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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 02 Issue 35
Volume 2, Issue 35 Atari Online News, Etc. September 1, 2000
Published and Copyright (c) 2000
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- CC: Classic Chips
With Contributions by:
Dan Loosen
Fred Horvat
Donald A. Thomas, Jr.
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0235 09/01/00
~ Palmtop Liberty Virus! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Atari Swap Meet!
~ Americans Shun 'u.s.'! ~ Bandai Enters Fray! ~ MSN Explorer!
~ Sony Launches Handheld ~ Sega Online Gaming! ~ Linux Gains Support!
~ GameDaily Backs Thomas ~ MS Appeal Deferred! ~ October For Napster
-* Tech Giants Lean To Napster! *-
-* Online Auctions Top Fraud Complaints *-
-* Glitch Forces Recall of 1.13 GHz Pentiums! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
What an excellent week for a vacation! Yes, my last vacation (in all
likelihood) for this year is coming to an end. Finally, I had a week without
rain and overcast days. We had some barbecues with friends, I relaxed, did
some important errands, played some golf, and relaxed some more. And, for a
change, I didn't do any yardwork! And it's a long weekend ahead due to the
Labor Day holiday.
I am dreading going back to work, however. Lots of changes and other
foolishness while I was away. My boss has left, a week ahead of plan. I
guess being a "lame duck" has its drawbacks when carried to the extreme. I
have no idea what the new hierarchy in the department will be. Heaven
forbid I have to report to my former boss! I've already started sending out
some "feeler" resumes in anticipation of the worst-case scenario within my
department. Maybe it is time for a change...
Can you believe it? Unofficially, this is the last weekend of the summer!
Where did the time go? So many things to do, never enough time... What can
you do? But, since this is a long holiday weekend and the "end" of summer,"
many of you will be participating in those Labor Day weekend rites of
passage: partying. Please remember, drink - don't drive! Also remember
that Labor Day means another rite: kids are going back to school. Watch out
for them!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE User Group Notes! - Meetings, Shows, and Info!
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Atari Swap Meet
Atari Swap Meet September 9, 2000
in Columbus OH (USA).
For more info and directions please go to http://acec.atari.org
I plan on being there with my Milan040 for all to abuse.
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
jmirando@portone.com
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone and I find
myself contemplating the weekend.... A LONG weekend.
With so much going on these days, it seems that there's never enough
time to do everything that needs to be done. And even if there was,
there would only be more crap to do to fill the time.
Isn't that the way it goes? No matter how much time you have, circumstances
will provide more things to do than you could possibly accomplish.
Well, the same holds true in the computer industry. No matter how fast
your CPU is, no matter what your RAM bus speed happens to be, someone
will be out there writing programs that will slow it down to a crawl.
That's one of the reasons that I keep going back to my Atari computers.
I can do almost anything I need to do without all the Active-GL, Open-X
goop that bogs things down.
Of course, I'm of the opinion that Microsoft is to blame for most of it,
but some of it isn't their fault. It's not easy for me to admit that,
but there it is.
Being Atari folk, we've gotten used to NOT having the latest and
greatest bells and whistles. Innovations, yes. But not the 'eye candy'
that is so common in the computer world today.
There's something strange that happens to people when things become too
easy or too pretty. They get lazy and stupid. I'm not quite sure of why
this is, but you see it in every facet of our lives. Look at that kid
you went to school with who's father gave him everything. What's he
doing now? Five to ten? <grin>
I think that we do our best and grow the most only when we have to.
Otherwise we get sluggish and slow. It's our nature to want something
better, but it's our calling to make the most of what we've got.
Well, let's see what we've got in this week's batch of UseNet messages.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Paul Nurminen asks about using a free ISP with STinG:
"I was wondering if anyone would care to try to get STinG to work with a
free ISP I'm using on my _other_ computer (PC). By the way, as far as I
know, this is a North American ISP only (so far)...
The ISP is called "1 Nation Online". It's 100% free, with _NO AD
BANNERS OF ANY KIND_. Plus, they don't require any special dialer or
setup software (they do offer a dialer program as an option, but it's
not required).
As far as I know, this is about the only free ISP left (in the USA) that
doesn't make you look at ad banners while you're connected (there were
two other free ISPs like this - one was called "FREEWWWEB", the other
"WORLDSPY" - however, both were recently bought out by JUNO, which has
the constant ad banners). Plus, 1 Nation Online doesn't block SMTP mail
which is sent from an account _other than theirs_ (which is a rare thing
to find in a free ISP!).
Anyway, I've tried various settings in STinG, and can get it to dial,
and negotiate the connection, but then it hangs at the end. And
according to the information I get from Windows dial up networking, it's
a simple PPP connection using PAP. And I know PAP works with STinG
since my current "pay for use" ISP uses it, and STinG works fine there.
And I've tried it with a script too, but it gets through the login name
and password, then hangs on getting the IP address.
If anyone wants to try it on a PC first, go to:
http://www.1nol.com
But for more thorough technical information about it, go to the
following FREE ISP Resource site:
http://www.nzlist.org
* Here you will find a huge listing of free ISPs, and more importantly,
all the necessary information on setting things up for 1 Nation Online -
look for the 'Unofficial FAQ'."
Charles Silver tells Paul:
"Some might want to try www.freei.net or www.nocharge.com
I was using freewwweb also, but as you mentioned, it went South ;( I
have freeinet working, but I got it going on my mac first, then imported
the data to the falcon."
Krzystof Maj adds:
"Which version of STiNG do you use? We in Poland have had very like
problem. Our national operator TPSA (Polish Telecom) started to install
Nortels CVX internet access servers.
When connected to this server using STiNG, we were getting bombs exactly
90 seconds after beginning a telephone connection, i.e. 55 seconds after
getting IP number. Until this moment a connection was always perfect,
all functions were working normally. This effect appeared on versions
1.22 and 1.26. We have found that version 1.20 and the previous are free
of this bug and work flawlessly with CVX servers.
When trying STiNG 1.20 be careful; you have to change *all* modules of
Sting."
John Garone asks about using DSL on a Falcon:
"Anyone here know if a DSL connection is feasible on a stock Falcon?
Earthlink is running a special saying a DSL modem is needed (looks like
it's free)."
Dennis Vermeire tells John:
"No way... You need a computer that can communicate through a fast
ethernet card (Milan) and a stack that knows the POPoverEthernet
protocol. There might be a solution for the ethernet card, but software
wise there's no stack on our platform which supports the POPoverEthernet
stack."
John tells Dennis:
"I kinda' figured a faster machine would be needed (at the very least)!
I had hoped the connection could be sped up (even if I had to wait for
the machine to process the data), especially since the Earthlink ad
mentioned a free modem, etc. Thanks for the feedback anyway!"
Martin-Eric Racine adds his own thoughts:
"1) Not all cable-net and DSL providers want DHCP or POPoE; plain
static IP is still possible in many places, as both myself (Finland)
and SWE (Slovenia) prove.
2) Ethernet is also possible on MEGA-ST, MEGA-STE, TT, Hades.
Nowadays, there is even a ready-made cartridge adapter that works
on a Falcon: http://www.asamnet.de/~hilgarte/ether.htm "
Robert Schaffner adds his own experiences with this cartridge:
"Yeah.. Works fine here since 4 weeks. Connects one falcon to two
macintosh. FTP server/client. Great. Can't find a better or faster way
to transfer data from one to another machine, also CAB is surfing while
data transfer works.."
'AtariGalen' asks Robert:
"Could you describe your setup in more detail please?"
Robert replies:
"STinG Setup?
The urgent point is the route.tab, setting on ether_pa.stx (over STING
PORT SETUP) .CPX. ether_pa is a new driver you got with the ethernet
romport adaptor.
File transfer from falcon to mac / mac to falcon only works with FTP
server/client software. Using aFTP on falcon. Fetch on Mac. Falcon also
running an FTP server.
So I can connect the falcon from mac side via ftp. Click on files,
transfer starts. Easy
That's it. No more special settings."
Martin-Eric Racine asks Robert:
"Other protocols (e.g. http, irc, telnet) don't work?"
Robert replies:
"They all work."
Andy Hewitt asks about using an ST for email:
"Hi there, I have only recently started nosing around here, but I have
owned an Atari for the last 16 years. My first being an 800xl, then a
65XE.
I now have a 520STFM (2 in fact, but I'm only borrowing one of them).
One of them is a 520STFM (TOS1.4) upgraded to 2.5mb and an internal HD
floppy. The other is a fairly base 1mb 520 (TOS1.2), with a standard
800k drive. I also have an external 800k floppy too.
At the moment I have lent my Mum one of them to learn some basic
word processing on (I have a selection, from First Word to Protext 6). As
it is the only spare computer I have at the moment, I would like to get
it setup for E-mail.
The needs are very simply, my Mum is not going to want any knobs and
whistles, just the basics - type a message, send, receive, and reply will
do.
Although I did an awful lot of work on the Atari, I never used it for
communications, so I have no idea of how to go about this. I use the Mac
for that myself.
Presuming I am going to need some connection software - PPP & TCP, and
an E-mail client, I would like to know what would be best suited to the
setups I have (preferably a 1mb ST with 2x 800 floppies), and where I
could download the software.
It might be handy to have a basic browser too, if possible."
Lyndon Amsdon tells Andy:
"Right first thing you need is a modem (you didn't mention if you had
one). Standard ST modem port can only get up to 19.2K but that'll be
fine for emails.
First thing is I'm not sure if TOS 1.2 is up to it, maybe someone else
can fill this in.
HSMODEM v.7 Cleans up the buggy serial port. Essential. From the
package use MFP.PRG and DRVIN.PRG.
