The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

I still can't believe my beloved news sources were closed last night

Cell phones: Tech giants enter the ring
Major global technology companies raised the stakes in the battle for dominance of the cell phone industry on Tuesday, with linkups that point to an overhaul of the multi-billion-dollar market. Microsoft and Nokia announced separate deals with U.S. chipmaker Texas Instruments to produce hardware that any manufacturer can build into mobile gadgets. Additionally chipmaker Intel is in the partnership with Microsoft. This means any electronics maker can buy the chipset, the building block at the heart of a gadget, to enter the market for smart cell phones that can download e-mails, send picture messages and display calendars.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-840311.html

Ishe movie industry prepared for piracy?
Exactly what can we expect when MPEG-4 becomes the standard for video compression, and what will come of future compression standards? More bootlegging, that's what. While the movie industry thinks it can forestall the inevitable, you can be certain that people will be freely trading movies the way they freely trade audio files now. Broadband, combined with advanced compression algorithms, will assure this future. There are a number of interesting aspects about this beginning to emerge. None of it bodes well for the movie industry. I am suggesting that they will bring it on themselves.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-839950.html

Intel explores ultrawideband technology
Intel is diving into a full-fledged research program for its ultrawideband technology, which uses the airwaves to carry data between computers. The Federal Communications Commission approved the wireless technology last week. Ultrawideband, or UWB, has the potential to become a high-bandwidth wireless connection between computers or between computers and consumer-electronics devices such as digital cameras, said Kevin Kahn, co-director of Intel Labs' Communications Interconnect Technology Lab.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-840393.html

Security guru: Let's secure the Net
The United States' top adviser on cybersecurity on Tuesday took companies to task, pointing out that many spend less on computer security than they do on coffee for employees. Richard Clarke, the special adviser to the president on cybersecurity, told security experts at the RSA Data Security Conference here that such complacency leaves the Internet -- and many other critical infrastructures -- in danger of attack. Clarke cited statistics that indicate that less than 0.0025 percent of corporate revenue on average is spent on information-technology security.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-840476.html

Dangerous Yarner worm spells bad news
A dangerous worm from Germany is loose on the Internet. Yarner (w32.yarner.a@mm) appears to be a newsletter about Trojan horses from a legitimate security site, but is actually a dangerous worm. Yarner is a Windows PE EXE file about 434K in size, written in Delphi. It uses its own e-mail engine to send copies of itself to others. Once executed, the worm deletes the Windows directory on infected computers. At present, the infections are limited to Germany, however, a new variation could be produced in English or any other language. Because of the dangerous potential of this worm, Yarner ranks a 7 on the ZDNet Virus Meter.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-840177.html

End of the reel for $1 movies site
An ambitious overseas effort to create an online video-on-demand service without the permission of the Hollywood film studios disappeared from the Net early Tuesday morning. Movie88.com, a Taiwanese Web site that offered access to a huge library of films for just $1 each, had drawn Hollywood's ire after reaching the world's attention in early February. Although the site's owners claimed they were complying with Taiwanese copyright law, copyright-holders' groups quickly dubbed it a "pirate" site. According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), an international trade group representing the interests of the film industry, Taiwanese authorities helped shut the site down.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-840275.html

Is Microsoft promising too much?
As far back as 1999, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer looked ahead enthusiastically to the rise of Web services as "more significant than the development of the browser." In typical Microsoft fashion, the world's largest software manufacturer dived headlong into the trend with a rush of marketing hyperbole. Also in character, at least according to critics, the company created much buzz about the new technology before fully developing its concept, let alone any actual products or services.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-839877.html

New breakthrough for data compression?
In a tiny office in West Palm Beach, Fla., a handful of clunky computers are crunching through a software problem that many consider unsolvable. These are the offices of ZeoSync, a start-up that made a name for itself in January by claiming to have discovered a way to shrink virtually any digital file to a hundredth of its size -- and then restore the file to its original size without error. If true, it would signify a huge leap forward in computer science, comparable to the invention of a water-powered engine for automakers or cold fusion for power companies.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-839884.html

