The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Microsoft targets defectors with discounts
Microsoft said it plans to offer smaller companies a more lenient licensing plan intended to stem defections to Linux or other open-source software. The software giant on Tuesday said it will launch the new plan, called Open Value, early next year. The new program is part of Microsoft's controversial Licensing 6 volume licensing program, which was put in place this summer. Many Microsoft customers -- particularly smaller companies -- have resisted Licensing 6 and its "Software Assurance" program for buying software under two- or three-year maintenance contracts. Up to two-thirds of Microsoft customers either rejected the plan or bought partial upgrades under the older Licensing 5 program, analysts say.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-975399.html

Font flaw foils Solaris security
A flaw in the software that handles fonts for the desktop interface on Solaris-based workstations and servers could leave the computers open to attack, security experts said late Monday. The vulnerability could give hackers and online vandals the ability to take control of Solaris-based systems, according to an advisory released late Monday by security software developer Internet Security Systems. Sun Microsystems spokesman Brett Smith confirmed that the company knew of the flaw.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-975405.html

PC makers launch holiday promotions
Computer manufacturers are launching aggressive promotions intended to jump-start holiday sales, but it may not be enough to salvage a mediocre year. The race to offer consumers the fastest and cheapest PCs began Sunday and includes instant discounts at the checkout counter, mail-in rebates in excess of $100 and enhanced bundles. For example, Dell Computer on Tuesday is introducing its new Dimension 2350 desktop with a 15-inch flat panel display for $699 after a $100 rebate. While the deals may be good for buyers, some analysts think that even with aggressive prices, PC makers are still going to have a tough year due to consumer concerns about the sagging economy.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-975318.html

License release brings MPEG-4 closer
A consortium of companies holding patents attached to the MPEG-4 multimedia standard released its license for the technology, raising hopes for widespread adoption. The license released Monday is essentially the same as one proposed by the consortium, MPEG LA, in July. That proposed license set a cap of $1 million per licensee, as well as a threshold that exempts MPEG-4 users with fewer than 50,000 implementations from royalty payments. MPEG-4 is a video and audio standard under development by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization .
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-975316.html

Feds charge 3 men with identity theft
Calling it the largest such bust ever, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the FBI apprehended an alleged ring of identity thieves, accusing three men of stealing tens of thousands of credit reports. The ring is alleged to have operated over a period of three years, suspected of pilfering credit reports from the three major commercial credit reporting agencies and using that information to siphon funds from bank accounts and make fraudulent purchases. Authorities have accounted for $2.7 million in losses so far. At the center of the scheme as outlined Monday by Justice Department and FBI officials is a help-desk employee of Teledata Communications (TCI), a company in Bay Shore, N.Y., that lets banks and other lenders access credit histories compiled by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-971196.html

Another new chip moves onto the block
A week after Nvidia's launch of the GeForce FX graphics chip, Taiwan's Silicon Integrated Systems has brought out its latest entry for price-conscious gamers: the Xabre 600. SiS, which is known for its low-cost products, on Tuesday updated its graphics processor line, the Xabre, with a new chip that boasts a more advanced manufacturing process and a higher clock speed than its predecessor. The Xabre 600 is destined for the mainstream market, eschewing direct competition with companies such as ATI Technologies and Nvidia that target high-end gamers. However, the new chip uses the same 0.13-micron manufacturing process as Nvidia's GeForce FX, which was unveiled last week at the Comdex trade show.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-975329.html

ISP download caps to slow swapping?
High-speed Internet service providers are considering adopting new pricing plans that if widely adopted could take a bite out of file swapping. For the past few years, many broadband ISPs have been frank in saying that file-swapping services such as Napster and Kazaa have been among the most popular activities on their networks. This has led to a small proportion of dedicated file swappers, known as "bandwidth hogs" within the industry, who account for a hugely disproportionate amount of network traffic. Now many of the biggest high-speed ISPs are considering capping the amount of bandwidth that their subscribers can use per month, a move that could undermine subscribers' free swapping ways -- something that many lawsuits have not yet been able to achieve.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975320...g=fd_lede1_hed

Public access to FTC hurt by spam lists
When Josh Tinnin tried to send e-mail to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission this month, he received an unwelcome surprise: He couldn't. Tinnin's message to the FTC bounced back because the agency subscribes to a blacklisting service designed to limit the amount of spam making its way into the agency's in-boxes. SBC Pacific Bell, Tinnin's Internet service provider, appeared on the blacklist as a haven for senders of junk e-mail. "I didn't know that the government was using blacklists," said Tinnin, who lives in Fremont, Calif. "That was surprising." Businesses and individual Internet users have turned to blacklists to try to stanch the steadily increasing flow of bulk e-mail.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975473.html?tag=fd_top

SoapCity.com to sell serials online
Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment plans to let soap opera fans tune into daytime dramas from the desktop, as part of an on-demand subscription service on its enthusiast site, SoapCity.com. Rumblings of the service started as early as April, but the company is firming up details of the program, called "SoapCity Download," which is tentatively set to launch in March, according to people familiar with the plans. The soap opera news and community site will let viewers download and watch full-length, commercial-free episodes of "The Young and the Restless" and "As the World Turns" to start. People can subscribe to the service for $9.99 a month for unlimited access to four weeks of episodes, with exclusive editorial and photo galleries.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-975431.html?tag=fd_top

Hitachi shrinks its flash memory card
As demand for smaller devices gets bigger and bigger, Hitachi is latching onto the trend with its new removable mini-flash memory card. The new cards measure 0.9 inches by 0.7 inches by 0.06 inches -- about half the size of multimedia memory cards used in many consumer products. Hitachi is already selling the cards in Japan and is expected to announce the cards in the United States on Dec. 4. "Devices have been going towards smaller and smaller form factors, and it is necessary to address a smaller card format," said Victor Tsai, product manager at Hitachi.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-975402.html?tag=fd_top

Sims Family Values
For diehard New Yorkers, moving to a small town where you don’t know anyone isn’t easy. So when we arrived in sunny Alphaville — population: 26,900 and rising — and a couple of babes asked us to join them in the hot tub a mere 10 minutes after our arrival, we decided that small-town life wasn’t so bad after all. We didn't even need the classifieds to find a roommate; a guy named JB with a fondness for black leather pants asked us to move into his crib along with six of his buds. To show our appreciation, we blew $2,000 of our savings on an espresso machine for the house and a pool for the backyard.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/835533.asp

Microsoft poised for Australian XBox Live mod chip crackdown
Microsoft Australia's regional XBox office is issuing strong indications it plans to mimic its United States headquarters' policy of penalising XBox owners that use mod chips in their consoles by refusing them access to XBox Live. XBox Australia's regional director, Alan Bowman, told ZDNet Australia the local arm of XBox Live would model its service on the North American version closely and that Microsoft Australia would protect the XBox platform's intellectual property "as much as possible". However, Bowman stopped short of confirming or denying whether the ban policy would be followed in Australia.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/sec...0270193,00.htm

Computer viruses face slow down
Computer viruses could, in the future, find it much harder to spread themselves over the internet. Matthew Williamson, a researcher at the Hewlett-Packard laboratories in Bristol, UK, has come up with a way to slow down the rate of infection. It works by limiting the number of connections at any one time from an infected computer. This has the effect of throttling the spread of the virus, giving technicians time to spot and eliminate the bug. "We are tackling the fundamental nature of a virus," he told the BBC programme Go Digital.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2511961.stm

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