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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 47
Volume 6, Issue 47 Atari Online News, Etc. November 19, 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:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0647 11/19/04
~ Microsoft Wants Seniors~ People Are Talking! ~ New Sober Worm!
~ Sun's Solaris 10 Free! ~ Yahoo Uses DomainKeys! ~ New Acrobat Nears!
~ Spamming the Big Fish! ~ Atari Flashback Nears! ~ No Taxes To Collect!
~ Nintendo DS Arrives! ~ More Antispam Systems! ~ AOL Backup Service!
-* McAfee Debuts Anti-Spyware! *-
-* Moratorium On Web Taxes Advances! *-
-* Move Over Internet Explorer, Firefox Here! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's definitely much too early. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, and we had
some snow this past week. No, not your little flurry to remind us that
winter is getting near, but about four inches of the white stuff. I haven't
even finished cleaning up all of the leaves in the yard yet! I'm not ready
for winter yet - definitely! Fortunately, the temperatures have warmed up a
little bit so perhaps the snow will be melted by the weekend, and I can get
them cleaned up before the snow really starts to fly, and stick around.
If you're fortunate to live in the United States, then you'll be celebrating
Thanksgiving next week. This has to be one of my most favorite holidays.
No, not due to its historical beginnings - although that is certainly
important. I enjoy it because of the traditional Thanksgiving fare. I
really enjoy cooking a turkey and all of the fixings (yes, I do cook!!).
It's also a holiday when family and friends usually get together for a day
of giving thanks, and enjoying one another's company. It's a tradition that
transcends religious beliefs and ethnic cultures. It's an American
tradition that most celebrate. Did I say that I really love a home-cooked
turkey?! Anyway, I'm really looking forward to next week's feast. All of
us here at A-ONE hope that you and your family also enjoy the holiday.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, the holidays are creeping up on us
quickly. Thanksgiving Day is this coming week here in the states, and
Christmas is only 4 and a half weeks after that. Did you notice that
they started holiday commercials WAY early this year? I guess I'm just
old fashioned, but I don't like it.
I know that a lot of you have heard me talk about this before, but I'd
like to mention to you that, even though they aren't front page news
anymore, there are still people who are homeless or simply down on their
luck and need a little help. As the commercial used to say, I'm not
talking about a hand-out. I'm talking about a hand UP.
Drop a couple of bucks or a turkey or some canned goods off at the local
homeless shelter or soup kitchen. It's not a life-long commitment, and
let's face it, you'd never miss what you'd be donating. If you're of a
mind to, most places also need warm bodies to help out.
I've told this story before, and some of you are probably tired of
hearing about it, but it made an impression on me, so I'm just trying to
pass it on...
One of my heroes has always been Harry Chapin. You know the guy... Taxi?
Cat's in the Cradle? Yeah, that's him. He was always big into helping
out the less fortunate. He donated half of everything he made every year
to those less fortunate.
I saw him in concert several times, and once, during intermission, I had
him autograph an "EVERY Year is World Hunger Year" Tee-shirt. He was
great with the fans. He genuinely loved the fans, and we all returned it
gladly. While he was signing my tee, I told him that I'd donated some
foodstuffs to the local soup kitchen for the holidays. He kind of patted
me on the head, but reminded me in no uncertain terms that there are
always people in need, not just during the holidays. He was right, but
in the years since he "dope-smacked" me, I've come to another
realization on my own... It's not just the homeless that need help.
Every damned one of us, at one time or another, could use a little help.
Not necessarily food or shelter.. sometimes those are the easy things to
provide... but there are certain key times in all our lives when we
could use a kind word or some encouragement or even just an
understanding nod. I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who
seem to have forgotten that. Especially since it's such a simple thing.
Remember the talk, during an election a dozen years ago, about the
"Thousand Points of Light"? I made a joke at the time about "41's"
thousand points of light being the glow in the eyes of the Fortune 500.
Yeah, I know, I'm a real stinker sometimes. The fact of the matter is
that we need more than a thousand points of light. We need 290 MILLION
points of light. That's right, each and every one of us. I don't care
who you are, or how good or bad you think you're doing or where your
place is in the grand scheme of things (if there really is such a
thing). Each and every one of us has the ability to do some good. Some
are so hard and hollow by now that they can only do it with money, but
for those of us who DIDN'T just get re-elected, there are dozens of
chances every day to make a little difference. All you have to do is
look around you for a moment. It could be something like donating blood,
or it could be as simple as taking a second to give someone a little
encouragement, but there are lots of chances all around us every day.
So donate some food, money or time if you can, but don't forget a little
bit of actual kindness too. You know what I'm talking about... 'Tis the
season' and all that stuff. <g>
Now let's get to the news, hints, tips and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'Dark Willow' asks for help with NVDI and his Nova card:
"OK, I have just got a Nova VME card for my TT, which I wan tot use
with the ET4000. Alas the manual is in German so any basic info is
appreciated on how to get it all set up.
Also I have NVDI 4, which is without ET4000 support. Do the drivers
supplied with the Nova make NVDI support unnecessary or do I have to
upgrade that anyway? If so does anyone know how much the upgrade
costs?"
Lonny Pursell tells Dark Willow:
"You can use the Nova in these various arrangements:
1) Just the Nova driver, but then you have no vector font support
2) Nova driver with speedo gdos, then you get the vector font support
3) Nova driver + nvdi et4000, same as #2, but faster, plus you get
offscreen bitmap support
I no longer have the Nova, swapped it for a crazydots 2 card so I don't
recall the exact auto folder order and so forth. However you do have to
disable the *.sys drivers in one of the nvdi folders for them to work
together. No idea about the cost either."
Willow replies:
"I managed to work out the manual enough to get the auto folder file
order and have arranged all files so they are in order, and that all
the files from the AUTO and DATA-TT folders on disk were present along
with a CPX that allows some kind of config options. However still no
joy. When booting a screen with coloured block (corrupted letters
maybe?) and 2 bombs appears, this can be cleared by pressing a key
that brings up an auto program that has several menu options, one
which allows you to select a screen resolution and colour depth. Which
ever option I select ultimately does nothing and the machine boots as
normal giving normal TT resolutions on the original VGA port. I can't
get any signal at all through the graphics card VGA port. The CPX
utility just says "graphics card not installed!" (in german) but I've
disconnected and reconnected it to the VME several times and it's
definitely connected up correctly."
