The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Hacker code could unleash Windows worm
A hacker group released code designed to exploit a widespread Windows flaw, paving the way for a major worm attack as soon as this weekend, security researchers warned. The warning came Friday, after hackers from the Chinese X Focus security group forwarded source code to several public security lists. The code is for a program designed to allow an intruder to enter Windows computers. The X Focus program takes advantage of a hole in the Microsoft operating system that lets attackers break in remotely. The flaw has been characterized by some security experts as the most widespread ever found in Windows. "An exploit (program) like this is very easy to turn into a worm," said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer for network protection firm eEye Digital Security.
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5055759.html?tag=fd_top

Analysts mixed about SCO actions
Industry analysts are mixed in their advice about how Linux users should handle SCO Group's position that they must buy a Unix license or face the possibility of legal action. Analysts labeled SCO's moves as everything from actions that should be taken seriously to extortion that shouldn't affect Linux plans. The variety of responses indicates how wide the spectrum of possibilities are in SCO's actions, which now have expanded beyond its $3 billion lawsuit against IBM to the entire population of companies that use Linux. SCO said Monday that Linux users must pay the company for a Unix license or face potential legal action. The owner of the Unix intellectual property, SCO contends that Unix code was illegally copied line-by-line into Linux and that companies such as IBM illegally transferred improvements made to Unix into Linux.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5055697.html?tag=fd_top

VeriSign to face Sex.com lawsuit
The original owner of the Sex.com domain name has won a potentially landmark court victory, allowing him to sue registrar Network Solutions for transferring his domain to a con man. A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge ruled that Gary Kremen, who first registered the Sex.com name in 1994, had a property right to the stolen domain and that Network Solutions was potentially liable for giving it away without proper authorization. "Exposing Network Solutions to liability when it gives away a registrant's domain name on the basis of a forged letter is no different from holding a corporation liable when it gives away someone's shares under the same circumstances," Judge Alex Kozinski wrote. "The common law does not stand idle while people give away the property of others." The decision puts domain names on the same footing as ordinary, tangible property and could ultimately be hugely influential in Internet-related cases.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5055771.html?tag=fd_top

Court puts Napster suit on pause
A $17 billion lawsuit alleging Bertelsmann perpetuated online piracy by funding the Napster file-swapping service cannot be delivered to the German media group, Germany's top court said on Friday. The Federal Constitutional Court said it stopped the delivery because it could not rule out that the lawsuit, filed by a group of U.S. music publishers in Manhattan, would violate Bertelsmann's constitutional rights in Germany. "If lawsuits in (foreign) courts are obviously misused to bend a market player to one's will by way of media pressure and the risk of a court order, this could violate the German constitution," the court said in a statement late on Friday. The court said its emergency ruling not to allow the delivery of the charge for six months was only preliminary and that the decision on whether the lawsuit was indeed unconstitutional would have to be made after a full hearing. Bertelsmann could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://news.com.com/2100-12_3-5055798.html?tag=fd_top

Linux wars: Big Blue strikes back
IBM has launched a counterstrike against SCO Group's attack on Linux users, arguing that SCO's demands for Unix license payments are undermined by its earlier shipment of an open-source Linux product. IBM's assertion came in a message to its sales force Thursday evening, four days after SCO said Linux users must pay the company for a Unix license or face possible legal action. SCO Group, owner of the Unix intellectual property, contends that Unix code was illegally copied line by line into Linux and that companies such as IBM illegally transferred improvements made to Unix into Linux. SCO's latest actions broadened its case against Linux beyond the $3 billion lawsuit it has filed against IBM. Likewise, IBM's new message to its sales force -- the chief way it communicates with customers -- is a significant expansion of its defense over the narrower memos it sent earlier. Those memos said that IBM will stand by its customers and defend itself vigorously.
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5055061.html?tag=fd_top

What’s Next for Digital Photography
This is an historic year in the history of photography: the first time that North American sales of digital cameras will exceed those of film models (not counting single-use cameras). Much of the reason is that digital cameras are beginning to act more like film cameras — but when it comes to the future of imaging we haven’t, to coin a phrase, seen nothing yet. A new book called “Shooting Digital” is perhaps the most detailed popular guide to using digital cameras yet assembled. Aaland’s book is particularly strong because it is highly visual — he uses images from many experienced digital photographers, along with copious graphics, to make it easy for readers to see the points he’s making. Aaland’s focus is practical advice for real-life shooting situations, yet close readers will also see plenty of hints about where the field is headed next.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/942457.asp?0cv=KB20

