The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

First, let me tell you good news. I received my paycheck !! And another one is in the mail, so soon it will be time to buy a lot of stuff !


Sharing...the Microsoft way
It's not a debate about whether Microsoft will adopt the principles of the open source movement and share the source code of its OS, Windows. Ain't happening. Ain't gonna happen. What Mundie announced and described at Stern was a "shared source" philosophy. And even the use of the word "shared" has to be clearly understood.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...775041,00.html

Is Microsoft secretly using open source?
Microsoft Corp., even while mounting a new campaign against open-source software, has quietly been using such free computer code in several major products, as well as on key portions of a popular Web site -- despite denying last week that it did so. Software connected with the FreeBSD open-source operating system is used in several places deep inside several versions of Microsoft's Windows software, such as in the "TCP/IP" section that arranges all connections to the Internet. The company also uses FreeBSD on numerous "server" computers that manage major functions at its Hotmail free e-mail service, whose registered users exceed 100 million and make it one of the Web's busiest sites.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...776342,00.html

Intel: Pentium 4 to clock up 1.8GHz
Intel will celebrate the Fourth of July with the launch of faster Pentium 4 chips, but don't expect fireworks or a major bump in lagging Pentium 4 sales. The chipmaker will release 1.8GHz and 1.6GHz Pentium 4 processors in early July, sources said. But instead of trumpeting that it has the fastest PC processor lineup, Intel appears to be plotting to use the new chips to fill gaps in its Pentium 4 lineup as it prepares to launch its 2GHz Pentium 4 chip in a few months.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...092856,00.html

Wireless data mining is watching you
Data mining company DigiMine introduced a service Monday to track the behavior of people who surf the Web from wireless devices, an innovation experts say could result in more targeted advertisements -- or an overdose of annoying marketing pitches. Executives at Bellevue, Wash.-based DigiMine say their Wireless Business Intelligence (WBI) service is the first to crunch data contained in log files for wireless Internet content providers, service providers and carriers. The software analyzes data in real time to provide a snapshot of how individuals use the wireless Web.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...092875,00.html

100GB hard drive hits storage high
Maxtor has spun out a 100GB hard drive aimed at a small but growing audience of audio and video fanatics. The $300 DiamondMax D536X, released Monday, is the latest high water mark for an industry in which technology is butting heads with the laws of physics. "This business is a constant challenge to increase capacity to meet emerging demand," Maxtor spokesman Martin Parry said. "It's a relentless cycle."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...092881,00.html

Legal experts question Windows XP
Despite Microsoft's confidence that it will ultimately prevail in its federal court battle, critics feel the company is playing with fire in its recent maneuvers. With Microsoft's inclusion of so-called smart tags and other technologies in the forthcoming Windows XP operating system, legal experts say the company is practicing the same types of behavior that got it in trouble in the first place.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...775911,00.html

Madonna tickets get Net readers to drop their knickers
The publisher of a German Internet Web site offering Madonna fans a ticket to a sold-out concert in exchange for sex said Monday his publication had been bombarded by applicants from around the world. Thema1 publisher Bernd Heusinger said 120 readers applied for a chance to win the ticket to attend the Berlin concert of rock icon Madonna as his guest Friday. He said there had been some 500,000 "hits," or page viewings, of Thema1 each day since the offer was made--more than tenfold the usual daily readership.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...pt=zdnn_nbs_hl

Microsoft reveals Web server hole
Microsoft said Monday that a "serious vulnerability" in its flagship Web server software used by computers running more than 6 million sites could allow hackers and online vandals to take control of the computers. As first reported by CNET News.com, the flaw occurs in a component of Microsoft's Internet Information Service (IIS) software that is installed on Web servers by default, said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer with eEye Digital Security, the company that found the flaw. Pretty much any Web server (using Microsoft software) is basically left vulnerable to attack," he said. "Any hacker can basically get system-level access, which is the highest level of access on the computer," by using a program that exploits the problem.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Moving beyond Linux vs. Windows
Recent comments by Microsoft executives about Linux and the open-source movement being a "cancer" -- as well as the latest statistics on new licenses for Linux vs. Microsoft Windows -- should be interpreted with a healthy degree of skepticism. Microsoft's objection to Linux and the open-source movement centers on the idea of software being available for free, which threatens revenue for traditional software makers. However, Linux remains unlikely to unseat either Windows or proprietary Unix versions now used on virtually all desktops and servers in commercial companies. At the same time, Microsoft is perfectly happy to take advantage of the open-source concept of releasing source code and allowing third parties to fix bugs and make minor modifications.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201...html?tag=cd_mh

