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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 05 Issue 52
Volume 5, Issue 52 Atari Online News, Etc. December 26, 2003
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2003
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Kevin Savetz
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
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and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
http://www.icwhen.com/aone/
http://a1mag.atari.org
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0552 12/26/03
~ Happy Holidays to All! ~ People Are Talking! ~ SainT Upgraded!
~ Tech IPOs To Rebound! ~ Space Harrier Update! ~ Fastest Geek Alive!
~ Domain Names Valuable ~ Britney Is Tops Again! ~ Star Wars Is Best!
~ Sober Worm Is Threat! ~ Online Photo Albums! ~ 'Voodoo Vince'
-* Group Lambastes UUNet on Spam *-
-* Netscape Readies Cheap ISP Service! *-
-* AntiSpam Law's Effectiveness Is Doubted! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, I hope that you all had an enjoyable holiday! Hanukkah Harry and ol'
St. Nick managed to find their way to our house, despite all of the rain and
fog! All that remains of the morning mayhem are a few stray pieces of
ribbon and wrapping paper. The gifts have been put away, the holiday visits
are over, and we're preparing for a short night - there's a day of work on
Friday.
All in all, it was a nice day. We had a quiet morning opening up our gifts,
and having breakfast. The dogs went "crazy" when we pulled out the huge
bones that were left for them, as well as a few other gifts that they'll
devour soon enough. Now if we can keep them from fighting with each other
over everything! A quiet visit and meal with my in-laws, and back home to
relax. The only thing that would have made the holiday better was an extra-
long holiday weekend. Oh well.
It's hard to believe, but this is our last issue for 2003! This will be our
5th year of publication. I really didn't think that we would be around this
long, but the interest continues. The news pertaining to "all things Atari"
remains slim, but the few items that grace our doorstep each week helps to
perpetuate the hobby. And the technology news continues to remain
interesting! So, here we are, getting ready to embark on our next new year.
Thanks for taking the ride with us! And remember, New Year's Eve is
rapidly approaching. Please, welcome in the new year responsibly - don't
drink and drive!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
SainT Version 1.60 Released
Version 1.60 of the Windows Atari ST emulator SainT has been released.
There are lots of great changes in this version, including the ability to
record movies complete with audio. There are also fixes to improve
compatibility with demos, and SainT is now the first emulator to run the
3D full-screen interrupt demo by Ziggy Stardust. You can download the
latest version of SainT and read the documentation at:
http://leonard.oxg.free.fr/SainT/saint.html
Atari800 Version 1.3.2 Released
Version 1.3.2 of the Atari 8-bit/5200 emulator Atari800 has been released.
Atari800 supports many computing platforms, including DOS, Windows, Windows
CE, Amiga, Falcon, and more, as well as forming the basis for several other
Atari 8-bit emulators. Improvements since the last release include:
R: can now be hooked to a real serial port
Various ANTIC and POKEY fixes
Disk and cartridge info saved in the state files
Casette handling greatly improved
Even more cartridges supported (40 now!)
Some rare buffer overflows fix
You can download the latest version of Atari800 as well as the source code
at the Atari800 Emulation Page.
http://atari800.sourceforge.net/
Space Harrier XL/XE Project Update
Chris Hutt has posted a recent update to his Atari XL/XE Space Harrier
Conversion Project page. This ambitious project aims to port the popular
Sega arcade game Space Harrier (http://www.klov.com/S/Space_Harrier.html)
to the Atari XL/XE computers. Chris'
Recent work involves moving the game to work in a cartridge, as opposed to
the original goal of making it available in disk format. Due to this
change, Chris has had the opportunity to improve several aspects of the
game, including more colors, faster draw routines, larger backgrounds, and
more speech samples. Please visit Chris' Space Harrier Conversion Project
page for complete details.
http://www.sheddyshack.co.uk
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, Christmas has come and gone, and I sit
here holding my stomach and wondering why it is that I always eat too much
at holiday meals.
At one time I had a good excuse for over-indulging. I used to have to visit
three or four different households on Christmas day. Since my heritage is
both Italian and Polish, and since both tend to place a lot of emphasis on
food and holiday meals, I would end up having at least three dinners on
Christmas day. I found that I could manage to make everyone happy if I had
a small amount of food at each place.
These days, I have only two places that I have to be on Christmas day, and
one of them doesn't put a huge emphasis on the meal. But, nonetheless, I
ate way too much.
I think that a lot of my 'problem' has to do with the fact that it's a
learned behavior now... It ain't Christmas without overeating and feeling
uncomfortably full.
Don't tell my sister-in-law this, but I just can't warm up to the idea of
having lasagna for Christmas dinner. My traditional favorite is turkey, but
I've also had goose and ham for Christmas dinners in years past. Lasagna
just doesn't seem to fit in with the holiday feeling. Don't get me wrong, I
like lasagna. But it's just not "Christmas food".
My family also makes a big deal of Christmas Eve dinner. THIS meal is where
I shine. <grin>
It's a meatless meal consisting of several different types of fish, shrimp,
and...
Pierogies!
Yeah, you've probably guessed that this is the Polish side of the family.
<grin>
There are several Polish concoctions that I don't care for, but pierogies
aren't among them. Of course, I only had ONE meal that night, so I went
home feeling happy and contented. The following day was, as I've mentioned,
a different story.
Perhaps it's a sign of advancing age, but I tend to center more on the
holiday meals these days than the gifts.
On another note, this issue finishes out our 5th year of publishing A-ONE.
Dana will probably mention this as well, but we want to thank you for your
support over the past five years. It sounds corny, but we really couldn't
do it without you. Knowing that there's someone out there who reads this
makes the effort worthwhile. Thank you.
Well, I could talk all day about ethnic food, multi-session dinners, and
digital publishing but I think it's time we get to the news, hints, tips
and info from the UseNet, don't you?
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'Meffy' asks about the maximum hard drive space you can use on a Falcon:
"Is there a limit? I have a nice IDE 2.1Gb drive from a laptop that I'd
like to fit... any special s/w I need?"
Adam Klobukowski tells Meffy:
"The limit is the IDE standard limit, around 156GB if I remember correctly."
Carey Christenson adds:
"In theory there should be NO upper limit of the Hard
Drive's storage capacity. You could have a 250 GB
Hard drive and be running Magic with Jinnee or Mint
and HDDriver and have 2 125GB partitions. BUT I
believe Magic and MINT both have a 138 GB IDE limit.
