The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Lindows tightens Windows connections
Lindows, the software start-up offering a consumer-friendly version of the Linux operating system, announced a new version of its software Wednesday. Version 2.0 of Lindows includes enhanced networking features for connecting with Windows-based PCs, support for more than 800 printer models and a streamlined interface similar to the Windows desktop. The new version also has enhanced support for laptop PCs, including power management features and tools for configuring wireless networking cards. Lindows was started two years ago by Michael Robertson, former head of digital music pioneer MP3.com. The company, which quickly ran into legal trouble with Microsoft, initially promised to offer a version of Linux that would run some of the most popular Windows applications.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-958474.html

Biometric tests uncover passport fraud
The Australian government is poised to crack down hard on identity fraud amid indications trials of biometric technology are already unveiling instances of individuals illegally securing multiple passports. Sources close to the trial indicated testing of the biometric technology against Passport Australia's existing database of passport information has yielded instances whereby an individual's unique facial biometric has been identified as occurring in more than one stored passport. The sources said this indicated individuals may have applied for and been issued multiple passports fraudulently.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-958422.html

Chipset could give sight to the blind
A long-held hope could be approaching reality, as researchers in the United States get closer to an eye implant designed to restore sight to the blind. Researchers at Sandia National Labs have developed the Multiple-unit Artificial Retinal Chipset, which sits inside the eye. It is aimed at those suffering from macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, where the light-sensitive cells on the retina stop working but the nerves survive. The project, which is funded by a $9 million, three-year grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research, is a collaboration between U.S. national research labs and universities.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-958402.html

Red Hat broadens desktop push
Red Hat will try to reach closer toward mainstream computer users with its next version of Linux, Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said Tuesday. The coming version 8 of Red Hat's software, expected to be announced next week, will have an easier interface to make the software appeal more to home and school users, Szulik said. For example, the software installation process now adds a "personal desktop" option that will "create a system ideal for home or desktop use," according to Red Hat. "We will introduce Linux to a user population that we have historically been unable to reach," including home and school users, Szulik said in a conference call Tuesday while discussing the company's financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2003, which ended Aug. 31. In an interview, though, Szulik was cautious, saying he expects the new version to appeal only to a subset of the mainstream computer user population.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-958342.html

Label to identify copy-protected CDs
A music industry group has proposed a logo to identify CDs that include anti-copying features, saying the feature could help allay consumer concerns over the technology. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) on Tuesday announced that the optional logo, which would appear either as part of the CD's cover artwork or as a sticker, would help customers know that they are purchasing CDs with technology that prevents the discs from being digitally copied or downloaded. "The new, optional logo will be of practical help to record companies and retailers in informing consumers that a CD carries some form of copy control," IFPI CEO Jay Berman said.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-958353.html

Trade group blasts copyright owners
After months of making low-key complaints, a consumer electronics maker trade group on Tuesday launched a bitter attack on record labels' and movie studios' anti-piracy campaigns. In a speech given at a storage technology conference in San Francisco, Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro blasted the copyright owners' "scorched earth" legal and policy drives. He also warned policymakers against passing new legislation without serious scrutiny of labels' and movie studios' claims. "The entire theme of the copyright community is that downloading off the Web is both illegal and immoral," Shapiro said, according to the text of his speech. "It is neither."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-958324.html

Microsoft to help track mobile workers
Microsoft and AT&T Wireless on Wednesday will show off a new service that will let businesses use cell phones to track the location of workers on the road, such as taxi drivers or express couriers, and more efficiently route them to customers. At the DEMOmobile 2002 conference in La Jolla, Calif., Microsoft will demonstrate new server software, tentatively called the Microsoft Enterprise Location Server, that connects Microsoft .Net software services with AT&T Wireless' next-generation network. It is the first product developed by the two technology giants since they formed an alliance in July. The partnership spans three areas: getting Microsoft software onto new devices, simplifying access to corporate information over wireless devices and enabling location-based services.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-958384.html?tag=fd_top

DVD groups agree to disagree
The two industry groups fighting to set a rewritable DVD standard are showing no interest in working together, but technology tricks and behind-the-scenes talks could inch the sides toward a compromise. The DVD+RW Alliance, an industry group promoting one of the chief DVD recording formats, came away from a quarterly meeting last week resolving to hold its ground in the standards fight. The DVD Forum, which promotes the DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM formats, doesn't appear to be budging, either. A number of companies, though, are working on products to get around the format showdown. Consumer electronics giant Sony Electronics announced two new drives that will be able to read and write to both DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html?tag=fd_top

