The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Hiya, marvelous Napsterites

Bugbear virus finds IE hole
A new e-mail virus gained a greater foothold in unpatched Windows PCs on Tuesday, spurring antivirus companies to upgrade their estimate of the virus' danger. Known as W32.Bugbear or I-Worm.Tanatos, the mass-mailing computer virus started infecting computers via e-mail on Sunday. On Tuesday, it accounted for nearly 11,000 infected e-mail messages intercepted by e-mail service provider MessageLabs' gateway servers. That placed it second to Klez.h, which accounted for about 14,000 e-mail messages. "It is so hard to stay up with all the patches," said John Harrington, U.S. marketing director for MessageLabs. Harrington said most home users don't even realize they're missing a needed security fix.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-960365.html

Study: Software sales to pick up soon
While the PC hardware market continues to slump, software sales are headed for a mild upturn, market researcher IDC said Wednesday. Modest growth is expected next year in worldwide sales of packaged software, according to IDC. Shipments of package software — products like Microsoft’s Office productivity tools and IBM’s WebSphere application software -- are expected to grow in the 10 percent to 12 percent range annually by 2006, IDC said. In contrast, last month IDC forecasted worldwide PC shipments would grow a paltry 1.1 percent this year compared with 2001. "A slow (software) recovery will begin in late 2002, and we are optimistic about growth opportunities moving forward," IDC analyst Tony Picardi said in a statement.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-960471.html

AOL says no way to Lindows PC
AOL Time Warner has distanced itself from a deal announced last week which will see its Netscape 7.0 browser installed as the default Web software in the Lindows.com operating system, calling the announcement "misleading". Lindows.com's chief executive, Michael Robertson, said at the time that the company was targeting households with multiple AOL users who might want to "purchase their own 'AOL computer'". Lindows.com, like other "alternative" operating systems such as Mandrake Linux, is installed on inexpensive PCs from retailer Wal-Mart, which cost under $200. An AOL Time Warner spokesman said that it had "nothing to do with" Lindows.com's PC plans, explaining that the company had simply filled out a one-page form on Netscape.com to obtain a license to distribute the Netscape browser software.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-960470.html

Labels change tune with free downloads
In a fight to win back fans from the "gray zone" of online song-swapping services, the music industry is borrowing a trick from its nemeses: free music downloads. For one week beginning Thursday, music fans in Europe will be able to download, stream or burn onto their hard drives a selection of tracks from 6,000 artists including Coldplay, Dido and Elvis Presley. It is part of a marketing ploy called "Digital Download Day" devised by British firm OD2, a technology company specializing in digital music distribution and co-founded by recording artist Peter Gabriel. Backed by record labels and music retailers, a host of subscription download services have been hatched over the past year to tap into the consumer craze of downloading music.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-960475.html

Building a better mouse tap
A new user interface for the PC is beginning to stir. Pioneered by Norway's Opera Software, the "mouse gesture" is slowly winning converts among software developers who hope to simplify repetitive tasks in computer applications. The idea is to allow users to execute commands with a simple flick of the wrist, rather than navigate through complicated point-and-click toolbars and drop-down menus. In Opera's Web browser, for example, a person who wants to return to a previous page can simply hold down a button and slide the mouse to the left, rather than moving the cursor to the top of the screen and hitting the "back" button. Opera's solution first appeared about 18 months ago in Opera 5.11. It has won raves from some of its followers, and now others are closing in on similar versions for a range of other applications.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-960408.html

Mitnick selling notorious laptops
Crime may not pay, but an online auction of the two laptops used to hack major corporations could garner convicted cybercriminal Kevin Mitnick a tidy sum. In an effort to help finance a legal battle to regain his ham radio operator's license, the one-time hacker is auctioning on eBay the two Toshiba Satellite notebook computers seized by law enforcement officers. "These were the laptops used to hack into companies and (security researcher) Shimomura's computers," Mitnick told CNET News.com on Wednesday. Tsutomu Shimomura, a senior fellow at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, helped track down Mitnick in 1995 after the hacker broke into the computer scientist's server the prior year. The two laptops definitely reflect their age and their tour through the court system.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960540.html?tag=fd_top

