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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 05
Volume 6, Issue 5 Atari Online News, Etc. January 30, 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 #0605 01/30/04
~ Cyber Attack Warning! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Spam Turned Into Art!
~ Dutch Police Bust 52! ~ iBook Repair Program! ~ Google Gets Sued!
~ End of Spam By 2006?! ~ 'CtrlAltDelete' Author ~ GameDay Picks Cats!
~ Violent Games Battle! ~ Telemarketers Setback! ~ Halo 2 In the Fall!
-* Labels For Pornographic Spam *-
-* Gates to Spammers: Pay Us To Read! *-
-* MyDoom Virus Attacking SCO Site, and More! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I've spent the best part of my 50-plus years on this planet living in New
England. Never have I experienced the stretch of cold weather that we've
been having these past few weeks. You know it's cold when you consider
15-degrees as balmy! This is absolutely insane! And what is even more
insane is that I wouldn't leave this area for anything.
Speaking of cold streaks, I seem to have hit a major one with regard to
doing some major editorializing. Maybe that's a good thing, I don't know.
There aren't really any current topics in the news that have drawn me in to
go after; and those that do, I've already done to death. So, that leaves us
all with a little less to read this week, but certainly also something less
to think about. In the meantime, I'll sit back and relax, and plan how I'm
going to celebrate watching this Sunday's Super Bowl. Go Pats!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Sorry I missed you last week. Dana will
tell you that I had a 'senior moment', but I'm still not really sure of
what happened. I attached last week's column to an email and sent it...
somehow or another it got un-attached. Well, here's hoping that things
go better this week.
There are a bunch of things that I want to talk about this time around,
but I'll keep it down to two or three.
First of all, The TEAM ATARI SETI@home search group has just had its
'Bicentennial'. That's right, the members of TEAM ATARI have contributed
two hundred years of CPU time in the search for a radio signal from an
extraterrestrial intelligence.
If any of you guys are reading this, there are two of us from the team
who are beta testing the new SETI application. It's different. It's a
little more flexible and allows you to control the size of the data
packets. It's coming along nicely and I'd expect the switch-over to be
announced before too much longer.
For any of you who are not TEAM ATARI members but are interested in the
search for extraterrestrial intelligence, come and visit us at:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?email=joe@joemirando.ne
&&cmd=user_stats_new
You don't need a background in science, you don't need math skills, you
don't even need to have watched CONTACT. <grin>
For information on the entire SETI@home project, check out:
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu
The next thing I want to mention is President Bush's new space
"initiative". Last week, Mr. Bush announced his new vision of where we
should be headed in space and, I admit, it's a grand vision. A base on
the moon and a manned mission to Mars. Yessir... a grand vision.
Of course, the money to pay for all of it is a little tricky. First of
all, the addition to be budget will be only a fraction (and a small
fraction at that) of what will be needed. To bridge the fiscal gap,
money will be siphoned away from other projects.
"Okay," you're saying, "it may be a fair trade-off". The problem is
'Part Two'.
Part Two is where the next budget-cutting so-and-so comes in and says,
"Hmmm... we just can't afford a lunar base or a mission to Mars. Chop,
chop, chop".
That's politics, that's bean-counting, and that's buck-passing.
Think I'm imagining it? Well NASA has just announced that it's cutting
funding for any further upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope in order
to start funding the Bush initiative.
That's what happens when politicians and the like get involved with
science. Science is about knowledge (as a matter of fact, I believe that
'science' is taken from the latin word for knowledge). Goal-oriented
initiatives almost always end up being counter-productive. The Apollo
project was great in terms of national pride, but it taught us very
little that we didn't already know.
We need a clear understanding of what our goals are and what we can
expect before we dedicate our money and our hopes to going to Mars.
Otherwise, we'll lose interest and it'll take us another quarter of a
century to venture away from home again.
Well, while we're waiting for the next bean-counter to sharpen up his
axe, let's take a look at the news, hints, tips and info from the
UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Richard Kilpatrick tells us about his new Falcon:
"First sold in 1993, somewhat earlier than the previous owner had
suggested! Absolutely mint, not a mark anywhere on the casing, no fading or
discolouring, box in reasonable condition, manuals, mouse, leads and disks
all as new.
4Mb, no HD.
Now. What to do with it. How hard is it going to be, now, to find full RAM
and an HD for it; do I need a fitting kit to get an HD? Can I download
MultiTOS or similar, since I have an external disc enclosure which has a
CD-ROM and HD inside.
It's very nice having such an unusually clean example of Atari's (almost)
finest - and for once, at the same time as an ST!
Just to make life good, I also got an RME Multiface for my G5 today - so
high-quality digital recording, here I come. Just as soon as I've figured
out how to configure Logic."
'Tim' tells Richard:
"Open it up and see if it comes with a IDE cable. If it does just connect a
laptop HD preferably under 10Gb. Grab a newer HDdriver software program
and off you go.
The Falcon does not run a lot of ST games, but runs most everything else."
Richard replies:
"There's no IDE cable and no brackets. I didn't like having to open it
up, but it's of more use with an internal HD, and probably could use the
14Mb RAM upgrade anyway!
So, either: Has anyone got a 2.5" IDE and brackets/cable for sale, and
ideally, a RAM upgrade from the standard 4Mb.
Or: Anyone interested in a boxed, as new (sadly, now opened to check
inside, but very carefully closed again) with no discolouration or wear
on the keyboard/mouse/casing, totally stock 4Mb Falcon? There's really
very little I can do with it without the HD/RAM and no monitor (my STE
has a Mono display and runs a Mac emulator).
I've hooked up an external CD-ROM and SCSI drive enclosure and plan to
do some digging on the net tonight for the utilities to format the disc
(either a 2.1Gb Fireball, or a 330Mb Seagate), then I can burn some
downloads onto CD using one of the Macs. IIRC the Falcon could read
ISO9660 no problem, at least on my old HD/Syquest/MiNT setup.
I'm wondering if the Falcon will boot from an external SCSI drive,
though. It doesn't seem to check it. "
Brian Roland adds:
"There's no IDE cable and no brackets. I didn't like having to open it
up, but it's of more use with an internal HD, and probably could use the
14Mb RAM upgrade anyway!
So, either: Has anyone got a 2.5" IDE and brackets/cable for sale, and
ideally, a RAM upgrade from the standard 4Mb.
Or: Anyone interested in a boxed, as new (sadly, now opened to check
inside, but very carefully closed again) with no discolouration or wear
on the keyboard/mouse/casing, totally stock 4Mb Falcon? There's really
very little I can do with it without the HD/RAM and no monitor (my STE
has a Mono display and runs a Mac emulator).
I've hooked up an external CD-ROM and SCSI drive enclosure and plan to
do some digging on the net tonight for the utilities to format the disc
(either a 2.1Gb Fireball, or a 330Mb Seagate), then I can burn some
downloads onto CD using one of the Macs. IIRC the Falcon could read
ISO9660 no problem, at least on my old HD/Syquest/MiNT setup.
