The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

Here's your daily dirt from newsland
Security experts protest copyright act
Two well-known computer security experts pulled down their works from the Internet this week for fear of being prosecuted under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Along with the threatened lawsuit of Princeton computer-science professor Edward Felten, and the arrest of Russian encryption expert Dmitry Sklyarov, the incidents are the latest to point at what is quickly becoming a touchy environment for security experts. "When they started to arrest people and threaten researchers, I decided the legal risk was not worth it," said Fred Cohen, a well-known security consultant and a professor of digital forensics, who took his evidence-gathering tool -- dubbed Forensix -- off his Web site earlier this week.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

DOJ won't pursue Microsoft breakup
In a bid to "streamline" the next phase in the Microsoft antitrust case, the government on Thursday said that it would not seek to break up the software giant. The Justice Department also will not seek a rehearing on the tying claim -- that Microsoft illegally integrated its Internet Explorer Web browser with Windows 95 and 98. The agency said in a statement Thursday that it is "taking these steps in an effort to obtain prompt, effective and certain relief for consumers." Even as the agency removed those issues from consideration, however, it opened the door for others, saying it wants the court "to investigate developments in the industry since the trial concluded" -- which could include the forthcoming Windows XP operating system.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

FBI under fire for Code Red response
The security company that discovered the software hole exploited by the Code Red worm has launched an attack on the FBI for its reluctance to publicize the flaw. The self-propagating worm infected an estimated 975,000 servers in July and August 2001. But representatives of eEye Digital Security, which discovered the flaw in Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) exploited by the worm, say the FBI should have been more proactive in warning people about a "test" version of the worm to which it was alerted in April. "Had the FBI been more vigilant in its warnings, Code Red would have had less of an impact than it did," said Mark Jones, U.K. manager of eEye Digital.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Big Blue: Enemies are everywhere
Computer hackers come in many shades -- extortion artists, corporate saboteurs, determined teenagers and legitimate IT professionals. But according to security experts at IBM, they have one thing in common: Every office has at least one. Seizing upon the timely topic of Internet security risks, IBM this week has launched a global advertising and public relations initiative to plug its e-business security software and consulting expertise. Business managers, concerned at the threat of attack, are fortifying their internal computer systems. Last week, a Corporation for British Industry survey revealed that two-thirds of U.K. businesses have been the victim of a serious computer-related incident, whether it be hacking, a virus attack or some form of cyber fraud.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Windows XP: A boon for home-networking market?
Microsoft's Windows XP may give the lagging market for home networking the jump-start it needs. The company's forthcoming Windows operating system will support a technology standard known as Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, a wireless protocol that allows people to connect their computers and laptops so they can share the same Net connection. That way, people can roam through the house and still surf the Web or check e-mail. "It's huge anytime Microsoft endorses a protocol or a service like home networking because they basically legitimize it," said Ross Fujimoto, strategic program analyst at Linksys, which makes home-networking kits.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Ready for e-mail that can self-destruct?
Imagine e-mail that can self-destruct after a certain amount of time, leaving no trace in in-boxes and servers. Omniva Policy Systems has created software that can do just that. The San Francisco-based firm, founded in 1999 as Disappearing Inc., has taken on the loophole left by the deletion key: Even though an e-mail has been deleted, it still lurks within the servers of the sender and recipients. What Omniva aims to do is help companies establish retention policies for e-mail, much like those typically in place for paper documents, by offering the e-mail equivalent of a paper shredder. After spending nearly two years on research and development, the company released the first version of its software in July.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...810767,00.html

New cable standard may triple speeds
A new cable Internet standard slated to be finalized later this year could boost cable modem speeds, clearing the way for a raft of new services. Denver-based CableLabs, the cable industry's research and development arm, announced recently that it will certify a new version of DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification), the technology protocol cable operators use to deliver high-speed Net access using cable modems. The latest version, which will be called DOCSIS 2.0, significantly increases cable bandwidth, or network capacity, particularly for so-called upstream transmissions, according to CableLabs. The standard, which will be finished by year's end, is designed to triple the speed at which cable modem users may send data and Internet traffic. But equipment -- certified as being based on the standard -- is unlikely to be ready for more than a year, some analysts say.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=mn_hd

The Virtual Voyager
This is the virtual-reality "cave" at Brown University's Center for Advanced Scientific Computation and Visualization. Big cathode-ray projectors fed by powerful computers cast high-resolution 3-D images onto the three walls and the floor. Modeling blood flow is just one application of this immersive technology. Besides medical imaging, Brown's virtual cave is used for simulations in fields as diverse as archaeology and studio art. "The cave is sort of like the holodek in Star Trek, except you can't touch anything," quips David Laidlaw, cave curator and assistant professor of computer science.
http://www.techreview.com/web/basu/basu090501.asp

