The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

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Knowledge is power !

Hurdles ahead for Microsoft
Microsoft's antitrust triumph may be short-lived. Although the Redmond, Wash.-based software company claimed victory after Thursday's appeals court decision, legal experts characterized it as a loss for the software giant that could complicate its plans for future products. Microsoft dodged the breakup order issued by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, but the court upheld the core monopoly claims against the company. "Microsoft may have ducked the murder-one conviction and the death penalty, but they sure look like they've been hit with a murder two," said Rich Gray, a Silicon Valley antitrust attorney who closely followed the trial. "They have been found by the full panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals to have illegally maintained their monopoly in violation of the Sherman Act. That's devastating."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093499,00.html

Is that a Linux device in your pocket?
Some Linux device makers may be thinking big, but Intrinsyc Software is going in the opposite direction: it has come up with a Linux-based computer that is only 3 inches on a side. The CerfCube sells for $533 (£379), and comes with a Linux kernel and the Apache Web server. It can also come with Windows CE pre-installed. The device is so small that it comes with a wrist strap for carrying it around. Intrinsyc's device is a reference platform for developers looking to bring Linux into so-called "embedded" devices, basically anything but a PC: peripherals, television set-top boxes, telephones, refrigerators and the like. It can, however, be set up as a complete networked Linux system.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...781416,00.html

Techs: You WILL take vacation
Employees at several major tech companies will celebrate Independence Day with a mandatory vacation week. Compaq Computer is among the tech giants adopting the cost-cutting measure, confirming Thursday that 30,000 of Compaq's 33,000 U.S. employees will be off next week as part of a mandatory shutdown of all nonessential operations, such as customer service. Compaq's 3,000 employees in California will have the option of working because of questions over whether state laws mean forced vacations could subject companies to paying workers overtime. However, Compaq expects most of its workers in California to take time off as well.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093461,00.html

MP3 hoax sings a sorry tune
Virus experts and members of online message boards are decrying a purported MP3 virus as a hoax. A document dated June 27 and posted to several Internet newsgroups warns of an "imbedded hybrid computer code" named MusicPanel that has been secretly buried in the MP3 files of 500 popular songs distributed over the past eight months among users of popular music file-trading networks Napster and Gnutella. The warning says that this virus will strike downloaded MP3 music files on July 4. Rob Rosenberger, operator of Vmyths.com, a Web site devoted to debunking computer virus myths and hoaxes, posted an alert on his site calling the document a prank.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093486,00.html

Computer passwords reveal workers' secrets
Family-types, fans, and the self-obsessed all give themselves away with easily guessable passwords. Only the cryptics are safe... Millions of Britons reveal their innermost secrets through their computer passwords, making their office PCs incredibly vulnerable to attack according to a recent study. Choosing a PC password has largely become a psychology test, with most office workers choosing a word that they believe to sum up their personality.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...pt=zdnn_nbs_hl

HP snaps up digital photo technology license
Hewlett-Packard licensed digital photo technology from PictureIQ and will collaborate with the company on related products for the home. HP licensed PictureIQ's PhotoBoard design, a collection of hardware and software that allows consumer gadgets to edit, organize and view digital photos. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP will use the design in future products, the company said this week. Iomega already uses the design in a product called FotoShow that plugs into a television to display images. The move bolsters HP's push into consumer electronics, a market long dominated by Sony.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Napster upgrade clips some clones
The record industry may hit two birds with one stone as Napster upgrades to new software aimed at filtering copyrighted works from its network. The upgrade is causing a ripple effect on the popular OpenNap shadow network, which now faces technical problems that could incite many of its members switch to alternative services. Kelly Truelove, chief executive of Clip2.com, a company that tracks and supports peer-to-peer file-swapping services, said Napster's new software makes it harder to use OpenNap servers. "Napster with its new client has not only blocked access to Napster from its cloned client, it's also made it impossible to utilize the Napster client to connect to the clone server," Truelove said. "This break-in compatibility does have for the moment a profound effect on how easy it is to get connected to those clone servers."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Microsoft: Structural change unacceptable
Freed at least temporarily from a court-ordered breakup, Microsoft declared Friday it would not accept any settlement with the government that made changes to the company's structure. "We don't believe that structural relief is appropriate, especially in light of the Court of Appeals decision to drastically narrow this case," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said in an interview with The Associated Press. The declaration -- one day after a federal appeals court voided the ordered breakup of Microsoft -- puts the company on a collision course with attorneys general from the 19 states that brought the antitrust suit against the software maker.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Usenet co-creator Jim Ellis dies
Jim Ellis, who helped create the information-sharing electronic bulletin boards that predated the World Wide Web, has died. He was 45. Ellis, who had been battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma for two years, died at home in Beaver County early Thursday, said his wife, Carolyn. Most recently an Internet security consultant with Sun Microsystems, Ellis was one of the creators of Usenet, which linked computers and allowed people to share information and reply to messages. Usenet began in 1979 when Ellis and another Duke graduate student, Tom Truscott, thought of hooking together computers to share information.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

