The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

Hello Napsterites !
Pushing the envelope on IM
Watch out browsers, bots, e-mail and telephones -- here comes the next generation of instant messaging. Long associated with casual text-based conversations among teens and singles in America Online chat rooms, IM technology is now poised not only to gain mainstream acceptance, but to establish itself as an independent platform for a variety of communications and information-gathering applications. Already, instant messaging applications from mainstream software and media companies Yahoo, AOL Time Warner and Microsoft offer a long menu of communications tools that go beyond the traditional text-based instant message. These include audio chat and PC-to-phone telephony, videoconferencing, file sharing and multiplayer games.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

BMG to test 'rip'-proof CDs
BMG Entertainment said Monday it will work with security technology provider SunnComm to create copy-protected CDs, one of a growing number of efforts by the record labels to combat alleged Internet piracy at the source. Under the deal, SunnComm said BMG will use its technology, dubbed MediaCloQ, which prevents people from being able to "rip" songs directly from a CD onto a computer. BMG said it is testing SunnComm's technology and is starting to implement it on promotional CDs. BMG said it will decide later whether to use SunnComm's technology for commercial releases. The announcement comes as major record labels are testing ways to stop the flood of unauthorized MP3s onto the Web. Thousands of CDs incorporating anti-copying technology have already been sold to unsuspecting consumers in one test that began months ago.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Global alert for next round of Code Red
A group of government and private security experts took the unusual step Monday of publicly urging businesses worldwide to guard themselves against the Code Red worm, set to reactivate Tuesday with possibly dire consequences for the Internet. Representatives from Microsoft, federal security agencies and various trade groups held a globally televised press conference to urge businesses to install a Microsoft software patch that prevents Code Red from infecting servers running Microsoft's server software. "There is reason for concern that the mass traffic associated with this worm's propagation could degrade the functioning of the Internet," Ronald Dick, director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, said during the conference.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Net music: Who will pay what?
Record companies and Internet radio broadcasters will start a long-awaited round of hearings on Monday aimed at setting the ground rules for the burgeoning online radio business. At stake is whether the free music services that have drawn millions of listeners during the past few years -- including such sites as AOL Time Warner's Spinner.com, MTVi's SonicNet and MSN's music service -- can remain free. For the past several years, the companies have operated their online stations without a clear idea of how much money they would ultimately have to pay for the music they broadcast 24 hours a day. Now that price tag will finally be set, and with it the fate of one of the only commercial features of the online music landscape that has demonstrated significant popular support.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Yahoo puts pop-unders to the test
Yahoo is poised to throw its weight behind a new and controversial breed of Net advertising: pop-unders. Ads hawking credit reports and a miniature video camera from X10 have begun launching in hidden browser windows on Yahoo's news and travel sites. A Yahoo representative told CNET News.com on Friday that the ads are a "test" as the company considers whether to sell pop-unders on its sites, which collectively draw one of the largest audiences on the Web. The move promises to increase the number of pop-unders consumers see online -- a figure that has already climbed into the billions, according to Dave Gross, a partner with Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Fastclick.com, which sells and serves the ad format for a growing roster of marketers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Bad writers never had it so good
Bad writers never had it so good. Largely thanks to increased exposure on the Internet, prices for their works have been rising. First Editions of Ed Earl Repp, who wrote Westerns and science fiction fetch $100 on the Internet. Sydney Horler, a spy writer, was "egregiously bad," says Bill Pronzini, a mystery novelist who has produced three books on bad writing. "Fifteen, 20 years ago, you couldn't give away his books." A first-edition Horler now can be found for sale on the Web for $550. Fender Tucker, an unemployed former country guitar player in Shreveport, La., has reprinted 24 Keeler novels with nothing more than a computer and homemade bookbinding equipment. "I'm hoping for a small Keeler renaissance," says the 54-year-old Tucker. "There are a lot more people out there who would like Keeler. I just have to reach them." These days, snippets and sometimes whole works are copied on sites devoted to bad writers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...799815,00.html

