The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

Hummmm lalala lala lalala la lala

Microsoft girds for battle of the Net
Microsoft on Monday said it has revamped its MSN Internet offerings to include features such as real-time traffic and travel alerts as the software giant goes head-to-head with rival AOL Time Warner. Apart from the new package, called MSN 7, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and MSN chief Yusuf Mehdi are expected to make an announcement regarding MSN and high-speed Internet connections.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Readers not cozying up with e-books
Electronic publishing has turned its focus to niche markets at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair as the industry admits most readers would still rather curl up with a book than a bulky, expensive screen. In contrast with the euphoria of last year, when some electronic publishers predicted paper books would become museum pieces within a generation, the industry has scaled back its ambitions since the crisis that struck the New Economy.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

DOJ expands online music probe
The Justice Department widened its antitrust investigation of the online music business, sending civil subpoenas across the industry that focused on alleged use of copyright rules and licensing practices to control distribution. The subpoenas, formally known as civil investigative demands, were issued late last week and disclose a broad federal investigation into "anticompetitive licensing of intellectual property rights associated with provision of music over the Internet." The probe encompasses the two new online-music ventures backed by the industry's five major recording labels. The subpoenas demand documents on terms and conditions in Internet music licensing and the setting of rates in the emerging online-music market, and investigators seem to be trying to pinpoint whether any illegal coordination took place among record labels.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Study: What should we do with PC castoffs?
Industry dollars will soon start flowing into pilot programs looking at the best way to handle an expected avalanche of obsolete computers and other consumer electronics products. The Electronic Industries Alliance announced on Monday that it has earmarked the funds -- approximately $100,000 -- for a yearlong study to determine how best to collect used electronics for recycling, reuse and disposal. The grants will go to three recipients: the state of Florida, the 10-state Northeast Recycling Council and the Environmental Protection Agency's Region III, which covers Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D.C.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Rivals encroach on Oracle's database lead
Oracle is facing the biggest threat ever to its database dominance, as IBM, Microsoft and new competitors chisel away at its market share. Although previous battles in the database software market were waged over features -- with Oracle comfortably in the lead -- the new battle is over pricing and customer service. IBM, which recently strengthened its database lineup, and Microsoft, known for ease of use and low cost, have surfaced as the software maker's strongest foes. IBM, which will report quarterly earnings and new database revenue numbers Tuesday, says it has seen its database sales grow 19 percent and 36 percent in its last two quarters, respectively.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Market forces make software stores a dying breed
Being a software retailer these days is a lonely business. Dozens of such stores have closed shop in recent years, unable to compete with discount prices at mass-market chains, software bundled onto computers, or the growing use of the Internet to find software. And for those that remain, the trends don't look good. The retreat of these specialty stores reflects the tectonic changes of the retail software industry, which has seen its products grow into mainstream commodities, able to be sold by mass merchants alongside paper towels, CDs and furniture. It also marks an end to something of a golden age for software, when specialty stores carried a wide range of titles and enthusiasts lined up for the latest programs.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-201...html?tag=tp_pr

Novell boosts security software
Novell released a new version of its Web-security software on Monday, an attempt to tie its market-leading corporate-directory software to products designed to guard networks from hacks from within. Provo, Utah-based Novell has made its name with its directory technology that keeps track of all the computer users, computers, printers and other devices and resources on a corporate network. The company's new iChain 2.0 software allows corporations to control access to applications and enables employees, partners and suppliers to use a single password to reach all Web-based applications of a company.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Surrender control to your mobile
Mobile devices and personal digital assistants are marketed to us as miniature butlers. They are sold as technology that lets us work and play anywhere and anytime we want, that serves our needs before we even realise we have them. In other words, mobile devices promise us greater personal freedom. But here's a twist - a project using mobile phones to toy with your personal liberty. It is called Surrender Control and comes from The Media Centre in Huddersfield in the UK. Recruitment into Surrender Control will occur via an enigmatic marketing campaigns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1600165.stm

The Electronic Paper Chase
It offers excellent resolution and high contrast under a wide range of viewing angles, requires no external power to retain its image, weighs little, costs less and is remarkably flexible (literally and figuratively) -- unlike today's computer displays. No wonder traditional ink on paper continues to flourish in a digital world that was expected to all but do away with it. Yet ink on paper is lacking in one of the essential traits of computer displays: instantaneous erasure and reuse, millions of times without wearing out. Electronic ink on paper with this ability could usher in an era of store signs and billboards that could be updated without pulping acres of trees; of e-books that embody the familiar tactile interface of traditional books; of magazines and newspapers delivered wirelessly to thin, flexible page displays, convenient for reading, whether on crowded subways or desert islands.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/20...101ditlea.html

