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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 05 Issue 49
Volume 5, Issue 49 Atari Online News, Etc. December 5, 2003
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2003
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Kevin Savetz
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0549 12/05/03
~ Spammers Disable Foes! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Your PC Sends Spam?
~ Microsoft Revamps MSN! ~ Yahoo Goes After Spam! ~ Brightmail Updated!
~ Midwest Gaming Classic ~ New PSX Pared-Down! ~ Beware eBay Scam!
~ Toshiba's Erasable Ink ~ Hotmail Gets Facelift! ~ Space Invaders!
-* Napster Offers Free Trial!! *-
-* Pirated Longhorn Being Sold in Asia *-
-* AOL Offers New Subscribers Cheap PC Deal! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm officially in mourning! The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone. The
holiday is now officially over for me. Big sigh...
Hey, look out the window - it appears that winter is bearing down on us with
a vengeance! You may have recently noticed the Northeast made the national
news earlier in the week. We got hit with a brief snow squall which
resulted in traffic snarls being compared to those from the Blizzard of '78!
I was one of the fortunate who, because of my early work hours, missed it
entirely! It took some of my staff over four hours to get to work! And
there was barely a dusting of snow on the ground! I couldn't believe some
of the horror stories that I was hearing until I saw some of the reports on
the evening news later that day. Driving home that afternoon after work
showed little evidence that we ever had any snow!
And now the bitter cold is stuck in a pattern over us. Naturally, the
weekend is likely going to be "ruined" with a major snowstorm. I better
make sure that the snowthrower is ready to go; it may be a long snowy winter
again this year! Fortunately, my home projects planned for this weekend are
indoors. We've completed almost all of the new flooring in one of our new
rooms. I hope to finish off that room and the other one this weekend; and
hope I don't have to go out for any last-minute supplies!
Well, it's time to get bundled up and ready for some snow, so let's move on
to this week's issue!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. I'm going to tell you right up front that
this column is going to be quite short. Okay, okay, stop the cheering.
<grin>
I've had a hell of a couple of weeks. I probably should preface this by
saying that my family is very close. We all hang together... not quite
like "The Waltons", but then again, who is, right?
My grandfather has had some fairly severe medical problems recently.
He's been in a convalescent home for the past several months, has
diabetes, heart and lung problems, and has recently started having
kidney problems. He's had a sore on his foot for the past month or so
that has defied all the powers and wizardry that the medical profession
has at its disposal, and today it was necessary to amputate the foot in
order to keep him going.
So there we sat in the waiting room... my father, myself and two of my
sisters (I've got 3 sisters and 3 brothers). We passed the time by
passing stories back and forth. Everything from vacations we'd spent
together to things that happened just a few weeks ago.
The most amusing, and the one that probably made everyone in that wing
of the hospital think that we had escaped from a different wing of the
hospital. But if it's true that laughter is the best medicine then we
just might have cured a patient or two.
Here's what we were laughing about...
My grandfather has recently started fantasizing about things in both the
far and near past. One of his lesser fantasies is that he bought a
trailer or motor home of some sort and gave it to one of my brothers.
We have all teased my brother quite a bit about it... "Hey Rick, how's
that trailer workin' for ya?"
It was I who broached the subject this time, and said that both my brother
and myself had simply played along when my grandfather asked me if I had
seen the trailer yet, and asked my brother if he liked it. I said I had not
seen it, and my brother said that yes, he and his family were enjoying the
trailer.
At this point in my story, one of my sisters... the one who has done the
most for my grandfather the past several years... shook her head and
said seriously, "Ricky gets EVERYTHING!"
The other sister in attendance and I started laughing. The 'jealous'
sister continued, "Hey, I've cooked and cleaned and helped grampa for
years and RICKY gets the trailer?? I mean, c'mon, even if imaginary...!"
We both laughed hysterically again as she looked at us with dismay.
After another few minutes of us laughing uncontrollably, both she and my
father joined in.
I guess you just had to be there. <grin>
Well, let's get to the news, hints, tips, and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Allan Davis asks about finding his TOS version:
"I am looking for a program that will identify the TOS version of an Atari
STE."
Lonny Pursell tells Allan:
"Grab this app:
http://home.snafu.de/thorsten.bergner/ "
John Garone asks about cache settings for HD Driver:
"What's a good # for HDDriver FAT and Data caches for a 14 meg Falcon?"
'Harry' tells John:
"With 14Mb memory, as many as you like! B^)
Start off with 100 FAT and 1000 Data and you won't go far wrong."
John replies:
"Thanks Harry. Would it be a waste to increase the FAT cache to 1000 also?"
