The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

SuSE 8.0 arrives without StarOffice
Germany's SuSE said on Friday that the new version of its Linux operating system distribution does not include the latest version of StarOffice because its proprietary, fee-based license would have increased the cost of the operating system. The shift in policy of one of several changes to SuSE Linux 8.0, which includes revamped core technology and new graphical desktop software. SuSE included version 5.2 of StarOffice, a Microsoft Office-like package from Sun Microsystems, in previous distributions but decided against including StarOffice 6.0 after Sun began charging fees for the software.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-893089.html

Review: Mozilla loaded up for browser wars
We've waited more than four years for Mozilla, the Netscape-backed open-source browser -- and we're still waiting for the completed version. But Mozilla has finally posted its official Release Candidate 1 (RC 1) and plans to release the final soon. In our unofficial tests, RC 1 ran nearly as fast as Internet Explorer 6. Plus, it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, which no other browser does, and it promises a greater ability to customize than competing browsers do.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-892855.html

Scientists breakthrough on Moore's Law
Scientists at Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies, have found a way to peer deep inside a semiconductor and create an image of a single impurity atom in silicon, a development that will help scientists understand how impurities affect the properties of microchips. This understanding of semiconductors at the atomic level is critical in devising manufacturing technologies needed to shrink the size of future generations of high-speed electronics, such as microprocessors, in a bid to keep Moore's Law on track.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-892962.html

Study: Users aren't buying online ID hype
Microsoft and other technology makers struggling to define new Web services business models have another obstacle: consumer distrust of online authentication systems. A new Gartner study indicates that despite compulsory sign-up programs, consumers aren't interested in online identity and authentication accounts -- such as Microsoft's Passport and AOL's Screen Name service -- and won't be anytime soon. Moreover, few people trust Microsoft and AOL to safeguard the personal or financial information necessary for conducting online transactions.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-892838.html

Cyberwar games: Cadets hone their skills
Systems administrator David Riebrandt's first hint that intruders had hacked the military network came from telltale electronic footprints. From the logs -- electronic records of the information passed on the network -- it quickly became evident that a server with gate-keeping control over different parts of the system was getting downright chatty with a foreign computer via the Internet.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-893314.html?tag=fd_lede

A law to protect spyware
Outrage surged through users of the KaZaA file-sharing utility when they learned, early in April, that a new breed of spyware had been installed on their computers. KaZaA, probably the most popular heir to Napster's throne, was already well known for coming bundled with a wide variety of parasite programs that serve up advertisements, track Web-surfing activity, and otherwise cause mischief. But the newest arrival topped anything seen before in scope or ambition. A company called Brilliant Digital had surreptitiously installed software in computers running KaZaA...
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/0...are/index.html

Infineon's fashion trend: Wearable chips
Chipmaker Infineon Technologies is weaving its products into an entirely new fashion industry: high-tech textiles. The Munich-based company on Friday showed off new prototype wearable chips that it says can be sewn directly into clothing and other textiles. Infineon's Emerging Technologies Group has developed chips, sensors and packages that allow the processors to be woven into fabrics. Special materials woven into the fabric are used to connect the chips and sensors.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-892937.html?tag=cd_mh

Lawyer to pay up in Web defamation
A California man who calls himself "the guru of drunk-driving law" must pay $1 million to a rival lawyer in a Web defamation case. A Los Angeles jury ruled this week that Edward "Fast Eddie" Kuwatch posted false and defamatory statements about Lawrence Taylor, a competing drunk-driving defense lawyer, on his Web site. Kuwatch -- who's also the Libertarian candidate for attorney general -- called the lawyers working for Taylor poorly trained and inexperienced. Kuwatch also refused to take down negative comments about Taylor and other lawyers unless people who complained about the postings bought a copy of his book.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-893321.html?tag=cd_mh

Techs raise digital broadcast flag
A final report for establishing a standard to protect digital copyrighted broadcasts from being illegally redistributed is slated to be issued May 17, industry players told lawmakers Thursday. The step would be incremental as other issues such as stopping the unauthorized copying of songs and other digital media on the Internet are still unresolved and the subject of heated debate, but it would represent a breakthrough, executives of major media companies told a congressional panel.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-892154.html?tag=cd_mh