Remember this is under MAGIC or MINT running HDDriver.
You will not be able to go past 1 GB using TOS and an
older hard disk driver. But to answer your question a
2.1 GB should work fine under normal TOS conditions."
Dr. Uwe Seimet, author of HD Driver, adds:
"Why should they have such a limit? It is the hard disk driver that limits
the capacity of the drives you can connect to an Atari. The operating
system just limits the partition size, but not the drive's capacity.
But you won't be able to profit from it (large drive capacity) without a
hard disk driver supporting IDE drives of that size. HDDRIVER is known to
work with drives up to 128 GByte. It should also work with larger drives,
but so far this has not been tested as far as I know."
Brian Roland adds:
"2.1 gig will be no problem whatsoever....
If you want access to all your partitions under the plain jane default
desktop, just keep your partitions a gig or smaller.
An advantage to smaller partitions is that you can use smaller sector
sizes, which means less wasted space (a sector is the least amount of disk
space any write operation can use...so even if you have a file with 2 bytes
in it...it'll still take a full sector).
The advantage to larger partitions...is that you don't run out of Drive
letters as quickly
At any rate...2.1 gig IDE on a Falcon....shouldn't be a problem at all."
'D.C.' asks about upgrading the RAM in a STacy:
"I'm interested in upgrading a 1 MEG Stacy to 4 MEGS. How easy is it to
do this? Can the Stacy accept STE (or equivalent) SIMMS? I've seen a
hardware hack that allows PS/2 memory to be soldered onto a Stacy. Is
there an easier way to do this?"
Brian Roland tells D.C.:
"Have you ever been inside this STacy?
Mine has a memory board that takes 4 1X8 SIMMS.
This was most likely an aftermarket board (I got the STacy used), but hey,
ya just might be lucky and have this board in your Machine.
If you do open the STacy...get someone to help you and be very careful...
It's pretty straight forward, but an extra pair of hands will save you a
lot of grief.
If you do have to work it by yourself...it can be done...just use some sand
bags, pin cushions, beanbags, or something along those lines to afford you
some wedging/holding support.
Once you get the screws out and 'carefully' pry the top and bottom apart
(not too far!), you'll barely have room to get a hand in and disconnect the
keyboard (this will be a tight maneuver)...the tricky part from here on is
that there is a short set of wires that plugs onto the mother board and
leads to the screen (top half of the STacy). These plugs are located on,
and underneath a daughter card just forward of the MIDI and Monitor
ports...carefully pull this card upwards and set it aside inside the
machine (don't try to pull it 'out' of the chassis...there is a wire
soldered to it). Next, unplug the screen wires and the top will finally
come off so you can easily get at everything else.
Once you get the shielding off...you'll see a large second level PCB nearly
the full width of the STacy towards the front (under where the keyboard
was). Lift that out of its sockets, flip it over, and see what ya got.
Unless you, or someone you know is really good, and super patient with a
soldering iron, I suggest you exhaust all your sources trying to find a
prefab 4meg STacy board. If you can find a board...it's really easy to
unplug the old one, and plug in the new one.
Best (USA), ATY(USA), Wizztronics(USA), and Atari Workship(UK) come to mind
as likely to have some memory boards in stock. Web searches on those names
should provide contact information. No doubt there are more places in
Europe (Namely Germany and France) to check as well...I'm just not familiar
with them being an English speaker.
If you can't find a prefab memory board....
The Chips'n'chips and DoIt archives offer instructions on how to hack in
various types of memory (SIMMS, DIPS, SIPPS, etc....). A lot of these hacks
are described in German or French only.
It might even be possible to strap in some of the regular ST memory
upgrades...these usually connect somehow with the MMU chip (using a
pingrid, clamping, or socket adaptor) and like to ride on a riser in the
Video Shifter area (pull out the video shifter chip, plug on the board, put
the shifter chip in the memory board). I don't know if there is space
enough for these type RAM expansions...but I'd think hacking one of these
in would be MUCH easier than trying to trace out a million and seven
resister points and running wires into some kind of home-made SIMM
adaptor. That would be the advantage to a kit like that...the resistors
and such already be in place. With Schematics to the STacy's memory board
pin-out...you might could even find a way to build a relatively simple
adaptor to just plug the thing right on where your current memory board is.
I dunno...just food for thought."
Kenneth Medin adds:
"Hm, I have dismantled mine the "other way round". By starting with the
two screws under the _inside_ sticker that says " Stacy" (sorry you
need a genuine Atari charset to see the Atari logo...) you can separate
the screen part and then very carefully take it apart by lengthening the
cables to the screen. They are quite delicate and easy to damage. People
with little patience should definitely stay away from dismantling a
Stacy...
As I wrote in another post today I did put a Marpets Extra Ram
Deluxe memory expansion in mine. Some soldering will be needed and a cut
in the plastic to allow the SIMMS to sit in the battery compartment. Not
too hard to do by a careful person. To get under the motherboard for
soldering most of the computer has to be taken apart if I remember
correctly."
'Tim' asks about getting a memory board for his TT running:
"I just got this MagnumTT Ram card from Germany. It accepts 16, 32, 64,
and 128MB PS/2 type SIMMs. I cannot get it to work and my lack of german
is also complicating things! The manual is in German and it talks about
jumper settings etc. I have been able to figure out the settings (I think)
for the SIMMs but not sure what I am doing wrong. I tried 3 different
SIMMs: two type of 16MB EDO's and some 32MB EDO's. None work. Any ideas
or help would be most excellent!"
Michael Schwingen tells Tim:
"You need 5V SIMMs, either FPM or EDO. The modules must have a symmetrical
RAS/RAS mapping - the manual lists numbers of RAM chips that o d/ do not
work (see http://heisenberg.ccac.rwth-aachen.de/~michaels/files/magnum/),
"richtig" means "correct type".
3.3V DRAMs may well not work - often, these have a "V" in the middle of
the type number, or start with "HYB31", but to be sure, you have to look up
the exact datasheet.
When using different sized modules, the bigger module must be in bank 0.
On old TT models with the CPU on a daughterboard, you may have to enable an
additional wait state. In that case, change the jumper from 0WS to 1WS.