Brian Roland adds:
"I say experiment
Too many variables exist from set-up to set up, such as the type of drive(s) and
applications, and the style of operation you're using.
Try things and see what seems to work best for you.
It'd be cool if you'll tell us what you discover."
John asks:
"what in particular should I be looking for in the way of improvement
(or not)? Ex: Should files load faster from the drive or copy faster from
drive to drive?"
Dr. Uwe Seimet, who should be the last word on HD Driver, since he wrote
it, tells John:
"I would not waste any time on these cache settings. Using a fast operating
system like MagiC is much more efficient than for improving performance
than, for instance, using 500 caches for data sectors instead of 400."
John asks Uwe:
"AT/Data caches were set for 10/10 so should I see a difference with the
higher settings as suggested (100/999)?"
Uwe tells John:
"I think the default is 100/100, which is usually fine."
Allan Davis asks about a hard drive for his STE:
"I am looking for the best solution to put a Hard Drive on my 4 Meg STE.
Cost, capacity, ease of use are the main considerations. It doesn't matter
if it is SCSI or IDE although I may want to put a CD-ROM onto the system at
some point which may indicate that SCSI would be the better option?
May be a second hand unit could be the go?
Any body who would like to share there ideas please go ahead!"
Brian Roland tells Allan:
"If you can find one....
There was a batch or two of Link 97 SCSI hosts done to fit the STe
internally. That's the BEST way to go in my opinion, as this card will do
you well with pretty much any SCSI I or SCSI II device, and it fits neatly
inside the MegaSTe case, and so can your drive. If you later did want to
run some external SCSI, it'd be as easy as using a ribbon cable with your
choice of Large or small Centronics on the far end...with a removable
external terminator pack (or a simple little toggle switch to
enable/disable termination on the internal drive as needed).
Those are hard boards to find tho.....
Another internal option is Atari's own MegaSTe/STacy host adaptor....
You can likely find one of these just about anywhere that still stocks
things Atari... Best, ATY, Atari Workshop, Wizztronics, etc....
The catch with this this host, is that AFAIK, it's going to limit you to a
1gig drive....and you can only connect one device...unless you do a hack
job on it...in which case it will drive two SCSI devices...but that's it.
This board doesn't support parity either! It's a SCSI I host...and doesn't
like long cables at all. This host doesn't generate parity either...so
you'll need a drive that parity can be disabled...or hack in a parity chip
(quite a bit of soldering involved here). Still, all in all, if you shop
around, you might get this host with a compatible drive for a reasonable
price, and it'll get the job done...and would save ya a good bit on
casing/power supply/cabling issues.
Next, there are the external options.
These come in a variety of forms and ages....
The best is if you can find a Link 97 or ICD Link II.
These hosts are basically an external cable with some circuitry built in,
and they plug into the Hard Disk (ASCI) port of the ST/e.
Both of these will need to get 5v from somewhere (most fixed SCSI drives
can supply this no problem), but both do a good job of supporting a vast
array of SCSI I and II type devices, and either should be able to deal with
larger/more modern drives.
The 'link' hosts are set up for external cabling. So you'll either need to
figure a way to loop it back inside your STe's drive bay, or invest in
casing and power supply for your 'external' drive.
There are some IDE kits so I hear....I don't know a thing about them....or
where they can be found. Maybe someone else will pipe in with that info.
Finally...there are the old pizza/shoebox options....
Atari's own Megafiles and SH lines....
Various kits built around ICD, SUPRA, etc hosts that mount in the box with
your hard drive.
These range from really early ASCI/SCSI/RLL-MFM kits, to pretty modern SCSI I
boards. They're getting quite aged and hard to find parts for at a
reasonable price....however, if you see a good deal on one somewhere...it's
pretty much plug and play
As for drives themselves....
Know what host you're getting and go from there.
Seagate drives are really good about being highly configurable to happily
go into just about any SCSI array imaginable...just about anything they
make SCSI I or II will work with all the hosts...a majority of the Seagate
SCSI III Wide will work with an adaptor as well.
If you want something with removable media....
All the Syquest SCSI removables (44, 66, EZ135, Syjet, etc...) should be
fine with any of the SCSI hosts you're likely to find.
IOmega Jaz should be fine.
For IOmega SCSI Zip drives, your host must support parity, and keep in mind that
this drive has no way of supplying term power to the bus...which means if
you have a Link type adaptor, and this is the only drive you connect...
you'll need to tap 5v from somewhere to power the Link host. If you can
read German and French....the Chips'n'Chips HYP set gives all sorts of tips
on hacking Zip drives to be plug and go...as well as various other hacks to
make various drives work with various hosts. I don't know the URL for
chips'n'chips....but a google search should pull it up right away."
