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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 34
Volume 6, Issue 34 Atari Online News, Etc. August 20, 2004
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2004
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:
Mark Duckworth
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0634 08/20/04
~ Two P2Ps Are Cleared! ~ People Are Talking! ~ E-Mail Rejections!
~ Netscape Gets Update! ~ Web Political Satire! ~ New GIM Due Soon!
~ Jaws, Play the Shark! ~ PC Just for Teenagers! ~ Hacking Contest!
~ Hackers, Spammers Join ~ Learning Phishing 123! ~ Ghosthunter Ships!
-* Web Guide To Athens Olympics *-
-* Dot-Coms Get Back Into the IPO Game *-
-* More Than Half of Web Users Go Broadband! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
While the Southeast got hammered last week by hurricanes Bonnie and Charley,
we here in the Northeast were barely affected. I'm always amazed at what
these storms are capable of doing; and there's very little that we can do
about them except to try and prepare for the worst.
I don't know about you, but I've been glued to my television and catching
updates on the internet to keep up with what is going on in Athens, at the
Olympics. Because of the time difference, what I see on television is
usually an event that has been taped and rebroadcast at a "normal" viewing
hour. Or, the events are taking place while I'm at work and don't have
access to a television set. Occasionally checking out scores and results on
the web keeps me tuned in to what's happening. It's been great.
It's phenomenal at what these Olympics, and their predecessors really
portray. Yes, it's true, they are a true test of athletic ability. But if
you really think about it, these olympics accomplish something even more
far-reaching - the ability of people of different colors, religions,
cultures, and politics to get together and compete in an athletic arena.
Yes, there are exceptions like everything else in life. But, for a couple
of weeks at least, these sporting events and the tremendous sportsmanship and
comraderie take center stage. Just watching the opening ceremonies, with
all of the various representative countries with their proud athletes
marching into the arena was awe-inspiring. The leaders of the world should
take some notes, and learn a thing or two from these athletes. The world
would be a better place, if they did.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
GIM 0.3a Due Soon!
Hello folks,
Just thought I'd post a little teaser about the up and coming gim 0.3a.
A lot of stuff has been done! Proportional fonts, and ability to change
fonts on any area, you can click on a buddy in the buddy list to start a
conversation, configuration changes are saved to disk using a poor method
that will be fixed eventually ;-), I killed off the disclaimer and made
some rsc changes, and made a slew of code cleanups. But I am not going to
release until it is more useable still. I also want to make a thorough
evaluation of the code and find out how to kill ALL of the libfaim debug
code so it stops littering your consoles!
Lots more work and some screenshots to come. Things are very cool since
0.2a and I find myself using GIM more and more to hold real conversations.
You haven't heard a lot out of me lately and it's primarily due to my CT60
falcon being unstable. Well the problem was my own in overclocking
without proper cooling. 50C is too hot for an 060! 45C is probably the
highest you can stably go (at least on mine). When I get my water cooling
rig, I'll crank it right back up there, but at least for now I have a
stable falcon ;-)
Take care and have a safe summer everyone, and to the 1, perhaps 2, GIM
users out there, I salute you ;-)
Thanks,
Mark
http://portal.atari-source.com
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, life just keeps getting more
interesting every time I turn around. You'd think that by now I'd have
learned to NOT turn around. <grin>
I've been working second shift this week, and it's really starting to
tick off my system. It's one of those deals where it's not going to be
in effect long enough for me to get accustomed to it, but long enough
for it to really get on my nerves.
I know people who've worked second or third shift for years and they've
become accustomed to it... some of them actually like it. It frees up
their days for other things. As for me, it's just another thing I've got
to work around until the next thing I'll have to work around shows up.
Life is change, I guess.
Well, let's get to the news and STuff from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Rene Kint asks about one of my LEAST favorite subjects... SCSI
termination:
"Next friday I am about to pick up two SCSI drives of 2.15GB each. The
goal is to put one of them in my MegaSTE.
I have a question about the SCSI termination, though. Should the drive
terminate the SCSI bus or not? I read somewhere that making the wrong
decision about this on the feeble SCSI interface of the MegaSTE can fry
the controller...so I better be safe than sorry."
Brian Roland tells Rene:
"Check your host....
If you have the same one that is in the STacy (HARD DISK CONTROLLER
C103561-001), for internal drives, it will only run 2 SCSI I compliant
devices.
As it turns out, the STacy and the Mega ST/e, as I understand it, have
the same provision for an internal SCSI drive. Those who got a Factory
Spec Mega STe with an internal SCSI drive, most likely have the same
host used in the STacy.
If this is your case DO NOT run a standard Daisy terminated SCSI chain.
Find the DIY for how to make a a STacy controller run 2 drives. You will
most likely leave all the drives unterminated and use a very short
hacked up cable. Reason being...with this Controller, you are using one
DMA channel and two LUN IDs....hence the hacked cable. You'll need to
make sure parity is disabled on the drives...OR...hack in a parity
generator chip (Also in Stacy DIY files). This controller can indeed run
the Barracuda 1.2gig 50 pin SCSI II drives, just not the entire capacity
of it (close to 1gig). I'm not sure about the UW SCSI II/III units, but
with the proper adaptor it shouldn't be a problem.
If you have a true Micro SCSI controller, such as the ICD board, or the
Link 96/97-internal, then simply follow the standard SCSI rules. Up to
6 devices (the host itself is 7) and only terminate the last device.
The Link 97 hosts are likely the best...they can see large capacity
drives, support parity, and in some cases even provide the Term Power if
needed.
If all else fails, order a Link type host, plug it on the DMA port, and
loop it back inside the case :) Really good internal hosts for the
Mega ST/e or STacy are very very difficult to find these days.
Good luck!
P.S.
If you do have this controller in your STe:
Atari HARD DISK CONTROLLER C103561-001
You can hook ONE of the Barracuda drives as follows:
Set drive jumper to: Parity Disable
Get Term Power From Drive (Do NOT send any term power, do not expect to
find it on the bus) Drive ID 0 (This is a must)
Leave the drive UNTERMINATED...if you've set the Get Term Power jumper
correctly, then a terminated drive should be safe...If for some odd
reason your Barracuda drive insists on pumping out the 5v term power,
make SURE this drive is NOT TERMINATED.
Use a very short 50pin ribbon cable with SCSI connectors on both ends.
Plug it in, and you should be good to go!
Connecting a second drive requires the same jumper settings, but you'll
need to build your own cable with some wires twisted."