Mark Duckworth tells Willow:
"I'm almost 100% sure an ET4000 card will not work with the Nova board.
nova's drivers are explicitly for Mach32 or Mach64. Aka Nova, and
SuperNova. In fact, you very well could have fried the GAL's on your VME
board if the ET4000 doesn't play nicely with the wiring arrangement.
The NOVA is NOT A UNIVERSAL ISA ADAPTER! It is a specifically tailored
solution to a single type of video card. ATI Mach32 or 64. Same with
EtherNEC. Just because I have an ISA slot hanging off my ROM port
doesn't mean I can put a video card on it and have it work!
Now I COULD be wrong here. But everything I have EVER READ about the
Nova suggests that I am right. Oh yeah, and I have one!
Jo Even Skarstein tells Mark:
"There is an ET4000 version of the NOVA, called (surprise!) Nova ET4000."
Willow tells Jo Even:
"Yes, the version I have is for the standard 1mb ET4000 board. I did
check that before I brought, as I already had the ET4000 graphics card
and didn't want to get a new card."
Lonny adds:
"He never said he plugged any old card on to it. That is an assumption.
However my assumption is he acquired it with the proper card included.
I do not recall them ever being sold minus the video card.
I had a low end Nova, they made several versions. Pretty sure it was
et4000, opened it up an looked once, it was Tseng Laboratories.
Ozk has the my old Nova setup.
Found several pages on the web referring to Nova with et4000:
The comp.sys.atari.st "Simplified" FAQ (Hardware)
MegaST/MegaSTe/TT/Falcon: The Nova Graphics Board is a 24-bit graphics
board based on the Tseng ET4000 graphics chip. It comes in 3 different
versions for the Megabus, VME and PDS versions. Nova uses standard SVGA
monitors for display. The Falcon version can only be used with 4MB
machines. Now marketed by Homa Systems House."
'Chris' asks about a replacement hard drive for his Falcon:
"My Falcon IDE drive is on the way out. It keeps getting stuck on boot
up. Can anyone recommend a source for a new one? How do I get it boot up
from an external drive?"
Jo Even Skarstein tells Chris:
"You can use virtually any IDE drive, but unless you use MiNT or MagiC
(and I believe you need HD-Driver as well) you can only use the first
2Gb.
[You boot from an external drive] by installing the hard disk driver on
the external drive and removing it from the internal drive."
Jim DeClercq asks for info about a 50 pin Centronix connector:
"I have a small problem. I have a bunch of new, used drives that do not
have a jumper to set for bus power, so I have an unpowered bus which does
not work. My TT does have pin 25 not connected, but connecting it will do
nothing because both the DB-25 to C-50 cables I own have no connection
from the DB-25 end on pin 25.
One convenient place to supply bus power is in an external box, of which
I have several. These places have a C-50 external connector, and 50-way
ribbon cable leading to a 50-pin end of an appropriate adapter for the
drive I have.
Does anyone have, or can anyone tell me where I have not looked, for
pinouts of either the C-50 connector, or the signal names of a 50 pin
drive connector? I need to find a place to put bus power into the bus,
for modern drives that no longer do that.
Yes, I have tried to trace the cables I have, but that does not give me
the information I need."
Rory McMahon replies with a number of links:
"Try
http://www.nullmodem.com/Centronics.htm
http://teryx.bobdbob.com/~protius/pinouts/
http://pinouts.ru/data/pin_ScsiExternalCentronics50Diff.shtml
http://invalid.ed.ntnu.no/~kamben/hwb/menu_Connector.html
Hope one of these will help..."
Jim tells Rory:
"Many thanks. The very first one produced exactly what I was looking
for. I will write these addresses in my little orange (not black)
book, so I will never have to ask again. As far as I can tell, Google
does not like me, or at least did not place these sites in any
low-numbered page where I looked for them.
And, when I looked again for cs-electronics, who have adapters
needed for putting a SCA drive on the end of a 50-pin cable, google did
not find it, or I did not properly tell it where to look.
Maybe it can outthink me, but sometimes I wish it would not try. "
Carey Christenson asks for info on accelerators:
"I have a Falcon 030 (Actually its a MK II needs repaired) and wondering
what sort of accelerators are available for a Falcon computer. As ALL
of you know I have a Falcon 030 with a 72 mhz CT60 and a 25 mhz system
bus but I want to have a decently fast computer as a backup without all
the cost just in case something happened to my CT60ed falcon and would
have to send it back to Rodolphe. I seem to remember a POWER UP 2
Accelerator awhile back, is this still available?? I also have a
chance to get a MEGA STe. I noticed there are PAK030 upgrades on Mega
STe are these still available and if so where??? Which would be more
cost effective in upgrading??? Any Graphic Cards available for the MEGA
STe as well?? I have an Eclipse which I am not using on my CT60 since
the SUPERVIDEL will be coming soon enough that I figured why bother with
the hassle of the Eclipse and the CT60 both."
'Coda' tells Carey:
"There are probably companies like system solutions in the UK that
might have a powerup2 left, but why bother buying one for the huge
amount of cash they will ask, cos you could build your own accelerator
quite easily if you have a soldering iron and know how to use it. Its
not rocket science. Have a look at http://atari.nvg.org/cpu_accel/
which is a bit of a convoluted doc, but read it through a couple of
times and you have a BUS accelerator. All the powerup2 does is take
the 32mhz system clock and pump it straight to the CPU instead of the
16mhz from the combel, and you can switch between them using the ACIA,
it does not accelerate the BUS at all. With the home built bus
accelerator and a good ram card you will have a 25mhz bus, and then a
home built CPU accelerator will give you a 32mhz CPU."
Ronald Hall asks about software for his CT60:
"Guys, I'm a tad bit confused about something. I've got the CT60 working,
NVDI is up, etc, etc,...but what or where is the other software that I
keep seeing mentioned in the newsgroup?
I downloaded a file from Rodophes' site, but it had things like a
modified CPX, ACCs, etc,...
What AUTO folder programs should I have in there? Right now its only:
Extendos
NVDI
MINT
So what and where am I missing stuff?"
Greg Goodwin tells Ronald:
"What you have will work, just like a plain devil's food cake can be
called "dessert". Now, it's time for the "frosting".