Patriot Act said to hinder Net freedoms
Some lawmakers and civil libertarians are attacking the 6-month-old Patriot Act, saying it has "created the danger that Americans will be afraid to communicate freely over the Internet." Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hi., along with the Free Expression Network -- a coalition of organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center--blasted the act, saying it risks becoming an "unwise and unnecessary" restriction on free speech.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-892335.html?tag=cd_mh

A Tug of War Over Blood Supply
The perceived threat of mad cow disease is about to further diminish America's already dwindling blood supply -- but a new blood collecting technology could come to the rescue. The restrictions, to be implemented by the FDA on May 31, are designed to protect blood collections from being tainted with a fatal disease that eats away at the brain. The disease is believed to be caused by eating meat infected with mad cow disease.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,52126,00.html

Hotmail at Risk to Cookie Thieves
MSN Hotmail users, guard your cookies. A simple technique for accessing Microsoft's free e-mail service without a password is in the wild and apparently being exploited. The trick involves capturing a copy of the victim's browser cookies file. Once the perpetrator gains two key Hotmail cookies, there's no way to lock him out because at Hotmail, cookies trump even passwords.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,52115,00.html

Hill Back to Biz of Biz Privacy
Privacy is back. Congress and the White House abruptly shelved the topic after last September's terrorist attacks -- and quickly enacted a passel of new laws that granted police unprecedented surveillance powers. No, there's no move afoot, at least not yet, to limit FBI wiretapping, Internet monitoring, or the ability of courts to approve secret search warrants. But Capitol Hill is resuming where it left off circa Sept. 11 -- by debating relatively modest proposals that would regulate corporations' data-collection practices and require privacy impact statements from federal agencies.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52128,00.html

Crooks Cause Chilean Car Chaos
New Yorkers think they have traffic jams, but sorting them out is child's play compared to what Chilean commuters awoke to on Thursday -- a morning of mayhem and chaos. In Santiago de Chile, 800 of the city's 1,800 traffic lights went haywire after thieves stole 15 PCs and 2 servers from the Unidad Operativa de Control de Tránsito ( UOCT), the office that manages the traffic flow of the city.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52114,00.html

A Tax Plan to (and From) Space
To the extent that there has been any public discussion of Michael Williams, a 28-year-old Alabama congressional candidate who wants to fund NASA by taxing works of science fiction, two divergent views have emerged. The first holds that Williams -- a supermarket bagger by day -- is a visionary, a man of innovation and wisdom who thinks years ahead of his time. The second view is less charitable: He's crazy as a loon. Tax science fiction? What is he thinking? Williams' plan gained some attention this week when The Huntsville Times, his local newspaper, wrote a short profile on him, and the novelty of his ideas propelled the brief article into the chattering land of weblogs.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52124,00.html

Nanotubes go flash bang wallop
Taking a snapshot of carbon nanotubes using an ordinary camera flash can cause them to emit a loud pop and then suddenly burst into flame. Scientists say this unique explosive phenomenon may lead to new means of manufacturing nanoscale carbon materials and even remote-control devices for small explosive charges. Pulickel Ajayan and his team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, have been at work since one of his students accidentally sparked a tiny explosion by photographing a bundle of single-walled carbon nanotubes.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992219

Dark Energy Tops List of 'Big Questions'
It's a big and complex universe out there, and even the smartest scientists know they can't solve all its puzzles on their own. So a new report produced by a group of leading cosmologists, astronomers and physicists calls for greater cooperation across disciplines and agencies in an effort to answer some remaining big questions of the cosmos. It also suggests which questions ought to top the list.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ns_020426.html

DVD Copying Software Defendant Gets Supported in Calif. Fight
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) Thursday filed an Amicus Curiae, or "friend of the court," brief with the California Supreme Court on behalf of an out-of-state defendant in a DVD-copying software publication case. The group is urging the court to overturn a lower court ruling that the developer must stand trial in California even though he doesn’t live there. In its brief, the CCIA said a California appeals court erred when it ruled the state has jurisdiction over Matthew Pavlovich and ordered him to stand trial in California.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176180.html

More news later on