MandrakeSoft withdraws 'unsafe' Linux update
MandrakeSoft has advised users of its Mandrake Linux 9.1 operating system not to install a security update released on Sunday due to a serious security bug in the update. If users have already installed the update, MandrakeSoft urged them to downgrade to a previous version if possible. The unusual warning concerned a routine security update to the kernel, or core, of Mandrake Linux 9.1 released at the beginning of this week. On Tuesday, the company warned that the kernel update was not safe, as it was creating files that could be altered by any user.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2138195,00.html

P2P companies may face new scrutiny
A bill introduced Thursday in Congress would require file-swapping companies to get parental permission before allowing minors to use their services. The bill, called the Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography (P4) Act and sponsored by Reps. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., and Chris John, D-La., would require the Federal Trade Commission to regulate peer-to-peer networks and take steps to ensure that children aren't accidentally coming across porn. The bill's sponsors said as many as 40 percent of all files traded on the networks are porn. "Our legislation gives parents the tools they need to protect their children from pornography and threats to privacy posed by peer-to-peer file-trading networks," Pitts said in a statement. "By working together to protect children, we are building a broad and bipartisan coalition." The bill calls on the FTC to require peer-to-peer companies to get parental permission before minors use their services.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5055426.html

Microsoft considering music store
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said his company is exploring ways to develop a music download service similar to Apple Computer's iTunes that would tie into the software giant's multimedia applications. A Windows Media Player-based digital music store, whether provided by Microsoft itself or by partners, would be a steep hurdle for Apple as it pursues plans to push its own popular iTunes music service into the PC market. Responding to questions at an analyst meeting here Thursday, Gates indicated that any music store project would be more a matter of providing computer users with added convenience -- and presumably, keeping people using Microsoft software -- rather than a direct moneymaker. "It's maybe a feature your platform should offer, but it's not like you're going to make some (big) markup," Gates said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5055392.html?tag=cd_mh

Web debate on photos of Hussein's sons
Photos of Saddam Hussein's dead sons quickly circulated across the Web on Thursday after the U.S. government released them, prompting debate at Web news sites about how and whether to display them. The graphic photos of the bloodied, bruised bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein appeared on sites ranging from The New York Times to Google News, from MSNBC to Al-Jazeera. The government said it released the photos in order to prove to skeptical Iraqis that the pair had been killed. Web sites presented the photos in a variety of ways. Some loaded them directly, while others let viewers choose whether they wanted to see the explicit images. Google, which has an automated news system, was one of the few major U.S. sites to display the photos on the front page of its news site. On Thursday morning, the site displayed small pictures from a Fox News story on the right-hand side of its page. The photos were later replaced with a less graphic image.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-5053748.html?tag=cd_mh

RIAA, Colleges Seek Piracy Fix
University officials are working with the music and movie industry to find a peaceful solution to the piracy problem, even as they're fighting a firestorm of subpoenas seeking information on their file-swapping students. The universities are exploring technologies that would control illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. In addition, they are working with digital music and movie companies to offer downloading services tailored to universities. The administrators and music executives are trying to solve the piracy problem because both suffer from it. Universities have to deal with the administrative headaches of subpoenas and clogged computer networks, while the record industry is losing sales to its most important group of customers. "We would very much like to have a legal online service for movies and music that meets the needs of the campus," said Mark Luker, vice president of Educause, the nonprofit association for information technology in higher education.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,59743,00.html

Veggie Fuels Feed Bottom Line
When Joshua Tickell drove his Veggie Van across the country in 1997, fueling it with used vegetable oil he obtained at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's and other fast food chains owned by PepsiCo, he received a great deal of lighthearted attention from the mainstream media for the van's deep-fried fumes. Although the media thought it was funny, Tickell was serious. Six years later, with the Department of Energy's 2003 Annual Energy Report showing that more than two-thirds of known oil reserves lie in the troubled Middle East, the laughter seems hollow. A curious blend of consumers -- from clean-air activists to school districts to the U.S. military (PDF) -- are now running their diesel engines off either straight vegetable oil, known as SVO, or vegetable oil that has been converted to diesel fuel, or biodiesel. The results, they're finding, make more than just environmental sense.
http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,59713,00.html

