The newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

IBM: Linux can take on the world
IBM, having embraced Linux, now is on a mission to convince others that the operating system is worthy of real-world use. To further its cause, IBM put on display at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here four big-name Linux customers -- clothing retailer L.L. Bean, digital animation studio Pixar, department store chain Boscov's and financial services giant Salomon Smith Barney. "Linux readiness is far ahead of the world's perception of it," said Steve Solazzo, vice president of Linux operations at IBM.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-826983.html

Judge raises eyebrows on MS settlement
A federal judge has asked Microsoft and the Justice Department to file a joint status report on their proposed settlement and, in an unusual move, has asked if they're planning any changes to the settlement in response to public comments. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's order late Wednesday came two days after 60 days of public comment on the settlement ended. The Justice Department expected that thousands of comments would pour in, partly because of canvassing on the part of Microsoft through its Freedom to Innovate initiative and because of Microsoft competitors working through trade groups.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-827074.html

MusicMatch tunes in to Mac users
MusicMatch, which makes programs for creating and organizing digital music, has launched one of the first music subscription services for Macintosh computers. The San Diego, Calif.-based company said Wednesday that people using Mac OS 8.6 or higher can sign up for the $4.95 per month service, dubbed MusicMatch Radio MX, and receive access to ad-free streams of music. The service lets members create personal stations based on artists and listen to programmed stations.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-827387.html

Confab to focus on new face of security
Politicians, academics and technology executives will focus on biometrics and technology's role in homeland security during a Feb. 12 congressional briefing in Washington. Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Arlen Specter, R-Penn., and Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Mike Doyle, D-Penn., and Melissa Hart, R-Penn., are co-sponsoring the afternoon briefing, one of several high-profile meetings about the merits and potential privacy concerns of face-recognition technology following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-827384.html

Will latest anti-spam plan make a dent?
Privacy seal group Truste on Thursday announced the launch of a new service to help police unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam. The nonprofit group has partnered with privacy consulting and technology company ePrivacy Group to introduce a certification and seal program for commercial e-mail, much like its Web site seal program. Under the new plan, e-mail sent by volunteer "trusted sender-certified" companies will contain a seal that signifies the message is compliant with Truste's privacy rules.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-826859.html

AOL shuts out users in battle over IM
People using the popular Trillian software may lose access to part of AOL Time Warner's instant messaging system. Firing another salvo in the battle over instant messaging, America Online is blocking people using the Trillian interface from linking to its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) system. Trillian, which allows people to access multiple instant messaging programs from one screen, has attracted nearly a million people who are hoping to streamline their use of incompatible systems, including AOL's AIM and ICQ, Yahoo's Messenger and Microsoft's MSN Messenger.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-826707.html

Sonicblue to combine DVR, DVD player
Consumer electronics maker Sonicblue is hoping to fast-forward its digital video recorder strategy by adding DVD playback to its machines and creating a new low-cost lineup. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced the additions to its ReplayTV digital video recorders (DVRs) on Thursday. DVRs are similar to VCRs. But instead of recording TV shows to tape, DVRs store them on a hard drive. The devices can also pause live TV shows.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-827418.html

Microsoft to appoint security chief
Microsoft plans to appoint a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney to its top security position, company sources said Thursday. Scott Charney, currently the principal for digital risk management and forensics at PricewaterhouseCoopers, will become chief security strategist on April 1, overseeing the software giant's internal and product security policies. Microsoft refused to comment, as did Charney.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-827421.html?tag=cd_mh

Hewlett: Big computer marriages fail
Walter Hewlett brandished more weapons in his fight against Hewlett-Packard's proposed $25 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Wednesday with a report titled "Large Computing Mergers Have Consistently Failed." In the ongoing battle between the progeny of HP's founders and the current company, Hewlett, son of co-founder William Hewlett, has already launched an anti-merger Web site; HP has retaliated with its own pro-merger site.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-827006.html?tag=cd_mh

Cube mates cranky over cell phone calls
Late to work? Haven't bathed for a few days? Don't sweat it, as mobile phone rings have been voted the top workplace annoyance, according to a recent survey. With workers crammed into cardboard-segregated workstations and electronic communications ubiquitous, it's hard to find respite from ring tones in the office. A recent survey of 6,000 people by recruitment company TMP Worldwide found that irritating mobile phone rings are the top workplace nuisance, followed by malfunctioning equipment such as photocopiers, fax machines and printers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-826173.html?tag=cd_mh

