The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

I heard Netcoco requesting news cookies
Here's yours...

DOJ, Microsoft modify settlement
In expected legal filings, the Justice Department and Microsoft on Wednesday night rebuffed some of the stiffest critics of their landmark antitrust settlement. They also had some concessions to offer, as the software titan and the Justice Department, as previously reported, for the second time made minor modifications to their early November settlement deal. The first set of modifications allowed nine of 18 states to join the settlement. Nine other states and the District of Columbia rejected the deal, choosing to continue on with the litigation.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-847405.html

Raymond: Cheap PCs will doom Microsoft
Microsoft's software monopoly is running out of time, says open-source guru Eric Raymond, and he's got a precise figure for when the company's position will no longer be sustainable: $350. "When the price of a PC falls below $350, Microsoft will no longer be viable," Raymond said in an interview with ZDNet UK. "The reason is that if you sell something below that price, you can't afford to pay the Microsoft tax and still make money." He said the best illustration of this is the handheld PC market, where Microsoft software powers relatively expensive devices, but has no presence in the lower-end market.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-847416.html

Microsoft's Mundie slams Liberty at WCIT
Speaking at the 2002 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), currently running in Adelaide Australia, Microsoft's chief technical officer Craig Mundie reaffirmed the importance of the protection of intellectual property and copyright within the software industry. "The problem with general public license advocates is that they don't understand that people need the opportunity to commercialize software," Mundie said, attacking the notion of open-source software.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-847303.html

Flaws found in PHP scripting language
A flaw in the common open-source scripting language PHP could allow attackers to crash or compromise a hefty fraction of the nine million servers running the open-source Web software Apache, as well as other Web servers. A member of the PHP engineering team warned Web developers of the software flaws in an advisory on Wednesday, but security experts believe that while some in the Internet underground have tools to exploit the flaw, few people have the resources. "It is not really easy to execute," said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer for the SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Internet Storm Center, who obtained a program file that illustrates the vulnerability.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-847252.html

Senate mulling anti-copying devices
controversial draft bill involving security technology is returning to Congress. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation plans to hold hearings Thursday on a proposed bill that would require computer and device makers to install a government-approved anti-copying technology. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has the backing of some in the recording and movie industries, which are striving to deter digital pirates through anti-copying technology and lawsuits as well as by offering legal alternatives for online music via subscription services.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-847246.html

Will Gnutella get Morpheus back on track?
A glitch this week that locked millions of people out of the most popular file-trading network since Napster's fall is raising new questions about the future of the Net's free-music bonanza. Beginning early Tuesday, a message on Morpheus -- a file-trading service from StreamCast Networks -- told visitors to upgrade their software to connect to the network. However, no newer version of the software was available. Although the nature of the problem remains unclear, the shutdown has led StreamCast to consider dropping its current software. Such a move could create the biggest rift in the file-swapping world since a federal judge effectively shut down Napster last year.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-847274.html

Wiring the world with Moore's Law
According to Intel's chief technology officer, computing and communications aren't just going to converge -- they're going to overlap. Over the next 10 years, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker will turn its research and manufacturing expertise toward driving down the cost and size of radios, optical networking equipment and other communications devices to the point where communication nodes will become omnipresent, Pat Gelsinger, Intel's CTO, said during a Thursday keynote speech at the company's developer conference here.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-848115.html

Microsoft, DOJ tweak settlement terms
In expected legal filings, the Justice Department and Microsoft on Wednesday night rebuffed some of the stiffest critics of their landmark antitrust settlement. They also had some concessions to offer, as the software titan and the Justice Department, as previously reported, for the second time made minor modifications to their early November settlement deal. The first set of modifications allowed nine of 18 states to join the settlement. Nine other states and the District of Columbia rejected the deal, choosing to continue on with the litigation.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-847355.html

When a city's cost is bad for business
A huge exodus from San Francisco may be under way as high-tech companies pack their bags for cheaper North American cities and regions, according to a study. San Francisco is the most expensive North American city for a high-tech company do to business, with an estimated average cost of $43 million a year, according to The Boyd Company, a consulting firm that advises major companies on location planning. For example, a company relocating to Baltimore from San Francisco would see a savings of about 21 percent, according to the study's figures.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-848005.html