BSA antipiracy campaign: Truce or scare?
If you're a small or medium-size company, there's a good chance you've heard from the Business Software Alliance about getting your software compliant with its licenses. If not, you probably will. The group is well into a nationwide letter and radio campaign to do just that. But what you probably don't know is that, like so many of the companies that stuff your mailboxes with junk mail, the BSA, which represents such software giants as Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Apple Computer, has no intention of following up on its letters — regardless of how threatening and personal they may seem. It won't phone. And it won't pop in for a surprise audit. Instead, an eWeek investigation reveals, the BSA's campaign is primarily a marketing effort essentially designed to scare people into buying more software.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...pt=zdnn_nbs_hl

FBI case highlights high-tech spying
By bugging a keyboard or using special software, FBI agents can remotely capture a computer user's every keystroke.With a black box, they can intercept e-mail from miles away. From a van parked outside a suspect's house, they can secretly re-create the pictures on a computer screen from its electromagnetic energy. The legal limits for these new investigative tools will get a test Monday when a federal court in New Jersey examines a mob case in which agents, without a wiretap order, recorded a suspect's computer keystrokes. Privacy experts are watching the case of Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. with great interest because it could bring major changes to investigative tactics in the online age.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

School's out for virtual university
Harcourt Higher Education, which launched a much-ballyhooed online college in Massachusetts last year, is closing the school's virtual doors this fall without a single mortarboard tossed in the air. The decision to shut down the college was made after Reed Elsevier, a Dutch-Anglo publisher of textbooks and medical books, bought Harcourt General, then sold several of its subsidiaries, including Harcourt Higher Education, to Canada-based Thomson last autumn. The sale was completed July 13. "Thomson has decided that it will not continue to operate HHE as an independent degree-granting institution after September 28, 2001. The decision is in line with Thomson's strategic business plans," Robert V. Antonucci, the president and chief executive of Harcourt Higher Education, wrote in a letter to the Board of Higher Education on Friday.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Days of free Internet lunch ending in China
Free access for many of China's 20 million e-mail users is ending. Internet portals in China, desperate to turn their popularity into profits, are starting to charge for user services as online advertising revenue proves insufficient even to pay the bills. "If they don't start charging for the services they provide, I don't think any of them will survive in the long haul," said Jack Lin, chief investment officer of Internet conglomerate Chinadotcom. Chinadotcom, which operates a mainland portal, plans a host of fee-for-service initiatives -- including e-mail -- beginning in August, to help the company in its quest to break even. Up for review are Chinadotcom's 80MB free e-mail boxes. Microsoft's Hotmail offers only 2MB. Rival Sina.com plans fees on some services, including e-mail, "definitely" before year-end, a spokesman said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Retail software sales grow
Retail sales of software inched past peak levels in the first half of 2001, fueled by demand for financial and security software for PCs, according to market researcher NPD Intelect. Although sales of PCs sold in stores and through catalogs have sunk compared with the same period last year, the continued flat or even slightly higher sales of software programs are bringing a sense of relief to retailers. "A lot of people were holding their breath because of all the dismal performance of hardware sector," NPD analyst Steve Koenig said. "It definitely is good news for retailers that demand for software remains steady compared with a year ago and even improved by a thin margin."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Tour de France training -- on the Net
What does it take to win the Tour de France? Skill, sweat and a little help from the Internet. The winner of the 1999 and 2000 Tour de France, 29-year-old American cyclist Lance Armstrong, and his coaching staff used the Web to help improve his chances of bringing home victory again in 2001. On Sunday, Armstrong crossed the finish line, claiming the yellow victor's jersey and his third victory in as many years. While training for the 22-day event, Armstrong and some members of the U.S. Postal Service Team used an Internet-based coaching tool that allows coaches to create training schedules for athletes on a secure Web page.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[Periwinkle Shadow]

thanks much babe... ur too good for us, did ya know that?

