The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Grid computing earns a living
Is grid computing in your company's future? In the past 10 years, grids emerged as a way to join numerous servers into a collective supercomputer to perform taxing calculations such as global climate modeling. As a result, grids have been largely been the terrain of academics and start-ups. IBM, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and others are hoping to change that by nudging the concept toward the mainstream of the business world.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-841810.html

New shaded Palms join color craze
Palm is expected to announce two new color handhelds in the coming weeks, sources say. One handheld, the m515, is expected to replace Palm's current high-end m505 and will be priced similarly at $399, according to sources. The other handheld, the m130, is expected to cost approximately $280. Palm is expected to announce the devices March 4, sources said, but product launches have been known to change because of last minute hiccups.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-841554.html

Europe clamps down on software patents
The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled a new approach to software patents, which a top Commission official said would draw U.S. criticism as it would set tougher criteria in Europe for the granting of a patent. The proposal, which aims to standardize a variety of software patent rules across the 15-member EC bloc, requires that software contain new ideas to qualify for patent protection. In addition, patents would apply only to software loaded on a machine or connected to an operating system.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-841704.html

The data collection tug of war
Web publishers and advertisers are in a tug of war over consumer data gathered in online ad campaigns, a conflict that could muddy the future of interactive marketing on the Internet, television and emerging media. The fight is playing out in almost weekly meetings staged by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade group of the roughly $7 billion online ad market. The IAB is hosting working groups to define new terms and conditions for interactive ad contracts, with the goal of simplifying the process for publishers and advertisers.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-841498.html

Google: You have to pay to play
Google on Wednesday said it has begun auctioning ad-sponsored links on its search results pages, firing another shot across the bow of paid-search leader Overture Services. The program, called AdWords Select, ranks ads based partly on how much an advertiser pays and partly on popularity, or click-through rates. AdWords Select requires advertisers to pay only when a visitor clicks on the ad. Google's previous program, AdWords, was based on a traditional online system that required payment by the number of impressions delivered.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-841417.html

MVQ streaming may blow away MPEG-4
Finnish developer Oplayo has been demonstrating a compression technology at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes which, says the company, is up to ten times faster for delivering audio and video to mobile devices than MPEG-4. Baptised MVQ (which stands for Motion Vector Quantization), the technology enables extremely light video decoding that requires a low processing power at the receiving end, making it suitable for wireless devices. Instead of using a plug-in, or a player as is the case with both Microsoft and RealNetworks technologies, Oplayo's MVQ uses a 20KB Java applet that can be transmitted to a PC, PDA or phone along with the video package.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-840979.html

AOL's high-speed service hits bumps
America Online's transition to broadband services is likely to be "more difficult and costly than originally anticipated," leaving parent AOL Time Warner struggling to offset AOL's slowing growth for its dial-up service, according to a Lehman Brothers report. In the report, analyst Holly Becker argues that AOL has had little success striking deals with cable partners largely because companies like Comcast, Cox Communications and others have been successful in landing high-speed subscribers without AOL.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-841148.html

States: Microsoft is abusing settlement
Microsoft has already used its proposed settlement with the U.S. Justice Department to impose harsher terms on computer manufacturers that buy its software, the states still pursuing the antitrust case against the company alleged Tuesday. In a legal brief filed with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the states cited the comments of a Microsoft executive to bolster their argument that the settlement is weak and has not diminished the software giant's ability to abuse its monopoly in PC operating systems.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-840860.html

Microsoft preps Windows security scanner
As part of a push to regain the public trust, Microsoft plans to release a wizard-like program to help home software users and network administrators protect their computer systems from outside attack. Called the Baseline Security Advisor, the program will scan Windows computers for unpatched programs, weak passwords, and vulnerabilities in the operating system and in several Microsoft products.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-841770.html

HP merger opponent gains support
A Wall Street analyst on Wednesday said she agrees with many points made by dissident Hewlett-Packard board member Walter Hewlett, including that HP should reconsider a spinoff of its lucrative printing and imaging businesses. In a research note issued late Wednesday, Prudential Securities analyst Kimberly Alexy wrote that she recently met with Hewlett and agrees with some of his criticism of the proposed $22 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer. While many analysts have issued their own analysis of the merger, Alexy's report was one of the few to offer a point-by-point critique of Hewlett's opposition.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-841737.html

eBay service lets sellers offer expertise
eBay is offering a new service to customers looking to cash in on their selling experience. Last week, the online auction giant launched a new database that lists customers who are willing to sell goods for others -- for a fee. The service lists sellers -- who must meet certain feedback and listing criteria -- by area code, state and country. The "Trading Assistants" program, as it's known, already lists more than 200 sellers. "Many sellers already do this as a way of making money on eBay and as a fun way to serve the eBay community," eBay told users on its announcements board.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-841675.html

