The Newspaper Shop -- Wednesday edition

[walktalker]

I think it's wednesday... or it is newsday ? I'm not sure...

The incredible shrinking PC
Antelope Technologies will build hand-size PCs based on a computer design from IBM as the mini-mini-mini-computer market takes shape. The Denver-based start-up is going to build PCs that are roughly the same size and shape as handhelds from Palm and Compaq Computer. The design of the Mobile Computer Core (MCC), the name of Antelope's basic computer, is derived from the Meta Pad, a hand-size computer prototype shown off earlier this year by IBM. Antelope is licensing the Meta Pad design from IBM but will configure and adapt it to fit business markets and specific applications, said an Antelope representative.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-920889.html

Kazaa, Morpheus conceding defeat
A legal fight that has pitted file-swapping software companies Kazaa BV and StreamCast Networks against big record labels and movie studios is collapsing as the small companies run out of funds. Netherlands-based Kazaa BV, which created the file-swapping technology underlying Kazaa, Grokster and earlier versions of Morpheus, is conceding defeat -- although its founders already appear to have started another near-identical company. Meanwhile, StreamCast is losing a high-powered attorney with a winning track record against the music companies in court.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-920737.html

ViewSonic's LCD future looks bright
ViewSonic is brightening its prospects in the liquid-crystal display market. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced on Wednesday two LCD monitors that feature a new brightness technology, called UltraBrite, that allows consumers to increase screen brightness by up to three times normal levels. Both models are 15-inch displays, but the $550 VX500+ offers slightly higher brightness levels than the $500 VE510+. The VX500+ will be available in July, while the VE510+ will be available in June.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-920708.html

AOL unveils Mozilla-based Netscape 7.0
America Online's Netscape Communication's subsidiary on Wednesday launched a preview of its newest Web browser, another sign of AOL's reinvigorated campaign to win consumers back from Microsoft. The new browser, called Netscape 7.0, is the latest version developed around a technology called Gecko, which was created by the AOL-funded Mozilla open-source browser movement. Over the past year, the online giant has been testing Gecko in preview versions of its popular flagship AOL service.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-920300.html

Hackers can crack most in less than a minute
When a regional health care company called in network protection firm Neohapsis to find the vulnerabilities in its systems, the Chicago-based security company knew a sure place to look. Retrieving the password file from one of the health care company's servers, the consulting firm put "John the Ripper," a well-known cracking program, on the case. While well-chosen passwords could take years -- if not decades -- of computer time to crack, it took the program only an hour to decipher 30 percent of the passwords for the nearly 10,000 accounts listed in the file.
http://news.com.com/2009-1001-916719.html?tag=fd_lede

Home Sweet Home Network
Setting up a home network to share a fast Internet connection among several PCs may be as easy as so many guidebooks and how-to Web sites say, but few of those have yet to address the basic aesthetic considerations that go with it. With a few exceptions, home networking gear isn't exactly built to be beautiful and visually unobtrusive. Some wireless networking hubs have unsightly antennae sticking out of their otherwise nondescript plastic bodies. Netgear this week announced a new line of products it calls the Platinum family--with a sleek metallic casing that, like the Airport, should be easy to integrate into any décor.
http://www.forbes.com/home/2002/05/22/0522tentech.html

Waging war on computer viruses
New net technologies present opportunities for more than just entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Virus writers like them, too. Almost every novel internet technology, from e-mail to peer-to-peer networks, has been exploited by virus writers and vandals keen to cause havoc. Virus writers are locked in an endless struggle with anti-virus and security companies who are trying to guess which advance will be taken advantage of next. Many anti-virus companies are adapting their tactics to protect customers and catch new viruses before they do too much damage.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1999854.stm

Nonprofit to wire up rural Asian schools
Room to Read, a nonprofit start-up dedicated to improving literacy in developing nations, will launch a new division Wednesday to wire impoverished classrooms in Asia. The San Francisco-based company, founded by a former Microsoft executive and funded largely by donations from technology workers and venture capitalists, developed its "Computer Room" project with cash from Microsoft, Global Catalyst Foundation and The Tibet Fund. Eleven classrooms in Nepal and Vietnam will be the first recipients of grants under the new program, which provides each school with four computers, one printer, all related hardware and software and a dedicated dial-up connection.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-920022.html?tag=cd_mh

DoubleClick able to settle privacy suits
DoubleClick on Tuesday received federal court approval to settle state and federal lawsuits that charged the Net advertising company with violating the privacy of Internet surfers. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted final approval of the class-action settlement agreement, which requires DoubleClick to provide consumers with a privacy policy that will clearly describe in "easy-to-read sentences" its online ad-serving service, use of cookies, as well as other services and technologies.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-919895.html?tag=cd_mh

Yahoo drops "enhanced" personals fee
Yahoo said Tuesday that it will stop charging customers who post photos and use other features in their online personal ads. The Web portal said it has decided to drop the $4.95 fee, which let people create "enhanced ads" that would run for 45 days, after reviewing feedback from customers. The enhanced service allows people to place five photos and a background on an ad. The service also puts the paid ads near the top of search results to give members more exposure. Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said the company will make the enhanced service free in the next two months. It began charging for its enhanced service in October.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-919941.html?tag=cd_mh

