The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

I'm finally on vacations... for two days lol

Is Microsoft controlling PC makers?
How Microsoft treats its PC customers could become a hot issue next week in federal court. The states prosecuting the software giant are seeking to introduce new evidence showing that Microsoft is using the separate settlement with the Justice Department to exert more control over PC makers. The states want to introduce 12 documents, including e-mails from Dell Computer, to support earlier allegations that Microsoft is using new uniform licensing rules to raise the price PC makers pay for Windows and to continue potential retaliatory behavior.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-898931.html

States: Microsoft planned to crush Real
A Microsoft executive presented a plan in 1999 to conquer the market for audio and video delivery over the Internet using a tactic already employed to fend off a rival Internet browser, a federal judge was told on Thursday. Nine states seeking stiff antitrust sanctions against the software giant cited a Jan. 3, 1999, e-mail to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates outlining a plan to use the dominant Windows operating system to promote Microsoft's Netshow media streaming software over that offered by RealNetworks.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-898297.html

Hacker exposes holes in .Net
The much-vaunted security of Microsoft's next-generation Web services platform is good, but the company still has some kinks to iron out, one security consultant said Thursday. H.D. Moore, a hacker and senior security analyst for Digital Defense, told attendees of the CanSecWest security conference here that the .Net Framework could nearly eliminate some types of vulnerabilities that plague Microsoft products today, but that the server software is still easy to misconfigure, especially since much of the documentation teaches insecure programming.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-898302.html

Sonicblue forced to spy on subscribers?
In response to a lawsuit filed by a slew of heavyweight entertainment companies, a federal magistrate has ordered Sonicblue to monitor customers' activities to find out what TV programming they record, duplicate or send to others -- a situation the company says is tantamount to forced spying. "We're being ordered to spy on our customers; that's the most direct way of looking at it," said Ken Potashner, chief executive of the digital video recorder company. Privacy advocates were also concerned.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-899021.html

ActiveX flaw exposes Flash users to hacks
An exploit has been discovered in Macromedia's Flash player that could let hackers execute malicious code on a user's computer. According to Macromedia, more than 436 million copies of the Flash player have been downloaded from its site, accounting for 98 percent of Web users. The exploit appears to have been independently discovered by Macromedia, which has already issued a fixed version of the Flash player, and by security software firm eEye Digital Security, which was credited last year with discovering and naming the Code Red virus.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-898517.html

Security causes Best Buy register ban
Best Buy, one of the nation's largest electronics chains, banned the use of wireless cash registers at its 492 stores this week after learning a hacker may have intercepted a customer's credit card number, spokeswoman Joy Harris said Friday. The Best Buy cash registers used a Wi-Fi network, which uses a standard known as 802.11b. It runs on three channels in the unregulated 2.4GHZ spectrum, which is also used by cordless phones, microwave ovens and many Bluetooth products. Because the information is transmitted through the air, a person can "capture" the information from the parking lot outside the store or anywhere within about 300 feet of the source.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-898775.html

The serious, serious business of games
Sydney-based games developer SSG recently released "Warlord Battlecry II." The game took over 12 people around 15 months to develop, and relied heavily on outsourcing work to freelance 3D artists. Twenty years ago, when SSG vice president Gregor Whiley began developing games for Apple II and Commodore 64s, a really complex game may have required the luxury of two developers, working part-time on the project while they kept their "real jobs" on the side. These days, according to Whiley, the games industry does not allow any room for nostalgia or sentimentality. Games mean business, in no uncertain terms, and staying in the games business means taking the business of games very seriously.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-898943.html

Spyware vs. anti-spyware
Nicholas Stark has spent the past two years fighting "spyware": programs surreptitiously bundled together with popular software downloads for the purpose of delivering advertisements or tracking personal information. His Swedish company, Lavasoft, produces a product called Ad-Aware that searches a computer for hidden spyware, and then asks users if they'd like the program removed. Spyware is a fast-moving business with new entries arriving by the day.
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/0...are/index.html

"Spider-Man" uses Web to lure fans
Film fans looking for information about Friday's premiere of the new "Spider-Man" movie may find themselves tangled in a web of online promotions. From online auctions to the film's official Web site, Sony Pictures has turned to the Internet to create a buzz for its latest flick. Many of the studio's Web promotions have started on its own sites. Sony released "Spider-Man" trailers online before they began appearing in theaters. It is letting moviegoers buy theater tickets through the film's official Web site and Fandango.com.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-899211.html?tag=cd_mh

Study: File sharing boosts music sales
Hundreds of millions of songs may illegally trade hands online every month, but file swapping may actually be causing people to spend more money on music, according to a new research report. A study released this week by Jupiter Research reports that about 34 percent of veteran file swappers say they are spending more on music than they did before they started downloading files. About 14 percent of heavy file traders say they now spend less on music.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-898813.html?tag=cd_mh

Font companies crack down on student
Talk about the fine print. A group of design companies has been lobbing legal threats at a graduate student over a font-altering program he created in his teens, saying it could violate digital copyright laws that make it illegal to circumvent anti-copying features in software. At issue is Embed, a program created five years ago by Carnegie Mellon computer science and design student Tom Murphy. The application eases restrictions on font-creation software that make it difficult to copy typefaces. Such restrictions may let developers print and preview fonts, for example, but not embed them in documents where they can be edited.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-898777.html?tag=cd_mh

