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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 04 Issue 28
Volume 4, Issue 28 Atari Online News, Etc. July 12, 2002
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2002
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:
Henk Robbers
Kevin Savetz
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0428 07/12/02
~ Game Testers Paradise! ~ People Are Talking! ~ eBay To Buy PayPal!
~ Gnutella Pioneer Dead! ~ CPS Games Site Update! ~ File-swapping Suits!
~ Gator Ordered To Stop! ~ HighWire .06A Preview! ~ XaAES Update News!
~ Red Cat Rummy 500! ~ Reservoir Gods Site! ~ New UPX Is Out!
-* Sites Pressured By Explorer? *-
-* New Web ID Standards To Be Unveiled *-
-* Paypal, eBay Shareholders File Lawsuits! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
What a gorgeous week around here! This would have been the ideal week for a
vacation in New England. A couple of "hot" days and the rest of the week
was perfect. Even the smoke from the Canadian wildfires couldn't seem to
ruin it for us.
I hope that everyone (at least in the U.S.) had a terrific long holiday
weekend. Our neighborhood block party was successful, albeit hot. I may
have mentioned this last week, but it was worth a repeat comment!
It's still fairly quiet out there in the world of computer technology. As
I've mentioned before, summer months seem to cause a slowdown in the news,
unless you're a major corporation doing something funny with the books! It
used to be that "big business" got that way through hard work. Who ever
thought that the work involved would be creative bookkeeping! And you
wonder why people are cynical toward big companies.
Well, I'm going to get ready to start the weekend off right and have a nice
cold drink and relax. I don't know about you, but I look forward to
weekends and the opportunity to take it easy. Hey, we deserve the break!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
XaAES v0.951
A new version of XaAES is available on my homepage
1
At last got the button down fallthrough event working.
(Fall through evnt_multi(MU_BUTTON, down) and the button is already (or
still) down)
Good news for CAB users among many others.
2
Fix in button event handling: if the mouse is locked and the app has a
classic dialogue on the screen and is not in a form_do() and is waiting for
mouse events, it will now receive the event.
3
More fixes in fitting text in boxes. Now 3D widening effect is taken into
account.
4
More fixes in drawing of transparent text.
5
More fixes in handling windowed and classic dialogues.
(Because window creation is postponed until form_do() is called, I could
do away with the handling of the 3 pixel gap caused by form_center() on
outlined boxes).
6
Fix in graf_slidebox():
Forgot to set the mouse distance rectangle properly.
Have fun.
Read the history file!
--
Groeten; Regards.
Henk Robbers.
mailto:h.robbers@chello.nl
http://members.ams.chello.nl/h.robbers/Home.html
A free multitasking GEM for MiNT: XaAES (heavily under construction);
http://xaaes.atari.org
Interactive disassembler: TT-Digger; http://digger.atari.org
A Home Cooked teXt editor: AHCX
HighWire v0.06A Public Preview
The HighWire development team has released a new HighWire v0.06A Public
Preview. This version has been released to show people that bug fixing
and improvements are being worked on. To see a list of changes, please
read the HISTORY.TXT file in the release ZIP or the Change.log file on
the HighWire site.
It is also being release with the hope that bugs can be tracked down
quicker with the help of the Atari Community. Please report any bugs to
the HighWire Development Team using the HighWire bug tracker on
http://highwire.atari-users.net
UPX 1.22 Is Out
UPX is an Ultimate Packer for eXecutables. Changes in 1.22 (27 Jun 2002)
* INFO: http://upx.sourceforge.net is the permanent UPX home page
* atari/tos: the stub now flushes the CPU cache to avoid
problems on 68030+ machines
* source code: additional compiler support for Borland C++ 5.5.1,
Digital Mars C++ 8.28 and Watcom C++ 11.0c
http://upx.sourceforge.net
Red Cat Rummy 500
A new card game for the ST series of computers is released. It's called
Red Cat Rummy 500 and has mainly been made in the late nineties but was
put on ice, until now when it's out at last.
Red Cat Rummy 500 can be downloaded from the DHS 'Scenenews'.
http://www.dhs.nu/
CPS GAMES Website Updated
The cps-games site has been updated to include our progress towards
bringing affordable ST upgrades into action. View our progress online as
we invent and build more kits. WE also have a for sale section selling
used and new Atari parts. Pages get updated weekly, this week our first
1.44meg external drive was built and put into action!
http://www.cps-games.co.uk/for sale.htm
http://www.cps-games.co.uk/projects/projects.htm
reservoir-gods.com Launches
The folks at Reservoir Gods have announced:
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new website for Reservoir
Gods:
http://www.reservoir-gods.com
Here you can find all our atari productions: games, demos, emulators,
tools and issues of Maggie diskzine.
We have also launched a high scores competition for our latest game
"GodPey". To compete in this, please send your GODPEY.SAV file to
pink@reservoir-gods.com
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. The first week back to work after vacation
is always a tough one, isn't it? I'm beat. Why is it that a week of
vacation always results in two extra weeks of work when you get back?
I'm quite sure that this phenomenon isn't localized to my area, but
knowing that I'm not alone doesn't seem to help much. I've been going
crazy trying to get things in order again, and I'm actually making some
progress, but it's taking its toll.
There aren't as many messages in the NewsGroups as I'd like to see, but
I guess we've got to make do with what we've got, right? I still find it
amazing that there is any interest at all in our favorite computer, even
though it was a marvel of its time.
