The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

P2P network hidden in Kazaa downloads
A California company has quietly attached its software to millions of downloads of the popular Kazaa file-trading program and plans to remotely "turn on" people's PCs, welding them into a new network of its own. Brilliant Digital Entertainment, a California-based digital advertising technology company, has been distributing its 3D ad technology along with the Kazaa software since late last fall. But in a federal securities filing Monday, the company revealed it also has been installing more ambitious technology that could turn every computer running Kazaa into a node in a new network controlled by Brilliant Digital.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-873416.html

Server software: MS sneaks up on Linux
Microsoft's Web server software gained significant market share on rivals during March, according to a new survey, after two large domain-name "parking" services switched to Windows systems. In a monthly survey of more than 38 million Internet-connected computers conducted by Netcraft, Microsoft market share rose nearly 2 million to 12.9 million computers. Microsoft racked up a market share of 34.02, a rise of 4.89 per cent. Apache servers running on Linux dropped a similar amount, to 53.76 percent. IPlanet software from Netscape and Sun Microsystems dropped by about 200,000 to 2.33 per cent.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-873776.html

Court: Internet ban 'unfair' to criminal
A federal appeals court panel has ruled that banning a man convicted of child porn charges from using computers is an unfair restriction on his liberties. In this case, George Sofsky pleaded guilty to receiving child porn over the Internet. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was banned from using a computer and surfing the Internet without permission during the probationary period following his jail term. However, a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban "inflicts a greater deprivation on Sofsky's liberty than is reasonably necessary."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-874046.html

IBM to share chip intelligence
Sony and Toshiba are expanding an alliance with IBM that will give the companies access to Big Blue's chip breakthroughs while making the tech giant more of a player in the burgeoning market for consumer electronics. Under terms of the alliance, announced late Monday, Sony and Toshiba will be able to incorporate some of IBM's chipmaking advances, such as "silicon on insulator" technology, into future processors for consumer-electronic devices. As a result, IBM's chips and intellectual property could wind up in products such as camcorders and PlayStation gaming consoles.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-873383.html

Antivirus software plugs worm holes
Security company Network Associates unveiled on Monday new antivirus software designed around the principle "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The new program, called ThreatScan, is intended to add a proactive tool to the defensive technology now used by system administrators to protect their networks. Current antivirus software scans for malicious code on potentially infected computers or in e-mail attachments, waiting until a virus or worm has already attacked a system to react to its presence.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-873411.html

Robots -- working for Japan's future ?
By the end of the decade, the people who disarm bombs and search for survivors after a disaster may no longer need to put their lives on the line. A machine, possibly made in Japan, may be able to handle the dangerous stuff. That is one goal of the Japanese government's $37.7 million Humanoid Robotics Project (HRP), which aims to market within a few years robots that can operate power shovels, assist construction workers and care for the elderly. In the process, a new multibillion-dollar Japanese industry could be born.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-873907.html

AskJeeves-owned site eyes Google's turf
AskJeeves launched a new search engine Monday, going toe-to-toe on quality claims with Web darling Google. AskJeeves' Teoma.com faces a mountain of competition from back-end technology providers. Competitors include Inktomi, giant Web portals such as Microsoft's MSN, Yahoo and a host of hungry start-ups, such as WiseNut, that hope to make a splash with search improvements. Still, analysts said, the service likely will be able to carve out a niche for itself.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-873583.html

Phone makers copy PCs
With the coming of 3G networks and wireless data services, cell phones aren't going to just function like PCs -- they're going to be built like PCs. Cell phone designers, chipmakers, software developers and others are in the midst of retrofitting the ubiquitous cell phone so handhelds can better handle stock quotes, e-mail traffic -- even applications for offtrack betting. And the engineers are lifting many of these concepts and designs straight out of the home computer.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-873358.html

Anti-Unix Web site on the fritz?
When it comes to Unix, Microsoft and Unisys are suddenly silent. The two companies launched a Web site earlier this week seeking to persuade customers to switch from the Unix operating system to Microsoft software. But as of midday Tuesday, the "We have the way out" site displayed either an all-white screen or an "Error 403" authorization message. Unisys declined to comment on the development. A Microsoft representative, who also pulled up a blank screen when trying to access the site, said the company would look into the matter.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-874132.html

Liberate testifies against Microsoft
Microsoft is making inroads into interactive television by requiring use of its software as a condition of major investments in cable TV companies, a tiny rival of the software giant complained in court on Tuesday. Liberate Technologies CEO Mitchell Kertzman said antitrust sanctions were needed to prevent Microsoft from entering contracts designed to eliminate other set-top interactive TV technologies.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-874153.html

Privacy advocates sue over national IDs
A privacy group said Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit against the federal Office of Homeland Security in an attempt to gain access to information about a proposed national identification system. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said it filed its suit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking the expedited processing and the release of records by the Office of Homeland Security.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-874044.html

Code free or die
Williams was in a jam. He had completed some preliminary work on a book about Stallman, including two lengthy in-person interviews. But the publisher of the book was balking at some of Stallman's requirements. Stallman wanted the book to be freely reproducible, just like the software that Stallman fights for with every breath. Stallman was threatening to withdraw his cooperation, and Williams was unsure whether he could morally use the material he had already gathered.
http://salon.com/tech/books/2002/04/...man/index.html

Baseball site benches some online fans
MLB.com can attest to the fact that batting a thousand on opening day is a rare feat. Major League Baseball's Web division confirmed Tuesday that it experienced "minor glitches" in some of its live online broadcasts Monday -- the 2002 season's opening day -- causing some fans to be shut out of games. An MLB.com representative said the glitches stemmed from an "enormous amount of traffic" as subscribers poured into the site and as many other baseball fans tried to subscribe.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-873771.html?tag=cd_mh