Add STing for a TCP/IP stack, a half dozen accessories and .cpx
modules for spice, and a nice desktop for visual appeal. The sky's
the limit. What do you want your computer to be able to do?"
Well folks, that's it for this time around. Tune in again next week, same
time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Nintendo DS This Weekend!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Atari 'Flashback' Soon!
New 'Need for Speed'!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo Prepares Weekend Launch of New Handheld
A generation of children grew up playing Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Game Boy
handheld video game system, and now that they've grown up, Nintendo has a
new toy for them.
The Nintendo DS handheld launches on Sunday and is like no other portable
gaming system before it - two screens (one of them touch-sensitive), two
slots for different types of game cartridges, two kinds of wireless
connections, and a number of other bells and whistles that distinguish it
from the crowd.
The target market is the more sophisticated game player, who has a bit more
disposable income and a bit more interest in complex play than the younger
children who have made the Game Boy line a global success.
Those in the industry who have tested the DS are generally positive on both
the technology and its potential for new kinds of games, but say it will be
a few months at least before there are actually games on the market that
use the new technology.
"Right now it seems like more of a bundle of good ideas rather than actual,
practical 'Yeah I have to own this to play this particular game,"' said
Mark MacDonald, executive editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly.
"It's got all these really neat ideas (but) I don't think so far any of the
games have really pulled all this together."
Fans do not seem to care much about the details - they want the new 'new
thing' - now. Nintendo expects to sell about 1 million units between the
Sunday launch and the end of the year throughout the Americas.
"We do expect there to be some spot shortages," said Reggie Fils-Amie,
executive vice president for marketing at Nintendo of America. "We know
quite frankly if we had double that we could sell all of it."
Nintendo has already said it will fall well short of demand in Japan as
well, where the DS launches early next month.
Nintendo defeated all comers over the last 15 years who tried to challenge
it in the handheld market, even well-known names like Sega (the Game Gear),
Atari (Lynx) and NEC (the TurboGrafx Express).
But in early 2005 Nintendo will face its most formidable challenge yet,
Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Portable, or PSP. Designed to play movies and
music as well as games, the PSP is Sony's bet it can take over the handheld
market the way the PlayStation did for home consoles almost 10 years ago.
"When PSP comes we'll deal with it," Fils-Amie said succinctly. "Our focus
right now is maximizing the penetration for DS."
With expectations that the PSP will sell for around the same price as the
$149.99 DS, and with much the same potential audience, many think the two
will end up competing head-to-head for some buyers once the PSP debuts in
March.
"My sense is that they are different markets but not to the extent that
either company would have you believe," EGM's MacDonald said.
Despite the added expense of new development for a new platform, publishers
embraced the DS. There will be eight titles available at launch, up to 12
by the end of the year and as many as 25 by the end of the first quarter of
2005.
Analysts said the most likely beneficiaries of the DS launch in terms of
software sales were the third parties who made aggressive commitments to
support the the device from the outset, like Electronic Arts Inc. and
Activision Inc.
Nintendo has relatively fewer of its own games at the launch compared to
outside publishers, something of a reversal from its past hardware
releases.
"They're really trying to embrace third-party publishers and skew older
with this launch," said P.J. McNealy, an analyst at American Technology
Research.
A Retro Revolution Hits Holidays as Atari Introduces
'Atari Flashback Classic Game Console'
Harkening back to the nascent days of the video game explosion, Atari, Inc.
announced that its Atari Flashback Classic Game Console will hit store
shelves the week of November 22nd. A new retro-style, stand-alone console
unit configured with 20 classic Atari games, Atari Flashback includes
Asteroids, Centipede, Breakout and Atari's previously unreleased thriller,
Saboteur. Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Atari 7800, the Atari
Flashback will be available exclusively at Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and
Gamestop for a suggested price of $44.95.
"Atari is synonymous with video games and the Atari Flashback faithfully
brings back the sights, sounds and addictive play of games that started an
entertainment revolution," said Wim Stocks, Executive Vice President of
Sales and Marketing for Atari. "Retro gaming offers a unique blend of
nostalgia for older fans and coolness for younger fans, making Atari
Flashback this season's perfect holiday gift. The bottom line is classics
never go out of style."
Resembling a modified replica of the Atari 7800 console, the Atari
Flashback plugs directly into the TV via composite (RCA) cables, includes
two joysticks and is the only retro-console to feature multiplayer gaming,
with such notoriously challenging head-to-head games such as Canyon Bomber,
Asteroids, Centipede, Desert Falcon and Sprintmaster.
In addition to featuring 20 classic games that defined a generation of
players, Atari Flashback includes one exclusive from-the-vault classic,
Atari's Saboteur. Never before released, Atari's Saboteur follows the
adventures of the noble Hotot in his quest to sabotage the production of
the evil Master Robot's warhead and save his galaxy from total
annihilation.
The complete list of games found in Atari Flashback includes:
* Adventure
* Air Sea Battle
* Asteroids
* Battlezone
* Breakout
* Canyon Bomber
* Centipede
* Crystal Castles
* Desert Falcon
* Food Fight
* Gravitar
* Haunted House
* Millipede
* Planet Smashers
* Saboteur
* Sky Diver
* Solaris
* Sprintmaster
* Warlords
* Yar's Revenge
Need for Speed Underground 2 Ships
Electronic Arts today announced that Need for Speed Underground 2 has
shipped to retail stores nationwide for the PlayStation 2 computer
entertainment system, Xbox video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo
GameCube, Game Boy Advance and PC. The sequel to last year's run-away hit
which sold over 8 million copies worldwide, Need for Speed Underground 2
features a massive, free-roaming game world where players can immerse
themselves in the tuner culture as they race through more than 125 miles of
open road.
True to the tuner culture, players can enhance their rides with an
unprecedented 70 billion possible car combinations, including deep
performance tuning, to create the ultimate street racer. Players can cruise
through the streets in style with hundreds of new visual upgrades such as
hydraulics, spinner rims, and scissor doors and hoods. As gamers explore
the city's five distinct interconnected neighborhoods, they'll encounter
rival street races that can erupt any time, anywhere, or put their skills
to the test by entering the hottest competitions in town. With new gameplay
modes including StreetX, Downhill Drift and the Underground Racing League,
as well as online play for Xbox Live, the PlayStation 2 console and PC,
players will need more than just style to prevail.