IBM prods Linux toward bigger servers
In a move that shows the increasing corporate involvement in Linux, IBM released several software components Thursday to improve the open-source operating system's performance on high-end computer setups. The company released version 1.0 of the JFS software, a project to improve the Linux file system. JFS has been a public development effort since January 2000. A file system is the set of rules that governs how files such as programs or word-processing documents are stored on a hard disk or other storage device. JFS is one of four "journaling file systems" that keep track of changes to files so that it's easier to recover from a crash.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Caldera now charging for each Linux system
Bucking a trend in the Linux business, Caldera International has begun charging for each copy of Linux customers use. Red Hat, SuSE and other companies that sell the Linux operating system typically allow users to install a copy of the software on as many computers as they want. Caldera, though, now requires users to pay for a "certificate of license authority" for each copy, said John Harker, vice president of server product management. "Among the people we sell to and expect to get money from, I don't think it will cause any ill will," Harker said, adding that there still is a free version for noncommercial use. But some Linux fans disagreed.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Microsoft to host official Olympics site
Microsoft said Wednesday that it has secured the rights to produce and host the official Web site for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games -- its first foray into producing sports coverage and an arrangement that may give it a competitive edge over rivals. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company entered an agreement with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and NBC to produce the Olympic Web sites through its MSNBC.com property. Under the agreement, the MSN Network will sell advertising and sponsorships for the Olympics site in partnership with NBC.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Real MS Verdict: Jackson Blew It
Thomas Penfield Jackson is not merely a federal judge with a soft spot for government prosecutors and an undisguised contempt for Microsoft executives. He's also a media blabbermouth, whose private chats with reporters wound up costing the Justice Department its biggest victory in a generation. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Jackson's bad habit of trash-talking Microsoft honchos -- likening them to gangland killers and stubborn mules who should be walloped with a 2-by-4 -- was ample reason to overturn his breakup order and return the case to a different judge.
http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/...,44902,00.html

Deep Thinking on the 'Inter-Fada'
It's not enough any more to think of information warfare as a subset of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The whole struggle has, in effect, become one giant information war. That was the rough consensus reached Friday during a conference on "Cyberwar between Israel and Palestine" that cast conventional ideas of cyberwar such as denial-of-service attacks on enemy websites as a relatively unimportant problem when considered in a larger context. The ever-greater importance of the media and the world public opinion it helps shape make the battle over information the key to present-day warfare, panelists agreed.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44919,00.html

Music Was Easier When It Was Free
The first online subscription service that offers major label music will launch near the end of the summer. Then a few months later another subscription service will roll out. Then another. And another. By the end of the year, no fewer than 11 companies are expected to offer subscription services. None will offer music from all five major labels. None will offer unlimited listening. Many won't allow consumers to burn their music onto a CD.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44858,00.html

Post-Tasini: Pity the Librarians
For publishers reeling from a recent Supreme Court loss, it's time to pay freelancers whose work has been republished in electronic databases without their permission. But rather than pay up or face billions in liabilities, publishers are deleting tens of thousands of freelance articles spanning decades. So who will bear the brunt of that extra work? The librarians, of course," said Tim Rozgonyi, assistant technology systems editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "The librarians will save the publishers' bacon by cleaning up the data."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44905,00.html

PC Gamers Can Now Rent a Stream
Here's another reason gamers never have to leave their computers: For the first time, retailers have begun to rent streaming versions of PC games online. Through websites set up by game store chains Electronics Boutique and Microplay, players with a broadband connection can pay $4.95 for 72 hours of games like the bloody Unreal Tournament, the anime-inspired Oni, and the Caribbean dictator simulation Tropico. The rental fee is then credited toward the purchase of the boxed version of the game -- around $40 or $50 -- at the company's online or offline store.
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,44819,00.html

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