The Newspaper Shop -- Week review edition

[walktalker]

I heard you, FS

Beware of .Net sticker shock
Companies planning on moving their old programs to Microsoft's new .Net software plan had better prepare for sticker shock: Making the conversion could cost roughly half of the original development cost, Gartner says. According to a new cost model devised by Gartner, the cost of moving older Windows programs to .Net may range from 40 percent to as much as 60 percent of the cost of developing the programs in the first place. That may come as a blow to penny-pinching information systems departments in big companies, even those very familiar with Windows programming.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-938434.html

Windows links to iPod grow
Software maker MediaFour plans to release on Monday its XPlay program, the company's first Windows application for connecting PCs with Apple Computer's iPod digital music player. But Apple may be close behind with its own Windows-to-iPod software, Needham analyst Charles Wolf wrote in a Friday research note. Wolf said the release of Windows syncing software could boost the iPod to 10 percent of the portable digital music player market.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-938364.html

Week in review: Sun warms to Web services
Sun Microsystems this week won a key Java battle and is making waves in the Web services world with a new strategy: free software. Rival Microsoft said it will reinstate the ability to run Java programs in Windows XP. The reinstatement is a partial victory for Sun, which was stunned in April 2001 when Microsoft decided not to ship a Java virtual machine (JVM), instead adding a "download on demand" feature that Sun said in its antitrust suit violated settlement terms of an earlier Java legal dispute between the two companies.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-938468.html

Open, closed source security about equal?
Proprietary programs should mathematically be as secure as those developed under the open-source model, a Cambridge University researcher argued in a paper presented Thursday at a technical conference in Toulouse, France. In his paper, computer scientist Ross Anderson used an analysis that equates finding software bugs to testing programs for the mean time before failure, a measure of quality frequently used by manufacturers. Under the analysis, Anderson found that his ideal open-source programs were as secure as the closed-source programs.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-938229.html

Are you ready for angry robots?
Imagine a "friendly fridge" that could have its own personality, or a child's toy that would do more than imitate feelings. An Australian company called Mindsystems has devised an Artificial Intelligence system for simulating human emotion. It can apparently be used to quite convincingly replicate a person's feelings in a variety of situations. Called EMIR (Emotional Model for Intelligent Response), it is based on real-time data collected by researchers in the psychological sciences. Mindsystems predicts EMIR could be used for virtually every system that has a human-machine interface.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-938331.html

Media players play musical chairs
Nielsen/NetRatings this week began publishing media player statistics that use a new method of counting the most popular products for accessing video and audio on the Internet. The biggest winner in the change may be Microsoft: The software giant saw its Windows Media file format take the top spot in the at-work market for April 2002, a first for the company, which has been steadily closing on industry leader RealNetworks for several years. Apple Computer's long-trailing QuickTime format slipped slightly in total files counted, but those numbers wound up closer to its rivals because of the changes, as expected.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938423.html?tag=fd_top

Apple grabs another video software firm
Making its latest in a string of acquisitions in the digital video software arena, Apple Computer has quietly scooped up the technology of Prismo Graphics. "Apple has acquired technologies from Prismo Graphics, a developer of motion graphics for broadcast and digital video projects, including their DVFonts and India special effects software," the company said in a statement posted on Prismo's Web site. "Apple intends to use the acquired technologies in future products." Financial details were not disclosed, and an Apple representative was not immediately available for comment.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-938389.html?tag=fd_top

Retiree pulls postings after jail time
A 68-year-old man, who spent 111 days in custody over comments he published on the Internet, will not have to return to jail if those comments stay offline, a judge ruled Friday. In October, Paul Trummel, a former resident of the Council House retirement home in Seattle, was ordered by a Seattle judge to remove personal and critical information about the home from the Internet. The home claimed the actions violated Washington's anti-harassment laws, which can carry criminal penalties. Trummel was jailed for contempt of court when he continued his site. He was released Monday, provided he pull down the information by Friday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938480.html?tag=fd_top

Rants, raves greet U.S. World Cup play
Minutes after the whistle blew, signaling the United States' defeat by Germany on Friday, World Cup fans turned to the Web to express amazement, vent frustrations and even take a few shots at the team's unexpected success. Friday's match marked the U.S. team's first quarterfinal game in World Cup history, a surprise after it finished last in the 1998 tournament. This year, the United States upset a heavily favored Portugal, tied the relentless South Koreans, and shut out regional rival Mexico in elimination play.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938392.html?tag=fd_top