Why Microsoft is wary of open source
There's more to Microsoft's recent attacks on the open-source movement than mere rhetoric: Linux's popularity could hinder the software giant in its quest to gain control of a server market that's crucial to its long-term goals. Recent public statements by Microsoft executives have cast Linux and the open-source philosophy that underlies it as, at the minimum, bad for competition, and, at worst, a "cancer" to everything it touches. Behind the war of words, analysts say, is evidence that Microsoft is increasingly concerned about Linux and its growing popularity.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Mobile multimedia e-mail gets a unified front
The world's top four handset sellers on Tuesday will announce an initiative designed to spur interest in adding videos, pictures and sound files to e-mail messages traded on wireless devices. Nokia, Siemens, Motorola and Ericsson will jointly tout "multimedia messaging," or MMS, with the intent of developing a standard for the service, according to Peter Bodor, a spokesman for Ericsson.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Clear Channel revives Internet streaming
Leading radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications Inc. said Monday it will resume broadcasting some of its stations' content on the Internet by using technology that allows Internet-only ads and avoids a contractual dispute with radio union workers. Using ad-insertion technology for its streaming audio Web sites provided by privately held Hiwire, Clear Channel will return some of the 1,170 radio stations that it owns or operates to the Internet next month after a two-month hiatus.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Napster CEO talks about copyrights
Embattled Napster Chief Executive Hank Barry took the stage at a conference of librarians Saturday to speak about the thorny issues surrounding his troubled song-swap company -- issues that could soon vex libraries as well. Sitting alongside privacy experts, Barry sought to dispel the notion that copyright issues illuminated by Napster's legal woes would disappear once a new, legal version of the song-sharing software debuts later this summer. "This is a very big battle that we're all engaged in and it has very little to do with Napster," Barry said. "It's a battle over access to information."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

High court to hear copycat-products case
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an important patent case that could make it easier to develop knockoff products without running afoul of patent laws. On Monday, the court said it will consider whether to overturn a lower court ruling that limits a patent's scope. Oral arguments will take place sometime during the next session, with a decision expected after that. Many tech companies are closely watching the case, known as Festo v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Koygo Kabushiki, because it could affect how widely patent laws can be applied to copycat products.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

See You in the Funny Web Pages
The 1990s were not the best of times for the comics industry. Arguably over-reliant on the superhero genre and the buying power of the adolescent boys who made up the bulk of its audience, the industry suffered some major hits. Once a national pastime (half of the U.S. population regularly read comic books in 1945), comics in the '90s flirted with extinction: Only one in a thousand Americans were buying. But comics may prove to be indestructible, thanks in part to a secret weapon -- the Web. With advances being made in their digital creation and delivery, comics remain alive, if not completely well.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44477,00.html

He Ain't Heavy, He's Your Energy
Gary Henderson, an engineer in New York City, listens to politicians and businesspeople and citizens blather on about the U.S. "energy crisis" and he wonders why we don't see the same thing he sees: Henderson looks at roads and sidewalks and farms and he sees energy, lots of it, possibly enough to power "an entire city." Where is it all? It's beneath your feet, he says, and beneath the tires of your car, not to mention the hooves of your cattle. "We have determined that the largest untapped source of power is the movement of animals and people and vehicles," Henderson said. And of course, he's making a device to tap that power.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,44518,00.html

Report: Feds do poor job following privacy rules
The government is doing an inadequate job of complying with its own Internet privacy rules, according to a report Congress released Friday. The study, culled from reports of 51 inspectors general, found 300 "cookies" on the Web sites of 23 agencies. Cookies are Internet tracking devices that last year were banned, for the most part, from federal Web sites. The small software files can make browsing more convenient by letting sites distinguish user preferences, but they have been criticized for violating privacy because they can track Web surfing.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

Suit yourself with a wearable computer
As if the mobile industry didn't have enough woes, another threat is looming on the horizon from the cyber labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wearable computing has long been regarded as at the wackier end of the technology visionary scale, but for research scientist Steven Schwartz working at the Media Lab at MIT the idea of wearable computers overtaking mobile phones is a no-brainer. "This will deconstruct the cell phone. This is hot and disruptive," he says of the tiny device he has built into spectacles and connected to a network of circuit boards built into a string vest worn under his suit.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...776356,00.html

Tracing the Synapses of Spirituality
In Philadelphia, a researcher discovers areas of the brain that are activated during meditation. At two other universities in San Diego and North Carolina, doctors study how epilepsy and certain hallucinogenic drugs can produce religious epiphanies. And in Canada, a neuroscientist fits people with magnetized helmets that produce "spiritual" experiences for the secular.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Jun15.html

More news later on !!