Upon entering the world of the underground, players will instantly be
introduced to Brooke Burke, former-host of E! Entertainment Television's
popular travel series, "Wild On." Burke plays the streetwise organizer of
an elite underground circuit as she guides players to become the top racers
on the streets.
On the way to racing glory, Need for Speed Underground 2 players will be
able to hear Snoop Dogg's unforgettable remix of The Doors' legendary rock
song, "Riders On The Storm" - an exclusive track that can only be heard in
the game. The beats keep pumping as players turn up the music with 27 hit
songs from renowned artists such as Chingy, Mudvayne, Terror Squad, Xzibit
and Queens of the Stone Age.
Developed in Vancouver, B.C. by EA Canada, Need for Speed Underground 2 is
rated "E" for Everyone by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $49.99 for
PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, $39.99 for PC and $29.99 for
Game Boy Advance. For more information about the game, please visit
http://www.needforspeed.com.
Microsoft Cracks Down on Xbox Changes
In the days before Microsoft Corp. released the hotly anticipated Halo 2
video game for the Xbox game console, some gamers noticed a sudden spike in
the number of people being kicked off the company's online game service.
That was no coincidence.
With Halo 2 expected to entice a new batch of users to the Xbox Live online
gaming community, Microsoft says it got tougher with people suspected of
making unauthorized modifications to their Xboxes.
Gamers who modify Xboxes usually do so either to be able to cheat on games
or use pirated copies, although some also have made changes so they can use
the Xbox for other functions, from running Linux to playing music.
Cameron Ferroni, general manager of the Xbox software platform, says
Microsoft is not interested in suing individual users. But the company does
want to banish scofflaws from its online service, Xbox Live.
It's hard to know how many of Microsoft's 15.5 million Xbox users have
modified their game consoles, although the percentage is believed to be
small.
Microsoft has a unique glimpse into the approximately 1 million Xbox Live
users' computers because, by virtue of signing up for the service, users
agree to let Microsoft gather certain information from their machines.
Ferroni declined to go into specifics on how the company can check Xbox
Live users' machines for suspected modifications. He said Microsoft has no
way of checking whether players who don't use Xbox Live have modified their
machines.
Neil Smith, an intellectual property lawyer with Howard Rice in San
Francisco, said there's little legal risk in modifying a game system for
relatively benign personal use, such as making players invulnerable.
But it is important to Microsoft to prevent such cheating on Xbox Live,
where multiple players can take part in games. Ferroni said the goal is to
make sure there's a level playing field.
Smith, who has represented several video game companies, said users face
greater legal risk - and companies have more leverage - if a person is
modifying the system to play pirated or other unauthorized games. That's
especially true if the person is altering their system's security codes or
settings.
Microsoft says it has focused its legal efforts on those it believes are
manufacturing pirated games or mass-producing Xbox modifications.
Smith said the legality of modifying other people's technology remains
hazy.
Other technology companies have grappled with how much can be done to their
systems without their consent.
Earlier this year, Seattle-based RealNetworks caused a stir when it said
it had developed software that allows songs purchased from its online music
store to transfer to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod by skirting internal copy
protections.
Apple, which has closely guarded control of its music player, responded by
accusing RealNetworks of adopting "the tactics and ethics of a hacker."
Other video game consoles don't seem to face as much tinkering for the sake
of piracy as the Xbox, said PJ McNealy, an analyst with American Technology
Research.
Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 doesn't have as complex antipiracy measures, he
said, and Nintendo Co.'s cartridge-based games are much more difficult to
pirate than the CDs that Microsoft and Sony use.
Analyst Rob Enderle said Microsoft's Xbox is also much more vulnerable to
tinkering because its popular built-in hard drive more closely mimics a
regular personal computer, whereas the other systems rely on less familiar
technology.
"The very thing that made the Xbox a rapid success is also what made it
easy to hack," Enderle said.
McNealy thinks Microsoft is right to go after those who are playing pirated
games, but he thinks Microsoft might be flattered by some of the other
homemade tweaks.
"To modify it to the umpteenth degree is simply a byproduct of the geek
culture of the hardcore gamer," McNealy said. "It should be good news for
Microsoft that there's that much demand (for Xbox) that people want to
spend so much time figuring that stuff out."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Moratorium on Web Tax Advances
Congress yesterday cleared the way to keep access to the Internet largely
free from taxes for the next three years, breaking a year-long deadlock.
In a compromise, the Senate tweaked provisions of a bill it passed in
April that reflected concerns by state and local governments that they
could lose billions of dollars in tax revenue as more and more voice
communication migrates to the Internet.
The House, which had approved a broader, permanent tax ban last year,
agreed to replace it with the Senate version, according to a spokesman for
Rep. Christopher Cox (news, bio, voting record) (R-Calif.), one of the
House bill's sponsors. He said he expects the House to vote on the measure
today, and the White House has already signaled that President Bush would
sign it.
"The Internet makes American workers and companies more productive," Cox
said in a statement. "By protecting consumers from new taxes, the new law
will keep Internet access affordable."
The often-stormy dispute pitted some lawmakers, including former governors
from cash-strapped states, against others who favor less taxes across the
board. Many industry groups supported the permanent ban, arguing that the
certainty of no taxes would encourage electronic commerce and spur more
people to switch to high-speed Internet service, which is more expensive
than dial-up telephone access.
Most consumers already are free from such taxes as a result of a
three-year moratorium that expired last year. The law meant that states
could not impose taxes on the monthly fees charged by Internet service
providers, a tax that is often passed on to consumers.
But the original law was written before there was widespread use of
high-speed Internet access over telephone lines, known as DSL. As a result,
several states, which have authority to regulate and tax telecommunications
services, were collecting taxes on DSL service.
Similar taxes were not being collected for Internet service over cable
lines, which is not classified as a telecommunications service by the
federal government. And some states had begun collecting taxes before the
original moratorium took effect and had been allowed to continue.
The new bill would ban Internet access taxes, regardless of technology,
until November 2007. It also ensures that products bought over the Internet
cannot be taxed by more than one state and prohibits discriminatory taxes
that treat Internet purchases differently than other types of sales.
But state officials, whose concerns were spearheaded by Sens. Lamar
Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), won important
concessions that softened what they said would amount to a giveaway to
telecommunications and Internet companies.
