The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Teeeheeeeheeee

Europe's ready for Microsoft's arguments
The European Commission, having caused an uproar this summer with its rejection of General Electric's acquisition of Honeywell, now faces another high-profile, contentious issue that U.S. federal and state authorities are tackling: The proposed settlement of the antitrust case against software giant Microsoft. Mario Monti, the European Union's top antitrust officer, speaking at an award ceremony in New York on Tuesday, declined to discuss how or if the European Commission would be swayed by the proposed agreement.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Microsoft academy recruits Windows users
Microsoft on Wednesday added yet another way to recruit Windows users: A program to train students in high schools, vocational schools and two- and four-year colleges to work with the software maker's latest technology. Dubbed IT Academy, the program is billed as a way to prepare students for careers in high tech. While the program is expected to help schools train students for technology jobs, Microsoft also benefits by adding yet another tool in its recruitment arsenal. As it does with software developer programs, which offer tools and training for creating applications that run on Windows operating systems, Microsoft will be able to generate more interest in its products.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Chip revolution turns 30
The foundation of modern computing was something of an accident. The Intel 4004 Microprocessor, which debuted thirty years ago Thursday, sparked a technological revolution because it was the first product to fuse the essential elements of a programmable computer into a single chip. Since then, processors have allowed manufacturers to embed intelligence into PCs, elevators, air bags, cameras, cell phones, beepers, key chains and farm equipment, among other devices. But that's not the way the story was supposed to turn out.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Companies fight over faster wireless
While consumers and businesses are just beginning to adopt the first wireless networking technology, tech companies are already fighting over its successor. At issue is the billion-dollar market for networking kits that connect laptops today, and printers or stereos tomorrow, and wirelessly link them to the Internet. The wireless connections, first introduced to corporations and schools, have begun to take off in the past few years, spreading to coffee shops, airports and hotels across the country.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Yahoo to join broadband race
Yahoo on Wednesday said it would team with SBC Communications to sell high-speed Internet access in a partnership seemingly aimed at combating the growing power of America Online and MSN. The deal will create a co-branded online access service with more than 1.2 million high-speed Net customers, vaulting Yahoo into the ranks of the top Internet service providers. The service will also inherit 3.6 million dial-up customers from Prodigy Communications, which SBC recently bought.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Live on center stage -- Opera 6.0 beta
Opera Software moved Tuesday to catch up to Microsoft and Netscape on the international scene with a test launch of its new browser. Announced Tuesday at Comdex Fall 2001, the test, or "beta," version of Opera 6.0 for Microsoft's Windows operating system brings Opera up to speed with heavyweight competitors Microsoft and Netscape by allowing people to read Web pages written in non-Roman alphabets, including Chinese and Japanese.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Toysrus.com glitch panics Xbox fans
Fast-moving gamers who thrive on high-speed action got a shock this week with word that their preordered Xboxes wouldn't be delivered on time. But faster than you can say "replay," Amazon.com cleared up the confusion, saying a computer glitch had mistakenly changed the shipping dates for people who preordered through Toysrus.com. The gaming consoles -- expected to be one of the season's hottest sellers -- will be shipped Thursday, according to Patty Smith, a spokeswoman at Amazon.com. The e-tailer jointly operates the Toysrus.com Web site.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Gateway auctions celebrity laptop
Gateway is betting a relic of the Windows XP launch will bring in big money to help victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The notebook, a Solo 3450, was signed by Gateway CEO Ted Waitt, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Intel CEO Craig Barrett on Oct. 24, during an event the evening before Windows XP's official kick-off. The three executives had gathered at the Gateway Country store in New York's Columbus Circle area of Manhattan. The auction is silent, meaning bidders will not be able to check on the progress. "Simply, the highest bid wins," Gateway spokesman Greg Lund said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Where's Harry Potter? Probably not online
Pirated copies of the much-anticipated Harry Potter movie have been reported online ahead of its U.S. release Friday, but impatient viewers will likely find it faster to wait in line at the theater rather than find an illicit version. Searches on peer-to-peer exchanges such as LimeWire and Morpheus this week returned long lists of files whose titles incorporate "Harry Potter," the hero of the expected movie blockbuster based on the best-selling novels by J.K. Rowling. Few of those files, if any, represent the genuine article, however.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Gadgets, gizmos top techies' holiday lists
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...a PC in a pear tree. Those may not be the original lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas," but technology industry professionals plan to give and receive laptop, desktop and handheld computers as holiday gifts, according to new research. In a weekly poll of tech industry professionals by the TechRepublic Community Research Group -- a division of CNET Networks, publisher of News.com -- researchers also determined that workers in specific job categories have certain preferences when it comes to buying and receiving presents.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Motorola spins off chip unit
Wireless technology giant Motorola said Wednesday that it has created a wholly owned subsidiary to focus on its breakthrough technology for a superfast computer chip that combines low-cost silicon with speed-of-light optics. The Chicago-based company said the unit, Thoughtbeam, will focus on commercializing the technology and will be led by Motorola Corporate Vice President Padmasree Warrior. The new technology, introduced in September, combines silicon, the basis of most computer chips, with gallium arsenide, an alternative chipmaking material, to create an optical chip that is durable, cost effective and operates at higher speeds.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Yahoo plays Overture's paid search listings
Yahoo has partnered with for-fee search service Overture to add sponsored links to its directory, a move to bolster revenue as advertising sales wane. The Internet portal said it plans to integrate Overture's paid listings, or"sponsor matches," with its directory pages by Thursday. The service lets advertisers bid for placement in query results rather than rely on natural listings or editorial recommendations. The portal will feature Overture's top five for-fee listings in a clearly marked section separate from the results retrieved by Google, Yahoo's search partner. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Employees double time on IM
Office workers are doubling their use of instant messaging, with the number of minutes spent swapping real-time messages at work in the United States climbing to 4.9 billion, according to a study released Wednesday. Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix said the number of unique users at work rose 34 percent to 13.4 million. Minutes spent at home on IM services, which allow people to chat in real-time, rose 48 percent to 13.6 billion minutes from a year earlier.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Publishers sign up for Listen.com service
Music service provider Listen.com plans to announce Wednesday that it has signed a deal with music publishers, giving an added boost to its upcoming online music service. Under the deal, Listen.com said it will have access to every musical work authorized by the Harry Fox Agency, a subsidiary of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) that represents most songs published in the United States. Harry Fox will issue licenses to Listen.com that allow the music service provider to reproduce and distribute music through its upcoming subscription service, dubbed Rhapsody.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Musicians file brief supporting Napster
A group of recording artists led by Don Henley on Tuesday said they recently filed a brief in a San Francisco federal court that may give song-swap service Napster a shot in the arm in its ongoing copyright-infringement battle with the recording industry. The artists contended in their brief filed Nov. 7 that the big recording labels may not indefinitely own some of the sound recording copyrights they are suing over in the landmark suit against Napster, said Jay Rosenthal, a lawyer for the Recording Artists Coalition. The record giants in September requested summary judgment on the issue of liability, which would leave as the only trial matter the amount of damages and nature of an injunction against Napster.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[Squid]