Let's face it: Atari hasn't made a computer in years now, and those of
us who still have and use them are the die-hards. There aren't many new
apps coming out for the ST these days (although the ones that are coming
through the pipeline are simply amazing), and most computer users just
don't have what it takes to hang around anymore. And that's really okay.
You see, one of the main problems with the PC world these days is the
userbase. Some of these people aren't equipped to handle a pad and
pencil, let alone a computer. That's why customer support is such an
expense for computer companies. There are just too many dumb people who
either don't realize that they're dumb, or figure that they're entitled
to be dumb.
I'm sorry, but that's just not the way it should be. Computer companies
would be much better off if they made you take an IQ test before you
could buy one of their products. I'm not saying that you should have to
be a super-hacker or Ubergeek in order to own a computer, but a basic
understanding of what computers do would be nice.
In addition to being Director of Quality Control, I'm also "the computer
guy" at work, and I see a lot of stupidity where computers are concerned.
It still amazes me that people who are otherwise fairly intelligent seem to
turn to mush when confronted with a computer monitor.
I've tried just about everything to get people to smarten up about
computers, but nothing seems to work. It reminds me of something that
one of my professors used to say... "Nothing can be made foolproof
because fools can be so ingenious.
Well, let's get on with the news, hints, tips, and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Chin-Whan Choi asks about using an ST with a television:
"I am using an Atari Mega ST 2 for my MIDI stuff. I also own some old
games and wanted to play some on weekend. So, I connected the Mega ST
with a colour screen cable to my TV-Set, normally it should work fine.
But, it is very difficult to see anything. I opened the eyes and I can
hardly see the desktop on the TV screen. It is a very dark screen I get.
And, I cannot recognize any colours. I tried two different cables and
TV-sets, but the problem remains. I am using TOs 2.06. Does anybody know
this problem? Is this a severe hardware problem? In 640*400 Mode on a
Atari SM 124, it works without any problem."
Jon G tells Choi:
"Hmmm.. i've seen and solved this problem before, but only with Scart
cables .....
Are you using standard RF cables ? If not, and you're using Scart, let me
know."
Choi tells Jon:
"I was using a cinch cable and a SCART cable. Both cables didn't work
properly, so i concluded that the Computer has a problem."
Jon replies:
"With this kind of thing, when I had this problem before, we had two
different Scart cables. A Sony one that was supplied by a local dealer, and
one Philips, that came with the CM8833 monitor.
It seems thats the Sony and Philips cables had slightly different pinouts.
I'm not sure where you can get different cables from today, but if you get
the pinouts from somewhere, i'm sure you could get an electronics shop of
some kind to fit it for you."
Dave Wade adds:
"I have had this problem with my STe and its either the lead or the TV. The
MEGA only produces RGB out and your leads (or TVs) are either only designed
for composite, or the way the SYNC is being generated is fooling the TV
into looking for Composite. I know someone sent me the solution some time
ago but I can't find it. Try checking out the group archives at
groups.google.com..."
Carey Christenson adds:
"I also have had a similar problem with my Falcon030.
When I first got it and wanted to hook it to a 19 inch
VGA monitor. I found that it was a setting inside of
NVRAM. Do you use a program like this??? For
VIDEONORM I have PAL and VGA clicked on for VIDEOMODUS
I have nothing clicked on but there are other options
as well. Now that I have an Eclipse ATI GC I don't
even need to worry about this program. Hope this
helps!!!!"
Steve Sweet asks everyone involved:
"Are you using RGB cables or composite video cables and is the relevant
monitor set to match.
Some types of monitor require a 12 volt at 10K ohm pull-up on pin 8 of its
SCART socket to force it into composite mode and 12v at 10K ohm pull-up to
pins 8 and 12 to force RGB.
Its also possible you need to cycle your TV through its modes, i.e,
COMPOSITE/RGB/svhs, maybe even PAL/ntsc to get the correct result."
Martin Takenskeen asks about the Hotlist feature in CAB:
"Anyone else having trouble with the Hotlist in CAB 2.8 (full licensed
version, not demo) when using MiNT? With single TOS it works fine on my
system, but when using MiNT the Hotlist shows nothing when I open it.
Can't remember having had any trouble with version 2.7."
Martin Byttebier (I think) tells Martin T.:
"Just rename hotlist.htm into hotlist.html.
I'm not sure but I believe you must use lowercases too."
Martin T replies:
"mm, strange behaviour. But I have it working now. I have my CAB folder on
a TOS partition. So I've copied "HOTLIST.HTM" from there to my $HOME
directory, which is on a ext2 MiNT partition, and renamed it to
"hotlist.html". CAB apparently also looks for it on that location. Now I
can use CAB and the Hotlist both with MiNTnet and with STiK2/Single TOS.
Why should I, but it is possible."
Tony Cianfaglione asks for help with his external hard drive:
"I hooked up the external Megafile 20 to my Mega STe and changed the SCSI
switch settings on the switch in the external HD and tried a boot. At
first, the Mega would simply boot as normal and ignore the external HD.
Now the Mega doesn't even recognize its own HD with the multiple
partitions and instead simply runs the empty floppy drive for a while
before giving me a basic screen of 2 floppy icons and a trash can.
I've unhooked the external and have tried booting the Mega with its
internal only. Repeated bootings fail to recognize the internal HD...
