The Newspaper Shop -- Monday & Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Teeheehee

Security: What's going on?
Are we winning the battle against computer viruses and security threats, or getting swamped by an epidemic? Although corporations and individuals are taking more measures to inoculate against computer viruses and online vandals, security experts disagree over whether they're stemming the tide or simply keeping heads above water in the face of a growing number of hackers and ever more virulent code. Assessing the situation is tough, say experts, because of the lack of conclusive data about viruses and their effects.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-819713.html

Netscape hits Microsoft with lawsuit
Netscape Communications, a division of AOL Time Warner, filed suit against Microsoft on Tuesday, claiming that the software giant's business practices have harmed it. The lawsuit is based on court findings that Microsoft's business practices amid the infamous browser wars of the 1990s violated two sections of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. In April 2000 a federal judge ruled that Microsoft used anti-competitive means to thwart browser Netscape. In June 2001, a panel of seven appellate judges upheld eight separate antitrust violations by Microsoft. AOL acquired Netscape in 1999.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-820268.html

DVD players ready for a makeover
To prevent DVD players from becoming victims of their own popularity, manufacturers are starting to combine basic movie playback with more advanced features. Nearly 13 million DVD players were sold in the United States in 2001 -- an increase of 49.5 percent compared with the previous year. Sales are expected to grow another 25 percent in 2002, according to new figures from the Consumer Electronics Association.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-820193.html

AOL says no Red Hat deal
AOL Time Warner said Tuesday that it is not in negotiations that could lead to an acquisition of Linux manufacturer Red Hat. On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that the media giant was near to cutting a deal with Durham, N.C.-based Red Hat in a competitive strike against Microsoft. "The Washington Post story is incorrect," said AOL Time Warner spokesman Andrew Weinstein. "AOL is not in negotiations with Red Hat." A representative for Red Hat declined to comment.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-819761.html

PC users join fight against anthrax
A group of scientists and major technology corporations asked people around the world on Tuesday to use their personal computers to help develop a treatment for anthrax. Members of the Anthrax Research Project, including chip maker Intel, software giant Microsoft, computing services provider United Devices, the National Foundation for Cancer Research and Oxford University, announced the effort in a press release.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-819758.html

Port 12345: Hacker haven or Net X-File?
Increased activity on TCP port 12345 -- best known as both the NetBus Trojan's default port and the port used for a Trend Micro antivirus product -- has the security community arguing about who is responsible. Is it Trend Micro customers who have yet to patch known vulnerabilities, script kiddies looking for an easy hit, or an Internet X-file? A recent increase in port scanning activity on the Internet has centered around Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 12345.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-819807.html

Cell-phone buzz -- a pain in the ear?
Most of the 6 million Americans who use hearing aids can't use a cell phone at the same time. Hearing aid wearers say all they hear are clicks, pings or buzzing when they try to make wireless calls on the nation's digital telephone networks. Sometimes just standing within a few feet of a caller is enough to set their hearing aids buzzing. The reason: The cell phone's circuitry interferes with the operation of their hearing aids, they say.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-820190.html

Pressplay slips onto MP3.com
Pressplay said Tuesday that it has launched its online music subscription service on MP3.com, whose technology division provides a blueprint for the Pressplay service. Pressplay, a joint venture between Sony and Vivendi Universal, said MP3.com joins MSN, Roxio and Yahoo as affiliates of the online music service. Vivendi, which said in August that it had acquired MP3.com and would use the online music company's technology to digitally distribute various content, has long been expected to offer Pressplay on the MP3.com site.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-820271.html

Gateway enters "EverQuest" world
Gateway has found a new ally in its quest to convince consumers to upgrade their PCs: a half-man, half-tiger beast that wields a mean sword. The struggling PC maker announced Tuesday a partnership with Sony Online Entertainment and chipmaker Intel to sell PCs optimized for the Sony online game "EverQuest." Under the promotion, customers who buy a Gateway PC with an Intel Pentium 4 processor and one of two versions of packaged "EverQuest" software will receive several months of free access to the game's online service.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-820195.html

Microsoft reshuffles UltimateTV, cuts jobs
Microsoft confirmed Tuesday that it is restructuring its UltimateTV group and will eliminate one-third of the 500 positions within it. The UltimateTV service, which offers digital video recording and Web surfing via DirecTV's satellite television network, was launched about a year ago and is part of Microsoft's larger television strategy. The service will continue to be available after the restructuring, Microsoft said. The reorganization means that UltimateTV will no longer be a part of the Microsoft TV division and will become a part of a new television services group within Microsoft's MSN division, according to the company.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-819763.html

Amazon settles music patent dispute
Amazon.com has agreed to settle a patent infringement suit brought against it by digital music company Intouch Group, setting a potentially costly precedent for other companies distributing music online. In a confidential agreement, Amazon and Intouch settled a lawsuit pending against the Internet retailer. Remaining defendants are Liquid Audio, Listen.com, DiscoverMusic and Entertaindom, a now-defunct unit of AOL Time Warner's Warner Music Group.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-820008.html

