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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 05 Issue 51
Volume 5, Issue 51 Atari Online News, Etc. December 19, 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 #0551 12/19/03
~ Happy Holidays to All! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Fugitive Hunter!
~ Net Holiday 'Givelist'! ~ NY Is Big eBay Seller! ~ Linux 2.6 Arrives!
~ 2003 Spam "Awards" Out! ~ Net Sales Tax On Hold! ~ Classic BASIC Books!
~ Kazaa Loves Going Dutch ~ Retro Gaming Revival! ~ Cayam Worm Found!
-* Microsoft, NY Sues Spammers! *-
-* Bush Signs Anti-Spam Bill Into Law! *-
-* Court Declares Net Music Subpoenas "Silly" *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, it turned out to be a pretty good week to take off. My wife and I
usually take the week between Christmas and New Year's, but this year we
both couldn't get the same time off, so we opted for this past week. We
managed to get all of our holiday shopping started, and completed. I got
more of the flooring done in the new rooms, but they haven't been finished
yet as I had hoped. Maybe this weekend.
As most people know by now, I do not celebrate Christmas, being a non-
Christian. However, my wife is, and does - so I share the non-religious
segment of the holiday, as she does mine. It's the non-secular points of
the holidays that I enjoy. Not so much the gift-giving (and receiving)
although that is certainly enjoyable. But more, it's this time of the year
in which some real goodness comes out of people - people helping out other
people, in whatever manner that they choose. It's the getting together with
friends and family; the exchange of holiday cards - especially with those
whom you may not communicate with as much as you'd like; and a whole lot
more. And yeah, there are the holiday parties.
With all due respect to Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol,', try to do something
nice for someone that you don't know this holiday season. During your last-
minute rush to get your shopping done, pick up a toy and donate it to your
local Toys For Tots campaign. Make a donation to your local food pantry,
homeless shelter, or Make-A-Wish foundation. Try to make someone else's
holiday enjoyable, as you would like yours to be. And during all of your
holiday cheer, remember not to drink and drive, or allow others to do the
same.
Have a terrific holiday, whether it be Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Eid!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Three Classic BASIC Game Books
The full text of a trilogy of classic computer books are now available at
AtariArchives.org: BASIC Computer Games (published 1978,) More BASIC
Computer Games (1978), and Big Computer Games (1984.)
http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/
http://www.atariarchives.org/morebasicgames/
http://www.atariarchives.org/bigcomputergames/
Edited by David Ahl of Creative Computing Magazine, the books feature
type-in BASIC games, including such classics as Animal, Blackbox, Eliza,
Hammurabi, Lunar LEM Rocket, Mugwump, and Hunt the Wumpus. Big Computer
Games also includes Rollercoaster, a unique computer-operated videodisc
adventure game for the Apple ][ computer.
The two earlier books feature illustrations by George Beker, which will be
instantly recognizable by anyone who read these books or Creative Computing
magazine 20 or more years ago.
The books are available with the permission of David Ahl. With this
announcement, AtariArchives.org has reached the milestone of making 25
classic computer books available on the Web.
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho ho ho, friends and neighbors. Yep, it's that time again... This
is the last issue before Christmas. I'm not going to launch into a
religious speech here, since there are many who don't celebrate
Christmas. But it IS a wonderful time of year; at least three of the
world's major religions consider it a special time. I'm not going to
expound upon the other two because, to be quite honest, I don't know
enough about them. All I can really say is: Whatever you believe,
believe in it now.
I thought for a moment about telling you my "Harry Chapin Story" again,
but you've probably heard it already (I must have relayed that story
half a dozen times here in this column, and I'll not put you through it
again this year... maybe next year though <grin>).
I would like to remind you that there are still people out there
scratching just to make ends meet and are, for whatever reason, unable
to provide the little special things that a lot of us take for
granted... a big festive meal, a few small gifts for loved ones, things
like that.
I'll be dropping off a few food items at the local food-share again this
year and a few toys in the 'Toys for Tots' box. It's not much... not
enough to change anyone's life... but it's something. More than helping
anyone else, I think it helps me. It 'grounds' me. It reminds me that
there are others less fortunate than I am. Boy, is that an
understatement! I've been truly blessed. I really have. Even though I
feel put-upon or unlucky or taken advantage of a dozen or so times a
day, I still have it better than a majority of people on this planet.
And even if you leave the material things out of the equation, I've been
blessed with friends and family. The things you can't buy are sometimes
the hardest to obtain... and luckily, sometimes the hardest to get rid
of. You remember the old saying "You can pick your friends but you can't
pick your family"? Well, an old friend of mine from junior high school
(I guess they call it 'middle school' these days) had his own version...
"You! can pick your friends and you can pick your nose... but you can't
pick your friend's nose".
Yeah, I know... it's gross. But it's one of the things that reminds me
of him. I saw him a few months ago in a grocery store. We stood there in
the store for several minutes making small-talk. Neither of us quite
sure of where to start or what questions to NOT ask... "Are you still
married"? "Did you ever finish that <whatever>" etc.... You know the
kind of feeling.
But underneath all of our uncertainty of what time might have done to
the other, there was the bond that had been formed all those years ago.
It was really quite strange. There was a kind of duality that I haven't
often encountered. On the one hand, here was an old friend. On the other
hand, more time had passed since I had last seen him than we had had
years under our belts when we were in school.