I took the HD out of the Mega STe, reseated a few chips, cleaning off any
possible corrosion and tapping the HD lightly on the side to see if
stiction was a problem. The HD started working on its side but not
lying flat. I reseated the daughterboard and its chips and tried it
again. The HD seems to be back functioning again."
Jean-Luc Ceccoli gives Tony a good-natured ribbing:
"It just wanted to make you a joke!"
Harmut Surmann asks for help with retrieving old files on a new machine:
"15 years ago i wrote my master thesis on an atari 1024 ST with
a text program called signum. Now, i am looking for a possibility
to read or convert these old signum files? Any hints?
My first idea was to use an simulator.
I found an atari 1024ST emulator for linux but
i didn't have the old program files (signum).
Any hints were i can download the software?"
Rein Bakuhizen van den Brink tells Harmut:
"Try Papyrus from R.O.M. Software in Berlin,
demo-version can be down-loaded..."
Mark Duckworth asks for info about his ICD Link2:
"I was wondering if anyone would happen to have any advice for me. I
recently purchased a new Mega STe to replace the fried one I already had
and apparently the Link got taken down too. It works and the light lights
up but it doesn't get detected by ICD's software. It is the clear link/2
denoted on ICD's website. Is that surface mount chip on the adapter
something I might be able to find in a store or an ICD custom chip?
I sent a mail to ICD support but does anyone have any other ideas and most
importantly, does anyone in the US or canada have a link or mega ste compat
internal scsi host adapter for sale for a bit less than $100?"
Lyndon Amsdon tells Mark:
"My ICD link that plugs into the DMA port has a programmed chip
inside, and it's not a GAL and likely to have it's fused burnt
to stop people reading the internal layout."
Well folks, I told you that there weren't a lot of NewsGroup messages this
week. We've now come to the end of the messages. All I can tell you is...
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 - Nintendo Hires Video Game Fanatics!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo Hires Video Game Fanatics
For Stephen Pelletier, the addiction started when he was 3. His father
brought home a video-game console, spent an hour or so setting it up and
as soon as the game - Pong - appeared, Stephen was hooked.
"I'll never forget the little white square I saw on the television," the
Whidbey Island resident said wistfully.
Now 24, and wearing a 15-inch flat-screen TV on his chest, a pack full of
batteries on his back and a game console and joysticks dangling from his
waist, Pelletier is one of approximately 50 video-game aficionados hired
by Nintendo to be walking video games this summer.
"I don't consider this work. Smiling and having fun with video games is
just the best," he said. "How can you go wrong?"
He may soon find out. Pelletier and fellow members of the Nintendo Street
Team gathered Monday for the start of a two-day training session, on
everything from the history of Nintendo to how to handle difficult
situations with aggressive gamers who won't let you get away.
This weekend, work officially begins as the Nintendo Street Team hits
malls, concerts and other events in six cities across the country. The
mission: To drum up interest in the latest releases from the Redmond-based
video game developer.
The uniform is part Super Mario, part Teletubbies. Members in Atlanta,
Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle, will wear either the
30-pound Game Cube set up like Pelletier's, or less cumbersome belts with
GameBoy Advance handheld devices.
For six hours a day every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through mid-August,
they'll solicit shoppers and passers-by to grab a joystick and play a few
video games on them - with enough controllers or other devices for as many
as 40 people to play at a time. And, a la reality TV, groupies can keep
track of the team members on a Web site with diary entries, photos,
popularity polls and online chats.
Training includes learning the ins and outs of each game, how to fend off
persistent game players and how to politely intervene between overly
competitive players.
The campaign comes as the video game industry has surged and as
high-profile companies - including Nintendo neighbor Microsoft Corp. - are
dedicating billions of dollars over the next several years to capturing
video game players through traditional consoles and online.
Worldwide, consumers spent $20.9 billion last year on video game hardware
and software with a little less than half coming in North America, said
Schelley Olhava, senior analyst with International Data Corp.
And companies including Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft spend hundreds of
millions a year on marketing alone, she said.
The team members, who range in age from 18 to 27 years old, were selected
from 700 applicants and will receive $100 a day for their work.
But it's the fun-potential - not the dollar-potential - that was the draw
for team members, they said.
"You get to hang out with a lot of neat people," said Han Tran, a
20-year-old from Seattle, who is spending Mondays through Thursdays
working for an engineering company.
And members are prepared for the inevitable heckling. "I've dealt with
obnoxious people all my life," Pelletier said. "They just don't
understand."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
EBay to Buy PayPal in $1.5 Billion Deal
EBay Inc. on Monday said it would buy PayPal Inc. in a $1.5 billion stock
deal combining the dominant Internet auction house with the leading vendor
of online payment services.
The long-anticipated merger will extend a close working relationship
between eBay and PayPal, two of the most successful dot-com survivors. A
growing number of eBay customers use PayPal to pay for their auction
purchases and eBay said it would close its rival payment product, BillPoint,
which it had purchased in 1999.
Separately, eBay said its second-quarter results would be better than
earlier forecast because of strong growth in both the United States and its
international operations.
San Jose, California-based EBay said it would swap 0.39 of a share for each
PayPal share, valuing the deal near $1.5 billion, including $18 million in
acquisition-related costs.
The company's merger with PayPal values PayPal shares at $23.61 based on
Friday's closing stock prices, a premium of about 18 percent. Shares in
PayPal rose $1.61 a share to close at $21.61, while shares in eBay fell
$4.31 a share, or more than 7 percent, to close at $56.24.