STING v1.26 PPP connection layer. Installation can be very tricky, so
ask here for more help later on. You'll need to sign up an account on
your mac first and transport the details over to the ST.
XCONTROL v? Lets you use the CPXs (Control Panel eXtensions) for STING.
NEWSIE v0.94 or 0.96 Some people have had problems with 0.96 so best
advice for beginner is to use 0.94. This is the email, FTP and
Newsgroup programme.
CAB v1.5 Web browser thats only HTML (no Java etc) works but very slow.
CAB.OVL v1.18 lets STING communicate with CAB.
On disk one create folder called AUTO and put in this order: DRVIN.PRG
MFP.PRG STING.PRG Rename STING.APP to STING.ACC and put on the root of
Disk one. Put XCONTROL on root as well and configure it to load the
CPXs. Get everything working by putting in the details of your ISP into
the STING.SCR and DEFAULT.CFG.
Now on Disk two put NEWSIE and CAB. Set up NEWSIE with your ISP
username and password.
Download these packages of an FTP site or search about for them on the
Net.
Hope that all helps, and remember, help is not that far away :-)
P.S. Docs are supplied for STING but are very daunting for a newcomer
(especially if your just used to clicking on an install button and
everything is done for you!)"
Martin Holmes asks about backup software:
"Can anyone suggest or recommend a reliable HD backup software utility -
and where is it available from?"
Jim Logan tells Martin:
"Diamond Back is good to floppy or another HD partition. Still available
from HiSoft as far as I know and quite cheap now.
If you want to backup to CDR then CD Writer Suite ver 3 from Anodyne
Software."
Edward Baiz adds:
"I have used Diamond Back and it does a good job, but now I have
switched to CDbackup from Anodyne. It works great and it is quick and
easy. I recommend it."
Martin Byttebier adds:
"Diamond back is only good if one use the standard 8+3 FS. If one uses
long filenames Diamond back is useless as it doesn't support LF.
E-backup is suitable for long filenames but as far as I know it's all
German and not supported anymore."
Well folks, that's it for this week. 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 - GameDaily Supports Thomas!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Bandai Enters Fray! JAMMA!
Sega Pushes Online Gaming!
And much, much more!
->From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I haven't had much to say editorially in this section for awhile. But, I
have been following Don Thomas's "saga" with eGames (see further on in this
section); and I wanted to throw in my couple of cents.
In my opinion, what eGames is doing is ripping off unsuspecting customers.
And it's not only eGames that is doing this; I've personally had a similar
experience which I intend to look into. When you're buying computer
software and see something like "Atari Classics: Missile Command, Centipede,
Asteroids, etc." - you expect to open up that CDROM, put it on your
computer, and play these games - in their entirety. What you don't expect,
especially where nowhere on the package does it say, to find these games
with a small sampling of levels instead of the full version of the games.
If you're selling a collection of demos or crippled/partial games, say so!
Do not lead your customers awry by misleading them into thinking they're
buying complete games (or any other software for that matter!).
And then when said customer complains, the company treats him like an idiot.
When the customer reacts to this treatment and wants to complain further,
the company threatens to sue. Great for business, eGames! Not!
The company told Mr. Thomas that if he was unsatisfied, he could get a
refund. This is supposed to resolve the issue? Bull. It's not just a
matter of the purchase price. It's a matter of wrongly leading customers to
buy a product which clearly are not full versions - clearly only once you
use the software.
I can't wait to learn of the final outcome of this issue. I intend to send
my comments in to eGames, as well. Most consumers would just chalk the
issue up to experience and never say a word, feeling it wasn't worth the
effort, that it was only ten bucks or so. And I might agree with you. But,
it's wonderful to see that there are people out there who do not believe
what happened to them was right; and they're doing something about it! Good
for you, Don!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Japan's Bandai To Launch New Handheld Game Player
Bandai Co Ltd , a major Japanese toy maker, said on Monday it will launch a
new handheld game machine in December with a color liquid crystal display
to compete with Nintendo Co Ltd's Gameboy.
The news comes less than a week after Nintendo unveiled last Thursday a new
version of the popular Gameboy to be launched next March 21 in Japan, with
shipments in the first month targeted at one million units.
A Bandai spokeswoman said Square Co Ltd , a major Japanese game software
developer, will provide a version of its popular Final Fantasy game series
for Bandai's new game player.
Bandai set a sales target for the new machine of 1.2 million units by the
end of March 2001, the spokeswoman said.
The domestic sale price is expected to be 7,000 yen, compared with the new
Gameboy's list price of 9,800 yen.
The new portable machine, like Bandai's current monochrome WonderSwan game
player, will allow users to access the Internet by connecting the unit to a
mobile phone.
Other details will be disclosed at a news briefing on August 30, the
spokeswoman said.
Sega Aims High with Online Gaming
Sega, maker of the popular, year-old gaming console Dreamcast, is enticing
users to give online gaming via its SegaNet a try. The company said on
Thursday it is cutting the price of the Dreamcast console and will give
customers a $150 rebate if they sign up for 18 months of SegaNet service at
$21.95 for each month.
Sega, which has been fighting an uphill battle against Sony's PlayStation
for some time, wants to get a jump on the competition in the online gaming
arena.
But first, Sega has to exorcise a colossal flop from early 1999 -- its
Saturn console. Game developers flocked to write games for rival consoles
and Sega's market share had dwindled to a miserable one-half of 1 percent.
``We broke our promise to gamers," said Peter Moore, president and chief
operating officer of Sega America Inc., the U.S. unit of Japanese Sega
Enterprises Ltd. ``Frankly, it was a debacle and all we had to show at that
point was a great history."
Fast-forward to summer that same year.
Sega staffers infiltrated a golf tournament Sony hosted for game developers
and publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area and convinced the golf pro to
replace the Sony-emblazoned golf balls with those from Sega. They hired a
plane trailing a Sega banner to buzz the golf course. Then there was the
giant blue hedgehog -- Sonic, a Sega character -- screaming down fairways
in a golf cart.
Then there was the vastly successful launch of the Sega Dreamcast console
Sept. 9, 1999. In the first 24 hours on sale, Sega sold $97 million of
hardware, software and peripheral devices, Moore said.
With an installed base now of 2.1 million and market share of about 15
percent, San Francisco-based Sega America is pinning its continued comeback
on SegaNet, a private online gaming network that goes live Sept. 7. Also an
Internet service provider, Sega hopes that hard-core users, as well as new
ones, will replace their existing ISP with the dial-up SegaNet service that
allows Web surfing and e-mail.
``It's a great idea and Sega actually has a tremendous opportunity -- out
of all the console game makers, to set the tone for everyone else that,
'Hey, online gaming is easy, online gaming is fun and online gaming is
where it's at,"' said senior analyst P.J. McNealy at Gartner Group, who
has seen a demonstration of SegaNet.
``But they're also between a rock and a hard place because PlayStation 2 is
coming out this fall and that thing already has noise that Sega has to
fight," McNealy said.
In addition to the wildly popular PlayStation -- more than 70 million have
been sold so far, McNealy said -- Nintendo Co. Ltd. comes out next year
with its Dolphin console and Microsoft Corp.'s highly touted X-Box hits
shelves around the same time.
So far, analysts believe online gaming will be big. Really big. At just 2
percent of the gaming market now, market research firm Forrester Research
predicts online gaming will reach 24 percent of video game market sales in
the next two years. That's not exactly chump change for an industry that
was within spitting distance last year of surpassing the movie industry in
revenue, with some $7 billion in the North American market alone.
To entice users to give online gaming via SegaNet a try, the price of the
Dreamcast console will be reduced to $149 and Sega will give customers a
$150 rebate if they sign up for 18 months of SegaNet service at $21.95 per
month. Users also get a free keyboard allowing them to chat online while
playing and to surf the Web and write e-mail.
Because online gaming over the public Internet has proved to be less than
an ideal experience due to traffic and bouncing from server to server, Sega
will offer 50 free hours of SegaNet service with every Dreamcast sold.
Other console makers, such as No. 1 Sony and Nintendo have said they will
wait until high-speed Internet access to the home is far more prevalent
than it is now, which is at just about three million homes in the United
States having either a cable or DSL modem.
But Sega's Moore said his company will have the jump on online gaming
because the company is using what is currently widely available -- dial-up
access -- and has made sure that it works. Since the game runs on the
console, the amount of data that has to go through a 56K modem is
relatively small, Moore said.
``The console is rock solid at 60 frames a second running at 28.8
(kilobytes per second)," he said. ``We are not going to hang around for
three or four years to wait for broadband, but when it's there, we're ready
to go."
The biggest danger about SegaNet and Sega's strategy, McNealy said, was if
users do not take advantage of SegaNet and their first experience of online
console gaming is a herky-jerky experience on the public Internet. ``That
could be a potential disaster," McNealy said.
But with the next version of its football game ``Sega Sports NFL 2K1" on
the way (it allows people to play against each other online) and the launch
of SegaNet, Sega might just have a reasonable shot at a full comeback.
Asked if Sega could really, really come back, McNealy replied: ``Only if
they do this online thing right. The only other thing they can hope for is
if Sony stumbles with PlayStation 2, then people may turn to Dreamcast."
Activision's Star Trek Invasion Warps Onto
Store Shelves Nationwide
Gamers, prepare to ``lock and load" for intergalactic combat when
Activision, Inc. releases Star Trek Invasion, the first Star Trek game for
the PlayStation game console. The high-action space-combat game will be
available at retail channels across North America the week of August 28,
2000 and carries a suggested retail price of $39.95.