I'm wondering if the Falcon will boot from an external SCSI drive,
though. It doesn't seem to check it.
Yes indeed it should be able to boot from SCSI. Only problems I ever
had booting a SCSI only Falcon were with CT2B and MagiC....and there are
work-arounds for that. The Falcon isn't going to scan either the IDE nor
the SCSI bus without some software either run from a floppy, or
initialized on a boot sector of a TOS compatible partition.
Did your Falcon not come with some system disks? It is my understanding
that all Falcon's shipped with 2 or 3 system disks including things like
hard disk drivers, TOS patches, print spooler, MultiTOS, some
accessaries and a game or two. If you don't have these, again, contact
me and I'll be happy to send archives of the stock Falcon System Disks."
Brian Roland asks about using Geneva with extended RAM:
"I like to use Geneva on my Mega 4 because it seems to work well with
MROS (Steinberg) applications. I put a Marpet Xtra RAM + board in this
machine, and I can't get Geneva to behave with any stability using this
board. It seems to work fine under stock TOS 2.06 and with Magic 6.01.
Things I've tried... Various auto folder orders. Adjusting the RAM flags
in all of Geneva's TSR and utilities.
If I put Geneva later in the auto folder, I usually get several bombs
when Geneva tries to load. If I put Geneva near the top, I usually get
'recursive calls to GDOS' errors. Once or twice, it actually loaded, but
Geneva doesn't see the extra RAM....some files with TT RAM flags set did
load in the upper memory, but the machine wasn't stable but for a minute
or two.
The Xtra RAM software I have is version 1.1 I believe.
So far, no luck with Geneva, and I wonder if anyone knows an answer."
Mark Duckworth tells Brian:
"First thing's first.. Are you 100% sure this is a fastram board? There's
very very few of these and I don't think the Xtra RAM + was one of them
but I could be wrong. If you're adding 4 megs of ST-ram to a 4 meg system
which has a maximum addressable of 4 megs without some interesting work,
then that could be the problem."
Brian replies:
"From the software end of things it is my understanding this Marpet board
disguises 8meg to the OS as TT RAM. To get software to use the board's
memory one is to set the TT RAM flags in a program's file header....just
like one would with a TT. In other words....programs that behave on a TT
using TT RAM should work with this board.
The board sits in the mega expansion bus and holds 8 one meg simm modules. The
board has what ever MMU it needs built in. Next, you put a little prg in
the auto folder that tells TOS about the extra memory. It has to be TOS
2.06 btw, as earlier TOS versions can't use it.
When booting, the xtraram.prg tells TOS of the presence of extra RAM, then
does a little check on hard drive software for compatibility with the new
RAM."
Djordje Vukovic adds:
"I had a similar problem with Geneva vs. Alt-RAM two years ago; it was
cured by appropriate settings of program header flags in all auto-folder
and accessory programs, including geneva.prg itself. Maybe I was wrong,
but I got an impression that some of these -had- to be set to use
Alt-RAM if it was declared to TOS, otherwise they would not work well.
Perhaps you should try booting with the barest possible setup (the minimum
needed to boot Geneva), and then try adding other possibly offending
programs. The Alt-RAM board is not currently in my Mega, so I can not
check if this is the only good setting, but flags for geneva.prg
and jarxxx.prg are currently set here for fast load, use alt-ram, but
not malloc in alt-ram. For taskman.acc all three flags are set.
For other important programs such as nvdi.prg or xcontrol.acc all flags
are set as well.
It must also set a "Fast RAM buffer" and its cookie, if it doesn't, you
will have a lot of problems (i.e. you won't be able to work at all); check
whether you get a _FRB cookie after running xtraram.prg (btw. Magic sets
this buffer and cookie by itself).
Are you sure that the power supply of your Mega can handle this? Eight
1MB modules (probably with 8 or nine chips each) are quite power hungry;
When I put an Alt-RAM board with 8 such modules in My MegaST4, the power
supply was operating uncomfortably near its nominal limits (i.e. like
100-200mA below nominal load, with the floppy drive running). To be safe I
had to put a more powerful supply in (a 4-amperes one; I believe it was
from some Falcon - or maybe a Megafile?). Also, with such a large
additional load, the initial voltage regulation setting may not be
appropriate anymore; check with a voltmeter whether you have 5V ± (say)
0.1V on the motherboard and on the RAM board. If there is a possibility of
overload, try operating the board with less memory (e.g. 4MB), if such a
configuration is possible. Finally, you may check whether all of that RAM
is really working properly, with some utility that can check it. There is
also a possibility of overheating in the cramped Mega box."
Brian replies:
"I finally found a way to get Geneva to run with this Xtra Memory.
1. Disable extra.prg in the auto folder all together.
2. Run the Xtra.prg from the desk top once it's booted.
NeoDesk still never sees 'alternate RAM', but programs with proper flags
find their proper memory and so far, seem to function as they should.
So far, where Geneva is concerned....it's just not happy if Xtra.prg runs
from anywhere in the auto folder. The drawback is that things like NVDI,
STing, etc....are going to ST RAM....and those are the sorts of things that
are really nice to have out of the way in alternate RAM so there's lots of
room for those 'legacy apps' that break in anything other than ST RAM.
>> Are you sure that the power supply of your Mega can handle this?
I'm glad you brought this up....
I currently only have 4meg installed in the Xtra RAM board.
I don't have any internal disk drive other than the stock 720k Atari/Epson
Floppy.
The Link 97 gets power from the SCSI bus....
All the memory tests report well functioning RAM, both ST and Alternate.
I have noticed however, since installing the new TOS 2.6 board, and the
Xtra-RAM board, the screen sometimes 'blinks' really fast at random and
unpredictable moments. I don't think it's an AC power surge since I don't
notice other computers and machines on the same circuit blinking along with
it.
Could a weak power supply also cause deviant MIDI transmissions? As this
Mega ages...I find more MIDI errors. In fact, it's gotten REALLY bad
lately....esp with things like SDS sample dumps and system exclusive data
that all worked fine in past years/sessions. I know the MIDI cables are
proper and aren't dodgy...have tested them extensively....and they are good
SHORT cables with truly independent 5 wire leads (not audio DIN cables
where some pins share a wire or are shorted).
It's mind boggling, because every software based system test I can get my
hands on reports a healthy machine, yet I get serious problems with MIDI
that only get worse each time I power up the Mega.
Oops, I forgot to clarify something....
The instructions say TOS 2.06 must be present ;however, MagiC 6.01
identifies itself as TOS 2.00. The board works very well here with MagiC
so far. I even have NVDI 5.03 loading in the Extra RAM for a MagiC setup."
Mark Bedingfield asks about Internet/LAN connections with his new TT:
"I am about to get a TT this weekend, I am building an ethernet
interface, as the acsi port will be free. Anyway, I have a LAN setup at
home and want to use the TT for all things internet. What is the best
clients ATM. Stik2, Sting, etc? Also browsers, and mail clients. What seems
to be the best? Highwire looks pretty interesting."