While most Wall Street analysts were positive on the acquisition, some
suggested eBay's stock fell in reaction to its forecast results, which
were above the consensus, but not by as wide a margin as in some past
quarters.
"Investors have historically liked more upside," said Merrill Lynch analyst
Justin Baldauf. "It's getting harder and harder for eBay to do
that."
Baldauf nonetheless said the PayPal acquisition would be good for eBay in a
number of ways, giving it an added way to profit from the transactions
conducted on its site, and helping it to build a more seamless payment
service for consumers.
EBay said the addition of PayPal would immediately add to its earnings, and
will over time give it a share of PayPal's non-auction business. The
closure of BillPoint should also enable PayPal to reach more eBay customers,
it said.
"We think it will accelerate revenues at both companies," EBay Chief
Executive Meg Whitman said in an interview. "Currently only 40 percent of
the payments on eBay are done electronically, so there is a lot of room for
growth."
PayPal, based in Mountain View, California, earlier this year became the
first Internet company in more than a year to successfully complete an
initial public offering and in April it posted a small quarterly profit.
The company's service enables anyone with an email account to send and
receive cash, making it a natural fit for eBay, where many customers are
individuals and small businesses not equipped to accept credit card payment.
The long-term growth prospects for this business were underscored on
Monday when eBay provided a preview of its second-quarter results,
indicating it had once again surpassed consensus projections for its
growth.
EBay said it earned $54.3 million, or 19 cents per share in the quarter, on
revenue of $266 million. Previously it had projected earnings per share of
17 cents on revenues of between $260 and $265 million.
EBay said the growth reflected a 48 percent increase in its U.S.-based
transactions since last year, and 148 percent growth from international
operations.
Although eBay is increasingly working with large merchants and
wholesalers, a core component of its business continues to be the
individual collectors and the mom-and-pop shops that use eBay to sell
low-ticket items, and are more comfortable using PayPal than a credit card.
The companies said the merger would enable them to integrate their services
more closely and better address customer concerns over the security of
their transactions.
Because of their close relationship, eBay and PayPal had long been
expected to join forces. Merger talks earlier this year had fallen through,
but the companies said they went back to the negotiating table over the
July 4th holiday weekend and worked out a final agreement. The transaction
was expected to close by the end of the year.
For all its success avoiding the fate of so many dot-com companies,
PayPal's outlook had been somewhat clouded by lingering concerns over the
fact that so much of its business came from a single source. Some analysts
had warned that the wisest course of action would be to combine with eBay
while its business was thriving.
PayPal had also faced legal and regulatory concerns in some business areas,
such as online gaming transactions. The company said on Monday it would
exit the business of providing cash transfers for online gaming, a
controversial business facing considerable legal challenges.
Shareholders Sue PayPal, eBay
The PayPal-eBay merger has hit an early snag: Two shareholder lawsuits
have been filed against the companies seeking to block the deal.
The lawsuits, each filed in Delaware Chancery Court earlier this week on
behalf of PayPal shareholders, charge that the deal represents a breach of
the companies' fiduciary duty to those shareholders and that the price
eBay is paying for PayPal is unfair and inadequate, the companies said in
separate regulatory filings on Thursday.
eBay representatives did not return calls seeking comment about the
lawsuits. But in its regulatory filing, the company said it would contest
them.
"eBay believes that the lawsuits are without merit and intends to defend
itself vigorously," the company said.
PayPal echoed that opinion.
"(The lawsuits) are without merit and we will fight them vigorously," said
PayPal spokesman Vince Sollitto. "These types of legal filings are common
but rarely successful."
The shareholders' attorneys did not return calls seeking comment.
eBay announced on Monday an agreement to acquire PayPal. The company
offered to pay about 0.39 shares of eBay stock for each share of PayPal,
valuing the deal at about $1.41 billion at eBay's current share price.
PayPal's current market capitalization is about $1.39 billion.
The deal came just two weeks after PayPal completed a controversial
secondary public offering that saw its investors and executives sell 6
million shares of the online payments company. That offering came on the
heels of the company's successful initial public offering in February.
PayPal has been no stranger to legal controversies. The company is facing
several class-action suits filed on behalf of customers who charged that
PayPal illegitimately froze their accounts. PayPal also faces a patent
suit filed in May by Tumbleweed Communications.
eBay's move to acquire PayPal follows the failure of its rival payment
service, Billpoint, to gain ground against PayPal.
Sites Bow to Microsoft's Browser King
When he co-founded Netscape Communications in 1994, Jim Clark introduced a
Web browser that promised computer users a way around the Microsoft
juggernaut.
Now online photo print shop Shutterfly, another Clark-founded venture, has
a succinct warning for visitors who come to the site using the latest
versions of Netscape: Beware. Versions 6 and higher of the browser are
"unsupported," meaning people who use them cannot take advantage of several
site features and may run into glitches not found with Microsoft's Internet
Explorer, according to a browser error message being published on the site
as of last Wednesday.
Shutterfly's browser preference page is more than ironic; it reflects an
ongoing bias among some Web sites to write and test their pages for the
browser most people use - Internet Explorer. The trend lives on despite the
support Web standards receive from several new browsers, including
Netscape's latest, its open-source cousin Mozilla and others such as Opera
and iCab.
Non-agnostic Web sites "are saying, 'We're only interested in people if
they use this browser,'" said Janet Daly, a representative for standards
group the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). "That's a mistake on their part.
The browser is a basic utility for people, and it's about having access to
information regardless of who made that information or what authoring tool
they used."
