The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

IT managers scrutinize SCO suit
Information technology managers are moving ahead with their Linux installation plans while keeping an eye on the legal implications of SCO Group's infringement claims against the upstart operating system. Linux has steadily gained a foothold in corporate servers during the past few years as companies have sought to save money and Linux functionality has improved. But that upward trend could stall if IT managers fear the legal dispute between SCO and IBM -- a tussle that was escalated last week when Microsoft sided with SCO.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-1009...g=fd_lede1_hed

File swapping shifts up a gear
A new generation of peer-to-peer tools is finding its groove on the Internet, spelling tougher times ahead for movie studios' attempts to quell online piracy. Going by names like eDonkey and BitTorrent, many of the latest generation of file-swapping tools have been designed specifically to increase the efficiency and speed of transfer for large files such as movie files. Some of these tools have been in development for several years, but are just now reaching the critical mass needed to make a dent in the file-trading world. Some in the copyright community say these new tools are finally starting to rival the piracy potential of the post-Napster generation of swapping services.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-1009...g=fd_lede2_hed

Firms offer software to prevent PC theft
Pilfering a PC may become less appealing, if software makers Phoenix Technologies and Softex have their way. The two companies are teaming to offer software called TheftGuard, which is designed to be anchored in the guts of PCs and automatically disable any stolen machine connected to the Internet. TheftGuard is also meant to help victims of computer theft track down a perpetrator, if he or she uses the stolen machine to go online. "You know how he's accessing the Internet through his ISP, and then you can get the cops involved," said Timothy Eades, senior vice president and general manager of San Jose, Calif.-based Phoenix.
http://news.com.com/2100-1046_3-1009807.html?tag=fd_top

Kazaa to patch 'serious' vulnerability
Users of file sharing programs such as Kazaa and iMesh are urged to install a security patch after a serious bug was discovered in their underlying network. A security researcher recently found a potentially critical vulnerability in the program which drives the FastTrack network. FastTrack is used by peer-to-peer software service including Kazaa and iMesh. Joltid, the maker of FastTrack, initially said the flaw was not serious, but has since done an about-face and plans to plug the loophole. The makers of Kazaa will release a patch within the next 24 hours and are urging customers to install it as soon as possible.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-1010022.html?tag=fd_top

From PlayStation to supercomputer
As perhaps the clearest evidence yet of the power of sophisticated but inexpensive game consoles, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has assembled a supercomputer from an army of Sony PlayStation 2 devices. The resulting system, with components purchased at retail prices, cost a little more than $50,000. Researchers at the supercomputing center believe the system may be capable of a half trillion operations a second, well within the definition of supercomputer, although it may not rank among the world's 500 fastest supercomputers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-1010037.html?tag=fd_top

Philips sees gadgets lifting chip sales
Philips Semiconductors sees the stagnant market for its semiconductors recovering to 12 percent growth driven in part by DVD recorders, which will become home entertainment hubs, its executives said Monday. Europe's third largest chipmaker, which has fallen behind Franco-Italian rival STMicroelectronics in recent years, aims to catch the next wave of hot products such as flat-screen TVs, DVD recorders and multimedia phones. Theo Claasen, chief strategist at Philips Semiconductors, believes these products will boost the currently stagnant $150 billion-a-year chip market.
http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-1009868.html?tag=fd_top

Nvidia accused of fudging tests
A software maker that specializes in tools for measuring performance of PC components has accused graphics chip giant Nvidia of manipulating test results for its latest graphics chip. Saratoga, Calif.-based Futuremark on Friday said in a statement that Nvidia tweaked software needed to run its new GeForce FX 5900 processor to distort performance in Futuremark's 3DMark 03 testing application. Futuremark is one of the leading independent providers of software and services for performing PC "benchmark" tests. The company said drivers -- software files that govern how a component interacts with the rest of the PC -- for the new Nvidia chip were altered to detect activity characteristic of a benchmark and adjust performance accordingly.
http://news.com.com/2100-1046_3-1009574.html?tag=fd_top

Make cheats, not war
Christopher has been killed in action many times: 305 to be exact. But his most recent death was the last straw. Defending an Alaskan pipeline from terrorist attack, he and his nine-man squad came under fire from a sniper who picked them off, one by one, in just under a minute. Christopher, 24, is an avid player of America's Army, a violent online PC game created by the US Army to give the video-gaming generation a realistic taste of modern warfare. The soldier-simulator is free to download for any gamers interested in exploring "the adventures and opportunities" of a military career. Players handle realistic weapons, train as "advanced marksmen" snipers, rescue prisoners of war and engage in fire fights with enemies of freedom in virtual swamps, valleys and blasted villages all around the world. The game has been a massive success. However, Christopher, like many others, is unhappy and frustrated. He is on the verge of giving up the game he loves for good.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/sto...960616,00.html