Rene replies:
"I do have the 103561-001 controller, and I will connect only 1 Hawk SCSI
drive (this is not a Barracuda, it is a Hawk :-) .
So, only 2 jumpers would be needed: "Parity Disable" and "TP from drive",
as I can see from your story.
Still, I do not understand why the Atari controller doesn't need the
"Term enable" jumper. Can you explain this to me in layman's language
please :-)
One problem still exists, though: I do not have the right
jumpers....these are very small flat jumpers on this Seagate 32151N
drives...anyone out there who has some spare mini-jumpers?"
Brian tells Rene:
"I'm guessing here:
The host being used isn't prepared to terminate the 5v line (I forget
exactly which pin this is, I'm 'guessing' it's 25).
I could be very wrong about this...but it might be that if you make
double sure your drive is NOT providing term power, or even physically
bend down that pin on the host, or even snip that one wire in the ribbon
cable, things might be safe with the other lines terminated.
Please don't take my word on this! I just recall reading somewhere NOT
to terminate the drive in a STacy...and use as short a cable as
possible. Exactly where the possible overload comes from...I'm not
sure."
Michael Schwingen tells Brian:
"The problem is *not* TERMPWR, but termination, which are two distinct
matters.
The drivers used on the MegaSTE host adapter do not have enough drive
strength to drive a SCSI bus that is correctly terminated. It can
(without modification) only handle a short cable with one drive
attached, and that drive may not be terminated in order not to overload
the ICs on the HA.
Furthermore, the HA does not provide parity, so you have to disable
parity checking on the disk drive. All considered, it looks like Atari
took some shortcuts - this is definitely not a "SCSI host adaptor" (which
would mean is is fully compliant with the SCSI spec), but rather
something that allows to attach *some* types of SCSI drives."
Rene scratches his head for a moment and then tells Michael:
"OK, now I am getting confused :-)
I have the following jumpers on the ST-32151N (Seagate) to put in my
MegaSTE:
TP to Bus
TP from Drive
Reserved
Parity Disable
Write Protect
Motor Start Enable
Delay Motor Start
Term Enable
So, now the $1000 question: where should I place jumpers?
TP from drive is stated as being jumpered default. But, as already
stated, this is not your average SCSI controller, so....
I am very interested in your replies...!"
Jim DeClercq jumps in and tells Rene:
"Well, if you are not going to do any termination, none of those are
jumpered. Term power to bus is not connected to the bus. The motor
jumpers interfere with a drive spinning up when power is supplied, so
leave those alone.
Possibly you jumper Parity Disable. Should do no practical harm to do
that. I suspect that parity is ignored anyway, so it really does not
matter.
I suspect the bus power line is pin 26, but you do not need to bother
about that unless you really want to wire up power to the bus. It does
not look easy to do that.
In summary, should work with none of the below jumpered."
Matthias Arndt posts this little notice:
"I've started a tutorial project with doing an GFABASIC tutorial for
beginners. It is aimed at people without prior knowledge in programming
and it will teach how to program and use GFABASIC on Atari ST computers.
Planned chapters include variables and data types, loops and control
flow, modularization, graphics, file i/o and probably memory management.
It is work in progress and additions will come chapterwise.
It comes currently as a web page and I don't plan to add a fancy site
around it. I'll probably offer it for download as chunks with one
chapter at a time.
Check http://home.tu-clausthal.de/~ifmar/gfabasic/
Feedback is of course welcome.'
Facundo Arena tells Matthias:
"Great idea!! I'm starting to write some things on GFABasic and I find
it very hard to find manuals and tutorials for taking the most of the
st hardware from GFA... thanks for your work and I'll be one of your
students!!!"
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in again next week, same time,
same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Hot Shots Golf Fore!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Ghosthunter Ships!
Play 'Jaws' As Shark!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Ghosthunter Ships For Playstation 2
Sometimes the undead just won't rest in peace. Leading video games
developer and publisher Namco Hometek Inc. announced this week that
Ghosthunter, the dark and atmospheric third-person action-adventure game
available exclusively for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system,
has begun shipping to retail stores nationwide.
A routine disturbance call. A startling discovery. A catastrophe of
supernatural proportions. During a late night patrol, rookie Detroit cop
Lazarus Jones and his partner Anna Steele stumble across the ghost research
laboratory of Professor Peter Richmond. Lazarus unintentionally releases a
legion of ghosts and spirits that begin to wreak havoc around the world
while a malevolent spirit abducts Anna. Armed with second sight and an
arsenal of weapons and gadgets, the idealistic cop is forced to take on the
entire spirit realm in hopes of finding his partner - and saving the world.
"For those craving a creepy, yet humorous action-adventure game,
Ghosthunter certainly delivers," said Rod Nakamoto, Executive Vice
President of Research and Development. "Not only must gamers rely on
strategy and puzzle-solving, but they must be prepared to test their
stamina and go head-to-head, weapons blazing."
Developed by the award winning SCEE Studio Cambridge, Ghosthunter's blend
of action-adventure third-person shooter gameplay and dark humor has
players battling vengeful spirits, horrific apparitions, demonic children,
and freakish phantoms. Equipped with a selection of high-tech weaponry and
gadgets specially designed for hunting and capturing ghosts, players will
experience diverse cinematic locations in haunted versions of famous
places, including an "Alcatraz"-like prison, a "Titanic"-like sunken ship,
a "Deliverance"-style backcountry and an "Area 51"-like military base.
Ghosthunter is rated T for Teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings
Board (ESRB) and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.
PlayStation2 Fans Tee-Off Online With Players Across the Nation as
Popular Worldwide Golf Franchise Returns With Hot Shots Golf Fore!
Sony Computer Entertainment America announced the release of Hot Shots Golf
FORE!, created exclusively for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment
system. Developed by Clap Hanz in conjunction with SCEA Santa Monica
Studios, Hot Shots Golf FORE! returns as the fourth installment in the
extremely popular franchise that helped bring interest in golf indoors, and
sold more than 7.5 million units worldwide in the process. Hot Shots Golf
FORE! offers unique online gameplay via the Network Adaptor
(Ethernet/modem) (for PlayStation2) that allows players to share the course
with thousands of others in head-to-head play and real-time tournaments, as
well as providing a robust offline mode for up to four players.