Webcasters' silence is heard
Independent Webcasters protesting a proposed licensing regime for Net radio drew crowds of listeners Wednesday, urging them to rally in support of lower royalty fees. As previously reported, hundreds of small online radio stations were expected to turn off their music streams in a "Day of Silence." Many Webcasters fell entirely silent Wednesday while others replaced their music streams with periods of silence interspersed with public service announcements. In addition, some are running a 12-hour talk show called "The Emergency Webcasting System."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-897076.html?tag=cd_mh

Study: Teach kids about Web dangers
Filters alone won't protect children from Internet porn, according to a report released Thursday. The National Research Council report, released the day after lawmakers introduced yet another anti-porn bill targeting Web material, said no quick fix exists to guard children from unsuitable material on the Web. Instead, it suggested a complex combination of measures and promoted education as one of the best ways to shield children from porn.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-897591.html?tag=cd_mh

Winamp glitch may benefit open source
A recently disclosed vulnerability in an old version of the popular Winamp media player could provide a boost for the royalty-free alternative to the MP3 format known as Ogg Vorbis. AOL Time Warner's Nullsoft subsidiary has been encouraging people using its Winamp 2.79 player to upgrade to a new version as a fix for a security vulnerability discovered Friday. The new Winamp 2.80, released last week, is the first version of the player to include support for Ogg Vorbis. Although the vulnerability is a setback for Nullsoft, it could help the team of programmers behind the Ogg Vorbis format.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-896972.html?tag=cd_mh

"EverQuest II" to debut in 2003
A new version of the popular computer game "EverQuest" will make its debut late next year, Sony Online Entertainment said Thursday. "EverQuest II," which is slated to arrive in December 2003, will feature a new 3D engine and will allow gamers to own real estate, ride horses, command ships, and use new, enhanced spells, quests and events. The game centers on an online fantasy world called Norrath, where players create characters, engage in online activities and gather elements such as armor and weapons.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-897305.html?tag=cd_mh

Round Two on 'Morphed' Child Porn
It didn't take very long for conservative activists to try a second time to eradicate computer-generated smut. Just two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a federal law outlawing any image that "appears to be" of a nude child or teenager under 18 years old. The court's reasoning: If the image was generated by a computer, no actual minor was harmed. Hours after the court's ruling, Sen. Orrin Hatch, a sober Utah Republican and onetime Mormon bishop, vowed to "craft new legislation," and his allies in the anti-pornography movement got to work.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52285,00.html

World Cup: An Olympian Web Event
As the biggest global sporting event kicks off in Japan and South Korea later this month, millions of soccer fans will break from their busy work schedules to watch highlights of World Cup matches on their desktops. For the first time in the tournament's history, on-demand video highlights of all 64 matches from May 31 to June 30 will be available on the official World Cup website. But while this year's tournament is expected to draw more fans to the Internet than ever before, live webcasts of the games will still be noticeably absent.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52205,00.html

Furor Over Internet Game
It's just a game. Or is it? An online cartoon simulation called "Kaboom," in which the protagonist is a suicide bomber who blows up men, women and children as well as himself, has prompted a U.S. congresswoman to protest. In a letter to Tom Fulp, who runs the Web site that has posted the game, Rep. Nita Lowey of Westchester urged the webmaster to delete the game from the site immediately.
http://www.newsday.com/business/prin...siness%2Dprint

Plant-Based Materials Replace Oil-Based Plastics, Polyesters
When Patrick Gruber, chief technology officer at Cargill Dow LLC, peers into the future, he sees a world made of corn. Not gaudy structures like South Dakota's Corn Palace, whose exterior is decorated with thousands of painted corn cobs, but the stuff of everyday life: T-shirts, socks, milk bottles and auto parts. Gruber's future may soon be reality. Cargill Dow's new factory in Blair, Neb., which converts field corn into a biodegradable substance it calls NatureWorks PLA, is shipping the material in bulk to produce packaging materials, clothing and bedding products.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002May2.html

Competition to "reverse engineer" mystery program
Programmers the world over will next week have the chance to "reverse engineer" a mysterious and malicious computer program. They must determine its intentions and test their programming skills. The idea is to simulate the crises network administrators face whenever a rogue program, also known as a Trojan or zombie, is uploaded into a computer system by an intruder. These programs are designed to capture passwords or probe the system for further weaknesses on the intruder's behalf. An administrator must work out what the program does, but without seeing the source code used to build it.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992250

Bill Would Criminalize False Domain Name Registrations
Internet users who knowingly submit incorrect contact information when registering Web addresses could face up to five years in jail under legislation introduced in the House of Representatives this week. Proposed by Reps. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the legislation would make it a crime to - "knowingly and with intent to defraud" - submit false information to an Internet domain name seller.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176371.html

DrinkOrDie Software Pirate Goes To Prison
A figure in the software pirating group DrinkOrDie has been sent to prison for nearly three years, the first of many members of the "warez" organization that will be sentenced for their roles in an operation that caused millions of dollars in damages. In U.S. District Court Thursday, Barry Erickson, 35, of Eugene, Ore., was sentenced to 33 months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176358.html

More news later on

[JackSpratts]

another great job wt. enjoy your days off!

- js.

[ONEMANBANNED]

No matter what OS you got the net ...you got the spys