[walktalker]

EU OKs Standardized Pro-Privacy Business Contracts
The European Union (EU) today said it has adopted standardized contract language aimed at protecting its citizens' personal data that electronically flow outside EU nations' borders when they conduct international business online. The EU's Privacy Directive prohibits data transfers to companies in nations where strict data-privacy protections are not in force, or don't measure up to the directive's specifications.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166971.html

Nowhere left to hide
Getting arrested in Maricopa County can make you a star -- a star in a sick webcam drama that turns the inside of a local jail into a worldwide freak show for any voyeur with a Web connection. Since July 2000, the county jail's four cameras have served up live images of the facility's search area, the men's and women's holding cells and the pre-intake area. The images are hosted on Crime.com, a site now owned by USA Networks and started by the co-founder of the reality TV show "Cops." Bonus scenes include the shakedown video, which the site bills as "Special Ops," a two-minute low-budget movie that provides extra titillation for Web-enabled prying eyes.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...acy/index.html

Picks of the Week
"I’m Not a Hacker, But I Play One in the Movies." The new movie Swordfish involves computer hackers stealing government money. “You go in over the phone lines, pop the firewall, sit back, wait for the money,” says Gabriel Shear, the villain as portrayed by John Travolta in the film. Not bad for someone who didn’t even know what a firewall was. “I had to look it up,” says Travolta. And you couldn’t really call co-star Halle Berry a techie.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...ake010618.html

The New Napster?
If Napster is a thorn in the side of the recording industry, then BearShare may be the guillotine poised to slice its neck. Just months after a federal appeals court ordered Napster to cease its dealing in copyrighted music, a new breed of file sharing is rapidly gaining popularity. The burgeoning swap services are even more elusive, and, for now, unstoppable. "There are going to be these thousands of parallel distribution universes," says Rob Batchelder, an analyst with the Gartner Group in Stamford, Conn. "The genie's out of the bottle." If the Recording Industry Association of America had its wish, it might eradicate file sharing for good. But a new report by PC Pitstop, an Internet marketing firm, finds that file-swapping alternatives are increasing as users migrate away from Napster.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...share_mp3.html

Creative Labs preps 1394-based digital music rig
Creative Labs' SoundBlaster Audigy sound system - details of it, at least - have leaked out onto the Web. Part of what looks suspiciously like the company's launch presentation has been smuggled out onto a Russian Web site. Creative describes the as-yet-unannounced Audigy - from 'Audio Energy'? - as "the most advanced digital audio entertainment centre". In addition to the hardware and the software that controls it, Audigy appears also to refer to the sound chip underlying it all, also known as the EMU10K2. A previously leaked roadmap suggests that Audigy is scheduled to be released any day now.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/19792.html

MSNBC doctors anti-MS WSJ story
MSNBC has been caught doctoring copy originating from the Wall Street Journal to make it more favourable to the news channel's co-owner Microsoft. The changes introduced by MSNBC also had the effect of removing references to Microsoft competitors. Amongst many fairly harmless edits, designed to improve readability, were some more ominous changes. The original WSJ report gave a harsh analysis of Microsoft' offensive against open source software and the GNU General Public License, initiated six weeks ago by Craig Mundie.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19771.html

Lawyers raise fears over AltaVista's search engine
Lawyers have warned that companies using AltaVista's new search engine technology are at risk of breaching data protection laws. Launched last week, AltaVista's new software lets people search entire corporate networks allowing employees to access all network folders, personal computers and emails. Announcing the launch, Phil Rugani, executive VP of AltaVista's Search Software division said: "Wherever data resides, whether it is structured or unstructured, AltaVista's software architecture provides a single, universal view to create efficiencies and more intelligent decision making throughout an organisation."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19773.html

Hum... that's it for now

[TankGirl]

Hi WT and congratulations for your paycheck!
And of course thanks for the newspaper... lots of good reading again!

- tg

[relic]

It is 5:30 am and I'm on the boards...bumping. Thanks for the news hehe

[walktalker]

I never get enough of those thanks and bumping
Hey TG and aaacbada

[kristof47]

Originally posted by walktalker
Tracing the Synapses of Spirituality
In Philadelphia, a researcher discovers areas of the brain that are activated during meditation. At two other universities in San Diego and North Carolina, doctors study how epilepsy and certain hallucinogenic drugs can produce religious epiphanies. And in Canada, a neuroscientist fits people with magnetized helmets that produce "spiritual" experiences for the secular.[/b]

That's nothing new. I've seen experiments were they stimulate a certain part of the brain which creates the feeling of presence, warmth and hallucinations of often religious images, dependent on what religious aspect is important. Some people saw jesus, others god,... One saw fire and little red men, seriously. It was a simulation of near-death experiences.

[relic]

Originally posted by walktalker
Hey TG and aaacbada

wt. You so awesome man I decided to 'give' you a news article....not computer related but funny

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2001...lupa_dc_1.html
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A youthful thief on a bicycle and brandishing a toy gun held up a Taco Bell through the drive-up window but had to wait so long for a chalupa that he ended up getting caught, authorities say.