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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 05 Issue 33
Volume 5, Issue 33 Atari Online News, Etc. August 15, 2003
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2003
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0533 08/15/03
~ HighWire Update News! ~ People Are Talking! ~ ATI Gets Xbox Deal!
~ Blaster Worm Runs Amok ~ Help For Blaster Worm! ~ Iomega Readies RRD!
~ Online Sports Games! ~ RIAA Suffers Setback! ~ MS Updates MacOffice
~ Microsoft "High Heat"! ~ ~ Blackout of 2003!
-* AOL Time Warner Name Split? *-
-* U.S. Seeks To Reinstate COPA Laws! *-
-* Microsoft Braces For Onslaught of the Worm *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's been anything but quiet this past week! Isn't amazing that the
California-informed voted in Davis as governor, and now want him out. Why
did they put him in office? He was good enough to elect in the first place,
wasn't he? So now, if the recall vote occurs, I hope these same "well-
informed" people get what they really deserve. Arnold's money will likely
get him elected.
And what about this weather?! Amazing. Two weeks of hot, humid weather
with a mixture of horrendous thunderstorms thrown in! I managed to mow my
lawn last weekend, but the grass is still unusually high. Not that I'm
complaining about the fact that my lawn is still a luscious green! The
thunderstorms haven been wild! I experienced one driving home from work on
Wednesday. When we set out from work, my wife and I noticed that the winds
were high and the sky was rapidly getting dark. We usually take a few back
roads before getting on the main street. As soon as me made the turn onto
the main drag, the skies opened up. I mean the rain was coming down in
sheets of water! Streets were flooding right in front of our eyes. The
visibility was horrible; we were following taillights rather than the road.
At one point, something other than rain was hitting the windshield. We
thought that the might be a truck in front of us that had small debris being
blown back at us. Then it got faster and harder, and we realized that were
were being pelted by marble-sized hail! We finally made it home, through
the myriad of miniature lakes along the way. Naturally, the dogs had to go
out after being cooped-up for nine hours! I took a catnap and when I woke
up, the sun was shining brightly! Typical New England weather!
Anyway, on Thursday the humidity started to wane, although the temperatures
rose. No rain, though. Maybe this pattern of constant moisture in one form
or another has finally left us for the present, and we may get a few nice
days. Maybe.
And how about Thursday's huge blackout in the northeast corner of the
country! I just can't imagine what it was like for those people in those
major metropolitan cities trying to get home from work during rush hour!
It's amazing what happens when something that we highly depend upon and we
take for granted is lost.
Well, enough of this local weather and national events for the week! Let's
move on to the news in this week's issue.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
HighWire 0.1.4 Is Released
Hi all,
Once again it is time for a new HighWire release. This time the code
has had many vital additions and changes, some of which you'll notice
right away but also some not so obvious. Above all, the implementation
of online document caching means a very important step has been taken,
as many upcoming additions will rely on it working. One example that is
already working, is the ability to download and replay (via external
players) embedded sounds from remote.
There have of course been a number of bugfixes made since last release,
and some of the most important issues solved are:
* Downloader schedulers bug cured (job queue sometimes got messed up)
* History function bug cured (got messed up if a subframe document was
located on another server than the frameset document)
* One table bug resolved (table cells would overlap other objects on page)
Finally some cosmetical issues that are new with 0.1.4 release, some of
them making HighWire looking slightly similar to a real browser ;)
* Toolbar icon OPEN added (select local file to load and view)
* Toolbar icon STOP added, (cancel loading of the current page. ESC key
does the same) * Ability to set the default background colour, in case
such is not decided in BODY-tag
Do download and test this release! Future development will surely
benefit from your feedback!
NOTE: Please make sure to carefully check out the example highwire
configuration file for details on how to setup the cache as well as the
default background colour.
/HighWire development team
http://highwire.atari-users.net
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, I've got some bad news for you... as
I write this, a major portion of the northeastern north america is
without power. My state (Connecticut) seems to be the eastern-most point
for the outage, and as of this writing, they're not exactly sure of what
happened. Of course, my news server is down, so I can't grab messages
from the UseNet for this column. Don't it just figure?
But instead of just saying "sorry folks", I'm going to ramble a bit about
what's going on and make an observation or two.