If the presence detection pins on the modules are wired correctly, you need
no jumpers on any of the PD jumper positions - these are just a fallback in
case of badly designed modules, which shows as a module being detected with
the wrong size."
Tim asks Michael:
"Do you know if I need 2k or 4k refresh SIMMs? AFAIK all 72-in pSIMMs are
5V. I have never seen a 3.3V one. I tried FPM, EDO, different sizes and
not will work. These SIMMs work in my Amiga 060 card just fine. I am
beginning to think that maybe my TT card is dead, or it is just really
really picky about SIMMs!!!"
John Blighe tells Tim:
"I bought a card with SIMMS included but it isn't recognized by my TT
either. I bought another card (larger ram) and THAT isn't recognized either
even though all jumpers are definitely set the right way. No one seems to
have any answers!"
Jean-Luc Ceccoli adds:
"It has to deal with the ram itself : not all are compatible with expansion
boards. For instance, I bought a 32MB with 8 x 3 chips simms (4 MB each
simm). I had 4 another 3 chips modules, but these caused random crashes.
So, before thinking of trashing either your expansion board or your TT, be
sure you can get the right type of memory. If I remember correctly, those
of 4 MB in older Macs are (not quite sure however)."
Jim DeClercq adds his experiences:
"My experience has been satisfactory, but imperfect. I got a few Magnum TT
boards. Posted a want list in alt.computer.memory, and two sellers
responded. One had 128 MB SIMM, so I ordered some of those. Plugged two of
them in, put it into a TT, and only 65 MB was recognized, by either the
desktop or sysinfo.prg. For me, that is still more memory than I will
ever use. If I want to take it apart again, I could try swapping slots, or
swapping memory, or getting the JDEC standards and hacking the size bits,
or at least reading what they say. Am not planning to do that.
The worst that happens is that I paid 30 USD more than expected for that
much memory.
The SIMM have 16 rather large chips of one type, and 8 of another. The
paper sticker on the SIMM says KMM53623000CK-6. On the board itself is
SAMSUNG, 53632000AK2(#) and AD0823-01. What is the part number?
Also have some 64 meg SIMM, with 36 chips on it, and some 32, with 18
chips on it. They are untested. Should these work? Either number of chips
is also divisible by three!"
Djordje Vukovic posts this about TeraDesk3:
"Version 3.0 of TeraDesk, the only open-source desktop currently existing
for the Atari computers, is now available !!!
Almost exactly a year ago, TeraDesk was made open source, Henk Robbers took
over its maintenance and TeraDesk V2 appeared.
In December 2002, after an exchange of ideas about possible upgrades of
TeraDesk, Henk kindly invited me to participate in its further development.
The first result of that cooperation TeraDesk V2.3 in March 2003.
Since then, we have been working on TeraDesk 3.
Our goal has been to maintain TeraDesk as a small, simple, fast and
reliable desktop, which would be functional in the modern multitasking
environments, and yet to keep, as much as reasonable, familiarity with the
original TOS desktop, and keep it undemanding enough to be run on any Atari
computer, even the one with the smallest amount of RAM and oldest version
of TOS (currently TeraDesk is a little less than 129KB in size and uses
about 200KB of memory). In my opinion, the cooperation has been a fruitful
one, with an unspoken division of labor which suited both of us. Henk
concentrated on memory and file management, new configuration file concept
and also on multitasking-related issues, while I added some new functions,
made some optimizations, and worked on improving the graphical appearance
of the program.
Lately, Henk decided to move on to other matters, and asked me to finish
what was required to publish TeraDesk 3. I have tried to do that to
the best of my abilities, but Henk's assistance is sorely missed
Anyway, though there are still a few unsolved problems (i.e. bugs)
in TeraDesk 3, it appears to be sufficiently good to be published
and used. It is available at:
http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/atari
and divided into three archives: the binaries, the complete source, and the
V2-to-V3 configuration-file conversion utility.
Many changes and optimizations were made, new features added or existing
ones improved, a number of bugs removed- and hopefully not many new ones
introduced
A short (well, not so short) list of changes and new features:
H. Robbers:
- Configuration data now in text mode, in a new file teradesk.inf;
Easy to keep compatibility. A set of routines for reading/writing
configuration items and implementation of a concept which will make it
very easy to add new configuration items.
- Replacement or heavy modification of many routines to adjust to the new
configuration file requirements.
- Colour palette is saved in a separate (text) file teradesk.pal.
- Program cfg2inf.prg for converting the binary cfg to the textmode inf.
Source code adjusted so that it can be compiled for reading either the
old binary configuration (cfg2in.pfrg) or the new text file (desktop.prg)
- Replaced use of Malloc (Gemdos) to standard malloc.
This reduces memory fragmentation on the Gemdos level considerably,
especially important in multitasking environments.
- Replaced Wout's memory allocator by mine (AHCM).
AHCM allows memory leak detection and reduces fragmentation even
more by always allocating Gemdos blocks in whole multiples of
chunk size.
- As a result of the above it wasn't possible anymore to shrink the
start amount of 2000 directory entry structures (68 Kb).
So I implemented a pointer array instead. It starts with 256
entries (1 Kb) and is mildly exponentially expanded when needed.
- cfg2inf.prg: The editor string in the old config is converted to a flag
for the (installed) editor in the new config. So it is preserved if the
editor was installed.
Dj. Vukvioc:
- Fixed a bug of not immediately refreshing a changed background
pattern/colour in text windows;
- Fixed a bug of not correctly setting and so corrupting type of desktop
icon in desktop icons dialog;
- Fixed some bugs which disabled printing of more than one file at a time;
- Fixed some bugs in scrolling text fields (cursor placement, padding...)
- Fixed a bug which swallowed the first char of command lines for .TTPs
- Corrected enabling/disabling of some menu items depending on context;
- Fixed bad redraw of animated colour icons;
- Fixed several bugs related to memory (de)allocation and buffer overruns
- Removed some overlooked fixed keyboard shortcuts from previous version;
- Made some fixes which (hopefully) will correct improper window and dialog
redrawing with XaAES only (V0.963).
- A lot of source code cleaned up and size optimization;
- Some optimization of desktop.rsc and the use of it;
- Massive reorganization of dialogs which handle what are essentially filetype
or filename lists (ie. .file masks, program types, document types, icons...)
so that there is only one filetype-list dialog in desktop.rsc; significant
reduction in executable code size because a lot of routines are made to
work on all file/filetype lists. Same concept is used for entering/editing
all lists: filetype masks, program types, window icon filetypes and
applications.