The Programmable Building
The MIT Media Lab's Neil Gershenfeld tours the building of the future, where interchangeable power sockets, switches and appliances snap into the walls — then plug into the Internet. Neil Gershenfeld thinks every light switch, power outlet, doorknob and thermostat should be on the Internet. That way, says the director of the MIT Media Lab’s new Center for Bits and Atoms, everything from climate control to security could be coordinated through a single Web-based interface. Such a system would simplify both construction and building management by doing away with the separate, incompatible control technologies currently needed to keep a large building comfortable and safe. What’s more, he says, embedding computing power in all a building’s systems and components could offer unprecedented flexibility and efficiency.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/demo0702.asp

Last Mile by Laser
Imagine a city water distribution system that doesn't deliver water to buildings and residences because its pipes don't reach far enough. Much the same situation exists for America's high-speed data-transfer network. Although various fiber-free data-transmission technologies, including microwave radio, digital subscriber lines and cable modems, are attempting to span the broadband connectivity gap, free-space optics (FSO) -- basically, fiber-optic communications without the fiber -- is thought by many experts to have the best chance of succeeding.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...88EEDF&catID=2

Music Gets Bigger And Smaller
As the storage capacity of hard drives increases and their physical size continues to shrink, the portable music players that use them can only get better. E.Digital has started shipping its latest player, the pocket-sized Treó 15. Its 2.5-inch, 15-gigabyte hard drive is sufficient to store about 5,000 songs -- or enough music to keep playing for more than nine days straight without repeating a single tune. The company says the player also has a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 90 decibels, which is higher than many larger players.
http://www.forbes.com/home/2002/06/21/0621tentech.html

Drumbeat picks up for tablet PCs
Fujitsu will unveil a prototype of a tablet PC next week, sources close to the company said, one of a new breed of computers that have touch screens and can read handwriting. The new tablet computer, which sources say is to be dubbed the Stylistic ST4000 when it ships later in the year, will be part of a mobile computing festival at next week's TechXNY trade show in New York. Microsoft will command most of the attention next week, however. As previously reported, the company will unveil details of its new Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system at the show, sources familiar with its plans said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-938265.html?tag=cd_mh

Secret Service probes school hackings
Students at universities in four states may have been monitored by "spyware" placed on computers by online criminals to capture passwords and credit card numbers, a public safety officer at one of the schools involved said Thursday. A month ago, agents with the U.S. Secret Service notified Arizona State University officials that some of their computers may have been compromised, said Lt. John Sutton of the university's Department of Public Safety. The Secret Service seized almost 20 hard drives from computers at the university and is analyzing them for clues as part of the investigation, he said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-938126.html?tag=cd_mh

Supercomputers getting super-duper
It's getting hard to keep a place on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers. The Top500 ranking of supercomputers, released twice a year by researchers at the universities of Tennessee and of Mannheim, Germany, experienced heavy turnover, with faster new arrivals bumping 220 lesser systems off the list. The minimum performance necessary to keep a place on the list increased 42 percent from November 2001--the biggest jump in three years. The arrival of NEC's top-ranked Earth Simulator in Japan has reworked the top of the list, but there's also plenty of action lower down in the rankings, where systems are affordable enough to be bought by multinational corporations, not just lavishly funded government research programs into nuclear weapons or weather.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-938032.html?tag=cd_mh

IBM aims Linux at financial companies
IBM on Thursday will announce the opening of a technology center geared to lure financial services companies to servers using the Linux operating system. IBM initially will fund the New York center located in the Manhattan area with $1 million, helping financial services companies move their software to Linux computers, the company said. Though the company didn't disclose how many employees will work in the center, other IBM facilities for helping customers and companies develop their software typically have 12 to 50 employees. Big Blue, whose Linux customers include more than 40 financial services companies, is among a host of companies using Linux to try to steal business from Sun Microsystems, which has long enjoyed strong sales to brokerages.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-937693.html?tag=cd_mh

States ask judge to curb a vain Microsoft
Microsoft refused on Wednesday to offer further concessions to end its antitrust case, rebuffing a federal judge's invitation to revisit the demands of nine states seeking stiffer sanctions against the software giant. The state's proposed sanctions were "fundamentally flawed," Microsoft attorney John Warden told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly during closing arguments. "We can't remedy this by changing a few words here and there," Warden said. "We can't fix it." The nine states, in contrast, heeded the judge's instructions and identified their most important demand -- a requirement for Microsoft to share computer code that allows rival software to work well with Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-937476.html?tag=cd_mh

Motor vehicle offices shift to online
Officials in New Jersey and other states are counting on winning over more people like Mitterando as they move more and more motor vehicle processes online. For many people, making a trip to the registry or bureau of motor vehicles is a dreaded chore, with long lines and long forms. But some of the most common procedures performed by the bureaus are easily adapted to the Internet. The interest is likely there, said Julie Ask, an analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-938327.html?tag=cd_mh