Linux heavies play version name game
Linus Torvalds and other central Linux programmers are debating whether the next version of the operating system should be numbered 2.6, or if its new features merit the grander designation 3.0. The debate began last week with a post to the Linux kernel mailing list by programmer Jeff Garzik. Amid a discussion of some storage-system features in the kernel, or core software, of Linux, Garzik asked, "Is it definitely to be named 2.6?" Torvalds, the founder of the Linux kernel effort and still its leader, replied that he saw "no real reason to call it 3.0," saying there aren't enough significant changes to warrant such a major new designation. Later, though, Torvalds opened the door for the loftier label. Version numbers, while in one sense mere labels, carry a message about the magnitude of improvements and changes from one version of software to the next.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-960573.html?tag=fd_top

DVRs -- are they hot or not?
Although the digital video recorder market is growing steadily, the sharp increase in shipments many had expected won't come to pass, according to a new report. In a report due out later this week, research firm The Yankee Group says DVR products will find their way into 1.8 million U.S. homes by year's end. That number will grow to 19.1 million homes by the end of 2006 -- last year, the firm had put that estimate at 18.6 million homes. When DVR technology began appearing in the late 1990s, the hype was enormous, with at least one analyst predicting DVRs would be the "hottest electronics category in history." But the new figures are still a far cry from those racked up by DVD (digital video, or versatile, disc) players, which are expected to sell 15 million to 20 million units this year. In fact, it's DVD players that have become the most popular consumer-electronics product ever.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960554.html?tag=fd_top

Internet 'best' for green news
The internet is the best place to go for news of the environment, according to an online poll. Most respondents said the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in South Africa had been valuable. Twice as many people were worried about the environment as the numbers concerned about terrorism. The poll, conducted for the Andreas Papandreou Foundation of Greece, involved more than 25,000 respondents in 175 countries. It was the brainchild of the Greek Foreign Minister, George Papandreou, and a US friend, Phil Noble, founder of the PoliticsOnline website. Mr Papandreou told journalists at the WSSD, where the poll was launched: "This poll gives citizens across the world the chance to express their views. "I think the democratic challenge in this globalising world will be one of the most important for humanity in the decades ahead, if not the most important of all."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2290380.stm

FBI names most wanted security flaws
With an eye toward taking the ease out of hacking, the FBI and a prestigious computer-security research group have announced the 20 most serious security vulnerabilities affecting both Windows and Unix systems. The two Top Twenty Internet Security Vulnerabilities for 2002 lists, announced Wednesday, outline the software features most often used by hackers to circumvent computer security and break into Windows and Unix systems. The FBI's partner in the venture is the SysAdmin, Audit, Networking and Security (SANS) Institute , a research and education organization made up of government, corporate and academic experts. As part of the announcement, the U.S.'s General Services Administration, the body that oversees the functioning of federal agencies, urged those agencies to test their networks for systems with any of the listed risks.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-960574.html?tag=cd_mh

Slump to squash flat-panel prices
Street prices on flat-panel displays are headed downhill again. Shipments of the slender monitors dipped during the second quarter, according to a new report, leading to an oversupply of components and sparking a new round of price cuts. DisplaySearch, which tracks the monitor market, said unit shipments of flat-panel displays slipped by 3 percent sequentially during that quarter to 7.3 million units. Flat-panel display prices rose dramatically during the first quarter, thanks to solid demand from consumers and businesses. But the second quarter saw an abrupt downturn in consumer PC sales, which strangled the relatively short-lived flat-panel rally. Since then display manufacturers have been enjoying lower prices on the LCD (liquid-crystal display) screens they use to manufacture flat-panel products, which they are now passing on in the form of lower prices for customers, an attempt to spur demand.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-960358.html?tag=cd_mh