MIT, Army open nanotech center
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Army formally unveiled the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, which is geared toward creating battlefield armor for the 21st century. MIT on Thursday cut the ribbon on the nanotechnology institute, which was funded by a $50 million grant from the Army in 2002. Corporations including Dow Corning, DuPont, Raytheon and Carbon Nanotechnologies are participating in the center's development. In all, private companies have invested $40 million in the center. The center's research can largely be characterized as chemistry in action. During a ceremony held at the university on Thursday, researchers showed off a technique for applying new types of coatings to fabrics to make them more resistant to water or capable of killing bacteria.
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-1009571.html?tag=cd_mh

Trend Micro bug preys on "P"
Trend Micro's antispam software recently took issue with the letter "P." A bug, which appeared in an antispam rule update, began blocking and quarantining all incoming and outgoing messages containing the letter "P," depending on how customers had configured the software. The flaw affected a Trend Micro product designed to filter content, block unsolicited commercial e-mail, and report and monitor the type of information that enters or leaves a company's network. The problem affected Cupertino, Calif.-based Trend Micro's eManager product, an e-mail security product. A company representative said the number of customers who reported being affected was in the low double digits.
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1009483.html?tag=cd_mh

Radio ID chips may track banknotes
Radio tags the size of a grain of sand could be embedded in the euro note if a reported deal between the European Central Bank (ECB) and Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is signed. Japanese news agency Kyodo was reportedly told by Hitachi that the ECB has started talks with the company about the use of its radio chip in the banknote. The ECB is deeply concerned about counterfeiting and money-laundering and is said to be looking at radio-tag technology. Last year, Greek authorities were confronted with 2,411 counterfeiting cases and seized 4,776 counterfeit banknotes, while authorities in Poland nabbed a gang suspected of making more than a million fake euros and putting them into circulation.
http://news.com.com/2100-1019_3-1009155.html?tag=cd_mh

Computing's lost allure
On a sunny May afternoon, Brian Harvey's introductory computer science class at the University of California convened for the last time before the final exam. By the time Harvey was full tilt into his lecture, reviewing recursive functions and binary search trees, the cavernous hall was lightly peppered with about 100 students.
Sparse attendance is, of course, an end-of-semester inevitability. Many students viewed the lecture by Webcast, if at all. But more significantly, just 350 students signed up for the course this spring, in striking contrast to enrollment in the fall of 2000, when the same lecture hall was engorged at the start of the semester with 700 students sitting and standing in every available pocket of space.
http://news.com.com/2100-1022_3-1009053.html?tag=cd_mh

House panel: Net tax ban is forever
A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee voted on Thursday to make permanent a ban on Internet-specific taxes, shrugging off attempts to link the ban with a more controversial effort to allow online sales taxes. The Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law passed a measure by voice vote that would make permanent a ban on "multiple and discriminatory" taxes on Internet access fees and online traffic due to expire in November. Senior Bush administration officials last week urged Congress to extend the ban before it expired, saying new taxes could slow the adoption of high-speed Internet access.
http://news.com.com/2100-1019_3-1009460.html?tag=cd_mh

Will Wi-Fi lower nurses' blood pressure?
A growing number of hospitals are installing Wi-Fi phone systems in order to attract nurses to their facilities and help them deal with the fast-paced environment. The devices could be a perfect fit for hospital nursing, a truly on-the-go profession. Besides using the phones to make or receive calls, nurses can use the high-speed connection to transfer records when within a 300-foot radius of a Wi-Fi access point. Wi-Fi technology lets people access a network wirelessly and share resources on that network. Nurses can carry the phones to answer doctors' pages on the spot, rather than have to hustle to a nursing station telephone. They also can use laptops or phones to update medical charts at bedsides.
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-1009555.html

Antispam measure gains steam in House
Antispam sentiment on Capitol Hill is growing, with a new proposal in the House of Representatives promising to slap the worst bulk e-mailers with prison terms and millions of dollars in fines. The bill, called the Reduction in Distribution of Spam Act, is sponsored by Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and has the support of two powerful committee chairmen, making it the most likely measure to prevail in the House. It enjoys the support of many technology industry groups, said a House aide involved in the drafting. A Burr representative said on Friday that "we're still kind of putting together the final touches on the coalition."
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-1009467.html?tag=nl

Titanic Director Plans 3-D Film
James Cameron, whose technological wizardry helped make Titanic the highest-grossing film in history, is convinced celluloid is on its way out. And to help send it to its grave, the director says he will start production early next year on one of the most ambitious movies ever made: a high-definition, 3-D digital feature. The topic of his planned movie is a secret. Some Cameron watchers speculate that it might be his long-planned epic about the first manned trip to Mars. But Cameron is making no secret of his belief that the movie-going public is now ready for the biggest transformation in the movie business since talkies were invented.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58940,00.html