Kenneth Medin tells Mark:
"MagicNet and MintNet both need multitasking and will not run under plain
TOS. STinG runs well with all.
STinG is said to be slower than the others but it's fast enough for me.
Everything (except ROUTE.TAB routing table) can be configured using cpx
modules and you don't have to reboot for changes to take effect.
STinG handles multiple networks in subnets fine. Good if you want to
experiment with MIDI or null modem SLIP connections from your TT to other
ST's etc. I have up to 8 Ataris online here on various subnets, al running
STinG.
Does STiK have Ethernet support at all? Guess it's intended for a simple
dial-up connection only.
MagicNet and MintNet can use most STinG clients but not the opposite.
Clients I'm using:
Newswatch for news and Popwatch for mail. Both need a separate reader. I
use Okami which overall _is_ the best. Can be hard to setup mainly
because the doc's are not updated. Not for the average OE (like you?)
user... Does not look so nice but have lots of features and is very
stable as long as you stay out of known bugs. I prefer Okami to both OE6
and Mozilla 1.5.
Mymail is a very good mail reader/client and if/when it will support news
I might think of switching from Okami. And it Swedish made and therefore
of good quality
Newsie for less "advanced" mail and news. Lacks support for international
characters like åäöü. Can be used alone or with Newswatch/Popwatch for
the online part.
Aicq is a good ICQ client.
FTPSERV ftp server.
Aftp nice ftp client but a bit buggy sometimes under STinG.
Telstar telnet client.
Weblight webserver. with some Perl support.
Bnet networks drives. Sort of usable but tend to fail if you copy
directories over the network here. Might be my setup, though??
MEG spam filter with static filters but very usable. Hangs sometimes on
strangely formatted spam mail. I get 125 spams per day with lots of SWEN
virus and appr. 10% slips through the MEG filters and _no_ real mails
have been filtered by mistake. Compare that to the Mozilla filters that
miss about 5% of spam but also tend to block real mail as well.
CAB 2.8 is still the only usable browser. I use it a lot actually but
MSIE and Mozilla are off course much better.
Highwire is _very_ promising but the fact you can't yet fill in forms
makes it useless IMHO. You can't do a simple Google search...
I also use a time client to set the TT clock.
TUR.APP to check open connections in the IP stack.
Resolve, Ping and Traceroute is built into the STinG dialer. Note that
for some reason is STinG traceroute useless behind NAT but simple Ping
works!"
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 - 'Manhunt' Redefines Game Violence
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Violent Games Battle! Halo 2 News!
GameDay Picks Panthers!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Carolina Edges New England in Key Video Game Bowl
Fans always want to root for the underdog in major sporting events - and a
video game contest with a perfect track record of picking the eventual
Super Bowl champion likes the Carolina Panthers in an upset this Sunday.
Days before the real football championship is contested, Carolina Panthers
wide receiver Steve Smith has beaten the New England Patriots' wide-out
Troy Brown 29-21 in a head-to-head video game matchup.
The two played Wednesday night in Houston at the Sony Corp.-sponsored ninth
annual "989 Sports Game Before the Game," playing Sony's "NFL GameDay 2004"
on its PlayStation 2 console. The game involves each player controlling a
team.
In the first eight years of the event, the winner of the electronic
showdown went on to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy as the Super Bowl
champion.
The real game, Super Bowl XXXVIII, will be played this Sunday in Houston.
Oddsmakers have set New England as a seven-point favorite.
Microsoft Confirms 'Halo 2' Release in Fall
"Halo 2," the sequel to the best-selling Xbox game ever and one of the
most-anticipated titles of 2004, will ship this fall, Microsoft Corp. said
on Friday, dashing hopes that the game would be out sooner.
Many industry observers as well as fans had expected "Halo 2" to ship as
early as the spring - possibly in March or April - and retailers had been
counting on a June release date.
But a spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that the "Halo 2" launch is now set
for the later part of the year. A firm launch date was not available,
although it would be in Microsoft's next fiscal year, which starts in July,
the spokeswoman said.
As of Friday morning, the Web sites of specialty game retailers GameStop
Corp. and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. still listed "Halo 2" as
being scheduled for a June 1 release.
Bungie, the Microsoft-owned developers of the original "Halo," which has
sold more than 4 million units since its November 2001 release, posted a
note about the timing of "Halo 2" on its Web site on Friday.
"So, remember last year when we told you we don't announce release dates
until we're confident well meet our deadline? Well now were confident.
Halo 2 will ship in fall 2004. Please make a note of it," the site said.
'Manhunt' Redefines Game Violence
The creators of "Manhunt" have succeeded in making a game that's often
gruesome, disgusting and shocking, plus numbingly repetitive and
murderously difficult.
The story, such as it is, begins with the staged execution of convicted
killer James Earl Cash. He's been strapped to the gurney but unknowingly
injected with sedatives instead of lethal drugs.
He awakens in the dank confines of the death chamber and discovers he's
become the star of a series of snuff films. Cash is ordered around by
smarmy Valiant Video Enterprises director Lionel Starkweather (superbly
voiced by actor Brian Cox, the original Hannibal Lecter in the 1986 film
"Manhunter").
As Cash, you'll stroll the trash-lined streets of Carcer City, a
nondescript Midwestern rust belt town, picking off various thugs and gang
members in a variety of brutal ways through 20 levels.
Delivering the nastiest killings for Starkweather's videos is key - the
manner in which you dole out death is rated on a five-star scale. I got
plenty of one and two-star ratings by sneaking up behind thugs and stabbing
them in the neck. Higher ratings are awarded depending on how much
additional carnage you can add to the execution.
Follow Starkweather's direction, and he'll chime in with satisfaction: "The
bodies are starting to stack up nicely," he says. "We're getting some great
footage here."
Lethal instruments include plastic bags for suffocating, as well glass
shards and metal wire. Later, you'll obtain sickles, chain saws and an
array of guns, some loaded with hollow-point bullets.
One nagging inconsistency is "Manhunt's" use of stealth: You must lure your
victims into shadows where they can't see you, then sneak up from behind
for the kill. The problem is that it's often impossible to sneak up. At one
point I was jumped by a goon despite creeping along a wall and ducking into
shadows whenever possible.
Forget about clashing with the deranged members of the "Skinz," "Innocentz"
and "Smiley" clans head-on. With a few exceptions, out-and-out fighting
attracts too many other enemies who'll quickly gang up and pummel you.
With the stealth aspect often lacking, "Manhunt" quickly degenerates into
a repetitious series of ghastly murders. And really, how many times do you
want to see some guy's skull get smashed to a bloody pulp?
The stylized, grainy graphics of the PlayStation 2 version I played (Xbox
and PC versions are promised soon) were perfectly suited for the snuff film
theme of the game.
"Manhunt" certainly isn't the first to raise (or lower, depending on your
point of view) the bar on digital violence. Remember "Mortal Kombat?" One
of that game's fighting moves involved ripping out your opponent's spinal
cord. More recently, "Postal" had you running around killing innocent
bystanders with all manner of weaponry.