The call for Web authors to comply with standards comes as a new wave of
competitors seeks to dislodge Microsoft from its perch as the No. 1 browser
maker. IE is used by more than 85 percent of all Web surfers by many
counts, and may go even higher. One recent study showed it with 95 percent
share.
AOL Time Warner, which purchased Netscape in 1999 for some $4.2 billion, is
throwing more support behind the company's products after years of neglect.
For the first time, the company is testing Netscape as the default browser
in its CompuServe and America Online service software, having used IE for
years as part of a complex cross-marketing agreement. AOL Time Warner has
also filed a civil suit on behalf of Netscape that alleges Microsoft
engaged in illegal practices.
Mozilla, meanwhile, recently released its first public version, Mozilla 1.0,
capping four years of development. Other IE alternatives from companies
such as Opera Software are also winning fans and giving Web surfers more
choice than ever before.
While competition appears to be piling up, would-be IE rivals must overcome
industry inertia that runs deep within the fabric of how Web pages are put
together. Not least, they rely on the cooperation of skeptical Web authors
who see little reward in supporting technology that is used by just a small fraction of their customers.
Shutterfly is hardly alone among mainstream Web sites discriminating
against browsers. Safeway.com, for example, warns visitors that "the
Safeway.com site works best with the Internet Explorer Web browser. Other
browsers, such as Netscape, may not function properly."
Critics call these browser warning pages reminiscent of the bad old days of
the Web, when sites routinely sported the tag "best viewed in Navigator" or
"best viewed in IE."
Microsoft in November revived those memories and earned widespread wrath
when it locked out competing browsers from its MSNBC news site. The
incident provoked accusations that Microsoft was taking advantage of its
near-total dominance of the browser market to further marginalize
competitors.
Microsoft declined to comment for this story.
The state of affairs with browser-site compatibility highlights a lingering
gap between reality and the lofty goals of Web standards. Even as standards
advocates acknowledge that the browsers are largely in compliance with W3C
recommendations, plenty of sites remain, practically speaking, Internet
Explorer-only zones.
Now that browsers are mostly standards-compliant, the roles of accused and
accuser largely have been reversed.
A few years ago, it was Web developers who organized and ranted against
the browser makers, specifically Microsoft and Netscape, demanding
standards-compliant software. Now, the browser makers and even the Web's
premier standards organization are attributing many of the glitches to Web
authors who write non-compliant code or tailor their code to work with
market-leading browsers, specifically IE.
This phenomenon traps smaller browsers in a vicious circle: Because they
have a limited following, Web authors don't write or test for them. When,
as a result, Web sites don't work with the browser--or explicitly rule it
out--surfers have a repeated incentive to give up and use Internet Explorer.
The person browsing with the latest Opera, Mozilla or Netscape browser will
be able to access just about any site on the Web. But non-IE users are
likely to start running into trouble once they start delving into a site's
complex features and functionality.
And those complex features tend to be crucial when it comes to executing
transactions on e-commerce sites.
"The Web is a chaotic place, and you will find no browser that can view
all sites," said Hakon Lie, chief technology officer for Oslo, Norway-based
Opera. "All browsers have this problem to some extent."
Some browsers have it more than others. Opera, for example, runs into
trouble on several mainstream Web sites, including Salon.com and Apple
Computer's Mac.com, that render perfectly in IE or Netscape.
Netscape has been taking an aggressive approach to the problem, monitoring
sites where its "Gecko" rendering engine is running into trouble and
prevailing on site administrators to fix the problem.
A joint Netscape-Mozilla team, formed two years ago, examined the 1,700
Web sites with the highest traffic to see how well they worked when viewed
by Gecko. When the evangelism effort launched, only 60 percent of these
pages worked properly, but Netscape claims to have boosted that number to
98 percent.
"Our evangelism efforts have garnished quite a bit of momentum in their
outreach to Web developers," a Netscape representative said in an e-mail
interview. But the "team continues to work with both corporate and
individual sites to ensure Gecko compliance."
Opera's Lie estimated that he ran into trouble surfing with Opera on about
one in 30 sites.
He also claimed that IE has seen its share of sites that it can't view
properly. But because of IE's ubiquity, those glitches are likely to be
fixed in a matter of days or hours, while problems with Opera or Mozilla
languish on bug fix to-do lists.
The situation is reflected in the policies at Shutterfly, which makes no
bones about its market-oriented approach to browser support.
"From the beginning, the situation has been that we listen to our customers
and deliver what they ask for," said Whitney Brown, a representative for
Shutterfly. "We have had very few requests for Opera - most of our users
are on a PC using IE, and the next largest group is on a PC using Netscape.
We have a pretty mainstream user base, which has moved away from the early
adopters who may be aware of other browsers out there."
The site's browser preference page, which launched Wednesday during a visit
using Netscape 6.2, notes that the company supports older versions of
Netscape, including Netscape Navigator 4.7. Brown on Tuesday said the
site's browser warning is out of date and that the site supports newer
versions of Netscape - although it still does not support Opera and other
less popular browsers.
Standards proponents point to several stumbling blocks beyond Web authors,
including nonstandard extras included as part of IE and widespread use of
nonstandard automated authoring tools from companies such as Adobe Systems.
Even though all the major browsers are considered to be up to snuff on
standards compliance, some Web authors still find it easier to code
directly to IE - and test only with IE - rather than to open standards.