States that collect Internet taxes have up to three years to end their
collections. The changes made yesterday gave Wisconsin and Texas more time
to end their tax regimes, satisfying some House members from those states,
including Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.).
The revisions also make clear that any service that results in a telephone
call, regardless of the technology behind it, can continue to be taxed.
Some states were concerned that phone companies might try to argue that
their regular phone services would be exempt from taxes because the calls
spend part of their trip on networks that increasingly use the Internet.
Similarly, calls made via a technology known as voice-over-Internet
protocol (VoIP), which originate on high-speed Internet networks, can be
taxed.
Among other things, state officials argued that they rely on
telecommunications taxes to help fund consumer-protection enforcement and
to ensure that the poor have access to basic phone service.
By some estimates, states could have lost as much as $10 billion a year if
all telephone service were exempt from taxes.
"More than a year ago, the Senate was prepared to pass legislation that
would have done irrevocable harm to state and local governments," Carper,
a former governor, said in a statement. "But the compromise we worked out
will do minimal harm to states, while also protecting consumers from taxes
on their monthly Internet bills."
Alexander, also a former governor, said the compromise balanced states'
rights with the need to foster free markets.
Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) (R-Va.), who along with Sen.
Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record) (D-Ore.) had pushed for a permanent
and more extensive ban on taxes, also said he is pleased by the compromise.
"Today, we have made sure that the avaricious tax commissars from every
county, city and state in America cannot continue conniving new ways to tax
the Internet and the people who use it," he said in a statement.
Wyden said the result ensures a brighter, more secure future for the
Internet and Web commerce.
Congress Blocks Net Connection Taxation
Congress acted Friday to block state and local governments from taxing
connections that link consumers to the Internet for the next three years.
"Enacting this legislation is a big win for the majority of American
Internet users," House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner,
R-Wis., said as the House passed the bill by voice vote Friday and sent it
to the president for his signature.
The Senate made adjustments to the bill this week that freed the tax
prohibition from a yearlong stalemate and pushed it toward passage.
The bill blocks taxation of all types of Internet connections, from
traditional dial-up services to high-speed broadband lines.
States that had started taxing Internet access before the first ban,
enacted in 1998, can continue collecting those fees. One exception is
Wisconsin, which must drop its taxes in 2006 at Sensenbrenner's insistence.
The original ban didn't envision the invention of speedy DSL lines, and the
law would require the few states that now tax those connections to phase
out their levies.
"We have slammed the door on the people who want to stick it to DSL," Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told reporters after the House passed the bill.
An earlier ban lapsed more than a year ago while lawmakers struggled to
rewrite the regulations to include new technologies while ensuring that it
wouldn't exempt all telecommunications activities from taxation.
The bill also blocks multiple state and local taxes from being imposed on
merchandise purchased over the Internet, and taxes "aimed at the online
world that don't exist in the offline world," said Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif.
"You can't have an e-mail tax," he said.
The House voted last year to permanently ban taxes on Internet access, but
it could not find enough support in the Senate despite a strong push from
the telecommunications industry. Proponents said they won't wait until the
temporary ban runs out in 2007 to start trying again.
National Governors Association Executive Director Raymond C. Scheppach said
in a statement that technologies may be changing too rapidly to enact a
permanent law.
"Congress, consumers and the private sector should be able to revisit the
issue and adjust to emerging technologies and market realities," he said.
"It just makes sense."
The bill has no effect on an emerging Internet technology that some states
want to tax as a traditional telecommunications service - Voice Over
Internet Protocol or VOIP. The service lets consumers use Internet
technology like telephones.
Adobe Readies Acrobat 7.0
Adobe Systems by the end of the year will release version 7.0 of its
Acrobat products, including a new free Acrobat Reader that now includes
reviewing capabilities, the company plans to announce this week.
With the updates, San Jose, California-based Adobe is underscoring its
focus on workgroups and document management. The client products all tie
in to the company's Intelligent Document Platform, a set of elements Adobe
wants to use to make PDF (Portable Document Format) with XML (Extensible
Markup Language) additions a common way to get data in and out of
enterprise systems.
Acrobat 7.0 Professional users can create PDF files and allow those to be
reviewed and commented on by Acrobat Reader 7.0 users. The reader features
a new reviewing toolbar that can be enabled when the PDF file is created in
Acrobat Professional, according to Adobe.
Included with Acrobat 7.0 Professional is Adobe LiveCycle Designer, a tool
to design PDF forms that work with back-end enterprise systems using XML.
These special forms allow organizations to automatically process data sent
in PDF forms, so there's no need to re-enter the information into their own
back-end systems.
Adobe's Intelligent Document Platform goes up against Microsoft's XML plans
for Office and InfoPath and competes with products from several smaller
vendors.
Catering to its traditional audience of design professionals, Adobe has
enhanced the Acrobat applications to display PDF files that include "live"
3D computer-aided design (CAD) content as opposed to a static 3D picture,
the company says.
The high-end Acrobat 7.0 Professional is targeted at technical and creative
professionals and is priced at $449. An upgrade from selected preceding
versions is available for $159.
Acrobat 7.0 Standard is aimed at business professionals and costs $299,
with the upgrade version priced at $99. Acrobat Elements is available only
through Adobe's volume licensing program as a PDF creation tool and costs
$39 per seat for a 100-seat license.
Acrobat 7.0 Standard and Professional will be available in English, French,
German and Japanese by the end of the year for Microsoft's Windows and
Apple Computer's Macintosh operating systems. Acrobat Reader 7.0 will be
available for Windows and Mac by year's end and next year for Linux, Pocket
PC, Palm OS, and Symbian, according to Adobe.
Sun to Give Out Operating System for Free
After investing roughly $500 million and spending years of development time
on its next-generation operating system, Sun Microsystems Inc. on Monday
will announce an aggressive price for the software - free.
Sun, which has never completely rebounded from the tech collapse in 2001,
hopes the no-cost of Solaris 10 will not only attract customers but also
expand the number of developers who write programs that work on computers
running the operating system.
The result, Sun believes, will be renewed demand for its servers and
services. The company also will charge subscription fees for Solaris
support and service programs that are typically sought by the businesses
and organizations that Sun targets.
"Hewlett Packard sells a printer at a low price and makes a lot of money
on printer cartridges. Gillette gives you the razor and makes a lot of
money on the blades," said Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive. "There
are different ways to drive market penetration."