"Manhunt" has high production values and will give even the best gamers a
challenge. But the carnage comes off as more of a grisly gimmick to sell
more video games - not a compelling part of a story.
"Manhunt" is rated M by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for ages
17 and older. I shudder to think of what else this game would have to show
to get the board's most stringent Adults Only rating. Two stars out of
four.
Video Game Outlook Hinges on Price Cuts, Analysts Say
Unless video game hardware makers cut prices deeply in 2004 to stoke
demand, analysts said on Wednesday, growth-hungry investors who have
watched the sector boom in recent years could be in for a rough ride.
Game publishers and retailers are already banking on a console price cut
of around 30 percent in order to draw a mass-market audience at a time when
sales are slowing for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
If recent history is any guide, though, they may not get the depth of cut
from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. they are expecting - setting them up
for another down year of lowered forecasts and disappointing sales,
analysts said.
Electronic Arts Inc., the industry's largest publisher, said on Wednesday
it expects the prices of Sony's PS2 and Microsoft's Xbox to come down to
$129 from $179 sometime between the spring and Labor Day.
"While it's not our call to make, we think the opportunity for the $149
price point has come and gone," Chief Financial Officer Warren Jenson said
on a conference call.
The company forecast U.S. sales of 7 million to 8 million units for the
PS2 and 2.5 million to 3 million units for the Xbox, both roughly flat to
down from 2003.
The desires of the industry leader notwithstanding, though, expectations
are growing that the next generation of hardware may not come until 2006,
and that may lengthen the timetable for price cuts, analysts said.
"With EA expressing (a) PS2/Xbox price cut expectation to $129 by year-end
2004, we see no prospect for 'upside surprise' to $99 but disappointment
potential if the cut is to $149 at E3 ... which, if Sony is managing for a
holiday 2006 PS3 launch, seems to us to be a plausible scenario," RBC
Capital Markets analyst Stewart Halpern said in a note.
After Sony and Microsoft made cuts to $199 from $299 in May 2002, hardware
and software sales soared. The move proved so beneficial for the industry
that, entering 2003, most were hoping that another round of cuts, to $149,
was coming.
But at the E3 industry trade show last May, Sony shocked everyone by moving
to $179, which Microsoft matched a day later. Disappointment came quickly,
and some held out hope that a second cut to $149 might still emerge by
September.
It did not, though, and industry growth last year fell short of
expectations as a result. Overall industry sales dropped nearly 3 percent
in 2003 to $10 billion as hardware unit sales declined.
Though a move to $149 can not be ruled out, other analysts say, it would
be in no one's best interests.
"You'll see Microsoft continue to have decelerating hardware sales, as will
Sony (at $149)," said P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology
Research. "That would not only not sit will with consumers who are looking
for the $99 magic price point but also with retailers and publishers."
McNealy said he believed Microsoft may be considering a move to $99 for the
Xbox by the end of the year, as a way to keep momentum in the face of
competition from two new handheld platforms, Sony's PSP and Nintendo Co.
Ltd.'s DS.
"We think that they're strongly considering it," he said, adding that Sony
might have to respond in kind. "I think it certainly puts the pressure on
them. $149 will likely not get it done."
Others have expressed the same sentiment, including U.S. Bancorp Piper
Jaffray analyst Tony Gikas, who said in a note on Wednesday it would take
a move to $129 on PS2 and Xbox for 2004 hardware unit sales to equal those
of 2003.
Battle Over Violent Video Games Heating Up
The fight over children's use of violent video games is escalating as
parents, retailers, legal scholars and elected officials debate proposals
to restrict minors' access to the most violent games.
Disputes in Florida, California, Washington state and Congress pit parents
and lawmakers who say the games may prompt some teens to commit violence
against merchants and civil libertarians who say no link exists and that
such entertainment is a constitutionally protected form of free speech.
Both sides are watching a case in Washington state that some legal analysts
predict will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The state passed a law
last year restricting the sale to minors of some violent games. Video game
manufacturers argued that the law violated the First Amendment's free
speech protection. A federal judge barred enforcement of the law until a
hearing in June. Both sides have said they will appeal if they lose.
"Fresh ground in law will be made, one way or the other," says William
Mayton, law professor at Emory University in Atlanta.
In the meantime, some elected officials are proposing laws that would keep
the most violent games from children:
The City Council in North Miami, Fla., on Tuesday approved an ordinance
requiring retailers to get written parental approval before selling or
renting such games to anyone younger than 17. But the council delayed
enforcement until key court cases are decided. Under the measure, retailers
would be warned, then fined up to $500 a day for repeated violations.
California Assemblyman Leland Yee, who holds a doctorate in child
psychology, introduced a bill this month that would limit sales of the most
violent video games by adding them to existing laws regulating the
distribution of "harmful matter" to minors. A second bill would require
that such games be displayed separately from other games and on higher
shelves so children can't see them. "We have tailored this bill narrowly
enough to withstand constitutional muster," Yee says.
U.S. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) said he is gathering support for his bill
limiting minors' access to the most violent video games. A previous version
of Baca's bill died in committee in 2002. His current legislation is
awaiting a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee.
Most efforts to limit access to games have failed. But the games become
more realistic with each generation of animation technology. The most
violent games, in which players gun down human targets, are gory.
As video games have supplanted simpler diversions as a preferred escape of
America's youth, the industry has prospered. It achieved $6.9 billion in
sales in 2002. An estimated 145 million Americans play video games, and
adults buy nine out of every 10 games sold, according to industry
statistics.
Those who favor laws restricting the sale or rental of violent videos to
minors say government should treat the games like alcohol or tobacco. They
say that retailers don't always enforce a voluntary rating system and that
parents don't know how violent some videos are. They say growing scientific
evidence links playing violent video games to violent behavior.
Opponents of such bans say the industry polices itself and that most videos
are purchased by parents or with their consent. And they question the
validity of studies suggesting a link between playing violent video games
and violence.
"We don't ever get complaints from parents that the rating system is
broken," says Bo Andersen, president of the Video Software Dealers
Association. "What you have is government trying to step in and take
control of what is a parental responsibility."
Questions about whether watching violent entertainment sparks violent acts
are nothing new. In 1977, a Florida teen's lawyer argued that "television
intoxication" caused his client to murder an elderly neighbor when he was
15. The jury rejected that argument and convicted Ronny Zamora, who will
be freed from prison in June after serving almost 27 years.
Proponents of government restrictions argue that the interactive nature of
violent video games, in which players kill human targets over and over
again, take them beyond the realm of movies and television. Courts so far
have rejected that argument.
Part of the dispute in North Miami centers on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,
a game that contains the phrase "kill the Haitians." South Florida has
thousands of Haitian immigrants. Haitians in New York and Boston also have
protested the game, in which players kill Haitians and Cubans.
Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games of New York, the game's
manufacturers, have apologized and promised to delete such language from
future editions.
A federal appeals court in June overturned a St. Louis County, Mo., law
restricting minors' access to some video games. The court reversed a
district court's conclusion that video games are not protected speech. The
court found that St. Louis County's contention that the games can damage
some players' psychological health was "unsupported in the record."