Rebirth of the Afghan Buddhas
It was an act of cultural desecration that shocked the world. The age-old Buddhas at Bamiyan in northern Afghanistan, which had withstood the ravages of Genghis Khan and centuries of invasions and wars, proved powerless against the destructive zealotry of the Taliban regime. Now the Buddhas are making a comeback of sorts, thanks to the efforts of a Swiss entrepreneur and a team of researchers at a Swiss university.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52704,00.html

Dot-Kids Heads a Mess of Regs
The U.S. Congress, racing to leave town before the Memorial Day recess, is focusing on Internet regulation like never before. Politicians are scrambling to debate a raft of technology regulations, ranging from domain names and privacy to broadband, spam, and funding for security research. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the creation of a "dot-kids.us" domain, while the Library of Congress rejected proposed royalty rates that webcasters claimed were usurious. Hearings are scheduled for Wednesday on broadband legislation and the accuracy of address information in the "whois" database for domain names.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52709,00.html

Probe Into Tiny Chip Experiments
Bell Laboratories has formed a panel to investigate allegations of misconduct in a series of influential experiments that have raised hopes for a breakthrough in molecular computing. The head of the panel, Stanford University Professor of Applied Physics Malcolm Beasley, told Reuters Wednesday that he expects a conclusion by the end of the summer. Scientists at Bell Labs, which is owned by Lucent Technologies, have won acclaim for a series of papers on molecular electronics and physics, including a well-publicized experiment in which an electronic switch was made from a single molecule.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,52727,00.html

E3: Attack of the Games
The video game console war is over. Playstation 2 whipped the competition, leaving Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube in the dust. Now the war moves to a different battlefield: the games themselves. Thousands of video game superfans and freaks are gathering in Los Angeles, anxiously awaiting the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the largest North American video game convention.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,52659,00.html

Trekkies Bid on the Holy Grail
One rich Trekkie this summer will be able to say with confidence, "I have the conn." Captain Kirk's command chair -- from which he maintained "conn" (control of the bridge) -- was created at Desilu Culver Studios 38 years ago. It will be sold at auction in mid-June by Beverly Hills, California, dealer Profiles in History. The plywood chair, painted battleship gray, with a Naugahyde-covered seat, wooden armrests and plastic control buttons, is considered by many to be the Holy Grail of Star Trek collectibles.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,52700,00.html

Tech Toxics' Tarnished Legacy
California high-tech manufacturing companies are degrading the environment in developing countries, a new research report confirms. Case studies done in Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Thailand, and Costa Rica by the California Global Corporate Accountability Project document water pollution and inadquate waste management resulting from component production. Compared to smokestack industries like petroleum or steel, high tech production appears clean in terms of air and water pollutants.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,52732,00.html

The Beauty and Grace of a Worm
Computer viruses are both the medium and the message in a museum exhibit documenting the history and future of unwelcome and uninvited virtual visitors. Code and culture are the focus of "I Love You Computer_Viren_Hacker_Kultur," a three-week special exhibition opening at the Museum for Applied Art in Germany on Thursday. The exhibit's name refers to the Love Bug virus that circulated widely in May 2000 and was one of the "computer virus family's first media stars," according to exhibit curator Franziska Nori.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52687,00.html

Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate
Call it the best of hate. The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a CD-ROM in Toronto today titled Digital Hate 2002. The disc collects more than 200 websites containing animated hate games, online enrollment for suicide bombers, and "other examples of transnational hate and promotion of terror after the 9/11 terrorist attacks." Now in its fourth year, the disc is an outgrowth of the Los Angeles center that uses Internet experts there and in Toronto, New York, Buenos Aires, Paris and Jerusalem to examine about 25,000 websites monthly.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52697,00.html

Europa's Secrets Well Kept
Researchers hoping to get to the bottom of an ocean of liquid on Jupiter's moon Europa to look for possible signs of life were forced to think again on Wednesday. New calculations based on images taken from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicate that the crust of ice covering the liquid ocean is 19 km (12 miles) thick -- much too dense for any landing craft to burrow through to find what lies beneath.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,52724,00.html

Rainmaker, Make Me Some Rain
A British scientist who pioneered wave power 30 years ago is now turning his talents to making rain with floating wind turbines. Stephen Salter, an engineer at the University of Edinburgh, believes his invention will not only create rain but could prevent deserts from spreading, improve soil quality, save rainforests and lessen the impact of climate change. He proposes using floating wind turbines to spray water vapor high into the air to increase evaporation from the ocean and precipitation over land.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,52714,00.html

Bell, Torvalds usher next wave of supercomputing
Some of the IT world's top luminaries gathered here at Los Alamos National Laboratory Friday to witness the unveiling of a compact supercomputer that proponents say could provide the model for high-performance computing systems in the years ahead. Gordon Bell, one of the original brains behind the minicomputer, and Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, joined a collection of scientists for the unveiling of the supercomputer, a Beowolf cluster called Green Destiny that was built from hundreds of so-called blade servers -- compact servers stripped down to their most basic components.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industr...idg/index.html