Future in your hand
A hi-tech glove that tracks hand movements could change the way we use computers. The P5 glove, developed by Essential Reality, can replace the keyboard and mouse, letting you control your computer by just moving your hand and fingers in space.
The idea of virtual gloves has been around for a while, but in the past, they have been awkward to use, impractical and often expensive.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1768818.stm

A new wave
Before 1948, the world was analogue. Then Claude Shannon, a mathematician at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey who was famous for unicycling around the corridors of that august institution, realised that words, pictures and sounds could be represented and transmitted using streams of ones and zeros. The conversion of analogue to digital was the start of the information revolution, and Shannon's way of doing it — a technique known as uniform sampling — has not changed much since then. Until now.
http://www.economist.com/science/dis...tory_ID=939889

How GPS Gets the Taxi to You Faster
Traveling by taxicab in San Francisco can be downright maddening. In New York, one of the legions of cabs circling every block can be had with just a flick of the wrist. But in SF, unless you're catching a cab from downtown or the airport, you might stand for 20 freezing-cold minutes or more on a street corner before even catching a glimpse of one. Even if you make a phone call, there's no guarantee your cab will actually arrive on time or at all. At least one taxi company in SF, however, has taken a giant leap toward ensuring the timely arrival of its cabs.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/local/

Hacker-millionaire suspected of fraud
A flamboyant German millionaire who offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden is himself being hunted for fraud, his lawyer and prosecutors say. Kim Schmitz, a 28-year-old former hacker who made millions of dollars advising on computer security, was detained at the Bangkok, Thailand, airport Saturday at the request of German authorities in connection with 11 counts of insider dealing. "As far as I know, it's about investment fraud and insider dealing," Schmitz's lawyer, Thomas Pfister, told Reuters.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-820141.html?tag=cd_mh

Ads on phones get people shopping
Product marketing via SMS (Short Messaging Service) directly to mobile phones can substantially boost sales, according to the findings of a test project done in Sweden. The project, called e-Street and presented Tuesday, grouped 2,500 volunteers in the northern Swedish city of Lulea, who agreed to receive SMS messages on special offers or bargains from some 150 local companies and test services that content providers need to try out and fine-tune before offering to the wider public. Each mobile phone user could decide what messages he or she wanted to receive by changing their individual profile via the Internet.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-820085.html?tag=cd_mh

A picture-perfect future for phones?
Sales of mobile phones equipped with a camera will outpace those of digital cameras in a few years as high-tech messaging services take off, telecom equipment maker Nokia said Tuesday. "In a few years, the number of mobile phones with a camera will exceed the number of sold digital cameras," Nokia's head of mobile phones Matti Alahuhta said in a speech at a the Comdex technology fair in the southern Swedish city of Gothenburg.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-820037.html?tag=cd_mh

Pope speaks of Net's goods and ills
The Internet caters to the best and worst of human nature and needs regulation to stop depravity flooding cyberspace, Pope John Paul said Tuesday. The 81-year-old pontiff, who last year sent his first message over the Internet, praised it as a "wonderful instrument" that should be used to spread the word of God and encourage global peace. However, he warned that while it offered access to immense knowledge, the Internet did not necessarily provide wisdom and could easily be perverted to demean human dignity.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-819935.html?tag=cd_mh

Kazaa sells software; downloads proceed
Dutch Internet file-sharing company Kazaa, which is facing a copyright lawsuit, on Monday said it had sold its Kazaa.com Web site and software to privately held Australian company Sharman Networks. Along with the sale, Kazaa said Sharman will once again make publicly available the Kazaa media software, which lets people search and download music and video files. On Jan. 17, Kazaa said it suspended downloads of the popular software, pending a decision in a copyright lawsuit filed against it in a Dutch court. But people who already had the software were still able to swap files.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-819619.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

Mendocino, CA: Microwave Hot
Arthur Firstenberg moved from New York City to Mendocino, a quaint Victorian village on California's rugged Northern Coast, to escape the radio frequencies he believes were making him sick. The 51-year-old says he is "electrically sensitive," meaning he believes he can detect, and is harmed by, the electromagnetic fields emitted by everything from hair dryers to power lines. Firstenberg is one of a growing number of people around the globe who claim they suffer from the same condition. And since wireless technology burst onto the scene in the mid '90s, they say, there are fewer and fewer places to hide from radio frequency pollution.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,49841,00.html

MS Refocuses on Software Pirates
Software pirates, long ignored by everyone but the software industry and those in search of cheap or free software, are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of government and law enforcement officials. Software pirates are now being arrested en masse. Pirates are also accused of using the proceeds of their software sales to fund terrorist organizations and organized crime, and of impairing their home countries' ability to participate in foreign trade and investment markets.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49856,00.html

