The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

I am a happy Napsterite

Attacks put privacy into focus
Companies are scrambling to ensure their online privacy policies do not run afoul of the sprawling investigation into last month's terrorist attacks, a move that could prompt some to rewrite their published statements, privacy experts said. Most online privacy policies contain provisions for sharing customer information with law enforcement agencies in the event of a criminal investigation or suspected illegal activity. Nevertheless, some companies that have been cooperating with authorities investigating the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon are now reviewing their actions for possible privacy violations, according to people familiar with their concerns.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

StarOffice overhaul reports for duty
Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled the beta of StarOffice 6.0, a streamlined version of the company's free office software that's aimed to gain ground against Microsoft's Office. The company had already touted the multi-platform software, which runs on machines using the Solaris operating system, Linux or Microsoft Windows, to Linux fans in August. The new version replaces StarOffice 5.2, which was criticized as sluggish and hefty. But with its availability as a free download, the product had some appeal as a competitor against Microsoft's Office software. Sun made the software free just after acquiring StarOffice from Hamburg, Germany-based Star Division in 1999.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Yahoo looking for attention amid slump
Yahoo is considering several new paid services, including broadband access, that could help the Web giant find new sources of revenue amid a steep decline in online advertising. A series of customer surveys making their way onto Yahoo sites in recent weeks suggest the company is readying what may be its most serious effort yet to cut its dependence on advertising, although it's unclear whether Yahoo will actually launch any of the services. Among other things, recent Yahoo surveys take the pulse of consumer demand for a Yahoo-branded high-speed Internet access service and a secure corporate instant-messaging service. As previously reported, the company also is testing the waters for paid Web-based office applications.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Motorola creates gas-powered cell phones
Gas-powered cell phones aren't just a lot of hot air, Motorola said Tuesday. Motorola researchers announced Tuesday that they have successfully demonstrated a methane gas-powered fuel cell, which can provide enough juice between chargings for a month of cell phone calls. The fuel cell is essentially a miniature electrochemical plant that fits into a belt holster. Inside the cell, methane is stored in an area the size of a ballpoint pen's ink holder. A chemical reaction releases oxygen, heat and electricity. The electricity then either powers the phone directly or, in the case of Motorola's product, charges another battery that can then power the phone.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Anti-terrorism bill to go to House
U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill Tuesday that could greatly expand the electronic surveillance powers of police and ratchet up penalties relating to certain computer crimes. Known as the Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act, the bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., and John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and is expected to be debated in committee Wednesday afternoon. "It's incredibly likely to make it through," said an aide to the House Committee on the Judiciary. An earlier version of the bill, known as the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), was held up over civil rights concerns last week.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

.info registry stuck in traffic
Real-time registrations of .info domain names hit a brick wall on their second day out and are on hold pending the resolution of technical problems. Afilias, the company administering the new top-level domain, said the system for new registrations had been taken down today at 10 a.m. PDT, and would be restored at 6 p.m. The trouble started this weekend when Afilias implemented a system for real-time registrations, meaning that people could see if a name was available, register it, find it in the Whois database, and launch a site at that address within minutes. That system for instant gratification could not hold up under intense demand, according to Afilias.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Some cash-strapped firms offer tech workers equipment in place of severance pay
As technology companies go from merely wounded to comatose, some fired workers are receiving used computers, cellular telephones and pocket organizers instead of a check. While workers consider the gesture to be better than nothing, most say they would prefer severance pay. The phenomenon is difficult to quantify because no organization tracks it. But the practice is increasing now as the rocky economy and poor management decisions drag hundreds of firms under, leaving them unable to give fired workers a couple months of pay. Lesser said she uses her former company's notebook, a Sony Vaio, to job- hunt while watching television from her home in Newark. Her other notebook sits unused in a bag.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl....DTL&type=tech