"Star Trek" auction beams up to eBay
Some lucky "Star Trek" fan will have a chance to take the captain's seat in an upcoming auction available on eBay. Captain Kirk's command chair from the starship Enterprise will be one of some 374 mostly "Star Trek"-related lots that will go up for auction next Thursday. The auction will be conducted live in Los Angeles by auctioneer Profiles in History; however, eBay members can preview the auction catalog online and participate online via eBay's Live Auctions technology. Much of the items come from the collection of Bob Justman, an associate producer on the original "Star Trek" series, said Lorna Hart, general manager at Profiles in History.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-938082.html?tag=cd_mh

Virgin, Sprint create teen venture
Virgin Mobile USA will debut a cell phone service Sunday that hopes to capture a share of the elusive young-adult cell phone market. The company, a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Sprint PCS, is venturing into a market where other carriers have tried -- but failed -- to rule, despite multimillion-dollar ad campaigns like Motorola's recent "Get Your Modo" initiative. Virgin Mobile USA is the first U.S. cellular virtual operator. Such operators, more common in Europe, do not own an inch of telephone network; rather than building one, they strike deals to use the property of another company.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-937859.html?tag=cd_mh

Study: Cell phones get cells going
A study by scientists in Finland has found that mobile phone radiation can cause changes in human cells that might affect the brain, the leader of the research team said Wednesday. But Darius Leszczynski, who headed the two-year study and will present findings next week at a conference in Quebec, said more research was needed to determine the seriousness of the changes and their impact on the brain or body. The study at Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) found that exposure to radiation from mobile phones can cause increased activity in hundreds of proteins in human cells grown in a laboratory, he said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-937617.html?tag=cd_mh

Chew on this: Tooth phone implants
British engineers say they have invented a revolutionary tooth implant that works like a mobile phone and would not be out of place in a James Bond spy movie. The "tooth phone" consists of a tiny vibrator and a radio wave receiver implanted into a tooth during routine dental surgery. The phone was designed by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. The implant does not yet have its own microchip installed, but Auger says the technology is tried and tested, and a fully functional phone could be put together in no time at all.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-937253.html?tag=cd_mh

"Harry Potter" DVD protection goes poof
Technology that prevents people from copying DVDs to videotape has disappeared from some versions of Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," raising new questions about Hollywood's anti-piracy plans. Like most other film studios, Warner Bros. includes anti-copying technology on DVDs to prevent digital-to-digital recording, for example, to a computer hard drive. This is considered a crucial defense against the looming "Napsterization" of Hollywood, as high-speed Internet connections and powerful video-compression technology increasingly make it possible for ordinary consumers to swap high-quality versions of feature-length movies online.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938008.html

Kremlin's new Web site: Hacker-proof?
Almost 100 hackers have tried to break into Russian President Vladimir Putin's new Web site in the first 24 hours of its existence, but none has yet succeeded, the Kremlin said Friday. And after three months of checks by the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information, the presidential administration is certain the site, unveiled Thursday, is almost hacker-proof. "Some 500,000 people have visited the site, and there have so far been 96 attacks by hackers, but none of them has succeeded," a Kremlin spokesman said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938315.html?tag=cd_mh

Anti-spam service battles bugs
A new anti-spam service launched with much fanfare this week is facing some technical hurdles out of the gate and frustration from the community it relies on to fight junk mail. The software, launched in beta, or test, form Wednesday by San Mateo, Calif.-based Cloudmark, is geared to cut back on 75 percent of incoming spam by quickly identifying junk mail and filtering it based on input from people using the network. Web surfers must download and install a plug-in, which for now is only available for Microsoft Outlook on Windows 2000 and XP systems.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938103.html?tag=cd_mh

Feds cut Webcasters a break on fees
Federal copyright regulators on Thursday set new royalty rates for online radio companies, halving previously proposed fees that had drawn bitter criticism from Net companies. Under the new rates, Web companies would pay 0.07 cent, or about a fourteenth of a cent, every time they played a song online for a single listener. Radio stations would pay the same amount when they put their music programming online. Even with the dramatic drop in fees, Webcasters said the decision could cripple many businesses.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-938037.html?tag=cd_mh

Netflix cranks up DVD distribution
In an effort to speed deliveries to its customers, online DVD-rental company Netflix said it has 10 new distribution centers throughout the country up and running. Netflix charges customers $19.95 per month for a subscription that allows them to choose movies online and have them shipped out via first-class mail. Subscribers return the DVDs using enclosed mailers. There are no late fees. Customers can rent as many movies as they want during a month but can only have three movies out at a given time. Adding distribution centers should cut down on shipping time, the company said Thursday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-937817.html?tag=cd_mh