Based on the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe, Star Trek Invasion
places gamers in control of the Federation's prototype single-pilot ships.
The game challenges players to investigate strange space anomalies, defend
the Federation against alien threats, and uncover the mystery that has
opened a rift in the Beta Quadrant.
``Star Trek is one of the world's most recognized brands and we are
thrilled to bring such an important franchise to the PlayStation game
console," said Michael Pole, executive vice president, Activision
Worldwide Studios. ``With such stellar gameplay, Star Trek Invasion is sure
to appeal to a large audience including casual and hardcore gamers, as well
as Star Trek fans."
Developed by Warthog plc, Star Trek Invasion draws players into a realistic
and visually stunning 3D space-combat adventure. Under the guidance of Lt.
Commander Worf, players undertake 30 diverse missions with a multitude of
objectives requiring them to employ evasion, stealth, preservation and
pursuit tactics to defend the Federation from a mysterious menace. As
gamers progress through the missions, they will pilot multiple types of
vessels, including taking the hot-seat of a pulse-blasting ion cannon
turret, as they interact with classic Star Trek races, as well as a never
before seen alien race. Additionally, the game features over 10 unique
weapons, including morning-stars and gravity bombs, an immersive storyline,
true squad AI, and an all new advanced graphics engine that allows for
in-game streaming video, stunning graphics and explosive special effects.
For the first time, space combat gamers will be able to compete in
dual-play matches via split-screen, that take place in five Holospace
combat arenas. In dual-play, players have the option to fly in tandem in
cooperative team-play or engage in head-to-head combat.
Star Trek Invasion has been rated ``E" (``Everyone" - content suitable
for person ages six and older) by the ESRB.
Mattel Interactive Brings Radio-Controlled Racing to PlayStation
Mattel Interactive announced the availability of its first Tyco R/C title
for the PlayStation game console, Tyco R/C Assault with a Battery.
Following its tradition of publishing high quality racing titles, Mattel
Interactive brings one of its most popular brands to life with high action
racing excitement. Tyco R/C Assault with a Battery is the first Tyco R/C
title in a new series of Mattel Interactive games and will be available in
retail stores nationwide.
``Continuing Mattel Interactive's effort to broaden its offering of titles
to boys of all ages, we are excited to bring one of Mattel's most
recognizable brands to the PlayStation console," said Bernard Stolar,
president of Mattel Interactive. ``Players can now experience the
excitement of radio-controlled racing and control their favorite Tyco R/C
vehicles with Tyco R/C Assault with a Battery."
Tyco R/C Assault with a Battery puts players in control of some of the
best-selling, high-performance radio-controlled racing vehicles including
Super Rebound, Hot Rocker and Nitro Dozer. Gamers use secret moves to
unlock each vehicle's special power to tear through a variety of
challenging terrain and obstacles. Players utilize each vehicle's unique
abilities to shock, flip, blast, zap and shrink other vehicles off the
track. Racers can play single or multiplayer and select from five modes
including battle and championship mode and from five richly detailed 3D
environments.
Acclaim Sports Tackles All-New Terrain With ATV:
Quad Power Racing, Available In Stores Today
Acclaim Sports announced ATV: Quad Power Racing, the first ATV-based
videogame for the PlayStation game console, is now available at retail
across the country.
ATV: Quad Power Racing features 12 outdoor tracks with mountain, snow and
desert terrain. Tracks are complete with obstacles, short cuts and jumps on
circuit-based and natural layouts. Players can choose from 6 quad riders
and 12 quad bikes, each with four wheel independent suspension and its own
individual specifications including top speed, suspension and grip.
Exciting arcade gameplay enables quads to power slide, roll-over, crash and
display damage from physical action between competing riders.
In addition, ATV: Quad Power Racing features 4 gameplay modes: Single Race;
Time Attack; 2-Player; and Championship Mode. Players choose to race as
either Amateur or Pro and will gain access to additional circuits as they
win championships.
ATV: Quad Power Racing is being developed by European based Climax Studio
and will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99.
The Most Anticipated BMX Video Game, Dave Mirra
Freestyle BMX, to Hit Retailers On Thursday,
September 14th
Hottest BMX Game Features: 10 BMX Superstars, 1,300 BMX Tricks,
12 Levels, Killer Soundtrack, and Motion-captured Moves
Acclaim Max Sports announced that the highly anticipated Dave Mirra
Freestyle BMX video game for the PlayStation game console will be available
in retail outlets nationwide on Thursday, September 14th.
``We believe this game will be one of the best-selling PlayStation games
this year. Many people have worked extremely hard, especially our
developer, Z-Axis, to bring the most anticipated BMX game to the market and
we know it will not disappoint," stated Steve Felsen, brand director of
Acclaim Max Sports.
``I am very stoked that the game is coming out. Being a gamer myself, I
worked real hard with Acclaim to make sure this game is authentic to BMX
and totally fun to play," commented Dave Mirra, who recently won the gold
medal in the X Games Street Competition, making him the most decorated
athlete in X Games history.
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX focuses the aggressive spirit and tremendous
energy of BMX riding into an accessible, trick-based action game for the
PlayStation® game console. Riders are given an open track, a set of tricks,
a bike, and the rest is up to them. The challenge: Take their rider from
zero to hero in their very own freestyle BMX career.
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, developed by Z-Axis, features: 10-Time World
Champion Dave Mirra, along with nine other BMX superstars (Ryan Nyquist,
Leigh Ramsdell, Mike Laird, Troy McMurray, Kenan Harkin, Joey Garcia, Shaun
Butler, Chad Kagy and Tim Mirra); an innovative open trick system with over
1,300 possible BMX tricks; 12 interactive environments, 6 competition-based
and 6 objective-based levels focused on vert, dirt and street riding;
soundtrack featuring Sublime's ``What I Got," Cypress Hill's ``Dust,"
Rancid's ``Maxwell Murder," Social Distortion's ``Don't Drag Me Down,"
Deftones' ``Be Quiet and Drive (far away)," Primer's ``Loose,"
Pennywise's ``Greed," Dropkick Murphys' ``Never Alone," 59 Times the
Pain's ``Got It All In Sight" and Swingin' Utters' ``Stupid Lullabies;"
and the first BMX video game to have authentic BMX tricks motion-captured
by Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist.
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX is backed by a five month nationwide television,
print and online campaign; a dedicated website on www.acclaimmaxsports.com;
a comprehensive in-store merchandising program, including pre-sell video,
window posters, valence cards and comp boxes; and cross-promotions with
Slim Jim, UGP, Dog on a Bike Films, and Split.
EA Breaks Out of the Ring With WCW Backstage
Assault for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64
Bring it... backstage and out-of-the-ring. Chaos reigns supreme as EA
breaks out of the ring with WCW Backstage Assault, the latest World
Championship Wrestling (WCW) title licensed to EA by 4Kids Entertainment
Inc. The fast, action-packed game will feature over 50 of the hottest WCW
superstars, including Goldberg, Sting and Vampiro, in an all-out assault.
WCW Backstage Assault for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 will ship late
Fall 2000 and marks the first ever entirely out-of-the-ring wrestling game
to date.
``Being the first company to offer an out-of-the-ring feature as we did
last year with WCW Mayhem, it was a natural decision for us to create a
completely interactive backstage wrestling experience," says Dean Elissat,
product manager at Electronic Arts (``EA"). ``We're preserving all of the
physics and gameplay mechanics of traditional wrestling, but adding many
unique features and challenges that are presented in non-traditional
settings."
Wrestling fans will have the ability to brawl in seven different
interactive out-of-the-ring environments, each with up to three connecting
rooms. Inside each room will be an assortment of items (lead pipes, 2x4s,
bathroom sinks, etc.) and environmental hazards (fire, steam, sparks, etc.)
that can be used to rock your opponent's world. The days of being confined
to a conventional wrestling ring are over -- players will finally have the
freedom to battle their opponents in fully interactive 3D environments that
act as a ring. For example, players can bounce off the rubber tires as if
they were ropes in ``The Loading Bay" area or jump off crate boxes as if
they were turnbuckles in the ``Semi Truck Arena." In addition, special
weapons and power-ups can be unlocked through a comprehensive reward system
as player's skill levels and progress increase.
Skills are put to the ultimate test in the ``Hardcore Challenge" mode,
where players are given the opportunity to compete for three WCW
championships: Hardcore, U.S. and World title. Win the Hardcore belt and
try grabbing a spot in the Hall of Champions. Earning a ranking in the
elite Hall of Champions will be based on four performance factors: number
of matches won, title earned, numbers of replays used and attack style
points. Be crowned the ultimate champion using your favorite WCW wrestler
or customize your own superstar using the robust ``Create-A-Wrestler"
function to win the coveted belt. Either way, it'll all come down to a
free-for-all where players will have to do whatever it takes to survive the
assault.
Fun And Games with Racers, Army Men, Flintstones
"RC Revenge," the $40 PlayStation game from Acclaim, lets you race through
a haunted mansion, a jungle trail, a space station and other theme-based
tracks.
It doesn't have a madhouse, but when you are pitted against seven other
little radio-controlled (RC) cars or boats, every race itself is a madhouse
anyway.
RC racing games are an example of how a computer can produce a better
experience than the real thing. Unlike real RC racing, these games give
you a driver's-eye view of the action. You can recover from a tip-over
with the touch of a button, you don't have to worry about any serious
(or expensive) damage to your car and -- for drivers who enjoy making
mischief -- there are a host of ``powerups" to make the other racers
lives miserable.
For example, you can release bombs to blast cars behind you, shoot a
burning ring of fire that blows your competition out of the way, or fire
rockets to immolate any cars in front of you. The damage is temporary,
but if you get hit, it can be enough to bump you from first to last
place in the blink of an eye.