Web shoppers' new option: Bill me later
Instead of paying for purchases with a credit card, some online consumers now have another option: a "bill me later" button. Some seven Internet merchants, including MyMusic.com, have been testing the new feature, which was developed by start-up company I4 Commerce, since earlier this year. On Tuesday, payment-processing company CyberSource announced that it has integrated the "bill me later" feature into its service and has begun marketing it to its merchant clients, which include Home Depot, Overstock.com and Nike. The service should attract customers who can't or won't use a credit card online and encourage them to return, said Steve Klebe, vice president of strategic alliances at CyberSource.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-960380.html?tag=cd_mh

Boombox satellite radio nears
Satellite radios, normally found in cars, will get a new life as boomboxes by December, an XM Satellite Radio representative said Monday. Called SkyFi, the new devices represent a next step for satellite radios: true mobility. Satellite radios are generally fixed to one place, whether on the dashboard of cars, where they debuted in 1998, or inside homes and offices. The SkyFi will consist of a radio receiver, a remote control and attachable speakers, which give the device a bow-tie shape. The battery-operated devices will also come with a standard power adapter. It will be able to plug into a car, with a $70 kit. The company did not give details on the type of batteries the SkyFi will take. It also has not released the weight or exact dimensions of the radio, but said that it's about the size of a keyboard, only thicker.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-960201.html?tag=cd_mh

Faint political voices rise from e-mail
If you want to get through to your mayor, you're still better off meeting in person than relying on e-mails. A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that although 88 percent of local elected officials use the Internet daily while working, just 14 percent consider constituent e-mails significant. Lawmakers tend to give much more credence to meetings, phone calls and letters than to electronic communications. Still, the study found that e-mails and the Web are slowly transforming the notoriously tech-adverse political world. About 32 percent of local elected officials said e-mail lobbying campaigns played a role in swaying their decisions on policies, and 73 percent said e-mail exchanges with constituents helped them understand public opinion. In addition, more than half said e-mail provided contact with citizens they had not heard from in the past.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960537.html?tag=cd_mh

UPS sues Gator for wrongful delivery
Yet another company is seeking to defang Gator, the online advertising start-up whose pop-ups let businesses pitch potential customers visiting rival Web sites. Shipping company UPS filed a lawsuit last week against Gator in the U.S. District Court of Atlanta, charging the online software provider with delivering unauthorized ads to visitors to its Web site. Gator's software, which PC users install to manage passwords, might display a Federal Express ad to people viewing UPS.com, for example. "The problem lies in that this software causes third-party ads to pop up on our Web site, so if you visit UPS.com, an ad featuring our competitors would come up, and that's unauthorized," said UPS spokeswoman Vanessa Smith. UPS is seeking a preliminary injunction against Redwood City, Calif.-based Gator to cease its practices. The two companies are currently in discussions.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960535.html?tag=cd_mh

New consumer-protection bill introduced
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has finally introduced a long-promised bill that would outline how consumers can use electronic media, books and software in the digital age without running afoul of ever-stricter copyright laws. The Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002, unveiled Wednesday, would provide protections for consumers who give away or make backup copies of digital material they've purchased. The bill would also amend the divisive Digital Millennium Copyright Act so that consumers could bypass technical protections on copyrighted material if they plan to use the work legally. And it would place restrictions on shrink-wrap licenses.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960531.html?tag=cd_mh

Search firm caves in to privacy pressure
Fast Search and Transfer's AlltheWeb.com bowed to pressure from a consumer advocate this week by adding a first-ever privacy policy disclosing its data-sharing practices. The Internet search provider, based in Oslo, Norway, responded to a complaint filed with the Norwegian government in late September by Public Information Research (PIR), a consumer advocacy group. The complaint charged AlltheWeb with failing to notify visitors that it uses tiny electronic tags to monitor search queries and share the data with third parties, in violation of Norwegian laws. AlltheWeb posted a privacy policy, dated Tuesday, that outlines advertising partnerships with online portal Lycos and advertising company DoubleClick and describes their use of technology to track search queries.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960509.html?tag=cd_mh

