The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

ARGGGGGGGGGGH I lost all my hard work I did for the newspaper last night... I really hate IE, but Netscape sucks when it comes to copy / pasting

Intel's incredible shrinking chip
Intel announced that its labs have produced memory chips that contain 330 million transistors, through manufacturing technology that will hit the mainstream next year. The experimental SRAM (static RAM) chips measure approximately 109 square millimeters and contain up to 52 million bits of data, making them the densest SRAM chips ever produced, according to the company.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-857819.html

Compuware: Big Blue stole our code
Software company Compuware is charging IBM with using its intellectual property and engaging in illegal tying of its technologies and anti-competitive practices, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. IBM spokeswoman Laura Keeton said the company declined to comment on the suit. Compuware, a software developer for mainframe computers, has three main complaints against the dominant mainframe maker.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-857840.html

StarOffice designer launches new project
Marco Boerries, who developed Sun Microsystems' StarOffice office suite, is set to unveil his new venture at CeBit on Tuesday. Boerries' new company, VerdiSoft, will create software called CrossPoint Server, which will let service providers, such as cable or wireless phone companies, manage and send data to a variety of devices. Boerries will demonstrate the software and some of its applications in a presentation at CeBit in Hannover, Germany, the company said.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-857716.html

Rival accused of piracy in TV lawsuit
French digital TV software provider Canal+ Group filed a suit Monday alleging British rival NDS employed a high-tech lab to break Canal+ Group's smart-card security and posted the information online. Filed in a U.S. court in the Northern District of California, the suit claims the action caused damage in excess of $1 billion to Canal+ Group, a division of entertainment giant Vivendi Universal, when pirates used the information to flood the market with counterfeit smart cards that allowed digital TV subscribers to garner free services.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-858077.html

Sun hauls out hardware to battle Passport
Sun Microsystems is putting some products and services behind its effort to consign Microsoft's Passport software to oblivion. Sun has long opposed Passport, which acts as an authentication gateway that lets computer users surf the Web without having to constantly enter personal information on different sites. On Tuesday, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun will bring something Microsoft lacks to the battle: hardware. As first reported by CNET News.com, Sun will debut two collections of servers, storage, software and services to house information on customers, employees or business partners.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-857692.html

AOL turns to Linux systems to cut costs
AOL Time Warner has hired software firm Red Hat Inc. to convert some of its computer systems to the open-source Linux operating system, according to sources close to talks between the two companies. Terms of the deal were not immediately available and could simply involve support services for some portion of AOL's behind-the-scenes computer systems. Red Hat and AOL both declined to comment. Earlier this year, AOL Time Warner quashed rumors that it was in talks to buy Red Hat.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-857681.html

IM: No longer a haven from spam
Growing incidents of spam attacks on some instant messaging networks are raising vexing questions about the future of one of the fastest-growing applications on the Internet. Unsolicited commercial appeals on instant messenger are still uncommon, but they are becoming prevalent enough that some IM fans worry their networks are vulnerable to the seemingly unstoppable marketing deluge that has long flooded e-mail in-boxes. None of the major IM providers interviewed for this story would talk about their spam problems in detail. But consumers and spam experts said the phenomenon is growing, with no silver bullet in sight.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-857658.html

Formerly famous live forever on the Net
For people who were once in the news, life doesn't stop just because their 15 minutes of fame have run out. Some one-time celebrities continue to do what made them famous, albeit on a smaller scale. Others may find new interests and activities they want to promote. And then there are those whose influence endures even after their names are no longer on everyone's lips. Whatever happens after the spotlight moves on, chances are that someone has put it on the Web. No matter why the former headline maker became famous in the first place.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-856661.html

Ballmer: Microsoft wants to be trustworthy
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer attempted to build bridges with governments and industry rivals on Tuesday when he said the software giant aspired to become a responsible industry leader. "I say to our people we want to be a trustworthy Microsoft in a world of trustworthy computing," Ballmer said in a speech at the official opening of the CeBit technology trade show in the German city of Hannover. Ballmer, head of a company that has been embroiled in long-running legal action in the United States over its dominant Windows software, acknowledged that Microsoft "has no perfect track record" in the areas of trustworthiness.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-858223.html

