The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Weeeeee time to get hot news

Microsoft tests biz-friendly IM
Microsoft is betting businesses are quickly developing a taste for instant messaging and digital media functions, long held as the domain of consumers. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates alluded to the new features in his Comdex keynote speech Sunday night when he revealed that the company will release Windows .Net Server Beta 3 later this month. But there is a catch: For now, at least, many of the most compelling features will be available only when .Net Server is used with the Windows XP operating system.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Windows XP -- a hit or a miss?
Despite some misgivings about Windows XP, many early buyers say they have been pleasantly surprised by what they see in the new operating system. Several respondents to an informal poll by CNET News.com said Microsoft has not delivered such a compelling upgrade since Windows 95. But the chorus of enthusiasm included some off-notes as well, with some of the early adopters warning consumers to upgrade later or skip it altogether. For those giving XP the thumbs-down, Microsoft's new Product Activation mechanism and hardware and software compatibility problems dominated their complaints.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Dell sells out of 2GHz Pentium PCs
Consumers looking to buy 2GHz Pentium 4 PCs this fall may find the going a little on the slow side. Recently, Dell Computer stopped taking orders for Dimension 8200 desktop PCs and other systems that include the 2GHz Intel processor, and this past weekend it pulled the chip from its Web site "configurator," through which consumers can pick and choose the features they want for a given system. A Dell spokesman, citing strong demand, said the company sold out of 2GHz Pentium 4 chips, but he stopped short of calling the lack of availability a shortage.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Big Blue picks Linux for clusters
IBM has begun selling Linux servers grouped into "clusters," which share workloads and ensure computing is completed even if a single server crashes. Clustering is a notoriously difficult problem that usually takes years to solve, as companies such as Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have learned when trying to reproduce the clustering expertise Compaq Computer developed with its OpenVMS and Tru64 operating systems. Clustering is also difficult to install and run, leading to only a gradual adoption.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Palm, Panasonic plug flash memory
Handheld computing leader Palm and electronics conglomerate Panasonic announced Tuesday that they would offer free Secure Digital media cards with the purchase of select products. The move is meant to encourage the proliferation of the storage format, facing stiff competition from established formats such as CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Smart Media and Multimedia Card. Secure Digital is a postage stamp-size flash memory format developed by Panasonic, SanDisk and Toshiba for use in devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players, handhelds and cell phones.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Consortium to set cell phone standards
The world's largest wireless handset manufacturers and leading wireless carriers unveiled plans on Monday to ensure compatibility between mobile phones and services by agreeing standards for deploying new networks. Aiming to spur growth of the wireless phone market, the consortium plans to standardize technology to make it easier to develop and broadly deploy new services and to avoid proprietary systems.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Sites keep tabs on copy-protected CDs
A handful of Web sites are popping up to report sightings of copy-protected CDs, and already it's clear that there is far more confusion than solid information. The sites, located in the United States and United Kingdom, are part of a swelling consumer backlash to record companies' experimentation with CDs that can't be copied or turned into MP3 files. Although few of these CDs have been definitively identified in the United States, several high-profile releases in Europe have sparked a higher level of public controversy there.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Analysts: Harry Potter magic could vanish
Harry Potter's magic may give shares of AOL Time Warner a boost ahead of the highly anticipated U.S. opening of the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," but some analysts cautioned investors about being swept up in the spell. The Internet and media giant likely has a megahit on its hands with the movie, based on J.K. Rowling's popular books that feature Harry and his adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, analysts said. The movie, which will debut in the United States on Friday, opened to rave reviews in London, where it premiered last week.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Man fined for putting fake news online
The ex-securities dealer who posted a fraudulent news release on the Internet that said Singapore Exchange-listed Venture Manufacturing was being taken over was fined nearly $44,000. Kenneth Chan Yen Yau had doctored an earlier news release by U.S.-based Celestica, saying it was taking over Venture, a locally based contract manufacturer. This came after Celestica's earlier purchase of Omni Industries, another local contract manufacturer. He posted the fake news release on a ShareInvestor.com forum Sept. 5 under the pseudonym Jerrysoh.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=cd_mh