Another appeals court struck down a similar law in Indianapolis in 2001.
Washington state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, who sponsored the bill in her
state, said her legislation isn't censorship. "There is a great deal of
precedent for restricting dangerous things like alcohol and tobacco to
minors," she says.
The difference, Mayton says, is that any effects of video games are mental,
and the First Amendment protects against thought-control by the government.
"Having said that, the First Amendment's not an absolute," he says. "If you
can show that the games do cause people to go out there and hurt others,
you've got a case for an exception. Perhaps."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
MyDoom Worm Spreads Rapidly, Targets SCO Web Site
MyDoom, the latest worm to infect computers over the Internet, was designed
to attack the Web site of the SCO Group Inc., the small software maker
suing IBM over the use of code for the Linux operating system, experts said
on Tuesday.
In response, SCO, which has drawn the ire of many Linux advocates for its
claims that Linux software includes copyrighted code from the Unix
operating system, offered a $250,000 reward for "information leading to the
arrest and conviction of those responsible for this crime."
Since appearing late Monday afternoon, the worm has spread rapidly, mostly
in North America, accounting for one in nine messages globally, experts
said. The volume of messages clogged networks and appeared to be
concentrated in corporate environments.
The new worm, also known as Novarg or Shimgapi, is activated when
unsuspecting recipients of an e-mail message open a file attachment that
releases a virus.
An infected personal computer could then allow attackers to gain
unauthorized access and use the computer to aid in an Internet attack to
bring down SCO's Web site, said Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager at
security company Symantec Corp.
"Certainly there's code in here to launch a denial-of-service attack
against SCO on Feb. 1," Friedrichs told reporters on a conference call.
SCO, based in Lindon, Utah, has already been targeted repeatedly with
numerous denial-of-service attacks, which are used to flood a Web site with
requests for information so that it overloads and shuts down.
"This one (MyDoom) is different and much more troubling, since it harms not
just our company, but also damages the systems and productivity of a large
number of other companies and organizations around the world," Darl
McBride, SCO's chief executive, said in a statement. "We do not know the
origins or reasons for this attack, although we have our suspicions. This
is criminal activity and it must be stopped."
SCO claimed in lawsuit filed last March that International Business
Machines Corp.'s customers and others are illegally using a version of the
Linux operating system, a free operating system that software developers
can modify.
The attacks from infected computers are scheduled to begin on Feb. 1 and
continue to Feb. 12, Symantec said.
At risk are computers running the latest versions of Microsoft Corp.'s
Windows programs and any e-mail program.
The worm doesn't exploit any flaws in Windows, but rather is designed to
entice the recipient of an e-mail to open an attached file and run programs
contained in the attachment.
The mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with an .exe, .scr,
.zip or .pif extension and can have a subject line of "test" or "status."
Users who receive the worm and simply ignore or delete it will be able to
avoid any damage.
MyDoom also mails itself out to addresses in the victim's computer and is
clogging mail servers and degrading network performance at companies,
experts said.
The worm appears to have a random sender's address and subject line and
sometimes contains an error message such as "The message cannot be
represented in 7-bit ASCII and has been sent as a binary attachment."
Microsoft also offered two $250,000 bounties last November for information
leading to the capture of those responsible for the Blaster worm and SoBig
virus.
MyDoom Variant Emerges, Targets Microsoft
A variant of the MyDoom worm has emerged as the most devastating virus
since last summer, and is likely to target Microsoft Corp.'s Web site,
security experts said on Wednesday.
Since appearing earlier this week, the worm, also dubbed Novarg or
Shimgapi, has infected computers across the globe by enticing users to open
a file attachment that releases a program that potentially allows other
attackers to gain unauthorized access.
The financial damage from the virus-like program - from network slowdown
to lost productivity - is already being measured in the billions of
dollars, according to anti-virus vendors.
The latest version of the worm is designed to flood Microsoft's Web site
with requests for information in an attempt to bring it down, experts said
on Tuesday. This strategy is similar to that of the first version, which
targeted the Web site of the SCO Group Inc., the small software maker suing
International Business Machines Corp. over the use of code for the Linux
operating system, they noted.
"It's interesting in that it potentially has a denial of service attack on
Microsoft," said Jimmy Kuo, a researcher at Network Associates Inc.'s
McAfee anti-virus unit.
Kuo said that it was difficult to tell whether the variant, called
"MyDoom.b," was spreading across the Internet, or "in the wild." So far,
anti-virus companies have received and analyzed the variant from only a few
sources.
The MyDoom variant appeared to have other similar aspects to the first
version, in that it exempts e-mail address for government agencies, some
universities, and other computer security companies, including Symantec
Corp.
Computers running any of the latest versions of Microsoft's Windows
operating system e-mail program are at risk of being infected, although
the worm doesn't exploit any flaws in Windows or software.
Instead, MyDoom is designed to entice the recipient of an e-mail to open an
attachment with an .exe, .scr, .zip or .pif extension.
Since the worms often appear as error messages from "Mail Administrators"
and other official-looking addresses, many inevitably open an attachment
after finding minimal information in the message. Users who receive the
worm and simply ignore or delete it will be able to avoid any damage.
In response to the worm's targeting its Web site, SCO offered a $250,000
reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of those
responsible for this crime." SCO has drawn the ire of many Linux advocates
for its claims that Linux software includes copyrighted code from the Unix
operating system.
The attacks from infected computers on SCO and Microsoft are scheduled to
begin on Feb. 1 and continue to Feb. 12.
U.S. Rolls Out Cyberattack Warning System
The U.S. government on Wednesday rolled out a "cyber alert" system to warn
computer users about viruses, worms and other online threats, two days
after the "MyDoom" worm snarled e-mail traffic worldwide.
Internet users who sign up will receive e-mail warnings about new worms
like "MyDoom," as well as general tips about how to make their computers
more secure, officials with the Homeland Security Department said.
Officials said they hope to slow the spread of cyber attacks by making the
online public more aware of the specific weaknesses they exploit.
"The intent is for this information to be made available to the public to
receive the widest and most appropriate distribution," said Amit Yoran,
director of Homeland Security's cyber security division.
Online attacks like SoBig and Slammer have shut down automatic teller
machines, interfered with emergency-dispatch systems and knocked nearly
the entire country of South Korea offline. Security experts say future
attacks could disable power plants, hospitals or other "critical
infrastructure."
Experts say MyDoom accounted for 1 in 9 e-mail messages over the past few
days.
Homeland Security's warning system is intended to augment alerts from
private security companies like Symantec Corp., Yoran said. Unlike the
department's terrorism warning system, it will not offer color-coded threat
levels.
Computer users can sign up for the alert system at
(http://www.us-cert.gov), Yoran said. Warnings will be sent by e-mail and
also posted on the Web site, he said.
E-mail warnings will contain an electronic signature to verify their
authenticity, he said.
One senator said the system would actually make cyberattacks more damaging.