Netscape loses privacy dispute
Netscape Communications customers suing the company for privacy invasion are not bound by an end-user license agreement forcing them into arbitration, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday. At least three groups of Netscape users have sued the company in recent years, alleging that the AOL Time Warner unit's SmartDownload software invaded people's privacy and violated laws prohibiting electronic surveillance by sending their personal information back to the company. AOL shuttered the tracking feature soon after it was sued. But AOL also argued that plaintiffs could not pursue their complaints in the courts because they were obligated to comply with an electronic agreement to resolve disputes via arbitration instead.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960388.html?tag=cd_mh

New life for Linux news site
LWN.net, a Linux news site nearly 5 years old, has decided not to throw in the towel just yet. The news site announced in July that it would shut its doors because it just didn't have enough money. But the outpouring of reader support -- and money -- convinced editors to try a subscription plan. "We will now try to transition LWN into a subscription-based publication, supported by the readers that benefit from it," editors wrote in a Sept. 26 posting on the site. "Back in July, we had come to the conclusion that LWN was not a sustainable operation and that it was time for us to move on to other endeavors. The result was an amazing and unexpected show of support from our readers, in the form of donations, that caused us to rethink things," the editors wrote. Subscriptions will cost $5 per month for access to the site's Weekly Edition feature when it's published; nonsubscribers will have to wait a week to see it. The front-page news will remain freely available.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960383.html?tag=cd_mh

Bill to delay Net radio fees pulled
The House of Representatives canceled a vote on Tuesday that would have postponed royalty payments for Internet radio broadcasts, after industry players said they could settle the issue on their own. The bill's sponsor pulled it from consideration after Internet Webcasters and the music industry promised they could settle a years-long dispute over royalty rates by the end of the week, those close to the negotiations said. "At the request of the parties involved, we pulled it," said a spokesman for Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, who had introduced the bill last week. An agreement could end years of bickering between the online broadcasters and the musicians and record labels whose songs they "stream" over the Internet.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960367.html?tag=cd_mh

Webcasters sound off on Net radio fees
With an Oct. 20 deadline for controversial new Webcasting fees fast approaching, Net radio broadcasters are pumping up the volume in a countdown protest. SaveInternetRadio.com will begin broadcasting at noon on Tuesday, featuring music from independent label Garageband Records and interviews with lawmakers and artists backing the industry. The program aims to raise awareness and money for the cause of Webcasters, who say they face extinction unless Webcasting royalty rates approved this summer are set aside. "These broadcasters are goldfish swimming in an ocean with sharks," said Kevin Shively, chairman of the International Webcasting Association Legislative Committee and business and Web development manager at classical music Net station Beethoven.com. "We want to continue to raise awareness of this issue. We're counting on Congress to act to save Net radio from going out of business."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960336.html?tag=cd_mh

Professor posts digital device hit list
Could singing fish novelties be hooked by a proposed law requiring anti-copying technology in digital devices? Princeton professor Ed Felten thinks so. The computer scientist has launched a site, called Fritz's Hit List, that points out devices that could be forced to carry anti-copying technology if Sen. Fritz Hollings', D-S.C., Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) passes. The bill, which is designed to thwart piracy, would restrict digital products that don't carry government-approved security technology. So far, Fritz's Hit List features a catalog of unlikely devices Felten said would be regulated under the law. They include common objects such as baby monitors and automobile navigation systems as well as seemingly innocuous toys such as the Shop With Me Barbie toy cash register, the Sony Aibo robot dog and Big Mouth Billy Bass.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960317.html?tag=cd_mh

