The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Intel: Napster, Linux inspires us
U.S. chipmaker Intel said Tuesday that it has been inspired by song-swapping Internet service Napster and free operating system Linux to overhaul some of its technology infrastructure. Despite Napster's short-lived success -- it has been idle since July after stumbling over legal and technical issues -- the company's technology helped Intel to limit expensive network bills, Intel IT Vice President Doug Busch said. Often, the semiconductor heavyweight needs to send large multimedia computer files, which contain information such as manuals or video messages, to its employees across the globe. But Intel simply cannot afford to send all these files from its California headquarters over the Internet and run up huge telecom bills, Busch said.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

Hackers bypass Microsoft copy protection
Hackers in Hong Kong are routinely breaking Microsoft's digital media copyright protection system and helping themselves to broadband encrypted content, including games, films and music videos, according to a report in the South China Morning Post today. The content is hosted on now.com.hk, which belongs to major Asian broadcaster Network of the World, and is protected by Microsoft's digital rights management software, DRM 2. The hackers are using FreeMe, a DRM 2 cracker developed by pseudonymous programmer "Beale Screamer" and recently distributed across the Web following exposure on the U.S. security site Cryptome.org. FreeMe first appeared earlier this month, and this is believed to be the first time it has been put into wide use.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Compaq jumps on freebie bandwagon
Compaq Computer is getting aggressive in the giveaway game.
On Tuesday, the PC maker launched a new promotion: Buy an Evo notebook, an Evo desktop or an Armada notebook and get a Compaq iPaq 3650 handheld for free. The handheld, which has a color screen and 32MB of memory, sells for $399 on Compaq's Web site. The offer is part of Compaq's new Business Tuesday. The program, a 72-hour promotion that changes weekly, was launched to reach out to small and medium-sized businesses. The freebies are also part of a larger trend in which PC makers have been offering discounts, rebates and free hardware with their new PCs in an effort to woo customers in a down market. Some of the more aggressive offers have come from Dell Computer.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Supreme Court zaps violent game law
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision by a lower appeals court to block the enforcement of an Indianapolis law that required children to have parental consent and/or supervision when playing arcade games that are deemed too violent. The law, which was adopted on July 10, was aimed at shielding minors from arcade games that depict violence and strong sexual content. It required arcade operators to separate violent games from other arcade units and display signs that explicitly state the requirement of parental consent to play.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Mono Project aims to bring .Net to Linux
The open-source community, through Linux software development company Ximian, has embarked on a development effort to bring Microsoft's .Net platform to Linux. Called the Mono Project, this effort encompasses creating a development environment that will allow applications developed for .Net to run on Linux-based as well as Windows-based systems. Mono originated out of a need for improved development tools for the GNOME community and for Ximian specifically, according to Miguel de Icaza, Ximian's chief technical officer.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Beware the Internet tax man
After years of largely unregulated commerce, Internet retailers and consumers are hearing a dreaded message: Beware the tax man. Now that the U.S. federal government's three-year tax ban has expired, the days of the Internet as a practically duty-free zone may be numbered. Although Congress could still resume the moratorium, the door to such taxes is starting to open. "I think in the short run, the expiration of the moratorium is a non-event," said Tom Steele, co-chairman of the state and local tax group for San Francisco-based law firm Morrison & Foerster. "The real import here is a political one. The expiration of the old act changes the political dynamic of the new one." The reasons for the change in those winds are many and diverse.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Baseball officials plan live video streaming
As the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees duke it out in the World Series, Major League Baseball officials are warming up for a contest of their own that could help decide the future of sports broadcasting. Next season, the professional baseball organization plans to begin streaming real-time video of games over the Internet, according to the head of its online division. The move, which will be targeted largely at employees with high-speed Net access at work, would represent the first time a major sports league has made live games available in their entirety online, according to an MLB representative.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=tp_pr