I've heard isolated reports that a power station either in northern New
York or just over the border in Canada was struck by lightning, or that
there was some sort of switching station malfunctioned... but right now
that's all conjecture.
I've got to say that I'm uniformly impressed with the reports that have
been coming out of New York City so far. The people caught by the power
outage in mid-commute have, by most accounts, pulled together to get
through the difficulties. News cameras captured average citizens pitching
in to direct traffic since the electrically powered traffic lights were
out, groups of THOUSANDS of stranded commuters standing patiently (or, at
least in an orderly fashion) while waiting for a ferry since the subways
were non-operational, and complete and total strangers helping whoever
happened to need help.
Not quite what we've come to expect from New Yorkers, is it? Well,
actually, these people DO remind me of New Yorkers... the New Yorkers of
forty or fifty years ago when Brooklyn and the Bronx were really and
truly neighborhoods. Heh heh, can't you just hear the words and music in
the background?...
"Boy the way Glenn Miller played.
Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us, we had it made.
Those were the days."
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Yeah, yeah, I know, that was Queens, but hey, it's ALL New York, right?
Actually, I'm very tempted to say that they're just average Americans, but
WHAT is an average american? A line from a movie just came to mind...
"Two hundred and thirty million completely miserable people who don't
agree on anything except that they want more and want it for less."
Well, that pretty much makes Americans average... well, average people.
But it's more than that too. I think it's a question of perception. We
don't expect New Yorkers to stop to help someone else.
I grew up around a lot of people who themselves grew up in New York
(mostly Brooklyn and the Bronx), and the one thing they all say is that,
in their day, the neighborhood was a safe haven... a place where, if you
skipped school and the neighbor at the end of the block saw you, you
could be sure that your parents would hear about it. It was a place where
everyone had one thing in common... they were all different. It was, if
not a struggle (although it usually was), at least a challenge to make a
living. One long-time New York resident explained it to me like this: "It
didn't matter that you worked hard and didn't make a lot of money.
Everybody worked hard, and nobody made a lot of money. We all knew that
the guy next door was in the same boat... even if he had a different
accent or what-have-you."
I think we've forgotten that we're all in the same boat. We've got all
kinds of things that we like to use to set ourselves apart from one
another these days. Money, education, politics, and even the "digital
divide"... the old "haves and have-nots" thing. We've forgotten that
underneath all the different labels, behind the accents, and through
everything else that makes us seem different, we're still residents of a
neighborhood... a big, strange neighborhood to be sure, but a
neighborhood none-the-less.
Meanwhile, while we're dealing with the power outage, much of europe is
suffering through the worst heat wave in a long time. There could be as
many as 3,000 people dead or dying from heat-related problems in France.
I haven't heard much about any other places in europe, but I know that
the heat is not limited to just France.
Isn't there any place on earth these days that DOESN'T have some big
problems? Well, maybe an island or two in the Aleutians or something...
oops... they just discovered a new under-water volcano in the Aleutian
Island chain. Oh well. I guess that we're still all in the same boat. I
just wish that smart-alec would stop rockin' the boat!
Well, that's it for this time around. Tune in again next week, same time,
same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - ATI Gets Next-Gen Xbox Deal!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sony To Lauch Online Sports!
Microsoft Gets High Heat!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sony to Launch Service for Online Sports Games
Sony Corp., which dominates the video game hardware market with
PlayStation 2 but has seen its share of the sports game market dwindle in
the face of heavy competition, on Monday said it would launch a service for
its sports game players to compete online.
The new 989SportsOnline.com is set to launch Aug. 26 to coincide with the
release of the football game NFL GameDay 2004. The online service will
feature message boards, tournaments, downloadable rosters and player
rankings, and will let users conduct voice chats with a PS2 headset.
It will also offer a unified login, so players can access the site with one
username and password no matter which 989 Sports game they are playing.
Sony's new service is set to launch one day after rival Microsoft Corp.
releases an upgrade to its Xbox Live online gaming platform that will let
subscribers conduct voice chats without being in an actual game.
The Xbox Live service is a closed one; Microsoft collects subscription fees
for it and operates all the game servers, regardless of the game or
publisher. Sony's platform has traditionally been decentralized, with
publishers operating online services and charging at their discretion.
Electronic Arts Inc., the independent publisher that dominates sports
gaming, is putting all of its sports titles online on the PS2 this year,
and has set up what it calls "EA Sports Nation" to link its games through
common online features.
