The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday & wednesday edition

[walktalker]

Row brewing over Linux patches
A proposal to help Linus Torvalds keep up with patches for Linux has sparked a controversy over whether the operating system has outgrown its creator. On Monday, Rob Landley, a computer programmer, writer and Linux evangelist, posted a proposal to the Linux kernel development list calling for a "Patch Penguin" -- a person who would help integrate fixes for the myriad of small problems that plague the current development kernel, Linux 2.5.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-826165.html

Microsoft bundles Win 2000 bug fixes
Microsoft on Wednesday issued an important collection of security fixes for Windows 2000. The release of the 17MB downloadable Windows 2000 Security Rollup Package (SRP1) comes as Microsoft steps up its emphasis on security. In an e-mail to Microsoft's 47,000 employees earlier this month, Chairman Bill Gates called for putting security ahead of adding new features to products. Among the fixes: several denial-of-service and buffer-overflow patches, telnet and file-transfer protocol tweaks and authentication-error repairs, among others.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-826522.html

HP to support Mandrake Linux on desktops
France's MandrakeSoft has teamed up with Hewlett-Packard in the open source camp's latest foray into the desktop PC market. The agreement, announced on Tuesday ahead of the LinuxWorld Expo, will see HP build and promote Mandrake Linux-based desktop PCs for European and North American businesses. Linux is based on an open source license that prevents any one company from owning the software, and competes against Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system, which is kept under tight proprietary control.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-826283.html

Nvidia seeks to seal GeForce leaks
Graphics chipmaker Nvidia and its licensees, perhaps the victims of their own success, are trying to stem the flow of leaks about the upcoming GeForce4 graphics processing unit (GPU), but without much success so far. Over the past few days, anyone who was curious about the as-yet-unreleased chip would have had little difficulty satisfying that curiosity with detailed specifications about the GPU itself and several of the graphics cards based on it.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-826220.html

Movie giants back new high-end video
Four movie studios will start releasing films on the secure version of a new digital videotape format called D-VHS. Artisan Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios said Wednesday that they will use JVC's D-Theater, the version of D-VHS that cannot be copied. D-VHS is not meant to compete with DVD or VHS, both of which are designed for the mass market. Instead, the D-VHS format and its players offer owners of high-definition TV sets the option of recording and watching high-quality video. D-VHS players can also use VHS tapes.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-826437.html

Video Forensics: Grainy to Guilty
The image is haunting: Two clean-cut, cool-faced terrorists stride through an airport security checkpoint just hours before hijacking the first of two airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Captured on a surveillance camera at the Portland, Maine, airport, the grainy analog image of Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz Al-Omari was digitized, enhanced and released to the public in hopes of jogging the collective memory for information about the infamous duo.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,50036,00.html

Sex.com Loser Claims Poverty
The man who took credit for turning the domain name Sex.com into a multimillion-dollar porn empire now says he is too poor to afford toilet paper. In a motion filed in federal court this week, Stephen Michael Cohen, the former operator of the website Sex.com, asked a judge to set aside a ruling requiring him to pay $65 million in damages to the site's current owner.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50104,00.html

Bush: U.S. Strong, Terrorists Bad
President George W. Bush reiterated his intention to increase defense spending and expand the war on terrorism while offering a plan to rebuild nations around the world in Tuesday night's State of the Union address. Bush pushed his domestic policies as part of the war on terrorism. He offered few specifics on his budget, which will be delivered to Congress next week, but named North Korea, Iran and Iraq as "axis-of-evil" rogue states harboring terrorist training camps.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50111,00.html

Spiritual sites attract larger flock
In today's go-go world of Blackberries and instant messaging, the notion of a virtual religious experience is catching on with many people -- from the churchgoer such as Turner, who augments weekly services and daily prayers with an injection of daily cyber-scripture, to the agnostic Generation Xer considering a less traditional approach to spirituality. In fact, legions of the deeply faithful and the merely curious are logging onto religious sites at an increasing pace.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-826239.html

Doom ahead for search engines that charge listing fees
In a regrettable move, Internet pioneer Yahoo! recently joined competitors such as MSN.com, LookSmart and AltaVista in seeking payments from Web sites that want to be included in their online directories. Many Web surfers probably haven't realized it yet, but most of the big online search and directory firms (with the notable exception of Google) recently started asking for money from sites that want to be included in their indexes or listings. The charges range anywhere from roughly $80 to $300, payable annually.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/beat/

Software bug blamed in radioactive spill
Amec Engineering, which designed the Beverly uranium processing plant in Western Australia, has blamed buggy software for a radioactive spill that occurred at the site last December, confirming early suspicions that computers played a role in the accident. "After a detailed assessment of the incident it is now clear that the problem was caused by a computer programming error that has since been corrected," said Stephen Middleton, spokesman for the plant's operator, Heathgate Resources.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-826124.html?tag=cd_mh

Judge could close Microsoft depositions
A federal judge has granted a Microsoft request that could close upcoming depositions in its antitrust trial to the media. For now, the depositions would remain open to the public, unless Microsoft makes an additional request they be closed, say legal experts. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she would allow the media to file court briefs in response to Microsoft's request. A deposition is sworn oral testimony generally available only to the parties in the action. Depositions in the next phase of the trial start Feb. 1.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825528.html?tag=cd_mh