The racing action is so fast and the competition is so fierce, I found
it hard to pay attention to the powerups, never mind finding the time to
use them. There are about 20 tracks, most of which you cannot unlock
until you have won some competitions, with names such as ``I Know What
You Drove Last Summer" (the horror theme), ``Cars Attacks!" and ``20:1
A Space Odd RC" (the science fiction theme), ``Attack of the Killer Toy
Motor" (the monster theme) and ``Races of the Lost Park" and "Temple
of Vroom" (the jungle theme).
If you don't like any of these, ``RC Revenge" allows you to create your
own tracks. With the multi-player feature, you can race against a
friend.
It's a fine way to get your mind off the fact that summer is winding
down.
``Army Men Air Combat" may also feature little toys in a full-sized
world, but this $40 Nintendo 64 combat game from 3DO doesn't have the
same innocent charm of ``RC Revenge."
Perhaps it's the Napalm bombs and the screams of dying men that give
this game the edgy feel of a real-life battle helicopter simulation
instead of a child's backyard game involving a bunch of plastic toy
soldiers.
Yet it certainly has its charms. Your enemies include bumble bees and
kids with magnifying glasses, and you have to love a game where you can
drop an apple or a rock on a target, or use food to entice ants into
harassing your enemy.
There are 16 single-player missions, another 16 dual-player missions in
which both players need to cooperate, and eight games where four people
can go head to head.
Unfortunately, you observe the action from such a high vantage point,
it's often difficult to see who is shooting at you. ``Army Men Air
Combat" would be more effective if you could adjust the view to see
more of the terrain in front of you, the way a real chopper pilot can.
Also, the mission briefings are static, text-only affairs, which is
disappointing.
``The Flintstones Bedrock Bowling" suggests that this PlayStation game
is a bowling simulation. Far from it. It's essentially a downhill racing
game where the only relevance to bowling is the requirement to knock
down bowling pins scattered along the track.
The premise of this game, which SouthPeak Interactive will release in
October, is that Fred's boss, Mr. Slate, has forced Fred to work
overtime, even though he and Barney need to practice for an upcoming
bowling tournament. Enter Gazoo, a green-skinned floating space alien.
He magically creates the trenches that Mr. Slate wanted dug and turns
them into ``bowling lanes," where players ride hollowed-out bowling
balls along the tracks, picking up gems, whacking pins and trying to
avoid explosives, monsters, tar patches, and volcanoes. (With the
trenches dug, I wondered why Fred and Barney didn't just go to the
bowling alley.)
There are 10 lanes plus three bonus lanes. At $40, that's about $3 per
lane, which is a bit pricey, even for a PlayStation game. There are
three levels of difficulty. ``Easy" is like bumper bowling; it's
difficult to fall off the track, the equivalent of bowling a gutter
ball. On the ``Medium" level, many of the invisible guard rails
disappear and if you fall off the track too many times, you must go on
to the next track. With the game set on ``Hard," falling off the same
track twice is enough to end the game completely.
In the end, ``Bedrock Bowling" is an all-too-conventional children's
arcade game. The voices of Fred, Barney, Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and Dino are
true to the original TV show. The voice for Gazoo is provided by comic
actor Harvey Korman, who gives the little space alien an over-the-top
quality that makes him sound like a snooty Englishman. I never realized
that the British empire went back to the age of the dinosaurs.
Renowned Volleyball Player Gabby Reece to Appear
in Infogrames' Power Spike Pro Beach Volleyball
Infogrames announced Monday that its beach volleyball game, Power Spike Pro
Beach Volleyball (working title) for the PlayStation game console and the
Nintendo Game Boy Color, will feature volleyball star Gabby Reece. Reece
will appear as a playable character in the game, in addition to appearing
on the game's box front and in advertisements. Power Spike Pro Beach
Volleyball is developed by Carapace and will be available this fall.
``We are very proud to have Gabby Reece, an international superstar
volleyball player, endorse Power Spike Pro Beach Volleyball," said Laddie
Ervin, director of marketing for sports & racing at Infogrames. ``Power
Spike Pro Beach Volleyball is the ultimate beach volleyball game, so it
makes perfect sense that the ultimate beach volleyball icon should be
featured in the game."
Gabrielle, or ``Gabby" Reece, as she is affectionately known, will appear
as a character within Power Spike Pro Beach Volleyball. Players of the game
will have the opportunity to play as or against the Gabby Reece character.
Reece will also appear in print advertisements promoting the game and will
be featured prominently on the game's box front.
Reece attended Florida State where she set season records for solo and
total blocks, and as a junior in 1990, was named the nation's Most
Inspiring Collegiate Athlete. As a professional volleyball player, she has
competed in five seasons on the four-person beach tour, where she has twice
been named the tour's Top Offensive Player.
Reece competed in the WBVL (4 on 4 beach circuit) for six seasons from
1992-1997. Reece spent five seasons as a team captain and led the league in
kills during the 1993-1996 seasons and in blocks in the 1993 season. She
also holds the record for kills per match (11.9) set in 1994 and 1996.
Reece co-authored a book with Karen Karbo about her life as a pro beach
volleyball player called Big Girl in the Middle and also wrote a column for
Women's Sports and Fitness magazine. In 1997, Reece married extreme surfer
Laird Hamilton.
Power Spike Pro Beach Volleyball has a highly realistic beach volleyball
atmosphere with more than 45 licensed male and female volleyball players in
the PlayStation version, and 20 players to choose from in the Game Boy
Color version. Gamers can play on beaches in exotic locations including Rio
De Janeiro, Osaka, Acapulco, Sydney and more. The PlayStation version will
offer players the option to create and edit their own beach pro, while the
Game Boy Color version will offer multi-player via the link cable mode.
Soup Up Your Ride in Sega's First Customizable
Racing Game -- Sega GT for Dreamcast
Think you can build the ultimate GT roadster? Prove it! Sega Tuesday
introduced ``Sega GT" for the 128-bit, Internet-ready Sega Dreamcast
videogame console. In ``Sega GT," players can tweak and race over 130
high-performance GT sports cars, or design their very own racecars from
scratch, then hit the track for a high-speed showdown. The first
customizable car racing game for Dreamcast, ``Sega GT" is available at
retail stores nationwide this month.
In ``Sega GT," players can create and race their dream machines in the Car
Workshop, but choosing the right combination of parts from the factory is
key to winning races. With more than 2 million possible
car-part-combinations, players must decide whether a 19-inch magnesium
wheel is the best way to make the car corner like it's on rails, or whether
intimidating the competition with a blast from a big muffler is the way to
go. After trying out their creations at the track, players can use
Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit (VMU) to upload lap times and trade racing
machines with other players over the Internet.
``'Sega GT' takes racing games to the next level, offering gamers a unique
experience every time they play," said Rich Briggs, product manager for
Sega of America. ``With car customization and Internet elements, 'Sega GT'
offers extensive replayability and adrenaline-packed fun for racing
enthusiasts and casual gamers alike, making it the most realistic driving
simulation ever."
Players looking for a quick racing fix can choose from an expansive
selection of perfectly rendered GT cars to race, including 2000 models like
the one-of-a-kind Dodge Viper GTS/R concept car, the Ford Cobra and the
Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo. From the classics to the 2000 models, all of the
cars were reproduced using exact manufacturer specifications to deliver the
look, handling and performance of their real life counterparts.
``Sega GT" players can tear it up in five racing seasons on over 20
different challenging tracks. Additional game features like split-screen
head-to-head mode and instant replay offer an added bonus to the excitement
of ``Sega GT."
``Sega GT" is available in stores now at a suggested retail price of
$39.99. ``Sega GT" is rated E for Everyone.
LodgeNet Brings Mario Tennis to Hotel Guests
Nationwide; New N64 Game Will Appear in
Stores, Hotel Rooms Same Week
Thanks to an exclusive agreement between LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation
and Nintendo of America Inc., video game fans in more than 162,000 hotel
rooms can enjoy a new Nintendo 64 game the same week it hits shelves at
consumer retail outlets. Through its interactive television systems,
LodgeNet will begin offering Mario Tennis to guests on September 1 -- just
four days after the game's August 28 retail release.
Mario Tennis allows up to four players to challenge Mario and more than a
dozen of his friends to perfect matches of tennis, practice sets,
tournaments, challenge modes and more in singles and doubles play. Each
character possesses unique attributes of power, speed, spin and control.
They can also play on varied court surfaces, including clay and grass,
which causes the ball to react differently depending on each surface. Mario
Tennis also introduces players to Waluigi, Luigi's archenemy and the latest
character addition to the Nintendo family.
``By offering Mario Tennis now we'll capitalize on the heightened interest
in tennis during the U.S. Open, and we'll provide Labor Day travelers with
a game that's literally right out of the box," says Steven D.
Truckenmiller, Vice President Guest Pay Services for LodgeNet. ``This
rollout reflects both the strength of our relationship with Nintendo and
the capacity to update our interactive digital systems with fresh content
virtually overnight." LodgeNet was the first lodging industry distributor
of Nintendo 64 games and currently provides them to more than 1,000 hotels.
``We are thrilled to offer the simultaneous release of Mario Tennis at
retail and in LodgeNet hotels," says Peter Eck, Nintendo's director,
network planning. ``The launch is a great testament to LodgeNet's hotel
technology providing guests the very latest in interactive entertainment.
The ability to quickly update hotel video games concurrently also
illustrates the advanced capabilities of the LodgeNet hotel entertainment
system and reaffirms our decision to partner with LodgeNet."
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Jaguar JAMMA Joysticks On Sale Now!