Tech companies turn talkative
Tech companies sure are chatty these days. Tech giants such as Sun Microsystems, Altera, Intel and Novellus Systems are increasingly using midquarter conference calls, which barely existed a few quarters ago, to tell customers, investors and analysts about their businesses, and possibly diminishing the importance of their quarterly conference calls. On Thursday, Intel will give its second midquarter update and tell financial analysts how to tweak their estimates for the quarter. Never mind that many companies don't change their outlooks too much on these calls. For example, Rambus was happy to say its outlook is about the same as it was half a quarter ago. What's next? Monthly conference calls? Hourly business updates?
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=cd_pr

IE 6 gains foothold in browser market
Microsoft's recently released Internet Explorer 6 has taken 2.4 percent of the browser market, quickly closing in on AOL Time Warner's Netscape 6, according to a new study. IE 6, released Aug. 27, showed a fast adoption rate in the week after its launch, StatMarket, a division of audience measurement service WebSideStory, said Wednesday. StatMarket would not release the figures for Netscape 6, but it said that the browser was used by less than 2.5 percent of Internet users worldwide in its first week. StatMarket said that although IE 6 had a "strong" start, it expects a low adoption rate compared with its predecessor, IE 5. Launched in 1999, IE 5 gained between 2 percent and 3 percent of the browser market in its first week.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

FBI denies racism in Web host raid
An 80-strong U.S. terrorism task force raided the Texas-based host of Arabic Web sites, including that of the Arab world's leading independent news channel, prompting charges Thursday of an "anti-Muslim witch hunt." But the FBI, which took part in the raid Wednesday at privately held InfoCom in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, denied any anti-Arab bias and said it was executing an unspecified federal search warrant. InfoCom's owners said the raid resulted in a temporary shutdown of Web sites it hosts for about 500 customers, including that run by Al-Jazeera television and the newspaper Al-Sharq, both based in the Gulf state of Qatar. Al-Jazeera is a major regional news source for Arabic speakers. Often dubbed "the Arab CNN," it has emerged as a major force in a region where most broadcasters operate under direct state control.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

EU reconsiders canning spam
The European Parliament hit deadlock Thursday over a pan-European ban on unsolicited e-mail known as spam, sending legislation on the issue back to a committee for another look. The proposals, part of planned EU laws on confidentiality of electronic data and communication, call for the adoption across Europe of the opt-in system, where online marketing companies may send commercial e-mails only if customers have explicitly asked them to do so. A move in this direction would radically change the online landscape of the 15-member region, where 10 countries have adopted a system by which consumers may opt out from unwanted electronic mailing lists, usually by clicking a tiny box at the end of a Web page.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Report shows more Web-wired homes
America is seeing a dramatic increase in the number of homes wired to the Internet, census figures show, as the demand grows for quicker communication -- from shopping to e-mail to instant messaging. About 42 percent of all U.S. households could log on to the Web in 2000, up from 18 percent three years earlier, according to the Census Bureau report released Thursday. People shop, check stock quotes and do research online. But it is the desire for fast communication that has made Internet access a “must-have” item for many people, said Susannah Fox, research director for the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
More news later on

Can I take these ones anyway?

Thanks again, Mr. News!

- tg

[walktalker]

Napster Eclipsed by Newcomers
Months after shutting down its file-trading service, Napster has finally been displaced by four new applications that allow users to trade music, movies and software, a new study concludes. Four new file-sharing systems -- FastTrack, Audiogalaxy, iMesh and Gnutella -- were used to download 3.05 billion files during August, according to research firm Webnoize. That's more copyrighted material than was ever shared using Napster. At the beginning of this year when it was at the height of its popularity, Napster users traded nearly 3 billion files. That's bad news for the major record labels hoping to stop the trading of digital music.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46596,00.html

Bush Could Brush Up on Stem Cells
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Thursday that President Bush did not know how many of the 64 existing stem cell lines were fully developed and ready for research when he decided to limit federal funds to these lines. Thompson said the president's decision was made on moral grounds, and would not have changed had Bush known that fewer than half of these cell colonies are fully developed today. Thompson's comments come a day after he met critics on Capitol Hill who argue that research may be hampered if there are not enough stem cells that qualify for the funds. Thompson acknowledged for the first time that just 24 or 25 of the 64 lines are fully developed.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46616,00.html

Uncle Sam Wants His Geeks Back
If you're an out-of-work geek, Uncle Sam wants you. A U.S. Army general said Wednesday at the annual InfoWar conference that the military would be delighted to hire programmers, system administrators, and other specialists who left for the private sector and are searching for jobs after the dot-com bust. Created in 1998 and organized under the U.S. Space Command, the task force is responsible for defending Defense Department computer networks against intruders and other attacks.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46569,00.html

