The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

'MyParty' worm goes global
An e-mail attachment that poses as a Web link but is actually a mass-mailing computer worm spread slowly over the weekend, but it managed to infect systems in more than 50 countries. Known within the antivirus industry as W32.MyParty@MM or W32/MyParty-A, the worm appears to be a link to a Web site, www.myparty.yahoo.com -- which doesn't actually exist. If the link is clicked, the worm sends itself out to every entry in the Windows address book, used by Outlook and Outlook Express. The worm affects all variants of Windows, from 95 to XP.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-824601.html

Public debate nears end in Microsoft case
Monday marks the end for public comment about the Microsoft antitrust settlement, setting the stage for the final showdown between opponents and supporters of the deal. A wide range of groups and individuals have chimed in on the proposed settlement, with a vocal portion contending that the deal does not serve the public interest. The Justice Department has 30 days to respond to the comments and publish them in the Federal Register.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-824132.html

U.S. source of most cyberattacks
More cyberattacks originate in the United States than in any other country, but the number of attacks that appear to come from Israel is nearly double that of any other nation based on the number of Internet users, according to a study released on Monday. High-tech, financial services, media and energy companies showed the highest intensity of attacks per company, each averaging more than 700 attacks per company over the six-month period.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-824448.html

Pressplay tunes up music service
Pressplay, the joint online music venture of Sony and Vivendi Universal, on Monday announced content and technology deals to bolster its new music-subscription service. The venture reached a deal with privately held MediaUnbound, founded by Harvard University students in January 2000. MediaUnbound will provide its customization software to Pressplay, enabling it to provide personal recommendations to subscribers based on their musical tastes.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-824416.html

BMG to offer tunes on the go
BMG Entertainment on Monday sealed a music distribution deal with digital audio company RioPort that will allow music fans to transfer its tunes to portable devices. Under the deal, RioPort said it secured rights to distribute BMG songs via its upcoming music subscription service, dubbed PulseOne. The distribution license also includes the right to transfer songs to portable devices and other consumer electronics products such as music phones, digital stereos and set-top boxes.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-824668.html

Listen.com sings solo tune
Like a junkie pulling through rehab, Listen.com is glad to be alive. Echoes of wilder days still ring through the company's hip, brick- and glass-walled offices here in San Francisco's once hot multimedia gulch. Black-and-white photos of snarling punk and new wave musicians still hang on the lobby wall. Music still floats through the air, and a trio of framed Fillmore concert posters hangs on the office walls of the company's 33-year-old chief executive.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-824502.html

Olympics tickets are hot auction items
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which is putting on the 2002 Winter Games, paved the way for games-related auctions last year when it auctioned on eBay front-row seats to events such as figure skating and ice hockey. This year, the committee is offering bronze sculptures and paving bricks through eBay. Several people who participated in the Olympic torch relay have been selling their torches and official relay jackets on the online auction site and fetching bids of more than $2,000 for the torches alone.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-824733.html

Austin Powers' new enemy: MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has two purring words for AOL Time Warner's New Line Cinema studios: "Oh, behave." New Line has been recalling posters, commercials and even online links to the trailer for its upcoming film "Austin Powers in Goldmember" after an industry panel determined the title infringed on copyrights held by MGM, the home of the long-running James Bond spymaster series.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-824759.html

When screensavers are a crime
The next time you install software on your computer at work, you could be facing criminal charges. This is what happened to computer technician David McOwen, when he installed a program on the PCs at DeKalb Technical College in Atlanta, Georgia, US, without first asking permission. Mr McOwen loaded a distributed-computing program, similar to the Seti@home screensaver, on the college's PCs so that spare computing capacity could help in a volunteer code-breaking challenge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1782050.stm

Linux on mainframes enters phase 2
Out with the new, in with the old. In an inversion of the usually cutting-edge world of Linux, many of the announcements coming out of the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo this week will have a retro flavor, as companies that specialize in software for the oldfangled mainframe move to embrace the comparatively new operating system. Linux, a Unix clone that Linus Torvalds started as a student hobby 10 years ago, now has drawn support from companies far older than Linux itself -- such as BMC Software and Computer Associates International -- that sell software for IBM's decades-old line of mainframes.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-823787.html