EA has refused thus far to support Xbox Live for its sports games, citing
concerns about the business model. Microsoft has its own sports lineup,
which it calls XSN Sports, that is also online-enabled and offers users
access to message boards and player rankings.
ATI Wins Microsoft Deal for Next-Generation Xbox
ATI Technologies Inc. struck a blow against rival Nvidia Corp. on Thursday,
winning a potentially lucrative deal to provide graphics technology for the
next generation of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox video game console.
ATI said the deal with the world's largest software maker will see it
develop custom, leading-edge graphics technologies for use in future Xbox
products and services. Graphics chips for the Xbox are currently provided
by Nvidia.
"It does indicate that ATI is winning the graphics chip war. They do appear
to have maintained a technology lead," said Desjardins Securities analyst
Paul Howbold, who raised his target on ATI to $14.50 from $13.
"We looked at the next-generation Xbox product, just as we do other OEM
opportunities," Nvidia spokesman Derek Perez told Reuters. "In order for us
to engage, basically the economics have to make sense for both of us. In
this case we were unable to reach an agreement."
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but ATI officials said
it will be structured as a royalty agreement, with ATI receiving funds to
develop the product and receiving payments when shipments begin.
Analysts described the deal as a "major win" but cautioned the financial
benefits are unlikely to kick in until late 2005, when the current game
console cycle is expected to end.
ATI already produces chips for Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s GameCube under a royalty
agreement, a relationship the company said will not be affected by the new
deal.
"We've had a good strong long history with Nintendo and we don't expect any
impact," Rick Bergman, ATI's senior vice-president of marketing told
Reuters.
Speculation has run rampant among investors for months that ATI was well
positioned to take the next Xbox contract away from Santa Clara,
California-based Nvidia, particularly because of a recent arbitration
dispute.
"It was really ATI's business to lose," Pacific Crest Securities analyst
Michael McConnell told Reuters. "There's been a lot of speculation that
(Nvidia) just weren't, frankly, that interested in pursuing the business.
Last summer, Nvidia had to take a charge to dispose of excess inventory of
Xbox chips after Microsoft ordered a redesign to deal with security flaws.
The two sides also had a high-profile dispute that went to arbitration
before being settled over the price Microsoft paid for the chips and the
volume in which they were produced. Nvidia warned at one point that if it
lost the arbitration it could be forced to produce the chips at a loss.
At the time of the settlement, Nvidia and Microsoft said they planned to
work together on next-generation products.
"They've been back and forth I'm sure for over a year," Wedbush Morgan
Securities analyst David Wu said. "My guess is, in the final analysis,
Nvidia and Microsoft did not have such a good taste in their mouths after
the arbitration thing."
Wu said the loss of the Xbox contract would leave Nvidia scrambling to find
another video game partner by 2005.
"Whether they can get Sony or not, that's up to debate," he said, referring
to the next generation of Sony Corp.'s dominant PlayStation console.
Microsoft Buys Some 3DO 'High Heat' Rights
Microsoft Corp. said on Friday it acquired the rights to baseball video game
"High Heat" from bankrupt publisher 3DO Co., though an attorney for Major
League Baseball said Microsoft still needed to pay for a license from the
league and its players.
In fact, that new license might be necessary even if Microsoft keeps its
already-licensed baseball game, "Inside Pitch," the attorney said.
Nancy Geenen, a managing partner at the law firm of Foley & Lardner and the
attorney for Major League Baseball Properties, said Microsoft had acquired
only the rights to the "engine," or the basic nuts and bolts of the game.
"Although Microsoft has the game engine that makes up the graphics and all
the cool stuff 'High Heat' can do, it does not have a right to use Major
League Baseball trademarks (or) likenesses," Geenen told Reuters.
Geenen said that even if Microsoft has the appropriate licenses for "Inside
Pitch," it would still need new licenses if it rebuilt "Pitch" using the
"High Heat" engine or if it scrapped "Pitch" entirely in favor of
continuing "High Heat" as-is.
A Microsoft spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the
issue.
Game critics have long considered "High Heat" as the best baseball title in
a crowded field.
3DO's assets were sold at a bankruptcy auction in San Francisco on
Thursday. 3DO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 28 and said
it would try to sell its assets.
