The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Linux servers at risk from 'serious' flaw
A vulnerability in the most widely used FTP server program for Linux has left numerous sites open to online attackers, a situation worsened when Red Hat mistakenly released information on the flaw early, leaving other Linux companies scrambling to get a fix out. "Other vendors didn't have a patch," said Alfred Huger, vice president of engineering for network security information provider SecurityFocus. The company has been working with vendors to fix the vulnerability after computer security company Core Security Technologies alerted them to the problem Nov. 14.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Latest tech puts a face to porn victims
The National Crime Squad (NCS) has confirmed that it will be using sophisticated facial-mapping software to identify the children depicted in 60,000 pornographic images obtained through dawn raids on suspected Internet pedophiles. The raids took place on Wednesday morning and were part of the biggest-ever international crackdown on Internet pedophiles. British and Scottish police forces executed search warrants on 12 houses throughout the U.K. at 06:00 GMT, and seized thousands of files containing images of children being abused.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Web apps start-up bets on .Net
A newly funded start-up is taking the wraps off its plans to improve on the hotly contested area of Web-based software, a technology now the focus of plans by Microsoft and other industry heavyweights. Founded by an engineering veteran of Apple Computer and Excite@Home, Laszlo Systems this week secured $1 million in seed financing from General Catalyst and Sofinnova Ventures, which the start-up will use to beef up its development team to complete work on its software.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Microsoft's game: Play the courts
Microsoft may be spending the 12 days of Christmas in court. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is gearing up for a series of important December court and legal-brief filing deadlines that could end many of the software giant's legal woes. The December hearings and legal filings underscore an aggressive strategy by Microsoft to garner at the settlement table what it failed to achieve in court: victory. But settling the cases is only the first step. Microsoft also must get judges to approve the deals. There, say legal experts, the company faces some serious challenges.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Microsoft plays the slots with XP
Microsoft launched on Wednesday a version of its Windows XP operating system for devices such as automated teller machines, cash registers and slot machines. As previously reported, Windows XP Embedded offers hardware makers the opportunity to pick and choose from 10,000 components of the new operating system to help power a range of devices. Among the initial customers of the operating system are Bally's, which is using the software for a new slot machine, and NCR, which will use it in a next-generation ATM. The release comes one month after Microsoft started selling the desktop computer version of Windows XP to consumers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Court upholds ban on DVD-cracking code
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld an order that prohibits publishing or linking to DVD-cracking code -- a decision with sweeping significance for free speech rights and copyright protection on the Internet. The decision for now upholds a controversial law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and prevents Web site 2600 and its publisher, Eric Corley, from posting links to computer code known as DeCSS -- a program that allows DVD movies to be decoded and played on personal computers.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Opera fine-tunes latest browser
Opera Software said it has fixed a security problem in the latest version of its Web browser, which will be officially released Thursday. The updated Opera 6.0 closes a security hole involving JavaScript that allowed malicious programmers to gain unauthorized access to certain files -- the first known security vulnerability associated with the Opera browser, which first appeared in 1996. It also fixes several other issues, including problems accessing Web pages.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Court dismisses free-speech lawsuit
A New Jersey judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit brought against the music industry, saying that threatened legal action didn't keep a computer-science professor from publishing research on anti-copying technology. The judge dismissed charges brought by Princeton University professor Edward Felten, who said legal threats stopped him from publishing a paper outlining the weaknesses in the industry's technologies for protecting digital music.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

High court hears Net porn law challenge
A Bush administration lawyer defended before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday a law aimed at shielding minors from Internet pornography, comparing the restrictions to covers on sexually explicit magazines in bookstores. But a lawyer for a leading civil liberties group said the law violated constitutional free-speech rights, resulting in self-censorship in the marketplace of ideas on the Web. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, the administration's top courtroom lawyer, described the law as a "carefully crafted solution to a desperate problem." The law has yet to be enforced because of court challenges.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Devious viruses set to grow
Malicious viruses that use devious tricks to infect computers are set to become more common in the future. Anti-virus software company Sophos found that the Nimda worm was the most widespread virus this year, even though it first appeared only in September. Sophos also warned that home users were increasingly likely to be the victim of hacker attacks, due to the growth of "always-on" high-speed internet connections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1680578.stm

Unusual information collections reveal our digital subconscious
The experience of getting a bit too much information about strangers online is nothing new -- after all, the personal homepage is one of the oldest traditions in cyberspace. But a handful of odd and beautiful data collections make it possible to search vast amounts of information about thousands of people's inner lives. Refreshingly, given the Internet's hypercommercialism, these databases won't allow you to discover who bought a Sony VAIO within the last five minutes or which Web sites are popular with females ages 14-24.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/bios/