In many cases, that means using nonstandard extras that Microsoft offers.
Mozilla.org, the open-source group that Netscape formed in 1998 to develop
its browser, called those proprietary extras the legacy of Microsoft's
maneuvers to become the leader in the browser market.
"The market power of IE, gained through illegal use of Microsoft's
monopoly, means that Web developers find it convenient to use IE's
proprietary extensions," said Mitchell Baker, who carries the whimsical
title of chief lizard wrangler at Mozilla.org. "We do encourage Web
developers to look to Web standards and to move away from proprietary
extensions."
Opera took a similar tack, laying blame at the feet of both Microsoft and
Web developers.
"I'm not going to put all the blame on Microsoft, though they do deserve
some," Lie said. "The focus should really be on authors. They really need
to test their pages. And maybe some of them have to adjust their ambitions
slightly. If you try to do the very advanced, flashy stuff, you typically
will get a page that will not operate with all browsers."
Now that so many of the Web's pages are coded by automated authoring tools,
rather than by hand, much of the onus of standards-compliance has fallen to
the vendors of authoring tools: Macromedia, Adobe and Microsoft.
The push to make authoring tools produce standards-compliant code runs up
against the formidable obstacle that many Web surfers are using outdated,
non-compliant browsers. If the authoring tool codes strictly to standards,
it will lock out those legacy browsers.
And while Web authors may be more defensive than they used to be, some Web
sites are still claiming that buggy browsers - even new ones - are
preventing them from welcoming all comers.
"What we want to do is write once and have it work with everything," said
Russ Sanon, senior manager forqu ality-assurance engineering at Shutterfly.
"But it falls onto the lap ofth e individual browser manufacturer. There's
nothing that we do that's proripetary. Everything that we write should work
with W3C-complaint specs."
Some warn that while coding to IE may pay off in the short term, it could
cost sites if the long-predicted shift to non-PC Web borwsers transpires.
New W3C recommendations, particularly the HTML successor XHTML, are
written to help Web authors accommodate the limited rendering capabilities
of cell phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants). In many cases, this
involves creating relatively automated ways of serving slimmed-down pages
to small devices while showing full-featured pages in desktop browsers.
"If things are not built accordin tgo standards, you run the risk of having
to do that content engineerig nall over again if you move to other
devices," said W3C's Daly. "If ouy use a black-box proprietary format that
doesn't port over to a handheld, then what? That's a strong business case
for standards compliance."
But others continue to ousnd a more community-minded alarm, calling the
persistent gap between tasndards and practice a threat to the Web's open
character.
"What were' seeing with Web sites that are viewable only with IE is the
privatization of the Web," aisd Mozilla's Baker. "And that's a dangerous
setting. We're moving toarwd a world where all the capabilities of the
Internet are reprocesed sthrough a single filter, with Microsoft's
business plan behind it."
Tech Pioneer's Death Called Suicide
A pioneer of the technology that took Internet file-sharing far beyond
Napster, Gene Kan became something of an unofficial spokesman for one of
the hottest software developments to survive the Internet boom.
On Tuesday, the 25-year-old Kan was mourned by colleagues after being
found dead of what authorities said was an apparently self-inflicted
gunshot wound.
Sue Turner of the San Mateo County medical examiner's office said Kan's
body was found July 2 at his home in Belmont, about 20 miles south of San
Francisco. Turner said that the death would likely be ruled a suicide.
A peer-to-peer network is one where each computer can share files and
often peripheral devices with other computers. There is no central server
that can interrupt communications between all of the peer computers on the
network.
The Gnutella protocol - a set of computer instructions for a peered network
- was first posted on the Internet by Nullsoft, a software company owned by
AOL Time Warner. Kan got his hands on a downloaded version of Gnutella and
began, along with other developers, to fashion it into a user-friendly
interface with various improvements on the performance of the software.
Kan quickly became the outspoken, lead proponent for the further
development of Gnutella-based applications.
Gnutella came along as Shawn Fanning's Napster program became mired in
lawsuits by the recording industry. Kan and a small clutch of developers
honed the Gnutella protocol so that programmers around the world could
make their own home-brewed computer applications - each speaking the same
language and capable of pointing users to shared music, video and software
files.
The main difference between the Gnutella network and other file-sharing
programs was a crucial one. Gnutella has no company to sue or central
servers to shut down with a court injunction.
"There is no head to the Gnutella dragon," Kan told The Associated Press
in 2000. After that interview, Kan quickly became the ad hoc spokesman for
Gnutella's development during file-swapping debates surrounding Napster.
Kan acknowledged that some unauthorized files were being traded via the
Gnutella network.
"How users make use of it, I hate to say it's not our problem, but it
really isn't," Kan said.
The simple Gnutella protocol spawned a legion of file-sharing programs that
remain popular today. The programs LimeWire, BearShare and Phex all make
use of the Gnutella engine.
"Gene was really good at communicating the technical merits of the
peer-to-peer approach," said author and entrepreneur Cory Doctorow, who
took part in many panel discussions with Kan.
Doctorow said Kan's personality recently began to take on a tone of
depression and described his colleague as "dour."
In June 2000, Kan co-founded Burlingame-based InfraSearch Inc., a
peer-to-peer search engine technology company.
A statement released Monday by his employer, Sun Microsystems Inc., said
Kan died as the result of an accident and that no further details of his
death were being released at the request of his family.
Sun spokeswoman Carrie Motamedi said Kan had been working on advanced
computing projects for Sun.
