The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Network glitch shutters NY Times office
The New York Times Co. asked reporters and editors at its newspaper's main office to shut down their PCs for several hours Friday after its computer network became unstable. The company didn't know what caused the network problems, said spokesman Toby Usnik. He said The New York Times' main office on 43rd St. in New York was the one affected. "We did ask our employees to shut off their workstations shortly after noon," Usnik said. "But we do plan to get our paper out on time tomorrow." The New York Times shutdown occurred in a week that saw many companies scramble to deal with a double whammy of a computer virus and a network worm, which nevertheless failed to impact the Internet at large. The virus -- W32/Sobig.F, a new variant of the mass-mailing Sobig virus -- took off on Tuesday, swamping many companies' mail servers, including e-mail systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
http://news.com.com/2100-1002-5067394.html?tag=nl

MontaVista swats back at SCO
Open-source software maker MontaVista Software is advising customers not to pay any money to The SCO Group, which recently offered licensing plans that cover most versions of Linux.
In a statement posted on its Web site, MontaVista said SCO's claims are without merit and should not deter businesses from adopting Linux. "While SCO's actions may present a visible, short-term annoyance, we believe the risk of any outcome adverse to Linux is very low and is nothing compared to the risk you face by staying with outmoded and proprietary embedded platform software," the statement said. SCO representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SCO rattled the technology world early this year by filing a $3 billion lawsuit against IBM, claiming that the computing giant illegally incorporated into its Linux software source code from the Unix operating system that SCO controls. SCO further riled the Linux community by sending letters to 1,500 information technology managers, warning them that any use of Linux could expose them to intellectual property suits.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5067404.html?tag=fd_top

New DVD-copying tools to hit shelves
Despite staunch legal opposition from Hollywood, a new package of DVD-copying software is headed for online and offline retail shelves. DVD drive company Tritton Technologies on Friday said it agreed to distribute software called DVD CopyWare, created by United Kingdom-based Redxpress. Like software from rival 321 Studios, which has been sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the CopyWare package will make a perfect copy of DVDs to a blank disc. Tritton said it is simply trying to help people make backup copies of their own DVDs, not facilitate movie piracy, even though no protections against making multiple copies or making duplicates of copies are included in the software.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5067448.html?tag=fd_top

Sobig.F likely began on porn newsgroup
The FBI subpoenaed an Arizona Internet service provider to trace the culprit behind a fast-spreading e-mail virus that security experts said may have first been posted to an adult pictures Internet site. One expert said the Sobig.F e-mail virus was disguised so that anyone who clicked on a link purporting to show a sexually graphic picture became infected with the self-replicating worm, which then spread itself to other e-mail addresses. "Sobig.F was first posted to a porn Usenet group," said Jimmy Kuo, research fellow at antivirus software maker Network Associates. Usenet is a popular forum on the Internet where computer users with similar interests post and read messages. So far, as many as 100,000 computers have been infected with Sobig.F, which in turn has spewed "millions upon millions of infected e-mails" to other Internet users, Kuo added.
http://news.com.com/2100-12_3-5067462.html?tag=fd_top

Marketers, FBI unite to curb spam
The Direct Marketing Association intends to help the FBI nab spammers -- and help preserve its members' ability to send commercial e-mail. The association, which has about 47,000 members, confirmed on Friday that it is forming Operation Slam Spam, a group of members and industry leaders who will work with the FBI to identify and prosecute spammers. In recent weeks, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has sent letters to Internet service providers, software makers and marketers, asking them to join the project and donate $65,000 in up-front membership fees. Louis Mastria, director of public and international affairs at the DMA, said the organization plans to unveil the effort and its participants in September or October.
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5067369.html?tag=fd_top