Lots of Programs in Can for 'ETV'
Click on Jennifer Aniston's dress to buy it, or watch a Friends episode with seven different endings. Interactive television -- or enhanced TV, as many developers now prefer to call it -- may seem too young an industry for clichés. But these hypothetical chestnuts of next-generation broadcasting are as overused as they are outdated, said TV producers at the American Film Institute's sixth annual eTV workshop Wednesday in Los Angeles. "Look, we don't want people clicking all over our shirts or sofas, and we don't want seven endings -- we just want the right one," said Todd Stevens, co-executive producer of NBC's Friends. When AFI launched its enhanced TV workshop in 1998, most U.S. consumers had neither broadband nor cell phones, and TiVo had yet to become a common synonym for "ad zapper." This year, the annual program again unites television producers with mentor groups of technologists, production execs and interactive designers, who will collaborate through early December to prototype new technological possibilities for broadcast storytelling.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59765,00.html

Euthanasia: A Better Way to Die?
A good death, theoretically, is dignified, free of pain and occurs in the presence of friends and family. And, according to a new study, the chance of that happening is greater when death is planned. Researchers in the Netherlands found that friends and family members of terminally ill cancer patients who died by euthanasia had an easier time coping with the death of their loved one. "The bereaved families and friends of cancer patients who died by euthanasia had less grief symptoms and post-traumatic stress reactions than the families and friends of comparable cancer patients who died from natural causes," the authors wrote in the British Medical Journal.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,59763,00.html

Report: Inadequate IT contributed to 9/11 intelligence failure
An antiquated IT infrastructure and cultural turf battles among the FBI and various intelligence agencies resulted in a lack of information sharing and analysis that in turn contributed to the national security community's failure to head off the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the results of a congressional investigation. The 900-page report of the long-awaited joint inquiry by the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence into the 9/11 attacks was released today. It found that despite the collection of a massive amount of intelligence and clues that a major terrorist operation against the U.S. was under way, significant deficiencies in IT and political battles between the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) over which agency should control the use and development of certain technologies allowed critical clues to be overlooked.
http://www.computerworld.com/governm...?SKC=news83426

Open Source Gets Down To Business
For 12 years, Robert Lefkowitz has been an IT director for major Wall Street firms. During the spring of 2002 he was named director for open source strategy at Merrill Lynch. This spring, the group was scuttled. But when Lefkowitz showed up at the Open Source Convention in Portland in early July to give a couple of talks about the changing role within giant corporate IT departments of open source software — programs in which the code is shared among developers rather than kept a proprietary secret — his star was clearly on the rise: he came away from the meeting with a fistful of new job offers. Leaving Portland, he was set to hand in his resignation on Wall Street then fly to Ottawa, Canada, to join a select list of kernel hackers at a Linux summit meeting. He was going there to tell the Linux elite what features should go into the operating system that would most benefit large corporate users.
http://www.technologyreview.com/arti...witz072503.asp

Credit card hackers swap tricks online
Thieves are using chat rooms to sell stolen credit card details and advise others how to hack websites containing credit information, security experts have warned. Groups using internet relay chat (IRC) are playing a growing role in online credit card fraud. A report by the Honeynet Project, which monitors criminal activity on the internet, shows that online thieves are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The credit card details are not only used to purchase products but to clone the card owner's identity. In order to monitor and record this activity, the Honeynet researchers set up computer systems, called 'honeynets' or 'honeypots', intended to be easy targets for hackers. The researchers then tracked the hackers to the IRC channels.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142582

S.F. company leading trend of 'lifestyle' CDs in nonmusic retailers
Growth in the retail-marketing groove that has chains including Pottery Barn, Gap and Jamba Juice selling millions of CDs alongside sofas, jeans and fruit smoothies owes a lot to a handful of people in an office on Potrero Hill. Dozens of music compilations from companies including Restoration Hardware, Volkswagen and Jaguar were conceived and produced by a small, niche music firm called Rock River Communications Inc. From offices here and in Brattleboro, Vt., Rock River has flourished while the music industry overall has choked amid declining sales and Internet file sharing. And it's about to flourish more.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...5/BU267694.DTL

