The Newspaper Shop -- wednesday edition

[walktalker]

A short one
Home PCs at most risk from Nimda
As antivirus experts complete a more detailed analysis of the Nimda worm and companies clean up their networks on Wednesday, several security groups are worried that home computer users will not secure their PCs. A coalition of government security officials and antivirus software industry experts released a warning to home computer users on Wednesday morning to take Nimda -- and the security of their computer systems -- seriously. "It is still out there, and home users are going to be the primary mechanism for the e-mail spread of this virus," said Vincent Weafer, a senior director of Symantec's security response center, who took part in the coalition's discussions on Tuesday.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

A clean sweep for dirty data
Dirty data remains one of the most basic and ubiquitous problems of conducting business in the digital age -- though few data managers are eager to talk about it. The problem is perceived as too degrading to discuss. But 75 percent of the information technology directors polled recently by PricewaterhouseCoopers said they experienced problems related to faulty data. Only one-third of IT managers at large corporations said they felt "very confident" about their company's data quality. "Of course we deal with it," an IT manager in Sunnyvale, Calif., said. "We may not talk about it, but yeah, we deal with it. If you've ever sent two confirmation e-mails to the same customer, you've dealt with it."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Ballmer: Win XP launch is a go
Microsoft is ready to go ahead with the full-scale launch of its new Windows XP operating system next month, with a major event in New York City as the city recovers from last week's attack on the World Trade Center, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Wednesday. "If New York wants us, I'm sure we'll want to be there," said Ballmer, fielding questions from several hundred software executives at a Chicago Software Association luncheon. "We had been planning on a big launch for Windows XP in New York City, and I know we'll have discussions with the mayor and his staff before we proceed," Ballmer said.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Doctors in U.S. perform surgery in France
Surgeons in New York have used a robot to remove the gall bladder of a woman in France in the world's first long-distance operation, the head of the team has said, predicting it could revolutionize medical practice. A team of French surgeons used video technology and telecommunications to manipulate scalpel-wielding robotic arms in a hospital in northeast France -- a technique which could be used to spread medical expertise across the globe. "It's a phenomenal step and we can't even begin to imagine the implications for medicine...the barriers of space and distance have collapsed," Jacques Marescaux, the surgeon who conducted the operation and pioneered the research, told a news conference.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Cellphone usage, sales surge after attack
In the week since the World Trade Center disaster, cellphones and service have been selling briskly from the table Barry Curwin has set up in front of his card shop in Brooklyn. "Everyone is saying, 'God forbid if there is another emergency, I want to be able to call and tell my family that I'm O.K.', " said Curwin. He usually sells about 80 service plans from the likes of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.and Verizon Wireless in a month. He has topped those numbers in the last week. National wireless carriers say sales of their services, while difficult to quantify, have surged since the attacks.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...813287,00.html

Passport, HailStorm have e-biz ambitions
Microsoft will extend its Passport authentication service to the broader corporate market, a major element in a wider effort to build acceptance for its software-through-subscription strategy. In addition, Microsoft is renaming its HailStorm Web services initiative as .Net My Services. HailStorm is central to Microsoft's overarching .Net software strategy to move computing to the Web. The company next year plans to offer content, shopping, banking, entertainment and other services through a variety of devices -- including cell phones, PCs and handhelds -- linked to HailStorm, which relies on Microsoft's Passport to authenticate users.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

News knocks out sex in Net searches
Osama bin Laden has displaced Pamela Lee Anderson in cyberspace and people looking for information about the American flag outnumbered those curious about Britney Spears. For the first time in the short history of the Internet, popular search engines report that "sex" dropped off their lists of top 10 search terms in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "Popular search terms last week turned almost exclusively to disaster-related information," said David Emanuel, spokesman for the popular search engine AltaVista, which tracks top search terms. Almost all perennial favorites like Pamela Anderson Lee, Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys were knocked off the list.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Texas Instruments licenses new MP3Pro
Texas Instruments said Wednesday that it has agreed to support a new digital music format that creates files using half the space previously required for MP3s. Texas Instruments said it is licensing Thomson Multimedia's MP3Pro format, which compresses standard audio tracks without significantly compromising sound quality. Manufacturers will be able to support the new format by updating their Internet audio devices using Texas Instruments' DSPs (digital signaling processors), which handle audio and video compression in real time.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Judges OK tracking employee Web use
Struggling with privacy concerns, a panel that oversees federal judges decided Wednesday that jurists and court employees should have some Internet activities monitored -- but not their e-mail. There had been no policy governing computer use for the 30,000 federal court employees, including about 1,800 judges. Some judges said they feared illegal snooping by administrators in Washington. The Judicial Conference, which oversees courts, approved a compromise that would allow some tracking of Internet use, such as the downloading of pornography and music.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Aust breakthrough brings computers into new light
Australian researchers have developed a technique to convert electrical signals on silicon into light, which some suggest could spark the next revolution in computing. Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have developed the technique for silicon to convert electrical signals into light, which used in devices such as microchips will enable computers to transmit data at the “speed of light”. “The telecommunications industry uses semiconductors which has the ability to emit light. However, microelectronics is based on silicon which hasn’t been able to emit light efficiently, up until now,” Professor Martin Green at UNSW Photovoltaics Special Research Centre told ZDNet Australia.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/com...0260541,00.htm

