The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

IBM races new PowerPC chip
IBM will put its PowerPC processor line back on the map Monday when it talks up a speedy chip that promises a substantial performance boost for desktops and servers. The PowerPC 970 chip, due next year, will run at 1.8GHz, nearly twice as fast as Big Blue's quickest existing PowerPC chip, the 1GHz 750FX. It will also be able to handle both 32-bit software, the current standard on desktops, and 64-bit software, used on high-end servers. Engineers from IBM's Microelectronics division will disclose the details of the new chip for the first time at this week's Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, Calif.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-961862.html

Open source closes in on Microsoft
For years, Bill Gates and other top executives at Microsoft railed against the economic philosophy of open-source software with Orwellian fervor, denouncing its communal licensing as a "cancer" that stifled technological innovation. Today, Microsoft claims to "love" the open-source concept, by which software code is made public to encourage improvement and development by outside programmers. Gates himself says Microsoft will gladly disclose its crown jewels -- the coveted code behind the Windows operating system -- to select customers. "We can be open source. We love the concept of shared source," said Bill Veghte, vice president of the Windows Server Group. "That's a super-important shift for us in terms of code access." Did Microsoft suddenly find open-source religion? Hardly.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-961903.html

Bush advisor: Cybercrime costs us billions
Cybercrime is costing the world economy billions of dollars and is on the increase, President Bush's cyber-security adviser said Monday. "We have a great deal of focus nowadays on weapons of mass destruction but we need to be aware of the proliferation in cyberspace of weapons of mass disruption," Howard Schmidt told Reuters in an interview. The criminals range from terrorists to backroom hackers who know no frontiers. "Cyber crime is costing the world economy billions of dollars and it is still on the increase," Schmidt said. "The more we depend on the system, the more we use the system, the more they will exploit it."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961933.html

Linux Expo: One size doesn't fit all
The dot-com boom may be over, but the demand for Linux is still strong in business -- a fact not lost on the computing giants present at this week's Linux Expo UK in London. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun and others gathered to show off their different strategies for embedding Linux into everything from desktops at chain restaurants to high-end corporate mainframes. This is all driven by customer demand, the companies said, although they said there has been no single reason why companies choose Linux. "It's not a single solution to a single problem," said Iain Stephen, UK Industry Standard Server director for HP's Compaq subsidiary. Significantly, Sun was a newcomer to this year's show having rolled out its Linux strategy in the past year, while HP made a return appearance after giving London a miss in 2001.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-961919.html

US firms protest EU privacy laws
A group of US companies believes that it is making good progress in its attempt to change data protection legislation in Europe. It could be some time before any such amendments come into effect, though. After taking part in a conference that debated the EU Data Protection Directive, the Global Privacy Alliance is hopeful that changes will be made to the way that European countries protect the privacy of their citizens. This consultation took place on 30 September and 1 October and was attended by academics, business people and representatives from European governments and data protection authorities.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961973.html

IBM grid tackles cancer research
Oxford University and the United Kingdom will use large networks of IBM computers to aid cancer research in Europe. Oxford and government researchers have selected IBM to create a large grid for diagnosing and sharing research into cures for breast cancer, the company said Monday. Dubbed eDiamond, the grid will be used to create and share a large database of digital mammograms among radiologists, doctors and others throughout Europe, and eventually worldwide. Computing grids pool the collective data processing and storage capabilities of large networks of computers with the goal of creating supercomputer-like performance with easy access to data.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-961902.html

Copyright law open for comment
Federal copyright regulators are opening the door for new exceptions to a controversial copyright law that has landed one publisher in court and a Russian programmer in jail. The United States Copyright Office is launching a rare round of public comment on rules that bar people from breaking through digital copy-protection technology on works such as music, movies, software or electronic books. Regulators aren't looking to change the law, but they are looking for public suggestions on what kinds of activity should be legalized in spite of the rules. This is only the second time in the controversial law's five-year history that the public has been able to pitch in with suggestions for exceptions. Critics of the law say they will use the opportunity to draw wider public attention to the way its restrictions can affect ordinary people.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961783.html

Microsoft-AOL: "Battle of the eights"
Microsoft this week will unveil a $300 million ad campaign to promote its MSN 8 Internet service, kicking off what some analysts are calling the "battle of the eights." The software giant will give a peek at the ad campaign on Monday, one day before AOL Time Warner's America Online division officially launches AOL 8.0. America Online quietly released AOL 8.0 to subscribers last week. Starting Oct. 24, the official MSN 8 launch date, Microsoft will blanket the Web, print publications and television with ads. The most intense promotion will occur during the first five days. But the new campaign, the largest ever for MSN, will run through the middle of 2003.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-961906.html

