The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

Ahaa !! Gotcha to read

MS warns of 'critical' flaws
Microsoft has released patches for two security holes in its Internet software that could allow hackers to read files off a user's computer or information in Web pages that they visit. The company also patched server glitches that could let attackers crash Web servers or take over computer networks attached to Microsoft Web servers. Three of the four alerts were classified by Microsoft as 'critical.'
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-844318.html

IBM neutral on Passport vs. Liberty
IBM is not going to choose between Sun and Microsoft's authentication technologies, says the company's e-business director. While the two companies wrangle, Big Blue's increasing alliances with Microsoft in the area of Web services are not a final decision, according to Bob Sutor, IBM's e-business director. "We're still neutral re: Passport and Liberty," Sutor told ZDNet UK. The Liberty Alliance is a group initially set up by Sun to encourage a standard method for computer users to identify themselves on the Internet, through passwords or authentication technology.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-844610.html

CIA bankrolls Web search profiles
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has invested in a software company that aims to help businesses manage data by searching documents and the Internet more intelligently. Stratify, founded by Indian-born technology experts in the United States, says its software ferrets out relevant documents by building up a profile of the user. For agents of the CIA, such software could be of use in tracking down vital information or studying patterns.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-844566.html

IBM's 210GHz transistors pump up chips
IBM will announce Monday that the fastest silicon transistors ever made are ready to appear on chips designed to speed up computer networks. The company's Semiconductor Division has combined many of its so-called 210GHz transistors into functioning circuits running at 110GHz or faster -- an important milestone toward commercial use. At the same time, the transistors hold the promise of greater energy efficiency in systems that incorporate them.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-844013.html

Talking high-tech trash
An international array of environmental groups is charging computer makers and their consumers, along with the United States government, with using Asian nations as a dumping ground for hazardous electronic waste. A report released Monday, Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia, says that "huge quantities" of so-called e-waste are being exported to China, Pakistan and India, where their subsequent handling presents a significant threat to human and environmental health.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-844313.html

Microsoft goodwill messenger steps down
Linda Stone, Microsoft's "ambassador" to Silicon Valley, is leaving the company less than two years after assuming the role of introducing the world to a kinder, gentler software titan. Stone's departure, revealed in an e-mail Sunday sent by CEO Steve Ballmer to Microsoft employees, comes at a critical juncture for the company as it prepares for a two-front showdown in its landmark antitrust trial.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-844172.html

Voyeurdorm sees major court win
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not hear a case involving an attempt to shut down an adult Web site by the city of Tampa, Fla. The city had tried to shut down exhibitionist site Voyeurdorm.com, which provides 24-hour live Webcasts of a residence full of women while they "study, work out, bathe and live the lives of college co-eds." The city said the Tampa residence violated city zoning ordinances regulating the location of sexually oriented businesses.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-844436.html

BEA touts 'Visual Basic for Java'
BEA Systems is taking a page out of Microsoft's playbook with its latest Java tools strategy. In a bid to widen its lead in the e-business software market, BEA is courting software developers with a new Java-based programming tool that company executives have dubbed a "Visual Basic for Java." Visual Basic is Microsoft's visual-oriented programming tool that revolutionized Windows development in 1991 because of its ease of use: Instead of writing all the software code by hand, developers dragged and dropped pre-built software code on their computer screens to build applications.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-844053.html

Ready for photos on your phone?
Sprint thinks its customers are ready to get the picture. The wireless telephone service provider plans to introduce a service later this year that will let people e-mail photographs or other types of images from their cell phones, sources said Monday. Sprint announced Monday that it had hired Santa Cruz, Calif.-based LightSurf Technologies to help run the service.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-844608.html

Composers play with game tunes
A new Web site is hoping to improve the quality of video game soundtracks by inviting fans to submit their own renditions of classics such as the theme to "Super Mario Bros." Launched last week, VGMix.com gives people a new venue to download and upload video game music arrangements. The site features a database of tunes from today's video games and from classics such as "Super Mario Bros.," Atari's "BallBlazer" and "Final Fantasy." The site encourages composers to post and trade music, and provides a section where people can offer critiques and discuss video game music.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-844684.html

Channel change: Global Sports eyes TV
Global Sports is getting too big for just games; now the company wants to make it big in television. The company, which made a name for itself building Web sites for traditional sporting goods stores, said Monday that a new division it launched will build e-commerce sites for television stations and cable channels. The King of Prussia, Pa.-based company said its new division, which will offer fulfillment, customer service and direct-marketing services, has already penned deals with Comedy Central, PAX TV, The Golf Channel and TV Land.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-844568.html

Terra Lycos joins paid search ranks
Terra Lycos on Monday became the latest Internet company to charge Web site owners for promoting their sites on its Internet search engines. The move comes as Internet companies such as Madrid-based Terra Lycos move toward paid search models to try to offset the sharp downturn in advertising spending. For a fee, Lycos will let Web site owners submit their sites for guaranteed inclusion in the Lycos Web index within 48 hours, beginning Monday. Lycos is the Waltham, Mass.-based search engine part of the Spanish Internet media giant.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-844266.html