Who's Reading Your Resume?
People who post their resumes on Monster.com, the world's largest job-seeking site, "face considerable threats to their privacy," according to a watchdog group. In a 24-page report, The Privacy Foundation on Wednesday accused Monster of discussing the sale of users' private data to marketers, failing to completely remove resumes after job-seekers deleted them, and sending user information to America Online to satisfy the terms of a business agreement. The group also said that resumes submitted to corporations that use Monster's technology are "routinely sent to Monster.com without disclosure to job seekers." Monster.com flatly denied these accusations, saying that the company adheres to its posted privacy policy, which says that no selling of information occurs.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46559,00.html

Science Tracks Influenza Genes
In separate studies published this week in Science, researchers found the genetic causes of two deadly flu viruses: the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and a strain of flu that struck Hong Kong in 1997. Now that they have genetic markers, researchers will be able to identify and prevent the spread of deadly cases of influenza much more quickly. "This information can be used to develop tests that can rapidly differentiate virulent vs. avirulent viruses," said Yoshi Kawaoka, a professor in the department of pathobiological sciences in the school of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,46608,00.html

Big Blue Puts On the Scare
Computer hackers come in many shades: extortion artists, corporate saboteurs, determined teenagers and legitimate IT professionals. But according to security experts at International Business Machines, they have one thing in common: Every office has at least one. Seizing upon the timely topic of Internet security risks, IBM launched a global advertising and public relations initiative this week to plug its e-business security software and consulting expertise. Business managers, concerned at the threat of attack, are fortifying their internal computer systems. Last week, a Corporation for British Industry survey revealed that two-thirds of British businesses have been the victims of serious computer-related incidents, whether they be hacking, a virus attack or some form of cyber fraud.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46587,00.html

Filmmakers Say: Hi, Resfest
When the Resfest film festival began five years ago, digital filmmaking was still an underground phenomenon. "Before it was like, 'What do you mean? Are you crazy? Shoot a film on a DV camera?' And now of course Lars von Trier and Mike Figgis and Spike Lee and all these big directors are shooting digital film," said Jonathan Wells, Resfest's director. He reflected on how Resfest has ridden the wave of digital film's popularity. "We were the first festival to use a digital projector and now every film festival is projecting at least some of their films digitally," he said.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,46533,00.html

Man Charged: E-Snooping on Wife
When Steven Paul Brown and his wife separated, authorities say he installed spy software on her computer that would allow him to track her every keystroke and read every file and message. Buying the software is perfectly legal, but if a court determines Brown used it the way Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm thinks he did, it could land him in prison for up to five years, Granholm said Wednesday. "Just like breaking into someone's home, breaking into a person's computer is a crime," Granholm said. "These are crimes that hurt people because they make them feel vulnerable."
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,46580,00.html

The Miss Manners of Cell Phones
Jacqueline Whitmore opened a protocol school in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1997 to teach professionals how to dine in high-end restaurants, shake hands with business associates and dress for success. While Whitmore's business networking and dining courses remain the school's top-billing classes, some CEOs lately are forking over thousands of dollars for Whitmore to dispense advice on how to get rid of a modern-day headache -- How to yak on cell phones in public without annoying anyone? "The participants want clarification on when it is appropriate to use a cell phone," Whitmore said. "My response is 'Yes, you can take it to the restaurant, just don't use it. And if you want to use it, step out.'"
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,46448,00.html

Space Junk Brightens Morning
A fiery object streaked across the sky over much of the East Coast early Thursday, and Navy officials said it was a Russian rocket that re-entered the atmosphere after orbiting Earth since 1975. The SL3 rocket body re-entered the atmosphere shortly before 6 a.m. about 100 miles off Delaware, said Navy Commander Rod Gibbons, a spokesman for the U.S. Space Command at Colorado Springs, Colorado. "The object was not designed to survive re-entry" and likely burned up before any pieces could reach the ground, Gibbons said. The rocket was one of 8,300 man-made objects the center was tracking in space. Some 17,000 such objects have re-entered Earth's atmosphere since the late 1950s, he said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46593,00.html

All-but-secret battle rages over fate of airwaves
Forget Star Wars, the moniker for missile defense, which looms ahead as one of the classic Washington battles, pitting skeptical Democrats in Congress against a determined president and his Republican congressional leaders. It has already received tons of ink and airtime. There is another battle ahead that has been virtually ignored in newspapers and on the airwaves that will dwarf Star Wars. Call it "Spectrum Wars." Here are the basics. The world is moving rapidly toward a new era in telecommunications: the wireless world. Already close to reality in Europe, this new world will integrate cellphones, personal data assistants such as PalmPilots, computers and the Internet, allowing one to communicate with anybody and get instant information from anywhere no matter where one is in the world.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment...5-ncguest1.htm