"Clearly everyone feels that we've lost a valued employee and trusted
friend and colleague that we'll miss greatly," Motamedi said.
Judge OKs Suit Against Kazaa Parent
A federal judge said Monday that record labels and film studios could
expand an ongoing copyright lawsuit to include Sharman Networks, which
distributes the popular Kazaa software.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA) sued three prominent file-swapping companies
in October in Los Angeles federal court. The suit named Morpheus parent
StreamCast Networks, Grokster and Kazaa BV, the Netherlands-based company
that originally created the Kazaa software.
But in February, Kazaa BV sold the Kazaa file-swapping software to Sharman,
a company later revealed to be based for tax reasons in Vanuatu, a small
island in the South Pacific. The recording and movie industry trade groups
asked permission to add that company to the lawsuit in June.
In court Monday, Judge Stephen Wilson said he would allow Sharman to be
added to the lawsuit. A written version of the ruling, required before the
MPAA or RIAA can take any action, was not immediately available.
Sharman said the company had not yet seen a written order but that it was
confident its technology would survive any court challenge.
"Sharman's fundamental belief is that the distribution of the Kazaa Media
Desktop is not only legal but also one of the most important drivers of the
future of peer-to-peer technology," the company said in a statement. "We
are confident that our legal position will be vindicated by the court."
The case against StreamCast, Grokster and now Sharman is viewed by many in
the legal community as the best chance to establish a legal defense for
peer-to-peer technology. Unlike Napster, those companies do not maintain
central servers that help link file swappers. The companies themselves
simply distribute the software used by file traders and contend that this
should shield them from legal liability.
A long case could drain the small companies' resources, however. Already
the Netherlands-based Kazaa BV has indicated it does not have the resources
to continue the legal fight, and StreamCast's original attorney withdrew
from the case after the company indicated it couldn't afford to pay him.
Judge: See Ya Later, Gator
A federal judge on Friday ordered software company Gator to temporarily
stop displaying pop-up advertising over Web publishers' pages without
their permission.
The order was issued in a lawsuit filed against Gator in June by The
Washington Post, The New York Times, Dow Jones and seven other publishers,
which allege the company's ads violate their copyrights and steal revenue.
On Friday, Judge Claude Hilton granted the motion, according to the
clerk's office at the federal court in Alexandria, Va., where the suit was
filed.
The companies had sought a temporary injunction against Gator preventing
it from delivering ads keyed to their sites pending the resolution of the
suit, in which they are seeking a permanent injunction against the company
and monetary damages for any advertising dollars made from their Web
pages.
Terence Ross, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the judge quickly granted
the motion, prohibiting Gator "from tampering with the 16 Web sites
involved in the litigation during the pendency of the case.
"This really is a clear-cut case in my opinion; Gator is infringing our
copyrights and trademarks. The judge came to that conclusion, and a jury
will make the same decision in a trial."
By delivering unauthorized pop-up ads, Gator is altering the intended
display of the publishers' works, a right that has been recognized by the
Supreme Court, Ross has argued.
In early August the judge will set a court schedule, and the case will go
to trial before the end of the year, Ross said.
In statement issued Friday, Redwood City, Calif.-based Gator said that it
would honor the judge's request but asked for an expedited trial.
"We are highly confident that once all the facts are presented in the
upcoming trial - no court will issue a ruling eliminating a consumers'
right to decide for themselves what is displayed on their own computer
screens," Gator CEO Jeff McFadden said in the statement.
"Such a ruling would attack a consumer's right to use hundreds of popular
software applications that automatically display separate windows while
the consumer is surfing the Internet."
Gator develops software that manages passwords and fills out forms for
about 10 million Web surfers who often download the application unwittingly
through other popular file-sharing programs. Also bundled in Gator's
software is a program called OfferCompanion, which monitors Web surfing
behavior and delivers targeted pop-up ads to viewers. For example, a Web
surfer may see an advertisement for Ford Motor - delivered by Gator - while
visiting Toyota.com.
Gator has been selling such advertising for more than a year and has
accumulated several top-tier advertisers including Target.com. According
to Ross, the plaintiffs were stirred to action after the company published
marketing material in April essentially promising ad buyers placement on
the Web sites of specific publications, including The New York Times.
According to the suit, Gator is "essentially a parasite on the Web that
free rides on the hard work and the investments of plaintiffs and other
Web site owners. In short, Gator sells advertising space on the plaintiffs'
Web sites without (their) authorization and pockets the profits from such
sales."
The decision does not bar Gator from delivering pop-up ads over other
sites. But it could establish a precedent that prohibits third-party
software operators from delivering ads that alter another Web page. It
also highlights mounting tension over tactics used by Gator and others.
Earlier this year, WeightWatchers.com sued rival DietWatch.com for using
Gator to deliver ads to visitors of its site. On June 11, a court granted
WeightWatchers a permanent injunction barring DietWatch from serving ads
on its site.
Last year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) criticized Gator for
selling banner ads that obscure those sold by online publishers. Gator
sued the IAB, alleging "malicious disparagement" over its statements, but
the two parties found common ground when Gator agreed to stop selling
banner overlays.
New Worm Eats Into Kazaa
The Kazaa file-swapping network has been hit by another worm, just months
after the first such attack, according to antivirus vendors. Antivirus
company Sophos said it had received several reports of the KWBot worm in
the wild. KWBot appears to be the second worm to hit the Kazaa network,
which fell prey to the Benjamin worm in May.