- Reorganization of "Install Application" function (see above); a dialog is
shown displaying a list of installed applications. Further reduction in
code size.
- ALL dialogs now fit ST-low resolution. Some are reduced in size even more
for faster redraws on low-end machines
- Several small fixes and improvements in floppy formatting routines;
floppy drives are locked during formatting/copying in Mint & MagiC;
- Somewhat improved handling of overscan hack (tested with Lacescan);
- Improved operation of the "fuller" gadget: a) fulled window is moved left
until it is completely on the screen; b) in "hex" mode the window is made
only as wide as needed;
- Much improved graphical appearance of dialogs (proper background, colours
and 3D effects in modern AESses, etc.) Significant reorganization and
simplification of routines.
- Added window iconify/deiconify capability in AESses which support it
(AES4.1, Geneva, Magic, XaAES...)
- Added checking for duplicate entries in filemasks, program types,
window icons and applications lists;
- Added possibility to start an application or program type in "no-multitasking"
mode in Magic (not working very well yet);
- Added possibility to limit memory available to a program type or application
in multitasking environments.
- Added capability to call a file selector in scrolled input text fields
in dialogs upon pressing the [Insert] key
- Added capability to mark an installed application as "autostart";
- Added capability of "Search" to find text in files as well;
- Added "touch" ((re)set time/date and/or file attributes) functionality;
user interface implemented through additional button in the "Object info"
dialog. Considerable reorganisation of that dialog(s). TeraDesk is now able
to display DOS/Windows folder attributes (and respect them to a degree)
though not able to change them.
- While copying files it is possible to change date/time and attributes.
- Added "Compare files" functionality; a nice knack is that it tries to
resynchronize search positions after a found difference.
- Improved "Open..." function; it now tries to figure out what type of item
should be opened: a program, a folder/drive, a file assigned as a document
to application, or an unassigned file. In case of a program/application,
it is possible to enter a command tail after path+name;
- Command line dialog for .TTP programs remembers last command if the same
program is activated again.
- Filename/filetype entry forms in dialogs appear in 8+3 length if there is
no long-filename-capable OS present (i.e. without Mint or Magic);
- [Shift][Help] calls ST-Guide(if available) to display TERADESK.HYP;
- Nicer display of long window titles;
- Improved recognition of TOS and AES versions and their capabilities
and limitations;
- Updated the .HYP documentation (not quite satisfactory yet)
Some possible areas of further work - though I am not sure how probable;
a lot of time needed ... some help might be useful
- removal of bugs;
- multiple column display of directory windows in text mode;
- improved manipulation of file attributes for non-tos filesystems
- integration a windowed, long-filename-capable fileselector reusing
a number of TeraDesk's existing functions and capabilities to minimize
code size;
- documentation update.
Sorry, a couple of links were wrong. Hopefully all is right now
http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/atari.htm "
Well folks, that's it for this week, this issue, and this year. Please have
a happy, healthy and safe New Year celebration and have the foresight to
drink responsibly. If you're going to be driving, don't drink. If you're
going to be drinking, don't drive. Remember: The life you save may be MINE!
'Till next year, keep your ears open so you'll be sure to hear what they
are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - 'Star Wars' Is Year's Best!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 'Voodoo Vince' Is Clever!
Madden Still A Force!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
GameSpy Tabs 'Star Wars' Title as Game of Year
Hobbits may rule the multiplex this year, but when it comes to the small
screen, fans of video game fantasy want all Jedi, all the time.
GameSpy.com, one of the Internet's leading video game sites, on Tuesday
handed its Game of the Year honor to "Star Wars: Knights of the Old
Republic."
The role-playing game, developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts for
the Xbox and PC, beat out titles like "WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgamer"
for the Game Boy Advance and "Beyond Good & Evil" for the top award.
Video game publishers typically use such awards for bragging rights,
sometimes republishing their titles in "Game of the Year" editions.
In that way, the $10 billion domestic U.S. video game industry has taken
its cue from Hollywood, where the awards season is a crucial marketing
window for films.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" chalked up more than $125
million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada in its first five
days of release, and its release so close to the end of the year has helped
garner the tale of Hobbits and elves serious Academy Awards buzz.
Other top game publications are expected to soon give out their 2003 kudos,
including GameSpot.com, which will name its top game of the year on
Christmas day; and 1UP.com, the Web site of Ziff Davis's game magazines,
which will name its winners at a ceremony in Las Vegas in early January.
Previously, football game "Madden NFL 2004" from Electronic Arts Inc. won
"Game of the Year" honors at the Video Game Awards held by cable channel
Spike TV.
Voodoo Vince, a Clever Time
In early brainstorming for "Voodoo Vince," creator Clayton Kauzlaric made
a hasty sketch of what would become the main character, then scribbled a
note nearby: "A game where getting hurt good."
That sums up this $39.99 title, which may be the first game to feature the
weird obverse of schadenfreude: You play a voodoo doll who takes pleasure
in his own pain.
Developed by newcomer Beep Industries for the Xbox, "Voodoo Vince" is a
fairly standard entrant in the so-called "platformer" genre. We get lots of
jumping from one platform to the next, killing monsters, and defeating
bosses at the end of each level. There is some puzzle solving that, while
not particularly difficult, can be clever.
The hook here is a dry, snarky humor, and the numerous ways in which
Vince's best offense is a good offense against himself. In an early level,
he gains victory by lighting himself on fire and scurrying off to ignite
an pair of no-good gasoline pumps. One of several special attacks has Vince
climb into a guillotine to be sliced in half along with his enemies.
This novel conceit accompanies a jaunty soundtrack and a caricature of New
Orleans that makes Vince's task of rescuing his fortune-telling master,
Madam Charmaine, an oddly soothing venture.
Still, it's not quite enough to make "Voodoo Vince," published by
Microsoft, worth more than a rental. The graphics can be tinny and the plot
is straight out of Mad Libs: Unlikely hero takes upon his (insert
adjective) shoulders the burden of saving (insert quasi-parental figure)
from the clutches of the maniacal (insert villain) motivated by (insert
wacky insecurity).