"If I were a betting man, I'd put a few dollars down that the next virus
that clogs computer networks is going to be transmitted through an e-mail
that looks like one of these DHS e-mail alerts," Sen. Charles Schumer said
in a statement.
The agency could better contain cyberattacks by working with Internet
providers to locate infected computers and take them offline, the New York
Democrat added.
Experts See End to Computer 'Spam' by 2006
Internet users beware - within a couple of years you may have fewer
opportunities to reduce your debt or increase your penis size.
Unwanted "spam" offers currently account for more than half of all e-mail
traffic, but at least two high-tech executives say the torrent of
pornography and unbelievably low mortgage rates could slow to a trickle by
2006.
Microsoft Corp . founder Bill Gates predicted the demise of unsolicited
commercial e-mail at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on
Friday, according to a company spokesman.
His prediction was backed up on Monday by the head of a prominent anti-spam
company.
"I believe we'll solve spam by the end of 2005," said Enrique Salem,
president and chief executive of privately held Brightmail Inc., which
scrubs spam for large Internet service providers like Verizon
Communications and BellSouth Corp..
That may seem like wishful thinking to Internet users who have seen no drop
in herbal Viagra offers since a new federal anti-spam law went into effect
on January 1.
Salem said Brightmail numbers show that the proportion of spam has
increased to around 60 percent of all e-mail, from 58 percent in December.
That figure should peak around 65 percent later this year and than start
to decline as improved filtering techniques take hold and federal agents
begin enforcing the new law, he said.
Brightmail rolled out a "reputation service" on Monday to profile e-mail
sources and pinpoint those who send out spam. Mail from "clean" sources
like friends and reputable businesses will pass unencumbered, while other
addresses that have generated a large number of complaints will be blocked.
Combined with identity-verification services being developed by Time Warner
Inc's America Online and other large Internet providers, the reputation
service should block enough spam to make the business unprofitable, Salem
said.
At Davos, Gates outlined several other techniques to discourage spam, a
company spokesman said. Spammers could be slowed down through
"computational puzzles" that suck up computer processing power or require
a human to solve them. Another approach could require senders of
unsolicited e-mail to pay a fee unless it is waived by the receiver.
"We as a company believe that by a couple of years from now spam will be
down to a very manageable trickle ... it will be almost an afterthought,"
Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said.
America Online introduced a new security feature last week that would make
it harder for spammers to hijack an AOL address.
A company spokesman said fighting spam was a priority at the No. 1 Internet
provider, but he declined to predict when it would end.
"It's very popular right now, in fact I'd say it's in vogue to say you have
the largest, greatest cure-all to solve spam forever," said AOL spokesman
Nicholas Graham. "But these are the same people who think we'll end up
living in a world with no taxes and a cure for the common cold."
Dutch Police Arrest 52 in E-Mail Scam
Dutch police have arrested 52 people suspected of defrauding gullible
Internet users in one of the largest busts of the infamous "Nigerian
e-mail" scam.
Also known as an "advance fee" or "419" scheme, the scammers sent spam
e-mails asking for help in transferring a large sum of money out of a
politically or economically troubled country, in exchange for a generous
percentage.
Robert Meulenbroek, spokesman for the Amsterdam prosecutor's office, said
the ring broken this week had reaped millions of euros (dollars). Recent
victims included people from the United States, Japan, England, Russia,
Sweden and Switzerland.
A task force of 80 officers raided 23 apartments, seizing computers, fake
passports and euro50,000 ($62,000) in cash. One suspect was injured
attempting to escape by leaping from a third-floor apartment, he said.
The detainees were not identified under Dutch privacy rules, but most were
believed to be Nigerian, police said.
In a variation on one of the world's oldest scams, the Nigerian e-mail con
presents himself as a well-connected person who needs access to a Western
bank account to transfer a large sum of money that cannot be spent in his
own country.
He promises a cut of the money in exchange for a smaller upfront cost
before the larger sum can be transferred but it never is.
The scam has existed for years in various forms, but in the 1990s it moved
online, where it is cheaper to organize and harder to trace.
Arrests have been made in several countries in recent years, including
Australia, Canada, and the United States.
The Amsterdam scammers referred their potential victims to Web sites of
fictitious companies with names like Global Securities and Financial
Company Limited, or Fortune Trust Finance & Securities.
Often, they listed a fake address, though most had a working mobile phone
number.
The suspects worked from their homes and sent more than 1 million e-mails,
at times clogging the servers of their Internet provider, Dutch-based cable
company UPC. Police enlisted UPC's help to trace them, Meulenbroek said.
Six people, three from Nigeria and three from Benin, were convicted in a
similar case in Amsterdam in May, receiving sentences of up to 4 1/2 years.
They had defrauded victims for several million dollars (euros), including a
Swiss professor who lost US$482,000 after being promised 25 percent of a
US$36 million sum.
Nigeria has recently stepped up its efforts to eradicate the scam, which
taints its image abroad. The Central Bank of Nigeria denies any connection
to the scammers, and Nigerian agencies have been placing warning
advertisements in international newspapers for years.
The scam is sometimes called a "419" fraud due to the Nigerian criminal
code outlawing it.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland earlier this month,
Nigeria's finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reissued a statement
promising to crack down on the scammers.
FTC Announces Labels for Pornographic 'Spam'
Pornographic "spam" e-mail will have to be clearly labeled by mid-June to
allow Internet users to easily filter it out, the Federal Trade Commission
announced on Wednesday.
Unsolicited pornography will have to bear a label reading
"SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT-CONTENT:" in the subject line and the messages
themselves will not be allowed to contain graphic material, the FTC said.
Outrage over unsolicited pornography and other forms of unsolicited e-mail
spurred Congress to pass the first nationwide anti-spam law last year,
which required the FTC to develop labels for smut.
An FTC study released last spring found that 17 percent of pornographic
offers contained images of nudity that appeared whether a recipient wanted
to see them or not.
The new rule is intended to change that. Pornographers will not be allowed
to include sexually explicit pictures in the body of the message, though
they will be allowed to include hyperlinks or other methods to access their
material.
Like other e-mail marketers, they will also be required to include their
postal address and an easy way to opt out of future mailings.
Several states have already passed laws requiring pornographic spam to bear
an "ADV:ADULT" label or some variant, but they will be overridden by the
federal standard.
The FTC determined the "adult" tag was too vague as it could apply to
gambling or tobacco, an official said.
"Lots of things are appropriate for adults that aren't appropriate for
children," said FTC Assistant Director Allen Hile.
The hyphenated "SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT-CONTENT:" label, while ungrammatical,
will make it easier to block explicit content while letting through
messages from anti-pornography groups or others who may use the phrase,
the FTC said in its notice.
The public will have three weeks to comment on the proposal, which is due
to take effect in mid-June.
Hile said the agency is especially interested to hear whether the measure
will encounter any technical hurdles. Free-speech arguments will carry less
weight as the agency has been directed by Congress to develop the labels,
he said.
"We don't have a whole lot of discretion in this," Hile said. "I guess we
can't prevent commenters from saying, 'What a stupid idea,' or 'It violates
the Constitution' or whatever, but we can't do anything with that."
