The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

Judge throws out MS school deal
A federal judge in Baltimore on Friday rejected a controversial settlement that would have ended more than 100 private class-action lawsuits against Microsoft. In his 21-page ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Fredrick Motz agreed with opponents that the proposed deal in the antitrust cases would be itself be anti-competitive. He also said that the private cases had not been developed far enough to determine the extent of damages that could have been obtained through litigation.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

Microsoft: There's a hole in W32.Donut
Microsoft has defended the reputation of its new Web services software, claiming that a virus targeting files used in its .Net Framework is actually based on an old Windows virus. Antivirus vendors on Wednesday reported a new "proof of concept" virus, dubbed W32.Donut, that infects executable files created for Microsoft's Web services, which are expected to be released to the public in the coming months. But Microsoft says W32.Donut has little to do with .Net.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Simputer: Ultra-cheap Linux laptop
Handheld computers are commonly seen as geek toys for affluent mobile professionals. An Indian group hopes to change that image with the Simputer, a device designed to bring portable computing and the information age to developing countries. The Simputer Trust, a group of individuals from the Indian Institute of Science, and Encore Software are behind the device. Vinay L. Deshpande, CEO of Encore, said the machine is expected to arrive in the second quarter.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Dueling DVD formats face off
The two groups striving to make their respective formats the standard for rewritable DVDs used this week's Consumer Electronics Show as an opportunity to demonstrate their progress. At separate, simultaneous events at CES here, the Recordable DVD Council and the DVD+RW Alliance brought together partners to discuss their efforts so far. As the DVD rewritable market heats up, a lot is riding on which format, if any, becomes dominant.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Microsoft's security push lacks oomph
Microsoft's security initiatives and the release of the company's "most secure operating system yet" haven't quashed myriad holes that security experts say put customers in harm's way. Although the software titan has been touting the need for security through its Secure Windows Initiative, the recent revelation of a severe flaw in the company's flagship Windows XP operating system -- combined with the discoveries of several recent Internet Explorer browser holes -- has left security experts questioning whether Microsoft can fully lock down its products.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Pop star threatens to sue porn sites
Teen singer Christina Aguilera may know what a girl wants, but she also knows what she doesn't want: her image being used to promote porn. The midriff-baring singing sensation is warning porn sites that she'll sue them if they continue to use her likeness in compromising positions. A notice on the official Christina Aguilera Web site says the singer's lawyers have contacted Web site hosts that show video and pictures they claim are Christina. The pornographers are advertising video clips of "a woman with blonde hair shown only from the back -- the person in the video is not Christina," the lawyers said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Web hoster takes security to extremes
Web-hosting company Advanced Internet Technologies is big on security. Not necessarily the firewall, virtual private network, virus detection type of thing. More like the barbwire, munitions closet and paratrooper type of security. The Fayetteville, N.C.-based company has razor-wire fences, windows painted black in some areas, and even a munitions closet with 12-gauge shotguns and 9-millimeter Beretta pistols. Its data centers are protected by 8-inch reinforced concrete and 24-hour guards. And those precautions were taken before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Gadget makers target women
Gadgets are traditionally seen as boys' toys but electronics companies are increasingly becoming aware of the need to appeal to women. "Retailers ignore women at their own peril," Kim France, editor-in-chief of shopping magazine Lucky, told a seminar on selling to women at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1754818.stm

IBM unveils "buy now, pay later" financing
Computer giant IBM on Friday said it is offering for the first time "buy now, pay later" financing on some of its computer services. Low-rate financing may have been popularized by automakers and appliance dealers, but in the past year computer makers have been using financing options such as "no money down" and "zero-interest" payments amid the economic downturn. IBM competitors such as Dell Computer and Compaq Computer also have offered special financing plans during the past few months.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

FTC to settle Eli Lilly privacy probe
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is close to a settlement with the U.S. government for releasing an e-mail list last summer of patients who used its anti-depressant drug Prozac, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Lilly engaged in unfair or deceptive trade practices when it mistakenly revealed the e-mail addresses of more than 700 Prozac users, the sources said. The FTC could announce a settlement as soon as next week, sources said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Viisage buys face-recognition rival
Face-recognition technology company, Viisage Technology on Friday said it acquired rival LAU Security Systems, extending its reach into the federal government sector. Under the deal, Viisage -- one of the hot prospects in the market for security-identification systems -- said it will pay LAU a royalty of 3.1 percent of its face-recognition revenue over the next 12.5 years, up to a maximum of $27.5 million, and assume certain liabilities related to the acquired business. LAU Security was formed in 1997 to develop face-recognition products for the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal government customers.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