How technology is used to mask communications
A network of people conspired to kill thousands -- and caught the world by surprise. In an era when just planning a picnic takes a multitude of phone calls and e-mails, the near-silent organization of the World Trade Center and Pentagon assaults has left authorities mystified. If privacy is dead, as is often alleged, then how did it serve as an accomplice to this murder? In an age of satellites, digital spying and computer surveillance, the answer to that question is likely to add new weight to a growing field of science -- "information hiding,'' or the use of emerging technologies to stay connected without being detected.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/ho...hide100201.htm

Federal grants fund security research
The federal government's technology standards agency announced on Tuesday that nine grants totaling $5 million were awarded to research data security technologies. The money will fund corporate and university projects aimed at securing wireless computer networks, analyzing the vulnerabilities created by merging computer and phone networks, developing new methods of detecting hackers and network intruders, and finding better ways to protect power networks. "These research grants will make an important down payment towards addressing the many cyber challenges we need to surmount to protect America's critical infrastructures," Richard A. Clarke, National Security Council adviser and national coordinator for security and counterterrorism, said in a statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

The Internet's greatest test
Even as individuals and organizations struggle to recover from the recent terrorist attacks, the nation and the world must start assessing the lessons of those events. For information technology groups, one of those lessons is the key role the Internet has played and is still playing in communications. When DARPA designed what has become the Internet, one of its goals was to create a network that could survive disasters. To accomplish this, it chose the technology of packet communications and built-in maximum switching flexibility, so if one physical pathway became blocked or cut, the network could reroute packets to lines that were operating. The terrible events of Sept. 11 put the Internet to its greatest test yet in this role.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-201...html?tag=cd_mh

San Francisco bans filters in libraries
San Francisco officials have voted to ban Internet filters on computers in local public libraries, risking the loss of some $20,000 in federal funds. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors on Monday unanimously prohibited Internet filters on city-owned computers used by the public for Web access. But an amendment to the legislation excludes Internet terminals designated exclusively for individuals under the age of 13. The filter ban rejects regulations governing federal funding of schools and libraries enacted last year under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CHIPA). That law requires schools and libraries to filter Web content or forgo federal funding. The American Civil Liberties Union and American Library Association have challenged the law, saying it violates First Amendment rights.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

EMI cozies up to rival Pressplay
EMI Recorded Music said Tuesday that it would license its catalog of songs to the Pressplay online music service despite the record label's association with rival offering MusicNet. The announcement comes as Pressplay and MusicNet prepare to launch their music-subscription services. Originally slated for a September release to consumers, Pressplay's launch was delayed last week by its corporate parent, Vivendi Universal, which blamed the postponement on the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Until now, the major record labels were divided between the two digital music services, with Pressplay tapping songs from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, and with MusicNet to offer songs from Warner Music Group, BMG Entertainment and EMI.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Canon pairs digital cameras, printers
unveiling compact digital cameras and home printers that can hook up to each other directly to print photos. The company introduced two PowerShot compact digital cameras set to hit the Japanese, U.S. and European markets later this year. It also announced eight inkjet printers. Canon said the new products complete its lineup of digital cameras -- an area in which it got off to a slow start while rivals such as Sony, Fuji Photo Film and Olympus Optical took an early lead. The company, eager to make digital cameras easier and more fun to use, also launched an online service in Japan that lets people create Web-based photo albums, order prints over the Net and even download a special sound--such as a dog's bark or a police officer's whistle -- to replace the usual click of the shutter.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

Experts: Easy Installations Kill
The biggest computer security threat isn't a vicious virus or a skilled and malicious hacker. The real danger, according to dozens of experts, is easy-to-install software and software vendors who focus too heavily on adding convenient features instead of solid security solutions into their applications. The default software installations performed by most operating systems and applications top the SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute and the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Center's new Top 20 security threats list.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47244,00.html

Gamers Blow bin Laden Away
Osama bin Laden has managed to escape harm in the real world, but his likeness is getting blown away with extreme prejudice in living rooms across America. Gamers have been downloading a virtual image, or a skin, of bin Laden so they can do battle with him in shoot-'em-up computer games. As well as creating a bin Laden character for Unreal Tournament, the designers at CyberExtruder have whipped up a bin Laden character for Quake3:Arena, too. Downloadable "skins," or customized characters not included in the original game, are an important part of gaming culture. Most are made in 3-D software, but CyberExtruder specializes in creating skins from personal photographs, which can then be inserted into video games. So in cyberspace, players can pit a virtual rendition of themselves against a virtual bin Laden.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47226,00.html

