The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

News ground straight ahead, cap'tains !!

Sun exec: Open source is secure
Whitfield Diffie, the inventor of public key cryptography, and now chief security officer at Sun Microsystems, spoke out in defense of the security of open-source software at the RSA Conference in Paris on Tuesday. Diffie was defending open-source software against an attack made earlier at the same conference by Microsoft chief security officer Craig Mundie. During his keynote, Mundie had labeled as a "myth" the idea that open-source software can be more secure than closed, proprietary software. "Just because people can look at software, it doesn't mean they will," said Mundie. "You need trained people looking, not just arbitrary people."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-961353.html

Wi-Fi "wartrappers" nab drive-by hackers
A "honeypot" trap consisting of a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop is the latest weapon against drive-by hackers. Set up at the London headquarters of consultants KPMG, the laptop looks to the outside world like a simple wireless access point, but contains monitoring software designed to determine the level of illicit activity. "We are trying to measure the number of wardrivers, and the level of attack they are attempting," said Michael van Strien of KPMG, revealing the device at the RSA security conference in Paris. He plans to publish some results in the next month or two, which will give an idea of the level of the much discussed threat of "wardriving", where hackers outside an office gain access to unsecured wireless access points. "We're looking at the number of hits and how many try to get network addresses," said van Strien.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-961405.html

CERT warns of hacked SendMail
Some copies of a popular mail-server program are implanted with a back door that could allow access to Internet attackers, security experts warned Tuesday. A Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordination Center advisory said that illicit code added to the Sendmail package creates a back door when the program is compiled from its source code. Such a compromised program -- called a Trojan horse by security experts -- can leave networks exposed to attack and administrators unaware of the vulnerabilities. The source code files of Sendmail 8.12.6 were apparently modified as far back as Sept. 28, according to the advisory.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-961311.html

Want Wi-Fi? Verizon takes it home
Verizon Communications on Wednesday became the second Web service provider to sell wireless home networking equipment directly to subscribers. Six million to 8 million U.S. homes have installed home networks that use Wi-Fi, a technology that allows devices located within a 300 foot radius to communicate without wires. Verizon is looking to cash in on a boom in Wi-Fi networks, expected to triple in number by 2006. Linksys manufactures the Verizon equipment, which includes a Wi-Fi access point and a laptop modem. The access point sells for between $100 and $180, while the modem sells for $90. The networking package also includes a high-speed Web account, which costs between $39 and $49 a month, Verizon representative Bobbi Henson said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-961463.html?tag=fd_top_6

High court weighs copyright law
U.S. Supreme Court justices criticized a copyright extension law on Wednesday, but appeared reluctant to suggest that it was unconstitutional. During oral arguments, the justices reserved their most pointed questions for foes of the Copyright Term Extension Act, a federal law that extends the duration of all U.S. copyrights for 20 years. It prevents works like Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" and the poems of Robert Frost from becoming part of the public domain. Larry Lessig, a Stanford University law professor representing opponents of the law, argued that Congress went too far when enacting the law and that it served no legitimate economic purpose.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961467.html?tag=fd_top_8

Thieves nab $4 million in memory chips
Police in the U.K. are searching for a gang who stole memory chips worth more than $4 million (£2.6 million) in a raid at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport in London on Wednesday morning. The chips had been imported from Korea, and officers believe that the raid -- which is suspected to have taken place in the early hours of the morning -- was carefully planned. "The items stolen are a large quantity of computer memory chips, and it would be difficult to dispose of this quantity without already having plans in place," said Detective Chief Inspector Rupert Hollis of Heathrow CID, according to BBC Online.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961464.html?tag=fd_top_10

Special report: Space-saving PCs
Looking for PCs that will help you win back some desktop real estate? Here are some of the latest machines designed to do just that. Corporate customers looking for space-saving PCs these days are blessed with a wide variety of options to choose from. Slimline cases and “all-in-one” formats are growing in number, and space-saving TFT displays are dropping in price as their numbers grow. Enterprises are focusing on space issues for a number of reasons. More efficient use of office space is a topic that is on the minds of many in these tough economic times. Then there are organisations that have in-house training facilities as well as secondary schools or universities for whom cramming a lot of workstations into a limited space is a top priority.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/ent...0268834,00.htm