Ford loses hyperlinking dispute
Hyperlinks should be excluded from domain name disputes, a U.S. judge said this week as Ford Motor lost its battle to stop the owner of an offensive Web address from linking to its site. Judge Robert Cleland of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan rejected claims that the automaker's trademark was being violated by a hyperlink that pointed the domain name F***edGeneralMotors.com at Ford's home page.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-827182.html?tag=cd_mh

DVD hacker to keep challenging ruling
Eric Corley, the central figure in the "DVD hacker" case who was barred by a court from posting online how to make copies of DVDs, vowed Wednesday to keep fighting the copyright law the ruling was based on, and which he says oppresses more and more people each day. "We have every intention of continuing to challenge this ruling because this is such a vital issue," Corley said. Corley's lawyers on Jan. 14 requested a rehearing by the full 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Court in New York after a three-judge panel ruled in November that Corley's publishing of the DVD descrambling software on his 2600 magazine Web site was not protected by free speech provisions.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-826710.html?tag=cd_mh

Judge drops Napster bombshell
Marilyn Hall Patel, the district court judge in the Napster case, has been having some very subversive thoughts recently, we learn from case transcripts unsealed this week. On January 16, the New York Times reports, Patel questioned if the record companies copyright extended to digital distribution of music, and granted Napster leave to explore whether the labels were colluding to prevent it licensing music for online distribution
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/23906.html

BadTrans-B tops virus charts
BadTrans-B remains, two months after it was first released, the most infectious virus on the Internet. The mass-mailing email worm heads the monthly chart of virus reports compiled by antivirus vendor Sophos and accounts for 61.1 per cent of calls to its support centre this month. It was followed by MyParty-A (4.3 per cent), the short-lived mass mailing virus that caused flak earlier this week, and the Magistr-B (3.6 per cent).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/23903.html

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Thank you very much, Mr. !



- tg

[walktalker]

Breakthrough for Penguin-Heads
Linux users' and developers' lives have just gotten a little easier. The Free Standards Group released two tools on Thursday intended to ensure that all Linux applications can run on any Linux Standard Base-compliant version of the open source operating system: LSB 1.1 and Li18nux 1.0. Some commercial application developers, including Microsoft, have slammed open source development, saying that it lacks the necessary controls to define the common programming standards that need to be used across different projects to ensure compatibility.
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,50143,00.html

Econ Forum Site Goes Down
The website of the World Economic Forum crashed from an apparent denial-of-service attack Thursday, just as the collection of business and corporate leaders began its meeting here. Internet demonstrators may have been the cause of the collapse. Encouraged by the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT), RTMark, Federation of Random Action, and other groups, online activists have been downloading software tools that continuously reload the websites of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and of a few of its corporate members.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50159,00.html

Pupils and Porn and Games, Oh My
It wasn't surprising that some kids started downloading pornography shortly after Virginia's Henrico County Public Schools distributed over 11,000 Apple iBooks to its high school students. Nor was it surprising that they surreptitiously played games in class and gobbled up bandwidth trading music and movie files. So it shouldn't have been surprising, either, when the district decided to recall all of its high school laptops when the shocking news was brought to light... The district's reasoning, however, was a bit unexpected: They planned it all along.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,50001,00.html

Asexual Embryo Makes Stem Cells
Using a technique that may provide an alternative to therapeutic cloning, researchers created a monkey embryo asexually without the use of sperm to make stem cells that then turned into heart, brain and other specialized tissue. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, a research team led by Dr. Michael West of Advanced Cell Technology reports using chemicals to cause a monkey egg to turn into an embryo, an asexual process called parthenogenesis. The scientists then extracted stem cells from the embryo and made specialized cells.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,50158,00.html

Rules set for space tourism trade
After months of negotiations, NASA and its space partners have published the “rules of the road” for travelers to the international space station — whether they’re professionals, researchers or thrill-seeking millionaires. The formal crew criteria, released Thursday, indicate that Russia will play the lead role in selecting space tourists and lay out requirements for training and language proficiency.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/694231.asp?cp1=1

Car work for quantum mechanics
The hot gases belching out of your car's exhaust are not just useless waste. They are a laser waiting to happen, says physicist Marlan Scully1. All you need to harness this potential, suggests Scully, of Texas A&M University in College Station, is a quantum afterburner. This hypothetical modification would use quantum mechanics to boost the engine's efficiency by clawing back waste heat and turning it into useful energy - laser light.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020128/020128-3.html