Well folks, that's it for this week. I'm running out of steam pretty
quickly here. Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be
ready to listen to what they were saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - New PSX Is Pared Down!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" IGN, GameSpy to Merge!
Midwest Gaming Classic!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sony Readies Pared-Down PSX
Sony has dropped several features from its upcoming PSX, a combination
video and gaming device. The company has not been able to complete
development in time for the year-end sales period, Sony said Monday.
The PSX is Sony's first attempt at tying the worlds of consumer electronics
and games together and combines a hard drive-based video recorder, a DVD
recorder, a music player, a photo viewer, and a PlayStation 2 game console
in a single box.
A prototype of the product was displayed at the Ceatec 2003 electronics
show in Tokyo in October this year, where Sony disclosed the PSX
specifications for the first time. General product plans had been announced
earlier this year.
Last week, Sony said it will launch the product in Japan on December 13 and
again published specifications, although there are several major
differences between those disclosed in October and those released last
week.
Gone from the latest specifications are the abilities to play back DVD+RW
discs, play back data CD-R discs (although audio CDs recorded on CD-R discs
are supported), display TIFF and GIF format images, display movies taken
with Sony's Cybershot digital still cameras, and play back MP3 files. In
addition, copying of video files from the PSX's hard drive to DVD discs has
been slowed down, from 24X speed to 12X speed, and the device also cannot
connect to the PlayStation BB online gaming service.
"We have changed the specification," said Taro Takamine, a spokesperson for
Sony in Tokyo. "Basically, as of October 7 we planned some features such as
DVD+RW playback, CD-R playback, TIFF and GIF [image file] support, and
PlayStation BB, but we decided to drop such features."
The features are gone for two reasons, said Takamine.
The first is to make the device easier to use, he said. He cited the
example of browsing digital images and said that entry-level users, at
which the device is aimed, will find it easier not having to select among
JPEG, TIFF, and GIF formats.
The second reason is that development of some functions missed deadline and
had to be left out.
"Also we are not able to complete testing of some formats before the
holiday shopping season," he said. "Our priority is to launch before the
year end."
Two of the features, the abilities to read DVD+RW discs and to connect to
the PlayStation BB broadband Internet service, will be offered as a
firmware upgrade for no cost via the Internet, said Takamine, although he
could not say when Sony will offer the upgrade. "We plan to do it as soon
as possible."
When launched next week, the PSX will support DVD-R/RW writable media,
DVD-Video, Audio CDs, and all PlayStation discs, as well as the display of
JPEG-format images. It also will support ATRAC3 encoded music, which is a
format developed by Sony and used in its MiniDisc players and some other
digital audio products.
The machine has also become heavier in the two months since it was
previewed at Ceatec. At the time, Sony said it would weigh 12.4 pounds,
but the company is now quoting a weight of 12.6 pounds for the DESR-5000
and 12.8 pounds for the DESR-7000 model.
"We do not disclose that reason," said Takamine when asked about the weight
difference.
Despite the lack of several promised features the machine is still likely
to become a hot seller during the holiday period because of its price and
heavy retailer promotion. The DESR-5000 includes a 160GB hard drive, while
the DESR-7000 packs a 250GB drive; they carry prices of $730 and $912,
respectively.
Combination hard drive and DVD recorders from competitors are considerably
more expensive or offer less recording space for the same price. Toshiba's
RD-X4, which has a 250GB hard drive and goes on sale in December, costs
upwards of $1323. Hitachi's MSP-1000 combines a 120GB hard drive and DVD
recorder for around $1003.
Combination hard drive and DVD video recorders have become popular in the
last year, and the number of models available has risen sharply from a
handful a year ago to numerous models from several manufacturers today.
Sony's PSX, like some devices from competing manufacturers, has one other
potential shortcoming. It does not support CPRM (copy protection for
removable media); that means it cannot record digital terrestrial
television broadcasts, which began on Monday in Japan, unless the signal
from an external digital tuner is first converted to analog.
Video Gaming Companies IGN, GameSpy to Merge
Two of the Internet's leading video game companies, IGN Entertainment and
GameSpy Industries, on Thursday said they will merge to create a company
offering gaming news, information, downloads, data services and community
features.
San Francisco-based IGN and Irvine, California-based GameSpy, both of which
are privately held, said the deal is expected to close in the first half of
2004. IGN Chief Executive Mark Jung will be CEO of the combined company,
and GameSpy Chairman Mark Surfas will be chief strategy officer.
IGN was publicly traded until August, when it went private in a buyout lead
by Great Hill Partners and the IGN management team. It is best known for
both free and subscription content on games and gaming hardware.
