The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Microsoft warming to open source?
For a long time we were held up as being anti-open source. But the idea of Shared Source came about because of customers telling us: "I am able to do some things in open source because I have access to the source code, and I would like to be able to do the same thing with your code." The fact is that Linux is now competing with Windows. That is good because it is spurring us on and making us compete better, but equally, it is difficult for us to say Windows has better management tools than Linux because all of a sudden people say we are attacking open source.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-958754.html

Calif. puts a lid on mobile phone spam
California's mobile phones should soon be officially freed from unwanted text messages. On Thursday, Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill that would prohibit companies from spamming mobile phones and pagers with unwanted text messages. The law, sponsored by Assemblyman Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, goes into effect in January. Davis said he endorsed the plan because he didn't want unsolicited messages on mobile phones to reach the same level of mayhem that spam e-mails have. Representatives from the wireless and text messaging industry did not immediately return requests for comment.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-958789.html

ICANN extended -- with more controls
As expected, the U.S. Commerce Department has extended for one more year its contract with the organization that governs the Internet's infrastructure. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was granted another extension to oversee the administration of domain names -- the third expansion of an agreement originally struck in 1998. The agreement requires closer government oversight of ICANN and more transparency in the organization's plans and actions. Government officials have said this is a crucial year for the organization. Critics have accused ICANN of unnecessary secrecy and failing to include the public in its decisions.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-958801.html

Slapper worm slows to a crawl
A Linux worm that started spreading a week ago has reached a plateau after infecting about 7,000 servers and turning the hosts into a peer-to-peer network that could be used to attack other computers. Known as Linux.Slapper.Worm, Slapper and Apache/mod_ssl, the worm's spread has fallen far short of the biggest attackers in recent times. For example, Code Red infected 400,000 servers last summer. And according to the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the Nimda virus compromised 86,000 systems last fall. Perhaps most telling, security experts are already talking about Slapper in the past tense. Still, Slapper did take a big evolutionary step by creating a peer-to-peer network.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-958758.html

Search firm takes heat for sharing data
Norwegian-based Fast Search and Transfer, a relatively new talent among search engines, is under fire from privacy advocates who say it's violating its country's laws by collecting data on visitors and sharing the information with third parties. In a complaint filed this week with the Norwegian government, Public Information Research (PIR) charged the search provider's showcase site, AlltheWeb, with failing to notify visitors that it uses tiny electronic tags to monitor search queries in partnership with online portal Lycos and DoubleClick, an advertising technology company. The privacy watchdog said that the practice breaches Norwegian laws requiring companies to disclose if personal data about consumers is shared with third parties.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-958813.html?tag=fd_top

More news later on........