KWBot spreads in a similar way to Benjamin in that it alters Windows
registry keys and then disguises itself as files that are likely to prove
popular with file-swappers. It makes particular use of the names of movies
and applications. When first executed, the worm copies itself to the
Windows system folder as xplorer32.exe, said Sophos. It will then create
two registry entries so that the copy is run each time Windows is started.
The worm may also allow attackers to gain control of an infected computer
using commands transmitted over Internet Relay Chat, said Sophos.
Kazaa is not the only file-swapping network to have been targeted by virus
writers. The Gnutella file-swapping network was hit by a proof-of-concept
worm in February.
There have also been threats from other quarters. In April, a bug was
found in the popular Winamp software for playing digital music files. The
bug could allow an attacker to embed malicious code into an MP3 file,
potentially damaging the user's PC and infecting other MP3s.
In addition, the music industry recently began planting "decoys" on free
peer-to-peer services in its fight against online piracy, according to
sources. This practice, known as "spoofing," entails the hiring of
companies to distribute "decoy" files that are empty or do not work in
order to frustrate would-be downloaders of movies and music.
Overpeer, a New York-based software firm funded by South Korea's SK Group,
is understood to be one of the firms helping the industry disguise online
files to thwart unauthorized swapping.
Examples of filenames used by the KWBot worm are:
* Star Wars Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones VCD CD1.exe
* Spiderman The Movie - The Game.exe
* Grand Theft Auto 3 CD1 ISO.exe
* ZoneAlarm Firewall Pro.exe
* Windows XP ( news - web sites) Professional iso.exe
* Unreal Tournament cracked (works on all servers).exe
* University Study Guide (cheat sheet).exe
* Quicken ( news - web sites) Pro 2002 iso.exe
* Perl Ultimate Study Guide.exe
* Office XP Corporate Ed. iso.exe
* Norton Utilities 2002.exe
* Microsoft Visual C++ 7.0 iso.exe
* MCSE Ultimate Study Guide.exe
* Max Payne full iso.exe
* Macromedia Flash 5.exe
* Kazaa Advertisement Ad remover.exe
* DSL Anonymizer.exe
* DoS Attacker.exe
* DivX Codec 6.0 beta (codec only).exe
* Credit Card number generator VERIFIER (cc cc#).exe
* cows gone wild.exe
* 100 XXX Passwords (verified 3-24-02).exe
Sophos has a virus identity file that includes a fix for the KWBot virus
here.
New Web ID Standards to Be Unveiled
An industry coalition is set to unveil standards for identity
authentication on the Internet, the first step toward making the task of
remembering long lists of Web site passwords a thing of the past.
The Liberty Alliance, which includes companies like Sun Microsystems,
Sony, American Express, Mastercard and Bank of America, plans to release
the details Monday.
The standard is designed to make it easy to log into different systems -
from making online purchases to checking bank or credit card accounts -
while making different authentication systems speak the same language.
That realm is currently dominated by Microsoft, whose Passport system runs
on about 200 Web sites.
"The promise of electronic commerce has not been delivered on," said
United Airlines chief information officer Eric Dean, who also serves as
the head of the group's management board. "There are huge possibilities."
Privacy advocates, however, say the creation of a single identification
standard will make it easier for businesses to profile Internet users for
marketing purposes.
"They want identification data to find new marketing avenues," said Chris
Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information
Center. "What it means for the individual is more spam, more direct mail,
more telemarketing."
Hoofnagle said a single Internet ID also will place individual financial
data at greater risk for disclosure over the Internet.
"It's like using the same key for your house and your car and your safe
deposit box," he said. "Compromise that one key and all the golden eggs
are compromised."
Dean said Liberty Alliance is starting small. Users will be able to choose
to "link" different accounts, so Mastercard.com will be able to identify
the same user that visits United.com, without having to type in another
password.
More robust features, like a detailed profile that contains the user's
address and phone number to be shared with all the Liberty-enabled sites,
will come later. Dean said the slow ramp-up is designed so Web site
developers can start using it within months.
"We can extend United.com to do this without having to launch a rocket to
the moon," Dean said.
It has been almost a year since Liberty Alliance was announced. Without
any real product or service to speak of, most of the attention has focused
on friction between Liberty members and Microsoft.
During Microsoft's antitrust penalty hearings in April, Microsoft lawyers
derided Liberty's name as an attack on Microsoft. They said it means
"liberty from Microsoft hegemony." While testifying against Microsoft,
Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems's top Liberty representative, called
that interpretation of the name "paranoid."
Microsoft and Liberty members have discussed Microsoft joining the
alliance, but no deal has been struck.
Microsoft has not yet seen the Liberty standard. While Microsoft said it
agrees a single Internet ID standard is a good idea, it wants Liberty to
use Microsoft's Passport system.
"We are not distracted by Liberty versus Passport battles," Microsoft
spokesman Adam Sohn said in a statement. "We are instead focused on
answering broader customer demand for security in the Web services
environment."
Dean downplayed Liberty's disagreements with Microsoft, including the idea
that Microsoft may join Liberty only to co-opt and change the standards
for its own purposes. Several critics, including Liberty members Sun and
AOL Time Warner, have said Microsoft has done that to other technology
standards, essentially "breaking" them so competing products don't work as
well as Microsoft's.
"There were some concerns about that at the beginning," Dean said. "We
have not talked about that much in the past six months."
=~=~=~=
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