The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

Finding a backup to Excite@Home
The possibility that Excite@Home could block service Friday has forced cable companies to scramble to come up with alternative plans for their high-speed Internet access customers. Excite@Home, which filed for bankruptcy last month, said earlier this week that it could shut off its service to cable companies as early as Friday. Sources say Friday's potential end game was forced by creditors who are trying to get AT&T to raise its $307 million bid for Excite@Home. These bondholders fall later in the creditor food chain and are trying to salvage the best return they can, sources say.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

The Net finds a friend in classifieds
Web publishers intent on reviving the comatose online advertising market with bigger and noisier ads might take a lesson from the quiet and unobtrusive world of classified listings. People are increasingly logging on to the Internet instead of circling newspaper ads in their hunt for jobs, cars or even a date, turning the classified industry into a potentially lucrative online business for newspaper publishers, technology providers and Internet companies.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Soldiers in war zone to get video e-mail
Family and friends of U.S. troops serving in and around Afghanistan will be able to share video e-mail messages in time for the holidays. With technology and equipment provided by Compaq Computer, Sorenson Media and Digital Island, the Department of Defense next week will begin allowing Americans to record and send video messages via the Internet to U.S. troops, under its "Give Thanks America" campaign.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Secret of Ginger to be revealed?
More details on Ginger, the alleged scooter at the center of controversy and wild speculation for close to a year, may emerge next week amid a flurry of patent applications from its inventor. "Good Morning America" anchor Diane Sawyer said earlier this week that the show will reveal what Ginger -- also known as IT -- is next week on the show. Judging from Sawyer's comments, Ginger watchers expect the segment to air Monday. ABC, the network that hosts the show, is running a guess-the-identity-of-Ginger contest.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Nintendo: GameCube's outselling rivals
Nintendo has announced that more than half-million GameCube consoles were sold through to consumers in its first week of availability. The company claims those sales numbers make the GameCube the fastest-selling console in history -- the PlayStation 2 sold its initial shipment of 500,000 units in less than a week, but Sony did not ship additional units for several weeks after launch. In terms of software sales, Luigi's Mansion became the fastest selling launch game, even surpassing the stellar sales of Nintendo's own Super Mario 64, according to Nintendo.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Dutch court cracks down on Kazaa
A Dutch court on Thursday ordered file-swapping software maker Kazaa to prevent people using its product from engaging in copyright infringement or face thousands of dollars in fines. The order takes effect in 14 days and imposes a fine around $45,000 (100,000 guilders) a day. "We don't know how the judge wants us to stop copyright infringement," Kazaa attorney Christiaan Alberdinck Thijm told CNET News.com's affiliate in the Netherlands on Thursday. "We feel as if the judge didn't put much time and effort into this part of the verdict."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Dell entices China with cheap computers
Dell Computer, known for selling computers directly to consumers, has adapted that approach in China -- one of the few healthy markets in an otherwise ailing PC industry. In July, Dell introduced its SmartPC model, which retails for $579 (4,792 yuan), said William Amelio, Dell's president for the Asia-Pacific region including Japan. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell recently surpassed IBM as the biggest foreign PC seller in China. Dell's third-quarter market share in China was 4.9 percent. That compares with 3.1 percent in the same quarter a year earlier, according to market researcher IDC.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Hitachi cuts memory chipmaking jobs
Hitachi, Japan's largest electronics maker, on Thursday announced further job and output cuts at a memory chip venture in Singapore, pressured by a persistent high-tech slump and intense global competition. Hitachi, which is also Japan's third-biggest chipmaker, said it would lay off 430 of 980 employees at the venture by the end of this month, following closely on the heels of last month's cut of 300 jobs. Hitachi also said it would further reduce the operating rate at the plant, which makes dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used in PCs, to 30 percent of capacity from 60 percent.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Compaq inks deal with American Express
Compaq Computer has landed a five-year, multimillion-dollar contract with American Express, the latest large deal for the company since the proposed merger with Hewlett-Packard was announced in September. Under the deal, Compaq will install a 25,000-seat "thin client" system worldwide that will be used by American Express customer service representatives. Exact financial terms were not disclosed. Thin clients are terminals that offload most computing functions to a central server.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Internet shopping: Safer than you think
Internet shopping is safer than you think, the British government said in a campaign launched Thursday to reassure consumers that they can buy holiday presents online as safely as they can in a store. "The campaign aims to raise awareness about e-shopping and demonstrate that it is safe as long as shoppers follow basic, common-sense guidelines," the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said. The DTI said a survey it commissioned showed more people shop online in Britain than in any other European country, with about 12 million people having done so in the past year.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=cd_mh

