The Newspaper Shop -- weekend edition

[walktalker]

Thanks God, now yesterday's headache is almost gone...
Hop, light news time

How to foil online identity thieves
With the growth of computers, the Internet, and electronic commerce, stealing a person's identity has become all too easy. And law enforcement agencies often don't know how to help. Many of the crimes are federal, even international in nature. But they all have one thing in common: Some poor consumer -- maybe a person just like you -- gets hurt. And we all pay the price in higher interest rates and in the prices of the goods and services we buy.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...770523,00.html

The budding e-book controversy
A live story on the torny subject of electronic rights in the e-book age, by the CEO of a startup called "Random House".
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...770556,00.html

Have you seen this geek?
Federal authorities are calling Jay Nelson "the Internet's John Dillinger" and "Public Enemy No. 1" for online auctions. They say he's scammed auction bidders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past two years, thumbing his nose at law enforcement along the way. Now a fugitive who has skipped bail, Nelson is scamming his way around the country, authorities say--and they just can't catch him.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...771692,00.html

Decline of New Economy will make everyone pay
The new Internet may be dominated by a handful of megacorporations able to promise the safety and convenience of paying for Web usage in one place, thus avoiding a maddening jumble of per-click charges, sliding storage fees and daily content subscriptions. The end of the free World Wide Web is coming soon. A clipping of stories made by CNet.com.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201...html?tag=tp_pr

Hackers threatened California power supply
At the height of the California energy crisis, a key computer system involved in moving electricity throughout the state was targeted by hackers, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. The limited success of the hackers exposed security weaknesses in the system used by the California Independent System Operator (ISO), which oversees most of the state's electricity transmission grid, the report said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Ballmer: Would not launch MSNBC again
If we were starting (MSNBC) now, as good an operation as it is, I don't think we would have started it," Ballmer told. MSNBC is a joint venture with NBC TV and includes an online news site. Ballmer's lament comes as the entire media industry, and Web publishers in particular, is suffering through a downturn in the advertising market. Scores of online and offline media businesses have been forced to lay off employees or close divisions because of plunging ad revenue. NBC itself folded its Internet operations, a Web portal and media company called NBC Internet, back into corporate operations and shut down its offices in San Francisco.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Vivendi, Sony seek conductor for Duet
Media giants Vivendi Universal and Sony are expected to announce the appointment of Andy Schuon to head Duet, the companies' online music subscription service, sources close to the companies said Thursday. The appointment, which could come "very soon," according to sources, would shed more light on the direction of Duet, which to date has been more of a concept than a product. Schuon, who led Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com, an online music site from Universal Music Group, has been considered the top choice for the Duet position for a few months.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Game makers try brains over brawn
Batman winces! And a legion of video game players share his pain, weep like toddlers and reach for their wallets. At least that's what game makers hope will happen. After decades of stuffing store shelves with games offering little more than guns and gore -- a genre often called "twitch"-- game makers are realizing their aging audience is yearning to stimulate more than just their trigger fingers. Gamers want puzzles, plot twists and penitence.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Aggravated consumers pummel PCs
A quarter of the 4,200 PC users who participated in an online tech store's survey have confessed to physically attacking their computers at one time or another. "Looking at some of the answers, it's clear that in many cases people were actually frustrated at their own lack of know-how," David Furby, Novatech's managing director, wrote on the site. "Hopefully as technology improves and computers become ever more user-friendly, these attacks will become less frequent."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Next-generation displays to start small
A new technology is lighting up the eyes of engineers nearly as brightly as it does the numerous screens on display here this week. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays on the show floor at the Society for Information Display's annual conference are considered the next trend in the world of screens. Still, manufacturers are carefully approaching how they bring products to market and are sticking with small screens at first. Manufacturers are interested in OLED because it could replace liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) for notebooks and flat-panel monitors.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Italian Firm's Dolce Music Deal
Italian music website, Vitaminic, announced Friday that it is acquiring rival Peoplesound.com, based in London. The 34 million-euro deal unites two of Europe's most ambitious players in the world of digital downloads. Unlike Napster, both sites have harmonious arrangements with music labels. The merger is hailed as a good omen for Italian companies, which more often are acquired (as opposed to acquiring others) in the global market. Vitaminic -- one of the nation's brightest Web stars -- recently took over music pioneer Internet Underground Music Archive and is finalizing negotiations with FranceMp3.com.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44402,00.html

More Suits Over Streaming Music
The recording industry has moved against webcasters, filing a series of motions in a New York federal court that challenge the legality of streaming systems. On Friday, the Recording Industry Association of America filed three separate complaints against MTVi, MusicMatch and XAct Radio -- three companies that challenged the major music labels in a California court less than a week ago. The jurisdiction battle is just the latest in the ongoing fight between the recording industry and webcasters.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44416,00.html

'Smart Tags' link to another Microsoft controversy
The newest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser will be able to direct Web page readers to other sites without the permission — or even the knowledge — of the page's owner. The feature, dubbed "Smart Tags," will be included in Microsoft's new operating system, Windows XP, which will be released Oct. 25. Currently, Web site owners have complete control over whether to link words or phrases to other Web pages. With this system, Microsoft will have some of that power, although Web site owners will be able to disable the mechanism if they choose.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...smart-tags.htm

Flickering lights foretell glowing networks
Fluorescent lights could soon be shedding bits of data as well as illumination. US scientists have found a way to make the flicker of fluorescent lights carry data. If widely adopted, the technology could be used to set up cheap data networks inside buildings, or could be used to help the disabled and the blind or deaf cope with unfamiliar surroundings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1377747.stm

Compaq waves white flag in PC price war
Here is an example where determination to deliver short-term shareholder value could harm long-term company success. Cmpaq CEO Michael Capellas is reported to be pulling his company out of the PC price war. According to
CW360.com, Capellas told analysts at Merrill Lynch last week that there were no more price cut plans, and Compaq would walk away from deals where pricing was too low. In other words it is prepared to lose market share to Dell rather than take a loss on hardware sales.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/19554.html

[TankGirl]

Thanks for the quality newspaper, WT - and great to hear that your headache is gone!

- tg

[Ramona_A_Stone]

:chuckle:
Thanks for the great links... :twitter:
:giggle:
OK... ROTFLMAO @ link #9. That's hysterical, I can't help it.

[Tom9504]

Hey, thanks for the interesting news... you gave me something to read...

[RDixon]

Good work walk.