The Terrorists Are Winning the Cyber War
In the Internet Age, when communications speed across national boundaries in nanoseconds, terrorist groups are winning the cyberspace battle, say intelligence and security experts. Terrorists hide their communications with encryption software. They set up Web sites to help raise money for their operations. Computer hackers break into U.S. government networks to research possible targets. Meanwhile, federal agencies that have spent billions on computer surveillance of terrorists and the nations that harbor them continue to struggle both with outdated technology and a flood of data to process.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology

Microsoft deflects charges of worm woes
Microsoft refuted claims Wednesday that the main Web site for its FrontPage software had been infected by the Nimda virus, despite the antivirus software alarms set off by viewing the site. On Wednesday, several security experts believed that the software giant -- which has often put the responsibility on customers to patch software holes -- had apparently failed to patch at least one major server. However, Christopher Budd, security program manager for Microsoft's security response center, said that wasn't the case.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Did terrorists blow up the recovery?
A week after the mind-numbing tragedy that is now being compared to Pearl Harbor, people in the U.S. and around the world are still struggling to cope with its trauma -- especially the loss of life, which could add up to thousands. President Bush has vowed that the United States will punish those responsible for the attacks. In addition to the physical and psychological damage, however, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have also inflicted body blows on a weak world economy that already teeters on the brink of a recession. Wharton professors say that these attacks will dramatically affect consumer confidence and also have a major impact on industries such as travel and insurance. As such, in addition to exercising political and military leadership during this crisis, the Bush administration will have to demonstrate strong leadership on the economic front. That is the only way to prevent the terrorists from blowing up the impending economic recovery.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-201...html?tag=cd_mh

VeriSign bars "offensive" Net name auctions
VeriSign on Wednesday said it is halting some auctions of domain names related to last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in an effort to remove sites it finds "offensive." The move follows a weeklong rush by businesses and individuals to register domain names related to the disaster -- some to commemorate the victims of the tragedy, and others to profit from its significance. Domain names registered since the attack varied from numerical ones such as 09112001.com and 09112001.net to Worldtradecenterdisaster.com and Worldtradecenterdisaster.org. A VeriSign representative said the Mountain View, Calif.-based company began pulling sites from its domain name broker, GreatDomains.com, Tuesday night. "We have been delisting sites we find to be offensive in light of the events of last week," the representative said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_pr

Aircraft set for Gulf; Bush to address nation
The Pentagon ordered dozens of advanced aircraft to the Persian Gulf region on Wednesday as the hour of military retaliation for deadly terrorist attacks drew closer. President Bush announced he would address Congress and the nation Thursday night. "I owe it to the country to give an explanation," the president said in the Oval Office. Bush spoke after meeting with congressional leaders to discuss the economy, weak before the attacks and buffeted by layoffs in the airlines industry and elsewhere in the eight days since. "No question it's tough times," he said. "This is a shock to the economy and we're going to respond."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7228996.html

Web rises to challenge TV
Video on the Internet has emerged as a critical conduit of news about last week's devastating attacks on the United States, bringing a fringe medium closer to the mainstream and making it a more serious competitor to television and broadcasters, experts said. Viewership for video news over the Web has been unprecedented, with many people apparently tuning in from offices and other locations around the world where TV coverage of the air attacks on New York and Washington was unavailable, broadcasters said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

White House: No negotiations with Taliban
The United States will not negotiate with Afghanistan's Taliban government to get custody of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden or members of his terrorist network, the White House said Wednesday. "It's time for actions, not negotiations, with the Taliban," spokesman Ari Fleischer said. He also ruled out presenting the United Nations with evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the devastating Sept. 11 attack. "People who we are after would very much...love to remain in hiding, and know what we know and how we know it," Fleischer said. "We're not about to do that."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Freespeech.org ends free hosting service
Freespeech.org, an idealistic Web-hosting service that has served as a free home on the Internet to thousands of activists, said it will be forced to charge members beginning next month. The group, run by Free Speech Television, sent a letter last week to its 20,000 members, saying that it is discontinuing its free service Oct. 7 but will continue its paid service. It encouraged members to transfer sites to paid accounts. The letter called the change to service a "difficult decision," particularly in the face of last week's terrorist attacks in the United States.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

B-U-M-P

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
More news later on

When is later on?

- tg

[walktalker]

Originally posted by TankGirl

When is later on?

Later on