Hello everyone,
I was on vacation the past week and forgot to send this before I left.
This is the most recent news article from the GOAT Store...
August 18, 2000 - Jaguar JAMMA Joystick LX Released
The GOAT Store's official modification to the popular Jaguar JAMMA Joystick
is officially ready for sale through the GOAT Stores website
(www.goatstore.com). The Jaguar JAMMA Joystick LX is the second version of
the original Jaguar JAMMA Joystick that sports a larger base, as well as a
modified button configuration.
Unfortunately, the GOAT Stores website does not currently have any pictures
of the Jaguar JAMMA Joystick LX, but they are hoping to get some by the end
of the month. The Jaguar JAMMA Joystick LXs price has been set at $74.90
and comes in a variety of colors. Please direct any questions to The GOAT
(thegoat@goatstore.com).
Enjoy!
dan
www.goatstore.com
Open Letter to Editors of GameDaily for
Story Run in August 29, 2000 Issue.
Dear GameDaily,
Thank you for your reporting on the issue
(http://www.icwhen.com/news/egames0822a.html) concerning eGames' marketing
decision to sell abridged video game titles without appropriate package
labeling. Please allow me to reply to Mr. Klein's response that was printed
in the August 29, 2000 issue of GameDaily Newsletter:
>> The press release that was attached to your recent
>> email to me was a press release drafted by Donald
>> Thomas and posted on his website. The release was
>> written so that it was unclear whether it originated
>> from eGames or from a news source.
ICWhen.com ( www.icwhen.com <http://www.icwhen.com/> ), as humble as it has
been over the years, has reported classic gaming-related news for years. The
release in question here was clearly marked as of its origin and Mr. Klein's
assertion that the story was intended to sound like eGames released it is
nothing short of silly.
>> Mr. Thomas' press release contained several
>> misrepresentations of facts and quotes attributed to me.
From the beginning of this issue, I posted the entire customer-company
exchange. It can be found at: http://www.icwhen.com/news/egames0822.html.
The communication thread eliminates any possibility that I misrepresented or
misquoted anyone. Although I would not normally publicly post email
exchanges, Mr. Klein was firm that his information was a standard policy
with dealing with the public. His unequivocal interest to sue me for filing
a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General unquestionably affirms
his willingness to enter all correspondence into public record. At no time
did Mr. Klein indicate that he was sharing confidential information with me
and every communication each way openly copied other parties. They were
never private.
>> This is a summary of the exchange that occurred between
>> eGames and Mr. Thomas before his press release was picked
>> up by GameDaily. On Monday, August 21, 2000, Mr. Thomas, Jr.
>> wrote to me that he had purchased Galaxy of Arcade Classics
>> and that after playing Tunnel Blaster, the game ended
>> abruptly and as he exited the game he was informed that he
>> was the proud owner of a demo version of Tunnel Blaster, not
>> the full game.
This is essentially true. I wrote to a number of eGames personnel and Mr.
Klein replied. I told eGames that I played Tunnel Blaster for about 15
minutes. When Level 7 ended, I readied for level 8, but the game abruptly
ended and said something similar to 'Game Over'. I know that Tunnel Blaster,
when sold separately, does not end that early in the game play. My
experience in the industry is that a significantly abridged version of a
game is a 'playable demo' by definition. It sounded like Mr. Klein was not
aware that playable demos are frequently the first few levels of a full game
so I made my assertion more clear in my second communication with him.
By the way, as you exit Mr. Klein's software, it invites you to purchase the
'premium version'. Based on my observations, the 'Premium Version' is the
complete version that the consumer is led to believe he is getting when
purchasing 'Galaxy of Arcade Games' in the first place.
>> I wrote to Mr. Thomas and informed him that (1.) despite
>> relentless testing we could not duplicate the message that
>> he reported
Mr. Klein is playing with semantics. I stated only that the software
implicitly stated it was a demo within context by ending early and promoting
a more complete version to be purchased separately as you exited the
software. I did not mean to say that the software actually used the word
'demo' on screen. I know he knows this because I made it clearer in later
communications that he acknowledged.
I can see why Mr. Klein might be concerned about his software stating
'playable demo' since he wants consumers to believe that these are the fully
playable versions that they thought they purchased. I'll even admit that
many of eGames target market may not realize how their initial purchase of
$9.99 is intended to actually cost $115 if the customer were to buy the
complete version of all seven titles found on the disc. This is an excellent
marketing tactic IF the consumer is told in advance that the individual
games will only provide 15 to 20 minutes of game play before they are
reasonably mastered. You cannot promise a car for sale then tell the
customer they have to buy the gas tank separately after they pay for the
car. It doesn't matter that the car may operate for a while anyway.
>> (2.) Galaxy of Arcade Classics includes many games of
>> varying levels and none of the games are demo versions
>> that either time out, are crippled, or disabled and
'Galaxy of Games' states that there are seven games on the disk. All seven
are previously released titles as best that I can tell and are sold by the
same names as individual titles. When purchased individually, the software
plays and feels like compete games. On 'Galaxy of Arcade Games', the levels
are much shorter (fewer levels, much fewer). The packaging never reveals
that any of the games are greatly abridged versions. Please notice that Mr.
Klein wishes to dwell on the fact that these abridged versions are not in
themselves crippled or disabled, but he does not wish to dwell on the fact
that these are greatly abridged editions of software sold by the same name
separately. It is not appropriate to promise a selection of songs on an
audio CD, then end them all after just 30 seconds of playing them instead of
delivering the full versions UNLESS the package is marked appropriately.
>> (3.) we would either replace the product or refund the
>> amount of his purchase at his discretion. Mr. Thomas
>> was unsatisfied with our response,
This is sort of true. Mr. Klein did offer me a refund. He may have offered
to replace the product (I don't remember that), but I fail to understand how
that may have changed my position by getting the same software back. He also
stated that by offering refunds, his company expects to avoid Attorney
General inquiries because, ultimately, no one is financially harmed.
He advised me that eGame's refund procedure is a formal policy. Nowhere on
the packaging does it let customers know that such a policy exists much less
how to file a claim for it. Therefore, the consumer never learns of this
policy unless they go to the unusual effort to look up how to reach eGames
and, presumably, invest the time and money to send in the software for the
refund.
>> although it was unclear from his correspondence whether
>> he was simply seeking a refund or just wanted to generate
>> additional responses.
Believe it or not, I actually expected that Mr. Klein might thank me as a
customer for having thought enough of his product to have purchased it. I
openly admit that I initially expected eGames to replace the product with
the full versions that I was led to believe I had purchased in the first
place. I would have been happy, I think, with just one or two of the full
versions. Instead, Mr. Klein elected to argue that it is acceptable not to
notify a customer when a game title is not the complete version sold
elsewhere. When I suggested that we consult with an Office of an Attorney
General, Mr. Klein stated that his refund policy offsets any
misunderstandings caused by incorrect packaging.
When I sent a formal inquiry to the Office of the Attorney General of
California, I copied Mr. Klein as a courtesy so he could respond to my
comments proactively. Mr. Klein then conveniently failed to remove my email
address in a message to his advisors stating that he was arguing with a fool
and that he wanted to file a lawsuit against me. Even if that was done in
error or in jest, it reflects Mr. Klein's true feelings in the matter and
shows a lack of care to prevent a customer from encountering such an
experience with his company.
>> We continue to stand behind our products and the value
>> that they deliver. Our game collections provide a wide
>> variety of software games that are fun to play, and are
>> free from violent or offensive content. We take customer
>> complaints seriously and as always we offer a money-back
>> guarantee of satisfaction.
Here is how seriously Mr. Klein takes customer complaints. This quote is
from his final email to me for which he has not apologized or attempted to
correct.
'PS - I think it's best if we wait and see what develops. Mr. Thomas
obviously has a mission here and short of revamping our marketing and
product development strategies, he's not about to appeased. Ellen, are you
sure we can't sue him?'
I have submitted this situation to the Attorneys General of California and
of Pennsylvania. I have dropped any expectation to receive the complete
software advertised on the packaging of 'Galaxy of Arcade Games'. My only
desire is to have eGames acknowledge that they cannot offer games that have
been abridged without telling the consumer in advance regardless if they
call them demos or not. 'Galaxy of Arcade Games' is essentially a catalog of
playable eGames software demos in my view. The games are too short to be
enjoyed for any length of time and the consumer is encouraged to spend more
money to acquire what they thought they were getting originally. In my view
this is wrong since the consumer is not told this in advance of their
purchase.
I specifically invite GameDaily to look into this situation and I will openly
apologize for any errors I have made in my assertions against eGames. I
suspect that GameDaily will have to agree that 'Galaxy of Games' does not
inform consumers they are not purchasing the full versions of the games on
the packaging.
This full story can be found at:
http://www.icwhen.com/news/egames0822a.html.
Best Wishes,
-- Donald A. Thomas, Jr.
curator@icwhen.com <mailto:curator@icwhen.com>
http://www.icwhen.com <http://www.icwhen.com/>
Yahoo: DATJ - ICQ: 14183819
--- original story found in August 29, 2000 GameDaily newsletter ---
See www.gamedaily.com <http://www.gamedaily.com/>
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Tech Giants Weigh in on Napster Controversy
Trade groups representing some technology giants filed briefs on Monday to
a federal appeals court expressing concerns about an injunction issued last
month by a U.S. District court against song-swap company Napster Inc.
``About six friend-of-the court briefs are being filed. These groups had
until the end of today," said a spokeswoman for controversial song-swap
company Napster Inc. She added that several groups had also filed briefs
late last week.
The Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) landmark lawsuit
against Napster is on a fast legal track since the appeals court last month
granted Napster a last-minute reprieve by staying U.S. District Court Judge
Marilyn Patel's injunction order against the service with over 20 million
users.
While the reprieve was seen as a blow to the recording industry, many
lawyers say the law is on the industry's side.
But in filing these ``friend-of-the-court" briefs, several groups like the
Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which represents
technology giants like AT&T Corp., Oracle Corp. and Yahoo Inc., said the
courts need to reinterpret and revise some of the models for intellectual
property protection.
``There is a lot of need for intellectual property protection but we have
many instances in the industry where people are trying to overprotect to
the disadvantage of the public and to legitimate businesses trying to
compete," Ed Black, president of the CCIA, told Reuters on Monday.
Redwood City, Calif.-based Napster's service lets fans swap songs for free
by trading MP3 files, a compression format that turns music on compact
discs into small computer files.
The RIAA, which represents big record companies, like Seagram Co. Ltd.'s
Universal Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music and Time
Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group and EMI, has claimed that Napster
facilitates piracy.
The CCIA said it joined with others in the technology community in filing
two amicus curiae briefs in the Napster case before the Federal Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals. CCIA filed two briefs, one jointly with the
Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Digital Future Coalition
(DFC), Black said.
While not taking a position on Napster's potential liability as a
contributory or vicarious copyright infringer, the briefs argue that the
lower District Court misapplied and misinterpreted several key provisions
of Federal copyright law and Supreme Court precedent, the CCIA said in a
release issued Friday.
``There is tremendous public value in people having reasonable access to a
wide range of products and technology," Black said.
Napster on August 18 asked the appeals court to overturn Patel's July 26
order that Napster stop users from trading copyrighted songs, virtually
pulling the plug on the service.
The briefs by several coalitions expressed concerns the ruling could limit
users' rights to enjoy music and media and could impose copyright policing
responsibilities on Internet service providers.
``We are hopeful that the Ninth Circuit will recognize the errors in the
District Court's reasoning and send the case back for further
consideration," Black said.
The RIAA's response to Napster's legal brief filed on August 18 is due
Sept. 8. The RIAA had no immediate comment on Monday regarding the briefs
filed in support to Napster. Napster is due to file a reply on Sept. 12.
After that, the appeals court will schedule a second hearing on the RIAA's
motion for a preliminary injunction.
Napster Case To Start October 2
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Tuesday opening
arguments in the case against music-swapping service Napster Inc. will
begin on October 2.
The lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
wants Napster shut down, alleging it is facilitating widespread illegal
copying of digitally compressed music files. Some of the
recording
companies playing a major role in the trial include Sony Music, A&M
Records, Universal Music, EMI and the Warner Music Group.
Napster contends not all the music listeners are sharing is illegal, that
it is just a distribution vehicle and that it is not responsible for
policing what files can be legally shared.
The 9th Circuit court temporarily halted a federal judge's order in July
effectively shutting down Napster, which has over 20 million users. U.S.
District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered on July 26 that Napster prevent
users from trading copyrighted songs, saying "Napster wrote the software,
it's up to them to write software that will remove from users the ability
to copy copyrighted material. They created a monster ... that's the
consequence they face."
A three-judge panel will hear the case, but the exact judges have not yet
been named.
As the court's announcement came down, a number of special interest groups
filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the court to allow Napster to
continue operations.
The Consumer Electronics Association, representing 600 members including
America Online Inc., Apple and Microsoft Corp., told the court that
shutting down Napster would threaten development in consumer technology and
that Judge Patel's initial finding could establish a damaging precedent
that could threaten American's rights to make private, non-commercial
recordings in their homes.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), took a different
approach in its brief filing, saying the court needs to revise much of the
intellectual property law which applies to the Napster case.
CCIA includes members such as Verizon Communications, Quest Communications
Corp., AT&T Corp., Hitachi Data Systems Inc., Oracle Corp., Sun
Microsystems Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Officials at Napster are hoping a legal settlement can be reached before
the trial gets underway. Record industry leaders say the chances of that
are slim, saying file-sharing is a clear threat to the way in which they
operate and make money.
High Court Decision On Microsoft Appeal Deferred For Now
A possible decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on whether it will hear the
landmark antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. came and went Monday
setting the stage for a ruling sometime on or after September 8.
As scheduled, the justices released a list of orders on upcoming cases, but
did not address a Justice Department request for the court to hear the case
instead of sending it for appeal to a lower court, as Microsoft had
requested.
Normally the high court doesn't decide on if it will hear appeals until it
returns from a summer recess at the end of September, but being that the
federal government is requesting the high court move quickly in the
interest of the national economy, the justices could issue a decision more
quickly.
Microsoft urged the Supreme Court on August 22 to let a federal appeals
court hear its appeal of antitrust violations to ensure there is a thorough
review of the facts.
"The benefits of comprehensive review by the court of appeals far outweigh
whatever time, if any, might be saved by direct review in this court,"
Microsoft's lawyers said in a brief filed with the court. "The need for
soundness in the result outweighs the need for speed in reaching it. The
Court should exercise its discretion to deny these direct appeals and
remand the case to the court of appeals."
District court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found in June that Microsoft
broke antitrust law by using its monopolistic hold on the Windows operating
system to stifle competition and ordered the company be split in two.
Calif. Judge OKs Class-Action Suit vs. Microsoft
A California judge allowed a class action suit to proceed against Microsoft
Corp., the first such case to go to trial over charges that the software
giant harmed consumers through its alleged monopolistic practices.
``Given California law, this ruling was not unexpected," Microsoft
spokesman Jim Cullinan told Reuters after Superior Court Judge Stuart
Pollack approved the suit. ``This is just the first step in a very long
process."
The suit, one of a number of such cases in various state and federal courts
around the country, alleges that Microsoft used its dominant market
position to overcharge California consumers for a number of products,
including Windows and Word programs.
Microsoft has recently asked another federal judge to dismiss or
consolidate the class actions suits against it, many of which were filed
after U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that
Microsoft violated federal anti-trust laws and ordered the company split
into two. Microsoft has appealed that ruling.
Cullinan said Microsoft was confident that the California case would
ultimately demonstrate that, through its size and the scope of its
offerings, it has served its customers well. "We believe that in the end
of the day it will be shown that far from harming consumers, the conduct at
issue will be shown to benefit consumers," he said Tuesday.
Computer Giants Unite on Lab
The community of mostly volunteer programmers that has built Linux into a
formidable operating system is getting some help from computer industry
giants.
International Business Machines Inc., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and
NEC Corp. are announcing Wednesday that they will create a laboratory with
an investment of several million dollars where programmers can test Linux
software on the large computer systems that are common in the corporate
world.
The lab is expected to open by the end of the year near Portland, Ore.
Linux is an ``open source" operating system that anyone can modify, as
long as the modifications are made available for free on the Internet. It
has a devoted following among programmers, who collaborate on software
projects over the Web. These software engineers can usually only test
software on their own desktop computers, part of the reason Linux is now
rarely used on larger computers.
``The Open Source Development Lab will help fulfill a need that individual
Linux and open source developers often have: access to high-end enterprise
hardware," said Brian Behlendorf, creator of the open source Web server
software Apache.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, the head of IBM's Linux group, said the lab would
help companies run hardware from different vendors together, as well as let
run ``clusters" of computers working as one.
The four main sponsors said they will contribute several millions of
dollars to the project.
The lab is also backed by smaller companies that specialize in Linux
products, like Red Hat Inc., Turbolinux Inc., Linuxcare Inc. and VA Linux
Systems Inc., as well as Dell Computer Corp. and Silicon Graphics Inc.
The founding companies said the lab will be run by a nonprofit organization
that will select the software projects that gain access to the lab in an
``open, neutral process."
Linux is seen as an alternative to proprietary operating systems like
Microsoft's Windows and Apple OS. Its backers say the publicly available
source code, or software blueprint, makes it more flexible and reliable.
Analyst Bill Claybrook at Aberdeen Group said the project sponsors are
backing Linux because it gives them a chance to influence an operating
system for their computers.
``These companies see that they can play a much more important role in
developing Linux than they can in, let's say Windows, because Microsoft
pretty much decides what to put in Windows," he said.
Microsoft Starts Charge on AOL with New Software
Microsoft Corp is issuing an improved version of a new Web browser that
blends in video and music capability and content from its MSN Internet
service, in what is the opening shot in the software giant's biggest
assault yet on Internet rival America Online Inc.
A new and improved test, or beta, version of the browser, now called ``MSN
Explorer", is to be released on Thursday, Deanna Sanford, lead product
manager for MSN, said in an interview at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash.,
headquarters.
The software is the first of a series of steps Microsoft is taking this
fall to beef up every aspect of MSN, Sanford said.
Known internally as ``MSN 2001", the project will remake the look and
content of sites like finance page MoneyCentral and music and movies portal
WindowsMedia.com, and fine-tune the process of getting subscribers online,
Sanford said.
``It's a really big time for MSN," she said. ``MSN.com will have
significant upgrades this fall. For the first time it will signify that
there's a clear alternative to AOL."
Microsoft, which fumbled its early attempts at building an Internet
business, has won increasing praise from analysts and users for improving
those services, which are now one of the fastest-growing parts of the
company.
Microsoft's Internet sites appeared among the top three Web and digital
media properties in six countries, while rivals AOL and portal Yahoo! Inc
placed in the top three in five countries, according to a Media Metrix
Internet usage report for May.
Microsoft's MSN.com portal includes news site MSNBC.com, automobile buying
service CarPoint, travel site Expedia, MoneyCentral and WindowsMedia, among
others.
