The Newspaper Shop -- Week-end edition

[walktalker]

It looks like an eternity since the last issue of my paper... but I'm back !!!

Gates unveils Windows XP
Microsoft on Thursday officially launched Windows XP, the newest version of its operating system and what could be the company's most important product in more than six years. The long-anticipated operating system, which Microsoft said improves performance, reliability, and ease of use, is available at retail as of Thursday. Microsoft ushered in Windows XP with a lavish extravaganza in New York Thursday. Microsoft, chipmaker Intel and PC makers, will combined spend more than $1 billion on marketing for Windows XP.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

XP offers 20MB package of downloads
People rushing out to buy Windows XP on Thursday may be surprised by the hefty package of downloads already available for updating the brand-new operating system. Depending on the version of XP -- Home for consumers or Professional for businesses -- people will be assailed with 20MB or more in downloads. Some fix security holes, others resolve glitches and a few add new features. Regular updates are something consumers may have to get used to with XP, which offers more of a "push" method of delivery than the "pull" function found in earlier Windows versions. With the new OS, Microsoft for the first time has the capability of sending updates proactively to customers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

MSN lockout fuels antitrust cry
As some third-party browsers remain unable to access Microsoft's popular MSN.com Web site for a second day, the lockout has stirred up further anti-competitive concerns about the giant software maker. Microsoft has said it has reopened the redesigned MSN site to rival browser makers, but as of Friday morning, the most recent browsers from Mozilla.org and Opera Software still could not access MSN. Netscape users also continued to report access problems.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

Critics: Patriot Act puts privacy at risk
President Bush signed legislation Friday that expands the ability to tap telephones and track Internet usage in the hunt for terrorists, new powers that drew praise from law enforcement officials and concern from civil libertarians. The bill, known as the USA Patriot Act, gives federal authorities much wider latitude in monitoring Internet usage and expands the way such data is shared among different agencies.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Mac, Linux, DOS fans: Enough with XP!
To hear Microsoft Corp. tell it, the official unveiling of Windows XP is the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel. But users of other operating systems -- even earlier versions of Microsoft's -- aren't nearly as excited. As the world's largest software company dispatched Chairman Bill Gates to New York and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to London for lavish XP launch events, there are those who remain Linux loyalists and believers that Microsoft is still little more than a highly efficient copycat of existing technology.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Deadline near for kids' Net-porn filter
Schools and libraries have until Sunday to show they're taking adequate steps to block access to online pornography on public computers. If they don't, they lose thousands of dollars each in federal funds. The looming deadline is part of a controversial censorship law known as the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), one of several measures limiting access to online content and currently making its way through the courts. Signed into law in December by then-President Bill Clinton, CIPA requires schools and libraries to block visual depictions of pornography, obscenity or other material deemed offensive to children in order to qualify for funds set aside by the government to help pay for computers and Internet access.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Take a blast from the Internet's past
The world's largest Internet library opened its virtual doors this week, showcasing more than 10 billion Web pages, including many believed to be long gone -- and some that people probably wish they could erase. Dubbed the Wayback Machine, the archive is the work of San Francisco entrepreneur Brewster Kahle who for the past five years has been working on a library that would store not just documents like old newspapers that are normally preserved, but a sampling of everything that has ever been posted on the World Wide Web.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Stores pile on freebies with Windows XP
Consumers used to have to buy a computer to get a free Palm device or a digital camera, but the freebie bar has just been lowered with the release of Windows XP. Staples, Circuit City, Office Max and other retailers are offering a cavalcade of freebies for a limited time to customers who buy the home or business edition of Windows XP. In some instances, the value of the goodies outstrips the cost of the software. These programs, part of Microsoft's multimillion-dollar promotional campaign, highlights the company's urgent need for the new operating system to succeed at retail.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Nevada man jailed for software piracy
A 49-year-old Nevada man has been sentenced to two years in prison for the large-scale trafficking in counterfeit Microsoft software over the Internet, federal prosecutors said on Friday. Paul Stamatis of Las Vegas, formerly of Los Angeles, was also sentenced to pay Microsoft $500,000 in restitution. Stamatis, who had pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme, was sentenced on Thursday. Stamatis was arrested in February 2000 along with Robert Gaboury, 61, and Chia Yu Ku, 49, both of California. The indictment charged that Ku had obtained copies of counterfeit Microsoft software CDs, packaged them and then distributed the CDs to various people, including Stamatis.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Show Your High-Tech ID
How does technology shape who we are? "Above all things," Shakespeare wrote, "to thine own self be true." Resnick and fellow scholars, scientists and artists gathered this month at "ID/entity," a one-day symposium sponsored by MIT's Media Lab. There they discussed how our identities shape — and are shaped by — new technologies, from biotechnology and robotics to assistive technologies and virtual reality.
http://www.techreview.com/web/leo/leo102501.asp