Delivering the familiar fast-paced gameplay that fans of the franchise have
grown to love, Hot Shots Golf FORE! includes breathtaking graphics and
true-to-life golf physics that includes more golfers and caddies than ever
before - 34 in all featuring new off-the-wall characters, returning
favorites and popular PlayStation 2 characters including Jak, Daxter,
Ratchet and Clank. During gameplay, players can enjoy a variety of 15
different courses, ranging from challenging 18-hole layouts to demanding
par three executive courses. Miniature golf also returns to the franchise
adding more variety to the gameplay.
"Hot Shots Golf FORE! provides a truly entertaining golfing experience with
brilliant graphics, dramatic camera angles and fast-paced arcade, style
gameplay. The intuitive controls and adjustable difficulty settings will
entice even the most serious golf fanatics into endless hours of gameplay,"
said Ami Blaire, director, product marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment
America. "From the wacky antics of the new characters to the challenging
new courses and online gameplay, this is a game that all PlayStation 2 fans
will embrace and enjoy."
Hot Shots Golf FORE! features touch-sensitive controls that demand careful
consideration to golf's many variables, such as wind, ball lie and course
elevation. In addition, players can test their golf skills in several
different modes including Tour, Tournament, Versus (VS) Mode, Training, and
online play. "Hot Shots Points" is also back where players redeem points
to unlock more prizes than before including advanced golf equipment, new
courses, characters, and tons of wacky golf gadgets.
For the first-time in the history of the franchise, the online gameplay
experience includes a comprehensive line-up of features allowing players to
access a new online community with a single username and password when they
connect using a broadband connection. Once online, players have access to
online tournaments, message boards, universal rankings, while enjoying the
unique camaraderie of the new Hot Shots Golf community.
The independent Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has rated Hot
Shots Golf FORE! "E" for Everyone.
New 'Jaws' Game Lets You Play As Shark
A new video game will show that it's easier to be a bad shark than a good
shark. Majesco Games is working on a playable version of the movie "Jaws,"
with the gamer controlling a predatory Great White as it cruises the ocean
waters.
The game is in the early stages of development, with a release planned for
summer 2005.
To stay alive the shark must feed, and the game provides a smorgasbord of
human appetizers: fishermen, water-polluting oil riggers and your average
swimmer in the surf.
"If you just swim around forever you're going to get hungry. If you don't
keep feeding that frenzy, that's how you die in the game," said Liz
Buckley, a product manager at Majesco who is working on the "Jaws" title.
"I don't know if you're going to have these moral choices, 'Do I want to
eat this person or this person?' You have to keep eating."
But there will also be an array of natural sea creatures to satisfy the
shark's hunger. You can choose to be good by eating seals, fish and other
natural food sources.
"Everything you see on the Discovery Channel we're bringing into this
product," Buckley said.
Or you can devour peaceful divers and beach lovers as they wade in the
water or leap into the air to snatch poachers off of piers. Leaving the
humans alone will make it hard to survive.
The story will be free-roaming for the player and will unfold around the
same beach locations as Steven Spielberg's 1975 movie.
But it won't feature Roy Scheider's police chief or Richard Dreyfuss as the
oceanographer. Instead, the main humans in the game will be the children of
those characters, Buckley added.
"Jaws" will be available on PlayStation 2 and PC formats, and the
developers are aiming for an M (mature) rating. This won't be a kid's game.
The human characters all have "25 points of disconnection," she said.
What's that mean?
"If there's a diver," Buckley said, "there are 25 different ways you can
pull him apart."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Web Guide to Athens Olympics
If you're hungry for updates on the hundreds of athletes from around the
world who are competing at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 11 through
29, look no further than the Internet. We've scoured the Web and come up
with the must-visit sites for Olympics junkies.
Athens: The Official Site
The official Athens 2004 Web site is packed with information about the
Olympiad. In addition to the latest news and athlete quotes from press
conferences and the like, you can find specifics about the different
events, a complete event schedule and competitor start lists, and results.
A separate section is devoted to the different venues, and provides
information for people traveling to Athens to attend the competition.
Olympic TV
Sure, the official NBC Olympics site is filled with frustrating pop-ups and
annoying ads that take over your computer screen. But it also is terrific
repository of information about the Games, ranging from TV schedules
(although the HDTV broadcast schedule is woefully devoid of detail) to
streaming video from practices, primers on the different events, and
opinions from the network's expert commentators.
This is the site to check for photos and both original articles and reports
from sister site MSNBC.com. You'll also be able to watch streaming video of
events - but this feature is limited to U.S. residents only. You'll have to
give the first six digits of your credit card plus your ZIP code, so NBC
can verify your residency, before gaining access to the streaming video.
The BBC is also streaming live video coverage of the Olympics on its Web
site, but you have to live in the United Kingdom to take advantage of this
service.
Portals and Images
Most of the major Web news and sports portals, including Yahoo and Google,
have created sections to bring together Olympic-related news and results.
Not surprisingly, Yahoo's primary site is more biased towards American
athletes, although you can find news and photos of athletes of
non-Americans there as well. If you want a more international perspective,
you can scroll down Yahoo's main page for links to local coverage on its
sites in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, Brazil, Canada (French),
China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the U.K. and
Ireland.
Another great way to keep track on Olympic news is through the sports
section on Google News. It is constantly pulling in news reports from
thousands of Web sources so you can be pretty sure you're finding some of
the most up-to-date information available anywhere online.
Finally, if you're after images from the Games, stop by Getty Images'
Olympics section. Although images are intended for editorial use, you can
view watermarked images for free, and the site is quick about posting
images from events.
Local Eye on the Games
If you want a local perspective on the Games, then you might want to check
the Internet editions of some of Greece's newspapers. The national
Kathimerini newspaper has a good selection of local stories, from security
and transportation plans to a local ordinance allowing nonstop partying at
bars and clubs.
Some of the latest breaking news from the Olympics can also be found on the
Web site of the Athens News Agency and the Reporter news agency has a
strong focus on business and financial news.
The Other Olympics
The Games aren't the only Olympic event taking place in Athens this year.
About a month from now the Paralympic Games will get under way there, and
there's a section of the main site devoted to the event. It has much the
same content as that for the games that are about to begin, including a
competition schedule and information on the various sports.
You can learn more on the official Web site of the International Paralympic
Committee.
The Olympics' Past
The Olympic Games' history can be traced back to ancient times, in 776
B.C. - a long run that leaves plenty to learn and know about Olympic Games
of years past.
In addition to a historical section on the official Athens Web site, the
University of Pennsylvania has an interesting site that looks at previous
Games and attempts to find out if the Olympics were ever truly a less
commercial event filled with athletes who were pure in mind and body.
