The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

Because someone has to do it

IBM stacks 3-D storage blocks
IBM researchers are working on a new storage system prototype that stacks modules in a three-dimensional grid of extremely densely packed cubic modules. The project, called Collective Intelligent Bricks and formerly code-named IceCube, uses stacks of cubes about eight inches on a side, each filled with 12 hard drives and six network connections to keep data coursing through the collection. IBM envisions a day when hundreds of these storage bricks are stacked together, eventually with computing bricks in the same assemblage. By the first quarter of 2003, IBM hopes to have built a three-by-three-by-three-brick prototype with a total of 32 terabytes of storage capacity, said Jai Menon, an IBM fellow and storage research manager at Big Blue's Almaden Research Center in California.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-978103.html

Intel postpones Wi-Fi chip
Intel is delaying its first Wi-Fi chip so the company can clean up some engineering issues and clear a few more regulatory hurdles. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker originally intended to come out with a dual-band 802.11(a)(b) chip at the same time it released Banias, a new chip specifically designed for notebooks, and Calexico, a module for containing 802.11 or Wi-Fi chips and other components. Banias and notebooks containing it will still come out in the first half of 2003, said an Intel representative, but the first notebooks will include a Calexico module containing an 802.11(b) chip from Philips. Intel's dual-band chip will come out later in the first half of 2003.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-978059.html

Gateway's got gimmicks for PC buyers
In its latest attempt to woo PC buyers and stave off a revenue crunch, Gateway is offering a trade-in program for the holidays.
The direct seller of PCs will give up to $100 toward future purchases to consumers who trade in their old PCs and peripherals when purchasing a new Gateway desktop or notebook. The trade-in program is the latest in a series of promotions -- including a buy one, get one free PC offer -- that Gateway has launched in recent days to boost sales through the end of the quarter. The company is also currently offering free shipping and handling on all of its desktops and some notebooks in the United States.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-978140.html

New DVD player accesses your PC
Sonicblue is looking to solve all your PC and DVD needs. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based consumer-electronics maker on Monday announced its new DVD player, the Go-Video D2730. In addition to playing DVD movies, the new player will be able to access content on PCs, such as photos, music and videos, via a wireless network connection. The company will demonstrate the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and will begin selling it for $250 in the first quarter of 2003. "There is a lot of good content locked up in PCs that people want to enjoy from multiple rooms in the house," said Ed Brachocki, vice president at Sonicblue. The company is expecting to add wireless networking to other devices, such as its ReplayTV digital video recorder, as part of Sonicblue's ongoing strategy of connecting consumers to digital media, he said.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-978084.html

MandrakeSoft steps back from open source
MandrakeSoft has taken a step away from the open-source philosophy, changing license terms for a Linux-based firewall so customers that want product support may no longer install the software on as many computers as they wish. The company's new Multi Network Firewall (MNF) software is free and ships under an open-source license for those who don't need support, Paris-based MandrakeSoft said Thursday. But if customers want support, they must buy a version covered by a different, more restrictive license. "Our goal is also to sell directly more expensive products to customers," said MandrakeSoft co-founder Gael Duval, adding that the product is still priced to undercut competitors such as Check Point Software.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-978040.html

RIAA cracks down on store CD copying
The trade association that represents the major record labels said Monday it is launching a new anti-piracy campaign against small businesses, threatening to file lawsuits against gas stations and convenience stories that sell counterfeit compact discs. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has previously spent much of its enforcement efforts targeting large-scale CD counterfeiting operations, along with Internet file-swapping and other online copyright infringement. However, CD-burning technology has become widespread and cheap enough that small retail outlets are now making their own copies to sell, threatening in aggregate to cut further into the record industry's anemic revenues, the group contended.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-978096.html

U.S. says no to Aussie libel lawsuit
Less than a week after Australia's high court issued a ruling suggesting that online publishers are fair game for libel suits anywhere their content appears, a U.S. federal court has veered in the opposite direction. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said two Connecticut newspapers could not be sued for libel in a Virginia court on the basis of allegedly defamatory articles posted on their Web sites. In the decision, released last Friday, a three-judge panel unanimously tossed out a Virginia prison warden's lawsuit against the Hartford Courant and the New Haven Advocate.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-978069.html