don't miss this one:
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,48255,00.html
Aimster launches its own file-trading subscription service without all those pesky licenses that has kept the recording industry returning to court.


sorry wt dude

[walktalker]

Argentina Peeks Into E-Mail Laws
If you illegally read someone else's e-mail in Argentina, you might end up spending from 15 days to six months in jail. And sending spam without identifying it as such, and including your real name, could saddle you with a fine of more than $25,000. That's what may be in store for Argentines if two bills presented by the Secretaría de Comunicaciones (the local FCC) to the Congress earlier this month are approved.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48291,00.html

Aimster the Latest to Chime In
The company that released the Aimster file-trading software unveiled a monthly subscription plan, promising users quicker connection and download times for those who pay for the premium service. AbovePeer, based in Troy, New York, quietly released Club Aimster, a subscription service that allows users to create their own homepages and bypass traffic congestion for $4.95 per month, according to company spokesman Johnny Deep.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,48255,00.html

Liquid Audio Faces Bitter Music
If he had his way, Mitaronda says he'd shut down the company. Then he'd take its remaining cash and distribute it to shareholders, reasoning that "there comes a point in time when it is no longer practical to continue in the business for which the company raised money." Trouble is, Liquid Audio has no intention of letting Mitaronda get his way. The Silicon Valley company -- which reported a smaller-than-expected loss of $6.1 million for its latest quarter on Tuesday -- has consistently rejected offers by Mitaronda's BCG Investors to buy out the firm.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48370,00.html

Server Farm: Your Place or Mine?
In an era of growing insecurity, having your computer equipment tucked into a hole 85 feet underground has a certain appeal. That's the selling point of Underground Secure Data Center Operations (USDCO), a server farm located in an abandoned gypsum mine near Grand Rapids, Michigan. USDCO execs are stressing the bunker-like qualities of their 750,000-square-foot mine in the wake of the terrorist attacks and subsequent data and equipment destruction.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48104,00.html

ICANN Warned on Web Vulnerability
It would not take much for a malicious hacker to shut down the Internet, researchers at a meeting of the body that oversees Web address allocation warned on Tuesday. An attack designed to flood the Web's master directory servers with traffic "is capable of bringing down the Internet," said Paul Vixie, a speaker at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers annual meeting.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48384,00.html

Courts to hear rash of cell phone suits
A lawsuit is due to be filed in America on Wednesday alleging that a 34-year old man's brain cancer was caused by mobile phone use. The case is likely to be followed by dozens more in coming weeks. Lawyers acting on behalf of Michael Murray, a former Motorola worker, are seeking both compensation and punitive damages. The personal injury case will be heard at the District of Columbia Superior Court, and will seek to prove that mobile phones cause brain tumors -- a claim consistently denied by the mobile industry.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Rocket plane closes in on private space travel
A fledgling aerospace company took another step toward making private space flights Monday as it sent a rocket-powered plane soaring 9,000 feet above the desert. Xcor Aerospace's EZ-Rocket, outfitted with twin, 400-pound-thrust rocket engines, streaked off a windy Mojave Airport runway and into a cloudy sky. Shimmering hot exhaust trailed during the demonstration flight for about 100 spectators.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...cket-plane.htm