From Greece, the Foundation of the Hellenic World also looks into the past,
too, reaching as far back as the Athens Games of 1896.
Future Olympics
The events may still be several years away, but organizers of upcoming
Olympic Games are already online sharing some of their preparations and
promotions.
The Web sites offer a glimpse into the logistics and planning that go into
holding an event of Olympic proportions, such as the Beijing 2008 games and
its current competition to design the event mascot. You'll also find
information on the Vancouver 2010 games, including the plan for new venues
for some of the events.
At the Torino 2006 games' Web site, visitors can already fill in a form and
apply to become a volunteer to help at the games.
Netscape Updates Browser
After being written off by industry observers last year, America Online's
browser unit has showed signs of new life with the release of an update to
its Netscape Web browser.
Netscape Communications has released Netscape 7.2, the successor to the
aging version 7.1 released in mid-2003. The last major update was Netscape
7.0, two years ago. The new version, which has been expected since earlier
this year, is based on version 1.7 of Mozilla, the most recent version of
the Mozilla Internet application suite.
Improvements in the new Netscape Web browser over the earlier version
include tabbed Web browsing, improved print preview, and integrated AOL
Instant Messenger and ICQ, according to Netscape. It is downloadable free
of charge from Netscape. Netscape 7.2 is available for Windows, Apple's
Mac OS X, and Linux.
Analysts had said the death knell was sounding for the Netscape browser
after AOL last year laid off essentially all of its Netscape software
developers and ended development work on the Mozilla browser technology.
Development work was taken over by the Mozilla open source project, which
was originally started in 1998 by Netscape and continued when AOL acquired
Netscape later that year. Last year, the people behind Mozilla created a
foundation, largely funded by a $2 million pledge from AOL, to build,
support, and promote Mozilla products.
While it has been quiet on the Netscape browser front, AOL has not retired
the Netscape brand, which it acquired six years ago in a $4.2 billion deal.
AOL is testing a new Netscape Desktop Navigator product and in January
launched the Netscape Internet service, a low-cost Internet service
provider.
Netscape was the most popular browser in the early years of the Web.
However, its market share started crumbling when Microsoft introduced
Internet Explorer in the mid-1990s. The acquisition of Netscape by
Microsoft rival AOL and a lengthy antitrust trial could not change the
browser's fortune.
IE lost some market share this year as a result of several highly
publicized security vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Web browser. However,
IE continues to be, by far, the most widely used browser with around 95
percent market share, according to Web tracking company WebSideStory.
Dot-Coms Get Back in IPO Game
The successful bidders for Google shares won't be the only ones watching
eagerly to see how much the IPO excites the stock market. Dozens of dot-com
companies are hoping that Google's initial public offering marks a
reawakening of all things Internet.
In the months since Google announced it would sell stock to the public,
more than 150 companies have said they plan IPOs, despite the rocky economy
and slumping stock market. Others, with names like Kelkoo SA and
Advertising.com Inc., are opting to sell themselves to bigger companies
offering huge wads of cash.
Like a flashback to 1999, a Boston man recently pocketed $2.75 million for
selling rights to a Web address - www.creditcards.com - to a company called
Click Success LP. IPO shares in Internet software pioneer Salesforce.com
Inc. soared 56 percent on the first day of trading.
Although Google and Salesforce.com report healthy profit, the list of
money-losing technology companies hoping to ride Google's coattails is
quite long. PlanetOut Inc., a Web service for gays; ZipRealty Inc., an
online real estate service; WebSideStory Inc., a site traffic analyst; and
SmartBargains Inc., an Internet liquidator, are among the nearly two dozen
Internet businesses that have never had a profitable year but nevertheless
have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell shares to
the public.
"It's buyer beware," said Sal Morrealle, an analyst for the brokerage firm
Cantor Fitzgerald LP in Los Angeles.
Peter S. Fader, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, said some companies treat their IPOs more like a marketing
opportunity than a capital-raising exercise. Buying these stocks "is no
different than betting on what the temperature is going to be in Tuscaloosa
tomorrow," he said.
The flood of activity comes partly from venture capitalists stirring again,
including those trying to recoup a portion of the billions of dollars they
lost when the Internet bubble burst in 2000, analysts say. Many used their
remaining money to nurse Web survivors during the past four years, when
investors largely shunned Internet stocks, and now they are pushing to take
those companies public. They're making plenty of new bets, too. Venture
funds spent $10.6 billion in new investments in the first six months of
this year, up from $8.9 billion over the same period last year.
Investors are "picking up the rubble of the dot-bomb and putting some good
pieces back together," said Crawford Del Prete, senior vice president for
research at IDC, a technology research firm.
Some venture investors have been able to cash out as bigger companies line
up to buy the smaller companies they had backed.
Just in the past few weeks, South Korea's top Web site operator, Daum
Communications Corp., said it would fork over $95 million to acquire the
American Web sites of Terra Lycos SA. Viacom Inc. vowed to pay $46 million
for the part of Sportsline.com it did not already own. International
Business Machines Corp. bought software maker Cyanea Systems Corp., and
America Online Inc. bought anti-spam vendor Mailblocks Inc.
In one of this year's biggest Internet takeovers, Yahoo paid $579 million
in cash for Kelkoo, a comparison-shopping Web site based in Paris. And
America Online plunked down $435 million to buy Baltimore-based
Advertising.com, which had filed for a stock offering.
The IPO market also started the year strong, though it has cooled markedly
in the past few weeks. So far this year, 146 U.S. companies have sold
initial shares to the public, more than the total for all of 2003,
according to Thomson Financial. Although 200 more have registered to sell
shares, at least 11 companies recently pulled back from those plans, citing
the lousy stock market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index is off 10
percent for the year.
Most of the companies that have launched IPOs this year are small but
sturdy companies created before the market crash in 2001. "These are
companies with good revenue curves and profitability as a general rule,"
said David Menlow, president of IPO Financial Network, which analyzes
public offerings.
But, he said, "that doesn't mean that a couple of deals cannot ride on the
coattails."
WPT Enterprises Inc., a reality TV company that produces sports-style
coverage of poker games, sold its first shares to the public last week even
though it is just two years old, has 10 employees and lost almost $500,000
last year. Company officials declined to comment.
Another money-losing company aiming to go public is Odimo Inc., an online
jewelry vendor run by a married couple whose previous job was producing
infomercials for psychic hotlines.