"Voodoo Vince" won't quite fit into any one category, which isn't such a
good thing. Its attempts to be cuddly with a macabre spirit derivative of
- but not as effective as - Microsoft's masterful "Oddworld: Munch's
Odyssee." There's not much gore, but images of scissors jabbing Vince in
the eye feel more unsettling than funny.
Beep Industries appears aware of this discord when it notes unconvincingly
on its Web site: "This is more wholesome than it sounds. Honest."
Cynics might see "Voodoo Vince" as part of Microsoft's bid to cultivate a
stable of iconic Xbox characters like Nintendo did with Zelda and Mario.
Could be. What I saw was a title best described as "a game where getting
hurt unexceptional."
Bam! Whap! 'Madden NFL' is a Force
Like a durable running back, Madden NFL Football 2004 keeps plugging. This
year, EA Sports has sold more than 4 million copies, making it the
top-selling game for PS2.
At any time, as many as 7,000 Madden maniacs may be facing off. Says EA
Sports' Erik Whiteford: "There are a lot of people who need to feel that
they are not just beating the computer. Now you can go online and see how
good you really are."
Sony has sold about 1.5 million PS2 network adapters ($39.99). Microsoft
has sold about 500,000 subscriptions to its $49.95-a-year Xbox Live. Next
year, market research firm DFC Intelligence expects, the number of online
gamers will triple to 4.1 million.
Sony has its 989 Sports lobby, a chat room where online gamers can meet,
while Microsoft connects players on its XSN Sports network. Next week, the
XSN Sports Championship begins. At stake: $25,000.
Future vision: Says Whiteford: "You're going to see a lot more
interactivity away from the game environment."
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Atari Explorer Updates
Atari Explorer (http://www.atari-explorer.com) has just posted some very
interesting updates to their site, including new images of the Jaguar Duo,
images of the "second" version of the Falcon Microbox (whose design hints
at the Playstation 2), and new information showing the cost of Jaguar
software and Atari's commitment to the platform late into 1995. You can
find all this and a wealth of other great information at
atari-explorer.com.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Antispam Law's Effectiveness Doubted
An antispam bill that was poised to become law in the new year may do
little to stem the barrage of junk e-mail, according to corporate
information and technology officers who deal with the problem daily.
The legislation, called the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act, was signed into law by
President George W. Bush earlier in December.
It requires senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail to let recipients opt
out of future mailings, sets penalties for sending deceptive messages, and
begins the process of creating a national Do Not Spam list. The measure
requires all e-mail advertising - not just unsolicited messages - to
include a valid reply-to address, a valid postal address, and accurate
headers and subject lines.
But CIOs say it won't work, since so much spam comes from outside the
United States.
Tod Ferran, CIO of Riverton Motor, an auto dealership based in Sandy, Utah,
says you'd need "the authority of a world government" to enforce such a
law. Instead, he favors a technological solution. The open-source Mozilla
e-mail system he uses includes a junk e-mail filtering feature, he notes.
He also recommends "education of the public" to not respond to spam
solicitations.
Matt Kesner, chief technology officer of the Fenwick & West law firm based
in Mountain View, California, says he thinks legislating against spam is
worth a try. Still, he questions why Congress would pass a bill that would
trump a strong new California antispam law.
That measure, passed in September but overruled by the federal law, would
have required marketers to get permission from or have an existing business
relationship with a recipient before sending e-mail. Without better
technological and legal solutions, Kesner says he's afraid "we'll get to
the point where we accept e-mail only from people we know."
Group Lambastes UUNet on Spam
When Virginia's attorney general announced the arrest of a man they alleged
was a top e-mail spammer two weeks ago, an executive of UUNet - one of the
country's largest Internet network providers - stood proudly nearby.
The Northern Virginia-based company, a division of WorldCom Inc., had
helped prosecutors build their case against the man listed by a leading
anti-spam tracking group as the eighth-biggest spammer in the world.
But that same group, Spamhaus.org, also monitors the world's Internet
service providers, the companies that connect people and businesses to the
Internet. In that category, Spamhaus lists UUNet as the ISP allowing the
most spammers onto its network, based on the Internet addresses they are
using.
Britain-based Spamhaus lists 128 spammers with accounts on UUNet-controlled
networks, although some of the listings were for the same organization
operating under multiple names.
Of the 128, 16 are among the most prolific spammers, according to Spamhaus.
Only bulk mailers who have been kicked off at least three other ISPs for
spamming are on the Spamhaus list.
In the war against spam, ISPs play a crucial role. They are the gateways to
the online world, and bulk e-mailers need them to send spam. As spam has
grown to account for roughly 60 percent of all e-mail, many ISPs have spent
heavily to beef up their spam-fighting efforts, often competing with one
another over whose features are most effective.
Many ISPs engage in daily combat with spammers, shutting down their
connections only to see the spammers pop up again with new accounts under
different names.
Spamhaus lists more than 275 U.S.-based ISPs with spammers operating on
their networks, many of them for as long as a year. The list includes some
of the best-known ISPs, including those operated by telephone and cable
companies.
Craig Silliman, a UUNet network facilities director, said the Spamhaus
ranking is unfair.
UUNet, along with a few other firms such as AT&T bellsouth.net, a unit of
BellSouth Corp.; and comcast.net, part of Comcast Corp.
Netscape Readies Cheap ISP Service
America Online is entering the low-priced ISP market with a service under
the Netscape name that will be priced at about $10 monthly.
Customers can get the Netscape unlimited Internet access service for just
$1 per month until March 1, according to a registration page on the Web
site of AOL, a division of New York-based Time Warner. After that, the
price will go up to $10 monthly.
The service includes nationwide access, personalized e-mail addresses for
customers, and a search service powered by Google, according to the site.
AOL today offers unlimited dial-up access for $20 monthly or $199 per year
under the CompuServe brand. It also sells a $23.90-per-month unlimited
dial-up service that comes with AOL 9.0 Optimized, a collection of
enhancements such as e-mail, instant messaging, and exclusive content.
Those enhancements are also available for $15, along with 5 hours of
dial-up access, for customers who buy their own broadband connections. A
package with a broadband connection, called the AOL for Broadband-Cable/DSL
Plan, costs $55, according to AOL's Web site.
The introduction of the Netscape service indicates that AOL recognizes the
two basic kinds of Internet users: those who want high speed and those
looking for the lowest price, says Marcel Nienhuis, an analyst at The
Radicati Group, a consulting company in Palo Alto, California.