School tool eyes students' Web habits
Software developer LanSchool on Tuesday unveiled a monitoring system that captures thumbnail screenshots of students' computers and displays them on the teacher's screen, allowing instructors to keep an eye on their pupils' Web habits. LanSchool Monitor works somewhat like a security camera system, the company said, letting teachers and librarians track students' Web habits instead of installing restrictive filters. Teachers can see up to 144 thumbnails on their computer at one time. The Orem, Utah-based company is touting the technology as an alternative or addition to filters, which have come under fire from federal judges, librarians and civil libertarians for both over- and under-blocking. Students are notified when they log on that they're being monitored.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960309.html?tag=cd_mh

Yahoo to run multimedia ads
Yahoo on Tuesday plans to introduce new display advertising for its Web portal, in a move to attract additional marketers and boost revenue. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company will introduce Yahoo AdVision, a full-page advertisement that lets marketers broadcast a commercial, display informational text and Web pages, and run surveys or online games from one browser window. The ads, developed by Yahoo, spring up when visitors click on a banner for the advertiser and hold up to 30 minutes of audio or video. Yahoo is making a bigger commitment to "rich media" technology for advertising with its newest ad format. In July, the company gave a nod to multimedia advertising by partnering with Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, PointRoll and Unicast, a company whose technology collectively incorporates streaming audio and video, floating or expandable ads, and other interactive units.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-960247.html?tag=cd_mh

Segway faces regulation in California
California's local governments will be allowed to regulate electric personal mobility devices, such as the Segway Human Transporter, under a bill approved over the weekend by Gov. Gray Davis. Senate Bill 1918 takes effect next March and will last until Jan. 1, 2008. Under the law, local governments will have the power to regulate the time, place and manner for using the scooter-like devices, including the power to outright ban them from certain areas. Senior citizens groups in California already oppose permitting people to ride Segways or similar devices on sidewalks. "This new and innovative means of individual transportation will allow people to move throughout urban environments without pollution, significant levels of noise, or massive parking areas," Davis said in statement.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960572.html?tag=cd_mh

Gaming stealing Hollywood's thunder
Most people think computer games developers are geeks hidden away in cubicles, gulping soda and munching fast food. Think again. At the trendy and spacious banana-shaped offices of industry giant Electronic Arts, programmers think of themselves as tech-savvy artists. Three-story glass doors facing a pond can be slid open to facilitate an al fresco gourmet lunch. The programmers might even sip a cappuccino. These are the new stars of a thriving industry that's poaching some of Hollywood's best talent. Located in a leafy neighborhood just outside London, EA's studios were designed by the celebrated architect Sir Norman Foster.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960506.html?tag=cd_mh

Kit morphs laptops into robots
It's time to take your laptop out for a little spin. Evolution Robotics announced Tuesday that it has begun selling the ER1, a kit that turns an average laptop into a rolling, seeing robot. First demonstrated last spring, the ER1 package consists of wheels and an aluminum frame for mounting a laptop onto a rolling platform, a Web camera for gathering visual information, a control module and software to make the whole thing work. Upcoming accessories will include a "gripper arm" that allows the robot to grasp and carry objects; in a popular demonstration of the arm, an ER1-outfitted laptop grabbed a beer from a refrigerator and brought it to the owner.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960321.html?tag=cd_mh

[walktalker]

New Text Msg: Joe Schmoe 4 Prez
The 2002 election could be the last in which old media dominates political advertising, if recent actions by the Federal Election Commission bear fruit. In late August, the FEC granted a petition by New Jersey-based Target Wireless to waive disclosure rules for political ads beamed to wireless devices using short message service technology, meaning that SMS political ads wouldn't have to disclose who paid for them. Then the agency started investigating whether the campaign finance law sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) is too hands-off for emerging mediums such as interactive TV services. The McCain-Feingold law takes effect after the Nov. 6 elections. The issue is far from cut and dried.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55199,00.html

Reality Check for Web Design
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, recognized that universal access is a critical element of good design. The Web's landscape has altered dramatically since its inception, when many websites completely ignored users with disabilities. Despite progress, websites today are still three times harder for users with disabilities to use than for other users. Now, a new software product allows developers to check pages for compliance with usability guidelines as they code. The software, "LIFT-Nielsen Norman Group Edition," or LIFT NN/g, works with Macromedia Dreamweaver (4.0 or MX) on both Windows and Macintosh. LIFT NN/g checks to ensure that websites are compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's accessibility guidelines and Section 508 guidelines.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55190,00.html

