The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Linux sweeping Unix aside at Unilever
Some have doubted whether Linux can grow up to fill the shoes of Unix, but at least one major customer has faith that it will: Unilever. A multinational company that sells everything from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Unilever plans to move all its servers to Linux in coming years, said Peter Blackmore, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Systems Group, in a keynote address Tuesday at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. In a videotaped testimonial, the head of Unilever's global infrastructure organization backed up Blackmore's assertion. "By 2006 or 2007, we will cease buying any Unix systems at all, and all our focus will be in the Linux area," Martin Armitage said.
http://news.com.com/2100-7252-5060198.html?tag=nl

Red Hat to bundle open-source tools
Linux distributor Red Hat announced plans Tuesday to assemble a package of Java-based open-source tools for building corporate Web applications. The company said it plans to bundle its Red Hat Linux operating system with Eclipse open-source development tools and Web application server software from the ObjectWeb open-source software consortium. The IBM-backed Eclipse consortium is an open-source alternative to commercial development tools. The testing version of the bundled product will be delivered later this year and eventually sold under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux label, Red Hat said. The company did not announce pricing.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016-5060140.html?tag=nl

RealNetworks plays to Linux developers
RealNetworks on Wednesday will announce plans to release the source code of its audio and video player to run on the Linux operating system. The Seattle-based company will announce details of the code-sharing plan at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. With the source code, developers can build tailored versions of RealNetworks' audio-video player to run on Linux and Solaris systems. Linux is an open-source OS based on Unix; Solaris is Sun Microsystems' version of Unix. The code release also complements RealNetwork's strategy to promote its multiformat system over proprietary systems, such as Microsoft's Windows Media. RealNetworks has taken this approach to recoup market share in the media software business that Microsoft has gained in recent years.
http://news.com.com/2100-7252-5060430.html?tag=nl

Stepping up to a giant
After Vivendi Universal bought his digital music company, MP3.com, for $350 million two years ago, Michael Robertson could have retired and never looked back. Instead, the outspoken entrepreneur decided upon a second career that offered a tad more adventure: He decided to take on Microsoft. In 2001, Robertson started Lindows.com, a software start-up with the goal of turning the open-source Linux operating system into a genuine mass-market consumer item and a serious threat to the dominance of Microsoft's Windows operating system. The Lindows version of Linux boasts a slick user interface modeled after Windows and streamlined installation routines that eliminate many of the headaches that could deter potential Windows converts.
http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5059...g=fd_lede2_hed

Study: Software piracy on the wane
The latest report from the Business Software Alliance concludes that software piracy declined in the United States during 2002. The special interest group, an antipiracy organization that's comprised of members such as Apple Computer, Cisco Systems and Microsoft, released results of its state-by-state analysis of software piracy across the United States on Tuesday. According to BSA's report, the nation's piracy rate dropped 2 percentage points in 2002 compared with 2001, to 23 percent. The International Planning and Research (IPR) conducted the study for BSA. BSA also reported that some 37 organizations handed down more than $3.1 million in piracy-related settlements as a result of its annual campaign to raise awareness among business users regarding illegal use of copyrighted software.
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5060288.html?tag=fd_top

SCO raps Red Hat, sets license prices
Software maker SCO Group fired back at Linux leader Red Hat on Tuesday and revealed steep licensing prices for Linux users who want to steer clear of the company's legal wrangle with the open-source operating system. In a teleconference with media and financial analysts, SCO CEO Darl McBride bluntly accused Red Hat of distributing Linux software that illegally copies SCO's Unix code. "Red Hat's lawsuit confirms what we've been saying all along--Linux developers are either unable or unwilling to screen the code" that goes into the Linux kernel, McBride said. "Red Hat is selling Linux that contains verbatim and obfuscated code from Unix System 5." Red Hat declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001_3-5060134.html?tag=fd_top

Opera browser gaining users
Opera Software said Tuesday that its Web browser had been downloaded a record 10 million times already this year, showing growing signs of use despite Microsoft's continued dominance. The Norwegian company is the main independent commercial browser company to have persevered throughout the years that Internet Explorer secured its hold on the vast majority of Web surfers' loyalties. The small company now sees America Online's reduced commitment to developing future versions of Netscape as a good sign for its own future. "It is wonderful seeing that more and more users around the world are tempted to try Opera's Internet experience, and especially pleasing to see that so many American users are discovering that there are alternatives to Microsoft's old browser technology," Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said in a statement.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5060175.html?tag=fd_top

