The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

PC makers attack new Windows fees
PC makers and several states allege that new Microsoft licensing agreements, arrived at under the proposed antitrust settlement between the software maker and the U.S. Justice Department, impose harsher terms on some manufacturers than agreements currently in place. Under the new agreements, which Microsoft began putting into place late last year to satisfy the Consent Decree between the company and the government, the top two PC makers will pay $4 more per copy for Windows, according to a deposition by a senior Microsoft executive.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-842262.html

Row erupts over European patent plan
The European Commission's directive on software patents has come under severe criticism for bowing to the needs of big business at the expense of small software developers and consumers. At the center of the controversy is the revelation that the "author" of a draft copy of the directive appears to be a key employee of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a group that represents the interests of big businesses, including Microsoft.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-842159.html

Hacker legend meets former target
A decade ago Kevin Mitnick tricked a Novell Inc. employee into giving him access to sensitive corporate data. This week the legendary hacker and his unsuspecting target met for the first time. "This is ironic,'' Mitnick said as he and Shawn Nunley shook hands and greeted each other like old pals at the RSA Conference on computer security. The two laughed and swapped stories about the days when they were antagonists.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-842318.html

Microsoft hammers Windows security kit
As part of a push to regain the public trust, Microsoft plans to release a wizardlike program to help home software users and network administrators protect their computer systems from outside attack. Called the Baseline Security Advisor, the program will scan Windows computers for unpatched programs, weak passwords and vulnerabilities in the operating system and in several Microsoft products.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-841814.html

PayPal hit by class-action suit
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against PayPal, days after the company's successful initial public offering. Filed Wednesday in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County, the suit charges PayPal with illegitimately restricting customers' access to their money. The suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages. PayPal frequently locks customers' accounts if it suspects that fraud played a part in a transaction, even if the amount in doubt is a fraction of the total amount in an account, said Gail Koff, an attorney and founding partner of Jacoby & Meyers, which filed the lawsuit.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-842240.html

U.N. announces music piracy pact
A groundbreaking international pact to protect musicians and the multibillion-dollar recording industry from Internet piracy will finally go into effect in May, a United Nations agency announced Thursday. Over five years after the treaty was signed, the needed number of ratifications for it to be enforced was achieved Feb. 20 when Honduras became the thirtieth country formally to join, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said. The treaty, the WIPO Phonograms and Performances Treaty (WPPT), bars the unauthorized exploitation of recorded or live performances on the Web.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-842169.html

Judge squelches case against Microsoft
The federal judge overseeing the Microsoft antitrust settlement has ruled against a nonprofit group that had sought to block the deal. The American Antitrust Institute filed the suit in January, alleging that Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department violated federal law by not properly disclosing all information and communications related to settlement negotiations. Microsoft, the Justice Department and nine states suing the software maker reached an agreement in November. The AAI suit alleged violations of the Tunney Act, which requires that companies settling antitrust charges reveal all related lobbying and government communications.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-841961.html?tag=cd_mh

Walmart.com ditches the OS in PCs
Walmart.com is taking a stab at attracting more technology-savvy customers by selling PCs that don't come with an operating system already pre-loaded. In an unusual move for a general retailer, the Microtel computers are being offered without operating systems as part of a test to gauge the response among tech-oriented customers who may want to load their own operating systems, Walmart.com spokeswoman Cynthia Lin said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-842375.html?tag=cd_mh

Video games raise concerns over racism
The Anti-Defamation League issued a report Tuesday warning of computer games that espouse racist violence. The organization's main exhibit was "Ethnic Cleansing," a computer game sold by Resistance Records, a small underground label that specializes in bands spouting racist and Nazi messages. The game requires players to wander through urban streets and subway tunnels and to attack African-American, Hispanic and Jewish characters. Besides offensive racial stereotypes, the game includes repeated racist images and audio content.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-840610.html?tag=cd_mh

Point-'n'-Shoot Sound Makes Waves
Those voices in your head may be real. Researchers have developed technology that can project a beam of sound so narrow that only one person can hear it. "Directed" audio sounds like it's coming from right in front of you even when transmitted from a few hundred meters away. Inventors of the new "ventriloquist" technology say it could provide an added dimension to entertainment. The military, however, is investigating using it to confuse opponents or even inflict pain.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,50483,00.html

