The Newspaper Shop -- wednesday edition

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MS takes up Passport defense
Microsoft on Wednesday descended on the nation's capital, trying to quell concerns its Passport authentication service poses a threat to consumers' privacy or security. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is here at the behest of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a consumer advocacy group that wishes to hear directly from the software maker on its plans, said Adam Sohn, Microsoft's manager for U.S.-.Net platform strategy. The software giant may use the opportunity to talk with other groups or even some legislators. But Sohn, who spoke with this publication late Tuesday, said he did not know the day's itinerary.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

Intel offers programming tools for Linux
Intel, one of the first mainstream companies to endorse the Linux operating system, will release programming tools Thursday to make Linux programs run better on its chips. The chipmaker plans to announce compilers that translate Linux programs written in C++ or Fortran languages into commands an Intel Pentium 4 or Itanium chip can understand, the company said in a statement. Compilers are key to making sure programs can take advantage of a chip's new features, such as those that distinguish the Pentium 4 from its predecessors, but the design of the Itanium family relies even more heavily than most chips on the performance of the compiler. The compilers will include several features already incorporated in Intel's compilers for Windows computers, including support for the OpenMP standard for multiprocessor computers, the chipmaker said.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

'Headline News' takes a page from the Web
A recent overhaul of AOL Time Warner's "CNN Headline News" cable program aims to close the gap between the TV screen and the Web, offering a potential design prototype for interactive TV programming, according to sources close to the company. A new version of the show, launched earlier this month, follows other news programs in offering a wide range of data in multiple screens along with the traditional anchor desk. Gordon Castle, senior vice president of strategic digital systems at "Headline News," said the overhaul is part of CNN's ongoing effort to appeal to younger audiences raised on the Internet. The redesign "is about how people's lives have changed," he said. "If you compare TV to a Web browser, you now get boxes of information."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

GM says hands-free talk won't hurt
One in 4 million: Those are the odds of getting into a car crash while using a hands-free cell phone while driving, according to General Motors. The world's largest automaker released a study Wednesday that examined data from 8.1 million phone calls between October 1996 and May 2000. The results from GM -- one of the largest providers of on-board, hands-free cell phone services -- starkly contradict a wealth of academic research on driver distraction, including a report issued last week saying all cell phone use poses a driving hazard. GM researchers found that, out of 8.1 million calls in nearly four years, users of GM's hands-free cell phone services crashed only two times. Furthermore, researchers found "no evidence" that the phone played a role in the crashes. GM executives say their study is the most comprehensive analysis of actual -- not simulated or estimated -- data in the world.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Anti-spam group makes up with pollster
A controversial anti-spam group said Wednesday that it has agreed to remove a polling and market research firm from its database of suspected junk e-mailers. The Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) said it has removed Harris Interactive from its database, known as the Realtime Blackhole List. Some Internet service providers use the list of IP addresses, linked to alleged spammers, to block unwanted e-mail. MAPS said that under the deal, Harris Interactive has agreed to change its opt-in system to confirm that the people on its mailing list want to receive its e-mail polls. The agreement comes after a lengthy dispute that brought MAPS and Harris Interactive into the center of the debate over spam control. Last year, Harris Interactive sued MAPS because it had listed the market research firm in its database. The lawsuit was later dismissed.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Qwest won't credit Code Red victims
The state attorney general has asked Qwest to give refunds to customers who lost high-speed Internet connections as a result of the "Code Red" computer worm attack, but the Denver-based Internet access provider is refusing. Customers using Qwest DSL service experienced intermittent outages for about 10 days after Qwest and Cisco, which makes modems for the DSL lines, were hit by the worm. The attack exploited a known vulnerability in certain Microsoft software that some Cisco products were running. Business customers say the outages cost them thousands of dollars in sales. Many also complained that they had to wait up to two hours to talk to technicians, some of whom were poorly trained.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Fiber-optics hardware hits the jackpot
Sales of hardware for building out fiber-optics networks will produce $10.3 billion in global revenues this year, up 52 percent from last year, a networking and telecommunications research and consulting firm predicted on Wednesday. San Jose, Calif.-based Infonetics Research said the growth will come as potentially lucrative metro-area markets are linked to established long-haul networks, a process requiring network hardware and components that are both flexible and powerful enough to service increasing amounts of bandwidth. Infonetics Research cited a 34 percent rise in the second quarter from the first quarter in manufacturers' revenues for "last-mile," customer-premises equipment installed by carriers as a "good measure of the growing metro-area market."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Russian programmer's case on hold
Prosecutors and defense attorneys for the Russian computer programmer charged with circumventing e-book copyright protections are negotiating a possible plea bargain. In a case that has generated worldwide protests, Dmitry Sklyarov, 26, is charged in a criminal complaint with violating the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), though he has not yet been indicted. Sklyarov is due to be arraigned Thursday, but both sides will ask a federal judge to postpone the hearing by a week, lead defense attorney Joseph Burton said Wednesday. "We're talking about whether or not there are any potential ways to dispose of the case," said lead defense attorney Joseph Burton, a former federal prosecutor. "We've been talking to them for a while."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Meet IBM's big thinker
If he could realize his fantasy, Irving Wladawsky-Berger would be playing professional baseball, taking the field for his beloved New York Mets. But even if the Cuban-born computer scientist won't be living out his Walter Mitty dreams on the baseball diamond anytime soon, he has nonetheless found fortune and fame during the course of an increasingly high-profile 31-year career at IBM. Since the mid-1990s, Chairman Lou Gerstner has called upon Wladawsky-Berger to spearhead several projects that ultimately proved critical to Big Blue's revival by the end of the decade. Wladawsky-Berger helped formulate IBM's Internet and network computing plans, as well as its Linux and open-source software strategy.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201...html?tag=bt_bh

