The Newspaper Shop -- wednesday edition

[walktalker]

No vacation for the newsman

Bill Gates: Designing your future
An appeals court will soon rule whether Microsoft is an illegal monopoly that should be split in two. But that has not sidetracked Chairman Bill Gates from forging ahead with a plan to dominate the market for Web services. Gates, who is also Microsoft's chief software architect, has ceded much of the day-to-day management of the company to Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. But it's clear that he still sets Microsoft's agenda. At a Microsoft-sponsored conference for software developers this week in Atlanta, Gates drummed up support for the company's Web services technologies, .Net and HailStorm.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...chkpt=zdnn_tp_

You might be surprised who's hacking you
"A few weeks ago, I discussed the dangers of having open ports on a computer. This week I'd like to call your attention to a report that provides an insider's view of what happens when teenage hackers use hundreds of open-port PCs like yours and mine to shut down Web sites in what is commonly known as a distributed denial-of-service attack. The report by Steve Gibson, whose Gibson Research site was taken down in early May, alleges that changes made in Microsoft's new XP operating system system administrators to stop future attacks. What I found interesting about Gibson's report were the messages exchanged between Gibson and the young hackers, Wkd, b0ss, and others, who brought down his site. Wkd turns out to be a bright 13-year-old boy living in Kenosha, Wis., using a pirated EarthLink reseller ISP. Apparently, he and his buds thought Gibson had used the derisive phrase "script kiddies" to describe all young hackers."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...778711,00.html

Red Hat database ready to roll
Red Hat Inc. on Monday plans to offer the PostgreSQL relational database by subscription on its Red Hat Network, sources have told eWEEK. The initiative will give Red Hat an open-source database offering, something observers say its product line is lacking. Red Hat officials disclosed their intention to offer an open-source database -- but no product details -- in a conference call with securities analysts Tuesday. PostgreSQL, which is well-regarded in the open source community, will be positioned by Red Hat for small and midsize businesses. Sources said that Red Hat will continue to encourage large enterprise customers to use Oracle Corp.'s Oracle and IBM's DB2 products.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...778706,00.html

Microsoft to push new XP-ready PCs
Microsoft on Wednesday introduced a campaign to market new PCs specially prepared to run the company's upcoming Windows XP desktop operating system. Under a program called "Windows XP Ready PCs," the software giant has teamed with a group of personal computer makers -- including Dell Computer, Compaq Computer, IBM and Hewlett-Packard -- to turn out machines that have all the requirements to upgrade to the new OS. The program guarantees the computer has passed a Windows Quality Lab test for Windows 2000 -- the current operating system--and that manufacturers will provide any necessary drivers to run Windows XP when the new OS launches in October, Microsoft said in a statement.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...778701,00.html

The biggest security threat? Insiders
System administrators and CIOs have little concept of the top threat to security, according to a survey released this week by eWEEK and security vendor Camelot IT Ltd. Despite personal experience and empirical evidence to the contrary, 57 percent of respondents who listed themselves as very concerned about network and privacy security issues said that outside attacks are a bigger threat to their networks than attacks from insiders. In addition, 22 percent of the respondents to the Camelot Network Security and Privacy Survey said they were not concerned about unauthorized insiders having access to sensitive data.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...777325,00.html

Matrox chipset starts 3-D heads talking
It's been a couple of years since Matrox last impressed the graphics market with the introduction of its G400 chipset with dual-display support. So what has Matrox been doing while rival chipmaker Nvidia tried to take over the world? The answer is in the newly launched G550 chipset. It seems that Matrox has created a product for a market that doesn't currently exist -- for simulated heads to go with Voice Over IP (VoIP). Rather than attacking the opposition head on, Matrox has taken the G550 off on a radical tangent. A new feature, called the HeadCasting Engine, is designed to render a realistic 3D representation of a face, and to synchronize that face's expressions and lip movement to a live or recorded vocal track. The engine is the result of a technology partnership with Digimask and LIPSinc.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...778680,00.html