GameSpy provides both gaming content and also gaming technology, allowing
publishers to put their games online and manage communities of players.
The combined company will have 194,000 paying subscribers to content and
technology services, with more than 26 million registered users.
Both the IGN.com and GameSpy.com brands are expected to be retained after
the deal closes, the two sides said in a statement.
Space Invaders Video Game Set for New U.S. Invasion
Game over? Think again.
Japanese game machine maker Taito Corp. said on Friday it plans to restart
sales of "Space Invaders" in the United States, almost 25 years after the
game first appeared in video arcades.
The classic arcade game centers on a fleet of invading aliens looking to
take over earth, but they must first deal with a lone gunner - the player -
holed up behind a fragile set of shields. It has been one of the most
popular video games of all time since it was developed in 1978.
"There has been a rebirth of classic video games in America," said Taito
spokesman Kengo Naka. "We thought it would coincide nicely with the 25th
anniversary of its debut in the U.S."
Taito aims to sell 10,000 of the stand-alone game machines at $2,772 a
unit.
While the game will not change in this latest offering, inflation has taken
its toll. One play will now cost 50 cents, compared with 25 cents a
generation ago.
Since Taito no longer has operations in the United States, the game
machines will be made through an OEM (original equipment manufacturer)
agreement with game software maker Namco Ltd.
Namco, which also has it own classic video game, "Pacman," will handle
sales of Space Invaders in the United States.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
2004 Midwest Gaming Classic Announced
Dates and a location have been announced by the organizers of the 2004
Midwest Gaming Classic. The Midwest Gaming Classic is the Midwest's only
all-encompassing electronic gaming event, featuring a large variety of
displays, vendors and special attractions for arcade uprights, computers,
pinball and home video games from past to present. The 2004 Midwest Gaming
Classic will be held on May 22nd and 23rd at the Brookfield Sheraton Hotel and
Conference Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Please visit the new Midwest
Gaming Classic website to learn more about the show and keep abreast of
announcements as they are made.
http://www.midwestclassic.net
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Asian Pirates Sell Microsoft's Next Windows System
Malaysia's brazen software pirates are hawking the next version of
Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system years before it is supposed to be
on sale.
Underscoring the scale of U.S. companies' copyright problems in Asia, CDs
containing software Microsoft has code named "Longhorn" are on sale for six
ringgit ($1.58) in southern Malaysia. Microsoft's current version of
Windows, XP, sells for upwards of $100 in the United States.
The software is an early version of Longhorn demonstrated and distributed
at a conference for Microsoft programmers in Los Angeles in October,
Microsoft Corporate Attorney Jonathan Selvasegaram told Reuters.
"It's not a ready product," he said from Malaysia. "Even if it works for a
while, I think it's very risky," to install on a home computer, he said.
Chairman Bill Gates has said Longhorn, which is not expected to be released
before 2005, would rank as Microsoft's largest software launch this decade.
The software is on sale in the largest shopping complex in Johor Bahru, the
Malaysian city bordering Singapore, alongside thousands of pirated
programs, music CDs and DVDs.
Discs in plastic covers hang from racks in more than a dozen specialized
stores in the Holiday Plaza center, even though it has its own police
station.
Such piracy is rampant in Asia, although the United States praised Malaysia
for seizing thousands of illegal discs since May. U.S. trade losses due to
piracy in Malaysia fell to $242 million last year from $316 million in
2001.
Selvasegaram said pirates would shut their shops whenever Malaysian
authorities launched a clampdown, only to reopen within days or even hours.
He said software companies were working with the authorities on the
problem, but the police were more concerned about controlling pornography.
Longhorn promises new methods of storing files, tighter links to the
Internet, greater security and fewer annoying reboots, Microsoft has said.
(US $1 = 3.8 ringgit)
Napster Offers Free Trial
It may not be a return to the heyday of free-and-easy song-swapping, but
old-school Napster users have a chance to try out the newly launched
service with a three-day free trial period this month.
Hoping to persuade holiday shoppers to throw some of their gift-giving cash
its way, Napster and its parent company, Roxio, are offering users three
days of unlimited listening of its online music catalog of over 500,000
tracks along with access to 40 on-demand radio stations throughout
December, the company said Tuesday.
The free installation of Napster 2.0 is for users in the U.S. only and is
currently only compatible with systems running Microsoft's Windows XP or
Windows 2000, according to Melissa Foo, Napster's retail marketing manager
in the U.K.
As an added incentive to sign up for the Napster service, the company is
also offering five free tracks that can be burned to CD or transferred to
one of 40 compatible portable music devices for those who subscribe to the
service for $9.95 per month after their free trial ends.