Solaris 10 will be unveiled Monday at an event in San Jose, though it won't
be formally released until the end of January. It will work on more than
270 computer platforms running on chips from Sun, Intel Corp. or Advanced
Micro Devices Inc.
The price of earlier versions of Solaris typically ran between hundreds and
thousands of dollars - depending on the system that was being run by the
software, said Tom Goguen, Sun's vice president of operating platforms.
Sun also has promised make the underlying code of Solaris available under
an open-source license, though the details have not been released. With
access to the code, Solaris users will be able to take advantage of its
features when developing their own software and systems.
The move stands in contrast to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and other
proprietary operating systems in which the blueprints are released only to
select outsiders, if any.
And, depending on the final license, it could make Solaris more competitive
with open-source operating systems like Linux and distributors such as Red
Hat Inc.
"When we open source, the one advantage we thought Red Hat had is gone.
Then we both have an advantage with respect to Microsoft," McNealy said.
"(Sun has) a worldwide service and support organization, which we think is
way better than either company in the enterprise."
Solaris also will run programs written for the Linux operating system
without having to make any changes.
Though Sun also sells lower-end systems that run Linux, it believes Solaris
is a better value proposition. To strengthen its case, Solaris 10 will
include security features that in the past were only part of a trusted
version sold strictly to government agencies and the military.
Sun, a star of the late 1990s tech boom, fell on hard times as corporate
spending shrunk and rivals like IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. started
offering machines with less expensive hardware and software.
The Santa Clara-based company has been trying to return to solid footing
for years, and McNealy said Solaris 10 is an important part of the
company's transformation.
"It's kind of the tent pole - it just kind of holds up the whole deal," he
said.
Last month, Sun announced its second consecutive quarter of revenue growth,
though profits remain elusive. McNealy believes the company he co-founded
in 1982 has already turned the corner, though the financials have yet to
show it.
"There's always a lag with companies our size," McNealy said. "And that's
assuming we're not making dumb mistakes right now that I don't know about."
Firefox Leaves No Reason to Endure Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer, you're fired.
That should have been said a long time ago. After Microsoft cemented a
monopoly of the Web-browser market, it let Internet Explorer go stale,
parceling out ho-hum updates that neglected vulnerabilities routinely
exploited by hostile Web sites. Not until August's Windows XP Service Pack
2 update did (some) users get any real relief.
And yet people found reasons to stick with IE - alternative browsers cost
money, were too slow, too complicated, or didn't work with enough Web
sites.
No more. Tuesday, the answer to IE arrived: a safe, free, fast, simple and
compatible browser called Mozilla Firefox.
Firefox (available for Win 98 or newer, Mac OS X and Linux at
www.mozilla.org) is an unlikely rival, developed by a small nonprofit group
with extensive volunteer help. Its code dates to Netscape and its
open-source successor, Mozilla, but in the two years since Firefox debuted
as a minimal, browser-only offshoot of those sprawling suites, it has grown
into a remarkable product.
Firefox displays an elegant simplicity within and without. Its toolbar
presents only the basic browsing commands: back, forward, reload, stop,
home. Its Options screen consists of five simple categories of settings -
most of which don't need adjusting, since the defaults actually make sense.
One in particular should delight many long-suffering Web users: Firefox
blocks pop-up ads automatically.
But Firefox's security goes deeper than that. It doesn't support
Microsoft's dangerous ActiveX software, which gives a Web site the run of
your computer. It omits IE's extensive hooks into the rest of Windows,
which can turn a mishap into a systemwide meltdown.
Firefox resists "phishing" scams, in which con artists lure users into
entering personal info on fake Web pages, by making it easier to tell good
sites from bad. When you land on an encrypted page - almost no phishing
sites provide this protection - Firefox advertises that status by
highlighting the address bar in yellow. It also lists that page's domain
name on the status bar; if that doesn't match what you see in the address
bar, you're probably on a phishing site.
To keep Firefox current with any security fixes, the browser is designed to
check for updates automatically.
A "Find" bar at the bottom of Firefox's window lets you search for words on
a page without blocking your view of the page itself; as you type a query,
the first matching item is highlighted in green. "Find Next" and "Find
Previous" buttons jump to other matches, and a "Highlight" button paints
all of them in yellow.
For searches across the entire Web, a box at the top right provides a
shortcut to Google queries, and a menu lists five other sites, including
Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. Downloadable plug-ins offer access to such
resources as the Internet Movie Database.
What if that Google search yields four interesting sites? Hold down the
Control key as you click each link, and they will open behind separate tabs
in your existing window. This tabbed browsing - a feature shared with
almost all non-IE browsers - is far more efficient and far less cluttered
than the old one-page-per-window approach.
Busy readers can also use Firefox's built-in RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) newsreader to fetch updates from Web sites that publish their
content using this standard. This "Live Bookmarks" feature lacks the
flexibility of a stand-alone newsreader, but it's also simpler.
Web addicts can customize Firefox to no end with browser extensions that
add functions and themes that alter its looks. Find the Options window's
settings too limiting? Type "about: config" into the address bar and you'll
see about 600 preferences to tweak.
I've used Firefox as my default browser since February, and in that time
I've found few Web sites that don't look right in it. Most of the time,
it's the Web site's fault: Microsoft's MSN Video blocks all non-IE
browsers, while SideStep's airfare-search tool employs ActiveX (an
ActiveX-free version is in the works). In these rare cases, I will fire up
IE - it's not like I can uninstall it - or, more often, vote with my mouse
and move on to another site.
Switching from IE to Firefox is nearly painless. Download a 4.7-megabyte
installer, run it, and let it import your existing IE data. Your plug-ins,
bookmarks, browsing history and even cookies should transfer over (IE's
home page and any saved passwords should be imported, but were not in my
tests); you can then pick up in Firefox exactly where you left off in IE.
I think anybody using Internet Explorer should switch to Firefox today.
Seriously. Even if you've loaded every IE security update, Firefox will
give you a faster, more useful view of the Web. If you haven't - or if you
use a pre-XP version of Windows ineligible for Service Pack 2's security
fixes - it would be lunacy to stick with IE.
(If you're using Mac OS X or Linux, there's no such urgency; Apple's
Safari, for example, is a fine browser in its own right and offers a few
conveniences that Firefox leaves out.)