VoiceStream eyes national-security waiver
VoiceStream Wireless has asked U.S. regulators for a waiver of certain federal rules so it can immediately offer priority access to its network for emergency and national-security personnel. When the United States came under attack on Sept. 11, mobile telephone networks were jammed and few calls could get through, prompting government officials to seek faster deployment of priority access to the airwaves in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Salt Lake City, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Airlines nix plans to fund Internet service
Boeing said the top three U.S. airlines canceled plans to invest in its high-speed airborne Internet service, Connexion, though they will continue to help shape the product. In June, Boeing announced that American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines would help fund Connexion's development, but the airlines have pulled out following the Sept. 11 hijack attacks. "The three airlines understand the value of in-flight connectivity but they need to focus near-term on their core businesses, in light of recent events," Connexion spokesman Fernando Vivanco said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=cd_mh

DoubleClick brings ads to interactive TV
DoubleClick on Thursday said it plans to work with Liberate Technologies to deliver advertising for interactive TV, marking the online advertising company's first major effort in the emerging arena. Through the initiative, DoubleClick hopes to let advertisers and network operators deliver highly targeted ads for interactive TV using the standards-based Liberate software. Interactive TV, which aims to combine the best features of the Internet with television and largely relies on the prevalence of high-speed access, has been seen as an emerging area for some time. However, major inroads in terms of adoption and ability to make money from it have yet to be seen.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

BMI gets rights for radio Web streaming
Music performance rights group Broadcast Music Inc. has outlined a temporary license arrangement for radio stations to stream programming over the Internet. The agreement Wednesday highlights the success of music rights holders in extending their licensing requirements to the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) have won key legal battles against online music services such as Napster and MP3.com, victories that have established licensing agreements for online distribution.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Study: Internet use steals TV time
Internet use in the United States continues to climb, new research finds, and it's taking time away from another classic American pastime: watching television. A new study conducted by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy found that 72.3 percent of Americans have Internet access, up from 66.9 percent in 2000, and that on average, Internet users spend 9.8 hours a week online. That number is up slightly from 2000, the first year the UCLA study was conducted.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Xbox sales target set for Europe
Microsoft hopes to sell 1.5 million Xbox game consoles in Europe during the first three months after its launch there, the company said Thursday. The Xbox, which is competing against Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2, is set to be introduced in Europe on March 14. "We are capable of building 1.5 million units for the launch, and we'd be very, very happy to sell all of those,'' said Sandy Duncan, Microsoft's vice president for Xbox in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

Abortion Clinics on New Net Alert
An anti-abortion extremist who is also one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted has allegedly threatened to kill 42 abortion clinic workers unless they notify him through the Internet that they have quit their jobs. Clayton Waagner, 45, escaped from an Illinois jail in February while waiting to be sentenced for possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a stolen vehicle, according the U.S. Marshal Service.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48692,00.html

Apple's OS X Upgrade Fiasco
'Tis the season for big price breaks, but Apple Computers didn't intend to offer its users a $100 discount on the newest Macintosh operating system. But staffers at tech site Macfixit, in search of a simple workaround, were surprised to discover that they could easily convert OS X 10.1.1 upgrade CDs into fully functioning, complete copies of the OS X operating system. OS X 10.1.1 is intended only to upgrade certain features of the OS X operating system. OS X 10.1.1 is priced at $19.95. Apple sells the complete version of OS X for $129.00.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48742,00.html

Ban on Net Gambling Sought
Critics of Internet gambling are hoping that a new bill will succeed where past efforts to ban the activity have failed. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) on Thursday told the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime that his revised bill resolves disputes that tripped up previous legislation aimed at slowing the growth of online casinos.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48741,00.html