Flash memory devices raise security flags
Flash memory storage devices and media cards could be a serious security risk, experts said this week. Administrators have no control over the information that is transferred between one of these high-capacity devices and a corporate network, unlike e-mail and other network traffic. This creates a serious risk because the devices could be used to copy sensitive corporate data from an intranet or release dangerous or malicious files inside a company's firewall, experts said. Louis Oley, managing director of SecureWave, a company that specializes in intrusion prevention software, said Thursday that he blames Microsoft for failing to provide tools within Windows 2000 and XP to effectively manage and control this type of product. He gave the example of a real-estate agent in Crewe, England, who thought he was buying a new Sony Memory Stick, a removable flash memory card. When he plugged it into his PC, he discovered the device contained confidential medical records of cancer patients at a local hospital.
http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5067246.html?tag=fd_top

Cutting-edge 'smart shelf' test ends
The largest supermarket chain in Britain has ended a controversial field trial of a merchandise-tracking system that shoppers claimed violated their privacy. The Tesco chain stopped using a high-tech shelf that it was testing in a Cambridge store, Greg Sage, a spokesman for the company, confirmed Friday. The shelf was designed to monitor stock and detect theft of Gillette razors, which are commonly stolen, by recording images of shoppers who removed razors from the shelf. The system also grabbed images at the cash register, when razors were rung up, according to reports. People taped at the shelf but not at the register could be suspected of shoplifting. Tesco's experiment with the shelf, which began in February and wrapped up in July, was scheduled to last only six months, Sage said. The trial ended as originally scheduled, and was not affected by a privacy protest that occurred over several days in June, Sage said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-5067253.html?tag=fd_top

Fighting viruses on the frontline
For most people computer viruses, web worms and hacker attacks are an occasional nuisance that they encounter a few times a year at most. It is rare that people have more than one personal encounter with a virus as anyone caught out once tends to work hard to avoid a second infection. But for some security hi-tech workers the job of fighting off viruses and their malicious ilk is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week task. It is a job that requires constant vigilance and many security firms run network monitoring centres to keep an eye on their customers' networks and the shifting tide of computer vandalism and crime. The operation centres are the frontline of the information war.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3150351.stm

Girls have their eye on gadgets, too
Lisa Luna brandishes her crimson Nokia cell phone -- the color matches her nail polish -- and deftly thumbs through an eye-crossing array of features for a techno-illiterate observer. "I got this for Christmas from my dad," says the Denver 16-year-old. "I like it a lot because I can call my friends, and my parents like it because they can call me." For a young woman who already uses computers at home and school for everything from researching English papers to e-mailing cousins in Arizona, the cell phone is all but an extension of her hand. "Now I want to get one with a camera built into it," Luna says. "Three of my friends have them. They're lots of fun." That a teenage girl carries a cell phone is not exactly news, certainly not to adults who find themselves wondering why so many kids seem to have wafer-shaped chunks of plastic where their ears used to be.
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/tfillc22_20030822.htm

Motorola unveils first Linux smart phone
Motorola has launched its first handset powered by Linux, in a move being closely watched by those who foresee a bright future for the open-source operating system on portable devices. The Schaumburg, Ill.-based company introduced the A760 handset, along with eight other models, on Friday in Taiwan. The launch was timed ahead of the Taipei International Telecommunications & Networking Show, which begins on Saturday. The A760 is a high-end smart phone that combines a personal information management suite, a video player, a music player and an instant-messaging tool. It will initially be available only in the Asia Pacific region, with European and U.S. release expected later.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5067129.html?tag=cd_mh

Cracks seen in Microsoft pricing
Thailand's program that brings low-cost computers to the poor could have the unintended side effect of ending Microsoft's one-price policy, according to market researcher Gartner. Today, a copy of the Microsoft Windows operating system or Office productivity suite costs roughly the same in every country. Windows XP Home costs $199, for example, and Office XP is priced at $399. But that changed in Thailand this summer when Microsoft decided to offer Thai language versions of Windows XP Home and Office Standard Edition for a mere $40. The special deal is part of a low-cost PC program run by Thailand's Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) ministry. When the program began earlier this year, the Thai government was only offering the computers with the open-source Linux operating system.
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5067051.html?tag=cd_mh