Andrew Miller, the Boston entrepreneur whose company, Deal Jam LLC,
recently sold the Creditcards.com name to Click Success, is hoping the
Odimo IPO comes off. That's because in 2000 he sold the Web address
www.diamond.comto Sunrise, Fla.-based Odimo for some cash and shares of the
company.
"They were six days from an IPO when we sold the name to them," Miller
said. Odimo pulled the earlier offering when the market went south; Miller
has been sitting on his shares ever since.
Odimo sells high-end watches, handbags and diamonds from its Web sites,
including Diamond.com, Ashford.com and WorldofWatches.com. Industry
analysts estimate the market for luxury goods sold online is $2 billion a
year. Still, Odimo lost $11.6 million in 2003 on sales of $41.7 million.
That is not the only item in Odimo's regulatory filings to raise eyebrows.
Among the risks Odimo disclosed was that it may "inadvertently sell
counterfeit or stolen goods" because it acquires most of its watches and
luxury goods through the gray market, rather than from manufacturers or
authorized distributors. Handbag designer Prada SA sued the company in
March, accusing it of selling counterfeit wares.
Odimo officials declined to comment.
For some, not even Google's coattails are enough to ensure a successful
public debut. One that cut and ran last week was MatchNet PLC, a
money-losing Internet dating service that withdrew its IPO filing and
announced that its chief executive had quit.
The company had already disclosed that it faced management challenges. The
departing chief executive took over only a few months ago, and the company
has no chief financial officer, controller or general counsel.
Based in Beverley Hills, MatchNet runs online dating services, including
AmericanSingles.com, a general matchmaking site, and JDate.com, for Jewish
people. Like many start-ups, it lays claim to a huge market: the 86 million
single adults "who are looking to meet a companion," it told the SEC. But
so far, MatchNet has signed up only 235,000 as paying subscribers.
At least another dozen money-losing technology companies have filed to go
public. They include District-based InPhonic Inc., which lost $44.3 million
last year selling wireless services over the Internet; Seven Networks Inc.
of Redwood City, Calif., which lost $12.9 million selling software to cell
phone carriers; PortalPlayer Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., which lost $8
million selling electronics that run portable music players; and Jamdat
Mobile Inc., which lost $7.1 million making bowling games and other
entertainment for cell phones.
Del Prete of IDC said today's IPO market is more rational than the
"intoxicating" one of the 1990s. Companies like Jamdat are salvaging valid
ideas that emerged from the boom, using technologies that have matured, he
said.
Richard J. Peterson, chief strategist at Thomson Financial, which tracks
IPO data, was more circumspect. "IPOs always have a high mortality rate,"
he said. "That is why there are all those warnings."
Hackers and Spammers Join Forces
Increasingly, the antivirus community has been noticing a disconcerting
trend: the teamwork between virus writers and mercenary-minded spammers.
The best - certainly the most ubiquitous - example of fraudulent activity
on the Internet are the scams known as "phishing." Sent to the unwary via
e-mail, these mass mailings are scripted to look like messages sent from a
financial institution or well-known Web site, such as eBay. They are
basically lures to get people to hand over their financial data.
However, some antivirus firms are coming to the conclusion that there is a
far greater degree of collaboration between spammers - at least, the
shadier ones - and virus writers. It became evident, says Panda Software
CTO Patrick Hinojosa, with the release of the Scob virus in June. Unlike
earlier viruses, Scob was the work of an organized group of programmers
whose mission was to steal financial information on a massive scale. The
virus was quickly defanged, but it marked the escalation to a new level of
Internet security danger.
"Not that long ago, most of the worms originated from people who wanted to
see what they could accomplish technically, or see how much damage they
could cause," Hinojosa said.
"Now, it is clearly an organized for-profit occupation by many groups of
people," he says, including organized spammers and organized criminal
groups. "That means they have more resources to devote to these endeavors;
money to set up many servers, to put skilled people on the payroll to code
these viruses, and the ability to exploit the data in an organized manner."
In fact, many Internet threats have been co-opted by the criminal element.
Some companies almost look fondly at the old denial-of-service attacks -
those initiated by script kiddies for fun or to score points against a
high-profile company, such as Microsoft.
Now, though, criminal elements are threatening DoS attacks against Web
sites unless they pay protection money. This mainly has been found among
gambling sites, especially those based offshore, Sophos security consultant
Graham Cluley tells NewsFactor. Often, these threats and shakedown attempts
are timed to coincide with some big sporting event that people will be
betting on.
Increasingly, the antivirus community has been noticing a disconcerting
trend: the teamwork between virus writers and mercenary-minded spammers.
Computer Experts Vie in Hacking Contest
Armed with laptops, modems, hard disk drives and sandwiches, 12 computer
experts hunkered down Friday for a seven-hour contest to find the best
hacker in tech-savvy Singapore.
Divided into six two-man teams, the contestants participating in "BlackOPS:
HackAttack challenge 2004" have to defend their networks and servers from
hacking while attacking other teams' systems. The top prize is a DVD burner
and computer classes.
"It's a very realistic scenario," said Julian Ho, the organizer of the
government-backed contest. "Most security professionals engage in some kind
of 'dark art' ... Computer espionage is a very big thing."
The contestants hailed from Brunei, China, Myanmar and Singapore, but their
identities couldn't be revealed because they all work in the computer
security business, organizers said. All entrants had to pass a preliminary
competition.
Teams were not allowed to use the Internet as a hacking tool, only
computers and modems.
By Friday afternoon, the Brunei team - dubbed "Frozen Throne" - was
leading.
Asia has been the root of some of the worst attacks by hackers in recent
years. In May 2000, the so-called Love Bug virus, released in the
Philippines, overwhelmed e-mail servers worldwide and caused tens of
millions of dollars in damage.
Singapore has said it is increasingly concerned about cyber security in the
highly wired city-state where eight in 10 households own personal
computers.
Hackers can be jailed for up to three years or fined up to $5,852 under
Singapore's Computer Misuse Act.
Organizers had said they hoped the contest would help shed light on ways to
prevent actual computer attacks.
Two Firms Cleared of Swapping Violations
The makers of two leading file-sharing programs are not legally liable for
the songs, movies and other copyright works swapped online by their users,
a federal appeals court ruled Thursday in a stinging blow to the
entertainment industry.
Among other reasons, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Grokster
Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc., unlike the original Napster, were not
responsible because they don't have central servers pointing users to
copyright material.
"In the context of this case, the software design is of great import,"
Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel, which
upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed the bulk of the lawsuit brought
by movie studios and music labels.
