The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Sorry, you must read all of these

New Pentium 4 rejects Rambus memory
PC manufacturers will push the Pentium 4 toward wide circulation Monday with new computers that for the first time wed the chip with standard memory, rather than Rambus memory. Virtually every major computer company will unveil budget-class Pentium 4 computers for the business market at the beginning of next week. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, will release the Vectra VL 420, which will contain a 1.6GHz Pentium 4, 128MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive for $899. Gateway, Dell Computer, IBM and others have similar plans. All of these computers will share key characteristics. For one, they will cost approximately $100 less than existing, similarly configured models, according to sources, because they will contain SDRAM, the most common form of memory on the market today, rather than RDRAM, the memory based on designs from Rambus.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Code Red worm: Good for you?
Any farmer will tell you worms are good for the soil, but security researchers are now finding their digital namesakes may be good for security. In its monthly report released earlier this week, Internet survey firm Netcraft found that Web servers running Microsoft's software have become much more secure in the wake of the Code Red worm attack. The results mirror another survey released in early August by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, a research center based at the University of California at San Diego. "Code Red got a lot of publicity," said David Moore, a senior researcher with CAIDA. "It got a lot of people recognizing that patching servers is a problem." In mid-July, the Code Red worm used a recently discovered vulnerability in Microsoft's flagship Internet Information Server software to spread across the Internet, hopping from server to server.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

WHO: Cell-phone cancer risk needs study
A link between mobile-phone usage and cancer cannot be dismissed without further research, an official at a World Health Organization agency said Friday. "More research is needed," Elisabeth Cardis, chief of radiation and cancer at the WHO's International Agency for Research in Cancer, told a conference in Helsinki. The explosive growth in mobile-phone usage, particularly in Europe and the United States, has increased the public debate over possible health risks linked to mobile phones. While a few studies claim there is a connection, most authoritative studies have not been able to conclude that regular mobile-phone usage could damage a person's brain.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

TiVo: Bound to be bundled?
When Raymond Padilla recently returned home to San Francisco from a tiring business trip, he knew his TiVo digital video recorder had also been working overtime. A boxing fan, Padilla switched on the TiVo to find a recording of his favorite fight, the 1975 "Thrilla in Manila" between heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali and challenger Joe Frazier. "The best part is that my TiVo can figure out what I like and surprise me with gems like that fight," Padilla said. It's this sort of personal treatment that has won TiVo the loyalty of close to 230,000 consumers across the United States. Yet the company is just one of an increasing number of those making digital video recorders and jumping into a promising but unproven market.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Lawsuit targets copy-protected CDs
A California woman has filed a lawsuit against an independent record label for embedding technology in CDs that blocks people from listening to songs on a computer. The suit, filed in California Superior Court in Marin County, alleges that Denver, Colo.-based Fahrenheit Entertainment misled consumers by failing to include an adequate disclaimer on CDs encoded with digital copyright-protection software. The suit also cites SunnComm, the Phoenix-based software company that created the protection program as a preliminary measure to prevent people from distributing digital copies of the songs over the Internet. The lawsuit said the protected album, "Charley Pride: A Tribute to Jim Reeves," does not offer a disclaimer that it will not operate on computer CD players.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Car buyers driving big traffic to auto sites
Web surfers are driving a lot of traffic to auto manufacturer sites, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, with U.S. automakers capturing the top two rankings during July. Ford reached 1.4 million unique visitors, according to the Web site traffic measuring company, followed by Chevrolet's 905,000. Japanese automakers took the next couple of spots with Toyota drawing 809,000 unique visitors and Honda luring 782,000 unique visitors. General Motors rounded out the top five rankings with 734,000 unique visitors. "Online automotive sites have looked to become the first stop in the consumers' buying process, allowing those online to compare different makes, models and options in a variety of ways," said Patrick Thomas, Internet analyst at NetRatings.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Slap on the wrist?
Is history repeating itself? In 1981, an incoming Reagan administration dismissed an antitrust case against IBM that had been in the works for 13 years. On Thursday, the Bush Department of Justice announced that it would not pursue a breakup of Microsoft, and, perhaps more important, was dropping its attempt to prove that Microsoft had illegally "tied" its Web browser to its Windows operating system, thereby giving the company an unfair advantage over competitors. At first glance, Microsoft's foes could be excused for throwing up their hands in exasperation. In come the Republicans, out goes the antitrust enforcement. After years of testimony, evidence, cross-examination and countless appeals to higher courts, a simple change in administration could be seen as the most significant determination of legal strategy and outcome. An administration that has rapidly established itself as one of the most corporate-friendly in recent memory is backing away from the fight, pledging to end the whole unseemly mess "as quickly as possible."
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/0...cts/index.html

Researchers tout touchy-feely technology
Haptics -- from the Greek verb "to touch" -- are still the realm of deep-pocketed research institutions and industrial design shops, but academics say they may soon become a mainstream computing phenomenon. In January, the influential MIT Technology Review named haptics one of 10 emerging technologies that will "have a profound impact on the economy and on how we live and work." On Wednesday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed off a handheld computer that understands which way is up and where it's being touched. Gates said the technology would let the computer reorient the display according to how it's held or understand when a person is holding it like a cell phone to give dictation.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=cd_pr

eBay wins copyright infringement battle
eBay won what it called a precedent-setting court victory Thursday when a federal judge ruled that the Internet auction company was not liable for copyright infringement in the "Manson" documentary case because bootleg copies of the film were sold on the site. The case was one of several recently that have tested provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 law meant to stimulate Internet commerce while protecting copyrights. But the other cases, such as the criminal prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, are based on provisions in the law that ban technologies that let people circumvent copyright protections. The judge in the eBay case said it was the first to test whether a Web site has a "safe harbor" if people use the site to sell items that infringe on copyrights.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Sega aims to be top game maker
Japanese game maker Sega said on Friday it aimed to become the No. 1 game software maker in the world, on the back of its future lineup of titles for leading consoles. Chief Operating Officer Tetsu Kayama said in an interview that Sega aimed to raise its share of the U.S. and Japanese markets to 15 percent in the 2003/04 business year, from around 5 percent now. The company is also targeting a 12 percent share of the European market, up from 3 percent. “Our goal is to become the world's largest game software provider,” Kayama said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Sony writes swan song for radio service
Sony, which last week pulled the plug on its eVilla Internet appliance, now plans to discontinue a device that helped identify songs playing on the radio. The consumer-electronics giant plans to offer a $25 refund to those who purchased the key-chain attachment, which is basically a digital stopwatch that can connect to a PC. By pressing the lone button on the device and then connecting to a computer, eMarker owners could find out information about the song they had "bookmarked." "The idea was very innovative," said Sony spokesman Mack Araki. "I think it is fair to say that the products and service were received well by the customers who used it. However, we concluded it is not feasable to generate a reasonable rate of return in the near future."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=ch_mh

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