InterTrust to protect tunes on Sanyo device
InterTrust Technologies and Sanyo Electric are working together to offer the latest in a patchwork of technologies that aim to move copy-protected songs from the PC to portable devices. Santa Clara, Calif.-based InterTrust, which makes software that protects songs and videos from being illegally copied, said Wednesday that it is licensing its digital rights management (DRM) technology for Sanyo's new Digital Memory portable music player.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

UK fails to make the most of open source
UK firms are failing to exploit open source software as much as they might because of uncertainty about its business benefits. That's the key finding of a report prepared for the UK Department of Trade and Industry by the National Computing Centre (NCC), which offers a series of recommendations to encourage use of the technology. According to the NCC, quality standards for open source are uneven - open source operating systems compare favourably with proprietary infrastructure products, but this is not the case for office desktop and business systems applications. It calls for a wider, more co-ordinated development effort.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23653.html

Gigger worm can format Windows PCs
Gigger, a new JavaScript-based virus, has escaped into the wild. It attempts to delete files from a computer and format user's disk drive on restart and antivirus vendors are characterising it as high-risk. Gigger, which uses a combination of Microsoft Outlook and mIRC to spread, is not spreading widely, but its destructive potential has prompted Symantec to issue a strongly worded warning about the worm.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/23652.html

MTV flogs own-brand PCs to students
MTV, the formerly hip cable music channel, is to flog PC and PC-type hardware under its own brand name. The range is targeted at "the Internet and entertainment savvy MTV demographic" - in other words American college students who live term time in dormitories. Supplying the hardware is US system builder Lan Plus, which sells PCs also under the Northgate brand. AMD gets a look-in, a design win if you will, as the MTV boxes are powered by Athlon XPs.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/23634.html

More news later on

[walktalker]

TV Filter Negates Naughtiness
The ProtecTV unit, which is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show, is only available online for $69.95, resembles a slim cable box that connects like a VCR to any television set. The black box contains a dictionary of 400 "nasty to naughty" words that it mutes and barricades with "Xs" in closed caption. In closed caption, for example, the four-letter "f" word appears in the form of four Xs and is muted when spoken.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,49505,00.html

IMac: What's in a Design, Anyway?
When Apple decided in 1999 to start selling its already popular iMac in five candy colors, Wired News called on several industrial designers to see what they thought about the move. Almost unanimously, they declared it a watershed moment in computer design. Computers were becoming commodities, the designers explained, and increasingly, computer makers needed to find a way to make their machines stand out. Tinkering with the look of the computer, more than its speed or specific technical capabilities, was a good way to appeal to people.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,49652,00.html

'Trojan' Company Changes Horses
Early on the morning of Dec. 28, advertising executive Michael Calderone came to the unhappy realization that many people believed him to be the embodiment of all that is evil on the Internet. Calderone is the president of NetupProfits, an online ad agency that, among other things, distributes a lottery game program called ClickTillUWin. Users of some versions of file-sharing applications BearShare, LimeWire, Kazaa and Grokster noticed in late December that a small program called "Dlder" had been installed on their computers without their permission.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49561,00.html

DVD for Home and Away
Parents looking to distract the kids during those long rides to the mountains have more gadgets than ever to choose from at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Vendors showed off more than 20 LCD televisions and DVD players for in-car entertainment. At an entry level price of $1,000, these systems, which hide the LCD screen in the back of headrests or fold down from the roof, are primarily selling to families that frequently take 2-hour or longer drives, according to Stephen Witt, vice president of brand marketing for Alpine.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,49635,00.html

Ireland Plans Largest Wind Farm
Ireland on Friday approved a 640 million euro ($571.4 million) plan to build the world's largest offshore wind farm, capable of generating 520 megawatts of electricity. Marine and Natural Resources Minister Frank Fahey said the wind farm, in the Irish Sea off County Wicklow on Ireland's east coast, would be three times the size of all the existing wind farms in the world put together.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49662,00.html

Elmo So Tickled He Can Sing
Tickle Me Elmo Surprise not only giggles like a maniac, but as of Wednesday, he sings. As part of a promotion for the toy, Fisher-Price programmed all Elmo Surprise dolls to change their behavior patterns on Wednesday. In addition to the five tickle spots on Elmo's tummy, underarms and feet, Elmo's nose is now an active tickle spot, and he sings a song and laughs when a child squeezes his schnozz.
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,49647,00.html

