The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Wednesday editions are very special -- I only make of those once a week

MS judge wants 'modular' Windows demo
The federal judge overseeing the Microsoft antitrust case said on Tuesday that she wants to see a version of the Windows operating system that has removable features. Over the objections of Microsoft, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she would allow nine states seeking stiff sanctions against the company to have a computer expert demonstrate a version of Windows he has developed that can be customized. Kollar-Kotelly scheduled the presentation for May 15.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-901661.html

MS economist: Consumers will pay
An economist testifying on behalf of Microsoft on Wednesday said the strict antitrust sanctions sought by nine states against the company would be harmful to consumers. University of Virginia economics professor Kenneth Elzinga said the states' proposed sanctions would cripple the Windows operating system, raise costs, and reduce Microsoft's incentive to improve its products. "To me, it is plain that the non-settling states' proposal would harm consumers," Elzinga said in written testimony to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-902578.html

Apple polishes iPhoto software
Apple Computer has applied some fresh polish to its iPhoto software. The company on Wednesday updated the photo-editing software with features that it says make viewing and organizing digital photos easier. iPhoto 1.1.1 is available as a free download from Apple's Web site. The software, which Apple introduced at its Macworld Expo in January, allows Macintosh users to organize digital photos; they can also use the software to order prints or hardcover picture books.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-902784.html

Handsets key to Vivendi vote 'piracy'
An alleged episode of vote 'piracy' at the Vivendi Universal general meeting is to be investigated by the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris, the body that presides over corporate legal disputes in France. The Tribunal authorized the investigation into the 'malfunctions' that occurred during the course of the general meeting held on April 24, which was intended to gain the seal of approval for corporate investments urged by chief executive Jean-Marie Messier but the result has been overshadowed by claims of vote hijacking.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-902756.html

Do you have the cash for a .pro domain?
The company in charge of registering new domain names for professionals was given the green light Wednesday, but doctors, lawyers and accountants will have to pay a premium for the .pro privilege. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has signed its contract with RegistryPro, which expects to have the top-level .pro domain up and running by late this year or early next year. The Department of Commerce still must sign off on the deal; it's expected to do so shortly.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-902703.html

House panel raises cost of cybercrime
Computer criminals would face increased penalties, and Internet users would face greater surveillance by access providers, under a bill approved Wednesday by a House of Representatives panel.Spurred by worries about electronic terrorism, a dramatic increase in computer viruses and other Internet intrusions, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that seeks to better coordinate efforts to fight cybercrime while increasing recommended sentences for those found guilty.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-902992.html?tag=fd_top

Video games to help you relax
Most video games tend to get the pulse racing, but researchers in Dublin, Irish Republic, are working on developing games to help calm people. Gary McDarby and his MindGames team at MediaLab Europe are looking at using gaming technology to aid people suffering from depression or trauma. In their latest project, called Brainchild, you try to unlock a door simply through your brain waves.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1972571.stm

Nokia low-fee plea seeks 3G prize
Handset maker Nokia wants to limit how much money equipment makers pay to license intellectual property needed to build certain next-generation phones and wireless network equipment. Spokeswoman Megan Matthews said Wednesday that Nokia wants companies that license the technology -- including Nokia itself -- to pay no more than a total of 5 percent of the cost of building a device for intellectual property. That would be regardless of how many companies and patents are involved, and it would be 5 percent for all the companies combined, not individually. There is currently no cap in place, she said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-903057.html

Can your Net access travel through walls?
Sprint PCS is testing a new, wireless Internet service that the company says could be a competitor to digital subscriber line or cable Net access -- if the trials are successful. The technology aims to improve upon "fixed wireless," a service that can deliver high-speed wireless Internet access to homes and businesses. Fixed wireless works by directing Internet access from an underground fiber-optic cable to an antenna on a 1,000-foot-high tower, which then directs the signal through the air to rooftop antennas. But if a neighbor grows a rooftop garden that blocks the antenna's line of sight, Net access is cut off.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-901554.html?tag=cd_mh

When Kid Porn Isn't Kid Porn
The photograph captures two boys, about 6 or 7 years old, cavorting naked on a beach. One of the boys looks coyly over his shoulder. The other has an erection. Child pornography or art? Definitely art, according to a growing number of websites charging up to $40 a month for subscribers to gain access to images of naked children as young as 4 years old.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52345,00.html

U.S. Not Happy About EU Tax
A European plan to tax foreign sales of downloadable products is drawing howls on the other side of the Atlantic. The plan, approved Tuesday by European Union ministers, will require all companies offering digital materials online in the EU to pay taxes on sales there by July 2003. In the United States, industry groups complained that the move will cost large companies business and make it difficult for small firms to sell digital products in Europe.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52378,00.html

MS Scales Back Digi-TV Plans
Microsoft is refocusing its digital television strategy on cheaper, less complicated software, after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars and years of research into savvy TV software for which it has found very few buyers. Microsoft will put its high-end Microsoft TV Advanced software -- aimed at creating virtual home entertainment computers -- on ice while it races to catch up with rivals that already have a huge customer base for bare-bones services like online program guides, according to several industry sources.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52393,00.html

What's New in Sex Games? Foreplay
The rain-splattered sidewalks of Tochina are empty. The city block's tearoom, bakery and bar offer shelter, but little in the way of hospitality. The subway is quiet. There are no directions, no clues and nobody to help. You are alone. Welcome to Playskins, an online anime role-playing game built around mystery, suspense and masturbation. Right, the two hottest forms of entertainment -- video games and sex -- have been combined yet again. While most interactive porn wants to get you to the money shot as quickly as possible, Playskins makes players use their powers of flirtation to get to the cybersex with other people.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,52073,00.html