Gates Wants to Give E-Mail Users Anti-Spam Weapons
Making spammers pay has long been a dream of e-mail users. Microsoft Corp.
Chairman Bill Gates says his company wants to make it a reality.
Speaking late last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
Gates said his company is studying ways to allow e-mail users to charge
senders a fee before accepting their messages.
Gates also predicted that spam could be eradicated in two years, an
assertion that surprised many technology security experts, who are seeing
spam escalate to new heights despite a new federal law designed to crack
down on the practice.
In his vision put forth in Switzerland, Gates said computer users could set
different monetary thresholds for different senders. But such a system is
complex, and a Microsoft spokesman said that it is "the least fleshed out"
of several initiatives the company is examining.
Microsoft also is studying "challenge-response" technology, in which
senders get an automatic response from recipients asking for verification
that the sender is a real person. This would cut down on spam, which
generally is sent in bulk by computers.
Challenge-response systems already are used by some e-mail account
providers, including Earthlink Inc. and Mailblocks Inc. But with more than
100 million users of Microsoft's Hotmail and MSN mail services, Gates's
company has the ability to alter the e-mail landscape with its initiatives.
E-mail security experts remained skeptical, however, especially about the
payment scheme.
"Any solution to spam that results in reduced usability for legitimate
e-mailers is a step backwards," said Ray Everett-Church, chief privacy
officer of ePrivacygroup.com and counsel to the Committee Against
Unsolicited Commercial Email.
Everett-Church said that spammers would likely be able to defeat the system
by disguising their identities, much as they are successfully doing now.
Moreover, he said, the system would require new hardware and software costs
that would have to be borne by Internet service providers that would likely
operate the payment system for users.
Other anti-spam activists fear that those costs would be passed on to
consumers, and that large Internet providers would become tollbooths for
e-mail.
An Australian company, CashRamSpam.com, already has implemented a payment
system. It advertises that users can either use it to block all unwanted
e-mail by setting a high fee, or set a lower fee and make money from some
marketers who might be willing to pay to have their messages read.
The company takes 10 percent of whatever the recipients might get. However,
recipients to e-mailers who use this service have to sign up as well.
In the meantime, spam-control companies say that volume continues to
increase even since a new federal law took effect Jan. 1.
"Clearly the content hasn't changed at all," said Susan Getgood, senior
vice president of U.S. marketing at SurfControl LLC. "In some cases it
might be even more confusing than before the law was passed. Spammers
didn't waste a minute to make it look like they were complying."
The law seeks to curb deceptive practices used by the most notorious
peddlers of diet fads, body enhancements and get-rich-quick schemes.
Getgood said her company is seeing spam that is trying to exploit loopholes
or gray areas in the law. In one case, an e-mail claimed it was offering
lists of strange state laws.
"It is illegal to put tomatoes in clam chowder," the e-mail read.
This would allow the sender to get around the new law's exemption for
unsolicited e-mail whose primary purpose is not commercial.
But the e-mail went on to say:
"The primary purpose of this email is to deliver you a 'Crazy USA State
Law of the Week' - The secondary purpose of this email is to let you know:
"Click Here to Email Advertise Your Web Site to 1,850,000 0PT-IN Email
Addresses for FREE!''
Artists Turn Junk E-Mail Into Spam Show
Instead of just cursing the steady assault of junk e-mail in their inboxes,
some artists have put spam on parade. They've even found poetry in it.
"Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam"
considers how future historians might see us if the only window into our
culture they had was a vast collection of e-mail effluent.
There are backlit flow charts, dioramas, a pile of pornography.
A classification scheme, true to the paleontological theme, divides spam
into such categories as Real Estate, Urgent Messages, Work at Home, Goods
and Personal Appearance.
The three 25-year-old artists scrawled excerpts from e-mails graffiti-style
over an entire stairwell and filled suitcases with the goods advertised in
spam to represent the medium's empty promises. Diet pills and house
blueprints both feature prominently.
"Spam is something an enormous number of people end up having in common,"
said Daniel Greenfeld, who created the show along with fellow artists Mike
Rosenthal and Jesse Jarnow. "My father understands very little about
computers, but he understands what it is to get spam. He understands what
it is to be annoyed by this onslaught."
About half of all e-mail traffic is spam, according to companies that
filter out the unwanted messages. About 58 percent of the 80 billion
messages analyzed by Brightmail Inc. in December were spam. The onslaught
has led the White House to revamp its e-mail system and Congress to pass an
anti-spam law, which took effect Jan. 1 and is widely maligned as
ineffective.
In the exhibit, scientific-looking flow charts show how spammers employ
various "cloaking schemes" including personalization, narrative and robotic
humanity.
But just as today's paleontologists are likely to err when trying to
recreate the real Ordovician period, which ended about 443 million years
ago, many of the exhibit's conclusions are wrong.
"But a lot of that is the point," said Rosenthal. "We get things wrong. We
interpret what we find as historians or anthropologists."
As one plaque reads: "Little is known of the physiology of the Ordovician
body, but the outward appearance was greatly enhanced by drugs which shaped
one to look more like those celebrated in Ordovician PORNOGRAPHY. These
pills occasionally took the form of patches and other accessories. It is
believed that, for a time, these patches took on significance as ultimately
ceremonial jewelry."
The e-mails in the exhibit were culled from thousands collected by Harrold
Tuttledge of the Center for Anthropological Computing, a small Boston-based
organization that pleads to anachronism itself because it lacks a Web site.
The artists indeed found poetry in the strings of nonsense that spammers
include in messages to evade anti-spam software. Here's one near-haiku:
Subject: (SPAM?) read this-i have a new cream for stretch marks
"a new you / communicating with server / fast shipping / bergen salvar/
unaligned nicht ausgerichtet, krum(Adverb) "
Like all good curators, the artists also employ dioramas. In some, dangling
photos represent the Third World scammers who profess to need us so
urgently.
You can then pick up a phone to hear a grainy voice plead with you
personally as a "God fearing person" to help keep a recently found sum of
$25 million from being repossessed by the Nigerian government.
"There are a million different letters like this and they're all perfectly
ridiculous, but what's interesting is that the people are all real
political figures from African history," Rosenthal said.
Installations in the show pay homage both to the solicitors and the
unwilling receivers of spam.
A wall of testimonials to the effectiveness of spam ("MASS EMAIL WORKS")
faces a wall of confused and frustrated recipients, including one from
1982 in which the writer doesn't seem to know what do with this new
phenomenon, much less what to call it.
"There was an early age of this stuff, when people were really getting
these e-mails for the first time," said Rosenthal. "There's this losing of
digital innocence. Once everyone is cynical about this, once there are no
more grandmothers who are going to believe all the things that they are
getting in their inboxes, what happens then?"
Maybe that's when spam truly becomes history.
"Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic" is showing its half-truths at
Spaceworks Gallery in Manhattan through Feb. 7.
On the Net:
http://www.thetanknyc.com/spaceworks
Apple Launches iBook Repair Program
Apple Computer has started a program to repair or replace certain defective
iBook notebook computers. The company has been threatened with class-action
lawsuits pertaining to the faulty machines.