Microsoft did not immediately disclose the purchase price.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
RIAA Suffers a Setback in Piracy Battle
The U.S. recording industry received a setback in its nationwide campaign
to quash music piracy on the Internet Friday when a federal judge ruled
that two universities did not have to comply with subpoenas requesting that
they hand over the identities of students who could be illegally sharing
music online.
Both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College won their
requests to reject subpoenas issued by the Recording Industry Association
of America over jurisdictional issues, according the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.
The universities argued that the subpoenas, which were filed in Washington
D.C., did not apply to them in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro's ruling in the
universities' favor could prove an obstacle for the RIAA's piracy
offensive, given that the group has reportedly filed some 2,000 subpoenas
through the Washington D.C. court, according to the EFF.
The ruling could mean that the group will have to file subpoenas in courts
across the country where it believes infringement is occurring, a much
longer and more complicated process, the EFF said.
EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer cheered the decision Friday, saying in a
release that the ruling "confirms that due process applies to Internet user
privacy nationwide." The EFF has been battling the RIAA campaign, saying
that the group's efforts compromise the privacy of individual users.
The San Francisco-based privacy group isn't alone in its rejection of the
RIAA's latest campaign. Pacific Bell Internet Services, a subsidiary of SBC
Communications, has filed a suit in California alleging that the RIAA's
subpoenas are a threat to subscribers' privacy and a burden on ISPs.
What's more, Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota) has also publicly spoken
out against the group, calling the subpoenas a "shotgun" approach to
piracy.
The RIAA's spraying of administrative subpoenas is just the latest strategy
in a battle against Internet piracy that stems from the early days of
Napster. And while the group's efforts to go after individual users have
sparked some controversy and backlash, its campaign against piracy on the
legal front has been mostly successful.
The group managed to knock Napster offline last year and has since won
rulings in cases against Madster - formerly called Aimster - and other
peer-to-peer file trading networks.
Having had success in cases against p-to-p networks, the industry has now
focused on going after individual users with the aid of ISPs. Although
Friday's ruling could slow down the subpoena process, that does not mean
that ISPs won't eventually be ordered to comply.
Verizon Internet Services, for instance, lost its bid in June to protect
the names of customers accused of illegal file trading.
The recording industry is using as its defense part of the 1998 U.S.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows copyright holders to
subpoena ISPs for the names of people they believe are using their
copyrighted material without permission.
The EFF is campaigning for ISPs to notify users when their information is
being sought. The group has also created an online database where users can
check to see if their identifies have been subpoenaed by the RIAA. The
database is at EFF.org.
Web Worm Hits Windows, Crashes Computers Worldwide
An Internet worm that attacks Windows operating systems spread across the
globe on Tuesday, infecting and crashing home and office computers faster
than technicians could install safeguards.
And a computer systems engineer says the worm, which specifically targets
computers running Windows XP and Windows 2000, could spread for another
couple of days before tapering off.
At least 124,000 computers using Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous Windows
software have been infected worldwide, according to a sample by Symantec
Corp.'s Security Response sensor network.
"Corporate networks are getting hit pretty hard," said Alfred Huger, a
senior director of engineering at Symantec. "Hundreds of machines are
spontaneously rebooting throughout the environment."
Computers already infected by the worm, known as "Blaster," scan the
Internet looking for other machines running Windows that have an open
security hole - one that has not been "patched" or given a fix from
Microsoft. The worm then sends itself to those computers.
Symantec said Windows 2000 and XP computers in North America are getting
scanned or infected after being connected to the Internet for an average
of 25 minutes.
Symantec's Huger said that although corporate networks have been slowed by
the worm, there has so far been no impact on Internet traffic overall.
The worm, also known as MSBlaster or LoveSan, surfaced on Monday in the
U.S. and quickly spread around the world, taking advantage of a security
hole discovered last month in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT, and
Windows Server 2003 operating systems.
Patches for the hole, except for Windows NT 4.0, for which the company no
longer offers support, were put online by Microsoft.
Microsoft said the worm crashes some systems and infects others, but
otherwise does no damage.
"It's certainly not a good thing," Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said.
But, "it has not spread at the speed with which more notorious worms, such
as Slammer and I Love You and Code Red, did."
Symantec's Huger said the worm was poorly written, and that new variations
of it could be more virulent.
