The Newspaper Shop -- wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Read on ( only if you dare )

Allchin bangs the drum for XP
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer get most of the ink, but Microsoft's near- and long-term fortune is going to depend on the abilities of one Jim Allchin. Allchin, a group vice president and 11-year company veteran, is in charge of Windows XP, the operating system upgrade that Microsoft -- and a good part of the computer industry -- hopes will help kick-start moribund demand for PCs come the fourth quarter. To lend a helping hand, Microsoft is pulling out the stops to the tune of a $1 billion million marketing campaign -- $200 million of it coming directly from Microsoft -- for the product's debut Oct. 25. But it remains unclear just how much of a fillip Windows XP is going to provide.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

Nations uniting for open source
Governments around the world have found a new rallying cry -- "Software libre!" -- and Microsoft is working overtime to quell it. A recent global wave of legislation is compelling government agencies, and in some cases government-owned companies, to use open-source or free software unless proprietary software is the only feasible option. This legal movement, earliest and most pronounced in Brazil, but also showing signs of catching on elsewhere in Latin America, Europe and Asia, is finding ready converts as governments struggle to close sometimes vast digital divides with limited information-technology budgets. So far, there is no evidence that similar legislation is being considered anywhere in the United States, experts said.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Rallying cry in open-source war
The desire of entrenched commercial interests to control information is crushing the spirit of innovation that allowed the Internet to blossom, Stanford Law School professor and technology pundit Lawrence Lessig said Wednesday. Copyright and patent law, ostensibly designed to protect innovation, now have become tools large companies can use to maintain their dominance and control, Lessig said in his keynote address at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. And worse, those who stand to lose are letting this concentration of power take place.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

New Microsoft judge sets dates
The new district court judge handling the Microsoft antitrust case on Wednesday ordered the parties to present reports on the remaining issues in the legal battle by Sept. 14 and scheduled a meeting on the status of the case for Sept. 21. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Microsoft and the U.S. government should also identify ways to resolve the remaining issues, address whether any additional evidence needs to be presented, and submit a proposed schedule. Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals sent the case back to the lower district court level and assigned Kollar-Kotelly to decide what sanctions to impose on the software giant to prevent future abuse of its monopoly in personal computer operating systems.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Japan to invest in robotics
The Japanese government plans to invest in the robotics industry, a move that could speed the development of robots that act as nurses, entertain people or carry out dangerous tasks. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced Tuesday that it will launch a project to nurture and develop the robotics industry within Japan. The government asserts that robotics will become a significant part of the manufacturing industry in the future and hopes that the project, called "Robot Challenge in the 21st Century," will help to make the country a leader in the sector. Japan is already a major exporter of robots, both for the industrial sector and for the home market with devices such as Sony's Aibo.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

How do you fix a leaky Net?
Brian K. West simply wanted to see how his company's advertisement would look in the online edition of the Poteau Daily News & Sun, his local Oklahoma newspaper. But while trying to create a mockup, he discovered a security flaw that let him put the ad on the actual home page of the newspaper. No password or permission was required. In fact, anyone with Microsoft's FrontPage -- a Web site development program used to create the newspaper's Web pages -- could go in and redesign at will, wreaking havoc on the home page's structure, color and text. But instead of thanking him, the suspicious editor contacted the police, setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to an 18-month FBI investigation and an invitation to appear before a grand jury Sept. 5.
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/0...est/index.html

Dilbert creator in "Ultimate Cubicle"
The lament of the cubicle dweller is one of the most familiar sad songs in the corporate jukebox. You know the refrain: No privacy, no comfort, no secure place to stash your lunch. And no way to know when the boss is coming around with that critical assignment at 4:45. Now, along comes Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip "Dilbert'' and one of America's most perceptive commentators on office culture. Recently Adams enlisted the high-concept design firm IDEO to help him develop a dream cubicle -- scenic, safe, womb-like. In short, a cubicle even Wally could love.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/ne...cube082901.htm

Researchers claim new computer break-in
Uncovering a relatively benign vulnerability in the Internet, researchers have tricked Web servers around the world into solving math problems without permission in a practice known as "parasitic computing." Unlike intruders who exploit flaws to gain direct access to machines, the University of Notre Dame computer scientists created a virtual computer by using the fundamental components of the Internet's infrastructure, according to a report in Nature, released Thursday. The process works a lot like distributed computing, which draws huge amounts of processing power from multiple Internet-connected computers for such tasks as searching for alien life and cracking encryption keys. In parasitic computing, however, the work is performed without the server owner's knowledge or permission.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Web banks come up short on privacy
For all their convenience, most online banks fail to accommodate consumers wanting to keep their personal financial information private, according to a study released Wednesday. In addition, several online mortgage companies don't disclose privacy policies, violating a recent financial reform law, according to a report from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a Washington, D.C.-based activist organization. The group says it plans to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces the privacy rules, if no changes are made at these institutions. The study highlights an apparent contradiction in the industry. Financial institutions increasingly offer a variety of services online to make banking more convenient for customers. But the majority has yet to provide the same flexibility for "opting out" of data-sharing practices.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Parents defend hacker at sentencing
A 17-year-old computer hacker who paralyzed several major Web sites, including CNN and Yahoo, needs structure, but should be spared further detention, his parents said at a sentencing hearing. The Montreal teen -- known only by his computer nickname, Mafiaboy, because of his age -- pleaded guilty in January to 58 charges related to the February 2000 hacking attacks and security breaches of sites in Canada, the United States, Denmark and South Korea. The boy, who was 15 at the time of the attacks, could receive up to two years in juvenile detention, while an adult charged with the same crimes could be sentenced to up to 10 years. Neither the prosecution nor the defense has recommended a specific sentence for the crimes that raised questions about Internet security.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

great!

[adealaara]

Very interesting, as always, Mafiab... er, wrong ID perhaps?