The panel noted that the software firms simply provide software that lets
individual users to share information over the Internet, regardless of
whether that shared information was copyrighted.
"The technology has numerous other uses, significantly reducing the
distribution costs of public domain and permissively shared art and speech,
as well as reducing the centralized control of that distribution," Thomas
wrote.
The entertainment industry could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We are carefully reviewing our next steps," said Jack Valenti, president
of the Motion Picture Association of America. In a statement, he pledged to
"pursue all avenues in our power to fight those who illicitly profit from
our members' valuable property."
A ruling against the file-sharing services could have made them unavailable
for legitimate uses, analogous to banning VCRs to watch a school play
because they could also record and play copyright TV shows.
Civil libertarians had also warned that a defeat for Grokster and
StreamCast could have forced technology companies such as Microsoft Corp.
to delay or kill innovative products that give consumers more control.
Thursday's ruling puts additional pressure on the entertainment industry to
take the more costly and less popular route of going directly after online
file-swappers. Recording companies already have sued more than 3,400 such
users; at least 600 of the cases were eventually settled for roughly $3,000
each.
The decision came nearly two weeks after attorneys general from 45 states
sent letters to Grokster, Streamcast and five other file-sharing services,
hinting at possible legal consequences if the networks don't better inform
computer users about potential copyright violations from sharing files.
Napster was shut down after the 9th Circuit ruled that its centralized
servers, which contained directories to thousands of copyright songs, made
it legally liable for contributing to copyright infringement.
But in the wake of that ruling, peer-to-peer technology developed that
avoided the need for a central hub, arguably limiting the liability of the
companies involved.
Laurence Pulgram, an intellectual property attorney, called it "a big win
not just for peer-to-peer companies but for technology companies that push
the envelop and make available copyrighted information."
Fred von Lohmann, who represented Los Angeles-based StreamCast, said the
ruling follows "the same principle that people who make crowbars are not
responsible for the robberies that may be committed with those crowbars."
Thursday's ruling could influence a separate ongoing entertainment industry
case against Sharman Networks Ltd., makers of the Kazaa file-swapping
program, which averages more users than any other file-sharing software.
In a different case, the maker of iMesh file-sharing software recently
agreed to pay $4.1 million to the recording industry for copyright
infringement and to prevent consumers from illegally distributing music or
downloading songs.
Thursday's ruling makes it less likely another company would similarly
settle.
The lower court ruling upheld on Thursday had cited the U.S. Supreme
Court's 1984 decision in the Sony Betamax case. The court said then that
Sony wasn't liable when people used its Betamax videocassette recorder to
copy movies illegally because the technology had significant uses that did
not violate copyrights.
The studios and labels argued that while Sony could not control how
consumers used their VCRs, Grokster and StreamCast could filter their
systems, like they do with computer viruses.
Thomas, the appeals court judge, said agreeing with the entertainment
industry's demands would be unwise and in conflict with binding precedent.
"History has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium
in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a
copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke
machine, or an MP3 player," Thomas wrote.
The case is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster, 03-55894.
Do-It-Yourself Phishing Kits Lead To More Scams
Do-it-yourself phishing kits are freely available on the Internet, a
security firm says, and they will lead to more scams sent to online
consumers.
"Until now, phishing attacks have been largely the work of organized crime
gangs," says Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at U.K.-based
security vendor Sophos.
"But the emergence of these 'build-your-own-phish' kits mean that any old
Tom, Dick, or Harry can now mimic bona fide banking Web sites and convince
customers to disclose sensitive information such as passwords, PIN numbers,
and account details," he says.
The kits, Cluley says, include all the tools necessary to craft both the
bogus messages that phishing scams rely on and the legitimate-looking sites
that try to trick consumers into divulging confidential information, such
as bank-account and credit-card numbers.
Among the bits and pieces in these do-it-yourself collections are the
graphics, HTML code, and text needed to build the sites, as well as
spamming software so the scammers can send out huge numbers of messages as
bait.
"Although over the last year we've been aware of do-it-yourself kits,
they're much more accessible now and freely available," Cluley says. "You
can easily find them if you know where to look."
With such kits out on the Internet, Cluley predicts that the phishing
plague will not only continue, but increase.
"There's plenty of profit to be made from phishing," Cluley says. "By
putting tools in the hands of amateurs, it's likely that the number of
attacks will continue to rise."
According to statistics collected by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, the
prevalence of phishing attacks has increased by about 52% each month since
January. In June, the last month for which complete numbers were available,
an average of 47.4 phishing attacks hit each day; in May, that number was
only 38.6.
The problem's grown so far so fast that on Wednesday, the National
Consumers League, the oldest consumer-advocacy group in the United States,
said that this purloining of identity is now the fourth-most-common type
of Internet fraud. To combat the scams, the group launched an awareness
campaign to educate users about how phishing works, how they can protect
themselves, and where to go for help. The group backed up the campaign with
a new Web site.
Although Sophos isn't certain about the reason scammers have started to
distribute do-it-yourself phishing kits, it's possible, Cluley says, that
they're doing it simply because they can.
"It could be that they're saying, 'Here we are, the water's lovely, come on
in,'" he says. "They're saying there's plenty of potential victims, more
than enough to go around."
Cluley's right about that. Analysts estimate that anywhere from 3% to 5%
of those who receive a phishing message actually give up some confidential
information. And those people are opening up enormous sums to fraud. In
June, Gartner estimated that online scammers had ripped off consumers to
the tune of some $2.4 billion from bank checking accounts alone.
"There's so much interest in phishing because anyone who wants to make a
quick buck views it as [a tactic] they can use to dupe consumers," Cluley
says.
In fact, he noted, a recent arrest of a phishing gang in the United
Kingdom uncovered a tidy family affair, where a father, mother, son, and
daughter were all nabbed for spamming scams. "Phishing really can be a
mum-and-pop operation," Cluley says.
He recommends that people be extra wary of any messages asking them to
confirm financial information. "Recipients of suspicious E-mails claiming
to come from online banks should just delete them," Cluley says. "And
certainly not click on the links contained within the messages."
Some security vendors have been building anti-phishing features into their
products. Sophos rival Symantec Corp., for instance, has unveiled tools
designed to spot some of the bogus URLs used by scammers and quarantine
that E-mail.
Half of U.S. Web Users Now on Broadband
More than half of all U.S. residential Internet users reached the Web via
fast broadband connections in July, outpacing use of slower, dial-up
connections for the first time, market researcher Nielsen//NetRatings said
on Wednesday.