MSN Music gets a makeover
Microsoft has redesigned its MSN Music site, adding a feature that allows certain music files to be downloaded and shared. The downloads section features songs being offered on a promotional basis that are only usable as long as the promotion is valid. MSN will also offer a subscription service where people can buy music through streaming media or by download. The site features links to Pressplay, an online subscription music service jointly owned by Sony and Vivendi Universal.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-844097.html

VoiceStream heeds text-messaging call
VoiceStream Wireless has become the third U.S. carrier this year that plans to let subscribers send text messages to cell phones supported by rival companies, sources said Monday. The first was AT&T Wireless, which announced the service late January. Cingular Wireless soon followed suit. Text messages sent over wireless networks to cell phones are similar to e-mail, but are generally limited to 150 characters and can't support attachments. In general, a wireless subscriber can receive a text message for free, but it costs between 4 cents and 10 cents to send a message.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-843900.html

Listen.com signs fourth label deal
Online music company Listen.com has won permission to include music from Warner Music Group in its new subscription service. The deal with the AOL Time Warner-owned record company temporarily gives Listen.com access to more music than its major label-backed rivals, MusicNet and Pressplay. All three are competing for a share of the nascent music subscription market. As yet, Listen.com hasn't made considerable strides in securing distributors for its service, having signed up only Internet service provider Speakeasy.net among its corporate customers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-843902.html?tag=cd_mh

Adobe updates Web, animation software
Adobe Systems on Monday will release new versions of its GoLive Web authoring application and LiveMotion animation software. One of the main selling points for the new version of GoLive is that it allows designers to quickly optimize content for a variety of formats, including handheld computers and mobile phones. GoLive and LiveMotion also integrate with other Adobe products, including Photoshop, the company's market-leading image-editing application.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-843986.html?tag=cd_mh

Eh. It's not over yet

[walktalker]

Cafe Owners or Porn Police?
Those wishing to ban Internet pornography are waging an improbable battle, but it's not for lack of effort. If a special committee set up by the Mumbai High Court gets its way, proprietors of cybercafes will be forced to police their premises in the name of protecting minors from "unsuitable Internet material" and cyberstalkers. The six-member committee wants the High Court to issue a binding "direction" that would make all cafes in the state of Maharashtra (of which Mumbai is the capital) responsible for requiring customers to show photo-identity cards, recording their personal details, maintaining logs of all the sites the users have visited, and restricting minors to machines that do not have cubicles.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50615,00.html

Bush's Energy Plan: Let's Drill
Calling fuel cells and hybrid cars "the wave of the future," but not the solution to dependence on foreign oil, President Bush Monday urged drilling in a pristine Alaskan wildlife refuge. With three gleaming U.S.-made energy-saving experimental vehicles -- none of which is available yet to consumers -- parked behind him at the White House diplomatic entrance, Bush focused on his commitment to conservation rather than his controversial plan to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration. He pressed the Senate to pass a comprehensive energy plan embracing increased production as well as conservation, saying it would create jobs and help wean America from foreign oil.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,50662,00.html

Mexico Wants an E-Revolution
The goals of Mexico's e-gov revolution are lofty, promising everything from free e-mail accounts for every Mexican to the restoration of faith in government. Launched last year to great fanfare, e-México envisions wiring the entire country to the Internet, then offering educational, health and government services online. President Vicente Fox has slathered praise on the $4 billion initiative, saying it will push Mexico into the ranks of the developed world.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50622,00.html

DNA Unveils Ghost Town Secrets
Archaeologists searching under floorboards in this 19th century mining town are using DNA testing in a way it's never been used before to learn secrets about the Old West. Some of the tests might tell a story of the frontier rarely seen in westerns or on the old Bonanza television series that helped make Virginia City famous. The DNA used for the tests was found in traces of morphine residue on a 125-year-old glass hypodermic syringe found beneath one small home.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,50647,00.html

Robo-Therapist Helps Ailing Limbs
One of the newest robots to debut on the medical market is designed to aid physical therapists who work with stroke patients. InMotion2 is a 30-inch-tall robo-therapist that its inventors believe can help patients regain the use of limbs incapacitated by a stroke. They think it can ultimately be a less-expensive proposition than physical therapy, too. But the robot is not likely to put its human counterpart out of a job. The robot still relies on a human to assess the patient, work out an exercise pattern, monitor progress and program the machine.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,50254,00.html

Bright Idea for Electric Scooters
Road works, traffic jams, red faces and honking horns: Driving around in Berlin's urban, concrete jungle is no love parade. It's no wonder an increasing number of Berliners are trying to sneak by long traffic lines on motorcycles and scooters. But motorcycles and scooters don't come without problems of their own, primarily more unwanted noise and emissions in an already-polluted metropolis. SolarMove, a startup from Berlin, believes that electrical scooters make sense. E-scooters move silently like prowling cats.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,50584,00.html

Jack Valenti: Movies Get Framed
The movie industry is under siege from a small community of professors who argue (1) that broadband access to the Internet will never gain consumer acceptance without movies legitimately being made available on the Net and (2) that producers deliberately are holding back the exhibition of movies on the Net because of -- in the words of Lawrence Lessig -- "the threat the Net presents to their relatively comfortable way of doing business." Add to this (3) the accusation that copyright owners are stifling innovation in the digital world.... Yadda yadda yadda...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002Feb24.html

