The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

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Microsoft stomps on Media Player bug
Microsoft is warning people that a series of flaws in its Windows Media Player could allow a malicious hacker to hijack people's computer systems and perform a variety of actions. The flaws, found in some anti-piracy and storage features of the software, affect Media Player for Windows XP and Media Player versions 6.4 and 7.1, according to a security bulletin on Microsoft's Web site. The company rates the problems as "critical" -- Microsoft's most severe rating -- and urges people to "immediately" download a patch, which was released Wednesday. The company said the patch would also fix previous problems with the software.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-940063.html

Start-up creates futuristic 3D display
The ideal computer display of today may be flat, but a start-up called Actuality Systems has gazed into the future, and what it has seen looks more like a crystal ball. The Burlington, Massachussetts company, founded in 1997, has been perfecting a type of 3D display with a basketball-sized glass dome that connects to an ordinary workstation to display 3D models and animations. On Tuesday the firm announced its first customer, the Adelphi, Maryland-based US Army Research Laboratory, which carries out research for the U.S. army, the Department of Defense, NASA and other government bodies.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-939996.html

OpenSSH security hole unearthed
A popular open-source program for encrypted communications has a serious flaw that could let Internet attackers slip into servers running the software, said its creators and a security firm this week. The program, Open Secure Shell (OpenSSH), is included in many widely used operating system distributions, such as OpenBSD 3.0, OpenBSD 3.1, and FreeBSD-Current, all open-source variants of the Unix OS. Such operating systems appear on networking equipment and security appliances, among other things.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-939887.html

Opera CEO sings praises of browser
Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner can claim an achievement held by few of his fellow tech entrepreneurs: He's competed head-on against Microsoft and lived to tell the tale. Even more, Opera Software's 34-year-old founder matter-of-factly tells a listener that when it comes to the Web browser market, Bill Gates' company is the latecomer. Opera sells a Web browser that has earned kudos from reviewers and users for its speed and functionality. And unlike Microsoft, Opera has developed versions of its browser for Windows, Macintosh, Symbian and Linux.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-939959.html

Companies crack down on MP3s
Stash those headphones and trash that file-swapping software: Companies are cracking down on employees who use streaming media and swap MP3s at work. Companies increasingly are blocking access to Internet music and video at firewalls and are issuing sweeping initiatives that ban workplace media usage. The trend is a result of two developments: media usage hogging enormous amounts of corporate bandwidth and threats of legal liability as the entertainment industry aggressively pursues copyright scofflaws.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-939797.html

Feds fear all-out cyber-war with Al Qaeda
U.S. government experts, wary of Al Qaeda's skills on the Internet, are concerned that Osama bin Laden's guerrilla network may be planning cyber-attacks targeting nuclear power plants, dams or other critical structures, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. An FBI investigation of suspicious surveillance of key computers discovered "multiple casings of sites'' nationwide, the report said, citing a Defense Department summary of the probe.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-939811.html

Wanna play? Old games get new life
The retro video game craze is taking another step back in time. A programmer and self-avowed fan of classic video games has created software for Pocket PC and Palm handhelds that faithfully re-creates a breed of inexpensive handheld electronic games made popular by Mattel in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In creating LEDhead, software programmer Peter Hirschberg has managed to capture much of the essence of the simple games, which consisted of a few blinking light-emitting diodes (LEDs) moving around a painted screen.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-940066.html?tag=fd_top

Microsoft to make China education push
Software behemoth Microsoft, in its latest effort to bolster its presence in a China market where it has struggled, will announce a series of education-related deals on Thursday, a company representative said. "There will be an announcement tomorrow where Microsoft will be making a significant investment in computer education in China," a Microsoft representative in Hong Kong said Wednesday. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is scheduled to announce the agreements with the Ministry of Education and five Chinese universities on boosting software education in China, according to state media.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-939439.html?tag=cd_mh

Giuliani: ID cards won't curb freedoms
U.S. citizens may need to carry national identification cards someday, but that doesn't need to translate into a loss of fundamental freedoms in the name of safety, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Wednesday. "We need a better way to properly ID people that's more effective (than current means). There's a trade-off we have to make between privacy and the protection of everybody...in society," said Giuliani, following a keynote speech at the E-Gov 2002 conference here. More than 10,000 people are attending the four-day conference, which concludes Thursday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-939499.html

ICANN pledges to fight cybersquatters
The organization that oversees Internet domain names floated two proposals on Thursday to help businesses and individuals fight extortion by speculators, known as cybersquatters. ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said at its quarterly meeting that it was close to adopting a new system to give owners of domain names extra time to renew their contracts and to establish a waiting list for coveted domains that become newly available to the public. The two measures could be ratified by the ICANN board on Friday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939813.html?tag=cd_mh

Overture takes page from Google
Overture Services, a commercial listing search service, has retooled its advertising bidding system as it faces increased competition from Google. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company said Wednesday that it has introduced a new auto-bidding tool that lets advertisers edge out rivals by 1 cent to jump to the top of its listings. The change takes a page from the playbook of search sweetheart Google, which earlier this year introduced auto-bidding technology for keywords that generate ads alongside its mathematical search results. In contrast, Overture allows marketers to vie for keyword placement directly within its search listings, with top bidders also featured in search results on major portals such as Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939623.html?tag=cd_mh

Reality check: Does adware work?
Toyota Motor executives are adamant about respecting their customers' privacy, and they say they won't alienate buyers with Web monitoring and other controversial online marketing tactics. So they were understandably caught off guard when informed by a reporter that some visitors to Ford.com were greeted with a prominent pop-up ad offering to redirect them to Toyota.com, a practice that seemed clearly at odds with the company's stated opposition to aggressive online advertising.
http://news.com.com/2009-1023-938263.html?tag=cd_mh

