The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

I'm a paper maniac

Intel 'hyperthreading' doubles chip power
Intel showed off a new chip technology Tuesday that, if successful, will allow one chip to act like two. Called "hyperthreading," the new technology essentially takes advantage of formerly unused circuitry on the Pentium 4 that lets the chip operate far more efficiently -- and almost as well as a dual-processor computer. With it, a desktop can run two different applications simultaneously or run a single application much faster than it would on a standard one-processor box. "It makes a single processor look like two processors to the operating system," said Shannon Poulin, enterprise launch and disclosure manager at Intel. "It effectively looks like two processors on a chip."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Afraid of worms? Get a firewall
Home PC users are starting to catch on that surfing the Net requires a certain level of protection, security software makers say. "Folks are starting to see that firewalls are as important as antivirus," said Tom Powledge, group product manager for Symantec. "I think there is, for many, a sense of urgency." On Tuesday, Symantec announced the latest release of its Norton Internet Security suite. Included in the software package are a personal firewall that blocks unwanted scans, an application sandbox that notifies people when an unauthorized application attempts to send data out to the Net, and the company's flagship antivirus program. Overkill? Not these days, said Gregor Freund, CEO of ZoneLabs, which gives away its personal firewall ZoneAlarm for free.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Gator sues to protect ad technology
A software company at the center of a growing dispute over the use of pop-up ads has sued the Interactive Advertising Bureau to protect its right to sell ads that can cover those on other Web sites. Gator, based in Redwood City, Calif., filed a lawsuit late Monday in California federal court against the IAB to "protect the right to utilize Gator's newest advertising vehicle, the Companion Pop-up Banner." Gator's service delivers pop-ups that can obscure banner ads sold on some Web pages. The IAB, which represents several major content sites that rely on ad revenue, has been sharply critical of Gator's software.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

MS patents may threaten open source
Members of the open-source community are becoming increasingly concerned by ongoing moves from Microsoft Corp. to acquire a range of software patents that the company can potentially use down the line to attack and try to restrict the development and distribution of open-source software. And much of that concern is being directed toward open-source desktop company Ximian Inc.'s Mono Project, an open-source initiative to replace part of Microsoft's .Net product line, including a way to run C# programs and the .Net Common Language Infrastructure on Linux. Leading the charge is Bruce Perens, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s open-source and Linux strategist who helped to craft the Debian Social Contract, which later became the Open Source Definition.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

XP: A shot in the arm for PCs?
Windows XP will help pull the PC market out of its tailspin in 2002, as the new operating system will give consumers plenty of reasons to upgrade, according to one of Microsoft's key executives. "The timing is incredibly good for the PC industry right now," Jim Allchin, group vice president at Microsoft, said during a speech at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday. "We should have a very good next year, and when I say we, I mean the industry." Yet analysts and Windows XP beta testers have been less than enthusiastic about the operating system's prospects.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Game critics slam violent 'mods'
Jack Davis enjoys playing computer games, writing software and drawing pictures of AK-47 machine guns. But the 16-year-old's penchant for combining the three hobbies puts him in the crossfire of an emerging battle between the electronic-game industry and children's advocates. Davis is part of a cottage industry of gamers who write "mods," or software modifications, which add features to computer games and are posted on the Web. In Davis's case that means designing 3-D pictures of guns and hostages to embellish a popular and extremely violent shooter game called Unreal Tournament. And therein lies the controversy. Mods are a growing phenomenon that game producers encourage because good mods help build a fan base for a game.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Musicians befriend IM buddies
Lindsay Pagano, a wunderkind whose first full-length album will be released by Warner Bros. Records this fall, is hoping that instant messaging can help propel her to the top of the charts. On Tuesday, the record label launched a specialized chat buddy on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to answer questions about Pagano's upcoming album, lyrics and inspiration. "Lindsay is an IM fan and user herself, so it makes sense to have her interact with her new fans through this medium," Betty Lin, Warner Bros. senior manager for new media, said in a statement. Pagano may be the first teenager with a self-branded IM agent, but not the first musician. Earlier this summer, Capitol Records introduced a first-of-its-kind instant chat buddy for fans of the popular band Radiohead, promoting its latest album to stellar response. Now Warner Bros. is following suit, a further sign that major record labels hope to grab music fans where they live online.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Search start-ups seek Google's throne
Web darling Google has some fresh competition: a pair of start-ups aiming to improve on its immensely popular recipe for serving fast, relevant search results untainted by pay-for-placement listings. New Jersey-based Teoma went live with a test version, or beta, in June. Another newcomer, California-based Wisenut, launched this month. Both shamelessly imitate Google in several ways, such as sporting stripped-down Internet sites and touting proprietary technology for ranking the significance of billions of pages that make up the World Wide Web. All three companies also have refused to follow a recent trend of selling placement within search results to advertisers -- a practice that has created enviable Web profits at companies such as GoTo.com but sparked complaints from consumer advocates.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_pr

Microsoft releases Explorer 6.0
The latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, made available for free download Monday, is drawing protests because it doesn't support two rival products commonly used on Web sites. Internet Explorer 6.0 will not automatically support the embattled Java programming language or Netscape-style "plug-ins," though users and developers will have tools to make the browser compatible with those products. Microsoft decided to drop support for the plug-ins -- additional software that let users play music, watch videos or perform other tasks -- in favor of Microsoft technology called ActiveX. Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said the move was for increased security.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

MIT sues Sony over digital TV patents
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing Sony Electronics, claiming that the consumer products giant is infringing on four patents used in digital television. In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, MIT asks a judge to order Sony to stop infringing on its patents and to pay damages for alleged past infringements. "MIT has been, and will continue to be, seriously damaged and irreparably injured unless Sony is enjoined by this court," MIT asserted in its lawsuit. Earlier, MIT won concessions by taking similar actions against two other consumer electronics companies, Sharp and Toshiba America. MIT spokesman Robert Sales said those lawsuits were dismissed after MIT entered into licensing agreements with the companies.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

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