Sixty-three million Web users connected to the Internet via home broadband
links, which include high-speed connections over cable television networks
or upgraded phone lines using technologies like ISDN or DSL, it said.
That amounts to 51 percent of U.S. residential users, up from 49 percent in
June and from 38 percent just a year earlier. Sixty-one million, or 49
percent of residential users, us narrowband hookups, down from 62 percent
last July, Nielsen//NetRatings said.
Faster access times allow users to view a range of graphically richer
content, including movies and more sophisticated advertising.
Narrowband connections are defined as links with speeds between 14,400 to
56,000 bits per second, typically delivered over conventional dial-up phone
lines. They were critical to the first generation of commercial Internet
use a decade ago.
The milestone was crossed in terms of users, but the actual number of U.S.
households with broadband Internet connections remains significantly less,
according to Bruce Leichtman, the principal analyst for market research
firm Leichtman Research. This reflects the difference between users and
subscribers, he said.
"We shouldn't really think that half of America is subscribing to broadband
yet, but we may be there in a year," he said.
The number of residential broadband connections underestimates actual
broadband usage because the figures do not include office connections,
which many users rely on for personal Internet surfing, Leichtman noted.
U.S. broadband usage is far behind other industrial countries in Asia and
Europe. For example, broadband was relied on by 91 percent of home Internet
users in Japan during June, according to Nielsen//NetRatings statistics.
Despite rapid gains in U.S. subscribers over the past year, the pace of
growth has slowed recently, the analysts said.
According to Leichtman, the 20 largest U.S. broadband carriers added 1.7
million subscribers during the second quarter, the lowest total in a year.
The 20 largest companies have signed up 28.6 million high-speed Internet
households and account for about 95 percent of the U.S. market, he said.
The 30 million or so U.S. households with broadband connections is less
than one-third of the roughly 110 million households counted by the U.S.
Census Bureau, Leichtman said.
"Despite a plateau in the growth of U.S. Internet access, we've seen
continued high double-digit growth in users' broadband access," said Marc
Ryan, an analyst with Nielsen//NetRatings.
Broadband usage was highest among subscribers under age 34,
Nielsen//NetRatings said. Eighteen to 20-year-olds were the biggest users,
at 59 percent, followed by young kids at 58 percent and 25- to 34-year-olds
at 55 percent.
People between the ages of 65 to 99 years account for the lowest percentage
of broadband users, at 34 percent.
Nielsen//NetRatings calculations are based on a long-running survey of
40,000 Internet users.
New PC Is Created Just for Teenagers
This isn't your typical, humdrum, slate-colored computer. Not only is the
PC known as the hip-e almost all white, but its screen and keyboard are
framed in fuzzy pink fur. Or a leopard skin design. Or a graffiti-themed
pattern.
Sure, it's outlandish, but you won't see the hip-e in an office cubicle.
The creators of the $1,699 hip-e claim it's the first PC specifically for
teenagers.
Of course, teens are infamously fickle, and today's media-savvy kids are
skilled at sniffing out and rejecting things that seem contrived. Today's
teens also grew up with computers and have sophisticated demands for them.
But the company behind the hip-e, Digital Lifestyles Group Inc. of Austin,
Texas, believes it's got exactly what teenage computer users want.
Why such confidence? Because the company asked.
Last year, Digital Lifestyles' CEO Kent Savage got his son Cameron, 16, and
seven of the boy's friends together and polled them about how they
interacted with computers and the Internet.
One brand name that resonated was Apple Computer Inc., which has struck
gold with its iPod music players and iTunes download service. But the teens
said their parents resisted buying Apple computers because they don't run
Windows, the platform most people are familiar with.
So Savage decided to "Apple-ize the PC industry."
Cameron and his friends were asked to draw up designs for their ideal PC.
Two weeks later, the company came back with 20 product concepts, and in a
five-hour session, the teens honed in on one.
Later the prototype went to focus groups nationwide, and now the hip-e is
ready for release in November. Orders are being taken now, including at
displays in malls where pop star Ashlee Simpson is performing.
"Computers were originally made for adults, for work purposes," said one
member of the original design group, Nevin Watkins, 16. "I kind of really
want a computer for me."
The hip-e is designed to serve as a hub for all of a teenager's digital
interactions. (For an extra $100 it will also come with an MP3
player/keychain data-storage drive, or a cell phone that runs on Sprint's
network and can be synched with data on the computer. Or both accouterments
can be had for $200.)
The computer has a 120-gigabyte hard drive - perfect for storing a huge
digital music library - plus Wi-Fi accessibility, a TV tuner and
connections for video game consoles. Speakers attached to the bottom of the
hip-e's display stand can be removed and turned into a portable "beatbox."
The computer has standard elements: a 1.5-gigahertz Pentium processor,
Windows XP, antivirus software, spyware and pop-up blockers and parental
controls. But it's been retooled to speak to teens in everyday terms.
For instance, users can click on "paper" to launch Microsoft Word, "create
a presentation" to launch PowerPoint, or "burn CD" to open a CD-copying
program.
The 17-inch desktop display - which boots up to screaming black and white
swirls and squiggles against a lime-green backdrop - has a "hangout tuner,"
an on-screen dial that lets users jump to categories of desktop
applications: music, movies, games, photos, news, communications, shopping
and homework.
Savage said teenagers generally don't like performing separate searches for
various programs, so "it made sense to organize it for them and serve it up
to them."
"I think what Apple did with iTunes and the iPod is great. But that's just
one application," he said. "We are doing that - on steroids. It's all of
these applications, all on one platform."
Bigger computing companies have had mixed success in reaching teenagers.
Last year, Microsoft Corp. released free software called 3 Degrees that is
designed to give groups of young people a centralized way of sharing
pictures, songs and instant messages. Microsoft says it still considers 3
Degrees a pilot test and won't comment on how much use it gets.
Leading PC seller Dell Inc. has avoided age-group-specific marketing,
opting instead to highlight ways anyone might use the company's machines,
spokesman Venancio Figueroa said. For example, Dell advertises its portable
music player in music magazines and touts portable computers in
back-to-school circulars, but neither device is retooled differently for
younger users.
That's why Savage figures the teen-focused hip-e has a nice niche.
He cites market research that says teens are considered the tech gurus in
today's families and dictate electronics purchases.