French tackle mobile phone health dangers
Compulsory hands free kits and a restriction on masts are among a raft of new public health measures announced by the French government to combat the potential dangers posed by mobile phones. French Industry minister Nicole Fontaine said in an interview with the Journal de dimanche: "In a few months time, mobile phones will not able to be sold without a hands free attachment." The government initiative envisages the sale of mobiles phones only if they come with a hands free kit. Most mobile shops are already there and the operators, who distribute handsets en masse, are marketing mobiles with hands free kits thrown in as well.
http://www.silicon.com/news/500018-500001/1/5459.html

The Download Tide May Have Ebbed
Music downloaders tend not to care about the copyright implications of their acts, but there are fewer people doing it than is generally imagined, a recent survey indicates. Just 29% of U.S. Internet users have downloaded music files and just 12% both download and share music files from their PCs with others, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The rest, 62% of Internet users, do neither. These percentages have stayed fairly constant over the last few years, while the music industry has battled the problem by threatening downloaders with legal action and by creating for-pay music services. But despite the massive publicity and legal action surrounding Napster, Kazaa and more recently Apple Computer's iTunes service, attitudes about copyrights haven't changed much.
http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/08/0...artner=newscom

Sun pragmatic about open-source software
Linux and open-source software have swept across much of the computing industry, but on Tuesday, Sun Microsystems' top software executive called for a dose of realism about the movement. Open-source software -- which demands that anyone may see, change or redistribute the source code that underlies a product -- is good for attracting programmers and spurring new ideas, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice president for software, said in a keynote speech at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here. But open-source software is not the answer to all problems, he said. "The thing I worry about most with the open-source community is the sentiment that open source is somehow different. It isn't,"
http://news.com.com/2100-7252_3-5060427.html?tag=cd_mh

Microsoft adds P2P tools for Windows
Microsoft is beefing up the peer-to-peer capabilities for its Windows XP operating system. The software giant recently released a development kit for building peer-to-peer applications and an update to Windows XP that adds support for the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networking protocol. As previously reported, both of these Windows XP tools are aimed at simplifying the creation of peer-to-peer applications. The tools are available for download from Microsoft's Web site. In a peer network, individual machines communicate with one other directly, rather than uploading and downloading information to a central server. The most visible use of peer-to-peer applications is music file-swapping over the Internet, but some software companies assert that peer networking has a role in business applications as well.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5060004.html?tag=cd_mh

Gateway gets into portable music
Gateway released its first portable music player on Tuesday as it continues to expand into consumer electronics. The Gateway Digital Music Player combines three functions in one, according to Rick Griencewic, director of digital audio at Gateway. It can play MP3 files, it can be used as a portable storage device for shuttling data between two PCs, and it can also function as a digital voice recorder. The device can be plugged directly into a PC through a USB slot. "You don't have a cable you can lose, which can generate a support call," Griencewic said. Like Sony, Hewlett-Packard and to a lesser degree Apple Computer, Poway, Calif.-based Gateway plans to come out with a wide variety of branded household gizmos that can be used, and sold, with its PCs.
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5059830.html

How Robots Will Steal Your Job
Listening to Marshall Brain explain the future as he sees it, it's relatively easy to suspend disbelief and agree how plausible it is that over the next 40 years most of our jobs will be displaced by robots. After all, it only takes a typical round of errands to reveal how far we've come already. From automated gas pumps to bank ATMs to self-service checkout lanes at major retailers, service jobs already are being replaced by machines on a scale of obvious magnitude. Fast-forward today's innovations another few decades, and it doesn't require a great leap of faith to envision how advances in image processing, microprocessor speed and human-motion simulation could lead to the automation of most current low-paying jobs. Factor in the historical speed of technological advancement in the modern era, epitomized by Moore's Law of semiconductor power expansion, and it starts to sound like a no-brainer. At least that's how Brain (yes, that is his real name) sees things unrolling.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59882,00.html

Computer Groupthink Under Fire
Clusters are cool, and grids are great, but neither one can replace a real supercomputer. Critics at a House Science Committee hearing in July on the status of supercomputing in the United States claimed that federal agencies are focusing too heavily on developing and deploying grid computing and clusters, and not investing enough in development of true supercomputers. At times, the committee hearing, intended to be a simple status report on the state of supercomputing, turned into a geeky and heated discussion on the relative benefits of supercomputers vs. the less-expensive grids and clusters. Experts at the hearing also pointed out that the United States has fallen behind Japan in supercomputing. NEC's Earth Simulator in Japan is now the world's fastest supercomputer, according to the 500 fastest supercomputers rankings.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,59892,00.html