French bureaucracy takes online leap
France is about to launch an electronic government initiative that will give every citizen a personal internet portal allowing them to pay taxes online, register a child for a state school, or be reminded that their regulatory car inspection is due in a month's time. The move aims to streamline the country's notoriously bureaucratic civil service. The new system, titled mon.service-public.fr, is due to be launched on Thursday, but the French will have to wait until 2005 for it to be completed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1655820.stm

The Fourth Annual Inertia Awards
Yes, it's the Fourth International Inertia Awards competition. The Inertia Awards honor companies and individuals who are dragging the feet of the worldwide Internet Economy with product delays, professional incompetence, been-there-done-that technology, monopolistic practices, and/or other dilatory acts or omissions. The Inertia Awards are not connected in any nonsatiric way with the Momentum Awards, nor for that matter are they related in any nonobvious way to the Sluggishness Awards, the Stagnation Awards, the Listlessness Awards, or the Unemployment Prize. The names of the winners are known only to the judges, who have been sealed in envelopes and kept in a locked vault at Price Waterhouse, then irradiated before being opened by the Swaine's World mailroom SWAT team.
http://webreview.com/swaine/2001/11_12_01.shtml

Here Comes the Sun
You might be worried about blizzards this winter, but what about coronal mass ejections? These giant blasts of electrified particles from the sun, along with solar winds and other space weather, frequently cause disturbances on earth, disrupting radio communications and inducing surges in power lines. But space weather forecasters could soon predict such events with better precision, thanks to a new imaging tool in use by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/d...nnovation4.asp

House OKs Bill With Cyber-Security Funding
Brian Krebs and Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes. The House of Representatives today passed a spending bill that contains funding for a raft of cyber-security and online crime-fighting initiatives. The House voted 411-15 to approve the Commerce-Justice-State (CJS) appropriations bill, a 2002 spending package that includes funding for programs to fight cyber-crime, child pornography, and intellectual property theft. The package also includes money for technology research programs.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172166.html

Digital Music Players To Blast Off By '2005
Digital music players have gained a solid foothold in the marketplace and promise to become much more popular in the coming years, according to a new Cahners In-Stat report. The research firm is projecting shipments of 9 million of the units by 2005, up from 2.4 million last year and the more than 3 million projected to be sold this year, according to the report. The popularity of digital music devices created by companies like Sonicblue, Creative Labs and D-Link is connected directly to the popularity of online music distribution, according to Cahners In-Stat senior multimedia analyst Mike Paxton.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172165.html

Feds Praise Law Enforcement Value Of Biometrics
A pair of federal officials on Tuesday told a congressional panel that technology capable of identifying people by their unique physical characteristics - fingerprints, retinal patterns, facial contours, etc. - could play a vital role in combating terrorism. FBI Criminal Justice Information Systems Division (CJIS) Assistant Director Michael Kirkpatrick and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Deputy Director Monte Belger both said that physical recognition or "biometric" technologies would help them perform their respective duties in helping safeguard the nation from further terrorist attacks.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172164.html

Lawmakers To Question Industry Leaders On Cybersecurity
A congressional panel has called a clutch of high-tech industry leaders to testify this week about the precautions the private sector is taking to secure their software and networks. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee will hear from security officials at Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., EDS and a handful of other major industry players when it convenes a hearing on cybersecurity Thursday.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172160.html

Microsoft - Only XP Administrators Can Play Some Games
Families and others who upgrade to the Windows XP operating system may find their favorite PC games no longer function properly, according to Microsoft. Some fans of computer games, including Microsoft's Age of Empires II, are discovering that Windows XP may not allow them to run the software unless they have special "computer administrator" privileges. Internet newsgroups for discussing XP support issues contained several messages from users who have encountered the problem, which stems from a security feature in XP known as "User Accounts." Microsoft officials were not immediately available for comment.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172154.html

Bush Signs Funding Bills With Technology Provisions
President Bush Tuesday signed several government funding bills into law, including the Treasury appropriations bill that contains restrictions on how much Internet user information federal government agencies can collect. Bush also signed the Energy and Water appropriations bill into law, a $24.6 billion bill that contains about $14.9 million for security initiatives at the Energy Department's Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance. That funding in part would increase cyber-security at Energy Department facilities.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172152.html

Thai Electricity Generator Turns On To Open Source
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) is the latest local organization to adopt open source technology with a recently implemented Internet mail system for 12,500 users nationwide. EGAT Research and Development Office assistant director Chana Sobharaksha told Database that the agency had a limited budget and so had explored alternatives using free software. EGAT had already implemented a Linux system in 1995 for Internet access but only had a few users who could use the system.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172129.html

More news later on

[cornflakeboyee]

I'm into that (getting spanked)