An Army Travels on Its Stomach
The food may still taste like road kill. But if a new program from the U.S. Army works out, GIs' rations won't smell quite so bad. The Natick Soldier Center is working on a project to make rations more palatable to grunts by embedding savory aromas into the food's packaging. If the food smells better, the thinking goes, the soldiers will be more likely to eat their MREs, or Meals, Ready to Eat, and will be better able to carry out their grueling tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The effort -- tongue-pleasingly titled Active Package Olfaction to Increase Soldier Acceptance of Field Rations -- could ultimately affect more than soldiers' appetites, however. Smells have been known to influence people's perception, energy and ability to learn. This project might be the beginning of a military foray into aromatherapy.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,60094,00.html

Write a Story, Go to Jail
Brian Robertson was just months away from graduation at Moore High School in Moore, Oklahoma, last year when he found the beginnings of what he thought was a short story on a school computer. He copied the file to another computer, added some paragraphs to the initial text and then promptly got arrested. Robertson, who was 18 when he wrote the story, was charged with a felony count of planning to cause serious bodily harm or death. The story he wrote, titled "Evacuation Orders," (PDF) described preparations for an armed invasion of his school that included directions to unnamed fellow commandos to kill the senior class principal and then plant plastic explosives around the campus. After searching Robertson's car and his parents' home, authorities found no weapons, traces of explosive material or any other evidence that the teen was planning to attack his school.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,60144,00.html

The New X-Men
When Kevin Yu went to work for Hewlett-Packard in December 1999, he was a prematurely jaded 25-year-old programmer who had already lived through layoffs at Compaq and done a stint writing code at Digital Equipment Corp. Like most programmers he was withdrawn. He followed orders obediently. He felt removed. He worked alone. Yu still codes at HP, but these days he's gregarious, passionate, and eager to solve problems of every kind. His attitude adjustment is the result of a new approach to writing software that's transformed practically every aspect of his job. The biggest change: Each afternoon, he pulls up a chair beside a fellow programmer, and the two of them share a single workstation - one monitor, one desk, one keyboard. It's common to find him in HP's Seattle offices shoulder to shoulder with teammate Asim Jalis, who stares into the screen as Yu "drives," both of them pondering aloud whether a new idea might work. Yu is among thousands of coders who've discovered extreme programming, a method of software development that emphasizes constant feedback.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/xmen.html

Genetic Tests in Your Bedroom
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have found a way to test biological samples for the existence of protein molecules using a standard CD-ROM drive and inkjet printer. The findings could lead to the development of genetic tests that ordinary people could take in the privacy of their own bedrooms. The team released a paper this week in the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry journal outlining the procedure. "This technology could really empower people," said Dr. Michael Burkart, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the university and a co-author of the paper. "The existing technologies that laboratories use to identify molecules cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our method uses equipment that is almost ubiquitous."
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,60138,00.html

An Emphasis on Compassion
On September 26, 2001, Howard Cash got a phone call that changed his life. On the other end of the line was the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York. Could Cash — the founder of Gene Codes, a bioinformatics company recognized for a DNA-sequencing program called Sequencher — build the software necessary to manage and identify the remains of the 2,792 missing victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center? Existing identification tools were inadequate for the task: The scope of the project was mind-bogglingly large, and the remains to be identified had been pulverized and commingled by the falling towers and burning jet fuel. Ultimately, 19,937 separate remains were found, with some victims recovered in as many as 200 pieces. Using $2 million in profits to hire 11 new people and double his office space, Cash sprang into action. He started a wholly owned subsidiary called Gene Codes Forensics to develop a new breed of identification software: M-FISys (pronounced “emphasis”), an acronym for Mass-Fatality Identification System.
http://www.technologyreview.com/arti...nger082203.asp

Gulf-war syndrome: The fog of war
War is not a healthy business. Since hostilities began in March, more than 330 American and British soldiers have died in Iraq. All such losses are regrettable, but two deaths in particular are a puzzle. They were among 18 servicemen who have developed severe pneumonia in the past six months, part of a wider but milder outbreak that has affected another 74 American soldiers. Pneumonia is no stranger to army life, so these 90-odd cases are not surprising. What is unusual is the seriousness of the 18 cases, says Greg Gray, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa. This mystery pneumonia has put healthy warriors on breathing machines. And although pneumonia can be infectious, there is no sign that soldiers are spreading it to each other; indeed, the severe cases are found in units deployed as far apart as Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Djibouti and Uzbekistan.
http://www.economist.com/science/dis...ory_id=2003325