RealNetworks pushes copyright initiative
Streaming-media giant RealNetworks on Wednesday unveiled new technology intended to promote the legal use of copyrighted material over the Web. The company is aiming the software in its RealSystem Media Commerce Suite at media companies and retailers that want to deliver music, movies and other copyrighted material securely over the Web. The software can be tied into existing systems for delivery of digital content. RealNetworks also introduced an initiative to provide a common, open standard -- called XMCL, for Extensible Media Commerce Language -- that would enable the content to be played on systems from different providers of digital entertainment.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Rental-car firm exceeding the privacy limit?
Car renters beware: Big Brother may be riding shotgun. In a case that could help set the bar for the amount of privacy drivers of rental cars can expect, a Connecticut man is suing a local rental company, Acme Rent-a-Car, after it used GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to track him and then fined him $450 for speeding three times. The case underscores the ways that new technologies can invade people's privacy, said Richard Smith, chief technologist at the not-for-profit Privacy Foundation.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Net ad sales falter; creativity flows
If the online awards at the advertising industry's hottest event of the year are anything to go by, the dot-com downturn has left Internet advertising limping but certainly not down and out. Gone are the big bucks flashed around by online newcomers at last year's Cannes International Advertising festival. But the "Cyber Lions" awards saw a 50 percent jump in entries, many impressing jurors Tuesday with a new wave of creativity such as winner Nike's self-design shoe site. But behind the scenes, the big players have been working frantically to ensure online advertising doesn't fall by the wayside as advertising spending looks set to slow this year to its lowest rate since the 1991 recession.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Singapore software pirates try new tack
Software and video pirates are abandoning traditional hiding places in cars and are now using trucks and vans to smuggle their fake wares into Singapore. This may be to feed the gap in supply created by the government's rigorous battle against piracy, which has resulted in the country recently being taken off the U.S. watch list of nations with insufficient protection of intellectual property rights. "On the retail end, the situation has improved quite a bit," Christopher Ng, general manager of Electronic Arts' Asia-Pacific region, told The Straits Times. "There are no longer a lot of shopping centers selling pirated software as blatantly as before."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

HP moves toward home entertainment
Get ready for HP in your living room. Hewlett-Packard plans to show off a prototype of an Internet-enabled digital entertainment center for households next week at the Tech X NY trade show in New York, the company said Wednesday. The device, dubbed HP Digital Entertainment Center, marks another step by the company into the home entertainment market and comes during a difficult time in the PC market. HP's entertainment center is a standalone appliance that will allow consumers to download music from the Internet and then play it on a home stereo. It will also let consumers view music selections on a TV screen and select them using a remote control. Once downloaded, the music can be transferred to CD or various MP3 players, handheld devices and memory cards, the company said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Compaq adds stability to Linux armor
Trying to bolster its reputation in the fast-changing Linux world, Compaq Computer will release software designed to make Linux computers better able to withstand crashes or other interruptions. The company will release underpinnings of "single system image" software, which lets programs run on several different servers, and later it will release the SSI software itself, said Mike Winkler, executive vice president of Compaq's global business units, in a news conference Monday.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

IM chats don't fade from PCs' memories
Priya Giri knew that privacy was never a guarantee when e-mailing people from work -- but she never knew that some instant messaging services also have ways to record seemingly casual conversations. Giri, an editor at BlueLight.com, noticed this firsthand recently during an IM exchange with a friend on Yahoo Messenger. Midway through the conversation, her friend showed her a trick that would let her archive all of her conversations through Yahoo, a feature that troubled her.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

MP3.com suit declared a mistrial
TVT Records on Tuesday said a court has declared a mistrial in its copyright infringement suit against online music company MP3.com, in which the damages it was awarded were insubstantial. In April, the federal judge who presided over the trial, said he was considering what to do about an almost $300,000 copyright infringement verdict awarded against MP3.com after jurors told him their math was wrong and they had intended a figure of several million dollars. The U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York already had ruled in favor of TVT. The jury was asked to decide the number of copyrights MP3.com had infringed and the amount it should pay.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