AOL searches for copy-protection leader
AOL Time Warner is beginning efforts to add copy protection to CDs, underscoring the company's desire to limit unsanctioned digital distribution of its musical works. The media giant is searching for a senior project manager to lead a software initiative that the company calls "AOL Time Warner's answer to prevention of illegal CD copying/burning," according to a posting on job listing site Monster.com. The notice added that the company has partnered with others in the industry to create a standard and to "develop the first of its kind player."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-858181.html

Microsoft takes steps to pacify EC
Microsoft has offered an olive branch to the European Commission, saying it will open up some information allegedly kept secret in violation of European Union law to make life tough for competitors. "We're taking steps to address the concerns raised by the Commission," said John Frank, associate general counsel of Microsoft for Europe. The Commission is investigating Microsoft for allegedly designing its Windows operating system to work better with its own server software than that of rivals. The Commission also has said it is concerned that Microsoft has allegedly tied its Media Player software to its operating system.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-857689.html

Real plans to launch portable player
RealNetworks said Tuesday that it plans to launch a version of its RealOne media player that will run on rival Microsoft's Pocket PC. "We will address (a RealOne player for Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002) very soon," said Chief Executive Rob Glaser, adding that the company expects to make some announcements at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's (CTIA) mobile show next week. Seattle-based RealNetworks is expanding into new areas, such as powerful mobile phones and portable computers, from its base in personal computers, where it has been battling for dominance against Microsoft for many years.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-857903.html

Mozilla's revenge
Linux has long been the flag-carrier for this methodology. But another very important test case has been Mozilla -- a highly hyped project that dominated the tech press headlines at its launch four years ago but has since been dismissed by competitors (read: Microsoft) as hopelessly behind schedule and just not very good. As Internet Explorer grabbed a bigger and bigger chunk of market share, Mozilla has increasingly been cited as an example of open-source failure rather than triumph. That may be about to change.
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/leon/2...lla/index.html

Bobbies on the byte
The bobby on the beat could soon find that the truncheon is replaced by a handheld computer as the most important weapon in fighting crime. New powers to stop and search suspects announced by the UK Home Secretary David Blunkett will create more paperwork for a police force already drowning in red tape. To prevent this and allow the bobby on the beat to focus on more old-fashioned community policing the government is planning a modernisation programme that will arm PC Plod with a PC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1869106.stm

Mandrake Linux looking for users' cash
Mandrake, a French company that sells Linux, is encouraging users to join for-fee clubs to provide enough money to keep the company in business. The company hopes to break even by the end of the year, but in the meantime, finances are worrying the company, MandrakeSoft said on its Web site. "The Mandrake Linux distribution's short-term future is in jeopardy due to a simple factor: money," the company said. "It is unlikely that MandrakeSoft can remain unchanged during these next few months without drastically cutting costs unless additional revenue is generated quickly."
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-857575.html?tag=cd_mh

Feds: PayPal not a bank
Federal regulators have boosted PayPal's contention that it is not a bank and shouldn't be regulated as one, the online payments company said on Tuesday. In an advisory letter to PayPal concerning its use of customers' funds, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it does not consider the company to be a bank or savings association, PayPal said. PayPal Chief Executive Peter Thiel praised the FDIC decision.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-858264.html?tag=cd_mh

Wells Fargo latest target in scams
Masquerade is becoming a popular game online. In recent weeks, scam artists pretending to represent reputable companies such as Bank of America and eBay have been e-mailing Internet users in an attempt to steal their account information. Although not a new scam, the e-mails are part of a growing trend of identity theft online. In one of the latest examples, Wells Fargo warned its online customers late last month of an e-mail purporting to come from the company. The alert came after the company received notices from dozens of customers saying they'd received the bogus e-mail.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-857177.html?tag=cd_mh