"I think AOL is being slightly outmatched on their prices by MSN," Nienhuis
says. Microsoft's unlimited MSN 8 Dial-Up Internet Service costs $10 per
month for the first six months and $22 per month after that, according to
the company's Web site. Microsoft also offers several alternate pricing
plans, including a lower rate for members who access MSN via another ISP.
Also available is a selection of free ISPs that are supported by
advertising, but many users don't want to look at the ads, he added. And
recently, a handful of inexpensive dial-up ISP services have drawn
interest.
Meanwhile, both Microsoft and AOL, as well as other ISPs, are trying to
boost revenues by coaxing members to sign up 111770 for new services such
as additional storage.
Consumers, especially first-time Internet users, are looking for an
easy-to-use portal to the Internet with personalized content, an area in
which Netscape is well known, Nienhuis adds.
AOL, on the other hand, has become better known for its communications
tools, such as AOL Instant Messenger, he notes. The company probably didn't
want to blur the AOL brand by adding another service, and with good reason:
AOL leads in ISP market share in North America, according to the Radicati
Group's research.
Netscape was the name of the first widely commercialized Web browser,
released in 1994. Netscape Communications, which distributed it, was sold
to AOL in 1998.
Domain Names Once Again Fetch Top Dollar
One more sign the technology sector is rebounding: An Internet domain name
is again commanding seven figures.
Last week, a Florida man sold men.com for $1.3 million, a healthy profit
over the $15,000 he paid for it in 1997.
The buyers, largely entertainment industry folks who have opted to remain
anonymous behind the acquiring company, men.com LLC, want to create a
portal for men.
"In the last couple of years, the domain names were selling for
significantly less than what they did in '99, 2000," said Monte Cahn, chief
executive of Moniker Online Services, which brokered the sale.
He said the seven-figure price tag for men.com "is a big indicator of
what's yet to come."
At the market's height, a handful of domain names sold for millions of
dollars, including $7.5 million for business.com in late 1999 and $3
million for loans.com in January 2000.
But countless others sat unclaimed, and the dot-com bust forced many domain
name speculators to give them up when they came up for re-registration, at
roughly $30 apiece.
Ryan Levy, vice president of marketing for men.com, said the company also
has purchased more than 1,000 other domain names over the past year at
fire-sale prices to use in conjunction with the new portal.
The seller, Rick Schwartz, believes he could have gotten much more for
men.com by waiting longer.
But Schwartz, who owns more than 4,000 other domain names, said he wanted
the money now - so that he can buy others before prices really skyrocket.
Fastest Geek, Again
Over the past couple of months, PC Magazine took its Fastest Geek
competition on the road. As always, contestants raced against one another
and the stopwatch to see who can build a PC the fastest from a table full
of parts. We held regional events in New York, Boston, and San Jose, and
we invited our regional winners to the Comdex show in Las Vegas for the
final showdown and the right to be called America's Fastest Geek.
Each contestant built a 1.8-GHz AMD Athlon-based PC, provided to us by ABS
Computers and equipped with an Asus A7V600 motherboard, a 250GB Maxtor SATA
hard drive, and an ATI Radeon video card. The winner of each regional event
won an ABS system with a 2.2-GHz Athlon 64 FX-51, two 250GB Maxtor SATA
hard drives, 512MB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card. Similarly
configured systems have clocked some of the fastest times we've ever
recorded on our benchmark and gaming tests.
Each heat drew a big crowd. PC Magazine Labs director Nick Stam, associate
editor Jeremy A. Kaplan, staff editor Daniel S. Evans, and I emceed, and
we enjoyed the repartee with PC Magazine readers. Audience members cheered
on their favorites and even helped us spot problems in the contestants'
assemblies, such as an upside-down floppy disk drive cable, which caused
the drive light to stay on.
We held heats throughout the first two days of Comdex, and the fastest
person from each day competed against our regional champions in the grand
finale on Wednesday. Twenty-one-year-old Jeremy Bergen, an information
technology manager from Boulder, Colorado, was victorious, just seconds
ahead of his closest competitor. We added time penalties for missing or
misplaced screws, improper connections, mislocated drives, and the like,
but Bergen's work was perfect-in a mere 5 minutes 11 seconds.
A few of our contestants were, shall we say, a bit less handy than others
or less knowledgeable about how PCs are put together. When they clearly
had little hope of finishing their heat, we allowed audience members to
come up and assist them. This didn't improve their chances, but it was
great fun. We kidded some of the slower contestants about timing them with
a sundial or a calendar, but they took our joking in stride. (We used
dnSoft Research Group's XNote Stopwatch for our big-screen timer. It's
shareware; check it out.)
As happened at our summer Fastest Geek competition, held at CeBIT New York,
some of the contestants managed to destroy equipment when the Red Mist
descended on them and turned caring, sensitive people into
hypercompetitors. I guarantee that twisting a mouse or keyboard connector
while inserting it will bend pins and will not earn you a fast time.
Likewise, cross-threading a screw and twisting so hard that you break off
the head is a very bad idea. One regional contestant did just that-on one
of those lovely Maxtor 250GB hard drives! I had to take it home and drill
it out on the milling machine.
We also lost a couple of motherboards in Las Vegas, probably to static
electricity caused by the dry air. The other components held up pretty
well, except for the SATA cables. The ones in the machines were definitely
not up to the rigors of continual insertion and removal, especially by
contestants who were unfamiliar with them. We replaced several cables in
the course of the event, and a SATA header on one of the motherboards bit
the dust, too. I gave the remains to the heavy-handed contestant as a
keepsake.
I don't think SATA connectors are inferior to parallel ATA connectors, by
the way. In the vast majority of systems, the cable will be plugged in just
once, and gently at that. And the speed increase over parallel ATA is most
welcome.
Later in the week, the tables were turned. I was a contestant in AMD's
Build Your Own PC Race for Charity, an annual event in which journalists
compete to build machines, which are then donated to the schools of their
choice. The builders with the top three finishing times also win cash
prizes for their schools. Sadly, I finished fourth (but I did have the
fastest time a few years ago). PC vendor Systemax provided the machines,
NEC donated the monitors, and a number of other peripheral vendors
contributed as well.
Building a PC from parts may not be a life-saving skill, but it sure can
be fun-and even profitable if you're the Fastest Geek!