Microsoft takes employee privacy pulse
Microsoft unveiled Wednesday a new measure for gauging how effectively its managers have followed company privacy policies. The latest push in the company's Trusted Computing Initiative, the so-called Privacy Health Index could, if successful, provide the company with a grade for how well its employees are guarding customer data. "Because you cannot manage what you cannot measure, ultimately, this is an important step towards our broader effort of institutionalizing trustworthy computing at Microsoft," said Richard Purcell, corporate privacy officer for the company, in a statement.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961472.html?tag=cd_mh

AOL takes cue from TV advertising
America Online has TV envy. With the introduction of AOL 8.0 next week, the beleaguered online unit of media giant AOL Time Warner will emulate a strategy that is common in the television industry -- selling advertisers access to audiences based on peak viewing times. By offering time-targeted ads, known as "dayparts," as well as content geared toward a daytime audience, the Dulles, Va.-based company hopes its networks will appeal to advertisers that are more inclined to spend money on traditional media than online. The move comes as AOL is under pressure on several fronts. Subscriber growth has stalled and a two-year decline in Net advertising shows little sign of improving. Meanwhile, its accounting is being scrutinized for evidence the company has improperly inflated revenue, and several top-level executives have departed in recent months.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961473.html?tag=cd_mh

Lindows: As Windows as we want to be
Upstart operating system company Lindows is hoping to deal a final death blow to the suit brought against it by Microsoft. The company said Tuesday that it has asked a judge to toss out the suit, which claims Lindows is violating Microsoft's trademark on the word "windows." Lindows also urged the judge, who's already ruled twice in its favor, to find that Microsoft's trademark is invalid because "windows" is a generic term. Lindows' summary judgment filing, which opens with a cartoon poking fun at the origin of the Windows name, requests that the judge dismiss once and for all Microsoft's claims and its attempts to get the site shut down.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961440.html?tag=cd_mh

Net matchmaking with a real-time twist
An edgy, new online dating site is hoping to lure the MTV crowd with a slew of features for the tech-savvy set. DateCam.com, as its name suggests, goes beyond the picture and profile available on most online dating sites, letting people interact via real-time video in an attempt to attract suitors or meet friends. The site, part JenniCam, part dating service, part chat room, is designed to appeal to social young adults who are looking for love and like to experiment with new technology. DateCam, which officially launched Tuesday, said providing video will let customers weed out potential dates more quickly by letting their personality shine through.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961420.html?tag=cd_mh

Verizon taps Listen for music plan
Verizon Communications said Wednesday that it would offer Listen.com's music subscription service to its customers. The distribution deal through the local phone service giant marks one of the largest yet for the San Francisco-based music services company, which has chalked up a strong series of similar broadband deals in recent months. As with other distribution partners, including Road Runner, DirecTV DSL and Charter Communications, customers will pay $10 a month for unlimited access to a huge -- but still far from complete -- library of music from the five major music labels and a long string of independents. "It's like having a jukebox right in your PC," John Wimsatt, a vice president of marketing for Verizon Advanced Services, said in a statement.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961389.html?tag=cd_mh

Slashdot Star Leaves the Fold
Well-known Linux evangelist and Slashdot editor Chris DiBona announced to co-workers Wednesday that he will be leaving VA Linux, the company that owns Slashdot, to help start a company that will produce multiplayer online role-playing games. The company, Damage Studios, currently consists of DiBona, SourceForge.net co-founder Anthony Guntharp and VA veteran Steve Westmoreland. The company's first game, Rekonstruction, is slated for release in time for Christmas 2004. Using high-resolution satellite and geographic data, Rekonstruction will let players work together and against one another to rebuild a parallel Earth that has been devastated by an asteroid strike.
http://www.wired.com/news/exec/0,1370,55682,00.html