Blaster is programmed to instruct an infected computer to attack a specific
Microsoft security Web site on Aug. 16, and it carries a message for
Microsoft's chairman: "Billy Gates why do you make this possible? Stop
making money and fix your software!!"
Huger said he expected the worm would continue spreading over the next day
or two before tapering off. The patch is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/.
Because Blaster does not spread through e-mail like worms typically do,
most anti-virus software will not block it. However, anti-virus
applications will let computer owners know if they have been infected and
can help clean up the worm.
A host of European and Asian anti-virus firms reported corporations had
contacted them to say they had been infected as their systems went online.
Following a patch, many were back up and running.
Some government agencies in the U.S. reported widespread systems problems.
The state of Maryland closed 23 Motor Vehicle Administration offices at
mid-day and the system was shut down to apply patches, said spokesman Jack
Cahalan.
The computer network at Philadelphia's City Hall was also hit by the worm,
according to a city official.
Last month, Microsoft warned of the hole in its Windows system, and
security experts said it was only a matter of time before a worm appeared
to exploit the vulnerability.
Microsoft Braces for Worm Onslaught
Microsoft Corp. is racing to outsmart an Internet worm that is designed to
hijack computers worldwide and use them to attack the company's security
Web site.
More than 300,000 computers running recent versions of the Windows
operating system have been infected with the so-called Blaster worm since
Monday, according to estimates from several security experts.
Infected machines are programmed to unleash a barrage of Internet data at
the http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com Web site, the company's primary tool
for disseminating software updates and security patches to its users.
The attack is expected to begin on Saturday, Aug. 16, at midnight on the
East Coast. Infected computers in East Asia and the western Pacific region
could launch the attack on Microsoft's site hours earlier.
The FBI's cyber division is trying to identify the source and author of the
worm, said spokesman Bill Murray. Officials from the Department of Homeland
Security are participating in the inquiry. Murray declined to say whether
the FBI had any leads.
In an advisory released today, the Department of Homeland Security said the
origins of the worm, which began spreading Monday afternoon, remain
unknown.
Other than seeking to hijack computers for an attack on the Microsoft
security site, the Blaster worm, also known as the "LoveSan" worm, appears
to do little damage. Many infected PCs crash repeatedly, but data and
programs stored on the machines are not lost.
A Microsoft spokesman said the company is preparing several lines of
defense against the expected attack on its security site. The spokesman
would not discuss any specific steps the company was taking beyond saying
that it increased the amount of Internet bandwidth available for the
Microsoft update site to ensure the site can handle more user downloads.
"We have added a tremendous amount of capacity and resources to that site,
and while I can't say the traffic has decreased, the capacity there has,"
spokesman Sean Sundwall said.
Part of that increased capacity was put in place to handle the massive
influx of users who stormed the update sites earlier this week to download
the patch to protect themselves from the worm. The patch has been
downloaded more than 80 million times since Microsoft released the fix
July 16, with roughly half of those downloads occurring in the past week
alone.
Security experts say Microsoft likely will seize upon telltale weaknesses
in the worm to minimize its impact. The most obvious step Microsoft could
take would be to redirect traffic generated by legitimate Windows Update
visitors to an alternate Web site. Microsoft is letting users know that
they can find the same software fixes at www.microsoft.com/downloads.
Any attack on Microsoft's security site may be smaller than originally
anticipated because of the very way the Blaster worm is designed, security
experts recently discovered. Only computers that are newly infected with
the worm after 12:00 a.m. Saturday will seek to attack the Windows update
site; the rest will simply continue scanning the Internet for other
vulnerable computers, according to Symantec Security Response, a Cupertino
Calif.-based Internet security company. Systems infected with the worm
prior to that time will only attack the site if they have been manually
restarted by the user, according to Symantec.
Other methods for blocking the worm involve the cooperation of the nation's
largest Internet service providers (ISPs), which Microsoft has been trying
to secure.
ISPs can block Internet traffic generated by the Blaster worm. According
to experts who have analyzed Blaster's code, infected computers will
"spoof," or fake, the second half of their Internet address while attacking
the Microsoft security site. With the proper filters in place, ISPs can get
rid of all Internet traffic on their networks that appears to come from
those phony addresses.
Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager with Symantec Security Response, said
ISPs will likely do everything they can to mitigate the effects of the
worm, since ISPs with large numbers of infected users could create serious
bottlenecks that prevent their users from accessing the rest of the Web.