House bans "morphed" child pornography
The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to restrict computer-generated sex images of minors. The 413-to-8 vote aims to circumvent a recent Supreme Court decision that nixed an earlier ban on "morphed" child pornography. A similar proposal has been introduced in the Senate. With the enthusiastic backing of both Democrats and Republicans, final passage of a bill this year is all but certain. "This bill closes the door left open by the recent Supreme Court decision," Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said at a press conference Tuesday. "I urge the Senate to take action immediately."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939407.html?tag=cd_mh

Lawmaker: Let studios hack P2P nets
A California congressman is preparing a bill that would let copyright owners, such as record labels or movie studios, launch high-tech attacks against file-swapping networks where their wares are traded. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., whose district includes Hollywood territory, said Tuesday that copyright owners needed new legal protections to combat online piracy. Some of the labels' and studios' high-tech techniques for stopping online file traders might be illegal under anti-hacking laws, Berman said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939333.html?tag=cd_mh

Take Two Candies, Call in Morning
Few people enjoy taking medicine, but how about if it came packaged in candy or ice cream? That's what the Brazilian National Association of Magistral Pharmaceutics (Anfarmag) is bringing to Brazil this year. In an official note earlier this month, Anfarmag said that med-candies are the best solution for kids who face problems swallowing pills or just can't stand the taste of some medicine. "Children don't refuse medicine when they taste and are shaped like a lollipop, for example," says Marco Perino, Anfarmag's vice president.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,53143,00.html

Making Those Games Sound Right
Along with an active ear, creative sound design requires multiple visits to the local hardware store looking for just the right equipment. A standard door lock becomes a cocked trigger. Unspooled audiotape becomes foliage. Despite being overshadowed by the much-anticipated online game Galaxies, also due out this year, Bounty Hunter's hardware budget got a boost when the video-game division teamed with Skywalker Sound. Traditionally, the LucasArts sound team worked on video games, while the Skywalker Sound team worked on television and movies. Even Industrial Light & Magic, another Lucas company, has gotten into the act, creating cinematics for the game.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,53156,00.html

Court: 'God' Makes Pledge Illegal
For the first time ever, a federal appeals court Wednesday declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words "under God" added by Congress in 1954. The ruling, if allowed to stand, means schoolchildren can no longer recite the pledge, at least in the nine Western states covered by the court. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the phrase amounts to a government endorsement of religion in violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause, which requires a separation of church and state.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53505,00.html

Breast Cancer Clusters May Start in Childhood
Researchers seeking the environmental triggers of breast cancer may need to look far back into a woman's past, suggests a novel study by geographers and epidemiologists at the University at Buffalo (UB). Where a woman lives at birth and puberty may have an impact on her risk of developing breast cancer later, the team concluded. The researchers compared residential history data provided by women with breast cancer and a control group without cancer in western New York. Using geographic positioning technology, the researchers showed that the women who developed breast cancer were more likely to have lived closer together at birth and at their first menstruation - a concept called clustering - than women who did not develop breast cancer.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-07.asp

Digital characters learn to move
Computer game characters in the future could be truly interactive, reacting to your movements and changes in the virtual environment. Based on prize-winning work carried out largely at Oxford University in the UK, researchers at NaturalMotion have developed a new way of animating virtual characters in games or films. They have created computer characters that use artificial intelligence to learn how to produce their own body motion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/2058040.stm

Researchers to Give Astronauts Computer Confidant
In the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, astronauts had supercomputer Hal 9000 to talk to on long space voyages. Although Hal eventually rose up against its masters, scientists hope a real computer-based system could help astronauts deal with depression and conflicts during extended missions. Scientists with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) are developing an interactive computer system to help manage the social and psychological stresses of long space flights. The system may be adaptable for use on Earth for people living in extreme, or even everyday locations.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...py_020627.html

Magnetic wood blocks mobile phone signals
Magnetic wood could be a major plank in the battle against noisy cellphone users. The high-tech material absorbs microwave radio signals, making it impossible to use a mobile phone in any room lined with it. Or a radio for that matter. So theatres and restaurants, for example, can stop people using cellphones on their premises without resorting to signal jammers. These are illegal in some countries, including the US, Britain and Australia. Jammers also cause wider problems because their signals can spill out of the building they are covering, interfering with other people's calls.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992461

Upstart hopes copy-protection plan sells
Software makers have tried all sorts of heavy-handed measures to prevent illegal copying of their programs, but an Austin, Texas-based start-up thinks stealth is better. Privately held Smarte Solutions is working with software publishers to incorporate its SmarteCD technology into their wares. Unlike existing copy-protection schemes, which prevent CD burners from copying a disk, SmarteCD allows the user to burn a copy of the disc, explained company President Bala Vishwanath. The software can be installed from the bootleg disc and will appear to run normally, until the program reaches a point determined by the software publisher.
http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1040-939714.html

Xbox 'mod' chip gets killed off
One of the companies making Xbox "mod chips" -- add-on components that modify the game machine so it can run illegally copied discs and homemade software -- has gone out of business, possibly because of legal pressure from Microsoft. The information site for Enigmah-X, the second Xbox mod chip to go into commercial circulation, was replaced late Tuesday with a brief message: "After speaking to lawyers we feel that we must not do this project anymore. There are many other chips and methods for guys to play with anyway so have fun and good luck to everyone out there." Enigmah and Microsoft representatives did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
http://msnbc-zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-939663.html

More news later on