IBM computers picked for cancer research
IBM will supply the University of Pennsylvania and four hospitals with computers that will link into a computing "grid" to check for breast cancer, the company will announce Wednesday. The grid will be used to detect breast cancer in patients, store mammograms in digital form and identify populations that are particularly susceptible, the company said in a statement. The system can be used, for example, to compare a new mammogram to a previous year's image to detect changes.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

IBM to pay $100,000-plus in Linux ad mess
IBM has agreed to pay San Francisco a $100,000 fine and almost $20,000 in related costs to clean up after the company's "Peace, Love & Linux" ad campaign, in which the company's ad firm spray-painted logos on sidewalks and streets around the city. When affirmed by the city's Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Willie Brown, the deal will end a nine-month saga between Big Blue and the Bay Area over the simple stencil of a peace symbol, a heart and a penguin, the official Linux mascot.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Universal to protect U.S. album release
Universal Music Group is less than three weeks away from unveiling one of the first major-label CDs in the United States to prevent Napster-style copying, despite a similar launch in Europe that resulted in numerous customer complaints. A representative for Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi Universal, said the "More Fast & Furious" album, a follow-up to a popular movie soundtrack, will be copy-protected. That prevents consumers from "ripping," or copying, the songs onto their computer hard drives.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Gator stops selling replacement banners
Gator and the Interactive Advertising Bureau say they have suspended their dispute over Gator's software and have agreed to work together as the company develops a new version of its companion pop-up ad. In August, the industry group had said it planned to report privately held Gator to federal agencies, calling the company's practices "unethical and illegal." Critics contended that one of Gator's software products allowed ads to cover up ones already sitting on certain Web sites. The Redwood, City, Calif.-based company had countered with a suit filed in federal court, asking for relief and confirmation that it was not doing anything illegal.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

EU touts flat fee for Net access
The European Commission on Wednesday signaled it was backing the adoption of flat-rate Internet access across the European Union, something that may help increase the number of Europeans who are online. In its seventh yearly report on the state of the European telecommunications sector, the commission said the lack of unmetered Internet access was a major obstacle to greater Internet penetration in the 15-nation bloc.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Bertelsmann's e-commerce chief resigns
Andreas Schmidt, the head of Bertelsmann's e-commerce division, resigned Wednesday to pursue "new entrepreneurial opportunities," the company said. The move was a surprise and marks another setback for the German media giant's Internet efforts. Schmidt played a leading, and often controversial, role in Bertelsmann's expansion into online music. He was a central figure in striking a deal with Napster, giving Bertelsmann an option to take a controlling stake in the music-swapping service. Schmidt also led the company's acquisition of Web retailer CDNow as well as Bertelsmann's $30 million purchase of online music locker Myplay.com in May.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Rio players to feature "Mood" music
Claiming a significant advance in its bid to survive in the increasingly treacherous digital music business, MoodLogic said it will bundle its playlist-generating software with SonicBlue's popular Rio player. San Francisco-based start-up MoodLogic finds itself among dozens of digital music companies fighting an uphill battle. They're all trying to outlast a severe contraction caused by a combination of the general downturn in high-tech fortunes and the protracted legal struggles between the recording industry and Internet ventures.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Sonicblue to launch DVR, despite suit
Consumer electronics maker Sonicblue said Wednesday that it will ship its new digital video recorder this week, despite a lawsuit by the major TV networks alleging the device violates copyright laws. Sonicblue will launch the ReplayTV 4000 digital video recorder, which allows consumers to record programs onto a hard drive and offers the option of pausing live television. In addition, consumers can skip commercials during playback of recorded programs, and some programs can be distributed to other ReplayTV 4000 owners via the Internet.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Toshiba to stop marketing desktops in U.S.
In another sign of hard times in the personal computer industry, the U.S. unit of Japanese electronics company Toshiba will stop marketing desktop personal computers in the United States, according to a report. Irvine, Calif.-based Toshiba America Information Systems is ending a four-year experiment to expand beyond its portable personal computer business, a representative said, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report said the company's reach never went beyond more than 1 percent of the country's desktop PC market since launching its Equium line of machines in March 1997, according to market research.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Thank you mr Newsman - and the first copy is mine!

Originally posted by walktalker
Opera fine-tunes latest browser
Opera Software said it has fixed a security problem in the latest version of its Web browser, which will be officially released Thursday. The updated Opera 6.0 closes a security hole involving JavaScript that allowed malicious programmers to gain unauthorized access to certain files -- the first known security vulnerability associated with the Opera browser, which first appeared in 1996. It also fixes several other issues, including problems accessing Web pages.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Still an excellent security track record for Opera... compare that to IE which has been patched time after time, sometimes on a weekly basis.

- tg