Mars 'not a watery world'
Hopes that Mars once had vast oceans of water and perhaps microbial life have suffered a setback. A US space agency (Nasa) spacecraft has failed to find evidence that the Red Planet was once a warm, watery world like the Earth. Dr Philip Christensen, Arizona State University Scientists have been searching for decades for signs of water-related carbonate minerals on the Martian surface. Mars Global Surveyor, which is orbiting the planet, has at last come up with the goods. But it has found only traces of carbonates in dust, which probably came from the atmosphere rather than rocky outcrops deposited by oceans.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3173167.stm

Iceland debuts the world's first retail hydrogen station
President Bush assured Americans in January's State of the Union address that with his $1.7 billion five-year hydrogen initiative, "America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles." In April, however, while U.S. automakers tinkered with prototypes, Iceland opened the world's first retail hydrogen-fuel pumps in a converted Shell station in Reykjavik. This tiny North Atlantic country may be the perfect test bed for a national hydrogen-based economy. Its small population — about 279,000 — means fewer infrastructure hurdles: The conversion of just 45 gas stations spread along the country's main highway could feasibly service 13,500 hydrogen-fueled vehicles. And the island is already 70 percent reliant on geothermal and hydroelectric power, renewable energy sources needed to isolate hydrogen from carbon or oxygen.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/auto/ar...477240,00.html

Writers design quicker, smarter computer worms
After 11 months on the job, things finally got interesting in the past 10 days for Tom Duncan, Monterey County chief security and privacy officer. Last week, his staff had to protect the county's 3,000 computers from a barrage of the Blaster virus coming from an infected state office. Monday, they kept vigil as another virus designed to fight the Blaster virus spread through the Internet, causing its own problems for many organizations. Just when the team thought it was safe to regroup and talk about ways to make Monterey computers more secure, yet another fast-spreading virus, a variant of a worm called SoBig, hit the Net. Fortunately, Duncan's team was able to block that one without any infections.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#038;type=tech

Computer worm has sting in the tail
Anti-virus companies were racing against time on Friday to block a sting in the tail of the SoBig.F virus. The computer virus has broken all records for the number and prevalence of infections since its appearance on Monday. Experts analysing the virus's code discovered that, at 1900 GMT on Friday, machines infected by the virus would connect via the internet to any one of 20 computers for instructions to download an as-yet-unknown program. This could do anything from displaying a harmless message on users' screens, to wiping entire hard disks. At 1500 GMT, Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at F-Secure, told New Scientist that 18 of the 20 internet addresses his company had identified in the virus had been blocked. "But if even one machine remains online at the deadline, anything could happen," he warned.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994087

Nanoparticles to pinpoint viruses in body scans
An injection of magnetic nanoparticles into your bloodstream could reveal precisely where harmful viruses are lurking. The particles are coated with antibodies to a particular virus, so they will form clumps that should be visible on conventional body scans if that virus is present. The team working on the technology, from the Harvard Medical School's Center for Molecular Imaging Research in Charlestown, Massachusetts, have already managed to detect viruses in body fluids and tissue samples. They hope to be able to detect viruses in patients' bodies within a couple of years. Much of the technology has already been tested in humans, so the scientists are confident that it will be safe.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994076

Record industry cutting off nose to spite face
New research has confirmed what many already suspected - music download services such as Napster and KaZaA are a major factor in driving CD sales. Many music fans use services such as KaZaA, and previously the now defunct Napster, in a 'try before you buy' capacity - finding out what new music they like before going out and buying a CD. Critics of the Recording Industry Association of America and its hard line of file sharing have long suggested this to be the case and now research from Nielsen/NetRatings supports the claim. The findings revealed that of those using file-sharing services to download music, the majority (71 per cent) regularly buy music either online or on the high street.
http://www.silicon.com/news/500019/1/4071.html

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