Artist seeks internet-enabled third ear
While prosthetic surgery is generally thought of in the terms of replacing a missing or defective body part, a group of artists is looking at prosthetics as a means of enhancing the body's form and functions. The Australian-based Tissue Culture and Art (TCA) project is growing a third ear fashioned out of the skin and cartilage of Stelarc, a performer who plans to implant it on his forearm. This is the latest undertaking of UK-based Stelarc, whose many projects and performances explore prosthetic augmentation of the body.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3096623.stm

Star Wars video prompts lawsuit
Mr Raza was emulating the skills of Darth Maul
A Canadian teenager has launched legal action against classmates who put a video of him online, saying that the publicity has left him mentally scarred. Ghyslain Raza became known as the "Star Wars Kid" after a video of him using a golf ball retriever to emulate the light sabre slinging tricks of Darth Maul was posted on the net. The video was hugely popular and some people even added effects to make the golf ball retriever look and sound like a light sabre. But the public exposure of the clip proved a burden for Mr Raza, who has been through psychiatric care to cope with his unwanted publicity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3095385.stm

Quasar shows star birth at dawn of time
The oldest object known, a superhot quasar powered by a black hole a billion times larger than our Sun, has been found to harbour molecular gas - suggesting stars were forming as early as 13 billion years ago. The discovery, by a team of U.S. and European astronomers led by Dr Fabian Walter of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico, USA, indicates large quantities of molecular hydrogen were created rapidly in even the youngest galaxies. Their report appears in the latest issue of the journal, Nature. "This is important because it is molecular gas out of which stars form," Walter told ABC Science Online. "That's very nice proof that star formation was going on even that far back in the history of the universe."
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s910345.htm

New rotor is 250 times smaller than human hair
Scientists in the United States say they have made a rotor that is more than 250 times smaller than the human hair, a breakthrough in the new frontier of nanotechnology. The gadget comprises a gold blade attached to an axle made from a carbon nanotube, whose ends are anchored to two silicon dioxide electrodes. Voltage flows through the electrodes and down the nanotube to rotate the blade. Three other electrodes - two placed on either side of the axle, one underneath - provide additional voltage control, so that the speed of the blade, its direction and position can be governed precisely. The arrangement, so tiny that it has been embedded in a silicon chip, is not the smallest nano-scale device in the world, a title that belongs to experimental 'bio-switches' made from molecular DNA and which are driven by chemicals.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/tec...201675,00.html

Broadband Britain at risk from Internet piracy
The UK government is urged to make it easier for users to buy online, and safer for companies make content available for sale on the Web. The UK's broadband boom is likely to falter unless more progress is made towards combating digital piracy, the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) has warned. In a report published this week, the BSG urged both government and industry to develop improved e-payments systems and better ways of protecting content providers from piracy. According to the BSG, if it isn't easy for users to buy items online using effective micro-payment systems then there is less incentive for firms to make compelling online content available.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2138132,00.html

More news later on

[multi]

Originally posted by walktalker
[
Star Wars video prompts lawsuit
Mr Raza was emulating the skills of Darth Maul
A Canadian teenager has launched legal action against classmates who put a video of him online, saying that the publicity has left him mentally scarred. Ghyslain Raza became known as the "Star Wars Kid" after a video of him using a golf ball retriever to emulate the light sabre slinging tricks of Darth Maul was posted on the net. The video was hugely popular and some people even added effects to make the golf ball retriever look and sound like a light sabre. But the public exposure of the clip proved a burden for Mr Raza, who has been through psychiatric care to cope with his unwanted publicity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3095385.stm

im curious now..anybody seen it?

also curious about .stm pages..anyone ever worked on those?
have to google it i guess..

[Ramona_A_Stone]

http://www.fdntech.com/files/

[Ramona_A_Stone]

also:
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

[multi]

thanx RAS

had sme video about 5yrs ago of him doing this...mad fucker he is...pretty amazing tho..

also thanks for the bit torrent site there...