FTC Seeks to Trap a Mousetrapper
Suing John Zuccarini is like riding the neighborhood bicycle: Everybody gets a turn. He's already been assailed 63 times by everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Disney, Yahoo and Nicole Kidman. Now the feds, in a lawsuit announced Monday, have become the latest plaintiff to take Zuccarini to court. His alleged offense this time: registering misspellings of popular domain names, then bombarding hapless visitors with a seemingly infinite series of pop-up ads. Last Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission sued Zuccarini in federal court in Pennsylvania, and asked for a temporary injunction against this practice. They're also asking the court to force Zuccarini to return any money he made. The FTC won its restraining order, but so far government lawyers have been unable to serve the notoriously elusive Zuccarini with it. Zuccarini's mailing address appears to be in Pennsylvania, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47217,00.html

No Last-Minute Rush for E911
Despite surging demand following the Sept. 11 attacks, Monday's FCC-mandated deadline for "enhanced 911" services passed Monday without any mobile phone carrier implementing the technology. Citing a lack of equipment, complexities regarding differing standards and/or exorbitant costs to implement the system -- which would enable emergency dispatchers to pinpoint the location of local cell phone callers -- every major carrier filed a temporary waiver. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission hasn't yet decided how it will proceed -- either in reviewing the waivers or meting out punishment.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,47220,00.html

Don't Trust Any E-Mail Over 30
As great inventions go, e-mail had a rather ho-hum beginning back in 1971. In fact, Ray Tomlinson, the American engineer considered the "father of e-mail," can't quite recall when the first message was sent, what it said, or even who the recipient was. "I have no idea what the first one was," he told Reuters. "It might have been the first line from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address for all I know. The only thing I know was it was all in upper case." Tomlinson, principal engineer at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finds himself in the spotlight again after all these years, having to answer questions about the computer program he designed as it reaches its 30th birthday in the coming weeks.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47239,00.html

'Rogue Spear' to train military to tackle terrorists
Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the world's largest video game companies, is licensing technology used to create counterterrorist simulation game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear to help train soldiers. The Department of Defense plans to use the game engine — the programming that powers the game's logic — to train troops to fight terrorists in urban terrain. It will be modified to use maps and scenarios requested by the U.S. Army, and will teach strategy and tactics, as opposed to weapons training, Ubi Soft says. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the company says it will delay indefinitely the release of the latest game in the series, Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear: Black Thorn. Some of the scenes in the game, which was scheduled for an Oct. 9 launch, will be removed. One of the missions to be eliminated involves a terrorist hijacking an airplane, the company says.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...inbow-army.htm

Access Denied
Top Justice Department and FBI officials turned down a request by Minneapolis FBI agents early last month for a special counterintelligence surveillance warrant on a suspected Islamic terrorist who officials now believe may have been part of the Sept. 11 plot to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon, NEWSWEEK has learned. The handling of the case of Zacarias Moussaoui — who is now being held in detention in New York — has raised new questions about how U.S. law enforcement officials handled critical intelligence that, in retrospect, might have alerted them in advance to the deadliest terrorist plot in U.S. history.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/636610.asp?cp1=1

Fusion power 'within reach'
Fusion power is "within reach", according to atomic scientists in the UK. Fusion is the form of nuclear energy that powers the stars. Although, it has many advantages over conventional nuclear power, it has been technically difficult to develop. The best approach appears to be to confine a superhot gas, called a plasma, in a magnetic field. Some success has been achieved this way using huge experimental fusion reactors. But now, according to United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) scientists, making smaller versions of the same equipment may be technically easier, cheaper and swifter to develop. The most recent experiments show promise, they claim.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1573450.stm