[walktalker]

Hehe, I know, but I like cuties to repeat it to me

Icons Cluttering up Windows Space
This apparent interference came in the form of Microsoft's announcement Monday that computer manufacturers who put any icons on the desktop of Windows XP -- the new version of its operating system -- must also include an icon for MSN, Microsoft's ISP. The decision was made public only after Compaq said last Friday it had struck a deal with AOL to exclusively feature AOL's Internet service on the startup sequence of computers featuring Windows XP. Microsoft had previously announced that it would loosen restrictions on the new desktop operating system to let computer makers remove the icon for Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and replace it with that of a rival browser such as Netscape Navigator. But Vivek Varma, a spokesman for Microsoft, insisted that this new point was not at all a reversal of its earlier statements.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45716,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/...,45695,00.html

Face Scanners Turn Lens on Selves
A leading maker of facial recognition software is calling for federal regulation of the controversial technology to avoid misuse. The technology, which converts facial images into an easily compiled and searched numerical code, has been criticized by privacy advocates who say the scans amount to facial frisking. "Like all powerful technologies, it should be used responsibly," said Frances Zelazny, a spokeswoman for Visionics Corporation. "We believe systemic oversight is the best way to ensure our principles are translated into responsible policies and uses of technologies." The technology first gained public notoriety in January, when Tampa, Florida, police used it to scan the faces of unsuspecting football fans at the Super Bowl and compare their mugs with terrorists and other criminals.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,45687,00.html

Web Music Fight Plays Out in D.C.
The U.S. government is about to dramatically alter the business of streaming audio on the Internet by deciding how much the recording industry should be paid each time someone listens to a song. On Monday, the Copyright Office convened a long-awaited series of hearings to set a standard fee that webcasters must pay to the copyright owners of songs. A panel will hear testimony for the next 180 days, and the recommendations most likely will be incorporated into the eventual decision of the Copyright Office. This Byzantine, bureaucratic process will end in an agreement that will determine, among other things, whether advertising-supported online music sites can be profitable or not.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45703,00.html

New Laws: Thou Shalt Patch
With no real power to force action, the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center often finds itself waving its arms, hoping for attention when a threat like the Code Red virus emerges. Often, the warnings go unheeded. But that may be changing. Federal rules that will make it obligatory for specific sectors to download virus patches are already here, and more are coming. "There is a justification for these regulations having been implemented," said Dean Harvey, who specializes in Internet law at Vinson & Elkins in Dallas. "There's a patch for Code Red, but it's still on a quarter-million servers. It should be an eye opener to businesses that they need to keep their systems secure."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45692,00.html

One Giant Leap for Spacekind?
Supporters of the theory of Panspermia -- which posits that life on Earth originated in space -- have unveiled fresh research indicating the existence of living matter in the planet's upper atmosphere. In a paper presented Monday at an engineering conference in San Diego, California, a team of scientists from India and Britain said they had isolated a sample of air collected from Earth's stratosphere that contained clumps of living cells.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,45704,00.html

Expo Focus on Securing E-Books
The publishing industry was supposed to have learned from the music industry's mistakes with Napster. But with the recent arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov -- the alleged hacker who wrote a program that bypasses encrypted Adobe Acrobat files -- some are questioning whether e-books, and the nascent e-publishing industry, are truly secure. Nash will moderate a panel, "Copyright Issues for E-Books," at this week's BookTech West Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,45635,00.html

Modified Tomatoes Hold the Salt
A genetically modified tomato could be the answer to dangerously decreasing acres of farmable land caused by salty soil. Researchers at the University of California at Davis and the University of Toronto say they have created the first tomato plant that can grow in salty soil, an increasing problem for farmers of all types of crops. Salinity in soil is caused mostly by irrigation, which is necessary for the survival of many crops but also distributes salt that can kill plants. The genetically altered tomato removes salt from the soil and stores it in its leaves. And because this action takes place in the leaves, the scientists say the quality of the tomato is not affected.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,45694,00.html

Gov't Dept. Erases Indian E-Mail
The Interior Department destroyed e-mails that may have dealt with mismanaged Indian land royalties, despite repeated court orders that the files be preserved, according to a court-appointed investigator. The data was supposed to be retained at the request of attorneys representing hundreds of American Indians in a lawsuit alleging that the government mismanaged at least $10 billion in royalties collected since 1887 from the use of Indian lands. But from June 1998, when the court first ordered the data tapes preserved, until November 2000, tapes at a number of field offices were routinely overwritten and the information on them destroyed, said Alan Balaran, a court-appointed special master. He issued his report Friday.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45717,00.html