Apple's support initiative is called the "iBook Logic Board Repair
Extension Program." Essentially, it is a narrow, retroactive three-year
warranty that begins on the date of purchase for iBook models manufactured
between May of 2002 thru April of 2003.
There were rumblings earlier this month from many iBook users who
complained of breakdowns attributed to a failure in the logic board. At the
time, Apple indicated the complaints
were not significant.
"We don't have any statistics about the failure rate, but if Apple is
instituting a repair program like this, you have to think it's more than a
handful of people," said Ric Ford, president of MacIntouch.com, an
independent Mac user site. "Clearly, there's a problem with iBooks that
other Macs don't have," he added.
"I think this is great that Apple has acknowledged the problem and is
fixing it - it's really the ideal response," Ford told NewsFactor.
But the company does not spell out the specific nature of the problems
covered by the program. Apple says that only its technical-support
representatives or an authorized company service provider can determine
whether a component failure falls under the iBook Logic Board Repair
Extension Program.
"I think it's interesting how vague Apple's description of the problem is,"
noted Ford. "They don't say what components have failed."
Perhaps a larger issue with discontented Mac users is the perception that
Apple has abandoned them. Michael Johnson's Blackcider.com site is
collecting signatures in hopes of mounting a class-action suit against
Apple. Brendan Carolan started another petition at Petitiononline.com
urging Apple to repair or replace defective machines.
But some of the disaffection among users can be traced to the high - in
some cases, ultra-high - expectations of Apple. Many believe the company
runs circles around Microsoft (and Intel like a high-tech Till
Eulenspiegel. Being treated like a regular ol' customer when a machine
breaks down does not fit the we-are-family group hug experience of
Macworld.
Certainly, some Mac lovers will feel betrayed over Apple's right to deem
whose fault the vaguely described logic board failures are. Still, many Mac
lovers will not stay mad forever.
Ric Ford just takes it in stride. "I bought two of these defective machines
myself, so I kind of voted with my wallet," he acknowledged. "Now I'm
careful not to work the case or handle it too heavily in the corners."
Google Gets Sued
A distributor of window blinds and wallpaper has filed a lawsuit against
Google, saying the search engine's keyword-based advertising violates its
trademarks.
American Blind and Wallpaper Factory, based in Plymouth, Michigan, filed
the trademark lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of New York Tuesday. Codefendants in the lawsuit include Netscape
Communications and Ask Jeeves, sites that use Google's search engine.
American Blind argues that Google, by selling keyword-based advertising to
competing retailers when Google users search on "American Blind" or
"American Blinds" is violating the company's trademark. American Blind had
threatened to file the lawsuit last year. That prompted Google, in a filing
with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
November 26, to argue that "American" and "Blind" and other words American
Blind was claiming as trademarks are descriptive and shouldn't enjoy
trademark protection.
The two companies had been sparring over the trademark dispute for about a
year.
American Blind is asking the New York court for an injunction requiring
Google to stop keyword-based advertising on its trademarks. The retailer
is also seeking damages that are yet to be determined, said David Rammelt,
American Blind's lawyer.
"Every time they've diverted a potential customer to one of our
competitors, we've been harmed," Rammelt said. "American Blind has spent
more that 50 years and $70 million building its reputation."
American Blind has asked the California judge to throw out the request from
Google that its keyword-based advertising model be ruled legal. A hearing
is scheduled March 29. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the new
lawsuit, saying the company was waiting for the outcome of the March
hearing. "We've only just seen the complaint," she said.
Other companies, such as General Motors and National Car Rental System use
generic words in their names and could be targeted for keyword-based
advertising, Rammelt said. The American Blind lawsuit could have huge
implications for keyword-based advertising and trademarks on the Internet,
he added.
"Google has decided what trademarks it will honor and what trademarks it
will not," Rammelt said. "You have decades and decades of trademark law,
and it's trying to grapple with new technology."
American Blind has no problem with Google selling advertising to
competitors when a user searches on the word "blinds," Rammelt said. But
someone searching for "American Blinds" is looking for his client, he
argued.
Earlier this month, Netscape settled a similar lawsuit brought by Playboy
Enterprises. In the 5-year-old lawsuit, Playboy sued Netscape for using
its trademarks to deliver search engine advertisements. Terms of the
settlement were not disclosed.
'CtrlAltDelete' Inventor Restarts Career
David Bradley spent five minutes writing the computer code that has bailed
out the world's PC users for decades.
The result was one of the most well-known key combinations around:
CtrlAltDelete. It forces obstinate computers to restart when they will no
longer follow other commands.
Bradley, 55, is getting a new start of his own. He's retiring Friday after
28 1/2 years with IBM.
Bradley joined the company in June 1975 as an engineer in Boca Raton, Fla.
By 1980, he was one of 12 working to create the IBM PC. He now works at
IBM's facility in Research Triangle Park.
The engineers knew they had to design a simple way to restart the computer
should it fail. Bradley wrote the code to make it work.
"I didn't know it was going to be a cultural icon," Bradley said. "I did a
lot of other things than CtrlAltDelete, but I'm famous for that one."
His fame depends on others failures.
At a 20-year celebration for the IBM PC, Bradley was on a panel with
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other tech icons. The discussion turned to
the keys.
"I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous," Bradley said.
Gates didn't laugh. The key combination also is used when software, such as
Microsoft's Windows operating system, fails.
Bradley, whose name was once mentioned as a clue in the final round of the
TV game show "Jeopardy," will continue teaching at N.C. State University
after retirement.
His office is filled with memories of his time at IBM and the keys that
brought him fame in the tech world. He says he has almost every cartoon
that featured CtrlAltDelete. There are video clips of the "Jeopardy" show
and the panel with Gates.
"After having been the answer on final 'Jeopardy,' if I can be a clue in
'The New York Times' Sunday crossword puzzle, I will have met all my life's
goals," Bradley said.
Telemarketers Must Transmit Caller-ID Data
Telemarketers will be required to transmit their telephone numbers and
other caller-ID information under new rules that take effect on Thursday.
The new regulation should make it easier for consumers with caller-ID
equipment to screen out unwanted telephone sales calls and report those who
are ignoring requests to be left alone, the Federal Trade Commission said.
Along with their telephone numbers, telemarketers will be required to
transmit their names to caller-ID readers where technically possible, the
FTC said.
Some telephone companies are not yet equipped to handle caller names.
Telemarketers may alternatively transmit the names and phone numbers of the
companies for which they are selling products, the FTC said.
The new rule should make it easier for consumers to call telemarketers back
and ask to be left alone, according to the Direct Marketing Association, a
trade group.
The FTC tightened telemarketing regulations last year, creating the
tremendously popular Do Not Call registry, which forbids telemarketers from
calling households that do not want to hear from them.
Americans have placed more than 50 million phone numbers on the no-call
list, which has been challenged in court by the Direct Marketing
Association and several telemarketing firms.
=~=~=~=
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