NSync CD is copy protection "experiment"
The music industry is now testing different copy protection systems on mass market chart CDs, with copies of NSync's Celebrity on the Zomba label being sold in at least three different versions. Those available in Germany have draconian protection, a slightly weaker system is used on the US disk and there is no protection on the UK version. The only visible clue is small print on the German release which warns "this CD is not playable on computers". Sony will not comment on the NSync disc but a spokesman says: "We continue to test available copy protection technologies, and our goal is to implement copy protection on a broader basis to deter digital piracy." "Sure I am aware of it," says Maria Ho in Zomba's New York office. But she had no comment to make by the time of publication. Sebastian Kahlich, at Zomba's German headquarters, would also make no comment.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991367

A Better Black Box
In the tragic wake of an airline crash, one of the highest priorities of the accident investigators is to retrieve the aircraft's black boxes. The Federal Aviation Administration requires all large commercial aircraft to be equipped with two such devices: the cockpit voice recorder, which records the flight crew's voices and other sounds in the cockpit, and the flight data recorder, which monitors the plane's altitude, airspeed, heading and other instrument readings. Because this information can be vital to the investigation of an air disaster, the recorders must be designed so that the stored data can survive virtually any crash.
http://www.sciam.com/2000/0900issue/0900working.html

Brave New World for Higher Education
In April 2001, MIT president Charles M. Vest announced that the Institute would bring the "open-source" software sensibility to higher education and offer — for free! — its curricula and courseware to the world via the Web. This "OpenCourseWare" initiative represents a radically different approach to digitizing, marketing and globalizing education. "OpenCourseWare looks counterintuitive in a market-driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values," said Vest at the time. "But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT." He concluded, "Simply put, OpenCourseWare is a natural marriage of American higher education and the capabilities of the World Wide Web."
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/oct01/insight.asp

No hiding place for anyone
IN TODAY'S information age, everybody leaves an electronic trail in their wake. With every credit-card purchase, ATM transaction, telephone call and Internet logon, they create an electronic portrait of themselves that grows clearer at every step. Perhaps the only items that are still untraceable are people's clothes, cash and day-to-day movements. But with the introduction of Hitachi's new “mu-chip”, even these could become common knowledge. The Hitachi chip is the world's smallest wireless identification device. It measures 0.4 millimetres square and is thin enough to be embedded in paper. It can hold only 128 bits of read-only memory, and do little more than spit out a unique identification number, when asked, to a distance of about 30 centimetres.
http://www.economist.com/science/dis...tory_id=779580

More news later on

[walktalker]

Anti-Nimda Technology Saved Billions
The hefty damage toll from Nimda could have been far worse, if many Internet users hadn't been running automatically updating anti-virus software, a research firm said today. According to Computer Economics, the worldwide economic impact of the Nimda worm reached about $590 million. But Michael Erbschloe, vice president of research, said the downtime and clean-up costs from Nimda would have been significantly greater if many leading anti-virus software packages hadn't automatically downloaded updated virus definitions to users. "When a new virus hits, the first few hours are critical. Soon after Nimda was first reported, all of the major vendors were pushing updates to their users," said Erbschloe.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170743.html

Congress Likely To Defer Database Protection To 2002
The high-tech industry's denizens agree that intellectual property protection for databases is a must-have item, but Congress more than likely will file away the issue until early next year, according to House committee sources. Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, staff had been in discussions to reconcile two visions of database protection legislation, but both sides on the issue agree that the waning weeks of the congressional session are unlikely to produce an accord. In addition, no legislation on database protections has been proposed this year. Congress last year saw some heavy debate on how databases should be protected, and that debate has continued to some extent, though mostly in staff discussions.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170742.html

World Becoming More Connected
The worldwide growth of the Internet continues at a staggering rate, according to a new study. TeleGeography, an international telecom statistics and analysis firm, today said international cross-border Internet links - which it defines as general Internet applications such as e-mail or Web page information requests - grew 174 percent from July 2000 to July 2001. Latin America had the biggest jump of any region in terms of total capacity, which increased from 2.7 Gbps (gigabits per second) to 16.1 Gbps, a leap of 479.2 percent. Two carriers built new submarine cable systems from South America to the United States, which accounted for the bulk of the increase, the study said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170740.html