The Many Faces of Online Girls
Call it virtual schizophrenia. Teenage girls are more likely to maintain multiple online personas than other groups, according to an unexpected finding from an academic survey of how Americans use the Internet. It was released Wednesday. "We're not sure why female teenagers are more likely to reveal personal details about themselves," said Jeff Cole, director of the Center for Communication Policy at UCLA, which produced the second annual report.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48716,00.html

High Court Focus on Kids, Web
The Supreme Court wondered on Wednesday whether a federal law designed to shield children from sexually explicit websites would imperil legitimate online publishers. The justices focused on an extraordinarily narrow point: How the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which restricts erotic material that offends "contemporary community standards," would apply to the virtual communities of the Internet.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48699,00.html

DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems
The Department of Justice already is using its new anti-terrorism powers to monitor cable modem users without obtaining a judge's permission first. A top Bush administration official lauded the controversial USA Patriot Act at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying that the new abilities have let police obtain information in investigations that was previously unavailable.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,48711,00.html

China Eyes Man on the Moon
The Chinese National Space Administration has announced a plan that will put an astronaut into orbit before 2005 and eventually land a man on the moon, according to a report in China Daily, the government's official English-language newspaper. If successful, this would make China only the third nation to develop its own manned space capability, after Russia and the United States.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48684,00.html

Robot Sub to Hunt for Earhart
A pair of retired media bigwigs are launching a new search for Amelia Earhart's airplane, using a sophisticated robot submarine. But an old partner from a previous search thinks the newfangled technology won't do them any good; they're looking in the wrong place. Jeff Leach, former publisher of Dinosaur Magazine and Archeology Today, and his partner, Mike Kammerer, plan to search for Earhart's plane in deep water off Howland Island in the Mid-Pacific.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,48630,00.html

Holdout States Likely to Seek Stiffer Microsoft Sanctions
State prosecutors who declined to join an antitrust settlement between Microsoft Corp. and the Justice Department are likely to press for tougher penalties against the company in court hearings in March rather than challenge the deal directly, according to lawyers familiar with the case. Although no final decision has been made, this strategy would avoid an awkward confrontation between 10 jurisdictions -- nine states and the District of Columbia -- that are still pursuing the case and nine other states that had been their partners before agreeing to the settlement early this month.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Nov28.html

Authorities will use robot to open letter sent to Sen. Leahy
Desperate to preserve evidence that might identify the source of lethal anthrax attacks, government scientists will use a small robot to open a suspicious letter addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a senior law enforcement official said Wednesday. The testing could begin as early as today. The Leahy letter, discovered 2 weeks ago in a search of mail quarantined from Capitol Hill, is believed to contain billions of potentially deadly anthrax spores. Authorities think the heavily taped envelope may hold their last, best hope for an investigative breakthrough in the bioterrorism case.
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/2...9/3660073s.htm

Human-Cloning Firm Received Federal Aid
The Massachusetts company condemned by the Bush administration for its efforts to clone a human embryo received a federal grant last month to conduct biotechnology research. Advanced Cell Technology's human cloning experiments set off a national controversy this week that is renewing demands that Congress ban all cloning of human cells.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology

Europe rejects human cloning ban
The European parliament has rejected a move to ban human cloning in the European Union. The 316-37 vote will be a relief for scientists pursuing research into therapeutic cloning, but a disappointment for those who completely oppose work on human embryos. The move comes on the same day as Germany's national ethics committee decided to recommend allowing the import of human stem cells from abroad under clear supervision.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1682591.stm

State sells birth data to Web site, raising ID theft fears
The birth records of more than 24 million Californians have been sold by the state and posted on the Internet, offering easy access to critical information needed to create fake identities. By logging onto a genealogy Web site, people can gain access to such personal data as someone's place of birth and mother's maiden name, which can then potentially be used to access bank records and other sensitive material. While the sale of the database was legal, a leading state senator and expert on privacy said Wednesday that she was "appalled'' by the news and wanted to find ways to restrict access to such information.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/ne...ont/037140.htm

