The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

I'm not newsless

USA Today: Hackers vandalized our site
National newspaper USA Today said Friday that one or more online vandals had posted a fake front page and six phony news stories on its Web site. Network administrators have yet to determine how the vandals compromised the company's Web server Thursday night. The national newspaper has called in local law enforcement to help find out who defaced the site with fake stories. "We are still looking into it and still investigating," said Steve Anderson, director of communications for the McLean, Va., newspaper. The hack puts Gannett-owned USA Today in with a high-profile crowd of victims of media hacks, including The New York Times' site.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-943521.html

Spam blocklists going too far?
Like a growing number of Web surfers, Audrie Krause faces a new uncertainty when she hits the send button on her e-mail these days: Will the message get through? As the head of a political action group, Krause uses members-only e-mail lists to help educate and organize fellow activists. So she was jarred recently when one message bounced back with a note accusing her of spreading unsolicited junk e-mail, or spam. Without warning, Krause's NetAction site had been blacklisted -- an increasingly common occurrence as companies seek to block crushing loads of unwanted e-mail by any means necessary.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-943348.html

Sony chews on smaller Memory Stick
Sony is looking to take a bigger piece of the removable-flash-memory market with a smaller memory card. The consumer-electronics maker announced Friday that it will begin selling a 16MB Memory Stick Duo card in Japan beginning July 20 for around 2,800 yen, or $24. Memory Stick Duo is a smaller version of Sony's removable-flash-memory card format Memory Stick, which is roughly the size of a stick of chewing gum. Both card formats were created as storage options for portable consumer-electronics devices.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-943499.html

Internet fridges -- keeping viruses fresh?
As embedded operating systems become more widespread in household appliances, some security experts are warning that computer viruses could rival salmonella bacteria as the biggest health risk in the new generation of fridges. Eugene Kaspersky, head of antivirus research at Kasperksy Labs, believes that such Internet-enabled appliances will be susceptible to viruses because they are likely to use common operating systems -- in particular Microsoft Windows--and because the manufacturers have little knowledge of software security. These two factors mean that these appliances are much more likely than devices such as mobile phones to be hit by viruses, according to Kaspersky.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-943408.html

Activists to ISPs: Don't be a stoolpigeon
A clutch of civil liberties groups is asking small Internet service providers to get a backbone and stand up to companies seeking to unveil anonymous critics. A group including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Center for Democracy and Technology is urging ISPs to alert customers when they are the targets of so-called John Doe legal actions, which try to unmask the identities of people who anonymously air their companies' dirty laundry. The group has sent letters to more than 100 ISPs, asking them to adopt a written policy promising to let customers know if they're targets.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-943253.html

Microsoft claim shakes graphics world
OpenGL, a widely used cross-platform graphics standard, may be subject to more restrictive licensing following recent claims by Microsoft that it owns patents to technology critical to the specification. While it is as yet unclear how Microsoft intends to pursue its claims, the matter underscores the increasing difficulty of creating high-tech industry standards of all kinds, particularly those that are intended to be widely available and royalty-free. The issue is particularly relevant in Europe, which is debating whether to make software more broadly patentable, as is the case in the United States.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-943111.html

Tech companies chase homeland security
Software companies looking for greener pastures are turning to the red, white and blue. Whether out of heartfelt patriotism in the wake of Sept. 11 or the desire to tap into the nearly $38 billion budgeted for homeland security spending in 2003, many information technology companies that previously paid little attention to government contracts are now going to great lengths to attract government business. "If you put it in the context of commercial spending being down and government spending going up, it seemed to make good business sense to have different things in our portfolio," said Len Pomata, a former defense-contractor executive who was recently hired to head up a new unit created by software maker WebMethods to target federal contracts.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-943469.html?tag=fd_lede

The week in review: Quit copying
If you've ever taped a "Seinfeld" episode or traded music online, Uncle Sam may want you -- to stop. Draft legislation that is winding its way through Congress would sharply limit Americans' rights relating to copying music, taping TV shows and transferring files through the Internet. The first part of their proposal, which would limit backup copies, has drawn objections from academics and nonprofit groups that have reviewed it. Under current copyright law, Americans who record a TV program or radio segment generally may "sell or otherwise dispose of" that analog recording or digital file as they wish.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-943524.html?tag=fd_lede

Judge: See ya later, Gator
A federal judge on Friday ordered software company Gator to temporarily stop displaying pop-up advertising over Web publishers' pages without their permission. The order was issued in a lawsuit filed against Gator in June by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dow Jones and seven other publishers, which allege the company's ads violate their copyrights and steal revenue. On Friday, Judge Claude Hilton granted the motion, according to the clerk's office at the federal court in Alexandria, Va., where the suit was filed. Gator, based in Redwood City, Calif., could not be immediately reached for comment.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-943515.html?tag=fd_top

Broadband: U.K. sees double
Broadband takeup in the United Kingdom has more than doubled since the start of 2002, leading to optimism that the vision of Broadband in Britain is finally becoming a reality. Figures released by the Office of Telecommunications -- the U.K. telecom regulator known as Oftel -- this week show that at the end of June 2002 a total of 709,000 consumers and small and medium-sized businesses had signed up for a broadband connection. This is an increase of some 113 percent compared to the start of the year, when there were only 332,000 broadband subscribers. Both cable broadband and DSL have seen an equally strong boost in demand.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-943447.html?tag=cd_mh