Since resuscitating the Napster brand with the launch of Napster 2.0 in
October, Roxio has been pushing hard to turn the pioneering peer-to-peer
song swapping upstart into a legal, money-making business proposition with
such innovative marketing ploys as its deal with The Pennsylvania State
University, which offers students a "free" version of the service that is
paid in part by the student's information technology fee to the university.
The new Napster is similar to existing label-backed services such as
MusicNet and is also competing against Apple Computer's popular digital
music store, ITunes.
It's been two years since the free Napster service was knocked offline amid
accusations of copyright infringement from the major music record labels.
In the resulting fire sale of the company, Roxio, in Santa Clara,
California, bought Napster's intellectual property and technology patents
for around $5 million late last year.
In May, Roxio paid another $39.5 million for the online music subscription
service Pressplay, formed by Vivendi Universal and Sony Music
Entertainment, with an eye toward using the service's technology as the
platform for the revamped Napster.
The paid-service Napster has licensing deals with all five major labels
and a handful of independents. Though such licensing deals put
constrictions on the Napster service, Roxio is still a CD-burning software
provider, and as part of its holiday marketing blitz, it is offering
Napster Burnpak. The product couples Napster with Roxio's Easy CD & DVD
Creator 6 Starter Kit for $29.99, and with the December offer consumers
get to choose five free tracks from Napster that they can download to burn
to CD or DVD.
Last, but not least, the company is offering a stocking-stuffer-sized
prepaid Napster Music Card that holds 15 digital music downloads for
$14.85. The cards can be obtained at nearly 20,000 retail locations in the
U.S., Napster said.
As for a Napster 2.0 outside of the U.S., Foo would only say that the
company does have a gameplan for launching the service in Europe sometime
in the new year.
Microsoft Revamps MSN
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced its latest online service: MSN Premium. The
new service, for use with broadband Internet connections, will be available
to the general public in early January and offer a wide range of online
features including spam filters, antivirus capability, a firewall, parental
controls, photo management, exclusive multimedia content, and multiple
e-mail accounts.
MSN Premium is akin to America Online's new AOL 9.0 Optimized service.
Microsoft offers a number of applications intended for use with a broadband
Internet connection and tied together by a unified graphical interface.
Some of the apps are designed specifically for the large bandwidth
available via broadband-most notably MSN Video, which provides streaming
video from television partners such as the cable news network MSNBC and the
sports programming network ESPN.
In addition to tools, the main GUI integrates applications, many of which
are based on brand-name titles. Versions of McAfee VirusScan and McAfee
Personal Firewall Plus guard your system against unauthorized intruders, a
Microsoft Money app manages your finances, the multimedia encyclopedia is
Microsoft Encarta Premium, and a Microsoft PictureIt! release manages
photos.
The service also provides 11 e-mail accounts. The primary account receives
25MB of storage for messages and 10MB for attachments; the 10 secondary
accounts each get 10MB for messages and 3MB for attachments. You can access
the accounts via any Web browser as well as through Microsoft Outlook
Express and Outlook XP.
MSN Premium without broadband service will be $9.95 per month. If purchased
along with a broadband account from one of Microsoft's ISP partners, the
cost will vary from roughly $40 to $50 per month. AOL 9.0 Optimized is
$14.95 per month on its own and $54.95 per month if AOL supplies broadband
service.
When the new service debuts in January, the MSN family will include three
different offerings. MSN Plus will be a cheaper, less powerful version of
MSN Premium. Likely to be priced between $5 and $7 per month, it will lack
several of the leading features and apps, including the parental controls,
the McAfee antivirus and firewall software, secondary e-mail accounts,
photo software, Microsoft Money, and Encarta. If you don't have a
broadband account and want to save a little money on Internet access, you
can still opt for MSN 9 dial-up. Priced at $21.95 per month, it lets you
access the Internet via a standard phone and gives you all the tools
available with MSN Premium except the antivirus and firewall software.
Brightmail Updates Anti-Spam Enterprise Edition
Brightmail will release an updated version of its Anti-Spam Enterprise
Edition next Tuesday that promises to seek out and destroy more spam,
provide corporate IT additional administration tools, and allow users of
Notes and Outlook to better filter junk mail from their inboxes.
Anti-Spam Enterprise Edition 5.5, which will launch Dec. 9, offers
administrator-configurable spam thresholds that set the aggressiveness of
the filters, automatic updating of blacklists, and additional reporting
functions for monitoring spam volume and junk mail characteristics.
A new agent for Domino and an updated plug-in for Outlook - which provide
end users with better control of the spam filtering capabilities of the
server-based software - are also part of the update, said Brightmail.