Data Firm Exposes Records Online
Choicepoint, a database firm that sells information about individuals and companies to clients, including the FBI and insurance firms, left an internal corporate database viewable to anyone with a Web browser, the company confirmed. A Choicepoint spokesman characterized the exposed databases as "administrative" and said that data gathered on behalf of Choicepoint's clients -- such as background screens, pre-employment drug tests, military history checks and insurance fraud investigations -- were never exposed during the security gaffe.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,49893,00.html

Is Bush's Fuel Cell Plan Hot Air?
Earlier this month, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said the Bush administration is junking the existing plan to improve fuel efficiencies, and would instead focus on developing "hydrogen as a primary fuel for cars and trucks." But while experts laud the positives in zero-emission fuel-cell vehicles, some of those same critics argue that the administration's plan bets heavily on technology of the future while paying little attention to the urgent need to reduce oil consumption now. Some predict that the Bush plan would do nothing to stop America's increasing dependence on foreign oil for at least a decade, probably more.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,49834,00.html

1-900 Numbers Going AT&T-away
AT&T is bailing out of a major part of the pay-for-service telephone business, dealing a serious blow to psychics, sex lines and other companies that use 900 numbers. "This could be the final death knell for the 900 business," said Ed Lavergne, a Washington lawyer who has worked with the telecommunications industry. AT&T stopped providing billing services for new 900 customers as of Jan. 1, and will discontinue billing for all such numbers on Dec. 31. The decision was primarily a financial one, said AT&T spokeswoman Jean Hurt. "The market has kind of changed," she said.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49927,00.html

How to Translate 'Free' to 'Fee'
Informing your freeware users they have to pay sounds like a test to see how fast they can disappear. Not so, found point-and-click translation startup Babylon, which saw a 20 percent "user conversion rate" to payware. Babylon's story is a familiar one, as software companies continue to move from free to fee. And while the lessons may be specific to this particular company, Babylon's story is an interesting peek into today's Internet environment.
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,49646,00.html

FTC Moving To Restrict Telemarketers
The Federal Trade Commission today plans to propose new rules for reducing the annoyance of unwanted telephone solicitations as it begins to push for the establishment of a national "do-not-call" registry. With a registry, people could make a single call to get their names removed from many telemarketing lists. The agency is also expected to propose that telemarketers be barred from blocking any identifying information from caller-ID equipment so people would be able to know who is calling.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173813.html

‘Sucks’ sites to be doled out for free
Cyber-gripers, take heart. You and your “ThisCompanySucks.com” Web site have a patron. Free speech lawyer Ed Harvilla is worried that too many “sucks” domains have been taken away from owners and given to their target companies. So he and some silent partners have developed a system to dole out “sucks” Web sites — and he’s given them away for free.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/691648.asp?0si=-&cp1=1

Software can spot digital deceivers
Careful when composing your CV and sending it off to potential employers, they could be using software to spot if you are stretching the truth about your achievements. A US company has developed a program that is said to be able to sift through text to spot when people are lying or confused about facts. The software works by spotting the changes in writing style that emerge when someone is concealing the truth.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1775020.stm

Hitting the Natural-Gas Jackpot
Compared to oil, natural gas is so abundant it’s staggering. Proven petroleum reserves are good for another one trillion barrels or so. At today’s rate of consumption, they will last about 40 years. Add in oil reserves thought to exist but still undiscovered, and the timeline stretches out some 160 years. Known reserves of natural gas, which is composed mainly of the simple hydrocarbon methane, will last for about 50 years at today’s consumption rate.
http://www.techreview.com/articles/voss0102.asp

Canadian Authority Tries Again To Release Expired Domains
Canadian companies and individuals will be able to make a second attempt Thursday to snap up likely looking Internet addresses from among the first-ever batch of monikers to expire under the regime now responsible for the country's ".ca" domains. Many would-be domain name registrants had been jostling late Jan. 17 for some 20,000 ".ca" domains that previous owners had decided not to renew. However, the release of the expired domains - marking a little more than a year since the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) began managing the ".ca" databases - was cut short by a technical glitch.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173838.html

27% Of U.S., Canadian Banking Databases Breached
Twelve percent of online corporate databases suffered security breaches in 2001, and those of banking and financial institutions were most commonly targeted, a survey of database developers has found. More than one fourth - 27 percent - of banking and financial services databases were breached, according to an Evans Data Corp. survey of 750 database developers in the U.S. and Canada conducted in December. Such problems were reported by 18 percent of those working in the medical/healthcare field and the telecommunications industry.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173832.html

German Federal Employees Must Use Digital Signatures
In an effort to encourage use of e-signatures in industry, the German federal government said it will require 200,000 of its workers to use digital signatures when signing government contracts. The measure will include government contracts that can be carried out online, according to a regulation passed into law by the Bundeskabinett on Jan. 18. The move is the first step in a program called "BundOnline 2005," named after the year in which the German government intends, as much as possible, to make its operations "transparent and accessible."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173827.html

More news later on

[walktalker]

BUMP

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
BUMP

And a well justified bump that is!

Thanks again WT - time to start reading the news!

- tg