Patent Office Gets Whopping $1.4 Bil In Budget
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office will receive nearly $1.4 billion under the Bush administration's FY2003 budget. The 21 percent funding increase will allow the agency to hire and train hundreds of patent examiners to review the latest high-tech innovations, and should help the PTO realize its e-government goals on schedule, PTO director James Rogan said today. "That's an incredible investment and an acknowledgement that the work we do here is critical to the economy and technology," Rogan told reporters.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174123.html

FBI Raid Silences Teen Anarchy Site
In a case that may test limits on Internet free speech in the wake of Sept. 11, armed federal agents last week raided the home of a Los Angeles teenager suspected of hacking into several Web sites to post anarchist messages and using his own site, Raisethefist.com, to publish bomb-making information. Sherman Martin Austin, 18, is believed to have violated federal computer fraud and abuse laws, as well as statutes prohibiting the distribution of bomb-making information, according to an FBI affidavit.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174122.html

Top Security Sites Easy Prey To Script Attacks
Web sites operated by several leading Internet security organizations are vulnerable to an old but serious security flaw known as the cross-site scripting (CSS) attack. A cursory survey today revealed that the corporate home pages of security software vendors including Network Associates, Kaspersky Lab, Trend Micro, SonicWall, and Command Software, were all susceptible to CSS attacks.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174085.html

Privacy Software Pre-Installed On HP PCs
Computer maker Hewlett-Packard [NYSE:HWP] has begun pre-installing free security and privacy software on its Pavilion PCs sold in North America, the software manufacturer says. Zero-Knowledge Systems says some services of its Freedom security and privacy tool kit are free to buyers of Pavilion PCs, and other features are available for purchase. The Canada-based software company said in a news release that the software is pre-installed and users can choose which of the features to activate.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174126.html

Water jets could be lightning conductors
Sports arenas of the future could be protected by water cannons - not to control rampaging fans, but to deflect lightning strikes. In June, a group of American engineers plan to fire supersonic jets of salty water towards storm clouds in a bid to trigger lightning. If it works, they say their system could ultimately be used to protect people and property from lightning strikes. The National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, says lightning hits around 600 people each year in the US, killing 100. The majority of victims are in sports grounds or playgrounds when struck.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991860

The Great Giveaway And read the legal stuff at the end of the story !
If you've been to a computer show in recent months you might have seen it: a shiny silver drinks can with a ring-pull logo and the words "opencola" on the side. Inside is a fizzy drink that tastes very much like Coca-Cola. Or is it Pepsi? There's something else written on the can, though, which sets the drink apart. It says "check out the source at opencola.com". Go to that Web address and you'll see something that's not available on Coca-Cola's website, or Pepsi's -- the recipe for cola. For the first time ever, you can make the real thing in your own home.
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopic...opyleftart.jsp

Satellite falls to its death over Egypt
The extreme ultraviolet Explorer, which was launched in 1992, broke through Earth’s atmosphere at about 11:15 p.m. ET, according to the U.S. Space Command’s control center in Colorado. “The object entered the atmosphere over central Egypt. The object was not designed to survive or re-enter intact and was expected to break up and mostly burn up in the atmosphere,” a command spokesman, Lt. Jonathan Kusy, told Reuters.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/697171.asp?0dm=C11KT

Web ads get creepy (and crawly)
All over the Web, Internet ads are whirring, blinking and crawling their way around users’ screens. “Any kind of ad that’s technically available is something we’ll consider running,” said Steve Jones, executive producer of the site, “provided it doesn’t diminish the quality of ABCNews.com.” The in-your-face ads are an attempt to give advertisers more reasons to buy online, and comes amid a lingering ad recession. Many industry watcher are now betting on a late 2002 recovery, but in the meantime, revenue is down at many ad-dependent sites — and innovation has a new urgency.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/697107.asp?0dm=C14KT

FBI badges for sale on Internet
Undercover investigators went onto the Internet and bought more than 900 black-market law enforcement badges, including FBI and Secret Service shields, federal authorities said Thursday. FBI spokesman Jon Stephens said a Florida man with no known ties to terrorists is a suspect in the case but has not yet been arrested.
http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2002/...dge/index.html

More news later on