Yahoo Proposes New Internet Anti-Spam Structure
Internet services company Yahoo Inc. on Friday said it is working on
technology to combat e-mail spam by changing the way the Internet works to
require authentication of a message's sender.
Yahoo said its "Domain Keys" software, which it hopes to launch in 2004,
will be made available freely to the developers of the Web's major
open-source e-mail software and systems.
Spam - unwanted Internet e-mail, direct advertising, body part enlargement,
and other commercial endeavors on the Web - has quickly become Web surfers'
Public Enemy No. 1 as inboxes around the globe are clogged with hundreds of
such messages daily.
Governments around the world are working on legislation to reduce spam, but
in the interim a number of companies have stepped in with technology
proposals designed to filter and block the electronic detritus.
Under Yahoo's new architecture, a system sending an e-mail message would
embed a secure, private key in a message header. The receiving system would
check the Internet's Domain Name System for the public key registered to
the sending domain.
If the public key is able to decrypt the private key embedded in the
message, then the e-mail is considered authentic and can be delivered. If
not, then the message is assumed not to be an authentic one from the sender
and is blocked.
"One of the core problems with spam is we don't know, Yahoo doesn't know,
the user doesn't know ... if it really came from the party who it says it
came from," Brad Garlinghouse, vice president for communication products
at Yahoo, told Reuters. "What we're proposing here is to re-engineer the
way the Internet works with regard to the authentication of e-mail."
While it might seem that Yahoo would need essentially all of the world's
e-mail systems on board with Domain Keys for it to work, Garlinghouse said
the technology would work if even a few major providers adopt it.
"If we can get only a small percentage of the industry to buy in, we think
it can have a dent," he said.
Andrew Barrett, executive director of the SpamCon Foundation, an anti-spam
organization, said Yahoo's sheer size in online e-mail would give the
technology a boost.
"The fact that Yahoo, one of the four big players in the space, is making
it happen gets it a long way there," he told Reuters. "It's a great tool
to have in the toolbox."
Garlinghouse also argued that Yahoo's proposal should be attractive to
other e-mail providers because it is free and comes with no special
restrictions.
"You look at a lot of the proposals for spam management out there (and)
they king-make," he said. "Are we trying to propose something that benefits
us disproportionately? Not at all."
SpamCon's Barrett cautioned, though, that implementation would not be
without its costs.
"It's a good approach for those that are willing to use it," he said. "Any
kind of cryptographic solution is going to involve some computing overhead,
and that's not cheap."
Facelift for Hotmail Goes Live
Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN online service that
will be available in early January. Today, the company unveiled a new
version of Hotmail, its Web-based e-mail service. This update, already
available to the general public, includes improved spam filters, calendar
software, and a contact application for keeping track of names, addresses,
and phone numbers.
Much like the similar services from Yahoo! and Mail.com, Hotmail lets you
send and re-ceive e-mail via the Internet using any browser. You don't
need a standalone e-mail client or an e-mail address assigned by an
employer or ISP, and if you're willing to forgo a few amenities, you can
use the service for free.
A few minor changes appear in the service's overall interface. The company
says that opening and editing your list of favorite contacts is easier, for
instance. Microsoft also points to improved anti-spam tools that use
technology from Brightmail, one of the leading vendors in the field. You
can also adjust the stringency of the service's junk mail filters and alert
Microsoft to specific spam messages.
But the real news is the addition of calendar and contact software. Much
like Outlook, Microsoft's standalone e-mail client, Hotmail now lets you
share your calendar with friends and family, receive reminders for
important appointments, and navigate through the phone numbers and
addresses of all your contacts.
A basic version of Hotmail is free, giving you 2MB of storage for messages,
1MB for at-tachments, and a tool that scans for (without removing) viruses.
A pay version of Hotmail is available for $19.95, giving you 10MB of
message storage and 3MB for attachments.
According to Microsoft, more than 145 million people use Hotmail each
month.
AOL Offers New Subscribers $299 PC Kit
In its latest attempt to stem declining subscriber numbers at its flagship
Internet service, America Online is offering new customers a computer for
$299.
The offer, which expires at month's end, requires a one-year subscription
at $23.90 a month. The low-end computer comes with a color printer and
17-inch monitor, a package worth about $750.
AOL and other Internet services introduced similar deals in 1999, offering
$400 rebates on computer equipment for subscribers who signed up for three
years. The expensive promotions ended after a few years.
AOL, of Dulles, Va., is still the largest Internet service provider, with
24.7 million U.S. subscribers on Sept. 30. But it has lost 2 million
subscriber since last year to competitors with cheaper dial-up service and
faster broadband connections.
Last month, AOL introduced a dial-up service with limited features for
$9.95 a month under the Netscape brand.