Study: Broadband demand "strong"
The number of subscribers to high-speed Internet service via cable rose almost 13 percent, to 7.2 million, in the fourth quarter of 2001, a trade group said Monday, days before federal regulators begin shaping the framework for what rules apply to the service. More than 800,000 new customers signed up for cable-modem service during the last three months of 2001, up from 6.4 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter, according to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA).
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-857484.html?tag=cd_mh

DoubleClick unloads e-mail list unit
Online advertising company DoubleClick said Monday that it has sold its e-mail list services unit to database services provider InfoUSA so it can focus on its e-mail technology business. The news comes as DoubleClick struggles with a sharp downturn in ad spending and tries to diversify its revenue stream -- through technology for e-mail marketing, for example. Terms of the deal with InfoUSA were not disclosed. The companies said in a statement that it gives InfoUSA, parent of direct marketer Walter Karl, an entry to the e-mail list brokerage and management business.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-857487.html?tag=cd_mh

Hatch asks music stores for feedback
Sen. Orrin Hatch on Monday urged music retailers to stay flexible and get involved in politics if they want to compete in an online world. Speaking at the National Association of Recording Merchandisers' (NARM) annual convention, Hatch, R-Utah, invited music retailers to participate in political discussions and implored them to contact him with their hopes and concerns. In many respects, Hatch said, "politics is going to determine whether this business succeeds or fails."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-857406.html?tag=cd_mh

Pakistanis appeal to Net country
More than 3,000 Pakistanis want to become citizens in the northern European nation of Ladonia, the country's state secretary said Monday. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. Ladonia is a piece of land in southern Sweden only one square kilometer (half-mile) in size, and as a nation exists mainly on the Internet and in the mind of its creator, artist Lars Vilks. "It all started a month ago when we began getting the first applications from Pakistan, and then the pace really picked up," said Vilks, whose Ladonian title is state secretary.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-857045.html?tag=cd_mh

FTC halts hawkers of .usa addresses
The Federal Trade Commission said Monday that it has busted a company that preyed on people's patriotism by selling them .usa addresses that don't work on the Web. The FTC said it won a temporary injunction prohibiting the U.K.-based operators of the dotusa.com Web site from peddling .usa domain names. The decision by a federal judge in Chicago last week followed an investigation by the FTC, British law enforcement and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body charged with administering domain names.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-856979.html?tag=cd_mh

Security company drops PGP encryption
Software company Network Associates has stopped marketing its PGP e-mail encryption software, a further sign that privacy products are a tough sell. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company began selling PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy, to corporations in 1997 after it bought the software business from the technology's author, Phil Zimmerman. The software, downloaded by millions of consumers worldwide and used for encrypting e-mail messages, has historically been freeware. The company ceased giving it away to consumers nearly a year ago, but the software continues to circulate the Net through free download sites.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-856132.html?tag=cd_mh

Home PCs speed anthrax cure project
Scientists using the power of more than a million home computers, all linked together and cranking along as one, have come up with thousands of possible compounds that could be developed as a cure for anthrax, researchers said Friday. The British researchers who helped organize the project handed two CDs containing 300,000 potential drugs to U.S. and British government officials. Of these, they said 12,000 looked like good candidates for a cure for anthrax infection--not an antibiotic, but an antitoxin to counter the lethal effects of the bacteria. They added that the project was completed with unprecedented speed.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-856096.html?tag=cd_mh

New drives rewrite HP DVD+RW line
Hewlett-Packard announced on Monday two new DVD+RW drives that aim to address one of the major criticisms of the DVD rewritable and recordable formats: compatibility. DVD+RW is one of several formats competing to be the standard for rewritable and recordable DVD drives and media. The others include DVD+R, DVD-R (DVD-recordable), DVD-RW (DVD-rewritable) and DVD-RAM. One of the key issues in this donnybrook among the format backers is compatibility with the large number of DVD-ROM drives for PCs, stand-alone players and media that are currently in the market.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-857332.html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on

[TankGirl]

Thank you very much WT and sorry to hear you lost some work... anyway, the first copy is mine!

- tg