Gateway says goodbye to CD-ROMs
Gateway is going modern with its desktops and notebooks. The Poway, Calif.-based PC maker will no longer offer CD-ROM drives or CRT monitors in standard configurations of computers. Instead, desktops and notebooks will include CD-RW drives, which allow users to record CDs, and desktops will come with flat-panel LCD monitors. Consumers will still be able to customize their computers to include a CD-ROM drive, but they won't get a discount, so requests for the older drives should be minimal, said a spokeswoman. Buyers will get a discount if they choose to switch an LCD screen for a standard monitor, but most customers generally go with the standard configurations shown on the Web page and in Gateway Country Stores.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-962006.html?tag=fd_top_1

Free OpenOffice for Mac users
The free, open-source competitor to Microsoft Office now caters to Mac users. Sun Microsystems released the first beta of OpenOffice, the open-source sibling of its StarOffice package, for Mac OS X computers on Monday. The release coincides with the OpenOffice group's two-year anniversary. Version 1.0 of OpenOffice, already available for Linux, Windows and Solaris computers, is open-source software, meaning that anyone can look at the software's inner workings, modify it and distribute it for free. Meanwhile, Microsoft has recently taken steps to make the sticker price of its Mac Office suite more palatable, launching a $199 promotion that allows new Mac buyers to buy Office for half the price of a full copy.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961989.html?tag=fd_top_5

Movie sites summon Harry Potter tickets
Harry Potter's return to Hogwarts could prove a magical time for online ticketing companies. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" doesn't debut in theaters for another month, but tickets for the movie are already on sale at Internet box offices such as Fandango, AOL's Moviefone and MovieTickets.com. As they have with previous blockbusters such as "Spider-Man," "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," the sites are trying to cash in on the early buzz on what is expected to be one of the year's most popular movies. "This is exactly the type of movie that is tailor-made for advanced sales," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box-office sales. "This is where online ticketing shines and shows its most relevant feature: being able to buy tickets for films that are thought to be sellouts." Although they still make up just a fraction of the overall market for movie tickets, online ticket sales have been growing in recent years.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-962005.html?tag=fd_top_6

Wharton feels the Google love
Wharton School of Business is agog over Google. Radio advertisements airing in Los Angeles and San Francisco for the school's executive M.B.A. program are promoting the Google words "Wharton West" on the popular search engine to deliver Web surfers to the site immediately -- even though the top-listed links are not paid for and could change at random. Neal Neveras, director of executive programs at the Wharton School of Business, said that Google's quality of search and the simplicity of results played into his decision to use the search term in radio advertising. He said that because radio airtime is limited it makes more sense to advertise a keyword search on Google than to broadcast a long university Web address that will be hard to remember.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-962007.html?tag=fd_top_7

MPAA sues online DVD seller
The Motion Picture Association of America has sued a Minnesota-based Web site for allegedly selling pirated DVDs on the Internet. In a complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, the MPAA alleged that online retailer eDiscountTech.com willfully sold illegal copies of DVDs on its Web site and through eBay. According to the suit, the DVDs were purchased by eDiscountTech from a seller in Malaysia, which allegedly hawked pirated versions of films to the public. Jonathan Zabrocki, who runs eDiscountTech, denied any wrong doing. According to Zabrocki, the Malaysian retailer repeatedly offered to sell eDiscountTech 2,000 DVDs at liquidation prices. EDiscountTech, which attributes more than 95 percent of its sales to computer components, repeatedly sought assurances that the retailer was selling legitimate DVDs, Zabrocki said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961999.html?tag=fd_top_8

Broadband group hits home for IBM
The Internet Home Alliance, a broadband industry trade group, is adding IBM to its network. Big Blue plans next week to announce its membership in the group, which promotes new-fangled uses for high-speed Net access, such as household appliances that can be controlled online. Peter Gaucher, director of device-led solutions at IBM, said the computer and networking giant plans to provide financial support for the group and use it as a platform to facilitate the development of new technologies.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961984.html?tag=fd_top_10

Perspective: The copyright conundrum
The debate over digital copyright finally is returning to the nation's capital -- and it's about time. Last week, the Supreme Court kicked off its fall term by hearing a challenge to a law that extends the duration of all U.S. copyrights for 20 years. And on Tuesday, James Rogan, Commerce Department undersecretary for intellectual property, will give a talk with the dead-giveaway title of "Reaffirming Intellectual Property Rights in an Information Age." Also this week, the Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI), devoted to promoting "the protection of intellectual property," is holding a two-day conference in Washington. Copyright is anything but a novel topic for Washington's politicos.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-961818.html?tag=fd_nc_1

How to hack people
The biggest threat to the security of a company is not a computer virus, an unpatched hole in a key program or a badly installed firewall. In fact, the biggest threat could be you. So says Kevin Mitnick, and he should know. Mr Mitnick won notoriety as a hacker during the late 80s and early 90s and his exploits regularly became front page news. He started out as a so-called phone phreak who got his kicks exploring and exploiting the phone system.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2320121.stm