Firefox's story doesn't end with this 1.0 version. Some upgrades, such as
a rewrite of its awkward bookmarks-management interface, are waiting for
later releases. But the beauty of an open-source product like this is that
you can participate in its evolution. Firefox's code is open for anybody
to inspect and improve; you can browse a database of bugs
(bugzilla.mozilla.org) and vote on what you want to see changed next.
All of these advantages may still not suffice to knock off IE anytime soon.
But Firefox's development won't grind to a halt if it doesn't suit some
company's marketing plans. Can you say that about IE?
McAfee Debuts Enterprise Anti-Spyware Tool
Security software firm McAfee has unveiled a new module for its virus-scan
engine that is designed to help businesses fight spyware.
The McAfee Anti-Spyware Enterprise Edition module is the industry's first
anti-spyware tool to offer centralized management, according to the
company.
The module should find success in a marketplace that is in need of such
tools, Yankee Group analyst Eric Ogren told NewsFactor.
"It's not surprising that anti-virus software companies would start
targeting spyware," he said. "It's a scourge."
McAfee's module uses real-time scanning to identify and eliminate malicious
applications, including entries in the Windows Registry and other areas
where spyware programs reside.
The tool plugs into McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 7.1 and 8.0i to add a layer
of protection against spyware, keystroke loggers, adware and dialers.
Since the software is tightly integrated, I.T. administrators can manage
both products as a single agent.
The module is managed centrally under a single console with the company's
ePolicy Orchestrator for the enterprise and ProtectionPilot for small to
mid-size businesses.
Spyware has become more than a consumer nuisance, according to recent
reports. An IDC survey of 600 North American organizations, for example,
showed that spyware was a serious concern.
Some companies ranked it ahead of spam, hackers and cyberterrorism as a
threat to network security.
As spyware proliferates, companies can expect to see more software
controls, Ogren noted.
"The industry is starting to realize the seriousness of the threat," he
said, adding that it would have been preferable to have software companies
working on the problem earlier.
"At this point, they have to catch up, but at least they're recognizing the
vulnerability," said Ogren.
Yahoo, EarthLink to Test New Anti-Spam System
EarthLink Inc. and Yahoo Inc. said on Monday they would begin tests of a
new anti-spam technology that encodes digital signatures into customers'
e-mail as a way to separate legitimate messages from unwanted spam.
Developed by Yahoo, the technology is one of several emerging standards
that seeks to flush out fake addresses used by spammers to slip through
content filters. It would be invisible to regular Internet users.
Yahoo's DomainKeys embeds outgoing messages with an encrypted digital
signature matched to a signature on the server computer that sends the
message.
Internet providers could check the signatures on incoming messages and
block those that do not match up, though they are more likely to use it
alongside other anti-spam technologies.
Internet experts generally agree that DomainKeys provides a higher level
of security than a Microsoft Corp.-backed standard known as SenderID, but
is more difficult to implement and requires about 10 percent more computing
power to process.
Google Inc.'s Gmail and Indian Internet provider Sify have already begun
using DomainKeys.
Yahoo Mail Deploys Sender Authentication
Yahoo Mail will begin using a form of sender authentication technology
called "DomainKeys" to protect users from phishing and other online scams,
the company announced.
The software, which is based on cryptographic technology, validates the
true origin of e-mail messages, the company explains.
Yahoo rolled out the sender authentication technology along with several
other upgrades to its mail service, including advanced search capabilities,
an increase in free storage to 250 megabytes, and easier address
book-transfer and address-notification tools.
Sender authentication technology has been a topical issue lately, given the
proliferation of spam and the ever-increasing sophistication of phishing
ruses. The challenge with DomainKeys - as well as other technologies
offered by such vendors as Microsoft - is the lack of consistent standards.
"There is a lot of dueling technology out there," says Gregg Mastoras,
senior security analyst for Sophos.
"In general, we applaud any provider that uses this technology," he tells
NewsFactor. "But until some standard is reached, companies like Yahoo will
be forced to adopt multiple technologies or pick one."
Yahoo developed the DomainKeys technology and is providing it royalty-free
to the industry.
A sending system uses a private key to generate a signature and inserts the
signature in the e-mail header, according to the company. The receiving
e-mail system uses the public key, published in the Domain Name System, to
verify the signature of the e-mail.
Even with a standards agreement in place, sender authentication technology
will make only a slight dent in spam - despite claims to the contrary.
There is just too much spam out there, Mastoras says. "Also, some spammers
have gotten on the so-called 'reputation databases.'"
Phishing is another matter entirely. "A broadly accepted sender
authentication standard - and the widespread deployment of the technology
- will make a serious dent in phishing scams," Mastoras predicts.
That is because most people do business online with a very small universe
of providers, and the system will be able to recognize these addresses.
Spamming the Big Fish
Most business people with a long-standing e-mail address know the pain of
spam. But Bill Gates may have all of us whiners beat.
According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Gates receives four million
e-mails per day. The vast majority of those are spam, Ballmer said.
Ballmer argued that Bill Gates is the most spammed person in the world
during a talk he gave to the Singapore Government Leader's forum. He did
not say who ranked next on the list, but said that Gates has a staff of
several people dedicated to nothing but sorting through his e-mail.
Wherever Ballmer himself ranks in the not-so-privileged list of top spam
recipients, he claims to receive only about 10 junk e-mail messages in his
inbox every day. That low number, he says, is due to the effectiveness of
Microsoft's anti-spam technology.
What Ballmer did not mention is the discord among those in the software
world about exactly what should be done to combat spam. Microsoft has been
active in efforts to combat junk e-mail - especially as relates to its
Web-based e-mail system, MSN Hotmail - but those efforts seem to have
stalled.
In September, the Internet body responsible for developing general
proposals into working standards for the Web community shut down the
working group that was trying to make sense of sender identification
parameters to fight spam.
Part of the problem, Meta Group's Matt Cain told NewsFactor, is that there
is contention between open-source community participants and Microsoft over
patents it holds on anti-spam technology.
Group members had expressed increasing concern over Microsoft's apparent
ownership of some of the technology on which the "Sender ID" portion of the
standards was to be based.
"Even though Microsoft didn't want any royalties on its apparent patents,"
he said, "just the fact that there are patents out there sticks in the
open-source craw," he explained.