The computer included in the latest promotion, which was first reported by
The Wall Street Journal, is built by Systemax Inc., of Port Washington,
N.Y. It has a 1.7 gigahertz Intel Celeron processor, 256 megabytes of
memory and a 40 gigabyte hard drive. It has a CD-ROM drive, but no CD
burner or DVD drive.
The printer is a Lexmark color inkjet model.
Spammers Unleash E-Mail Worm to Disable Critics
Anti-spam organizations are the target of a new Internet worm outbreak that
tries to knock them offline with a crippling data barrage, computer
security experts said Tuesday.
Virus experts believe the worm, W32/Mimail-L, is the work of a vengeful
spam e-mail peddler bent on paralyzing organizations that try to deal with
spam, the torrents of get-rich-quick schemes and body-enhancement deals
that clog in-boxes daily.
"It's the third Mimail variation to come after us, except this one is
trying to do more," said Steve Linford, founder of The Spamhaus Project, a
British-based group that singles out spammers. Spamhaus was hit by Mimail
late Monday.
According to anti-virus and spam-filtering company Sophos Plc, the
Mimail-L program comes as an attachment to an e-mail purporting to be from
a woman named Wendy who details an erotic encounter and then offers naked
photographs.
Clicking on the attachment activates the virus. Once triggered, the worm
forwards itself to other e-mail users.
The worm can also turn the affected PC into a "zombie," which can then be
remotely commanded to bombard one of a select group of targets, such as
Spamhaus, with a disabling blizzard of data - a so-called denial-of-service
attack.
In a new twist, a follow-up e-mail is sent to the infected user stating
that an order for a CD containing images of child pornography will be
delivered to their postal address.
To stop the order, the e-mail advises, they should respond to what appears
to be an e-mail address for billing complaints, but which is actually an
e-mail for one of the eight targets.
"So many Internet users are flooding us with complaints about these child
porn CDs that we supposedly ordered for them," said Linford, adding that he
was cooperating with police.
He believes the worm was the work of one of three organized spam gangs that
traffic in stolen credit cards and have hit him with distributed
denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks in the past.
"These guys write trojan (viruses), they carry out DDOS attacks and they
get their money through selling stolen credit cards and spamming," Linford
said.
Virus experts said the outbreak was light compared to the rash of worms and
viruses that plagued the Internet last summer. "We have had reports in the
dozens, not in the hundreds," said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos.
"But what this shows is that there is more evidence that virus writers and
spammers are now colluding," he added.
Security experts have been warning that some spammers have adopted
virus-writing tactics to silence their biggest critics.
The stakes are high. Anti-spam organizations create black-out lists of
known spammers that are then distributed to other Internet service
providers to automatically reject messages coming from these sources.
"They are angry with us because we try to stop the spamming cycle,"
Linford said.
Is Your PC Sending Viagra Spam Behind Your Back?
Security experts have identified what they suspect to be the biggest
culprit behind that seemingly unceasing torrent of e-mail spam messages and
computer virus outbreaks.
The unwitting culprit, they say, is the home user with a broadband, or
always-on, connection. In fact, it could be you.
Viruses and related "worms" typically target computers that run on
Microsoft Windows and have a high-speed broadband connection. In the past
six months, a new generation of bug has emerged that contains a so-called
"trojan" program which discreetly installs itself into the innards of the
PC.
An effective "trojan" gives the author near complete control of a
victimized machine - almost always a computer that is not equipped with
proper firewall and security software.
The result is that the computer becomes a "zombie" ready to carry out any
nefarious command.
Once hit, a computer user would never suspect that through their machines
flow waves of spam and e-mail-borne viruses, experts say.
Some machines have even been commandeered to participate in debilitating
"denial of service" attacks, sending a flood of data requests capable of
knocking an internet company offline.
The fast-spreading Sobig.F virus this summer was the first to do this,
experts said.
Suresh Ramasubramanian, manager of Hong Kong-based e-mail filtering company
Outblaze, said the volume of spam his firm has intercepted has exploded
since Sobig.F emerged in August.
Increasingly, it appears to be average home users whose PCs send out
discounts for Viagra and penis-enlargement offers. "These are your typical
church-going people," he said.
With countries outlawing spam and even setting criminal penalties and
fines, some industry observers wonder if ordinary computer users will get
caught up in a dragnet.
"Almost a third of all spam is being sent from hijacked, innocent
computers," said Graham Cluley, of British virus and spam-filtering firm
Sophos.
"What happens if it's actually grandma or little Timmy's computer sending
out the spam?"
British police recently warned that crime syndicates, many in Eastern
Europe, are using denial of service attacks to blackmail businesses,
threatening to knock them offline unless they pay a small fee.