Microsoft, AOL end document scuffle
AOL Time Warner and Microsoft on Monday resolved their differences over which documents will be released as part of the ongoing litigation in the software giant's antitrust trial. On Wednesday, Microsoft filed a brief with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asserting that AOL Time Warner had not released all of the documents requested as part of a discovery process. AOL Time Warner charged that Microsoft filed its Wednesday brief in response to a different lawsuit that Netscape Communications -- a unit of AOL -- had filed the previous day.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-824373.html?tag=cd_mh

Capitol Hill Web sites average a C-minus
Most congressional Web sites have plenty of room for improvement, with nine out of 10 providing paltry information and few services to their constituents, according to a report released Monday. Although some lawmakers and committees have set up innovative Web sites that allow citizens to easily get in touch or find out about issues, the Congress Online Project found that most emphasize rhetoric over content and don't keep information up-to-date. The report gave roughly 10 percent of the 605 sites it surveyed a grade of A or B, with Capitol Hill getting a C-minus average.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-824551.html?tag=cd_mh

W3C publishes patent proposal
The World Wide Web Consortium has published a new proposal for handling patent issues in its standards. The W3C develops industry standards for Web technologies, working with software developers and others. It first broached the idea last year of allowing patented technologies to be used in standards. The initial proposal met with significant criticism, especially from supporters of open-source and free software. The main complaint was that allowing patented technologies to be used in what are intended to be global standards could stifle development and create significant legal barriers for innovation.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-824334.html?tag=cd_mh

Nintendo strikes first in price war
Japan's Nintendo fired a first salvo Monday in an expected global price war between makers of home game consoles by announcing it will launch its GameCube system in Europe on May 3 for around $216 (250 euros). The gaming giant also announced a worldwide price cut of about 20 percent for its market-leading Game Boy Advance portable system. The European price of the GameCube comes in well below the $414 price tag Microsoft has set for its Xbox game machine, which is set to debut in Europe on March 14, and also beats industry leader Sony's PlayStation 2.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-824192.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

DNA Prescribed for Women's Health
A doctor in Utah believes women have been ignored in health care and intends to use the DNA of the Mormon population to develop therapies for women. Dr. Kenneth Ward spent his adult life delivering babies and treating women for diseases such as preeclampsia and polycystic ovarian syndrome. But he was constantly frustrated by the dearth of medical research in women's health issues and, in turn, the limited options afforded doctors when dealing with all aspects of women's health.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,49770,00.html

Open Source's Dot-Net Less Open
The architects of the Mono Project, an open-source version of Microsoft's .Net standard, have decided to alter the project's license to make it easier for corporations to contribute code to the initiative. But the change, which will be announced at the Linuxworld conference in New York on Monday, also raises the vexing possibility that some future versions of Mono might not be fully open to developer modification, an idea that is at the center of the open-source and free-software movements.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,50037,00.html

A Glove That Speaks Volumes
Instant messaging has improved communications for the deaf so significantly it's been called a "godsend" by one. Now, a glove that can translate American Sign Language into text may improve communications even further. Eighteen-year-old Ryan Patterson designed a sign language translator glove that works by sensing the hand movements of the sign language alphabet, then wirelessly transmitting the data to a portable device that displays the text on-screen.
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,49716,00.html

Computer Attacks on Companies Up Sharply
Cyber attacks are becoming more common and targeted, according to a study to be released today, and security experts warned that the trend is only going to increase. Tracking the security breaches of more than 300 clients across the world, Internet security firm Riptech said it verified at least 128,678 cyber attacks from July to December 2001. While few of the attacks detected posed a "severe threat," the Alexandria company said it was surprised by the volume.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002Jan27.html

Virtual world grows real economy
A computer game played by thousands of enthusiasts over the Internet has spawned an economy with a per-capita income comparable to that of a small country, according to new research by a US economist. The online fantasy game EverQuest lets players create and control characters - or avatars - within a fantasy world called Norrath. Characters gain skills and possessions that they can then trade with other players using the game's currency of "platinum pieces". However, many EverQuest players have found this process too complicated and have instead opted to sell their assets for real money though trading web sites such as eBay.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991847