Bertlesmann Has Napster Stuck in Its Head
He's either a dreamer or a prophet, but Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Middelhoff still hasn't given up on Napster, the music file-sharing site currently mired in legal wrangling. The proof -- Bertelsmann is kicking in an additional $25 million to keep Napster alive, BusinessWeek has learned. That's in addition to the $60 million "loan" that the German media giant gave a year ago to the Redwood City (Calif.) upstart. Why throw more money at a venture that essentially has no revenue? Middelhoff still believes that the basic idea behind Napster is potentially as powerful as that behind America Online, in which the German CEO was also an early investor.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...11026_7583.htm

U.S. Army marches into smart-card era
The U.S. military is spearheading a switch to "smart" identity cards that could open up a new growth market as the world becomes obsessed with security after last month's hijack attacks. The Defense Department has ordered chip-based ID cards for 4.3 million military personnel over the next 18 months to tighten security on access to buildings, including the Pentagon, and to computer networks, including access to encrypted e-mail and online transactions. That may sound like a drop in the ocean for an industry that shipped some 600 million chip cards last year, mostly bank cards and mobile phone cards. But ID cards may eventually go to more of the 23 million names on the Defense Department's database, including family members, retired servicemen and contractors.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Red Cross e-mail donation hoax circulating
A malicious computer program is quietly making the rounds, disguising itself as an e-mail donation form for the American Red Cross while attempting to steal credit card information, antivirus vendors said Thursday. When the e-mail attachment is opened, the malicious program, called Septer.Trojan, prompts people to fill in a donation form purporting to aid the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The information is then sent to a Web site that is not affiliated with the Red Cross, according to security software company Symantec.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Turning Internet2 into reality
The future of the Internet is rigorously being worked out through a private-public sector partnership called Internet2. Internet2 began in 1996 as a result of interest from corporations, universities and nonprofits in doing advanced research on a faster electronic network than the one offered by the Internet. The project acts as a laboratory for companies and researchers developing new technologies and also serves as a blueprint of what the Internet could look like in the future. Internet2 researchers helped iron out applications like e-mail, chat messaging and streaming audio, and are now working on advanced video and privacy technology.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201...html?tag=cd_pr

NBC loosens hold on local TV sites
NBC has passed the Web site operations tied to its local TV stations to Internet Broadcasting Systems, a move intended to push more viewers and advertisers to the news sites. Under the deal, announced Thursday, the companies said Internet Broadcasting, which runs a network of sites for news channels, will operate Web sites for NBC's local stations. However, General Electric-owned NBC will retain control of the editorial content. NBC's TV stations division owns and operates 13 stations across the country, including WNBC in New York, KNBC in Los Angeles, WMAQ in Chicago and WCAU in Philadelphia.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Napster issues first round of layoffs
Napster laid off 16 people Tuesday, or about 15 percent of its employees, in the first serious staff cuts in the company's meteoric history. The company has been struggling to turn its once-anarchic song-trading service into a viable business that has both revenue and the big record companies' stamp of approval. To this end, it stopped file trading in July, and it has been working on a secure, copyright-friendly subscription service. The shutdown caused many of the company's millions of enthusiasts to drift to rivals.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Intel, AMD to nip prices again
The processor skirmishes will start again in a few days when Intel and Advanced Micro Devices cut prices on their desktop chips. On Sunday, sources said, Intel will trim the prices on select Pentium 4 and Pentium III chips by up to nearly 30 percent. The 2GHz Pentium 4, for instance, will drop from an official wholesale price of $562 to close to an estimated $400 -- a decrease of 29 percent. The 1GHz Pentium III, meanwhile, will drop from $193 to an estimated $163, sources said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_pr

Humanoid robot runs on Linux power
Japanese scientists are planning to demonstrate a walking, Linux-operated, humanoid robot next month in Europe. The two-legged H7 robot is around 54 inches tall and weighs 121 pounds. It has 36 joints -- or "degrees of freedom" -- which H7's developers claim means it has full body motion. An onboard computer, built around two 750MHz Pentium III processors, runs the RT-Linux operating system.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Samsung develops advanced display
Samsung SDI said Thursday it has developed a large next-generation display that could eventually replace other flat-panel screens for PCs and notebooks. Samsung SDI, the world's largest producer of cathode-ray tubes for PCs and television sets, is the first to produce a 15.1-inch model of an organic electroluminescent (OEL) display, company executives said. The previous largest was a 13-inch screen developed by Sony earlier this year.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Automaker accelerates computing drive
Automaker DaimlerChrysler announced on Thursday several key partnerships in its effort to deliver computing functions to new-car buyers. The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company has signed up Intel, IBM, AT&T Wireless, Johnson Controls and Gentex to provide key elements in its telematics drive. For the automobile industry, telematics means cars equipped with communications features and services such as cell phone capabilities and global positioning systems.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=ch_mh

More news later on