"It's difficult to say whether Microsoft will dodge this attack, but it's
probably safe to say that many Internet users will observe sluggishness
when trying to access the Internet" on Saturday, Friedrichs said.
Home users were believed to be most affected, but on Tuesday the "Blaster"
worm reached into a dozen computers in the U.S. Senate and caused the
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta to shut down most of its computer system.
The worm interrupted work for two days at CBS in New York.
Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering at Symantec Corp., a security
software company, said the number of new infections has dropped nearly 30
percent since the worm's peak Tuesday morning, but that new, more invasive
versions of the worm will probably emerge. But the security firm is still
seeing several thousand new infections per hour today, he said.
Computer security experts said the worm was badly written, limiting its
ability to spread as quickly or extensively as it could have. But the clear
sense among the experts was that the online world once again dodged a
bullet.
"A better version of this worm wouldn't crash any machines; it would work
correctly every time, move faster, and delete or steal its victims' files,"
said Dan Ingevaldson, an engineering manager at Atlanta-based Internet
Security Systems Inc.
The worm cost businesses as much as $329 million worldwide in lost
productivity on Tuesday, according to RedSiren Inc., an Internet security
company based in Pittsburgh. Red Siren based its assumption on 2 million
computers being infected worldwide, far more than the hundreds of thousands
of infections estimated by other security experts.
Court Urged to Reinstate Online Porn Law
The Bush administration has appealed to the Supreme Court to reinstate a
law that punishes Web site operators who expose children to dirty pictures
and other inappropriate material.
The court has already sided with the government once this year in its war
against online smut, ruling that Congress can require public libraries that
receive federal funding to equip computers with anti-pornography filters.
In an appeal filed Monday, Solicitor General Theodore Olson said the filter
technology alone is not enough. Children are "unprotected from the harmful
effects of the enormous amount of pornography on the World Wide Web," he
told justices.
The broader law at issue now requires that operators of commercial Internet
sites use credit cards or some form of adults-only screening system to
ensure children cannot see material deemed harmful to them. Operators could
face fines and jail time for not complying.
Critics contend the law violates the rights of adults to see or buy what
they want on the Internet.
Olson said the main target was commercial pornographers who use sexually
explicit "teasers" to lure customers.
A Philadelphia-based appeals court has twice ruled that the 1998 law, known
as the Child Online Protection Act, unconstitutionally restricts speech.
The law has been on hold since it was challenged by the American Civil
Liberties Union on behalf of artists, book stores and others who put
information on the Web.
The Supreme Court has reviewed the law once. The justices were splintered
in a 2002 ruling that sent the case back to the court in Philadelphia for
more consideration of the First Amendment implications.
Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in
Internet law, said Tuesday that the high court will likely struggle again
with what to do. "From the government's view, it can't hurt to appeal
because it's essentially a roulette wheel," he said.
Zittrain predicted that the government will have a tougher time than it did
persuading the high court to uphold the library filter law. The government
argued in its filing that the cases are similar.
ACLU associate legal director Ann Beeson said the laws are very different
because the 1998 statute involves criminal penalties for people who
exercise free speech rights.
"I would have thought the Justice Department would have better things to do
with its time than to defend what is clearly an unconstitutional law," she
said.
The case is Ashcroft v. ACLU, 03-218.
AOL Asking Time Warner to Drop 'AOL' Name
America Online is asking AOL Time Warner Inc. to drop "AOL" from its name,
concerned that negative publicity about the parent company is hurting the
online service's efforts to right itself.
Jonathan Miller, chief executive of America Online, told his staff in an
e-mail Monday that "AOL" the online service was becoming confused with
"AOL" as shorthand for the world's largest media company.
"I believe it's time for us to get our brand back," Miller said in his
note. "Any controversy or criticism involving the corporate entity has
actually hit our consumer brand."
Executives from the Time Warner side of the company have been agitating for
just such a change for months, but Miller stressed in his note that it was
his idea to propose to AOL Time Warner chief executive Richard Parsons that
AOL be dropped from the corporate name.
Mia Carbonell, a spokeswoman for AOL Time Warner, said Parsons and other
senior managers were considering Miller's proposal but that the final
decision would be up to the company's board. She declined to say whether
the issue would be on the agenda at the board's meeting in September.
The story was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on its Web site.