States pushed to examine Passport
A privacy group on Tuesday asked state law enforcement authorities to examine software giant Microsoft's Passport online identity service, saying it exposes consumers to fraud, junk electronic mail and identity theft. The Electronic Privacy Information Center sent a letter to all 50 state attorneys general, asking them to protect consumers against what it called Microsoft's unfair and deceptive trade practices because the federal government has failed to act.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-825456.html?tag=cd_mh

eBay revs car insurance program
eBay is helping its car customers avoid lemons by introducing a new warranty and insurance program that protects against fraud, misrepresentation and vehicle breakdowns. "The new eBay Assurance Program for Vehicles offers a set of services that builds protection into every step of the vehicle buying or selling process," the company said in a note to members. But the company warned that "the eBay Assurance Program doesn't replace common sense. The program is your safety net if something goes wrong despite buyer and seller's best efforts."
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-825674.html?tag=cd_mh

Olympics tickets are hot auction items
With less than two weeks until the Winter Games, eager Olympics fans are turning to online auctions for everything from $3,500 hotel packages to $1.99 stamps and pins. Hard-to-get tickets to opening and closing ceremonies and popular events such as figure skating and downhill skiing are being offered for several hundred dollars. More modest tchotchkes, such as a bottle of Budweiser with a message of Olympic support on it, are selling for under $5.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-824733.html?tag=cd_mh

Laboratory bans wireless networks
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said it has banned the use of wireless computer networks at its facilities over concerns that security flaws in such systems could leave classified information vulnerable to hackers. The lab, which produces research on nuclear weapons and other national defense technologies, disabled the two wireless local area networks that were in use at its Livermore, Calif., campus as a result of the ban, instituted in mid-January, said David Schwoegler, a spokesman for the lab. One of the wireless networks at the lab was used at its waste disposal division.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-826525.html?tag=cd_mh

Verizon tests pay-per-minute pay phones
Verizon Communications on Tuesday began a trial program in which users of pay phones in two areas would pay by the minute for local calls, 10 cents a minute or 25 cents for three minutes. Verizon, the biggest U.S. local telephone company, raised pay phone rates last fall to 50 cents from 35 cents for a call with unlimited length, citing fierce competition and declining revenue. Pay phones have felt the squeeze of the booming wireless industry where there are approximately 130 million subscribers, about 47 percent of the U.S. population.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-825583.html?tag=cd_mh

Web service offers pick-your-own ads
Are the condemned any happier if they get to pick their own poison? Online weather service WeatherBug plans to test the theory with a new experiment in Web advertising. Next week, the company expects to announce a project called Sponsor Select that will allow consumers to choose an advertiser from a list of 10 to bombard them with promotions in exchange for use of its desktop application. The chosen marketer would receive one to two days in the sun with the consumer through e-mail and ads on WeatherBug, a free weather-data reporting tool downloaded by more than 7 million Web surfers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-826567.html?tag=cd_mh

RealNetworks' services gain traction
RealNetworks' quarterly earnings release Tuesday gave an early glimpse into the health of two of the first music and content subscription services online. Diagnosis: There is considerable life in the patients, but they still require close care. RealNetworks' own GoldPass service -- relaunched as RealOne late last year -- passed the half-million subscriber mark by the end of December, the company said. This comes despite the end of baseball season, which had threatened a subscriber list heavily populated by people listening to live major-league games.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-825699.html?tag=cd_mh

Google distances itself from pop-ups
If you get a pop-up advertisement when searching on Google, don't blame this search site. The Web favorite made a stand Tuesday to protect its consumer-friendly image by posting a notice decrying pop-up ads as "annoying" and unwelcome at its site. If consumers receive a pop-up, the notice explains, it's likely the fault of a third-party application targeting search terms or another Web publisher peddling pop-unders, ads that spontaneously appear behind a requested Web page. The company said it posted the notice in response to numerous complaints from Web surfers who encountered pop-ups while searching Google.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-825507.html?tag=cd_mh

Studios step up video-on-demand focus
Media industry veteran Jim Ramo on Monday was named chief executive of Movielink, a joint venture by five major movie studios aimed at creating an Internet video-on-demand service. The venture, formerly known as Moviefly, is backed by Sony Pictures, Viacom's Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros. and Vivendi Universal. Its service is expected to launch during the latter half of the year, although a date has yet to be set.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-825477.html?tag=cd_mh

Passport glitch hits Microsoft game site
Microsoft's online gaming site suffered another glitch in its switch to the Passport identification system, logging subscribers on to a bogus Hotmail e-mail account Monday. A Microsoft representative said Tuesday that the glitch affected those who tried to access their Hotmail account via links on The Zone, the game portion of Microsoft's MSN online service. Instead of being taken to their own account, people were sent to a test account for "customer!@hotmail.com."
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-825649.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[goldie]

Ya know, a person could get quite spoiled having their news delivered to them this way

[walktalker]

lol I know, but my comp crashed yesterday, sending all my work from here to eternity

[ab-NORM-al]

Originally posted by goldenrod


Ya know, a person could get quite spoiled having their news delivered to them this way

yup yup

nice work dude! as always