Although subscribers to the MSN Internet access service are about one-fifth
of AOL's 22 million customers, Sanford said that business was growing
strongly.
Microsoft would also roll-out broadband, or high-speed, Internet access
soon, Sanford said.
She declined to give details, but noted that MSN had several options.
Microsoft has experimented with DSL service, which gives fast, always-on
Web access over regular telephone lines, but also has strong ties to the
cable and satellite industries, which offer alternative high-speed on-ramps
to the Internet.
``We've had things going on with broadband for several months, and this
fall we are going to bring it all together," Sanford said. ``The important
thing is giving customers high-speed access."
Meanwhile, users interested in getting a hint of what lies down the road
can download the MSN Explorer from MSN.com or Microsoft's Web site.
Among the key improvements in MSN Explorer is the ability to customize
functions so that, for example, a user who doesn't care for sports news can
replace that icon with one that links to an entertainment page, Sanford
said.
It is also easier on Web novices. For example, if someone tries to type an
e-mail address in the Web browser instead of opening an e-mail program
(something Sanford said new users frequently do), the browser will realize
that the user is trying to write a message and will launch the e-mail
program for them.
``If that's the way people want to do it, we should make it work," Sanford
said.
The software also softens the utilitarian feel of Microsoft's Internet
Explorer Web browser, using pastel colors and cartoonish icons. It also
boasts a built-in media player so users can continue to surf the Web or
work online while watching a video news clip or listening to a song.
Sony Launches Handheld Computer
Sony Corp. announced plans Wednesday to launch next month a handheld
computer that uses Palm Inc.'s operating system and offers some
entertainment features.
The choice of operating system represents a win for market leader Palm in
its struggle to keep devices running Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system
from breaking into the market.
The CLIE, an acronym for ``Communication Link Information Entertainment"
(pronounced CLEE-ay), will cost about $400, about the same as Palm's
high-end Palm Vx.
Sony aimed to widen the market for Palm handhelds beyond mobile
professionals and tech-friendly ``early adopters" by including multimedia
and entertainment features, said Palm executive Mark Bercow.
The multimedia capabilities of the first Sony handheld are relatively
modest, however. It can show pictures and small video clips on its
monochrome screen, but cannot play sounds.
Sony had earlier said it would bring out a handheld with a color screen.
Sony spokesman David Yang said parts shortages had forced a change in
plans, and that a color handheld can be expected in the middle of next
year.
Palm has previously played down the multimedia capabilities of the rival
Pocket PC devices, saying customers wanted a simple device that does a good
job of handling basic organizer functions like calendars and address books.
Most of the Pocket PC devices made by Compaq, Casio and Hewlett-Packard
come with color screens that can play movie clips, sound jacks for digital
music, and expansion slots for accessories. Palm also makes a model with a
color screen.
The CLIE will have the same amount of internal memory as the Palm Vx, 8
megabytes, but will also come with an 8-megabyte Memory Stick, a storage
device that can be used to transfer data between the CLIE, digital video
and still cameras and personal computers.
The CLIE weighs 4 ounces, and is about the size of a small TV remote. It is
slightly thicker and longer and narrower than the Vx.
The Palm operating system has also been licensed by Handspring Inc.
for its line of Visor handhelds. Similar to Palms, they add an expansion
slot for accessories.
Palm and Handspring have sold 7 million handhelds, giving the Palm
operating system a 66 percent share of the worldwide market for handheld
computers.
Glitch Prompts Intel To Recall 1.13-GHz Pentiums
Intel has recalled its fastest chip--the 1.13-GHz Pentium III--saying the
chip could cause system errors when running certain programs and at a
particular temperature.
The problem is with certain circuits of the chip that have been shown to
malfunction in laboratory tests under certain conditions, said Intel
spokesman Howard High. Intel said it has not received reports from
customers of any problems, but the glitch has been noted by some hardware
review sites in recent days.
As first reported by CNET News.com, Dell Computer and IBM have stopped
shipping PCs with the processor. Intel said it will work with those
companies to satisfy existing customers.
"Clearly if they want a replacement, then we will replace (it)," High
said. "If they want a refund, we'll accommodate them."
The 1.13-GHz chip began shipping July 31 in limited quantities.
Intel would not say exactly how many 1.13 GHz chips have shipped, but
analysts said the number is quite small.
"There can't be very many--tens of thousands at most," said Linley
Gwennap, principal analyst at The Linley Group. "I wouldn't be surprised
if it was under 10,000."
Word of the glitch comes on the same day as rival Advanced Micro Devices
announced shipments of its 1.1-GHz Athlon.
Analysts say competition with AMD may have caused Intel to release a chip
that wasn't ready.
"It sounds like Intel may have pushed a little too hard," said chip
analyst Peter Glaskowsky of MicroDesign Resources. "It shows the Pentium
III is not really capable of reaching these levels."
Gwennap noted that Intel did not originally have the 1.13-GHz chip on its
road map and has struggled to produce the 1-GHz chip in enough quantity to
satisfy customers.
"When you push the clock speed beyond what it was designed to do, you run
into problems," Gwennap said. "They rushed to get the 1-GHz chip out, and
they couldn't produce enough of them."
Intel said it has identified the cause of the problem and will fix it by
redesigning the circuits in question.
"It's probably a couple of months before we get units back into the
marketplace," High said.
Although other Pentium III processors have the same design, Intel said it
has not found the same problem in other chips.
"We've done quite a bit of testing, and we haven't seen anything," High
said.
Intel said the fact that it had not shipped many of the processors will
make the problem easier to remedy than past glitches, such as the bug with
the 820 chipset. In that case, computer motherboards with the defective
chipset were sold through distributors and available in computers from
many retailers.
"We're kind of early in the process, which is a benefit with something
like this," High said.
Only Dell, IBM and a few European companies had been selling systems with
the 1.13-GHz chip. Intel said it is recalling chips that have not yet been
sold and has halted its shipments of the processor.
High said various computer hardware review sites began noting a problem
with certain kernels of the Linux operating system. Intel at first could
replicate the problem only when the chips were operated outside
recommended temperature specifications. Over the weekend, it began
noticing problems even within the chip's specifications.
Intel executives said it was too soon to say how much the bug might cost,
but the cost will not be material to Intel's earnings.
In addition to the glitch that forced the recall of the 820 and the delay
of the low-end Timna chip, Intel has had delays and performance issues
with its forthcoming Itanium chip, which is aimed at high-end servers.
Gwennap noted that Intel's manufacturing woes over the past year--and
AMD's success--reverse what had been the trend.
"For a long time, Intel was this machine that couldn't break and AMD
couldn't take two steps without tripping," Gwennap said. "For the past
year, Intel has been having problem after problem, and AMD keeps cranking
out more and more chips."
Gwennap said that while the Pentium III may have hit its limit, Intel will
be able to introduce chips at much faster speeds when it debuts the
Pentium 4 later this year.
The Pentium 4 design "clearly allows higher clock speeds," Gwennap said.
"That's one of the reasons they are moving to a new architecture."
Destructive Palm Program Discovered
Antivirus experts are warning consumers about the first intentionally
destructive program for Palm handheld computers: it appears as an update to
a Palm program, but instead deletes all programs on the device.
The author of the program says he didn't mean for it to go public and that
he's helping antivirus companies detect it.
The program, a type known as a Trojan horse, has been dubbed
"Palm.Liberty.A." Liberty is a popular Palm program, made by Gambit
Studios, that lets users download and play games made for the Nintendo
GameBoy handheld computer.
Liberty is distributed as a ``shareware" program, meaning that users are
expected to try the program out and, if they like it, pay for a
full-featured version. But as with many shareware programs, hackers have
developed ``crack" downloads that allow software pirates to use the full
version without payment.
Palm.Liberty.A is being distributed under the name ``Crack 1.1" through
Internet Relay Chat, a network of chatting channels. When run, it deletes
all the programs on the user's Palm device, though it leaves the address
book data, calendar and other databases intact.
Antivirus companies said they have not received any infection reports. But
it is fairly easy for a hacker to modify the program and re-release it in a
more dangerous form, similar to the many versions of the ``Love Bug" virus
that have come out since the first outbreak.
``It will definitely get attention," said Vincent Weafer, director of
Symantec Corp.'s Anti-Virus Research Center in Cupertino, Calif. ``I
believe we've opened a Pandora's Box on some handheld devices."
Palm.Liberty.A affects Palm handheld computers and the Handspring Visor
computers, which use the same operating system. It can be downloaded from a
desktop computer or transmitted through the device's infrared
communications port. Several virus companies offer software that detects
and removes the program.
The person who wrote the program was also one of the developers of Liberty.
``The whole purpose of my research was to investigate anti-cracking, and
assist developers stop cracking," said Aaron Ardiri, a Swedish software
developer who also teaches at the University of Gavle in Sweden. ``It is
nothing about being malicious to the hacker."
Ardiri said he created the program to sweep off unwanted programs without
harming a user's data, and he gave an early version to several of his
friends. He said he decided not to release it because it might cause harm,
but he said a friend posted it on an Internet Relay Chat channel without
his knowledge.
Now it has found its way to Web sites. Ardiri has given a program to
antivirus companies that detects Palm.Liberty.A and has tried other means
to head off an outbreak since it was released last Thursday evening.
``They're still distributing the file, and I can't get them to stop it. I'm
trying to do everything to stop this thing," he said. ``I don't know what
to do, I've come to a dead end. I'm just waiting for the dust to settle."
Word Documents Susceptible to "Web Bug" Infestation
Microsoft is weathering complaints that documents created with Microsoft
Word and some of its other popular desktop applications can be embedded
with electronic surveillance tags allowing document authors to track their
use.