AOL awarded millions in spam case
A Virginia federal court awarded America Online nearly $7 million in damages as part of the Internet service providers' legal victory over a junk e-mail operation, AOL said Monday. The award -- AOL's largest compensation to date in its legal tussles with junk mailers -- marks the company's second triumph over the marketer CN Productions and its owner Jay Nelson. CN and Nelson had been charged with sending, for more than four years, unsolicited and deceptive e-mail to AOL and its members. The decision in the case was reached Oct. 25 in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District in Virginia; case documents had been sealed until recently. The ruling is one of the first in which damages were awarded under an amended Virginia antispam statute, which mandates that offenders pay $25,000 for each day of sending junk mail in violation of the rule.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978019.html

Web rights break into prisons
Prisoner rights groups are cheering a federal court ruling that quashes attempts to halt Web postings that mention prisoners. U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll on Monday put a temporary halt to an Arizona state law that banned prisoners from posting information about their cases on the Web or corresponding using a remote computer service or communication service provider. Under the law, prisoners who kept their information on the Web were subject to penalties including criminal prosecution. The law was designed to maintain prison security in the digital age, but prisoner advocacy groups said some corrections officers were using it to threaten inmates out of posting their side of the story on the Web. Although prisoners do not have direct access to the Web, prisoner advocacy groups would post information on an inmate's behalf.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978074.html

Teen DVD hacking trial comes to end
The landmark trial of a Norwegian teenager over Hollywood charges of DVD piracy ended Monday with prosecutors urging a suspended 90-day jail term. Jon Johansen, known in Norway as "DVD Jon," is charged with having unlocked a copyright-protection code and distributed a computer program enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies, angering U.S. movie studios who fear mass piracy and loss of revenue. The defense focused on Johansen's copying of DVDs he already owned. "The thief who breaks into his own flat is not committing any crime," Johansen's lawyer, Halvor Manshaus, told the Oslo court in his closing argument of the case -- seen as a battle between cyber Davids and corporate Goliaths.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978009.html

Microsoft unveils entertainment software
Microsoft will announce on Tuesday availability of new entertainment software for the Windows XP operating system, featuring fresh tools for handling music, movies and photos on the PC. The technology, called Microsoft Plus Digital Media Edition for Windows XP and part of the Microsoft Plus product line, is designed to give people who own standard PCs more features for editing and playing with media files, without turning to entertainment-friendly Apple Computer iMacs or upgrading to more expensive systems like Microsoft's own Media Center PC. Microsoft said the software is a first for the company in that it doesn't just come shrink-wrapped. People can order and download it starting Jan. 7 from a number of Web retail outlets. It will sell for $19.95 and include a $5 rebate.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978093.html?tag=fd_top

MySQL open to attack
Several vulnerabilities have been found in the MySQL database system, a light database package commonly used in Linux environments but which runs also on Microsoft platforms, HP-Unix, Mac OS and more. E-matters, a German company, released a security advisory after discovering the security flaws. They have rated the vulnerabilities as "Medium to Critical" in severity. The security flaws discovered by the company range from Denial of Service (DoS) problems to more serious issues. "...one of the flaws can be used to bypass the MySQL password check or to execute arbitrary code," the advisory said.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/sec...0270704,00.htm

Coming soon: Video game price cuts
Still wavering over whether to buy that new PlayStation? If you're reaching the limits of your holiday budget (or, like me, have long since blown past it), it might be worth your while to wait. Yeah, those rumored December price cuts for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube proved false. But that doesn't mean prices aren't coming down. The question is: When and how much? Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, naturally, aren't saying. CEOs of major game publishing companies dropped a few hints, though, at UBS Warburg's 30th Annual Media Week Conference. The consensus seems to be that we can expect another round of cuts before mid-year, most likely right around the same time as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual trade show. Most execs are predicting another $50 reduction, taking the Xbox and PS2 to $149 and the GameCube to $99. While unlikely, they acknowledge it's not inconceivable that PS2 and Xbox prices could fall to $99 (and, by default, the GameCube would slip to $50).
http://money.cnn.com/2002/12/13/comm...ming/index.htm

The web bites back
Protesters are turning the tables on government officials and businessmen who they say are making the web less pleasant to use. The web activists have found the personal details of the man behind a federal surveillance system and an e-mail spammer and are giving them a dose of their own medicine. The home address and phone numbers of the two men being widely circulated and posted on more than 100 websites. The action has led to the spammer being deluged with junk mail, and the boss of the surveillance project undergoing the scrutiny that every American will soon be under.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2580089.stm

More news a bit later on