French failing to click
The French are lagging behind their European counterparts when it comes to the internet, with only one in five online at home, according to a new official report. More worryingly, the study found that only 6% expected to go online in the coming year and more than half the people surveyed did not foresee ever connecting to the internet from home. The report by the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Industry has reinforced fears of the slow growth on the internet in France. Two years ago, just one in 12 French people logged on from home.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1504076.stm

Australian broadband raid violating privacy?
Excite@Home Australia users are up in arms over the telco’s random raids on their broadband accounts in search of pirate activity, with many saying it’s an invasion of their privacy. The ISP informed users of its Optus@Home broadband service, ZDNet report, that it would terminate customer accounts found to be downloading pirate software or copyright material. A message posted on a public newsgroup service from Cable & Wireless Optus, which half-owns Excite@Home, said its network security team would investigate claims into activities such as downloading protected movies and “immediately terminate” a subscriber’s account without any prior warning. The hard-hitting policy has raised many eyebrows, with some customers asking how extensive the monitoring on individual accounts is at present and what right does Optus have in controlling illegal activity on the Internet.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/telco/s...0256077,00.htm

The trouble with Hotmail
Miller, a software quality assurance expert, could hardly believe what he was reading. Microsoft's inability to simply change the age, or even delete and re-create the account, seemed ridiculous. Though perhaps not quite life-threatening in importance, to Miller the incident bore a significance that extended beyond your average software nuisance. If Microsoft's engineers couldn't fix an apparently minor problem with Hotmail, how much confidence should Net users place in Microsoft's much more ambitious plans -- with its much ballyhooed .NET initiative and HailStorm -- to absorb their online lives? "These kinds of problems are indicative of slipshod design," he says. "They certainly say something disturbing about the entire .NET initiative." Microsoft's .NET plan, which some observers see as part of a comprehensive strategy to battle AOL Time Warner for mastery of the online universe, is built on the premise that users will allow the consolidation of their personal information on centralized Microsoft server computers.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ail/index.html

More news later on

[TankGirl]

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- tg

[walktalker]

Microsoft accuses Brit companies of piracy
Two British companies are facing the wrath of Microsoft's ongoing anti-piracy campaign for allegedly selling counterfeit Microsoft products. Microsoft has commenced legal proceedings against the directors of two Basingstoke-based companies -- Pacific Computers and Taran Microsystems -- for allegedly infringing its copyright and the Microsoft trademark. The claims forms were filed on Aug. 2. Two directors of Pacific Computers, Marc Roach and Richard Donaldson, as well as two former directors and shareholders, Andrew Miles and Simon Miles, stand charged with allegedly selling counterfeit products, including Microsoft Windows 98 OEM packs. Microsoft is investigating the full details of the company's dealings, but claims that the sales took place between July 2000 and February 2001.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

HP to sell secure version of Linux
Hewlett-Packard will sell a secure version of Linux, a product that marks a departure for computer makers that traditionally have favored partnerships with companies such as Red Hat that sell Linux. HP Secure OS Software for Linux, which will be announced Wednesday, will cost about $3,000, said Roberto Medrano, general manager of HP's Internet Security division. It includes a version 2.4 of Linux with open-source HP enhancements, higher-level software such as Apache Web server, and utilities that tightly control communications between programs and detect attacks. The move is a departure for companies such as HP that sell servers, the powerful networked computers on which the Linux operating system is most popular.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

New Napster online by end of 2001
In his first public appearance as the chief executive of Napster, Konrad Hilbers promised Tuesday that the embattled file-swapping service would start offering subscriptions later this year. Hilbers told a summit of high-tech leaders that Napster would be back online as soon as it fully complies with a court ruling to remove all copyrighted material from its site and can effectively police itself to make sure no such material is being traded. He said Napster could still be a place where people swap music free of charge, so long as it isn't copyrighted.
"I'm very much a believer in what Napster stands for, which is the sharing of music among friends and private consumers when it comes to making available things like my children's Christmas carol singing or a garage band," Hilbers said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Russian programmer thanks supporters
A 26-year-old Russian software programmer at the center of an international controversy over a new U.S. digital copyright law declared Tuesday he's "no superman" and thanked supporters around the world for protesting his arrest. Dmitry Sklyarov is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal district court in San Jose, Calif., on charges of selling software designed to circumvent the new U.S. copyright protections that went into effect last year. Sklyarov, who has emerged as a somewhat reluctant hero in the battle being waged over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), issued a statement Tuesday expressing thanks for the worldwide expressions of support that took place following his arrest at a Las Vegas hacker convention July 16.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Malaysia to pursue illegal CD makers
The Malaysian government wants to get to the source of the illegal video CDs cropping up in the country and plans to go after the VCD copying machines that have made their way across the border unlawfully. Muhyiddin Yassin, the minister of domestic trade and consumer affairs, told reporters Tuesday that the authorities stopped issuing import permits for these machines in March. "We know where the legal machines are located...What we don't know is where the illegal machines are and what they are being used for," he said after attending a consumer forum here. "If we can identify these illegal machines, then we can stop pirated and porn VCDs hitting the market."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Game industry shoots down brain claims
The video game industry has hit back at claims that computer games can damage children's brains and insists that the activity can be beneficial. The European Leisure Software Publishers Association said Wednesday that research carried out at Japan's Tohoku University was only of "very limited focus." The software association asserts it is not true that playing video games can make children anti-social and is instead flagging recent British research that suggests that playing computer games can be as beneficial as taking part in physical sporting activity. "For too long now, our industry has been the target of ill-informed criticism and scare-mongering," Roger Bennett, director general of the association, said in a statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on