Study: Cell Phone Waste Harmful
A new kind of cell phone pollution and this one is silent. Within three years, Americans will discard about 130 million cellular telephones a year, and that means 65,000 tons of trash, including toxic metals and other health hazards, a study says. "Because these devices are so small, their environmental impacts might appear to be minimal," says Bette Fishbein, a researcher at Inform, an environmental research organization, who wrote the report.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,52375,00.html

Study may boost phone radiation levels
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has released a new set of guidelines for electromagnetic radio emissions. The new radiation protection standard seeks to prevent harmful effects of exposure radiation and ARPANSA's research on mobile phone emissions aimed to set safety limits for heating of tissues around the cheek and the skull. Mobile phone emission strengths may double following ARPANSA's recommendations over safe human exposure levels to handset radiation.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-902227.html

Segway hits bump in its progress
The heralded Segway has claimed its first Atlanta victim. A member of the Central Atlanta Progress Ambassador Force toppled from one of the personal scooters on Cone Street near Luckie Street about 8:40 p.m. Thursday.The officer, whose name was not released, injured his knee going up a driveway onto the sidewalk, said Atlanta Police Sgt. Michael Giugliano. He was taken to Grady Hospital.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/met.../03segway.html

Undetectable 'son of cookie' system wins grant
The developers of a 'son of cookie' web monitoring system have received a Proof of Concept grant from Scottish Enterprise to commercialise the system. Their non-cookie based web monitoring software does not (as indeed the name suggests) rely on cookies, but instead is intended to replace them with something far more powerful.
http://theregus.com/content/6/24878.html

MAPS sues its own anti-spam guru
What happens if you create software, bring it with you to an organization and then want to take an enhanced version of it when you leave? In the case former Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) employee Gordon Fecyk, author of the anti-spam ORCA Dial-up User List, you get sued. MAPS, an anti-spamming group and keeper of the controversial Realtime Blackhole List, has accused Fecyk of illegally using the system after leaving the organization. Saying his actions were "malicious, arbitrary and reprehensible," MAPS filed a lawsuit in a Winnipeg, Manitoba, court last month accusing Fecyk of a host of violations including the unlawful copying and use of its property.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-901685.html

Cosmic catastrophe 'a certainty'
Sooner or later, a catastrophe from space will wipe out almost all life on Earth. According to Dr Arnon Dar, of the Technion Space Research Institute, Israel, a particular type of exploding star going off anywhere in our region of the Universe would devastate our planet. Using the latest statistics and calculations, he argues that a supermassive star collapsing at the end of its lifetime would form a black hole and send out a beam of destructive radiation and particles that would sterilise any planet in its path.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1975354.stm

US plans to boost GPS satellite power
The US military has asked for $90 million of extra funding to increase the signal strength of its satellite Global Positioning System (GPS). The Department of Defense says this would protect it from atmospheric interference and deliberate jamming. Whether the funds will be awarded will be decided early in 2003. The money would be used to modify up to 20 new satellites, the first of which would launch in 2004. The new satellites would be fully operational by 2006.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992261

Sony lets Aibo learn new tricks
Sony will release a free programming toolbox in June so that Aibo owners can teach their robot pet to do much more than just sit and roll over. The move is a turnaround for the company, which has previously cracked down on enthusiasts' efforts to "hack" the robot pup. The OPEN-R Software Development Kit will provide programming instructions to enable Aibo owners to teach their pet new tricks. It will make it possible to control the robot's joint movements, light and noise sensors, image capture system and wireless communication. It will even allow Aibo to meow rather than bark.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992262

Lawmakers Still Prefer Snail Mail To E-Mail
The threat of anthrax-laced letters hasn't changed lawmakers' preference that constituents send them standard letters instead of e-mail, according to a new study. In an April poll of congressional offices, Capitol Hill staffers by a margin of 5-1 said they preferred regular mail to e-mail for communicating with constituents. Conducted by online political adverting firm Mindshare Internet Campaigns, the electronic poll surveyed about 90 congressional staffers.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176466.html

Kids Not Masters Of The Net - Study
Maybe children should be more involved in the design of Web sites targeted at them because, according to a new study, the little things that don't bother adults so much online result in markedly different behavior from kids. A new study by Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) with children from the first through fifth grades found if they get lost in a Web site or are confused by some supposed cutting-edge interactivity, they will immediately lose interest and click to another site.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176447.html

Band's Sites Deluged After Mailbox-Bomb Suspect ID'd
If suspected mailbox bomber Luke John Helder was looking for attention, he's getting it not only from the FBI. He's also getting noticed in a big way on the World Wide Web. A trio of MP3-hawking Web sites connected to self-described grunge band Apathy from Rochester, Minn., indicate that someone named Luke Helder is a member of the band. The FBI field office in Omaha, Neb., did not return calls from Newsbytes for confirmation that the musician is also their suspect, but there is strong evidence online that the suspect and Apathy's lead singer and guitarist are one and the same.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176440.html

Virus Hoax Making The Rounds - 'JDBGMGR.EXE'
A virus warning is making the rounds urging people to search for a purported virus on their hard drives - a file named JDBGMGR.EXE. Chances are, they will find it, because the "warning" is a hoax. According to several anti-virus companies, the hoax first appeared in April, but two new variants of the message have been spotted in the last three days. The bogus warning takes several forms, but in general it tells people they have received a dangerous, undetectable virus via e-mail that must be found and deleted from their "C" drives. Some variants claim the "virus" hibernates for 14 days before awakening and causing damage to their computers.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176442.html

More news later on

[walktalker]

Newsmen are underrated by girls

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
Newsmen are underrated by girls

But their kittens get a very high rating!

- tg

here's a to Rosette!