AOL Time Warner's name has been tarnished as the Securities and Exchange
Commission investigates numerous accounting issues at the company, mainly
at the AOL division. The company has also been hit with numerous
shareholder lawsuits that accuse AOL Time Warner of misleading investors.
America Online has been struggling to turn itself around as dial-up
subscribers continue to abandon the service for faster ways to connect to
the Internet. Revenues and earnings at AOL are falling, and subscriber
losses have increased faster than many analysts were expecting.
If the AOL name is dropped, it would represent the latest retreat from the
lofty goals of the deal announced in January 2000 under which AOL agreed
to purchase Time Warner.
Since then, several senior managers from the AOL side of the company have
left or lost power, and veterans from Time Warner including Parsons are
firmly in control. The company has also abandoned promises of rapid growth
and "convergence" among different corporate divisions.
Iomega Readies Removable Hard Drives
Iomega is developing a way for computer users to take their hard disks on
the road.
On Tuesday, the San Diego storage company, best known for its Zip and Jaz
drives, will announce plans to begin shipping a new type of storage
technology called the Removable Rigid Disk system. RRDs will be based on
commodity hard drive components but will feature a special drive cartridge
that can be used to insert the disk in a special drive and remove it. The
disks are expected to have a capacity of 35GB.
Hard disks typically are not removed from their storage cases because they
are extremely sensitive to contamination, but Iomega has developed a number
of disk cleaning and dust-prevention technologies that allow the 2.5-inch
disks to be moved from a special RRD hard drive to the RRD cartridge
without being corrupted.
"What we're doing here is using off-the-shelf hard disk drive technology...
but we're putting it together in a unique way that allows the cartridge to
be pulled out and sealed," said Iomega Product Manager Bob Lutz.
Iomega has developed an air lock, an air filtration system, and an
automatic head cleaning mechanism to help prevent data corruption. The
company has also developed a special error correction mechanism that can be
used in addition to the standard error correction that is already performed
on hard drives.
The RRD system will ship with an enhanced version of Iomega's Backup
software that will be able to perform data compression and encryption. The
software will also be able to copy system images on to the RRD drive, which
will allow users to back up the entire operating system and not just
individual files.
"If your hard drive crashes, you can reboot your system from the drive,"
Lutz said.
Iomega will begin shipping a Windows client version of the RRD in the first
quarter of 2004 and will begin selling a server version for Windows and
Linux two months later, Lutz said. An external version of the product that
will connect to any Windows computer with a USB 2.0 connection will be
available in retail stores. Iomega expects a variety of computer makers to
ship an internally installed RRD system as well, the company said.
The product will be available through retail and OEM vendors, he said.
The pricing and brand name of the RRD drives will be announced some time
around the Comdex trade show in November, Lutz said. A RRD system with
software will cost between $350 and $500, he predicted.
Microsoft Updates Office For Mac
Microsoft on Tuesday released two new versions of its Office for the Mac,
dropped the price of the Standard Edition by $100, and added virtual
machine software to the new top-end edition.
New to the Office lineup for the Mac are Office v.X Professional and
Office v.X Student and Teacher Edition.
The former adds Virtual PC for Mac, a x86 software emulator that, when
configured with Windows XP Professional, can run PC programs on the Mac.
Virtual PC comes from Connectix, the virtual machine software firm which
Microsoft purchased earlier this year. Professional is priced at $499.
Student and Teacher Edition, although identical to the Standard Edition of
the suite, is priced at $149, substantially less than the still-available
Standard, which now costs $399, down from $499.
As with the Office aimed at educators and students who use Windows, the Mac
version doesn't demand proof that the buyer is, in fact, either in school
or teaching. It may be installed on up to three Macs, said Microsoft.
The new versions will be available August 18 in the United States and
Sept. 1 worldwide.
Help With Blaster Worm
I'm certain you have heard about the many thousands of PCs
around the world that were infected by the Blaster Worm. This
worm does not come through email as most viruses do. Instead,
PCs are attacked through a software hole in Windows. You will
never see the attack until it is too late and your PC has
been affected.
Below, are the steps you should take on your home PC to
remove the MSBlaster Worm and install the software patch that
will fix this software hole. Further, there are
recommendations of steps you can take to protect your PC
against future attacks.