Tech IPOs Will Be Back with a Vengeance in 2004
Investors, brace yourselves - 2004 is gearing up to be the year of the
technology IPO.
After a lengthy drought, investment banks are making bold predictions that
as many as a dozen European companies will go public in 2004, ranging from
software and Internet to mobile phone firms.
The successful initial public offering (IPO) of Scotland's Wolfson
Microelectronics, trading some 33 percent above its October issue price,
has helped make bankers confident there is pent-up demand for new
technology stocks.
And, a recent frenzy for Chinese dot-coms and speculation mounting about
the IPO ambitions of Web icon, Google, and U.S. circuit mobile operator,
Cingular, has only upped the ante.
"I think the industry can do a dozen European technology IPOs next year,"
one London-based technology sector banker said. "Investor appetite is
certainly there. If 2003 was the year of the convertible, 2004 will be the
year of straight-equity such as IPOs and follow-on offerings," said a
European technology sector adviser at a major London investment bank.
Since early 2000, when the technology bubble began to deflate, few IPOs
have been done in Europe. Companies have quietly grown and are now ready
to float in an upbeat market.
They include a large number of Internet companies, testimony to the fact
that not all the promises made in the Internet bubble were pie-in-the-sky.
Price comparison sites such as Kelkoo, and online financial advisers
Moneysupermarket.com are being mentioned as potential first-half flotation
candidates.
"We will be observing the various flotations planned in the tech market,
and, as the market strengthens this year, this is a question we will be
asking ourselves," said Dorothea Arndt, marketing director for UK arm of
Kelkoo.com.
In no way do these companies resemble the cash-hungry vehicles of the late
1990s which acquired customers at huge losses in a landgrab that was paid
for with cheap capital provided by eager investors and venture capitalists.
Unlike ISP World Online or online travel group Lastminute.com, some of the
new Internet companies are profitable at flotation.
Price comparison Web Sites hold no inventory and see strong earning
potential. Gross margins, the percentage of profit after deducting the raw
operating costs, can be as high as 80 percent. Such firms can be valued at
hundreds of millions of euros.
That is the kind of profile investors like.
"Every IPO will have to prove that it offers more than the stocks that are
already out there. It's not like the year 2000 when we were almost forced
to buy, because the shares would soar on the first day," said Philippe
Kiewiet de Jonge, coordinator of the technology, media and telecoms
analysts team at ABN Amro Asset Management which oversees 30 billion euros
of investments.
French telecoms and Internet service providers Iliad and LDCom have both
said they are looking to float next year. Iliad, part owned by Goldman
Sachs and advised by SG, may be valued at one billion euros.
More speculative are two are other large IPOs that may happen in the second
half of 2004. Birmingham-based mobile phone maker Sendo, which shelved its
flotation in 2001 when the market tanked, is again looking at an
opportunity to raise money for expansion plans and to realize the value for
managers and staff.
No mandate has been given and the firm has yet to make its aggressive 2004
plan to at least treble sales to $750 million and produce over five million
handsets. Although profit margins are small in this consumer
electronics-related business, the firm could be valued at many hundreds of
millions of euros.
Symbian, the mobile phone software maker - owned by Britain's Psion,
Finland's Nokia, Sweden's Ericsson and other phone makers - may also float.
However, as its software is often combined with that of Nokia's Series 60
applications, Nokia may also want to own Symbian outright.
Encouraged by the Wolfson offering, other semiconductor companies are also
expected to come to the market. Software is an area where bankers also
expect action. They tip firms that provide multi-media messaging services,
and security firms that specialize in defense of computer worms, viruses
and spam.
"I have one IPO nearly on the shelf and a follow-on offering ready to go,
one in software and the other in semiconductor equipment," a second
London-based banker said.
A second technology specialist banker says he has two IPOs waiting to go
and expects to do a total of five during 2004.
The banks that will battle for the mandates include CSFB, UBS, Morgan
Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lazard and Merrill Lynch. For some, there is more
at stake than just revenues after the numerous IPO implosions of the 1990s
and 2000: their reputation.
Guide to Online Photo Album Sites
The holidays are ending. Now you've got all those digital photos of kids
opening presents, teenagers on skis, and Aunt Edna passed out from too much
eggnog. You need a way to share those pictures with your friends and
family.
Here's where photo album Web sites come in. In hopes that you and your
loved ones will buy prints, these sites let you post your photos free of
charge for anyone to view.
It's amazing how many of these sites are out there. To name just a few,
you'll find Sony's ImageStation, Kodak's Ofoto, Slug's PBase, PictureTrail,
Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Yahoo Photos.
Here's an introduction to what to expect when you pick an album site, what
to look for, and what to look out for. Luckily, it's not a major
commitment; you can always try a different site with your next album. Many
others are available.
Not all album sites are free. PBase and PictureTrail give you limited,
temporary free accounts, but then expect you to pay for something
longer-lasting or more powerful. The price isn't high - less than $25 a
year for either - but it's more than you'd pay at a free site.
It's a bit surprising that free album sites have survived when so many
other free Internet services have not. It seems amazing that companies can
still give away server space and bandwidth in hopes of selling a few
prints. It's possible they won't last, which is why you should be cautious
about depending on one as a form of archival storage for your photos (CD-Rs
are a better choice). But they're around now and you may as well use them
for sharing and for prints.
Speaking of prints, and of freebies, these sites often offer free prints
as a bonus when you first sign up - which is a pretty good argument for
using more than one site. Shutterfly's current bonus appears the best,
offering 15 free prints to new members. Well, they're almost free: You pay
for shipping. But that can change, so look around before picking a site.
Once you've picked a site, you'll have to sign up. Most require your name,
e-mail address, and a password. If you have a Yahoo account, you already
have a Yahoo Photos account.
Then you can create an album and start uploading your pictures. With
ImageStation, though, you upload the pictures first, then create an album.
The easiest way to upload pictures is to drag and drop them from Windows
Explorer to a box on a Web page, an option that all of these sites
offer - after you've allowed the site to install a small browser add-in.
The sites all let you to rearrange the order of the pictures, as well as
add titles and captions. Rearranging is an easy, drag-and-drop job. Titles
and captions certainly make your pictures more understandable, but not all
of us have the patience to add them.
You want to share your pictures with family and friends, and the Web sites
want you to share them: The more people who look at them, the better the
chance of selling prints.