Non-military satellite views Earth
most detailed freely-available pictures ever taken of our planet. Quickbird is the world's highest resolution commercial imaging satellite and its first images show details never before seen by a non-military satellite. Flags surrounding the Washington Monument in Washington DC, trees in the garden of the Imperial Palace in Bangkok, and even the lines of a tennis court in a Washington park, show its potential.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1755356.stm

"Resource wars" ignite around the world
A favourite prediction of environmentalism has bitten the dust - too many natural resources, rather than too few, are the cause of an increasing numbers of wars in the 21st century. Many greens had predicted that the new century would see a rash of wars in countries where natural resources such as timber, water, minerals and fertile soils are running out. But far from it, says the 2002 State of the World report from the prestigious Washington-based think-tank, the Worldwatch Institute.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991778

Internet Week Magazine Folds; Web Site Remains
Internet Week magazine has produced its last print edition, a source close to the publication told Newsbytes today. The source, who asked not be identified, said parent company CMP Media notified employees yesterday that the Jan. 7 issue would be the last. "The Web site, InternetWeek.com, will proceed, they are not closing that," the source said. "But the print publication is deceased."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173592.html

Computer Security Vulnerabilities Double In '01
Hackers and system administrators alike were busier than ever in 2001, a year that brought a 200 percent increase in computer security incidents and vulnerabilities, according to statistics published Thursday. More than 52,000 “incidents, including Web site attacks, malicious viruses and network intrusions, were reported in 2001, according to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the federally funded computer security clearinghouse at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. The numbers are up from 21,756 the previous year, CERT indicates.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173590.html

Tools Take On New Linux Trojan
Utilities for detecting and removing a new Trojan horse that targets Linux systems have been posted on the Internet for free download. The tools, created by managed security provider Qualys, battle a new variant of the Remote Shell Trojan, dubbed "RST.b," which creates a backdoor on infected Linux computers, giving a remote attacker full control. RST.b was first discovered in the wild last December by independent security researchers who identified it as a variant of RST, a Linux Trojan announced in September by Qualys.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173589.html

Brits Flocking To Net Gaming Sites
British Internet users seem to signing up for online gaming sites in ever increasing numbers, says a report published Thursday. The NetValue study found that more than 3 million Brits accessed games online during November, an increase of 500,000 on the figures from a year earlier. Researchers concluded that more than 20 percent of home Internet users now access gaming sites at least once a month.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173582.html

Russian Supreme Court Rejects Tech Spy's Appeal
The Russian supreme court has rejected an application to overturn a high-tech spying verdict against former high-level diplomat, Valentin Moiseyev. Moiseyev, who was convicted of spying for South Korea, has been in jail since July 1998, after the Russian federal security service detained him, along with Cho Sung-woo, a South Korean diplomat. Russia subsequently expelled Cho, claiming he was a spy. Moiseyev subsequently was convicted on state treason charges in December 1999.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173580.html

Philips says copy-protected CDs have no future
Philips, the inventor of the Compact Disc, does not expect controversial attempts by the music industry to introduce CD "copy protection" technologies to last very long, because of consumer complaints. Philips is opposed to the use of copy protection systems. The technology is designed to stop CDs playing or being copied on personal computers but it can also prevent them from playing on many normal systems. As inventor of the CD standard and the industry's licensing body, Philips could refuse to license such copy protected discs as genuine CDs, or pursue some other legal obstruction to the practice.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991783

Deals to prevent Chernobyl-style disaster collapse
Western Europe's efforts to prevent another Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster among its eastern neighbours are foundering. Two deals under which the European Union promised to finance technical help on safety in return for early reactor closures have collapsed. Bulgaria has just announced a four-year delay in shutting two old Soviet nuclear reactors built in 1980 and 1982 at the country's Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Meanwhile Armenian ministers have told New Scientist that its Metsamor nuclear plant, operating in an earthquake zone west of the capital Yerevan, will not shut in 2004 as promised.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991782

The Universe is turquoise, say astronomers
Astronomers have revealed the true colour of the Universe - it is somewhere between "pale turquoise and medium aquamarine". The discovery may appear to be as useless as the "answer" to life, the Universe and everything given in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - 42 - but the colour is helping the astronomers trace the history of star formation. Ivan Baldry and Karl Glazebrook at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, found the cosmic colour by combining light from over 200,000 galaxies within two billion light years of Earth. They worked with data from the Australian 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991775

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Whoops, this one was moved fast LOL - is there a weekend edition on its way? Thanks again, WT!

- tg