Owning the Future: Content Discontent
If anything illustrates the tension between the creators and distributors of "content" in our innovation-driven economy, it is the aftermath of June's U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Tasini — the David-and-Goliath case in which a small and determined band of freelance writers prevailed over a powerful group of well-heeled publishers. I'll give the particulars in a moment, but what's notable here is that new realities — read the Internet, telecommunications and globalization — have spawned unrest in the fundamentally symbiotic relationship between "content" creators and distributors almost everywhere you look.
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/oct01/shulman.asp

Greed Meets Terror
Once the preserve of James Bond movies, biometrics are now being used to combat everything from credit card fraud to illegal immigration. Less complicated than they seem, systems like the one developed by Viisage use physiological or behavioral characteristics -- fingerprints, iris and retina configurations, voice patterns, facial structure, or hand geometry -- to verify identity. The Viisage setup works by taking 128 measurements of each face, such as the distance between the eyes, and converts those dimensions into a unique binary code, which is then compared with a photo database. "We've had a case where a person aged ten years, gained 30 pounds, and grew a beard, and we were still able to identify him,'' says CEO Tom Colatosti, who claims his software is 99.7% accurate.
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?...&doc_id=204613

Weapons of the Secret War
In the shadowy war against the architects of the Sept. 11 atrocity, this is how victory may look. If you think it all sounds too much like a Tom Clancy novel to be true, you're mistaken: The hypothetical scenario above parallels almost exactly the real-life demise on Dec. 2, 1993, of public enemy number one in the U.S. war on drugs, Pablo Escobar. That manhunt ended in Medellmn, of course, not Peshawar, and the infinite justice was administered by Colombian, not Pakistani, commandos. Still, members of the U.S. intelligence community and military say the drug cartel raids of the 1990s are a model for antiterror strategists today. In both campaigns, U.S. special forces advise indigenous troops, who do the actual dirty work. And in both cases, American signals intelligence technology plays a crucial role.
http://www.business2.com/articles/ma...,17511,FF.html

Mediator named in Microsoft case
The government and Microsoft, having failed to settle their landmark antitrust case before the first deadline imposed by a federal judge, now must work with mediator. As earlier reported, lawyers representing Microsoft, the Justice Department and 18 states delivered the news of their failure to reach a settlement in a conference call on Friday with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, said sources familiar with the telemeeting. Later on Friday, the judge as expected appointed a mediator proposed by the parties. Eric Green, a law professor at Boston University, will work with the two parties through the remainder of the discussions.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Pop-up ads influence Web traffic numbers
Pop-up ads continue to gain momentum and drive up traffic numbers for little-known Web sites, according to a study released Monday. Jupiter Media Metrix's September traffic figures indicate that online pharmacy network ABPharmacy.com ranked No. 33 among U.S. Web properties, beating out sites such as iWon.com and LookSmart. The research company said the majority of visitors came to the site from pop-up ads, which pump up unique user counts by automatically opening a browser window linked to the site. ABPharmacy's climb follows a controversial pop-up ad strategy from camera maker X10, an approach that first landed the little-known company among the Internet's top five destinations in May.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Microsoft, IBM tout speech software
Speech recognition, one of the computing world's long-deferred dreams, will be highlighted in separate initiatives from Microsoft and IBM next week. On Monday, Microsoft, along with representatives from Cisco Systems, Intel, Philips and SpeechWorks, will hold a press conference at its Mountain View, Calif., offices. The companies will announce a collaborative effort to lay the groundwork for accessing the Web through voice commands, according to a statement from Microsoft. The idea behind the effort is to come up with practical ways to "provide consumers with multiple means of accessing information anytime, anywhere over a number of different devices -- including PCs, wireless (handhelds), mobile phones and telephones -- over diverse networks," according to Microsoft.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

SirCam: Will It or Won't It?
Antiviral companies disagree over whether the SirCam virus will or won't detonate on Tuesday. Analysis of the worm's code indicated that on Oct. 16, the worm is coded to generate a number that has a 1-in-20 chance of matching a number contained in its code. If it matches, some experts said, an infected drive will be freed of all its files. But other experts said that SirCam's author -- still unidentified -- made a major error in his programming, and the worm will try but not be able to delete files on infected machines on Oct. 16.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47582,00.html

RIAA Wants to Hack Your PC
Look out, music pirates: The recording industry wants the right to hack into your computer and delete your stolen MP3s. It's no joke. Lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) tried to glue this hacking-authorization amendment onto a mammoth anti-terrorism bill that Congress approved last week. An RIAA-drafted amendment according to a draft obtained by Wired News would immunize all copyright holders -- including the movie and e-book industry -- for any data losses caused by their hacking efforts or other computer intrusions "that are reasonably intended to impede or prevent" electronic piracy.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47552,00.html