New Nimda worm offshoot spreading
A new variant of the Nimda worm has started spreading slowly throughout the Asia-Pacific region, antivirus experts said Tuesday. The variant, called Nimda.E, spreads using the same methods as the original worm, but its files have been renamed to mimic existing Windows files. "The first report we received was in Korea at about 11 p.m. (6 a.m. Monday PST), shortly after we received similar reports in the U.S. and Australia as well," Anthony Kuo, regional technology manager for antivirus company Trend Micro, said in a statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Amazon saves millions with Linux switch
Amazon.com was able to cut $17 million in technology expenses in the last quarter largely due to a switch to Linux. The online retailer spent $54 million on technology and content expenses in its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, compared with $71 million in the year-ago quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The reduction was primarily because of Amazon's "migration to a Linux-based technology platform that utilizes a less-costly technology infrastructure, as well as general price reductions for data and telecommunication services due to market overcapacity," according to the statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Judge: Imation must pay Quantum royalties
Storage-hardware maker Quantum has won a preliminary injunction that requires rival Imation to pay royalties for a Quantum backup-tape format, but the judge stopped short of barring Imation from selling the tapes. Judge William Elfving, of the Santa Clara County Superior Court in California, said Monday that Imation must pay a 30 percent royalty to Quantum on its DLT tape cartridges. "After two years of collecting Quantum's trade secrets and benefiting from their use, Imation has repudiated the license agreement without authorization," Elfving said in a ruling.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

More news later on

[walktalker]

High Court Tackles Kid Porn
The Supreme Court wondered on Tuesday whether a child pornography law might criminalize Hollywood movies that include steamy sex scenes. Because a federal law bans racy images of adults who appear to be under 18 years old, some justices speculated whether films like Lolita, Titanic and Traffic would be imperiled. All three movies include bedroom scenes in which adult actors play teenagers. Not all the justices appeared au courant on popular culture. "I don't know whether they depict simulated sexual activity or not. I didn't see any of those movies," Antonin Scalia interjected after about 10 minutes of movie discussion.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47987,00.html

FBI Terror Detentions Questioned
Civil liberties groups are demanding that the U.S. government disclose information about hundreds of people who have been detained after the Sep. 11 attacks. At a press conference on Capitol Hill on Monday, the groups said it's time for the Justice Department to provide at least some details on the continuing investigation, such as how many people are detained, who has been charged with terrorism, and whether they've had access to attorneys. Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said: "While certain aspects of the FBI investigation into the terrorist attacks need to be secret, we do not live in a country where the government can keep secret who they arrest, where they are being held, or the charges against them."
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47980,00.html

Aussies Send 'Scramjet' Skyward
An experimental, hypersonic air-breathing rocket that could herald a low-cost, high-speed space age was launched successfully Tuesday in the Australian Outback. But scientists said they'd need a day or two before they could tell whether the test was a success. The air-breathing rocket, which theoretically could attain speeds of Mach 7.6 -- more than three times faster than a Concorde supersonic jet -- could one day mean 30-minute coast-to-coast flights in the United States, or two-hour flights between New York and Tokyo. But it won't be any time soon, according to Allan Paull, head of the Australian HyShot project.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47990,00.html

Does Official Taliban Site Exist?
Afghanistan's Taliban government, which declared the Internet unholy and banned its use for millions of Afghan citizens last June, maintained a website until shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and still has at least one e-mail address through its embassy in Pakistan. The DNS entry for the Taliban's website currently points to the null IP address 127.0.0.1. Before Sept. 11, however, it directed users to the official page of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, an austere, multi-layered website hosted by Brain.net.pk, a Pakistani ISP with a server farm in Singapore.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47956,00.html

NASA Dives Into Space Biology
The results of recent experiments aboard the Space Shuttle are leading NASA to brush up on its knowledge of biology, particularly at the molecular level, new territory for an agency that normally deals with the vacuum of space. To do so, NASA is forming an alliance with Stanford University, which has done extensive research in biology and applying computational techniques to biological research. Stanford is also just a few miles from NASA's Ames Research Center in Palo Alto, California.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,47846,00.html

Napster Wants License to License
Napster CEO Konrad Hilbers says the government should consider compulsory standards requiring music labels to license music at a fair price if they don't close deals with Napster and other independent distributors. "Like any other business person, I'm hesitant to bring government in," Hilbers said. "But government has an obligation to set standards. If there's no agreement, the government should consider compulsory licensing." Of course, the government has already gotten involved in digital music over the last few months.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,47977,00.html