Official: Bush high-tech policy coming soon
After months of silence, the Bush administration will weigh in "shortly" on a range of high-tech issues ranging from junk e-mail to online privacy, a senior administration official said Wednesday. Nancy Victory, who heads the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the Bush administration has been working on an inclusive policy and would announce its position on several high-tech issues, including proposed limits to the junk e-mail known as spam.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industr...eut/index.html

Scientists score scramjet success
The first ever free-flight of a scramjet - a revolutionary new type of "air-breathing" rocket propulsion - has been carried out by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). The scramjet grabs most of its fuel from the air it rushes through. Mechanically simple - it has no moving parts - it has proved very tricky to develop, chiefly because it only starts to work at speeds above Mach five. The test was of a ten centimetre (four inch) diameter, 20-percent scale model of a conceptual missile fired from a gun. The projectile experienced a peak acceleration of approximately 10,000 Gs, and emerged from the gun at Mach seven.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1528849.stm

Rumble In The (Linux) Jungle
At last week's LinuxWorld Expo, a very different crowd, compared to previous years, gathered at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Sure, the usual gang of pierced and ponytailed geeks and hackers were in attendance, albeit in thinner numbers than at past events. But it was the list of commercial attendees that was perhaps the most telling. A year or so ago, Linux-based start-ups like Red Hat and VA Linux Systems would have been the darlings of the show. But with the stock of each now trading at a paltry fraction of last year's highs, the luster of Linux IPOs has faded.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/expound/

Kids mobile phone ads 'irresponsible'
Advertising campaigns to encourage children to buy mobile phones are "irresponsible", according to Sir William Stewart, who led a working group investigating mobile phone hazards. Speaking at the British Association Science Festival in Glasgow, he said mobile phones should be more expensive to discourage children from using them. There were around 40 million mobile phones in circulation in the UK, he said, but he would not let his own grandchildren use them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_...00/1525676.stm

[walktalker]

Bump

[HellBound]

Disney, News Corp to Launch Internet Video-On-Demand Service, Movies.com

A few weeks ago a group of major Hollywood studios banded together to create an Internet video-on-demand service code-named MovieFly. Now Disney and News Corp are following their lead. On Wednesday the two companies announced they would join forces to offer their own Internet video-on-demand service, called Movies.com. The service will be owned equally by the two companies and managed independently. Customers using the service would be able to download movies onto their home computers or view them through on-demand cable services (Movies.com will stress the latter approach). Movies.com officials plan to draw customers to the service by making films from Disney, Miramax, and 20th Century Fox available exclusively on the site for a limited time. Otherwise, films will become available on Movies.com 45 to 60 days after a film's release in video stores. The service is expected to launch early next year.



Excite@Home Loses Key Cable Partners

More bad news for Excite@Home .... Last Friday two of the company's major cable partners, Comcast and Cox Communications, announced that they would dissolve their relationship with the troubled Internet provider by next summer. The cable companies pointed to Excite@Home's financial uncertainty, with its billion-dollar debt and imminent Nasdaq delisting, as the cause. Until the relationships officially dissolve next June, Excite@Home broadband Net access customers served by Cox and Comcast must wait for a new or updated agreement, or consider other options. AT&T, Excite@Home's largest cable partner, has not announced its plans, other than to say it will continue to offer customers cable Internet access. Meanwhile, Excite@Home is weighing its ever-limited options. On Thursday, its board authorized the company to hire an investment banking firm to oversee potential restructuring scenarios.

Bill Gates Says Broadband “Miracle Environment” is In Peril
Microsoft’s founder and chairman Bill Gates earlier this week said that steep high-speed Internet access rates threaten to limit the adoption of powerful new services which would become available in the next few years. Gates said that the broadband pricing problem is particularly frustrating because it is the one piece of the physical infrastructure of computing which is hindering the creation of a "miracle environment" of new applications which would have been created thanks to ever-increasing computing speed, power, and video-display capabilities. Gates urged government policymakers and the cable and telephone industries jointly to determine what it would take to provide broadband services for $30 a month, instead of the monthly fee of about $50 that consumers currently pay for access through cable lines or enhanced telephone wiring. Most of the nation's densely populated areas have high-speed access available, but such access is used by less than 15 percent of the country. Gates expressed no optimism that the complex problem would be solved soon, even as Congress reviews legislative proposals purporting to address the issue. The telephone industry, for example, has been at war over various regulations that some companies say make it too difficult to recoup the costs of deploying broadband without charging high rates.


HellBound