Instant Diagnosis in Your Palm
A new DNA detection system could finally deliver on one of the longtime promises of genetic medicine: on-the-spot diagnosis of disease. If successful, the result would be a handheld device that not only provides instant diagnosis, but also detects evidence of bioterrorism in minutes rather than hours. And do it a lot more accurately than current technology. It was developed by researchers at Northwestern University, who have been working on developing better detection systems for DNA for the past decade. By incorporating nanotechnology and electrodes, they say they've finally come up with a small, instantaneous and extremely accurate method of identifying DNA.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,50566,00.html

MS to Share OS, .Net Blueprints
Microsoft will share blueprints for its Windows operating system and .Net server software with technical experts who build and maintain computer systems for thousands of companies. The move announced Thursday will provide the experts, known as system integrators, with the closely held source codes for some of Microsoft's most successful products.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50596,00.html

Ads Play to Users' Privacy Fears
It appears to be a routine browsing error, but instead of "Page not found," the message warns, "You are under investigation. The material you have been viewing has triggered inquiries into your Internet records," it continues. "Click Here to stop this investigation." This is what Robin Hood Software refers to as the "hard sell." The company makes a "security application" called Evidence Eliminator that purports to hide every trace of your illicit Internet activities, and its fear-inducing spam has flooded the Internet.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50555,00.html

Ginger Still Needs Dance License
Its inventor brags his device will transform cities and revolutionize human travel. First, though, the Segway Human Transporter must get permission to use sidewalks. Lawmakers in a Minnesota House transportation committee took a step toward that goal Thursday, passing to the floor a bill that crafts the rules of the road and the bike paths and sidewalks for the battery-powered scooters.
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,50593,00.html

Experts Chew Fat Off New 'Remedy'
Foods from grapefruit to cabbage have been touted as fat-burners. And now, raspberries. A Japanese company says it has developed a chewable, fat-melting pill made of raspberries, and will begin marketing it in May. Kanebo Cosmetics of Tokyo said 70 percent of people tested lost an average of 2.2 pounds after taking the pills for a week. Details of the study -- such as how many people participated, whether they changed their diet in other ways and how long the study was done -- were not made available, and nutritionists are skeptical about the potential of raspberry ketones to burn fat.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,50530,00.html

Rental car firm ordered to stop GPS speeding fine
A car rental company that used satellites to track customers and fine speeders $150 was ordered Wednesday to stop the practice and refund an estimated $13,000 or more. "This just wasn't fair," state consumer protection Commissioner James T. Fleming said. "It is not a car rental company's job to enforce the speed limit in any state." Acme Rent-a-Car of New Haven claimed the fines discouraged speeding and covered the excessive wear on cars driven at high speeds.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html

Antimatter atoms captured for the first time
Antimatter atoms, among the most elusive matter in the Universe, have been captured for the first time. According to the standard model of particle physics, every particle has a corresponding antiparticle with the same mass and opposite charge. The pair annihilate each other on contact, releasing a burst of energy. Scientists have wondered if they can harness this energy, but they have found it difficult to make and control antiatoms. In the late 1990s, up to nine antihydrogen atoms were detected in particle accelerators at CERN and at Fermilab near Chicago. But they were moving at almost the speed of light - much too fast to be stored or studied.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991957

Scientists build ultra-broadband laser
Scientists at U.S. telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies said on Wednesday they had built the world's first semiconductor laser that emits light over a wide spectrum of infrared wavelengths. The laser, developed at the company's Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, can be used to detect pollutants in the atmosphere, in medical diagnostic tools or in the future to produce semiconductor lasers for fiber optics.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science...eut/index.html

Origami solves road map riddle
No road journey is complete without a wrestle with the map. Now a US computer scientist has worked out why the map usually wins. Erik Demaine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge has come up with an origami algorithm that predicts when a stubborn street plan will be re-foldable. "It's the meeting of paper folding and computer science," he says.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020218/020218-1.html

More news later on

[walktalker]

Not yet

[VWguy]

GRRRrrrrrrrr....

[goldie]

U.N. announces music piracy pact
A groundbreaking international pact to protect musicians and the multibillion-dollar recording industry from Internet piracy will finally go into effect in May, a United Nations agency announced Thursday. Over five years after the treaty was signed, the needed number of ratifications for it to be enforced was achieved Feb. 20 when Honduras became the thirtieth country formally to join, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said. The treaty, the WIPO Phonograms and Performances Treaty (WPPT), bars the unauthorized exploitation of recorded or live performances on the Web.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-842169.html

I found this one especially creepy!!!

Yep - the RIAA (musicians placing a deep 2nd I'd bet) goes international -

Whadda Buncha Bungholes!!