Japan's Cell-Phone-Free Zone
How come, I asked a Japanese businessman on the train from Tokyo to Yokohama the other day, everyone on the street seems to be talking on cell phones, while nobody uses the phones on the train? Japan is mobile-phone crazy. Scores of different models of handsets are on sale here, in a dizzying array of colors and styles. Phones dangle from wrists, peek out of handbags and shirt pockets, and perch on tables in coffee shops and restaurants. But on the trains, which are used by millions of people each day, they're almost invisible. "It's impolite," the businessman explained. "When people get on the trains, they are asked to turn off their phones.
http://www.fortune.com/ontech/20020916.html

PC squeeze means DVDs for the masses
Budget PC buyers could land a once-luxury DVD burner as computer makers use lower prices to chase sales ahead of the holiday season. Recordable DVD drives earlier this year were sold as a high-end retail item found only in top-notch desktops. But by this holiday season, consumers will likely be able to find the same high-end technology in machines that sell for as low as $1,000. Weak PC sales and the ever-troubled economy may push companies to offer new PCs -- even high-end models with DVD burners -- at bargain prices. Amid a dismal sales season, a $1,000 PC with a DVD+RW drive "might be a compelling-enough reason to get people out to buy," said Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Techworld.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-958287.html?tag=cd_mh

Sun expands StarOffice giveaway
Sun Microsystems will give away its StarOffice software to ministries of education in Europe and Africa, the company is expected to announce Tuesday, in an effort to undermine rival Microsoft. "Sun is committed to giving the global education community access to the StarOffice productivity suite at no cost," Kim Jones, vice president of global education and research, said in a statement. If each copy of the software were purchased separately, the value of the deal would be more than $5.7 billion, Sun plans to announce. Sun in March donated StarOffice to China's ministry of education earlier this year. That deal, plus similar ones with Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chile, meant that about 200 million students could use StarOffice, Sun said. The new deals could add about 24 million students to the total.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-958165.html?tag=cd_mh

MSN 8 to foist fees on outsiders
Microsoft this week plans to move one step closer to launching MSN 8, a major overhaul of its online service that for the first time will charge people who use an alternative Internet service provider. The company expects to release the second testing version to preselected testers as early as Tuesday. MSN 8 Beta 2, which is feature complete, sports new parental controls and e-mail spam filtering, among other features. The software giant has yet to announce a release date for the finished product or pricing for non-Microsoft ISP users, although MSN product manager Lisa Gurry said it plans to charge less than $14.95, rival America Online's fee for its "Bring Your Own Access" service. She added that Microsoft does not plan to raise current dial-up or broadband MSN monthly rates.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-958302.html?tag=cd_mh

Pioneer DVD drives too hot to handle
Pioneer Electronics said Tuesday that its DVD-rewritable drives overheat when recording on certain high-speed disks.
Representatives from Pioneer Electronics USA, based in Long Beach, Calif., said that writing to blank 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW discs can cause its DVD-rewritable PC drives and DVD recorders to freeze. If the drives or recorders remain frozen for longer than five minutes, the optical lens, which writes to the discs, can overheat and render the hardware inoperable. To fix the problem, a user must download new software that can manage the system's hardware. The update is available on the Pioneer Web site. Owners can also have a disc with the fix mailed to them by calling 1-800-421-1623.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958251.html?tag=cd_mh

Bird's-Eye View of What Irks Bush
While diplomats and generals debate what should be done if Iraq has acquired weapons of mass destruction, a website run by a tiny Virginia nonprofit is giving ordinary citizens a glimpse of what may be Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical and nuclear arms-making facilities. By publishing its analysis of commercial satellite pictures, GlobalSecurity.org is doing more than educating the Internet-going public. The group is beginning, in minute ways, to affect the moves of world players as well. Earlier this month, for example, GlobalSecurity.org posted pictures of the Tuwaitha nuclear complex, 25 miles southeast of Baghdad. The images revealed "unexplained construction" at a facility "known to be associated with a clandestine nuclear program."
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,55218,00.html

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Ahhhhh.... time to read the newspaper... thank you so much!

I wonder what the newsman usually does after his day's job... probably flirts with his female fans online...

- tg

[multi]

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[b] would help customers know that they are purchasing CDs with technology that prevents the discs from being digitally copied or downloaded.

wtf
copied OR downloaded
is this just mumbojumbo?

its plain bullshit IMO
to non computer ppl
maybe copied means not much...
but downloaded has evil connotations...

maybe the stickers will prevent the
covers from being reproduced....

and when you insert this cd
does your line out jack of your sound card
dissapear
maybe.....
how much money are they wasting on all this crap...
then blaming their losses on filesharing?