A Pay-As-You-Go World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organization that defines many of the Web's underlying technological standards, is reconsidering the idea that there should be no tollgates at the entrances to cyberspace. A controversial new patent policy under consideration by the W3C would allow companies claiming patents on various World Wide Web technologies to collect royalties whenever they are used. If the policy is enacted, proprietary technologies could be incorporated into Web standards for the first time since Tim Berners-Lee set the new medium loose on the world more than 10 years ago.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170726.html

Check Point Mum On Alleged Sudan Bank Hack
Israeli information technology security firm Check Point says a German's claim that he hacked into a Sudan bank with possible links to Osama bin Laden "cannot be substantiated." The claims were made last week by hacker-turned-terrorism-opponent Kim Schmitz, who said his U.K.-based team of hackers had gained entry into computers installed with Check Point FireWall-1 software at the AlShamal Islamic Bank in Sudan. Schmitz said the hackers collected data on the accounts of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization and on Bin Laden, and that the information was turned over to the FBI.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170724.html

WTC, Bin Laden Still Big Search Targets
Internet searches for news and information related to the events of Sept. 11 remained popular two weeks after the attacks, but there were signs of a shift toward more normal search routines, according to the Lycos 50 report issued today. The number of World Trade Center searches took over the No. 1 spot and Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident believed responsible for the attacks, drew the second-highest tally of search requests in the week ending Sept. 29, Lycos said. More traditional topics re-entered the search picture, with Halloween taking sixth place and costumes in the tenth slot, Lycos said. Last week just 13 of the top 50 search topics were related to the attacks, compared to half the list in the week ending Sept. 15, Lycos said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170721.html

NATO: U.S. provided evidence of bin Laden's involvement
The United States, seeking the full moral backing of its 18 NATO allies, provided "clear and compelling" evidence Tuesday of Osama bin Laden's involvement in terror attacks on New York and Washington, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said. He said the allies have determined that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were directed from abroad and thus are covered by NATO's Article 5 -- which says an attack on one member is an attack on all.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/...ato/index.html

Pakistan warns Taliban of U.S. attacks
Pakistan declared Tuesday that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers "don't have much time" to stave off U.S.-led military strikes, the clearest signal yet that the Pakistani government is washing its hands of the Taliban's fate. "Pakistan has conveyed to the Taliban what the situation is, what are the dangers, what the international community is expecting them to do," Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan said. "We have told them they don't have much time." Coming from a country that was once the closest ally of Afghanistan's harshly Islamic rulers -- and which has now pledged itself as a U.S. partner -- the warning carried the weight of finality.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/...tan/index.html

The Taliban's bravest opponents
The film footage is wobbly and blurry but stunning: A soccer stadium in Afghanistan is packed with people, but there is no match today. Instead, a pickup truck drives into the stadium with three women, shrouded in burqas, cowering in the back. Armed men in turbans force a woman from the truck, and make her kneel at the penalty line on the field. Confused and unable to see, the woman tries to look behind just as a rifle is pointed against the back of her head. With no fanfare whatsoever, she is shot dead. The shaky video camera captures the cheering crowd as people rise to their feet, hoping to get a better view of the corpse on the ground. The blue folds of the burqa begin to stain red with blood. This public execution is some of the most shocking film ever seen on television; it is perhaps the best document that the West has of atrocities committed by the Taliban.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/200...ima/index.html

Wanted: Your name and number
Just three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the FBI released the names of 19 men suspected of carrying out the murderous and suicidal hijackings. Not long after, however, doubts surfaced as to the real identities of the kamikaze terrorists. Days later, a trail of stolen passports and very-much-alive hijack suspects led FBI officials to admit that mistakes had been made. It now appears that at least seven of the Saudi nationals named by the FBI were falsely fingered; these alleged hijackers claim to have been victims of an extreme form of identity theft, known as "identity takeover." You cannot imagine what it is like to be described as a terrorist -- and a dead man -- when you are innocent and alive," said a shaken Saeed Al-Ghamdi, 25, quoted in the The Daily Telegraph. Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi Airlines pilot, was singled out by the FBI as one of the terrorists on the United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...eft/index.html