Voting Suit Gains Momentum
A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of computerized touch-screen voting systems has moved to a higher-profile venue in federal appeals court. According to Susan Marie Weber, a Palm Desert, California woman who is suing the state for sanctioning voting machines she alleges are open to manipulation, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco indicated this week that it plans to hear oral arguments in her case. The suit, originally filed in 2001, charges that California's former secretary of state and election officials in Riverside County, where Weber lives, deprived citizens of constitutional rights by deploying touch-screen voting systems that do not provide a paper record of each vote.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59898,00.html

Next Jordan Could Be a Gamer
Professional gaming has grown steadily over the last seven years and now is pursuing mainstream acceptance and financial success. The video-game industry has outpaced Hollywood (PDF) in terms of revenues over the last few years, yet gaming has remained part of the pop culture gutter. However, big money and media exposure is helping change that. Top tournaments now offer as much as $200,000 in purses and draw thousands of international players. "We're at a point of explosive growth," said Angel Munoz, founder of the Cyberathlete Professional League. "The problem is that things are fantastic. We have to limit the events right now." The league has been a driving force behind the rise of competitive gaming in the United States.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,59895,00.html

Congress Moves to Extinguish Online Smoke Sales
Before adjourning for its annual August recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation to empower states to prosecute vendors who are selling cigarettes over the Internet without paying required taxes. Introduced by Orrin G. Hatch (R.-Utah) and Herb Kohl (D.-Wisc.), the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, the bill strengthens the reporting requirements for interstate cigarette sellers, increases the criminal penalty for violating reporting requirements to a felony and substantially increases civil penalties. A similar bill in the House of Representatives, the Internet Tobacco Sales Enforcement Act introduced in June by Mark Green (R.-Wisc.) and Marty Meehan (D.-Mass.), is expected to be expedited through the Judiciary Committee when the House returns from its August recess.
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2244481

Power from blood could lead to 'human batteries'
A device that produces electricity from blood could be used to turn people into "human batteries". Researchers in Japan are developing a method of drawing power from blood glucose, mimicking the way the body generates energy from food. Theoretically, it could allow a person to pump out 100 watts - enough to illuminate a light bulb. But that would entail converting all the food eaten by the individual into electricity. In practice, less power would be generated since food is needed by the body. However the scientists say the "bio-nano" generator could be used to run devices embedded in the body, or sugar-fed robots. The team at electronics giant Panasonic's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory near Kyoto has so far only managed to produce very low power levels. But the scientists ultimately expect to gain much greater performance from the device.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...849278131.html

NASA targets spring 2004 for shuttle return
NASA's efforts to launch its next space shuttle flight, the first since the Columbia disaster, are focused on March 2004, the agency said on Tuesday. NASA cautions that the date is a planning target, not a deadline that must be met. The plan (STS-114) calls for Atlantis to deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module to the International Space Station. The launch window from 11 March to 6 April meets "all the constraints" imposed on a return to flight, said Bill Readdy, NASA associate administrator for space flight.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994023

Europe's weird weather warms debate
A scorching heat wave in Europe and a spate of forest fires has re-ignited the debate over whether global warming can be blamed for an apparent increase in the world's weird weather. Scientists agree that no one yet knows the answer to this question, but they point out that an increase in the number and severity of extreme events is exactly what their models of a warmer world predict. "The weather we've seen over the last few days is entirely consistent with what we're likely to see over the next few decades," says John Turnpenny, at the Tyndall Centre for climate change research in Norwich, UK. "We're likely to see such a heat spell in London every year." Extreme weather conditions are affecting all parts of Europe.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994022

Galactic dust storm enters Solar System
The Sun's shifting magnetic field is set to focus a decade-long storm of galactic dust grains towards the inner Solar System, including Earth. The effect this will have on our planet - if any - is unknown. But some researchers have speculated that sustained periods of cosmic dust bombardment might be related to ice ages and even mass extinctions. During the last decade, the magnetic field of the Sun acted like a shield, deflecting the electrically charged galactic dust away from the Solar System. However, the Sun's regular cycle of activity peaked in 2001. As expected, its magnetic field then flipped over, so that south became north and vice-versa. In this configuration, rather than deflecting the galactic dust, the magnetic field should actually channel the dust inwards.

[JackSpratts]

According to Web consulting company OneStat.com, which monitors worldwide browser share, only about 0.6 percent of surfers currently use Opera, compared with more than 95 percent for various versions of Internet Explorer, about 2.5 percent for Netscape Navigator and about 1.6 percent for Mozilla, the open-source version of Netscape.

Those figures for Opera may be substantially undercounted, however, since many Opera users configure their browser to identify itself as Internet Explorer in order to avoid Web site configuration problems.

that explains it. i always thought the user stats for opera were too low. it can't be under 1 percent, too many people are using it. i configure mine to report as ie as well.

- js.