Cloning Can't Be Stopped
Controversy has surrounded the advent of every reproductive technology from artificial insemination to in vitro fertilization. Still, human cloning, like its forerunners, will happen. Dolly, the world’s most famous sheep, was cloned from the udder cells of an adult ewe. On announcing her birth in 1997, embryologists Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, who had engineered her, noted that she had been named in honor of the entertainer Dolly Parton. Wilmut explained, “No one could think of a more impressive set of mammary glands than Dolly Parton’s.” Parton responded, “I’m honored.”
http://www.techreview.com/articles/kevles0602.asp

Advanced Propulsion Comes Of Age
NASA is known worldwide for routinely putting people into Earth orbit. The agency is also revered as the only organization that has flung humans at escape velocity speeds to the Moon. However, NASA could also be known as an agency that's going nowhere fast.Even NASA's new chief, Sean O'Keefe, is keen about the need for speed. The agency is stuck in slow gear, he gripes, scooting about in spacecraft today at velocities not much greater than when John Glenn first sped into Earth orbit over 40 years ago. To help put some "momentum" into NASA, the agency is pushing forward on a nuclear propulsion and power initiative
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol..._020522-1.html

Subpoenaed Enron E-Mail Causes E-Headaches
Bush White House staffers may be about to learn a crucial lesson from President Clinton's playbook - if there's something you want to hide, don't spill the details in e-mail. Recent civil and criminal investigations show that e-mail is a different kind of smoking gun, one that Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) will use to his advantage in his investigation of bankrupt energy company Enron Corp. Lieberman specifically requested Enron-related e-mails in addition to paper records in the subpoena he unveiled today, following the administration's repeated refusal to hand them over voluntarily.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176724.html

Parents Need To Protect Kids From Net's Dangers
Parents who keep tabs on their kids' Internet behavior can keep children away from dangerous characters that surf the Net, such as the man suspected of raping and killing a Connecticut sixth-grader he met in a chat room, a computer crimes investigator said today. Saul Dos Reis, 25, was charged of using the Internet to entice a minor into sexual activity, a federal charge, and will soon face state murder charges stemming from the strangulation of Christina Long, 13, of Danbury, Conn. The girl was slain after agreeing during an Internet chat to meet Dos Reis at a shopping mall last Friday, police said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176719.html

Hong Kong Soccer Fans Turn To Net To Place Bets
A significant proportion of people in Hong Kong intend to place illegal bets on World Cup soccer matches, and most of that gambling will take place online, according to the results of a new survey. Soccer is extremely popular in Hong Kong. Next week its popularity will skyrocket when the 2002 World Cup finals, an international soccer tournament to be played in Korea and Japan during June, kicks off with qualification by China for the first time in the competition's history.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176717.html

More news later on

[StereoDeluxe]

Thank you. stereo hands $1.00 for newspaper...

[TankGirl]

Thanks for the news, WT!

Originally posted by walktalker
Kazaa, Morpheus conceding defeat
A legal fight that has pitted file-swapping software companies Kazaa BV and StreamCast Networks against big record labels and movie studios is collapsing as the small companies run out of funds. Netherlands-based Kazaa BV, which created the file-swapping technology underlying Kazaa, Grokster and earlier versions of Morpheus, is conceding defeat -- although its founders already appear to have started another near-identical company. Meanwhile, StreamCast is losing a high-powered attorney with a winning track record against the music companies in court.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-920737.html

Not as dramatic as it sounds, just an empty company shell collapsing while the real action has already moved elsewhere. Another kiss of death by the RIAA nevertheless.

- tg

[twinspan]

Nonprofit to wire up rural Asian schools
Room to Read, a nonprofit start-up dedicated to improving literacy in developing nations, will launch a new division Wednesday to wire impoverished classrooms in Asia. The San Francisco-based company, founded by a former Microsoft executive and funded largely by donations from technology workers and venture capitalists, developed its "Computer Room" project with cash from Microsoft, Global Catalyst Foundation and The Tibet Fund. Eleven classrooms in Nepal and Vietnam will be the first recipients of grants under the new program, which provides each school with four computers, one printer, all related hardware and software and a dedicated dial-up connection.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-920022.html?tag=cd_mh

No doubt the charity allows the schools to pick any platform, OS & applications that best suit their needs...

Unless good old c/net forgot accidentally copied & pasted the wrong title...

Pusher Offers Free Samples to Schoolkids
Secures Market Share by Building Dependency Today among the Consumers of Tomorrow

Windows Everywhere said Bill, and he sure wasn't talking to the guy building his mansion when he said that.

[goldie]

Originally posted by twinspan

No doubt the charity allows the schools to pick any platform, OS & applications that best suit their needs...

Unless good old c/net forgot accidentally copied & pasted the wrong title...

Pusher Offers Free Samples to Schoolkids
Secures Market Share by Building Dependency Today among the Consumers of Tomorrow

Windows Everywhere said Bill, and he sure wasn't talking to the guy building his mansion when he said that.

Oh Bill, it's just so incredibly convenient, n'est pas?