Linux, Windows to run on IBM servers
IBM wants its Intel-based servers to pull double duty. The company will use tools from software maker VMware to allow IBM x360 eServer models to run the Windows and Linux operating systems in various combinations. IBM will discuss the VMware licensing deal later Tuesday at its Partnerworld conference. The deal fits into two Big Blue efforts: the X architecture initiative to offer more sophisticated Intel-based servers and an overall emphasis on the open-source Linux software.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-840149.html

Blue lasers sharpen new DVD standards
Nine consumer electronics makers including Japanese giants Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial said on Tuesday they agreed to uniform standards for next-generation blue-laser DVDs. The pact aims to avoid the fragmentation of standards for DVD (digital versatile disc) recorders that has plagued the current line-up of red-laser products, which feature three separate formats. Blue-laser light, with a shorter wavelength than the red variety, can be honed into a finer beam, enabling it to read and write more bits of information on a given area of disc space.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-839895.html

Microsoft still missing IM connections
A glitch affecting Microsoft's instant messaging system is preventing some from staying connected to the service. Problems started as far back as mid-January, with many people reporting similar troubles: Messenger disconnecting without notice anywhere from five minutes to about 15 minutes after signing on, and people occasionally appearing disconnected to their "buddies" even during instant messaging exchanges. Those people using Windows Messenger, which is only available as part of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, appear to be suffering the most consistent disconnects.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-840076.html

OS maker files suit against Microsoft
Operating system maker Be on Tuesday said it has filed a federal lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the software giant's anti-competitive practices stunted the growth of the Be operating system. In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Be said it is suing for "the destruction of its business as a direct result of the illegal and anti-competitive practices of Microsoft." The company is seeking unspecified damages. Be, which last year sold its technology to Palm, is in the process of dissolving itself as a company. CEO Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple Computer executive, launched Be in 1999.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-840478.html

IBM adds new levels of security
IBM is brushing up its computer security system to further protect its customers' data. The company on Tuesday said it will add a handful of new features to the software behind its Embedded Security System -- a bundle of hardware and applications installed on most IBM PCs and used to encrypt files and passwords. PC security has long been a selling point for IBM in wooing corporate customers. Last year, for instance, IBM added a feature on select notebooks and desktops that allowed customers to keep a mirror image of their applications and data below a partition in the hard drive.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-840434.html

Liberty Alliance, Passport still at odds
Representatives from the two major initiatives to build a common infrastructure for verifying identity on the Internet said Tuesday that while a standard system is necessary, the sides may not be able to work together anytime soon. Microsoft would like to guarantee interoperability between its Passport services and the future Liberty Alliance specification within a year, confirmed Brian Arbogast, vice president of Microsoft's .Net core services platform group.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-840455.html

Security czar: Button up or get hacked
The United States' top adviser on cybersecurity on Tuesday took companies to task, pointing out that many spend less on computer security than they do on coffee for employees. Richard Clarke, the special adviser to the president on cybersecurity, told security experts at the RSA Data Security Conference here that such complacency leaves the Internet -- and many other critical infrastructures -- in danger of attack. Clarke cited statistics that indicate that less than 0.0025 percent of corporate revenue on average is spent on information-technology security.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-840335.html

Human rights application not finished
A software project that aims to allow oppressed people to view censored Web sites still has significant development ahead before it can deliver on its promise, the author said Sunday. In its first public unveiling, the Peekabooty project was shown to open-source programmers and social hackers at CodeCon in San Francisco. The demonstration made evident, however, that the program has a way to go, and project leader Paul Baranowski estimated he and programmer Joey De Villa have as much as six months of work ahead of them before the program is usable.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-839764.html?tag=cd_mh

Dot-com dropouts share open-source love
Open-source programmers gathered this past weekend to share ideas and dreams about new methods for distributing encrypted data across the Internet and plans for a peer-to-peer wireless backbone. Aside from a common love of computing, the crowd that was gathered in the dim confines of a nightclub at the edge of Multimedia Gulch here shared another trait: unemployment. While many skilled programmers here were caught up in the recent dot-com frenzy, the collapse of the market has left most of them without work -- and with a lot of free time.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-839705.html?tag=cd_mh