Grateful Dead lyricist lambasts DMCA
Grateful Dead lyricist and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow has denounced the Digital Millenium Copyright Act as likely to turn the Internet into an information desert. Speaking at the RSA Security Conference 2002, in a session entitled "Copyright or Copy Wrong: Digital Millennium Copyright Act Examined," Barlow used the example of the Dead's approach to copyright to illustrate how the free flow of content did not necessarily choke off content availability. Or indeed lead to anarchy, communism, the end of the world and very poor record companies (although he might agree that last one could be a good thing).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24186.html

Blind Gain New Site for Literature
An online service launched last week is expected to provide the largest electronic library for the blind and visually impaired on the Internet. Bookshare.org features more than 8,000 books -- from New York Times bestsellers to the classics -- that individuals can download and print in Braille or listen to using software that reads text aloud.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology

Persuasive, Pervasive Computing
In 2000, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched an ambitious project to transform the way the world uses computers. The old model: a box, a monitor and keyboard. The new: computers as pervasive and invisible as the air we breathe. They called it Project Oxygen. Now, nearly two years out, the first technologies are rolling out of the labs. Project leaders -- Laboratory for Computer Science chief Victor Zue, associate director Anant Agarwal and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory director Rodney Brooks — insist that Project Oxygen is about an idea, not products.
http://www.techreview.com/articles/brown022502.asp

Media Win Access To Video Depositions In Microsoft Case
News media organizations will have access to edited videotapes and transcripts of interviews given by up to five high-profile executives in the Microsoft antitrust trial, a federal judge ruled on Sunday. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that news media may review edited video tapes and transcripts from depositions of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and James Allchin, senior vice president of Microsoft's Platforms Group.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174749.html

MP3 Files Not Always Safe With Top Media Players
A quirk in media players from Microsoft and RealNetworks could enable attackers to hijack Web browsers and run scripts on the computers of some MP3 music fans. The trick has apparently been discovered by pornography sites and spammers, which have been seeding some music file trading services with bogus MP3 music files. One such MP3 file, ostensibly containing the music of the Los Angeles-based rock group Lifehouse, launched a pornographic video and generated a "massive" amount of pop-up ads when played back on the Windows Media Player from Microsoft, according to one newsgroup report.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174747.html

RIAA Blames Digital Music Pirates For Bad Year
The recording industry has singled out Internet piracy as a major, contributing factor in its poor music sales during 2001, when U.S. shipments from record companies slipped by over 10 percent. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said it is lost for a "simple explanation" as to why record shipments to retailers crashed last year. The industry group on Sunday further revealed the dollar value of all music shipments fell from $14.3 billion in 2000 to $13.7 billion in 2001.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174732.html

Microsoft Patches IE But Leaves PopUp Attack For Later
Microsoft on Thursday issued another set of patches to correct two "critical" security flaws in its Internet Explorer (IE) browser. But the company has yet to wall off a month-old attack that can launch programs on the computers of IE 6 users. The patches, posted at the Microsoft site Thursday evening, include a fix for an IE6 bug published last December in the browser's XMLHTTP ActiveX control, as well as for a previously unpublished flaw in the handling of VBScript by all supported versions of IE.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174723.html

Music-For-Money Hits Sour Note With Online Fans
Even if popular tunes were not widely available for free on rogue music-swapping services, few music fans would pay for the kind of subscription services now being offered by major record companies, a new report says. Researchers at Ipsos-Reid said their own surveys show that fewer than 8 percent - or about 4 million - of those Americans who had downloaded or streamed music online had ever paid for that form of entertainment.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174753.html

Aspirin might combat common viruses
Already hailed as a wonder drug, the humble aspirin might also combat viruses that attack fetuses and patients with damaged immunity. Aspirin was originally developed to numb pain. But it also helps prevent heart attacks and strokes by inhibiting blood clot formation, and even shrinks polyps that otherwise develop into colon cancer. Now, Thomas Shenk and his team at Princeton University in New Jersey, US, have shown that close relatives of aspirin can block common viruses. "For a 100-year-old drug, aspirin never stops springing surprises," says Nick Henderson of the charity European Aspirin Foundation. "Every year, aspirin re-invents itself."
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991971

Cutting edge P2P, crypto comes to your PC
The wonderful CodeCon conference that took place in San Francisco last weekend is now available as an audio stream. And in keeping with the true hackish nature of the event, the audio stream is a cross-platform DIY project in its own right. CodeCon gathered together much of the most interesting bleeding-edge R&D work on distributed networks and crypto, and we'll give you a few pointers on where to move your WinAmp dial below. Probably what made this grassroots conference so enthralling was the absence of people who talk about stuff, and an abundance of people who do stuff.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24183.html

More news later on

[Copyright Queen]

Hello, WT, my dear!! I hope that you are having a lovely evening!!

[walktalker]

bump

[RDixon]

As usual, good stuff.