The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Oh yeah, a day without newspaper is a day leaving twodoggy and TankGirl unhappy... Oh, how sinful would I be if I was leaving my best customers in the dust

Hoax works better than a virus
A hoax e-mail warning people that their PCs may contain a virus called sulfnbk.exe--that will be triggered on 1 June--seems to be propagating as a result of mass hysteria. The e-mail, which was originally written in Portugese and was reported to be doing the rounds in Brazil last month, has now been translated and appears to be appearing throughout the UK, advising people to delete a harmless Microsoft Windows utility--called sulfnbk.exe--from their hard disks. Antivirus experts were quick to point out that the e-mail does not contain a worm, and is being passed around simply by well-meaning people alarmed at its contents.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...766746,00.html

RealNetworks, Intel meet on the motherboard
Looking to strengthen its position in the streaming media market, RealNetworks on Wednesday said it has signed an agreement with Intel to ship its technology with the main circuit boards that power PCs. Under the terms of the deal, the Seattle-based company's RealPlayer and RealJukebox software will be distributed on CD-ROMs included with two new Intel desktop PC motherboards that support the chipmaker's Pentium III and Celeron processors, the company said in a statement.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...088849,00.html

Corporations: Relics of the last century
For more than a century, the corporation has been the preferred way to organize economic activity. It is time to move on. In his recently published book, Creative Destruction, Richard Foster, a director at McKinsey & Company, reports that companies that survive over several decades consistently offer lower returns to shareholders than broad market averages, such as the S&P 500. In fact, after looking at data over the past 36 years, Foster found that companies fall behind the market after 5 to 10 years -- and the average time in which they outperform is shrinking.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/co...766713,00.html

Stallman strikes back at Microsoft
To Microsoft Corp., software is about making money. To Richard Stallman, head of the Free Software Foundation, it's about freedom, equality and liberty. Stallman took his philosophical message to an audience of students, professors and press at New York University's Stern School of Business here Tuesday morning. He held forth for more than 2 hours, in a talk that was billed as the FSF's response to Microsoft executive Craig Mundie's May 3 speech, in which Mundie dissed the GNU General Public License (or GPL) and open-source software. Microsoft has argued that sharing source code on a limited basis, rather than developing free software or open-source software, offers developers and customers the most sustainable business model.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...766341,00.html

AMD server chips face tough audience
Advanced Micro Devices will try to reach out to new customers next month with a line of Athlon processors aimed at workstations and servers, but hardware makers so far are passing on the chips. IBM and Compaq Computer both have said they have no plans to adopt the new 1.2GHz and 1.3GHz Athlon chips and the accompanying 760MP chipset that allows the processors to be used in dual-processor machines.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Companies ally for secure e-mail
Pretty Good Privacy, the de facto standard for secure e-mail, got a boost on Tuesday, when 11 organizations launched the OpenPGP Alliance, a group that will allow software creators to test their products with others' wares. "These companies didn't know about each other developing OpenPGP products," said Phil Zimmerman, founder of the OpenPGP Alliance and creator of the original Pretty Good Privacy program, which was released almost 10 years ago. "By putting together in the same alliance and having them talk to each other, we can make sure that different secure e-mail systems work together."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Gateway launches full assault in price war
Gateway has fired the latest volley in a price war gripping the PC industry. Starting Thursday, the San Diego-based PC maker will beat the advertised price of competitors Compaq Computer, Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sony or Toshiba. Gateway does not expect the promotion to affect second-quarter results. In some ways, the program -- or Gateway Guarantee -- is not new. Earlier in May, the PC maker tested a similar promotion in 10 Gateway Country stores for two weeks and then extended it nationally last week.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Myplay buy highlights Net music trend
Bertelsmann E-Commerce Group said Wednesday that it will acquire online music locker Myplay and consolidate its music retail assets into a separate division. The acquisition will allow BeCG to thread Myplay's music-storage service throughout its other online retail brands, such as CDNow and its BMG Music Service record club. People who purchase compact discs through these services will be offered ways to store and access digital versions of their purchases on Myplay.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Spam maker cans spam complaint
Stick a fork in it; Spam's squabble with cyberspace is done. Hormel Foods, the maker of the legendary spiced lunch meat made of pork shoulders and ham and creator of the Spamburger Hamburger, says it can live with Spam's double meaning as junk e-mail. In a message posted on the official Spam Web site, Hormel says it has no qualms with the alternate meaning as long as SPAM, the meat, is written in all capital letters, and spam, the unsolicited e-mail, is in lowercase.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on