Justice Dept. To Hire More Computer Crime Attorneys
The U.S. Justice Department has begun soliciting hundreds of resumes from attorneys skilled in computer crime and intellectual property law in an effort to keep pace with a growing caseload of cybercrime prosecutions. The Justice Department "is seeking experienced attorneys to fill positions in its Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section," the agency said in a notice recently posted on its Web site. According to the DOJ, the ideal candidates to fill the slots will be prepared to provide counsel on high-tech issues to prosecutors and agents, training to entities in the public and private sector, and comments on proposed legislation.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174007.html

Qwest Pulls Plan To Share Customer Data
Responding to what it called customer anxiety, telecommunications giant Qwest Communications International Inc. today dropped plans to share personally identifiable customer data throughout its corporate divisions. Last month, Qwest began sending out bill inserts notifying customers that it intended to begin sharing "customer account information" among its various divisions as a marketing tool.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174005.html

Nobel Laureates Oppose Microsoft Settlement
Two Nobel-prize-winning economists sided with some of Microsoft Corp.'s biggest rivals today in slamming the government's proposed settlement of its long-running antitrust case. In separate filings with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Nobel-prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Kenneth J. Arrow urged Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to reject the settlement, arguing that it is insufficient to end Microsoft's abuse of its monopoly power.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174004.html

More Online Security Woes For FBI's Data Firm
A week after plugging a severe security hole at its main Web site, database firm ChoicePoint has been stung with the discovery of major vulnerabilities at another of its Internet properties. According to security experts, the latest flaw potentially enabled remote attackers to take complete control of The LienGuard System, a ChoicePoint service for banks and other customers in the financial services industry.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174003.html

Aussie Agencies Get Access To U.S. Net Fraud Database
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today said that it would give Australian law enforcers broader access to Consumer Sentinel - the FTC's database of Internet and telemarketing fraud complaints. "One of (our) key goals is to improve information sharing," FTC Associate Director for Planning and Information Hugh Stevenson told Newsbytes today. "One of the challenges with consumer complaints is that if you just have one or two it's hard to know how valid the complaints are."
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174000.html

Humans Used In Mobile Phone Safety Research
Humans will be used in research into what effects, if any, mobile phone use has on blood pressure, hearing and other health aspects, a U.K. research group announced. Fifteen separate studies stem from the so-called Stewart Report issued in May 2000, which found no conclusive evidence that mobile phone use was - or was not - a health risk, and urged further study.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174002.html

Woman Admits To E-Mail Anthrax Hoax, Presidential Threats
A Columbus, Ohio, woman has pleaded guilty to sending e-mail threatening to kill President George W. Bush and to send anthrax-laden letters to thousands of colleges and middle schools. Alemash T. Alemayehu, 23, admitted guilt to the charges Friday. Her menacing screeds may have gone unnoticed had she not sent them directly to an FBI Web site that collects tips on terrorist activity.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174001.html

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Thank you very much Mr. Newsman! Can I have a cup of cappucino with the newspaper too?



- tg

[netcoco]

Originally posted by TankGirl
Thank you very much Mr. Newsman! Can I have a cup of cappucino with the newspaper too?



- tg

Rooooo I stole TankGirl's first copy !! I stole TankGirl's first copy !! Give me a cookie to get it back

[walktalker]

Damn, my birdie is at it again ! Come, Netcoco, give TG her copy and return to your cage IMMEDIATELY !!

Hehehe here's the java readlady... It was quite a while no one ever asked me for a coffee, so take your time and get comfortable on my leather sofas

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
Damn, my birdie is at it again ! Come, Netcoco, give TG her copy and return to your cage IMMEDIATELY !!

Hehehe here's the java readlady... It was quite a while no one ever asked me for a coffee, so take your time and get comfortable on my leather sofas

Thanks for the java... ...and what's for the dinner, charmer - roasted parrot?

- tg

[Copyright Queen]

Aaah, WT, thanks for news. I'm late for a meeting, but had to pop in.

How are ya, TG? I filed that SOM patent application last Thursday--with color pix (rare for patents)