MICROSOFT NEWSLETTER:
In This Newsletter:
--Who Is Vulnerable
--4 Steps for Home Users
At 11:34 A.M. Pacific Time on August 11, Microsoft began
investigating a worm reported by Microsoft Product Support
Services (PSS). A new worm commonly known as W32.Blaster.Worm
has been identified that exploits the vulnerability that was
addressed by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026.
Who Is Vulnerable?
Users of the following products are vulnerable to infection
by this worm:
. Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
. Microsoft Windows 2000
. Microsoft Windows XP
. Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Your computer is not vulnerable to the Blaster worm if either
of these conditions apply to you:
. If you are using Microsoft Windows 95; Windows 98;
Windows 98 Second Edition (SE); or Windows Millennium (Me).
. If you downloaded and installed security update
MS03-026 prior to August 11, the date the worm was discovered.
4 Steps for Home Users
If you are using Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or
Windows Server 2003, you should follow the steps in this
sequence to help protect your system and to recover if your
system has been infected.
1. Enable a Firewall: Make sure you have a firewall activated
to help protect your computer against infection before you
take other steps. If your computer has been infected,
activating firewall software will help limit the effects of
the worm on your computer.
The latest Windows operating systems have a firewall built
in. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users should print or
save the following instructions for how to enable their firewall.
If your computer is rebooting repeatedly, disconnect from the
Internet before you enable your firewall. To disconnect your
computer from the Internet:
. Broadband connection users: Locate the cable that
runs from your external DSL or cable modem to the wall and
unplug that cable either from the modem or from the telephone jack.
. Dial-up connection users: Locate the telephone cable
that runs from the modem inside your computer to your
telephone jack and unplug that cable either from the
telephone jack or from your computer.
Follow the instructions provided for your operating system,
and then reconnect to the Internet.
. Windows XP Professional users:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1044
. Windows XP Home Edition users:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1045
. Windows Server 2003 users:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1046
. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 users: You will need
to install a third-party firewall. Most firewall software for
home users is available in free or trial versions. If you are
unable to download a firewall product, please check with your
local computer retailer. Check the following resources for
more information on personal firewalls:
-- ZoneAlarm Pro (Zone Labs):
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1047
-- Tiny Personal Firewall (Tiny Software):
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1048
-- Outpost Firewall (Agnitum):
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1049
-- Kerio Personal Firewall (Kerio Technologies):
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1050
-- BlackICE PC Protection (Internet Security Systems):
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1051
Windows 2000 users: Alternatively, you can take steps to
block the affected ports so that your computer can be
patched. Here are some modified instructions from the TechNet
article HOW TO: Configure TCP/IP Filtering in Windows 2000:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1052.
2. Update Windows: If you are disconnected from the Internet,
remember to reconnect before you take the next steps.
Download and install the security update addressed in
Security Bulletin MS03-026 for the version of Windows that
you are using from the Microsoft Download Center.
-- Windows NT Server 4.0 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1053
-- Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1054
-- Windows 2000:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1055
-- Windows XP: The vast majority of Windows XP
customers use this version. If you are unsure, it is likely
that you are using this version.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1056
-- Windows XP (64 bit): The 64-bit version of Windows
XP requires special hardware to run. If you are unsure, it
is likely that you are not running this version of Windows XP.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1057
-- Windows Server 2003:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1058
-- Windows Server 2003 (64 bit):
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1059
3. Use Antivirus Software: Make sure you have the latest
updates installed.
. If you already have antivirus software installed, go
to your antivirus vendor's Web site to get the latest
updates, also known as virus definitions.
. If you do not have antivirus software installed, get
it. If you are unable to download antivirus software, please
check with your local computer retailer. The following
vendors participating in the Microsoft Virus Information
Alliance (VIA) offer antivirus products for home users:
. Network Associates: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1060
. Trend Micro: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1061
. Symantec: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1062
. Computer Associates : http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1063
Learn about Microsoft's Virus Information Alliance:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1064.
4. Remove the Worm: If you think there is even the slightest
possibility that your computer might be infected, use the
worm removal tool available at your antivirus vendor's Web
site. For additional details on this worm from antivirus
software vendors participating in the Microsoft Virus
Information Alliance (VIA) please visit the following links:
-- Network Associates: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1065
-- Trend Micro: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1066
-- Symantec: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1067
-- Computer Associates: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid"1068
=~=~=~=
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