Nanotubes hint at room temperature superconductivity
Tiny tubes of carbon may conduct electricity without any resistance, at temperatures stretching up past the boiling point of water. The tubes would be the first superconductors to work at room temperature. Guo-meng Zhao and Yong Sheng Wang of the University of Houston in Texas found subtle signs of superconductivity. It wasn't zero resistance, but it's the closest anyone's got so far. "I think all the experimental results are consistent with superconductivity," Zhao says. "But I cannot rule out other explanations."
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991618

Drilling the Red Planet
Within the next two years, robotic moles will begin drilling into the red terrain of Mars, searching for geological clues into the planet's history. And two new devices that researchers hope will yield a wealth of information in the Mars Express project (run by a consortium consisting of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency) are intertwined with advances in medical technology.
http://www.techreview.com/web/ohanlon/ohanlon112901.asp

California Firm Prepares To Test Voting Via Digital TV
A California company today said it is planning to test a digital TV system that would allow Americans to casts election ballots using their TV sets, set-top boxes and remote controls. Wink Communications is demonstrating the technology at the California Telecommunications Association convention, which ends Friday. The company said in a press release today that it has the support of cable giant Charter Communications in its efforts to bring voting to the couch potato set.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172559.html

FTC Commissioner Urges Heightened Privacy Focus
As federal law enforcers make use of a seeping new anti-terrorism law to obtain suspects' phone, business and Internet records, online companies must take special steps to ensure that they are abiding by their own self-imposed privacy guidelines, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Orson Swindle said today. "The true intent of this law is very narrowly tailored. This is not carte blanche to start giving away (confidential) information," Swindle told Newsbytes in an interview.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172558.html

Fluffi Bunni Places Ads At Security Site
Banner ads promoting a notorious group of computer attackers known as Fluffi Bunni today appeared at SecurityFocus.com, after the hackers compromised a server operated by the leading security firm's advertising partner. The ad banner depicted the hacking group's mascot, a pink stuffed toy rabbit, and the words "You think you know? You have no idea," and was signed "Security Fluffi."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172554.html

Civil Libertarians Slam Dismissal Of Felten Case
A federal judge's decision Wednesday to toss out a lawsuit filed by a civil liberties group against the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) could further darken a cloud of apprehension hanging over the heads of America's technologists and scientific researchers, a civil liberties advocate said today. In the lawsuit, attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) had asked a New Jersey federal court to rule that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act - which establishes civil and criminal penalties for people charged with violating copyrights online - cannot be invoked by corporate groups to chill the release of scientific research.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172552.html

AT&T Accused Of Sexual Harassment, Discrimination
Telecommunications giant AT&T sexually harassed and discriminated against more than 150 employees, one an Arab-American, who claimed a co-worker shoved her into a locker and told her the veil she wore was ugly, lawyers said today. The current and former employees are filing complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), according to Leeds, Morelli & Brown PC, the law firm representing the complainants.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172550.html

Spanish E.U. Presidency To Push 'Definitive' Internet Laws
"Definitive" E.U. laws governing the Internet will be on the agenda when the E.U. presidency passes to Spain next month. Issues to be resolved include "unbundling," or the fair division of services between providers, access, or fair pricing, and privacy issues, including banning of the use of "cookies" by e-commerce operators. According to the agenda for that presidency, which Newsbytes has obtained, four of the five directives making up the electronic telecommunications package are to be finished. These are the so-called "framework" directive, and those on universal service, access and interconnection, and authorization.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172548.html

Man Indicted For Auctioning Pirated Software On Ebay
A Los Angeles man was indicted Tuesday for allegedly using Ebay to auction pirated copies of several different Adobe Systems software programs. A federal grand jury indicted Eric Niemi, 35, for allegedly selling copies of Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Adobe Pagemaker 6.5, and Adobe Premiere 5.1 to Ebay users under a number of online aliases. According to the indictment, the software packages Niemi offered were in fact unauthorized reproductions of the popular authoring programs the defendant had copied using a CD burner.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172544.html

More news later on

[netcoco]

Roooooooo I've got the first copy !!!

[VWguy]

Damn you green bird!

I hate seconds!!!

[walktalker]

BUMP !!!