New Sober Worm on the Loose
A new version of the Sober worm appeared on the Internet early Friday
morning and already it is having quite a bit of success infecting users in
Europe through the use of social engineering.
Sober.J arrives in an e-mail message that appears to be a returned-mail
error message, telling the user that an e-mail sent earlier has bounced.
The message typically contains a .zip, .bat, .com, .scr or .pif attachment
and a body text that is some variation on the following:
This mail was generated automatically.More info about --YAHOO-- under:
http://www.yahoo.com-------
Occured_Errors:178.218.194.86_
does_not_like_recipient.# 185:
MAILBOX NOT FOUND# 144:
Giving_up_on_178.218.194.86.# 533:
This_account_has_been_discontinued_
[#413].End-------
The original mail is attached.Auto_Mail.System: [yahoo]
The subject line of the e-mail message varies, but often indicates that the
message is a warning about a bounced e-mail, such as:
Delivery_failure_notice
Faulty_mail delivery
Mail_delivery failed
When the recipient opens the attachment, the worm displays a fake error
message saying that a portion of the WinZip software is missing. The worm
then copies itself to the Windows System folder in two separate locations,
using filenames that it constructs dynamically from a small set of common
strings, including sys, spool, crypt, host, dir, service, win, run, 32,
data, and a few others, according to an analysis by McAfee Inc., based in
Santa Clara, Calif. The filename always ends in "exe."
Sober.J then creates several registry keys to ensure it will be run on
startup and searches for e-mail addresses on the infected machine. It then
begins mailing itself to all of the addresses it finds.
AOL Developing File-Backup Service
America Online is developing a new service that will let its members back
up files from their PCs onto AOL data centers, so members can recover files
either deleted accidentally or lost due to a hard-drive failure, an AOL
executive says.
"The concept is for users to very easily, either automatically or with one
click, back up files from their hard drives to the AOL data centers," says
Kerry Parkins, director of product marketing at AOL.
The backup feature is an interesting one to add to the AOL online service,
but its adoption will depend heavily on AOL's making a case to members
about its benefits, since PC users in general aren't in the habit of
backing up their hard-drive data, says David Card, a Jupiter Research
analyst.
The file backup will be a premium service with tiered monthly pricing based
on storage levels: $3 for 100MB, $5 for 250MB, or $10 for 1GB, on top of
the monthly AOL fee, according to information gathered from an AOL brochure
and from AOL's online service, where the service is currently being
beta-tested. Members can access it by typing keyword: File Backup.
Files stored at the AOL data centers will be encrypted, and access to them
will be controlled via a password and an answer to a security question set
up by the user, according to the AOL information. Users will determine when
and how frequently AOL performs the automated backups; users need only to
make sure that their computers are turned on and connected to the Internet
at the scheduled backup times, according to the AOL information.
The files will be stored on two separate AOL data centers for added
redundancy. If users need to retrieve files from the AOL data centers, they
will be able to do it either from the proprietary AOL online service
interface or from any computer's Web browser, pointed to AOL.com, according
to the AOL information.
The idea for the service came from an AOL survey that found about half of
its members have experienced loss of data from their hard drives that they
hadn't backed up, according to the AOL information.
Though users will be able to back up any file they want, the service isn't
designed to restore an entire hard drive including program files; rather,
the service is for storing copies of files that are important and hard to
replace, according to the AOL information.
The company doesn't yet have a timetable for when the service will be
available, AOL's Parkins says.
On Thursday, AOL launched the latest version of its online service, AOL 9
Security Edition, which includes a variety of new and enhanced online
security tools.
Microsoft Targets Older People for Web Via TV
For people trying to get their aging parents on the Web so they can read
e-mail and get digital photos of the family, Microsoft Corp. has a message:
Don't give up.
The hassle of buying, installing and learning how to operate a personal
computer remains a daunting task for a generation more comfortable sitting
in front of a television set instead of a monitor, despite software and
hardware advances that make it easier than ever to get online.
But now Microsoft, the largest player in the market, is using those
advances to zero in on an age group that wants to surf the Web and is
estimated at 40 million strong.
It's all part of a way for the Redmond, Washington-based company to extend
its software business beyond Windows for the desktop and into living rooms
and pocket devices.
MSN TV 2, the latest version of an interactive platform once known as
WebTV, launched last month as part of a renewed effort to spread the use
of Microsoft's software for browsing the Web, reading news and e-mail, and
accessing digital content.
"Our average user is 57 years old," said Andy Sheldon, senior director of
product marketing for MSN TV. "These people are getting to the age where
they don't want to deal with complicated ways of connecting to the Web."
Besides older people, Sheldon said Microsoft is targeting all first-time
Web users, particularly in developing economies where the Internet is out
of many people's
reach because of the cost of a PC.
MSN TV, the second generation of the product that launched after Microsoft
bought WebTV in 1997, costs $200 for a set-top box, remote and wireless
keyboard.
Users must also sign up for a subscription. Costs are $22 per month or $200
per year for dial-up access and $10 per month or $100 per year for those
with existing high-speed broadband connections.
Included in the plan packages are e-mail and instant messaging accounts,
and for those with faster Internet access, access to 200 radio stations
and video clips. Viewers can also browse Web pages or even digital photos
stored on memory cards.
Behind Microsoft's push to capture the often overlooked older segment of
the population is the promise of carving out a chunk of the interactive
television market, estimated to grow to $2.3 billion in 2007.
Besides MSN TV, that figure also includes advanced cable services, such as
the ability to store TV shows and movies on set-top boxes that also double
as digital video recorders.
"Microsoft has pursued this market for some time with only marginal
success," Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said in a report.
Indeed, Microsoft invested billions in cable operators during the late
1990s, only to take massive paper losses when the value of those companies
fell after the Internet bubble burst.
The goal then, as the company described it, was convergence, when
television and computer technology would merge to become a comprehensive
information platform.
MSN TV is not the only route Microsoft is taking toward that goal. It now
has an edition of Windows for PCs meant to be connected to TVs in the
living room and also is making inroads in the set-top market, where its
software will be used in digital recorder-enabled set-top boxes by cable
operator Comcast Corp.
Interestingly, though, MSN TV's biggest competition may be older PCs.
Sheldon, the product marketing executive, said these machines are
increasingly being refurbished and given to older family members so they
can connect to the Internet.
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