music fans around the planet will receive a shocking surprise on their computers on American Independence Day, 4 July, but only if they have downloaded unauthorised songs from Napster, Gnutella or other file swapping applications on the internet."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1415247.stm

Napster Apologizes For Dwindling Supply Of Songs
Napster apologized to its users on Friday for "a temporary but dramatic" reduction in the number of songs available through its system, blaming kinks in the implementation of new song-screening technology. At the same time, Napster is forcing all of its users to switch to the latest version of its software, the first to use the new screening technology known as acoustic fingerprinting. Napster filters now examine music files' content, rather than their user-defined filenames.
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/digital...444886&index=0

More news later on

[walktalker]

Online advertising will come back
Online advertising will come back with a vengeance thanks to outstanding new technology, but this won't kick in until the first or second quarter of 2002. Such was the consensus of the 90 top advertising, publishing and technology executives who attended the exclusive Online Advertising Summit, sponsored by Silicon Alley Reporter, last week at the ultra-hip Hudson Hotel in New York. Attendees to this invitation-only event were treated to an array of live technology demos, all of which offered more intrusive -- and one would suppose more effective -- forms of online advertising than the thoroughly bashed banner and tower ads that are so common today.
http://www.upside.com/Opinion/3b3cf7b91.html

Napster Brought to Heel, Music and Movie Establishment Increases Pressure on Upstart Aimster
Seven major film studios have joined together to take aim at Aimster in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, a group of music publishers is also filing suit against the Troy, New York-based file-swapping service. Aimster, a peer-to-peer file-swapping application that is similar to Napster but uses the popular AOL instant-messaging platform, is already fending off several litigious advances, including two lawsuits by a group of major record labels and some movie studios that include Time Warner Entertainment and New Line Cinema. The new lawsuit brought by the studios, filed Wednesday, accuses Aimster of posing a '' 'Napster-like' threat to the motion picture industry.''
http://www.inside.com/jcs/Story?arti...3917&pod_id=13

National Private Radio
We're told we should be celebrating the 30th anniversary of National Public Radio this month, but for many of us who love radio, and what it can do, and what it can be, I suspect it won't be much of a celebration. It'll probably be more like a wake. National Public Radio was set up in 1972 as a national, noncommercial radio network that would, in the words of its founding charter, "serve groups whose voices would otherwise go unheard." And for its first few years, it did exactly that. I remember lying in bed, listening to a talk on NPR one afternoon, sometime in 1979 or 1980. It was one of those programs that move the heart, that make chills go up and down one's spine -- doing exactly what radio does best.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...pr1/index.html

Beauty Over Youth
From the countless music videos portraying young buxom beauties to a flourishing cosmetics industry that promises to slow aging, women are lead to believe men lust primarily after youth, not beauty. But a new study from Britain suggests men may be more choosy than they're usually given credit for, preferring older attractive woman to younger plain-looking ones. Human sexual behavior often mirrors that of other animal species, say researchers. In many animal species, males seek to mate with as many females as possible to increase their number of offspring. Females however, usually choose the best quality mate they can find, one that can provide good genes and resources for their young.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...uty010702.html

You can get anybody you want kicked off Hotmail
When we reported Hotmail's zero-tolerance spam policy last week we thought it just might be possible to get the innocent Hotmail user of your choice kicked off the system with a simple email to abuse@hotmail.com. But it was just a thought - the single incident we reported last week was surely just a mistake, and there's absolutely no way a grown-up operation would do this as a matter of course, right? Wrong, apparently - after reading the story, Fritz Öhman set about to duplicate the circumstances, and guess what?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/20106.html

Phew ! Done for the day !

[walktalker]

Oh, come on

[relic]

Originally posted by walktalker
Oh, come on

trying to read some of this...shhh