Fencing Off the Public Domain
The many faces of Snow White exist in part due to a legal concept called the "public domain," which allows artists to use and borrow from creative works -- from ancient Greek poetry to Shakespeare's plays to Mozart's sonatas -- either because there were no copyrights in place when the works were created or because the copyrights have since expired. The realm of the public domain is a big thinker's sandbox, a place where ideas and thoughts lie around waiting to be used by a new generation. There's no charge for entering, and no charge for taking an idea out to use for an individual's particular creative purposes.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,55641,00.html

Anti-Porn E-Mailer 'Fesses Up'
The Internet stalker terrorizing the porn business confessed his sins yesterday to the FBI. But the G-Men took no action against Bryan Sullivan, who swamped the inboxes of adult industry bigwigs with bigoted slurs and stomach-turning tales of murder and torture. Sullivan, 37, an electrical engineer with Kansas City Power & Light, was long suspected of being the man behind dozens of ugly messages from "zodiac_killer" and "pornhater2002." On Tuesday, he confirmed that suspicion to the FBI agents who visited his home. FBI Special Agent Mike Daniels said Sullivan clearly violated the law. But Daniels needs the cooperation of federal prosecutors before making an arrest. So he and colleague Todd Gentry are in the midst of preparing a report on Sullivan for the Western Missouri district of the U.S. Attorney's office.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55667,00.html

Mobile Junkies Reshaping Society?
Some people watch a group of Tokyo teens trade messages on mobile phones and consider it an ordinary part of 21st century life. Futurists, however, see even the mundane act of thumb-typing as the kernel of a revolution. Howard Rheingold, author of Virtual Reality and other works in the early 1990s that prophesied the rise of electronic communities, credits such a display of text messaging with supplying the inspiration for his upcoming book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. The book -- to be released this month -- investigates the social impact of mobile and pervasive computing. In eight chapters, Rheingold chronicles how "smart mobs," defined as "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other," are reshaping the way societies organize and interact.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55561,00.html

What Amazon Knows, Amazon Keeps
In response to concerns from state regulators, Amazon.com has expanded its privacy policy to provide examples of how it collects and employs its vast repositories of user data. Now, privacy advocates are pushing the Net retailer to take the policy a step further by allowing customers to see and make changes to those records. In a letter to state and federal consumer protection agencies Tuesday, representatives of privacy advocacy groups urged regulators to push for broader protection of user data at Amazon. "We're arguing for a right of access and deletion so people could look at their profile if it has embarrassing information or inaccurate information," said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which co-wrote the letter with another online privacy organization,
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55647,00.html

Report: Net Not Getting Any Safer
In a recent Aberdeen Group report paints a dismal landscape of a digital world of compromised service providers, undermined networks and virus-riddled computers. While some experts contend the report is way too melodramatic, a new industry consortium -- including Microsoft, Oracle, Guardent, SGI, Network Associates, BindView and five other companies -- aims to even the odds between software developers trying to plug security holes and hackers trying to exploit them. In his report, author Jim Hurley, who is vice president and managing director of information security at Aberdeen, concluded that "almost all ISPs, ... many enterprise networks (and) most consumer PCs" are contaminated by active content that can empower "electronic reconnaissance, electronic probing, mail marketing, spamming, electronic theft, cybercrime, cyberterrorism, electronic identity theft (or) financial loss."
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55581,00.html

This Avatar's Got News for You
She's easier on the eye than Tom Brokaw, she needs no rehearsal and she never throws tantrums. Plus, she comes at a fraction of the cost needed to keep most anchors behind the news desk. Her name is Seonaid (pronounced "Shona"), and she's a 28-year-old cat-loving U2 fan who reads the news at the Scottish government's website, the Scottish Executive. If there's one drawback in her résumé, however, it might be the fact that she's not human. Seonaid's creators claim she is the world's first real-time virtual character to star on a government website. Since her introduction, the site has seen page impressions spike by 63 percent, as well as a 60 percent increase in unique users. Search engine-generated traffic is also up 177 percent.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55446,00.html