A genius and his machine
For many of us, the computer is the symbol of our hypermodernity, the image of how vastly we differ -- culturally, economically, socially and politically -- from past generations. And many of us think of our hypermodernity as a phenomenon of the 1990s, when PCs became fixtures in our homes, and the Internet became one of our primary means of communicating, working, shopping, playing and even procrastinating. But the idea of the computer is old indeed, traceable to a largely forgotten Victorian inventor named Charles Babbage. Doron Swade's "The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer" tells the story of Babbage's lifelong dedication to the idea of the computer, from the moment in 1821 when he exclaimed that mathematics ought to be powered by steam, until his death half a century later, a slightly addled old man still hard at work on his eternally evolving designs.
http://news.com.com/2009-1001-839530.html?tag=cd_mh

Drivers' licenses may get make-over
The humble state driver's license is being sized up for a make-over as lawmakers and government agencies look for ways to reduce identity fraud in the wake of Sept. 11. Proposals to standardize the application process, include digitized hand scans or other "biometric" identifiers, and increase the availability of underlying drivers' records have gained ground after investigators found that several of hijackers who slammed planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center had used fraudulent identification.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-839463.html?tag=cd_mh

Judge orders Microsoft to reveal code
A federal judge late Friday told Microsoft it must disclose portions of the Windows source code, including XP and XP Embedded, to nine litigating states and the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly delivered her order during a conference call between the parties, potentially expanding the amount of source code available to trustbusters. The states had access to some Windows source code during the liability and settlement phases of the trial.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-839356.html?tag=cd_mh

Sony taps into creative Muze
Entertainment information company Muze said Tuesday that it has formed ties with Sony Music Entertainment to stream music samples for online promotions. Under the licensing deal, New York-based Muze has secured rights to Sony's vast catalog of songs and is authorized to stream the tunes as promotional samples for its streaming audio preview service, dubbed MuzeTunes. Launched in May, MuzeTunes provides retailers with audio clips in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format. The deal also gives Muze the authorization to display front cover album art.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-840307.html?tag=cd_mh

High court to hear sex offender case
In its next term, the U.S. Supreme Court will debate the legality of posting sex offenders' names online and whether Congress can extend copyrights, a move that would affect material available on the Internet. The sex offender case involves statutes that fall under the heading "Megan's Law," which require registration of convicted sex offenders. Several states have laws requiring that information including names and addresses of offenders be released to neighbors and community groups.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-840129.html?tag=cd_mh

MGM movies, straight to your PC or TV
Video-on-demand provider Intertainer said it has struck a distribution deal with MGM Home Entertainment to offer movie buffs an array of Hollywood films. Under the deal, Intertainer said it has secured rights to some of MGM's new releases as well as its 4,100 archive titles. The films will be available through Intertainer's broadband video-on-demand service, which can deliver content to both PCs and TV sets. Studio licensing deals have been a significant hurdle for video-on-demand services. Analysts said the deal would give Intertainer a boost by expanding its available content.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-839830.html?tag=cd_mh

Pirate's heaven in Vietnam
Contrary to popular belief, you can't pick up a pirated DVD of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on this city's streets within five minutes. First, the Vietnamese street vendors don't categorize their movies, so relatively recent films such as "Vanilla Sky," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Moulin Rouge" are mixed in with "The Big Sleep" and the famed "Red," "White" and "Blue" trilogy from Krzysztof Kieslowski. Second, the pirates here have adopted the just-in-time manufacturing ethos of Dell Computer. Often, you have to make your selection first and then a guy on a mo-ped runs off with your order to his friend with a burner.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-839524.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Thanks again for the news, WT! An interesting issue!

Originally posted by walktalker
New breakthrough for data compression?
In a tiny office in West Palm Beach, Fla., a handful of clunky computers are crunching through a software problem that many consider unsolvable. These are the offices of ZeoSync, a start-up that made a name for itself in January by claiming to have discovered a way to shrink virtually any digital file to a hundredth of its size -- and then restore the file to its original size without error. If true, it would signify a huge leap forward in computer science, comparable to the invention of a water-powered engine for automakers or cold fusion for power companies.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-839884.html

Hmmm... isn't this the same cold-fusion-kind-of thing we discussed here some time ago? I tried to check the earlier article link provided by Jack but the story was not up anymore. After reading the story I must say I am not too convinced...

- tg

[Mowzer]

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