Malaria Parasite's Genes Mapped
Researchers have sequenced the genes both for the parasite that causes malaria and for the mosquito that spreads it to humans. The double triumph gives medical science new weapons in the war on a disease that kills almost 3 million people a year. In parallel efforts that involved more than 160 researchers in 10 countries, scientists mapped the genes for Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest form of malaria, and for Anopheles gambiae, a mosquito that prefers human prey and spreads malaria to millions with its bloodsucking bite. The British journal Nature is publishing the complete genetic sequence of P. falciparum, and the U.S. journal Science is publishing the mosquito gene sequence. The two publications jointly announced completion of the double-pronged research at news conferences on Wednesday in London and in Washington.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,55534,00.html

Get Your Red-Hot Genome CD
Mapping and reading J. Craig Venter's genome took 15 years, $5 billion and some of the world's most sophisticated computers. Couldn't you, too, like your genome decoded? It will cost about $500,000 per person, says the entrepreneurial scientist who helped decode the human genome. Venter hopes ultimately to mass-produce gene CDs like so many Bruce Springsteen CDs that will stock the shelves of every general practitioner's office and be covered by insurance. "We are trying to push genomics to the $1,000 genome," Venter said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Even if insurers decided to cover individual genomes, many fear the industry would use the technology to deny coverage to people prone to disease.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,55527,00.html

Congress: Labels Sell Kids Smut
The music industry has refused to stop marketing explicit content to minors, according to a congressional subcommittee. And Congress wants to know why. The entertainment business took a beating for its marketing practices in a 2000 Federal Trade Commission report that accused studios and labels of marketing sexual and violent content to minors. Since then, the movie industry and video game makers have worked to clean up their acts. But the music industry -- which has been assailed by global file traders, state attorneys general and the California legislature -- hasn't lived up to congressional expectations. "We want to know what self-regulation the industry will take upon itself to give concerned people the tools they need to help their kids," a congressional spokesman said at a hearing on Tuesday.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,55496,00.html

Library of Congress Taps the Grid
Scientists have harnessed the power of grid computing to seek a cure for AIDS, search for alien life and map the human genome. Now researchers are assessing ways to tap massive amounts of computing power to preserve some of American history's rarest digital relics, from Ansel Adams photographs to original drafts of the Declaration of Independence. The Library of Congress is evaluating grid technology developed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to preserve and manage the library's digital collections. The American Memory project is one of the largest digitized archives of U.S. history, with more than 7.5 million digital records from 100 collections of manuscripts, books, maps, films, sound recordings and photographs.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55509,00.html

Apple stands firm against entertainment cartel
Intel's doing it. Advanced Micro Devices is doing it. Microsoft is doing it. Apple Computer isn't. What's Apple not doing? It's not -- at least so far -- moving toward an anti-customer embrace with Hollywood's movie studios and the other members of the powerful entertainment cartel. Unlike Intel and AMD, the big chip makers for Windows-based computers, Apple hasn't announced plans to put technology into hardware that could end up restricting what customers do with the products they buy. Unlike Microsoft, Apple hasn't asserted the right to remote control over users' operating systems. The era of Digital Rights Management, commonly called DRM, is swiftly moving closer, thanks to the Intels and AMDs and Microsofts.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/4193833.htm

Atomic memory developed
Imagine a CD with a storage capacity not of 650 MB but 650 million MB. Such a storage capacity is theoretically possible because of experiments using individual atoms to store data. But do not expect it soon; the gap between theory and practice is wide. In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman pointed out that all the words written in the history of the world could be contained in a cube of material one tenth of a millimetre wide - provided those words were written with atoms. Now, scientists have done just that, creating an atomic-scale memory by using atoms of silicon in place of the 1s and 0s that computers use to store data.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2290707.stm