A Rover Built for the Red Planet
A concept vehicle designed to move across the surface of Mars just crossed a hazardous section of frozen Arctic sea on its way to a scientific base station dubbed "Mars on Earth." The MARS-1 Humvee Rover -- an early prototype of a vehicle that could be used if, and when, manned missions make it to the Red Planet -- successfully trundled across 23 miles of frozen ice pack in Canada's high Arctic on May 11. The 4-ton rover, which looks like something out of the Thunderbirds television show, was fitted with four large, rubber caterpillar-style tracks to prevent it from falling through the ice.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,58963,00.html

Big Changes for Search Engines
Fast, smart, personalized to suit every user's needs. And pretty. That's what the search engine of the near future will be. Tweaking existing search engines and developing new ways to find specialized data were the subjects of two dozen papers presented at this week's 12th International World Wide Web Conference in Budapest. While search engines have improved steadily under the hood since the first days of the Web, they look and function pretty much the same as ever. But computer scientists are working on new search techniques and interfaces that could significantly alter most surfers' results pages. Expect, for example, to be able to sift through search results graphically, or to personalize Google results.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,58971,00.html

Let Someone Else Do It: Dig Tunes
Suddenly, the major labels have a new mantra about digital distribution: Let someone else do it. That's the lesson industry insiders are drawing from the surprise decision by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group to sell their service, Pressplay, to Roxio. "The marketplace has changed," Sony Music executive VP Robert Bowlin says. "We are in the content business. We don't have to own the highway necessarily unless it is strategic to do so." Sources say that the move is neither a direct reaction to the early success of Apple Computer's new iTunes service nor a response to a recent court decision allowing the Grokster and Streamcast peer-to-peer services to continue operating.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58998,00.html

Anatomy of FCC Media-Rules Change
Some questions and answers about media ownership rules and proposed changes to them that the Federal Communications Commission will consider June 2.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58993,00.html

Whoopie-Cushion Ring tones Big Biz
America's youth are using mobile phones for everything from sending e-mails to playing games, and thousands are turning to the Web to transform their phones into high-tech "whoopie cushions." "After offering various sound effects, it became clear our audience was very young and that a lot of young guys loved ... stuff like bodily functions," said Cindy Lundin Mesaros, a spokeswoman for Faith's Modtones unit, a ring tone provider for Verizon Wireless. Whoopie cushions aside, the business of selling ring tones -- or musical jingles that can personalize a mobile phone -- is proving to be more than just a lot of hot air.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58990,00.html

NASA's Shuttle Rescue Scenarios
NASA has told investigators it would have been risky but possible to launch a rescue attempt to save the crew of the doomed shuttle Columbia if the agency had known how badly damaged the orbiter was, a representative for the panel investigating the accident said on Saturday. NASA told the panel that a rescue attempt would have been "technically possible, but very, very risky," said Tyrone Woodyard, spokesman for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The agency laid out two possible rescue plans that could have been attempted had it known the extent of the damage to the Columbia's wing, the suspected cause of the Feb. 1 accident that killed seven astronauts, Woodyard said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,58992,00.html

EU alternative to GPS system threatened
A European plan to build a rival version of the U.S. global satellite navigation system, a project resisted by the Pentagon, could now crash on its own because of bickering over how to divide the contracts. "The horizon is not clear," European Space Agency spokesman Franco Bonacina said Wednesday. "If we continue losing time, we get to the point where it's not worth even continuing the program." Officials said the $4.2-billion (U.S.) project, dubbed Galileo, needs to launch its first satellites by 2005 or risk forfeiting the frequencies allotted by the International Telecommunications Union.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...ry/Technology/

Big brother eyes students
A national ID number for students and a new computer system to track them has been compared with the failed Australia card bid in the 1980s. It has also raised the issue of privacy and how much access government should have to personal information on students. But Education Minister Brendan Nelson said privacy would be protected with the "full force of the law". He said the new system was to make the transfer of data and financial information between the commonwealth and universities more efficient and to track student loans and entitlements. The Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee has warned that universities will be reluctant to give out personal information on students.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6466302^16123^^nbv^,00.html

Private spacecraft tested
Scaled Composites, one of the competitors for the X-prize, has carried out a test flight of its SpaceShipOne vehicle mated underneath its White Knight airplane. SpaceShipOne is slung below the White Knight aircraft SpaceShipOne is a reusable suborbital spacecraft developed in secret with an estimated $20 million (£12.4 million) of finance, by Burt Rutan and unveiled at a recent ceremony in the Mojave Desert, California. The aim of SpaceShipOne, which is carried aloft by the White Knight aircraft for the first part of its journey, is to win the $10 million X-prize which will be awarded to the first craft that can carry three people to an altitude of 100 km twice in a two-week period.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3051177.stm

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