Meanwhile, teenagers are increasingly using credit card-like debit accounts
and becoming more sophisticated consumers, said Paul Soltoff, head of
SendTec Inc., a marketing services firm. In fact, the hip-e includes a
prepaid debit account that teens or their parents can put money into, to
fund the cell phone, online shopping or music downloads.
"In certain respects, it's easier to sell to teenagers today. They're
gaining more fiscal control over expenditures," Soltoff said. "They have
needs and wants, too. And they recognize bargains."
Soltoff thinks the hip-e must get big-time "viral marketing" -
word-of-mouth recommendations among teens themselves.
Savage has that covered, too: Hip-e's marketing plan includes dispatching
1,000 teens as a "launch squad," whose members earn sales commissions.
Ultimately, however, the most important thing will be the hip-e's
performance, said Rob Callender, senior trends manager at market tracker
Teenage Research Unlimited.
That's because while teenagers love things that are designed for them, they
also like to look ahead a few years, Callender said. So if the hip-e is
geared for 16-year-olds, it might actually appeal to kids closer to 14.
"Teens aren't willing," he said, "to make compromises in electronics."
Washington Man Forms E-Mail Rejection Service
Attention, ladies: If that guy hitting on you just won't quit until you
surrender your e-mail address, feel free to call upon Paper Napkin.
Billed as an e-mail rejection service, Paper Napkin will tell your
persistent suitor to buzz off when he comes calling electronically.
Here's how it works: Give out any e-mail address with "PaperNapkin.net"
after the "at" sign. You don't need to register the address ahead of time.
When your suitor tries to contact you for a date, he'll instead receive a
form letter stating in part, "Maybe you're just out of your league here."
Josh Santangelo, a Web developer in Seattle, said he got the idea over
lunch last week after a discussion on dating turned to the New York
Rejection Line - a phone number women can give out to reach a generic
recording of rejection. He thought there ought to be something similar for
e-mail, and he wrote the code for it that afternoon.
He said some 400 people have tried the service since a friend publicized it
at the Web journal Metafilter. Most were tests, though about 30 appeared to
be real rejects.
Santangelo, who is single, is waiting for a woman to use it on him, though
he says he's not aggressive enough: "This sort of thing is for folks who
don't take 'no' for an answer, and I tend to know when I'm not wanted."
Online Satirists Pull No Punches on Election
Some are born to rule, others to ridicule is a worthy reminder to U.S
presidential hopefuls struck by an endless arsenal of satirical barbs on
the Web.
A host of cybercynics take aim at President Bush and Democratic challenger
John Kerry in fake news reports, multimedia presentations and childlike
artwork online, offering comic relief from blood-boiling political debate.
But unlike their more famous peers on television or in other media, Web
satirists grapple with few limits of time, space or good taste.
"Any prematurely bald guy with a modem can get online now and write
satire," said Sam Margolis, a freelance writer who created Chortler.com
(http://www.chortler.com) and boasts monthly visits of about 150,000.
Margolis pens pieces for the site from Budapest, Hungary, including an
obscenity-laden "Ask Dick Cheney" advice column and an anthology of "The
Secret Poems of Arnold Schwarzenegger." He says the stakes have never been
higher.
"Satirists are very worried right now - we've got someone (Bush) with a
proven track record producing great satire. Do we want to spend the next
four years telling ketchup jokes? It's a major decision," he said,
referring to Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the
condiment-making Heinz company.
The Specious Report delivers updates from dozens of satire sites under its
"Division 2004" heading
(http://www.thespeciousreport.com/2004/division2004.html). The site
promises to stay abreast of the zingers through the November vote "... and
inevitable recount."
Recent headlines include "Republicans Outsource Kerry Attack Groups to
India" from Skewpoint (http://bobsfridge.com/skew_8_13.htm), touching on
domestic controversy over U.S. companies sending jobs overseas, and
"Teresa Heinz Kerry Launches Five-Language Tirade" on
Broken Newz
(http://www.brokennewz.com/displaystory.asp_Q_storyid_E_1051ter esafive),
poking fun at the would-be First Lady's multilingual riff during the
Democratic Convention last month.
Another frequented link is written by television and radio commentator Andy
Borowitz (http://www.borowitzreport.com), with such lead-ins as this one on
the recent nomination of Porter Goss to head the Central Intelligence
Agency: "In first intelligence failure, new CIA chief did not know he was
being nominated: Ignored clear signs of appointment, critics charge."
Internet satirists admit, with some self-deprecation, that the Bush
administration and Republican campaign get more than their fair share of
the jibes. They attribute it partly to the liberal sentiments of some
writers, and the old truism that those already in power are more fully
exposed to mockery.
The Humor Gazette (http://www.humorgazette.com) endorses Kerry outright,
delighting in his correct pronunciation of the word "nuclear" compared
with Bush's "nookyuler" iteration.
Many jokes mirror accusations slung between the political camps, portraying
Bush as duplicitous or ill-informed and Kerry as a waffler with an
overbearing hairstyle.
"Bush Continues War on Terriers," writes MidnightPlumbers
(http://www.midnightplumbers.com), detailing how "anti-terrier" authorities
are endowed with new powers "to round-up terriers who are suspected of
knowing other terriers."
At Chortler, readers can choose "John Kerry Emoticons" - cutouts of the
senator's prominent coiffure - to express feeling indecisive or ambivalent
in electronic messages.
Some of the most popular satires split their venom equally, like the
cartoon clip at JibJab (http://www.jibjab.com) where animated versions of
Bush and Kerry sing a rancorous spoof on "This Land Is Your Land, This Land
is My Land." The cartoon kept JibJab on top of humor sites tracked by
http://www.hitwise.com for at least three weeks.
"We try and keep it all in good fun. And if you look at the piece, we think
it's optimistic at the end as everybody from Hillary Clinton to Karl Rove
link arms and sing," said Evan Spiridellis, who created the site with his
brother Gregg.
Top-ranked satire site The Onion (http://www.theonion.com) says it strives
for equal opportunity derision and searches for the less tried but still
true jokes about America's leaders. "Bush 2004 Campaign Pledges to Restore
Honor and Dignity to White House" and "Kerry Unveils One-Point Plan for
Better America" are just two examples.
"There was a dominant 'Bush is dumb' storyline which we never wanted to get
involved with because it was an old joke," said staff writer Peter
Koechley.
Kerry has lagged Bush in satirical character development, he said, as
writers find it harder to suss out the comic.
"A lot of what we do is guesswork based on slower moving trends ... People
slowly turning on a candidate," he said. "But we try to take a jab at
everyone who's doing stupid things."
=~=~=~=
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