Thousand-chamber biochip debuts
When the computer chip was invented forty-four years ago, it set the stage for computers to shrink from room-size behemoths filled with light-bulb-size vacuum tubes to handheld devices powered by microscopic transistors. Researchers from the California Institute of Technology are mirroring that effort with a chip that stores tiny drops of fluid rather than magnetic or electronic bits of information. The researchers are aiming to replace roomfuls of chemistry equipment with devices based on a fluidic storage chip that can store 1,000 different substances in an area slightly larger than a postage stamp. The technology could eventually allow experiments that involve hundreds or thousands of liquid samples to run on desktop or even handheld devices, potentially reducing the cost and complexity of medical testing, genetics research and drug development, said Stephen Quake, an associate professor of physics and applied physics at Caltech.
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2002/1...ut_100202.html

Warning on linking genes and human behaviour
Parents should not be allowed to choose, or even know about the intelligence, sexual orientation or personality traits of their future children, according to advice to the government today. The technique of preimplantation genetic diagnosis - used only to identify serious inherited disorders - should not be extended to genes that might affect behaviour. Abortion of a foetus on the basis of information about "normal" behavioural traits would be morally unacceptable, new guidelines say. "This is potentially an explosive area, and the first question we asked was whether such research should be carried out at all," said Bob Hepple, chairman of a Nuffield Bioethics Council report on research into genes and behaviour.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/arti...802837,00.html

Building a Better Moonbase
The Moon is soon to be on the receiving end of a volley of robotic probes launched by multiple nations. Spacecraft from Europe, Japan, India, China, as well as the United States are expected to spark a 21st century renaissance in lunar exploration. Rekindling that scientific link to Earth's natural satellite might spur other endeavors too, and humans may once again bound across that "magnificent desolation" as Apollo 11 astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, saw it through his space helmet visor. There is growing interest in viewing the ever-beaming Moon as a bright business opportunity. Commercial lunar enterprises could eventually sustain their operations and grow by using lunar resources such as silicon, iron, glass, and oxygen to fabricate structures, solar panels, and tools on the Moon. However, lunar habitats are needed to support any makeover of the dead Moon into a flourishing economic powerhouse.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol..._021002-1.html

Northrop Grumman Unveils Concept For Quiet Supersonic Aircraft
Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems sector has unveiled a design for an efficient and capable long-range supersonic cruise aircraft that would operate with a less intense sonic boom. The design, or "preferred system concept," which includes variants for a long-range military strike aircraft and a civil business jet, is part of Northrop Grumman's work under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) program. QSP is focused on the validation of multiple breakthrough technologies to enable such aircraft. In addition, under a shaped sonic boom demonstration project of the QSP program, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems has successfully completed a critical design review with DARPA, an important milestone in preparation for the first-ever flight demonstration of a sonic boom mitigated by airframe shaping.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/plane-sonic-02b.html

Computers for the Third World
It doesn't look like much. A drab, gray piece of plastic, about five inches long and three inches wide. A black-and-white screen, three inches by two inches, showing a few simple snippets of text. And yet this nondescript little computer may hold the key to bringing information technology to Third World countries. The device is known as the Simputer. I recently got a chance to evaluate one of the preproduction models that have been put together by the Simputer Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Bangalore, India. This year Encore Software, a Bangalore company that licensed the technology from the trust (not to be confused with the California software company of the same name), plans to sell thousands of the handheld devices, capping an effort that began in 1998. Simputer stands for " simple, inexpensive, multilingual computer." It was designed to meet the needs of rural villagers in countries such as India, Malaysia, Nigeria and Indonesia.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...880000&catID=2

Quantum cryptography takes to the skies
Quantum cryptography keys encoded in photons of light have been transmitted more than 23 kilometres through air, British researchers have announced. They say the breakthrough is an important step towards a global communications system that is completely secure. Earlier in 2002 a Swiss company managed to send quantum keys over 60 kilometres. But this was through optical fibres, which limits the technology to ground-based transmission. "Our experiment paves the way for the development of a secure global key-distribution network based on optical links to low-Earth-orbit satellites," says John Rarity, at QinetiQ, the public arm of the UK's defence research agency.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992875