But the sites typically make sharing pictures "easy" in a way that actually
makes it difficult. They want you to enter e-mail addresses into a Web form
so they can send announcements to your loved ones. This means you have to
type or paste in addresses that you already have in your regular e-mail
address book; if you could use your own e-mail program, you could just
click them.
What's more, not everyone you know may want these sites to have their
e-mail address. Finally, these notices tend to be highly formatted e-mail
messages, complete with photos, buttons, and a subject like "Enjoy my
photos" - not the sort of thing that always gets through spam filters.
You're better off just copying the URL from the album page and pasting it
into an e-mail message you write yourself. But that doesn't always work.
Some sites, such as Shutterfly, use one URL to display an album to its
creator and another for everyone else.
A more certain work-around is to use the site's Web form to send one
invitation - to yourself. Once you get that, you can copy the URL the site
provides in the e-mail message, and pass it along to your friends and
family.
Of this assortment of sites, Yahoo Photo is the only one that offers a more
reasonable way to invite friends. The site provides an option that gives
you an easy-to-type URL.
If you don't want your friends and family to have to sign up just to look
at your online album, consider that when you choose your photo site. This
restriction is key to ImageStation and Snapfish.
Of course, the sites hope you and your loved ones will order plenty of
prints - which is more expensive than using your own ink-jet printer.
However, if you consider the costs of ink and good photo paper, the
difference isn't substantial. Besides, the print quality is generally
excellent and you don't have to mess with scissors.
In addition to prints, these sites sell all sorts of photo-oriented gifts
to make your kids' grandparents happy. These include coffee mugs,
calendars, T-shirts, and greeting cards.
But Sony's ImageStation offers what must be the strangest photo gift of
all: chocolates, cookies, and candies with your photos glazed on. The Web
site does not list the ingredients.
Spears Reigns Again on Internet
Just as Internet users were beginning to lose interest in longtime Web
wonder Britney Spears, a few sexually provocative magazine covers and a
famous smooch with Madonna propelled the pop princess back into favor.
Yes, it's that time again - when Lycos, America Online and Yahoo! each
weigh in with their end-of-year statistics and, as was the case last year
and the year before, Spears managed to claw her way near the top of the
lists of the most searched-for celebrities.
Until Spears started promoting her new album with a flurry of
attention-getting stunts, highlighted by her Sapphic excursion at the MTV
Video Music Awards in September, the singer actually fell off Lycos' top-10
list of search terms for several weeks, spokesman Aaron Schatz said.
Ultimately, though, she finished in the No. 2 spot overall at Lycos for the
year, right behind song-swapping service Kazaa.
At Yahoo! she finished sixth on the overall list of searched-for terms,
with one celebrity ahead of her: Eminem.
Yahoo! also reports that the search term receiving the biggest percentage
gain year-over-year is, no surprise, Paris Hilton, she of online sex-tape
fame. Yahoo! says searches for her went up a mere 212,000%.
Over at AOL, the biggest topic online was the war in Iraq, judging from
activity at the Internet service provider's many message boards.
Following the war was politics in general and, in particular, the
Democratic party primaries, the California recall election and "The
Reagans" miniseries. Celebrities and their scandals also were hot, with
Rush Limbaugh, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson leading the way.
Reality TV also was popular on AOL message boards, led by "American Idol"
and followed by "Survivor," "Paradise Hotel" and "Big Brother."
Apparently, threesomes are quite popular on the Internet, according to
Yahoo! The company's list of the most-searched movies is led by the Harry
Potter soon-to-be trilogy, and more. It's followed by "The Lord of the
Rings" and "The Matrix" trilogies, with "Spider-Man" and "8 Mile" rounding
out the top-five searched-for movies.
And Lycos is predicting, based on its growing number of searches, that the
movies "The Passion of the Christ," "Troy" and "Catwoman" will be hits.
Speaking of feature films, "Finding Nemo" has the dubious honor of being
probably the year's most downloaded movie at peer-to-peer file-sharing
services, according to the firm BayTSP. And surprisingly, BayTSP reported,
the Miramax film "Shaolin Soccer," which hasn't even been released in the
United States, was hugely popular.
Garnering an immense amount of short-lived attention was Al-Jazeera, the
Arabic cable news network, which generated three times as many search
queries in April than did the word "sex." Driving the interest in
Al-Jazeera in March and April was the fact that its Web site featured
video of American prisoners of war, Schatz said.
The top TV shows searched for, according to Lycos, were "American Idol,"
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Simpsons" and "Survivor." The top sports
stars were Bryant, Anna Kournikova, Michael Jordan, David Beckham and Allen
Iverson.
Nielsen//NetRatings is reporting that the top online brand, judging from
statistics culled from the first 10 months of the year, will probably be
AOL, narrowly outscoring MSN and Yahoo!
Sober Worm Threatens Holiday
A self-e-mailing worm is threatening to impose a Sober holiday on
individuals and companies alike.
The worm created havoc in October by getting into systems and e-mailing
itself to every e-mail address it could find. Then a second variant,
Sober.B, popped up at the end of last week, attempting to intrigue people
with subject lines referencing George W. Bush.
The B variant was given a low-risk status as it is relatively easy to stop
and remove, and it seemed to have been stopped in its tracks. However, the
weekend saw the German writers release the same worm but with different
subject lines.
Just prior to Christmas, it seems that people don't want to open a file
about George Bush's militancy. But "Sorry, that's your mail", "Hi, it's
me", "Thankyou very very much", "you are an idiot" and "I hate you" seem to
have captured the post-party alcohol-addled workers across the globe who
are stuck at work when they'd rather be at home eating mince pies.
As such, the attachments are getting opened, the worm is spreading. Most
antivirus vendors have given Sober.C a Medium risk simply because of its
acceleration. However, those major antivirus vendors also have updated
virus definitions that detect and block the pest.
There is a risk that within the next day, the virus could go
haywire - especially if staff eyeing the calendar are not updating their
antivirus files. Rather fortunately, little work is being done at the
moment and companies will benefit from employees not being at work over the
holiday break so it is not going to disrupt anyone all that much.
Except of course the IT staff who may yet receive the dreaded phone call on
Christmas or Boxing Day inviting them to spend the whole day cleaning up
the network rather than watching movies and drinking too much
wine. Bah
humbug.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org
No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