DoubleClick drops European media unit
DoubleClick said Tuesday it was selling its money-losing European media sales business to German rival AdLink Internet Media in a cash deal valued at $26.9 million (30.5 million euros) that aims to help the company move into the black. The move comes amid growing speculation that the New York-based online advertising pioneer might exit the media business to focus on e-mail marketing and ad-serving technology, as it contends with an advertising slump.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Net ad slump rolls over the globe
Online advertising in the United Kingdom fell 10 percent in the second quarter, its second straight quarter-on-quarter decline, according to a report released Tuesday. According to the latest quarterly report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) U.K., the British online ad market dipped to $61.8 million (42.8 million pounds) from $68.4 million in the first quarter. The decline largely was attributed to reduced online ad spending by information technology and telecommunications companies, traditionally the most aggressive spenders, the report said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Game machines a welcome relief to retailers
The back-to-back debut of new video game consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo is expected to fuel strong sales of home entertainment products, as jittery Americans opt to spend more time at home after the Sept. 11 attacks, analysts said Monday. The launch of Microsoft's Xbox on Thursday and Nintendo's GameCube three days later could even help lift third- and fourth-quarter profits for some of the nation's top consumer electronics stores, they said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=ch_mh

ISPA backs UK anti-terrorism laws
The Government has published its anti-terrorism Bill designed to tighten up security in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US. In a series of far reaching measures, the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill intends to cut-off terrorists' access to funds and prevent them from abusing immigration and asylum laws. It also plans to tighten-up security at airports, civil nuclear sites and at laboratories holding stocks of potentially dangerous substances such as anthrax.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/22810.html

Four in five corporate emails are junk
A service which helps employers to assess how their email policies comply with business needs and legal requirements is launched today. The operator of the Email Auditing Programme (EAP), security consultancy Peapod, reckons that up to four in five corporate emails are junk. In trials of the new service, Peapod found one firm where just 21 per cent of email traffic was work-related. Similar findings were reported with other beta customers - pointing to businesses paying a heavy price for non-productive email use, Peapod claims.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/22806.html

Open Source alive and well at O'Reilly P2P conference
The second annual O'Reilly P2P Conference, once delayed because of the 11 September terrorist attacks, went off this week in Washington DC, as a smaller affair but with keynotes from a congressman urging attendees to lobby for their fair-use rights and several companies showing off their Open Source visions for peer-to-peer. Those who have attended many conferences over the years are well aware keynote speeches can often be some of the worst talks of a conference, but this was not the case at O'Reilly P2P.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22802.html

Bush, Putin to reduce nuclear stockpile
Nuclear weapons stockpiles are due to be slashed at summit talks President Bush is holding with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both leaders have concluded they have far too many deadly warheads in the post-Cold War era. If any suspense remained before Putin called at the White House it was whether the cutbacks would be mandated in an agreement between the two leaders or be declared by them without a formal accord of the type Bush's advisers scorn as products of outdated bureaucratic haggling of a now-distant era.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/...mtg/index.html

Afghan residents celebrate with banned music, shaving
Freshly shaven men rubbed their faces, celebrating their new freedom from Taliban rules. An old man danced in the street, holding a small tape recorder blaring music. The Taliban -- who had banned music, ordered men to wear beards and ruled Afghanistan with a harsh brand of Islamic law -- were gone from Afghanistan's capital. "We are free!" shouted Noor Mohammed, as he danced with the tape player pressed to his ear.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/...ate/index.html

October U.S. Internet use grew 15%
Internet use in the U.S. grew 15% in October to a record 115.2 million people, in what analysts said was a welcome sign of the new medium’s growth despite harsh economic times. The number of individual users in October compared with 100.3 million during the same month a year earlier, according to estimates expected to be released Tuesday by Nielsen//NetRatings, the online measurement service owned by NetRatings Inc. of Milpitas, Calif. The year-over-year growth rate itself is well off the 35% jump recorded in October 2000, before the economic slump deepened and some start-ups and old-line companies were still heavily marketing their Web efforts.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/656926.asp?0dm=C13MT

More news later on