Pranksters rig Web for April fools
File-swapping company Napster has purchased Microsoft for more than $328 billion and is planning to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against itself. F***edCompany.com, an irreverent Web site that documents the demise of dot-coms, has been bought by Internet incubator Idealab. Microsoft's MSN has launched the Gates Open Directory, otherwise known as GOD, which seeks to simplify copyright on the Web by purchasing all copyrighted material.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-873177.html?tag=cd_mh

Microsoft considers raising MSN's price
Microsoft on Monday said it is evaluating new features and a possible price increase for a pending version of its MSN Internet Access service, due out later this year. "As we add value to the service, we're going to evaluate the price. But nothing has been decided," a Microsoft representative said. A price increase for MSN 8.0 would bring the service price closer to that of its biggest competitor. Microsoft currently charges $21.95 a month for standard dial-up service.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-873154.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[walktalker]

The Law Is Going After Spam
Spam and Internet fraud -- the twin plagues of the information age -- are getting stepped-up attention from federal and state agencies that say more joint effort from law enforcement groups is needed to curb the scourge that is online swindling. On Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it has joined forces with eight state law enforcement agencies and four Canadian consumer protection groups to crack down on cyber scam artists ranging from purveyors of phony cancer treatments to senders of chain e-mail solicitations.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51486,00.html

Yahoo's 'Opt-Out' Angers Users
Internet portal Yahoo may want to think about changing its advertising slogan from "Do You Yahoo?" to "You DO Yahoo." In e-mail messages that began going out last week, Yahoo advised its users that their account preferences had been changed, by Yahoo, to indicate that they wanted to receive advertising solicitations through spam, snail mail and telephone.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,51461,00.html

Microsoft Rolls the Dice
Microsoft is using a risky strategy to avoid tough antitrust penalties, legal experts say. The company is portraying states that want the penalties as tools of its competitors. San Francisco antitrust lawyer Dana Hayter said Microsoft has to prove more than a close relationship exists between the states and the technology companies that compete with Microsoft. The company also has to show that the penalties the states are seeking won't benefit consumers.
http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/...,51474,00.html

Linux App Writer Wows Skeptics
Anyone who can put up a simple website can now also code complex Linux applications. On Tuesday, IBM released the source code for SashXB, a scripting language that allows people with basic programming skills to create Linux applications by working with simple website-style code such as HTML and JavaScript. But SashXB is more than just a way to simplify Linux development. Programmers of all skill levels can use SashXB to create "weblications," Linux applications that "live" on the desktop just like a traditional application, but can be updated as easily as a Web page.
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,51476,00.html

A Collection of Discards.com
It was one thing to have your embarrassing love letter read aloud to the class in elementary school. It's a far different situation when it's published on the Internet without your knowledge or consent. Yet that is the premise of a growing number of online "found object" websites, whose amateur curators are mining the world's gutters for intriguing scraps of paper and strange discarded photographs. Their discoveries are posted online, sometimes with commentary; other times, simply bagged like evidence and labeled "artifact."
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,51307,00.html

Tides Key to Europa's Secrets?
When it comes to exploration of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, NASA might want to heed William Shakespeare's advice: "There comes a tide in the affairs of man which when taken at the flood leads to fortune." Take that literally, for it seems a probe could be dropped into the giant ocean of that water world by simply waiting for a swelling tide to crack open Europa's ice-bound surface, eliminating the need for drilling or melting down through kilometers of ice.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,51405,00.html

The Kazaa Ruling: What It Means
Kazaa BV, a Dutch company that licenses the Kazaa file-trading software, was exonerated last week when an appellate court ruled file-trading developers weren't liable for copyright infringement that occurs by people using their applications. The ruling set off a wave of excitement among American technology companies that saw this as a validation of their long-held argument that distributing software doesn't violate copyright law.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51457,00.html

A Truly Unfortunate Development
Some might call it Japan's biggest victory against noise pollution since pop duo Pink Lady split up two decades ago. Karaoke sound systems provider Taito Corp said on Tuesday it had teamed up with a U.S. professor and chipmaker Analog Devices on technology that could give even the most tone-deaf crooner perfect pitch.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,51472,00.html

Sex loses net appeal
Sex is finally losing its appeal on the net according to researchers in America. Interest in sex and entertainment had been replaced by more serious surfing, a study of 200,000 users conducted by Penn State University's School of Information Technology has found. The research, conducted over five years, found that in 1997 approximately one in six web queries to search engine Excite was about sex.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1906817.stm

Privacy Concerns Raised Over Digital Music Proposal
Proposed federal regulations that would standardize the way in which Internet broadcasters pay royalties for the songs they play could jeopardize the anonymity of online music listeners, according to some privacy advocates. The U.S. Copyright Office in February proposed regulations that would establish a per-song royalty rate that Webcasters would have to pay for the tunes that they stream to their online listeners.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175611.html

Microsoft Asks Judge To Rethink Windows Trademark Ruling
Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT] has asked a federal judge hearing its trademark-infringement case against Lindows.com to reconsider his ruling that questioned the validity of the software giant's "Windows" marks. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour on March 15 rejected Microsoft's request for a pre-trial injunction shutting down the Lindows.com Web site and halting distribution of LindowsOS software for running Windows programs on Linux.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175604.html

Distributed program to translate many languages
A US software designer plans to harness the brains of the world's computer users to build a multilingual translation database. Brian McConnell believes it could provide a free way to translate the many languages not included in existing online translators. McConnell is releasing a new distributed computer program, which works like programs such as SETI@home. However, while most distributed computer projects make use of spare computer power to perform complex computational tasks, in this case people will be asked to provide short translations themselves.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992115

More news... maybe later on

[TankGirl]

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