The Privacy Foundation, an Internet privacy research institute run by the
University of Denver, today published a report demonstrating how Word
documents can be planted with "Web bugs" that can pass information about
the use of the file back to the author. Web bugs can also be embedded in
Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slide show files, according to the
report, which was authored by Privacy Foundation chief technology officer
Richard Smith.
"What this means basically is that if an author of a document for whatever
reason cares about who is reading it, he can bug it and then monitor it,"
Smith said. "They can find out the IP address and host name of whoever is
reading the document."
A Web bug works by planting a Web address into a document. The bugs can
take up just a single pixel on a computer screen, making them invisible to
a viewer.
Smith said that at this point, he knows of no instances in which documents
are being bugged in this way, but he described a number of scenarios in
which it could be used. Companies might embed bugs into confidential
documents to detect leaks or to determine copyright infringement, for
example.
Microsoft product manager Lisa Gurry downplayed the Privacy Foundation's
discovery, saying that such capabilities exist for all Web-based
applications and have for some time.
"We actually believe this is much ado about not much," Gurry said. "There
is no evidence that anyone is exploiting that to potentially try and manage
cookies through Word documents."
Gurry added that people can prevent this scenario by disabling the cookie
feature on their Web browsers.
The surveillance method described by Smith is possible because Word allows
authors to embed image locations rather than actual images as a
space-saving move. As the document communicates with the remote server
where the image sits, the author can monitor where the document goes and
how often it is opened.
Cutting and pasting portions of Word documents into other files could also
transfer the bugs.
Smith also raised the specter of Word Web bugs reading and writing Internet
Explorer browser cookies.
"Cookies could allow an author to match up the computer viewer of a Word
document to their visits to the author's Web site," Smith warned in the
advisory.
Marketers have long used Web bugs to track the whereabouts of Internet
users and to track whether email messages are opened and read, according to
Smith. The ability to embed Web bugs into Microsoft Word, Excel and
PowerPoint documents adds the possibility of tracking an array of file
formats.
"You sort of get on this slippery slope, adding Internet capabilities into
offline file formats," Smith said. "There's some talk of embedding HTML
files into MP3 files."
While there may be talk, Smith could not cite any examples of such tracking
on MP3 files or Microsoft Word files.
One security analyst questioned whether the Web bug should be thought of as
a bug or as a legitimate feature prone to abuse.
"The problem is that it's often possible to take well-meaning features such
as this linking and use them for less honorable purposes such as the
monitoring of user activity for copyright enforcement or marketing
purposes," wrote SecurityFocus.com analyst Elias Levy. "The feature itself
is agnostic; it's how you put it to use that becomes an issue."
Levy said Microsoft could respond in one of two ways: disabling the feature
entirely, or letting consumers decide when it can be used.
"The latter would entail modifying Word to warn the user when an embedded
link is in the document, similarly to how it warns users of embedded
macros, or like Internet Explorer can warn users of cookies," Levy wrote.
In his advisory, Smith recommended that Web browser cookies be disabled
within Word documents and other non-browser applications, but he stopped
short of calling for Microsoft to remove the Web bug capabilities. He
recommended that concerned consumers use personal firewall software to
monitor when "unauthorized" programs like Word are accessing the Internet.
Online Auctions Spark Most Fraud Complaints
Online auctions by far have sparked the largest number of complaints to a
new U.S. government office tracking fraud on the Internet, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday.
Releasing the first breakdown of its kind from the Internet Fraud Complaint
Center, the FBI said online auctions accounted for 48.8 percent of
complaints followed by non-delivery of goods ordered online, at 19.2
percent.
The center, jointly run by the FBI and the Justice Department's National
White Collar Crime Center, has been receiving an average of 1,000
complaints a week since it opened in May, FBI spokeswoman Jule Miller said.
She said other top fraud complaints to the center involved securities and
commodities, 16.9 percent; credit cards, 4.8 percent; identity theft, 2.9
percent; business opportunities, 2.5 percent.
The remainder involved in declining order professional services, 1.2
percent; travel ``scams", 0.3 percent; ``Ponzi" pyramid schemes, 0.3
percent; and check fraud, 0.1 percent, Miller said.
The FBI said about 4,000 complaints had been referred to law-enforcement
agencies by the complaint center, which is located in Morgantown, West VA.,
and at http://www.ifccfbi.gov.
USATODAY, the first to report the findings, said Richard Johnson, the
center's director, was asking Congress to double his office's budget to $18
million next year.
U.S. Online Users Shun '.us' Names
Americans, it seems, prefer any other identity but their own.
Internet addresses tagged with a country code - such as ``name.fr" for
France - may be a source of national pride around the world, but ".us" is
this country's forgotten stepchild.
And that worries the U.S. government, which last week began seeking
suggestions on making ".us" more desirable to help relieve the crowded
field of dot-com addresses.
Good luck.
Changing habits won't be easy in a country used to ending addresses with
".com," ".net" and ".org," which are supposed to be global
identifiers but are dominated by U.S. sites.
Roger Cochetti, a senior vice president at Network Solutions Inc., said the
popularity of the global suffixes reflect Americans' vision of the Net as
an international medium.
``They are equally comfortable examining museums in France or Greece as
they are online museums in the United States," he said. ``They are equally
comfortable doing research on a British Web site or a Canadian Web site."
Some groups and businesses even prefer other countries' abbreviations -
such as ".tv" for Tuvalu and ".md" for Moldova. The use of ".us" is
largely limited to local government agencies, schools and community groups,
even though it is open to any U.S. site.
Even the U.S. Postal Service doesn't want it anymore. Though the post
office once considered claiming ".us" for customers, postal spokeswoman
Sue Brennan said the agency will now concentrate on assigning e-mail
addresses through ``usps.com." It became a dot-com this year, dropping
allegiances to ".gov" for government.
The ".us" suffix is one of 244 assigned to countries and territories
worldwide. It is such a source of identity that Palestinians recently
obtained ".ps" and the European Union wants ".eu" to unify European
businesses.
The Commerce Department believes the ".us" real estate is underpopulated
because of the way such addresses are assigned.
A Los Angeles business that sells clothing is thus supposed to register
under ``clothingstore.los-angeles.ca.us" rather than simply
``clothingstore.us."
It's difficult to remember such a long name. It's also difficult to figure
out who assigns it, since such assignments are delegated to some 800
individuals and organizations.
So Americans have gravitated instead to ".com," ".net" and ".org,"
which are registered through Network Solutions and other companies heavily
promoting the ease of doing so.
Under the Commerce Department proposal, a new administrator would replace
the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute -
where Internet domain pioneer Jon Postel worked until his 1998 death - as
master keeper of the ".us" domains.
Experts believe such a designated organization or company would be able to
market ".us" to commercial entities more effectively.
The proposal comes as simple dot-com names become harder to obtain.
It is separate from a plan to add a half-dozen or so new global suffixes,
such as ".movie" and ".shop," by early next year to relieve some of the
dot-com overcrowding.
Michael Sondow, who runs an online forum for individuals, nonprofit groups
and smaller businesses, fears that ".us" will ``turn into another
commodity to be exploited by craven registrars and their greedy clients."
``Everyone had hoped that the .us would be reorganized as sort of a refuge
for the person, noncommercial, nonprofit sector," he said.
Commerce officials offered few details but several questions for the
Internet community, including whether to keep the structure tied to
locality and whether to reserve some names for personal, noncommercial use.
Revamping ".us" has been under discussions for at least two years. The
Commerce Department did not say when it would make a final ruling.
The Best Job Strategy? Get Laid Off
Dotcom unemployment surging? No problem -- put it on your resume and watch
the offers flow in, says one employment firm.
Job losses at dotcoms surged 55 percent in July -- the third straight
month of increasing carnage in the battered Internet sector -- but don't
start crying for those axed employees just yet.
John Challenger, of employment agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said
that getting laid off from an Internet startup is actually a career
builder, not a career killer -- something to add to the resume, not hide.
His company reported Friday morning that 170 dotcoms have either failed,
or trimmed their staffs, this year. The hardest hit has been the retail
sector, which has slashed more than 3,500 employees since January.
Service-related Web companies were a distance second with 2,339 job
losses.
Some of the biggest names to announce layoffs this year were APBNews.com,
Nickelodeon's e-tailer Red Rocket and the Digital Entertainment Network.
But most of the pink-slipped pros don't stay out of work too long, said
Challenger -- a sign that the Internet bubble may be softening, but that
the job picture is still growing.
In fact, getting laid off from a dotcom-turned-dotbomb is actually a plus
for prospective employers, Challenger said in a prepared statement.
"Workers are even more hirable after having worked in a firm that
struggled or did not make it. Prospective employers see it as a valuable
learning experience," Challenger said.
According to some surveys, the tech-job outlook right now is supernova
bright, with some 1.6 million job openings available in the IT sector
worldwide.
Employers believe that with the current workforce shortage, they will only
be able to fill half those slots this year.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that there is still virtual
unemployment in Silicon Valley -- a scant 1.8 percent that may be
comprised of employees shuttling between jobs.
The department writes, "Recent news of dotcom downsizing because of
cautious or dwindling investment has not stemmed the demand for high-tech
labor."
Kent Kelderman, group vice president of Earthweb Career Solutions, which
runs IT employment service Dice.com, calls the ongoing layoff picture "a
blip."
"There are isolated cases where you see some extreme numbers, and people
will always react to that," he said.
The retail sector leading in layoffs is to be expected, he said.
"Retail shops got into it in the greatest numbers," he said. "Every major
company had to have a Web site. They ramped up the quickest. But now their
business models don't make as much sense."
=~=~=~=
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