Bumps rising in Napster buyout
Napster's road to being acquired by German giant Bertelsmann is getting bumpier, thanks to a small music-software company with a history of David-and-Goliath battles. In documents filed with a Delaware court Tuesday, PlayMedia Systems said it provided key parts of the Napster technology, which the company couldn't automatically transfer to Bertelsmann. PlayMedia, which created the MP3-playing functions of Napster's original file-swapping software, along with some of the security features of the planned subscription service, says it isn't trying to derail the $8 million bankruptcy buyout. It's just notifying the court, which is still in the early stages of the bankruptcy proceedings, that it has an interest, the company's attorney said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-937459.html?tag=cd_mh

Statistics firms revisit QuickTime counts
Apple Computer is close to vindication in a long-running dispute with Web researchers over the popularity of its QuickTime multimedia technology -- a victory that could help speed adoption of new digital video and audio standards. QuickTime laid the groundwork for bringing multimedia to the PC in the early 1990s and has been a favorite digital authoring tool in professional production studios for years. But on the Internet it has battled a perception problem, based partly on Apple's small PC market share and statistics that consistently portray QuickTime as an also-ran in a race dominated by rivals Microsoft and RealNetworks.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-937302.html?tag=cd_mh

Microsoft testing home entertainment PC
Microsoft has shipped an early trial version of "Freestyle" -- its new entertainment-centric PC design -- to some beta testers, a company representative confirmed Thursday. PCs equipped with a remote control and an early, pre-beta release of the Freestyle software were sent to a small group of testers that have been accepted into the Freestyle beta program, said Jodie Cadieux, marketing manager for Microsoft's eHome division. She said comments from the advance test will help decide the nature and release date of a full beta version of Freestyle.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-938060.html?tag=cd_mh

Game tutors file swappers in copyright
With congressional investigations and billion-dollar lawsuits, modern copyright policing isn't exactly child's play. But a group of privacy advocates hopes it can teach consumers about intellectual property and privacy issues with a new online game. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy Activism recently introduced "Carabella," a game designed around Macromedia's Flash animation software. Players assume the role of the title character and guide her through a series of decisions as she tries to acquire new tunes by her favorite band. Carabella has to decide between licensed online music services or peer-to-peer, normal or copy-protected CDs, a regular Internet connection or a proxy service that conceals the user's identity.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-937992.html?tag=cd_mh

FireWire or USB: And the winner is?
Sales of peripherals could get a boost this year as the two primary technologies for connecting external devices to PCs get turbocharged. PC makers in recent months have begun installing a high-speed version of the Universal Serial Bus, dubbed USB 2.0 High-Speed, across their product lines. By the crucial holiday sales season, the major PC makers will have incorporated USB 2.0, with at least one maker installing six USB 2.0 ports in a PC to replace the crowded array of differing ports. USB 2.0 "is the one technology that finally meets all the requirements we've had up until now," said Brian Zucker, a technology evangelist at Dell Computer.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-937983.html?tag=cd_mh

Philips picks blue lasers for itty-bitty disc
Consumer-electronics giant Philips is demonstrating a prototype miniature disc drive that uses a coin-size disc capable of storing nearly twice as much data as a standard-sized CD. The drive uses 3cm discs that can store up to 1GB of data. Typical CDs, measuring 12cm in diameter, can hold up to 650MB of data. The prototype drive measures just 5.6 by 3.4 by 0.75cm -- suitable for use in portable devices such as digital cameras, handhelds and cell phones -- but the company is continuing to work to shrink the drive. Philips issued a release this week, but representatives were not available to comment Wednesday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-937621.html?tag=cd_mh

Will recycling fees hurt PC sales?
Electronics recycling legislation in California is drawing fire from a high-tech trade group, whose ammunition is a survey showing consumers' opposition to certain recycling fees. The Electronic Industries Association on Wednesday released the results of a study that found some respondents would balk at buying a new PC or other consumer electronics products if recycling fees of as little as $5 were added to the purchase price. As the size of the fee increases, so too does resistance, the study said. Two bills before the California legislature propose to set up a system for collecting and recycling CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors -- the displays in most desktop computers and television sets -- that would draw financing from money collected at the point of sale.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-937520.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[ab-NORM-al]

tanks!

[I'll_Do_It_For_A_Dollar]

Thank you Walktalker

[TankGirl]

Thanks sweetie WT!

- tg