As American as Curry Pie
Betty most likely works for CustomerAsset.com, one of the many customer-relationship management companies that have mushroomed in and around Bangalore in the past year as more and more American companies are turning to India for their outsourcing needs. These firms handle phone- and e-mail-based customer support, data analysis, telemarketing, collections and Web-chat services for their American clients. The requirements for these jobs are fairly basic: the applicant must have a college degree and preferably experience in some service-based sector and, of course, they must speak English. But English in India isn't English in America, so once they've gotten the job they are put through a rigorous 4-to-6-week training program that teaches them to speak "American."
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,44382,00.html

Much more news later on

[walktalker]

A Marrow-to-Muscle Breakthrough
Medical researchers in Singapore say they have changed human bone marrow cells into heart muscle in a breakthrough that could offer millions of sufferers from heart disease an alternative to transplants. "We have shown that these cells would survive in a heart and actually would make a heart muscle ... out of bone marrow," cardiothoracic surgeon said Dr. Reida El Oakley, a cardiothoracic surgeon. Oakley and two researchers at National University Hospital genetically modified human bone marrow stem cells -- which have the capability to form new tissue -- to take on the special characteristics of a human heart cell.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44671,00.html

Streaming Toward Dominance
Real Networks and Microsoft have begun travelling the long road to consolidating the streaming marketplace. It promises to be a bloody fight. RealNetorks fired the first shot on Wednesday, saying it will create an open standard for digital rights management companies. The standard, known as xMCL, would effectively nullify any proprietary DRM systems –- such as Microsoft's Windows Media -– by creating a common language that would allow any delivery system to work with any secure media file. Streaming companies are beginning to recognize the importance of interoperability; after all, consumers get frustrated when they click on a stream and it doesn't work in their media player.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44645,00.html

Prison Urged For Mafiaboy
Mafiaboy, the young computer cracker who made "denial-of-service" a household phrase, should be sentenced to serve at least five months in prison, a social worker said Tuesday at the Canadian teenager's sentencing hearing in Montreal. The 16-year-old, whose real name is being withheld under Canadian law, was arrested in April 2000 and pleaded guilty last January to 58 charges related to the denial-of-service attacks that paralyzed Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and other major websites over a five-day period in February 2000.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44673,00.html

Anti-Virus Board Gets Sick
For the past four weeks, a Windows-based Trojan program dubbed NewsFlood has been swamping some Internet discussion groups with a heavy stream of bogus child pornography advertisements. The attack is the Usenet equivalent of a denial-of-service attack. It doesn't destroy files on the victims' PCs and is not designed to automatically infect other systems. But NewsFlood can ruin the signal-to-noise ratio of an online discussion group with its ads, which invite readers to visit three pornography sites and carries subject lines such as "Girls of 13-16" and "12-15 yo. girls on nudie webcam."
http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,44611,00.html

Helpful Hints for Hate Haters
The Anti-Defamation League has launched an aggressive Web-based initiative to help law enforcement target hate crimes on a neighborhood level. "We're using IT capability to communicate as quickly as possible with law enforcement personnel and institutions," said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman. "Law enforcement is prohibited from monitoring organizations unless they commit a crime, but organizations such as ours are permitted to do so, so we become a resource."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44651,00.html

Oz Takes Censor Laws to People
Proposed state laws expanding police powers to prosecute Internet content providers for obscenity will be subject to wider public consultation, the result of public opposition to the regulations. Critics say the proposed laws would provide authorities greater control over what people can read, write and view on the Internet in South Australia. Supporters say the state laws merely reinforce the principle that uniform standards should apply to all content -- whether it's online, offline, on film or on paper. No time to be Aussie.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44568,00.html

German Teens Tops Among World's Web Surfers
The percentage of German adolescents who spend time surfing the Web at home is lower than several other nations. But, in terms of time spent online, those German teens who do surf are the world champions. That's according to a study issued by NetValue Deutschland, part of the France-based NetValue Internet research group. Among those who surf, German adolescents - defined as children 16 years and younger -averaged 10.9 hours a week online in March, while adolescents in the U.S. averaged 5.9 hours and those in the U.K., 5.8 hours.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167062.html

Linux Gains On Microsoft In Server Software Sales
Linux, the free computer-operating system, is winning at least 10 percent of new computer server software sales, posing an increasing threat to Microsoft. Continually improved by computer programmers worldwide, Linux has emerged as "a very significant competitive force," says Microsoft President Rick Belluzzo. Linux momentum is building: Inconsequential three years ago, the crash-resistant Linux today accounts for 10 percent to 27 percent of server software shipments, surveys show.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167080.html