New Cry Coming: I Demand My HBO
David Chastain has been hooked on HBO On Demand since he got it two months ago. HBO On Demand gives subscribers control over when they view programs, unlike regular HBO. The digital cable video-on-demand service allows Chastain the opportunity to watch shows such as The Sopranos and Band of Brothers whenever he wants. He says that flexibility has made his entertainment experience better, something cable operators hope will help them keep their customers as Internet entertainment companies prepare to deliver music and video-on-demand to the PC.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,47975,00.html

Websites targeted for illegal Cipro sales
Every day brings more reports in the US of additional anthrax cases and newly discovered contaminated buildings in Washington, and demand for antibiotics to treat anthrax has skyrocketed. Now, pharmacy trade associations and US government agencies are investigating a myriad of websites that have sprung up to sell the antibiotic Cipro. Officials say that some of the sites do not have a licence to dispense the medication in the US, and still other sites are under investigation for selling counterfeit versions of the drugs or alternative therapies that may not work.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1627194.stm

Biocidal gas could kill anthrax in infected buildings
Chlorine dioxide gas could be safely used to fumigate the US Senate office building contaminated with anthrax, says the US Environmental Protection Agency. Chlorine dioxide, a potent anti-microbial, is widely used to treat drinking water. It is highly effective against Legionella spores, and other bacteria. However, it has not previously been used on anthrax. EPA officials say they are confident the approach would succeed. Martin Hugh-Jones, an expert on anthrax at Louisiana State University, US, agrees.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991494

High court allows suit involving tough spam law
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case Monday involving Washington state's tough law against deceptive junk e-mail, or spam. The decision clears the way for trial to begin in King County Superior Court in Seattle in a lawsuit against Jason Heckel over millions of pieces of unsolicited e-mail sent by Heckel and his company, Natural Instincts.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...-spam-case.htm

PacketSwitch.com Founder Faces Felony Rap
Law enforcement officials say they have arrested the founder of a Silicon Valley start-up that securities regulators have already accused of defrauding investors with allegedly bogus technology for wireless video transmission. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said Monday that it had arrested Steven Ristau and charged the founder and former president of PacketSwitch.com with securities and tax fraud. Some of the charges are fallout from what investigators say were faked demonstrations of the company's technology for investors in which digital video sent to a set-top box was not beamed from 12 miles away, as advertised, but was transmitted via a wireless local area network link hidden in a ceiling above the receiver.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171638.html

Liberties fear over mobile phone details
One of the fastest growing mobile phone providers is indefinitely storing information that allows its customers' movements over the last two years to be mapped to within a few hundred metres. As the government rushes through emergency anti-terror legislation that would require vast amounts of electronic communications data to be retained in the name of national security, the Guardian has established that Virgin Mobile has been storing the location records of its 1m customers since the network launched in November 1999.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/attac...581861,00.html

Former dotcommers give back to the global community
The world has changed since the Peace Corps placed its ad. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US have all but made the dot-com bust semi-irrelevant. But for the legions of idealistic and able bodied in the San Francisco Bay Area who are taking stock of their lives after emerging from the boom-time work and money frenzy, the invitation to do something in the "real world" still holds a certain appeal. Three San Francisco residents who signed on for that challenge spoke with me about it in August and then again after Sept. 11. Especially now, as recent events have made the interconnections and interdependencies between peoples and nations more palpable than ever before, their insights are illuminating.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9/giveback.DTL

Visa studies geolocation technology
Visa International has entered into a partnership with Quova Inc., a closely held company that has developed technology for tracking Internet users’ geographic location. Under the deal, described by the parties as a global strategic alliance, the credit-card organization will look for opportunities to use Quova’s GeoPoint service to benefit Visa’s banks, partners and merchants who use the credit-card system. No money has changed hands. But Sarah Perry, a Visa senior vice president, said Visa is studying how the Quova technology could be employed to prevent fraud, as well as other applications.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/649382.asp?0si=-&cp1=1

The world's most expensive mobile phone
If you're filthy rich and looking for that little extra to dot the i, along with your Rolex and Armani, look no further. How about a mobile phone in gold, with diamonds? The mobile phone has undoubtedly become a status symbol in our culture, and all the manufacturers are increasinglt emphasizing design as an important means to get customers to buy their mobile phones instead of the competitions' - as most of the mobile phones on the market differ only slightly in terms of functionality and price. But if you'd like to take it all just a little bit further, Peter Aloisson's refitted mobile phones might be something for you.
http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=1038&page=1

More stuff later on