Wrestling loses WWF to wildlife
The World Wildlife Fund has put the clinch once again on the World Wrestling Federation in a tussle over use of the acronym "WWF," marking the latest legal setback for the entertainment group's marketing efforts. The U.K. Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld a lower court's ruling that found the federation had breached a 1994 agreement with the World Wildlife Fund that bars the wrestling group from using the WWF acronym. The decision, among other things, puts the future of the group's WWF.com domain name in doubt.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-848026.html

U.N.: Cyberspace drug sales booming
The United Nations narcotics watchdog said on Wednesday the use of the Internet and other new technologies by drug traffickers was complicating the struggle against the illegal drug trade and narcotics abuse. In its 2001 annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said that narcotics were being sold over the Internet, often with the aid of private chat rooms protected by firewalls impenetrable to law enforcers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-848049.html

Vatican: Beware Net's "customized" faith
The Vatican warned Thursday of the dangers of cyberspace spirituality, saying the Internet should not be used as a religious supermarket. The buy-and-sell ethics of the Internet have spilled over into matters of faith, the Vatican said as it released two short documents, "Ethics in Internet" and "The Church in Internet." "Some visitors to religious Web sites may be on a sort of shopping spree, picking and choosing elements of customized religious packages to suit their personal tastes," one of the documents read.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-847977.html

Games fizz with proper physics
Every computer game takes place in a world far removed from this one, but the carefully constructed fantasy often falls apart because game elements avoid the basic laws of physics. Every game player has seen computer controlled foes merge briefly with walls or doors or huge explosions that leave walls and windows unscathed. Many designers are now turning to specialised software, known as a physics engine, to ensure they do a much better job of describing the world and to make their creations more realistic.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1840796.stm

U.S. government rebuilds Net image
The U.S. government got an online facelift Wednesday as Vice President Dick Cheney unveiled an updated government Web site that encourages citizens to do everything from pay taxes to book campgrounds over the Internet. The Bush administration also released a plan to improve its online services and better coordinate how it spends the $52 billion earmarked for high-tech efforts next year. The redesigned site ropes together 35 million federal Web pages, along with state and local government sites, to provide an array of services and information.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-846953.html?tag=cd_mh

Woz blesses Captain Crunch's new box
John Draper, the man better known as legendary phone phreak Captain Crunch, is soon to debut the fruits of recent labors: a box designed to thwart hackers. Crunch played a pivotal role in the phone underground thirty years ago, and paid for it with two spells in the clink. Crunch got his name by discovering that a plastic whistle included in a popular breakfast cereal perfectly reproduced the 2600Hz frequency which unlocked the AT&T phone network. Draper was also the inspiration for the first micro pioneers: Apple co-founders Wozniak and Jobs sold a Blue Box phone from their Berkeley dorm.
http://www.theregus.com/content/55/24185.html

More news later on... you know I'm obsessed about news...

[TankGirl]

A hug and a kiss to my passionate newsman!

Originally posted by walktalker
Senate mulling anti-copying devices
controversial draft bill involving security technology is returning to Congress. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation plans to hold hearings Thursday on a proposed bill that would require computer and device makers to install a government-approved anti-copying technology. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has the backing of some in the recording and movie industries, which are striving to deter digital pirates through anti-copying technology and lawsuits as well as by offering legal alternatives for online music via subscription services.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-847246.html

The Hollywood and the RIAA would desperately like to see computers as entertainment devices designed to store, copy and play stuff whose copyrights they have managed to grab for the next hundred years. In reality the scope and the potential of personal computing and digital communications is so much wider that a few senators - however lucratively lobbied by the entertainment industry - cannot stop the inevitable. People will get connected to each other ever cheaper and faster; the capacity and capabilities of personal computers and other digital devices will just grow; the p2p software and whatever grows out of it will just get more advanced and versatile. The times are so quickly a'changing and Jack Valenti & Hilary Rosen still don't seem to have a clue...

- tg

[campingman]

I wonder how much the RIAA's paying the bastards

[goldie]

I think it's time for we users need to consider how feasible it would be to create a "new", "underground" internet...................one which runs parallel to, but is uneffected by, the standard internet we now reside in.

It's beginning to get really creepy around here!!

[ab-NORM-al]

anti copying devices

it must suck to be on the outside looking in without a freaking clue as to what the "underground" can...and already has accomplished