The homeless blogger
If you want to know what cereal a total stranger eats for breakfast or how he feels about invading Iraq, there are hundreds of thousands of Internet journals, popularly known as blogs, waiting for you. But to find out where the best soup kitchen is in Nashville, Tenn., or how it feels to pick up trash until dawn for $30, or what it's like to sleep in a '71 Ford Granada, you'll have to go to Kevin Barbieux's Internet diary for answers. Most "bloggers" bleat from a computer in their home or office. But for Barbieux, that's not possible. He doesn't own a computer. He rarely has a steady job. And for years, he hasn't had a place to call home.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ess/index.html

What's on TV? Whatever You Like
Anticipating a future where television viewers can order from a nearly limitless supply of content on demand, Matt Strauss wants to make sure that every conceivable hobbyist and special interest group will find programs that suit their cat, dog or car fancy. Oh, and he might want to slip in a few targeted ads, too. Strauss is general manager of Mag Rack, a service from Cablevision's Rainbow Media that allows digital cable customers to order programs on demand from a series of specialty video magazines. Current titles include Celebrating Dogs, Club Vegetarian and the No. 1 hit, Classic Cars. Mag Rack, available on Cablevision's Interactive Optimum service since September 2001, recently launched on Insight's cable system and is due to appear on Charter's system in November. It is being offered for free to digital cable subscribers and, including the Charter deal, it will reach more than 1.6 million households by year's end.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55724,00.html

Man Sues Airlines for Fare Access
When Robert Gumson, who is blind and uses a screen reader to browse the Web, couldn't access Southwest Airlines' website to make a reservation, he did what any red-blooded American would do: He sued. Gumson and disability rights group Access Now sued Southwest Airlines under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which until now has only been applied to brick-and-mortar facilities.Access Now has filed lawsuits in U.S. District Courts in Miami against both Southwest Airlines and American Airlines under Title III of the ADA. The cases will test the boundaries of the ADA. The outcome of the suits will determine whether the same law that requires movie theaters, department stores and other public spaces to provide ramps and other accommodations for the disabled also applies to the Internet.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55708,00.html

When a Terror Threat Is Real
We've seen how jumpy the Bush Administration gets when it receives even vague hints about possible terrorist attacks. So what would the President and his advisers do if they discovered, for sure, that terrorists were going to launch multiple strikes against American energy facilities in three days? A detailed drill, involving more than a dozen high-level current and former government officials, will examine this terrifyingly real possibility late next week.Held at Andrews Air Force Base, the goal of the two-day exercise, which begins Oct. 17, is to improve the government's effectiveness in the days before a terrorist incident.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55737,00.html

Spectrum Limbo Hurts Wireless Biz
The uncertainty surrounding the NextWave spectrum licenses has taken a huge toll on the wireless communications industry, Verizon Wireless told telecom regulators on Monday. Verizon, the country's largest cell-phone service provider, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to absolve its responsibility for buying out bankrupt NextWave Telecom's airwaves licenses, which are tied up in litigation and, therefore, unavailable to the industry. In 1996, Hawthorne, New York-based NextWave bid $4.7 billion for 216 licenses to offer wireless Internet and phone services in 1996. The company made the minimum 10 percent down payment of $500 million for the spectrum.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,55772,00.html

How mobile phones let spies see our every move
Secret radar technology research that will allow the biggest-ever extension of 'Big Brother'-style surveillance in the UK is being funded by the Government. The radical new system, which has outraged civil liberties groups, uses mobile phone masts to allow security authorities to watch vehicles and individuals 'in real time' almost anywhere in Britain. The technology 'sees' the shapes made when radio waves emitted by mobile phone masts meet an obstruction. Signals bounced back by immobile objects, such as walls or trees, are filtered out by the receiver. This allows anything moving, such as cars or people, to be tracked. Previously, radar needed massive fixed equipment to work and transmissions from mobile phone masts were thought too weak to be useful.
http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/st...811027,00.html

The keyboard that isn't there
The problem with pocket technology, such as PDAs and mobile phones, is that they are too small to incorporate a full keyboard. This leads to alternative, and often clumsy, forms of data input such as hand-writing recognition or typing text messages on a numeric keypad. Now there's na solution - a light-projected keyboard. Suddenly, an uncluttered desk, kitchen table, or pull-down tray on a train or plane can be converted into a keyboard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/...fe/2326077.stm

Cloning team looks to human embryos
Ian Wilmut, leader of the team which cloned Dolly the sheep, is to plunge into uncharted scientific waters by trying to clone human embryos for research. Professor Wilmut, who stresses that any human clones he creates will not develop beyond the stage of a microscopic cluster of cells, hopes to be the first to take advantage of a change in British law allowing the procedure to be attempted. He told a conference in Berlin this month that he hoped his laboratory, at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, would apply for a licence to start work from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) within the next six months.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...811258,00.html

More news later on