Cancer Fight Dips Into Microchips
Researchers here have developed a diagnostic tool that offers instant detection of cancerous cells –- and it's just the size of a microchip. The device employs nanotechnology, microchip fabrication techniques and good, old-fashioned physics to detect cancerous cells in less space than a matchbox. It works by pumping cells through a tiny channel the width of a human hair, and applying a dye that sticks to cancerous cells. The cells are run under a laser, and those with dye fluoresce under the light.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,47500,00.html

When Land Lines Will Be a Memory
Americans are snapping up cell phones in record numbers. But are cell phones becoming their only phones? That depends on who is asked. Telephone companies that rely on providing home phone services say no. Per-minute charges and spotty coverage on mobiles, they say, are enough to keep people from tossing their home phones. And while cell phone usage is expected to surpass home phone ownership in 2005, analysts disagree on when, if ever, land lines would become obsolete.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,47348,00.html

Woman Enigma Cracker Was Dissed
A British woman cracked a key component of Germany's top-secret Enigma encoding machine before World War II began, but her supervisors dismissed her theory as too simple, according to a new book published on Monday. British newspapers ran excerpts of the book, Action This Day, which claims that discoveries made by a female codebreaker known only as "Mrs. BB" could have opened the secrets of the encoding machine and shortened the war. Codebreakers including Alan Turing, the father of the modern computer, were trying in the late 1930s to break the Enigma cypher, the key to Germany's communication system.
http://www.wired.com/news/women/0,1540,47560,00.html

Blue-Laser DVD Tech Unveiled
Matsushita Electric Industrial unveiled on Monday a recordable DVD that stores 50 gigabytes of data per side -- more than 10 times the storage capacity of current DVDs. The company said the new technology, which uses blue-laser light and a semi-transparent material that permits recording of data on two separate layers, can hold more than four hours of digital high-definition motion pictures on one side of a disc. Matsushita (MC), which already markets a DVD-RAM recorder using conventional red-laser technology, gave no target date for bringing its blue-laser, dual-layer DVD products to market.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47572,00.html

Hair, Hair, the Protein's Here
Researchers have defined the function of a protein produced by the key gene associated with hair loss. It's called the hairless gene protein, but "hairless" is a misnomer because the gene is necessary for hair growth; and if it's not functioning, complete hairlessness results. The gene was discovered about 75 years ago, when a researcher discovered hairless mice that were lacking the gene. But no one knew about the protein that it produced. The discovery is key since proteins do the work instructed by genes. But no one should cancel Propecia orders just yet. Researchers have a long way to go before they find an actual therapy.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47543,00.html

Kiwi Grass Slows Farmers' Baud
For farmers struggling with infuriatingly slow Internet connections, one solution could be to trim the grass underneath electric fences, according to a government agency looking into the problem. Last year, a probe into New Zealand's telecommunications system found the speed and reach of dialup Internet service in rural areas was being restricted by electric fence interference. "Electric fences can interfere with ordinary telephone services, but it comes over as a click," said Brian Johns, telecommunications policy adviser at the Ministry of Economic Development. "That's annoying, but not necessarily fatal to a voice conversation, because you can still speak over it. But if you've got a data connection operating over the telephone, be it a fax or an Internet service, then it's not nearly as forgiving."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47446,00.html

Geology may give bin Laden away
Geologists are examining rocks visible in a recent videotape of Osama bin Laden, in hopes of shedding light on his whereabouts. In theory, by identifying the rock types, they might provide new clues to bin Laden's movements. But so far they disagree in their interpretations of the videotape. That's partly because of uncertainty about the rocks' color and distance from the camera. "You would be surprised at how many people wonder whether or not the geologic information in the picture will be useful. The short answer is 'yes, most definitely,' " said John Shroder Jr., a geologist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who has worked in Afghanistan.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...5/MN232579.DTL

Microsoft To Prioritize Security Bugs
In an effort to help customers better respond to security threats, Microsoft said it will begin adding severity ratings to its security bulletins. Under the new severity rating system, vulnerabilities in Microsoft's products will henceforth be classified as either "critical," "moderate," or "low," according to a document released by the company's Security Response Center. In the past, Microsoft has issued security bulletins whenever a vulnerability could affect several customers, "no matter how unlikely or limited the impact," the company said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171111.html