Critical US satellites could be hacked
Commercial satellites used by the US military, secret service and Federal Aviation Authority could be hijacked or disabled by computer hackers, a new government report has warned. The satellites are typically used for non-critical communications, as well as tracking and telemetry. The report was produced by the US General Accounting Office, an investigative governmental body, and states that the command channels used to control these commercial satellites are insufficiently protected against misuse.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992905

The bunker nightmare goes nuclear
As the 1999 war in Yugoslavia Ended, doors to a bunker dug deep underneath Pristina Airfield opened, and nearly a dozen unharmed Serbian MiG-21 fighters emerged to retreat from the area. The United States had repeatedly tried to destroy this series of tunnels and caves with GBU-28s, 5,000-pound precision-guided "bunker busters" developed during the Gulf War. But the best those hulking bombs could do was seal off entryways by burrowing a few feet in before exploding from the impact. The MiGs, sheltered much farther down, were untouched. Three years later, battling al Qaeda fighters hunkered down in mountain catacombs in the Tora Bora hills of Afghanistan, the U.S. military had come a long way. By then, the Pentagon's arsenal included the BLU-118/B, a powerful penetrating bomb with a thermobaric explosive that releases a series of sustained shock waves instead of the single spike typical of standard weapons. The BLU-118 is perfect for attacking confined underground spaces like tunnels and caves.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science...351094,00.html

Technology Could Use Moon Dust To Capture Sun Power
New technologies designed to harness the power of the sun may hold the key to successful moon colonies, cheaper and lighter-weight satellites, and cleaner-burning, more efficient car engines. Solar cells, electronic devices that convert sunlight into useful electricity, would be an important resource for powering future industrial bases or colonies on the moon. Alex Freundlich, research professor of physics, and Charles Horton, senior research scientist at the Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials at UH, or TcSAM, are developing methods to manufacture huge solar cell arrays on the moon using materials from the lunar soil.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarcell-02j.html

'Seminal' eczema study reveals skin's broken defences
The skin of people with eczema fails to produce effective amounts of two key bacteria-killing molecules, a US team has discovered. The results of this "seminal study" could account for why about one third of people with atopic dermatitis - the most common form of the disorder - develop severe skin infections. It may also force a rethink of precisely what eczema is and lead to new treatments for millions of sufferers. "This study helps explain why 90 per cent of atopic dermatitis patients are colonised by Staphylococcus aureus and 30 per cent develop active infections," says lead author Donald Leung at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. Skin with an intact immune system produces high levels of two peptides called LL-37 and HBD-2 as part of the inflammatory response to infection. These peptides fight viruses and fungi, as well as bacteria.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992907

Gene technique reveals human evolution
A genetic technique that could allow scientists to probe the evolution of our ancestors during the critical transformation from hunter-gatherers to farmers has passed its first test. The researchers analysed two gene variants already known to give some resistance to malaria. But the genetic analysis proved that the genes were under strong natural selection in the recent past. The work shows that the advantage conferred by the genes meant they spread rapidly through human populations. The technique specifically looks for evidence of such a rapid spread, says Pardis Sabeti, at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It finds gene variants that look younger than you expect from their frequency in the population," she adds. The trick is distinguishing between versions of a gene that have spread by chance and those that have spread because they confer an advantage.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992908

Bertelsmann Made Vast Nazi Era Profits
German media giant Bertelsmann made large profits by selling millions of anti-Semitic books during the Nazi era and used Jewish slave laborers, a commission set up by the firm said on Monday. Bertelsmann tapped the rising Nazi tide to switch from publishing religious and school books to entertainment for the German army, selling 19 million books to soldiers in World War II, according to the Independent Historical Commission (IHC). The IHC also found the company "legend" that it was a victim of the Nazis was a lie. The Nazis did indeed close the firm down in 1944, but probably because their own publishing house wanted to kill off competition, not because of subversive texts.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...mann_nazi_dc_1

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