Mixed messages
For an administration desperate to boost consumer confidence and protect the economy from recession, the White House was hardly reassuring during this week's Sunday morning talk shows: Senior officials said Americans should be prepared for still more terrorist strikes at home, including biological, chemical and even nuclear attacks. Was the doomsday message a case of chaotic circumstances creating mixed messages? Not necessarily. Instead, the White House's conflicting themes in recent days (America remains at risk but the country, and the economy, should return to normal) highlight the difficulty of fighting war and recession at the same time.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...nce/index.html

Intelligence analysis software could predict attacks
Intelligence analysis software being developed in the US could be used to predict future terrorist attacks, claims the research company making it. When complete, they say it will be capable of sifting through and analysing existing databases of information, both public and private, and spotting suspicious patterns of activity. If such a system had been available it might have been capable of predicting the Oklahoma City bombing, and possibly even the World Trade Center disaster, says Anthony Bagdonis of Applied Systems Intelligence in Roswell, Georgia. "We're trying to predict these events before they even happen," he says.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991368

More news later on

[Drakonix]

Motorola creates gas-powered cell phones

I wonder if they are going to offer an "emergency power kit" consisting of a can of beans and a rubber tube?

For more emergency "air time", they could offer another "heavy duty" emergency power kit. This would consist of a rubber tube and a prepackaged meal of 15 bean soup with boiled cabbage and pickled eggs.

[Sinner]

I just noticed who one of your news sources are...

Troubled Salon Charging Readers

Plagued by sharply decreased ad revenues and rising editorial costs, from now on web-based Salon magazine will be available only through paid subscription.

And another web publication, Contentville, bit the dust last Friday. Steven Brill, publisher of Brill's Content magazine, closed its doors, leaving 15 employees jobless. Brill explained that his idea for the website "Just didn’t work."

Salon, the liberal webzine, infamous as an unabashed supporter of former President Clinton, wants readers to pay $30 for an annual subscription and $50 for a two-year subscription.

According to editor David Talbot, Salon needs to attract from 250 to 300 subscribers per day to meet its goal, but media analyst Michael A Kupinski of A.G. Edwards said reaching that goal would be very difficult.

Kupinski told the New York Times, "Finding subscription-based revenue is going to be a rough go."

"Some readers have implored Salon to reconsider this decision, pointing to the urgency of the times and the importance of Salon's coverage of world events," Talbot wrote in a message to his subscribers. "But this is precisely why we need our readers' support now. In recent days, Salon has committed substantial resources to covering the war between America and Islamic terrorism."

But Talbot denied that Salon is in serious trouble, saying that the magazine has attracted 15,500 subscribers since April and had obtained $3.5 million in new financing, adding, "We've got enough money to give us a cushion. There's no real crisis looming for Salon.

According to the New York Times, however, Salon’s stock, which was delisted by NASDAQ, closed at a mere .22 per share.

[walktalker]

I really enjoy Salon.com because they always publish excellent stories on subject that us plain people really care about, and always well written. Moreoven, it's open to public feedback than any commercial websites like MSNBC, foxnews, cnet.com and the like.

Too bad they are on a financial dire situation. Too bad too, the Industry Standard along with Upside.com compagnies closed down while Inside.com is now charging fees.

[Sinner]

Originally posted by walktalker
I really enjoy Salon.com because they always publish excellent stories on subject that us plain people really care about, and always well written. Moreoven, it's open to public feedback than any commercial websites like MSNBC, foxnews, cnet.com and the like.

Too bad they are on a financial dire situation. Too bad too, the Industry Standard along with Upside.com compagnies closed down while Inside.com is now charging fees.

Could not disagree more...Salon is a liberal news source and as biased as CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN.....