Webcasters grumble over proposed fees
Government regulators on Wednesday set long-awaited music licensing rates for online radio stations, essentially splitting the difference between two wildly divergent proposals from the recording industry and Internet advocates. A closely watched arbitration panel appointed by the U.S. Copyright Office recommended that online radio stations pay about a seventh of a cent for every song they stream online. For America Online, which said it was streaming about 160 million songs a month by late last year, the new rates would turn into a monthly bill of about $224,000.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841612.html

Satellite radio to pay for play
Satellite radio operators XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio said on Wednesday that they entered into a licensing deal with the performing rights organization American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Under the deal, the satellite radio operators will pay royalties to ASCAP in return for the right to publicly broadcast about 7 million compositions in ASCAP's repertoire. Details of the five-year agreement were not disclosed.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841701.html

Study: Ability to invent inspires engineers
Uncreative, unambitious nerds are people who only pine for pocket protectors and don't care about the outside world? Hardly. A new survey aims to dispel stereotypes about engineers and others who work in technological or scientific fields, emphasizing that most decided to enter their professions "to invent, design and discover." The survey from a scientific-software company explains that most engineers are highly creative, entrepreneurial types with a desire to change the world -- or at least some small corner of it.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-841508.html

Web rage hits the internet
We have all heard of road rage and air rage. Now we have web rage. More than half of all internet users admit to losing their rag with the net at least once a week, according to a Mori study. High on people's stress meter is the length of time it takes websites to appear, help buttons that do not offer any help and requests for personal details before being allowed into a site.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1829944.stm

A.I. Reboots
Cyc and its rival knowledge bases are among several projects that have recently restored a sense of intellectual accomplishment to A.I. — a field that once inspired dreams of sentient computers like 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000 and laid claim to the secret of human intelligence, only to be forced to back off from its ambitions after years of experimental frustrations. Indeed, there is a palpable sense among A.I.’s faithful — themselves survivors of a long, cold research winter — that their science is on the verge of new breakthroughs. “I believe that in the next two years things will be dramatically changing,” says Lenat.
http://www.techreview.com/articles/hiltzik0302.asp

Is ReplayTV the Next Napster?
TV programs can be a great catalyst for bringing friends together. The folks at ReplayTV, which makes digital video recorders (DVRs), and its parent company, SonicBlue (SBLU), understand this. That's why ReplayTV allows users to e-mail one another TV shows that they've "taped." The major television and movie studios also understand this, which is why they've filed suit against ReplayTV and SonicBlue to put the kibosh on ReplayTV's e-mail functionality and a host of other consumer-friendly features -- most notably, the ability to let couch potatoes fast-forward through commercials.
http://www.business2.com/articles/we...,38141,FF.html

Olympic beret site slow as escargot
Each Olympics sees its share of crass commercialism, and the Salt Lake City Games appears to be following tradition. The rage over a blue polyester beret bearing the U.S. flag has Olympics fans standing in the cold for hours to buy one. Demand has now spilled over to the Internet. The Web site for Roots, the official clothing supplier for the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams, suffered periodic stalls Tuesday as a result of high traffic, according to a message posted on the site's home page.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-840708.html?tag=cd_mh

FTC clamps down on cell radiation shields
U.S. regulators said Wednesday they had sued two companies that sold devices that claimed to block potential health risks from mobile phones, saying the firms had no basis to say the devices worked. The Federal Trade Commission said the companies falsely claimed their products -- sold under the names "SafeTShield," "Noanger" and "WaveShield" -- could block electromagnetic waves emitted from cell phones that some fear could cause brain cancer.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-841758.html?tag=cd_mh

Windows Media aware of DVDs watched
Microsoft on Wednesday amended the privacy policy for its Windows Media Player after a noted computer security expert warned that the software keeps track of the DVD titles people watch. In a Web advisory, computer privacy and security consultant Richard Smith detailed what he termed "a number of serious privacy problems" with the Windows Media Player for the Windows XP operating system. The posting flagged a feature that allows Microsoft to log what DVDs play on a particular PC through the use of an electronic tracking file known as a "cookie."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841766.html?tag=cd_mh

Pay-per-view films on a PC near you
Video-on-demand provider Kanakaris Wireless said Wednesday it will offer movie buffs feature films on its Web site, CinemaPop.com. The Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company said its service offers people the option of watching full-length flicks in a streaming or downloadable format via a high-speed Internet connection. Until now, Kanakaris' content has been available only in a streaming format.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841739.html?tag=cd_mh

Need a number? Talk to the phone
Yahoo on Wednesday announced that it now offers voice-activated dialing as part of its phone services to customers, another example of the Web portal's efforts to expand its offerings beyond the Web. Customers can dial a number from any phone in the United States to access their Yahoo account and speak the name or number of a person listed in their Yahoo address book. Net2Phone's telecom network then completes the call to anywhere in the country.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841346.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[Dawn]

It's not Wednesday, it's Thursday newsman.

Thanks for the paper, as usual.

[walktalker]

Originally posted by Dawn
It's not Wednesday, it's Thursday newsman.

I guess my paper was stuck in a cybertraffic jam or something