California Creates Identity Theft Law
Although California State Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, failed to get her employee e-mail surveillance bill signed into law this year, she today scored a victory with legislation that tries to prevent citizens from becoming the victims of identity theft. Gov. Gray Davis, D, today signed into law S.B. 168, which Bowen sponsored. The bill requires businesses to cease printing Social Security numbers on health plan and employer identification cards, as well as other kinds of IDs. It also forbids the future printing of Social Security numbers on bank statements and other documents sent by mail, and allows people to freeze access to their credit reports.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171055.html

Russia Says Question of Shuttleworth's Flight to ISS Remains Open
The question of the flight of South African tycoon Mark Shuttleworth to the International Space Station (ISS) as a space tourist remains open, spokesman for the head of the Russian Aerospace Agency Sergei Gorbunov told Interfax on Friday. He said the talks on the possible flight continue. Shuttleworth is planning to come to Moscow shortly for a final discussion of the contract. Gorbunov said that the South African billionaire has accepted many of the conditions put forward by the Russian side that he initially declined.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...te_011012.html

These Boots Are Made for Power
There are boots for wading, walking, hiking and skiing. But how about boots for power? SRI International, a research firm in Menlo Park, Calif., is working with the Defense Department to create a shoe that will convert the mechanical energy of walking into electric power to charge up gadgets, batteries and other devices. At the heart, or rather sole, of the experimental foot-ware is a heel made of a special elastic polymer. A tiny battery positively charges one side of the flexible material and the other negatively. As the material is compressed and released — such as by the foot pressure generated during walking — the distance between the positive and negative sides change, which in turn creates electricity.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...dge011012.html

Wearable computer could rescue lost spacewalkers
The cosmonauts spacewalking from the International Space Station on Monday face a challenging day's work, but their successors should have an easier time thanks to new wearable computers currently being developed. Researchers at Boeing and the MIT's Media Laboratory are developing a computer system that could be installed into a conventional space suit. Their prototype has already survived extreme electromagnetic radiation tests and been adapted so it does not ignite the pure oxygen which astronauts breathe.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991427

High-Speed Trains Are Catching Up
Welcome to the world of high-speed trains. Europeans and Japanese have been riding them for years, and while Americans have yet to jump aboard, all that may soon change. Whether it's high-speed rail connecting all 800 miles of California, or magnetic levitation, as proposed in Florida, engineers and politicians are reconsidering these alternative ways to sprint from city to city. Clearly, the events of September 11 have caused the public to take a second look at high-speed train travel.
http://www.techreview.com/web/heltzel/heltzel101101.asp

Split Screen Play
As president and CEO of the Japanese gaming giant Square, Suzuki thumbs the controls of an empire built on what many consider to be the best role-playing videogames on earth. Square's flagship Final Fantasy series - which launched in 1987 - has sold more than 33 million units worldwide and generated nearly $1 billion in sales. It's also come to define the bleeding edge of the RPG genre, with near-photo-realistic characters moving through a surreal, have-another-hit adventure space. And with each version, Square seems determined to top its previous high score. Over the years, the company has repeatedly shown its willingness to take risks.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.09/square.html

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Thanks for the first copy of an excellent issue, Mr. WT!

DOJ expands online music probe
The Justice Department widened its antitrust investigation of the online music business, sending civil subpoenas across the industry that focused on alleged use of copyright rules and licensing practices to control distribution. The subpoenas, formally known as civil investigative demands, were issued late last week and disclose a broad federal investigation into "anticompetitive licensing of intellectual property rights associated with provision of music over the Internet." The probe encompasses the two new online-music ventures backed by the industry's five major recording labels. The subpoenas demand documents on terms and conditions in Internet music licensing and the setting of rates in the emerging online-music market, and investigators seem to be trying to pinpoint whether any illegal coordination took place among record labels.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Hmmm... could the hand of justice touch the music biz after all?

The Electronic Paper Chase
It offers excellent resolution and high contrast under a wide range of viewing angles, requires no external power to retain its image, weighs little, costs less and is remarkably flexible (literally and figuratively) -- unlike today's computer displays. No wonder traditional ink on paper continues to flourish in a digital world that was expected to all but do away with it. Yet ink on paper is lacking in one of the essential traits of computer displays: instantaneous erasure and reuse, millions of times without wearing out. Electronic ink on paper with this ability could usher in an era of store signs and billboards that could be updated without pulping acres of trees; of e-books that embody the familiar tactile interface of traditional books; of magazines and newspapers delivered wirelessly to thin, flexible page displays, convenient for reading, whether on crowded subways or desert islands.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/20...101ditlea.html

This is very interesting technology... holding great ecological promises and exciting new technological possibilities...

- tg

oh baby, that's 2300 wavs or 20,000 mp3s on ONE DISC - a djs dream come true - gimme that 100 gig dvdr!

- js.