These groups are honing their virus-writing skills to build up an army of
machines to use at their beck and call, investigators say. For now, sending
spam through an affected machine is more common.
It is one of a series of new tricks spammers and virus writers have devised
to obscure their tracks. Known spammers are often blocked by spam filters,
thus making it crucial to mask their identity through a computer user with
a clean record.
Steve Linford, founder of the spam-fighting organization The Spamhaus
Project, said his firm has gathered evidence of spammers hosting Web sites
that hawk everything from prescription drugs to pornographic images to
Russian brides on hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected PCs.
A spammers' Web site hops from infected computer to infected computer in a
digital version of cat-and-mouse. Linford estimates the ranks of machines
capable of piggy-backing sex sites and the like grows by 100,000 machines
per week.
"Every time we trace to a Viagra web site now, the site will change
location, sometimes every five to 10 minutes," he said. "It's a very
popular spamming method."
Look Out for the eBay Scam
Phishing-e-mail and Web-based efforts by online scammers to hijack personal
information from unsuspecting users-hit home at PC Magazine this week. A
number of magazine staffers, who are a members at eBay, received highly
official looking e-mails, purportedly from eBay's accounts management
department, asking for credit card information, a social security number,
and more. The magazine staffers caught the ruse and notified eBay, but
users should be warned that a fake eBay mail scam is making the rounds.
The trick message arrived with a very official looking header featuring
eBay's logo. It was signed "Thank you, Accounts Management." The text read:
"Dear eBay Member, We at eBay are sorry to inform you that we are having
problems with the billing information of your account. We would appreciate
it if you would visit our website, eBay Billing Center, and fill out the
proper information that we are needing to keep you as an eBay member." The
"eBay Billing Center" referenced was a link to a Web page asking for a
credit card number, a social security number, and more. The message also
contained an "ebay.com" suffix, just as a real message from an eBay
employee might.
As is often true in spoof messages and phishing efforts, the trick e-mail
contained telltale signs that it did not come from eBay. The subject line
of the message read "eBay Member Billing Information Uptade" with the word
"update" misspelled. The text string "fill out the proper information that
we are needing" also had suspicious syntax.
The PC Magazine staffers who received the solicitation contacted eBay about
the e-mail in question and received a lengthy response back, saying that
the message was not generated by eBay. The response included the following
text: "Thank you for contacting eBay's Trust and Safety Department about
e-mail solicitations that are falsely made to appear to have come from
eBay. These e-mails, commonly referred to as "spoof" messages, are sent in
an attempt to collect sensitive personal information from recipients who
reply to the message or click on a link to a Web page requesting this
information. The e-mail you reported did not originate from, nor is it
endorsed by, eBay. We are very concerned about this problem and are working
diligently to address the situation. We have investigated the source of
this e-mail and have taken appropriate action."
The message from eBay's Trust and Safety Department also warns against
supplying personal information in any e-mail and says that eBay will never
ask, via e-mail, for information such as a credit card number or an e-mail
password. It says that users who are suspicious of any message appearing
to come from eBay should not click on any links supplied within the e-mail
and that users can mail a question to spoof@ebay.com.
This latest ruse falls in line with growing amounts of data showing that
online identity theft is an out-of-control problem. According to a recent
FTC survey, 27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in
the last five years, and a whopping 9.9 million people joined this
unfortunate list in just the last 12 months. "For several years we have
been seeing anecdotal evidence that identity theft is a significant problem
that is on the rise," said Howard Beales, Director of the FTC's Bureau of
Consumer Protection, in announcing the survey results. "Now we know."
Toshiba Hopes to Make Big Mark with Erasable Ink
It may not be the paperless office many once thought possible, but it may
be the next best thing.
With Toshiba Corp's new erasable ink, the green at heart can have their
paper without the guilt.
The company's new "e-Blue" erasing machine uses heat treatment to remove
words and images printed with erasable toner on 400-500 A4 sized pages at
a time.
The process takes three hours, and will allow companies to re-use paper and
cut office waste.
"Despite new tools like e-mail and the development of all sorts of wireless
technologies, people still just like to have things in paper," said Toshiba
spokesman Junichi Nagaki. "We don't think demand for paper will ever
disappear completely."
Toshiba will launch the toner and erasing machine, which will retail for
around 300,000 yen ($2,744), on December 8 in Japan.
It is targeting corporate clients and paper-shuffling public sector
organizations that use laser printers.
For the old fashioned, the company will also offer erasable ballpoint pens
and markers.
Paper accounts for about 40 percent of office waste in Japan, Toshiba says.
About 60 percent of that is recycled.
=~=~=~=
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