Post-Napster Pirates Commandeer Computers
There's been a wild party at the New York City Board of Elections. With plenty of movies -- "The Green Mile," "Braveheart" and "Unbreakable" -- and pop music from Willa Ford and R.E.M., plus MTV videos. All free and all illegal. To join the fun, online party-goers just directed their Web browsers to an election board computer site. Then they made their own copies of the entertainment stash before officials noticed this virtual rave party erupting in their computers. Episodes like this one, which went on for weeks until the Board of Elections shut down the site last weekend, are part of an online piracy wave that is sweeping across the Internet. When the online music-sharing service Napster was shut down by a judge four weeks ago, its millions of users had to go somewhere. Many shifted to the dozen or so legal online alternatives still in operation. Others moved underground.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...%2Da%5Fsection

Bush plans 'space bomber'
The United States is exploring the development of a 'space-bomber' which could destroy targets on the other side of the world within 30 minutes. As part of a weapons modernisation strategy personally directed by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon is drawing up plans for a 'sub-orbital vehicle' launched like a spacecraft, which Rumsfeld describes as 'valuable for conducting rapid global strikes'. The craft - which would set the scene for a new generation of stratospheric warfare - would be able to drop precision bombs from a height of 60 miles, flying at 15 times the speed and 10 times the height of America's current bomber fleet. It is unclear whether it would be manned.
http://www.observer.co.uk/internatio...529208,00.html

Hacking activity at all-time high
Hacking activity is at an all-time high, according to stats compiled by The Honeynet Project. It bases this conclusion on the number of attacks perpetrated against a network of servers, set up by the organisation specifically to collect data on hacking attempts. The intrusion detection system placed on the Honeynet's servers generated 157 alerts during May 2000 but this figure had escalated by a factor of almost nine to 1,398 alerts by February 2001. The Honeynet's firewall showed a doubling of alerts from 103 to 206 per month between May 2000 and February 2001. Much of what the project discovered chimes in with the increasing incidents of corporate Web site defacement and other hacking attacks but it also throws up some interesting insights in the techniques used by black hat hackers.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20714.html

Happy 40th, computer games
Ah, the summer of 1961. United States President John F Kennedy was coping with the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Berliners were learning to live with the wall, the Beatles were singing up a storm at the Cavern club, and in Boston a small group of programmers were about to invent the computer games industry. Yes, it's 40 years since a band of pioneering computer enthusiasts created Spacewar!, in which players battled to save the Universe. Most computers at that time were huge, expensive machines tended by men in white coats who defended their whirring, clicking charges with all the high-minded zeal of, well, zealots.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_...00/1464171.stm

New Web advertising tool gets results, draws criticism
After Douglas Hoppe downloaded the hot new online file-sharing program called KaZaa two weeks ago, random yellow hyperlinks began appearing on his fledgling music site. Hoppe became hopping mad when he realized words such as "jazz" and "hip hop" had become hyperlinks, sending potential customers to the site of BMG Music, one of the world's biggest record labels. Someone was hijacking his visitors, he thought. But Hoppe soon learned that when he installed KaZaa, he also unknowingly installed a bundled program called TOPtext, part of a new online advertising technology called ContextPro developed by EZula Inc. of San Francisco.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...0/BU231339.DTL

Wearable computing comes off the peg
Wearable computers could become more than a curiosity with the launch of a system for the mass market. The Wearable Internet Appliance (WIA) consists of a 300 gram (11 ounce) palm-top-sized computer and a head-mounted screen. The display is manufactured by a Japanese company called Shimadzu and fits over one eye like half a pair of sunglasses. The viewable screen is then equivalent to a 33 cm (13 inch) monitor, according to Shimadzu. A small handheld controller allows the user to scroll around the screen and make selections. The miniature computer will be powered by Hitachi's new 128 MHz RISC processor, providing power close to that of a desktop computer. It will run Microsoft's CE operating system for handheld computers, which features cut-down versions of email and word-processing applications.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991086