The Newspaper Shop -- The "too much time in my hands" monday edition

[walktalker]

Hello Napsterites !!
After all the commotion due to the old infamous power supply problem, I am now ready to take over the News business

Okay, here we go:
War! Intel launches chip attack
ntel on Monday released a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 processor and with it, a scorched-earth approach to the PC market. As earlier reported, the new chip, which will be featured in a number of PCs from major manufacturers, will increase overall desktop performance, especially on entertainment applications such as video encoding, according to company executives.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdhpnews01

Compatibility issues dog Windows XP
The application compatibility monster is rearing its ugly head again as Microsoft moves closer to the launch of Windows XP late this year. As was the case when Microsoft upgraded users from Windows 3.x to 95/98 and then to Windows 2000, software developers and users are finding that what once ran on previous versions won't run well - or at all - on the new XP platform.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...710688,00.html

Party's over for free online storage
Online storage companies, which have been luring millions of consumers to their sites primarily through free services such as faxing and file sharing, are now changing their business models to help shore up their bottom lines. Xdrive, with 9.5 million users, announced this week it will charge a $4.95 subscription fee for the use of 25MB of online storage. Up to now, the Santa Monica, Calif., company had made 25MB free.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...710637,00.html

Red Hat tool takes Linux forward
Built around the Linux 2.4 kernel and boasting several new configuration and usability enhancements, Red Hat Inc.'s Red Hat Linux 7.1 packs advances for the corporate server and desktop alike.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...710692,00.html

Start-up adds locks to media files
A Southern California start-up called SigningStation Monday plans to unveil a way to put personalized "locks" on digital music and video files, a method designed to prevent free sharing of digital media and to drive up the cost of breaking the copy protection.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...710873,00.html

IBM brings Linux, Unix closer
You might call it high-tech's odd couple--IBM's white shirts, ties and pocket protectors paired with the ripped T-shirts of Birkenstock-wearing, free-software-loving Linux programmers. But IBM has embraced the open-source movement, and there's evidence it's more than just a mid-life crisis.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...710797,00.html

Napster to take fingerprints
Napster is preparing to use stronger measures to block copyrighted songs from its file-swapping network, a move aimed at mollifying its critics as it lays the groundwork for a planned paid version of the service. It was unclear, however, when the file-swapping company planned to implement filters based on such a system or whether such an approach would satisfy its adversaries.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...081532,00.html

RIAA wins in Net radio dispute
The record industry has scored a win with the U.S. Copyright Office, which published a ruling Monday that radio broadcasters are not exempt from licensing royalties when they simulcast their programs on the Internet. The decision, published in the Federal Register on Monday, was cheered by Webcasters. They sided with the Recording Industry Association of America as part of their crusade to clarify what they say are gray areas of copyright law, which are impeding their efforts to provide entertainment on the Web.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Digital TV sales soar in first quarter
The sale of digital television sets and displays soared 158 percent during the first quarter year-over-year, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said Sunday, suggesting Americans are beginning to more widely embrace the new, crisper broadcasts.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Who's the Pawn in This Match?
There may be no better battles between man and machine than those over the chessboard. So far, the machine has the edge. The great Russian champion Garry Kasparov lost a six-game match in 1997 to IBM's Deep Blue. But man gets a rematch this year. And chess insiders think that this will be a fairer contest and a truer test of what comes out ahead in a battle of creativity and raw analytic ability -- microprocessors or neurons.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,43203,00.html

Gene Finds Our Sweet Spot
For the first time, scientists have apparently identified one of the tiny taste bud sensors that let people detect sweetness in foods. The work could lead to improved artificial sweeteners, and maybe help explain why some people have a sweet tooth.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,43230,00.html

Deadheads May Not Be Grateful
The smiles on the Grateful Dead dancing bears are long gone. Six years after Jerry Garcia's death, a new website showcasing his art and music will launch Monday. Jerrygarcia.com isn't the first site devoted to the former Grateful Dead frontman; it probably isn't even the 50th. But this website -- more than all the others -- illustrates the controversy that's swirled around Garcia's estate.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,43184,00.html

Mayans Out of Net's Reach
Producers of arts and crafts across the globe welcome the possibilities the Web presents for selling their work and eliminating the middleman, but often find they're blocked by high initial costs and lack of access.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,43223,00.html

Is energy technology the next big thing?
TECH is in trouble, right? After all, the Internet boom has turned spectacularly to bust, and the Nasdaq is far below its peak. Yet there is one corner of the technology world that may be the exception: energy technology (ET). This newish sector consists of a rag-bag of companies at the innovative end of the stodgy electricity industry.
http://www.economist.com/business/di...tory_ID=581783

Cell phone firms sued over health risks
A lawyer known for suing the tobacco and asbestos industries is now going after cellular phone companies, alleging in new lawsuits that the companies have known about health risks for users of the phones but failed to warn them.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...hone-suits.htm

Saving these news up

[TankGirl]

Thanks WT! Great to have you back!

- tg

[walktalker]

Let's keep going
Napster's Latest Move: Will It Stave Off Legal Checkmate?
In an abrupt about face, Napster today said it will embrace acoustic "fingerprinting" technology to help filter copyrighted songs out of its system. One analyst today praised the move as a way for the music-swapping service to keep one step ahead of the recording industry in their long-running legal dispute.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/164779.html

Looking To See If we Are Doomed To Repeat Ourselves
"We have a new volunteer writer, a bright young man named Jeffery Commaroto. A very in-depth thought-provoking article on the "corporate culture" of America and where it came from." --Zeropaid Staff
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/news.php3?id=04222001b

Early Nirvana, Other Indie Music Still Thrives On Napster
Imagine a ruthlessly efficient army of robots running wild through the nation's record stores, removing every bit of major label product from the shelves, from Britney to Bob Dylan — but leaving behind CDs from independent labels. Since March, that unlikely scenario has taken place, more or less, on the free but legally precarious online music bazaar that is Napster.
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/digital...442959&index=2

Survey Finds Hail of ‘Friendly Fire’ E-Mails Waste Time
A new study finds that with managing e-mail taking up more than an hour of many workers' days, at least 34 percent of messages do not contain any information employees need to do their jobs properly. "We were shocked by the result," said Neil MacDonald, vice president and director of research with Gartner Inc., a research advisory firm in Stamford, Ct. "What this means is a third of that time, or roughly a third, is wasted."
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...ail010420.html

SDMI cracks revealed
The academic cracker crew led by Princeton University Computer Science Professor Edward Felten, which answered the HackSDMI public challenge of last September with 'unqualified' results, has received veiled threats of criminal prosecution under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) from the SDMI Foundation in hopes that the team will be cowed into withholding what it's learned from an upcoming computer science conference.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/18434.html

NASA grounds Pope
Pope John Paul II's influence may extend to all matters spiritual, but his Holiness's clout doesn't run to the extra-terrestrial, it seems. US rocket courier NASA has banned space shuttle Endeavour fly-boy Umberto Guidoni (above) from being the first man to deliver the world's first ultra-atmospheric papal missive. The reason? Well, it might upset the non-Roman-Catholic crew members.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/18433.html

The Garfield comic strip of the day !
The Dilbert strip of the day !
The Boondocks strip of the day !