Artificial Intelligence Isn't Just A Movie
Steven Spielberg's forthcoming A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is only a movie. Or is it? The movie, set in the near future, is about a humanlike robot boy who runs on artificial-intelligence software - a computer program that doesn't just follow instructions, as today's software does, but can think and learn on its own. In some ways, the character is a fantasy. It's no closer to reality than the alien in Spielberg's earlier E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Yet artificial intelligence is very real. It's far from re-creating a human brain, with its power, emotions and flexibility, though that might be possible in as little as 30 years. Today's AI can re-create slices of what humans do, in software that can indeed make decisions.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167082.html

MP3.com's Copyright Wizard Makes It Easy and Affordable to Register Songs And Recordings With U.S. Copyright Office
Procedures for artists to register a copyright in their work can prove both arduous and costly. MP3.com, Inc. today introduced an online service that allows artists and other rights-holders to register the ir songs and recordings with the U.S. Copyright Office quickly and affordably. MP3.com's Copyright Wizard is designed as a "low-touch" alternative for registering works wit h the U.S. Copyright office. While obtaining a copyright certificate can be viewed as an added protection for artists' works, the registration itself has proved at times to be a complicated, confusing and costly process. It simplifies the process by walking users through registration of a copyright and perhaps eliminating the need for professional assistance.
http://pr.mp3.com/pr/356.html

Sell a glowstick, go to prison
Witness the humble glowstick. This neon yellow tube of light, testament to the wonders of the nontoxic chemical reaction, is popular at Britney Spears concerts, Mardi Gras parades and summer street fairs. But because glowsticks are also commonly found at raves, where partiers wave them about during their dance-floor kinetics, they have become a curious casualty of the government's war on drugs. An injunction handed down against a group of New Orleans party promoters last Wednesday charges that glowsticks -- along with pacifiers, Vicks VapoRub and dust masks -- are "drug paraphernalia," and their presence on a dance floor is a sign that illegal drug activity is taking place.
http://www.salon.com/ent/music/featu...ure/index.html

End of an affair?
On June 7, four hackers released a software program that threatens to do for TV shows what Napster did for music and DivX may do for movies. The code, called ExtractStream, allows users of TiVo digital video recorders to move compressed copies of television shows from their beloved TiVo boxes into their computers, and beyond. Like many hackers, the programmers saw their unauthorized exploit as a boon to society. "Even though TiVo, understandably, can't admit it," says one member of the group who asked to remain anonymous, "this code's good for everybody." But ExtractStream's release provoked an unexpectedly vituperative outpouring of criticism from precisely those people who once might have been counted on for hotblooded support.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ack/index.html

Target to jump-start smart cards
Perhaps no consumer technology has suffered more false starts in the U.S. than smart cards, but the industry may have finally gotten off the ground Tuesday. Retail giant Target announced it would issue smart cards and, more importantly, install smart card readers at its 990 nationwide stores. Consumers armed with the computer-chip enhanced plastic credit cards will have instant access to special discounts and coupons, while Target hopes to gain customer loyalty.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/589587.asp?0dm=C15QT

Sign up here for a trip to Mars
Let's face it, none us has much chance of ever standing on the surface of the Mars. In truth, the Reg hacks have enough trouble making the 30-yard trip from the pub to the office without mishap. A quick trip to the red planet is - frankly - out of the question. Nevertheless, you can participate in NASA's 2003 Mars rover mission. The administration has come up with the ingenious idea of letting people sign up online and having their name recorded on a CD which will accompany the mission.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/19848.html

If you fancy a shag - turn your webcam off
If you fancy getting naked and sweaty with your girlfriend, it might be a good idea to turn your webcam off. Or at least turn it away from the action, or hang your underpants over the lens. Unless of course you're faking the whole accident thing, and you really want to get your girlfriend into Readers Wives.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19812.html

[Dawn]

Thanks newsman

[zombywoof]

Lotsa good stories for us today newsman.

[walktalker]

I'll just bump this so TDP won't have too much trouble finding it.