Marriage makes both sexes happy
Contrary to popular belief, marriage gives men and women an equal mental health boost, a study in Australia shows. In 1972, sociologist Jessie Bernard looked at symptoms of anxiety, depression, neurosis and passivity in married and unmarried people. She found that men were better off married than single, and concluded that they got those benefits at the expense of women. That became a central tenet of the women's liberation movement in the 1970s, and is still often cited. But psychologist David de Vaus from La Trobe University in Melbourne points out that Bernard's research only looked at a narrow definition of stress.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992868

Cash crunch puts media format on hold
DataPlay, a start-up that developed a secure new media format it expected would replace the CD, has shut down at least temporarily as it looks for new funding. Todd Oseth, the Boulder, Colo.-based company's senior vice president of business and marketing, confirmed that all employees were furloughed last week after DataPlay ran out of money. DataPlay's discs are about the size of a quarter and can hold up to 500MB of data, or 11 hours of music, and include security features to prevent unauthorized copying of music. Major record labels have supported the format, and DataPlay expected to have discs featuring artists such as Britney Spears and N'Sync on the market by the end of this month.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960514.html?tag=fd_top

Tech giants back Fair Use bills
The IT industry's giants including Intel will rally behind a bill to be announced by Congressman Rick Boucher in Washington DC, tomorrow morning. Boucher's bill complements the first significant measure proposed to tame the Pigopolists, and protect Fair Use in the wake of the DMCA, which was published today by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (San Jose-D). Lofgren's proposed "Digital Choice And Freedom Act Of 2002" (DCFA) will ensure that consumers will be able to make copies, sell or reuse digital media they own; prohibits non-negotiable shrink wrap licenses and decriminalizes non-infringing circumvention devices. Boucher's bill will specify that share denial CDs are labeled clearly, and like Lofgren's attempt to superseded the draconian provisions of the DMCA.
http://www.theregus.com/content/54/26497.html

Microsoft buys Liquid Audio DRM patents
Microsoft Corp has got its hands on a suite of digital rights management patents, but one of the companies most likely to be concerned by the move talked down its importance. Microsoft said it is to pay $7m for Liquid Audio Inc's US an international patents, believed to be around 20 or over in number. Liquid, which is currently being acquired by Alliance Entertainment, will get a royalty-free license to continue to use the patents. The US patents cover technologies such as digital watermarking, content distribution, audio encoding, loss-less compression and transferring audio to digital playback devices. Microsoft already has a number of patents of its own development in similar fields. "DRM is a strategic area we've invested in for the last few years," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "The patents will help us realize our long term vision for DRM technology." He declined to outline the vision in question.
http://www.theregus.com/content/23/26472.html

More news later on

[walktalker]

Nobody likes me

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
Nobody likes me

You couldn't be more wrong!

- tg

[walktalker]

Originally posted by TankGirl

You couldn't be more wrong!

- tg

Looks like you're right -- all the laser printers are 25% off

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
Looks like you're right -- all the laser printers are 25% off

There you go!

- tg

[multi]

good news WT

Kit morphs laptops into robots
It's time to take your laptop out for a little spin. Evolution Robotics announced Tuesday that it has begun selling the ER1, a kit that turns an average laptop into a rolling, seeing robot. First demonstrated last spring, the ER1 package consists of wheels and an aluminum frame for mounting a laptop onto a rolling platform, a Web camera for gathering visual information, a control module and software to make the whole thing work. Upcoming accessories will include a "gripper arm" that allows the robot to grasp and carry objects; in a popular demonstration of the arm, an ER1-outfitted laptop grabbed a beer from a refrigerator and brought it to the owner.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960321.html?tag=cd_mh

WHOOO HOOOOO!