A New Code for Anonymous Web Use
Peer-to-peer networks such as Morpheus and Audiogalaxy have enabled millions to trade music, movies and software freely. A group of veteran hackers is about to unveil a new peer-to-peer protocol that may eventually let millions more surf, chat and e-mail free from prying eyes. Hacktivismo, a politically minded offshoot of the long-running hacker collective Cult of the Dead Cow, will announce the protocol -- called "Six/Four," after the June 4, 1989 massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- in a presentation Saturday at the H2K2 hacker conference in New York City. The group will publish the Six/Four code on its website in early August to coincide with Las Vegas' DefCon security confab.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,53799,00.html

Palladium: Safe or Security Flaw?
What's Palladium? Depending on who you ask, it's either a catalyst to turn silicon into gold for the PC industry, or it's the stuff the black helicopters are made of. Microsoft's recently announced R&D project, which includes chipmakers Intel and AMD as partners, aims to combine software and hardware extensions to traditional PC architecture. Palladium's goal: Move security-conscious applications out of the server room and back onto the Windows desktop, by soothing both consumer fears about privacy and corporate concerns over piracy. The good/bad news: As described, Palladium won't meet most of the hyperbolic claims being made for it.
http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/...,53805,00.html

Europe's New Air War
In December 2001, a letter from Washington arrived at the 15 defense ministries of the European Union. The writer was Paul Wolfowitz, the forthright and hawkish US deputy secretary of defense; the subject was a European satellite system called Galileo; and the tone was far from happy. A planned fleet of 30 satellites dedicated to the broadcast of positioning data, Galileo promises to be an updated European equivalent to the familiar US Global Positioning System, whose signals allow everyone from muddled drivers to overnight hikers to pinpoint their location. Beginning in 2008, Galileo will supplement and improve on the accuracy of existing GPS satellites, serving consumers around the world. In short, Europeans will pay for a new network, while Americans, who use satellite positioning services more than most, will benefit. To Wolfowitz, though, and to many others in the United States, there is more to it than that.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/airwar.html

Video Scratching on M-M-Macs
A couple of years ago, three New York video artists were trying to get their experimental films shown in the city's art galleries and movie festivals, but they didn't like the staid atmosphere these events engender. So they took their movies to raves and nightclubs, and in so doing, they've not only become leading practitioners of the new art of video-scratching, they're finally being invited to perform at festivals and art galleries. Jack Hazard, 27, Bruno Levy, 22, and Richie Lau, 26 -- collectively known as Squaresquare -- are one of the leading U.S. crews scratching and remixing live video.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,53807,00.html

Hmmm, About That Skull Find...
A prehistoric skull touted as the oldest human remains ever found is probably not the head of the earliest member of the human family but of an ancient female gorilla, a French scientist said on Friday. Brigitte Senut of the Natural History Museum in Paris said certain aspects of the skull, whose discovery in Chad was announced on Wednesday, were actually sexual characteristics of female gorillas rather than indications of a human character. Two other French experts cast doubt on the skull as Michel Brunet, head of the archeological team that discovered it, was due to present his findings at a news conference at Poitiers in western France.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,53812,00.html

If You Build It, They Will Drink
Ever drink a building? Described as "an inhabitable cloud whirling above a lake," the Blur Building is a media pavilion constructed for the Swiss Expo 2002 at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. Designed by MacArthur "Genius" award-winners Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio as a temporary structure for the Expo, the pavilion is made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 31,500 fog nozzles, creating an artificial cloud that measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 65 feet high.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,53700,00.html

Polio-Causing Virus Created in N.Y. Lab
Researchers in New York have created infectious polioviruses from ordinary, inert chemicals they obtained from a scientific mail-order house, marking the first time a functional virus has been made from scratch and raising a host of new scientific and ethical concerns. The laboratory-synthesized viruses are virtually identical to the naturally occurring viruses that cause polio, a paralyzing neurological disease. The new viruses proliferated in test tubes and caused polio when injected into mice, according to a report published yesterday. A massive vaccination program sponsored by the World Health Organization aims to rid the world of polio by 2005 and has already eliminated the disease from all but a few countries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002Jul11.html

Homer says hack your DVD player
Homer Simpson, cartoon character and a role model for millions, has been caught telling consumers to hack their DVD players. On the UK website of Simpsons' distributor Fox, Homer advises visitors to get around the copyright restrictions that limit where DVDs can be played. The advice appears in a Q&A section that uses Homer and his daughter Lisa to explain the intricacies of DVDs to visitors. Typically, DVD players are tied to a particular geographical region and may not play discs produced for different areas. The regional system was introduced to help film studios manage the release of movies on disc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/2124345.stm

Astronomers reach the event horizon
Black holes really do imprison matter and light, and sap energy from light that narrowly escapes their grip. Until now, these were only predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity, but astronomers peering at suspected black holes have at last found compelling evidence that this does actually happen. Black hole theory says that if a very large star explodes at the end of its life and leaves behind a core weighing more than about three times the mass of the Sun, the core will collapse to a point under its own gravitational pull. So strong would be the gravity of the resulting "singularity" that it would prevent matter and even light escaping from a region around it bounded by the so-called event horizon.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992527

Light therapy tackles eye injuries
People blinded by light could be treated with more light. Researchers have found that shining near-infrared radiation on damaged retinal cells can keep them alive and prevent permanent blindness. The US Defense Advance Research Projects Agency is funding research into the method and hopes to use it to treat people whose eyes are damaged by lasers. A number of US military personnel, including a helicopter pilot over Bosnia in 1998, have suffered laser eye injuries. If the infrared technique works in people, it could be used to treat a wide range of eye injuries and diseases. And it does not stop there.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992525

'ore news later on

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
I'm not newsless

- tg

[alphabeater]

after only two days i'm starting to wonder how i ever survived without these newspapers...

thanks

[campingman]

Thanks WT

[ab-NORM-al]

thumbs up

yup yup

Fox Rules!