I finally decided that any time spent with old friends is time well
spent. We've been in contact a couple of times since then, and each time
we "catch up" a little more. Of course, we always end up interjecting at
least a few memories of the old days, and that's cool, but the best part
is just having contact.
Hmmm... I thought there might be a deep thought in that story somewhere,
but there doesn't seem to be, does there?
Well, before I forget, please don't drink and drive during the holidays.
Even if there aren't people depending on you, there might be people
depending on the other guy.
Well, let's get to the news, hints, tips and info available every week
from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
John Garone asks about HD Driver caches:
"Regarding HDDriver FAT/Data cache settings is it normal for a setting of
100/100 to eat up 3.5 meg of RAM? It's 355k with 10/10."
Uwe Seimet, author of HD Driver, tells John:
"You can calculate this by multiplying the number of buffers (200 in your
case) with the size of the biggest logical sector on your drive. So the
memory needed depends on your partition sizes, and that's why it is
impossible to give general recommendations on the best settings."
Guillaume D'flache chimes in with an observation:
"In my humble opinion this is not very intuitive for the average user, kB
would be better!
So perhaps it could be calculated automatically by HD-Driver
configuration program? One could set the cache size whether in kbytes
(default) or in sectors, and a switch between the two units would be
available. If a amount in kbytes (say 17kB) would not convert to an
exact amount of (say 16k-large) sectors, an alert box would be
displayed explaining that a rounding has occurred. Just a suggestion
anyway!"
Uwe tells Guillaume:
"Too late. This is the way GEMDOS (the GEMDOS cache) works, so it cannot be
changed. At least not without a completely new version of TOS ."
Kenneth Medin adds:
"I use 10/10 (which happens to be the default, not 100/100!) and it works
well with 4 HD's and a CD. Max partition size is 1 GByte.
Test with 10/10 and if you don't get any performance loss keep it that
way. If not increase the buffers. Quite simple, actually."
John now asks:
"How does the sector size get set for hard drive partitions? I see only
choices under "Removable Media".
How does this set up look regarding efficiency and proper HDDriver
configuration? You mentioned that the FAT/Data cache default is 100/100
That eats up almost 3.5meg RAM. Is 20/50 with 999 folders ok for proper
driver usage?
Falcon, Tos 4.04, No Magic, etc.
Partition Info: 512 bytes per sect. 512 in root dir.
# of partitions: 12 + 2 CD drives = 14 total
Partition Sizes: 70meg to 994.9meg (all GEM)
General: 20/50/999 (RAM used: 1214 kb)
SCSI Driver: All but Link97 x'ed
Rem. Media: No x's, min. part. = 1, Max sect. size = 16384, Actual = 16384
Devices and partitions: No IDE, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.7 "
Uwe replies:
"The sector size depends on the partition size, i.e. you cannot change it
arbitrarily.
Looks as if it is only 10/10. I don't know this by heart as I never change
it anyway.
Note that most of this discussion will lead to nothing. The GEMDOS cache
works as it works, it cannot be changed. Hard disk drivers have to stick to
what GEMDOS provides."
Wayne Martz asks about boot resolutions on his CT60:
"I have a Falcon, CT60. The Falcon has no tv out port. It was working
fine, but while playing with the CT60 config CPX, I tried to set the
boot resolution higher. I must have hit the wrong button. I've been
testing with 2 different monitors. One is a flat panel from my Dell
that I was testing with, since it was easier to move back and forth.
Booting in 060 mode on the flat panel, I briefly see the "Pretty"
screen, then it goes black. I think the falcon is continuing to boot
normally, since I hear the hd start after a typical amount of time for
the ram check, or I hear the hd start as soon as I abort the ram
check. Of course, I'm guessing, since I can't see anything. I never
see the fuji, or the rest. So far, I'd only put on HDDriver, extendos
and NVDI. I also have a normal 17 inch monitor that I use with my CT2B
falcon. I tried with it. It is slow to warm up the screen, so when
booting with it, I never see the "pretty" screen, but I think it is
acting the same, since the little green light that comes on when
things are working normally comes on for a second when booting in 060
mode. I have 2 different vga adaptors. When using the Atari adaptor,
booting in 030 mode, on the 17 inch I get mostly white jagged lines
across the screen that pulse on and off about 3 times per second. Same
setup, in 060 mode I get white jaggies, spaced further apart, pulsing
slower, about 1-2 times per second. With the dell monitor, no jaggies,
just black. I posted on the DH site, where I was told that if I hold
down the shift-alt-undo key, it will reset the falcon to factory
settings. This is a bit hard for me to do, since I've recased this
Falcon in a Wizztronics case with a DEKA keyboard adaptor. I only have
a ps/2 keyboard, and the undo key isn't mapped properly. I tried 1
time to install the atari keyboard so I could do the control-alt-undo
thing, but nothing different happened. (I have to move the power supply
to plug in the keyboard.)
So, I think I set the falcon to some incompatible mode for a VGA,
perhaps tv? (no tv out, can't tell!) How exactly can I reset it to the
"normal" boot resolution? If there is a particular key combination to
hold down, does it happen at a particular point in the boot process?
(If so, I'll have to guess, since I can't see where it is in that
process.) Am I the dumbest assed Atari user you have ever seen post
here? (I guess you don't really have to answer that, but go ahead if
you must!)"
John Smith tells Wayne:
"If you have two different VGA adapters e.g "bugged" and "debugged" one try
booting with bugged one and when booting is done change it for debugged one
or vice versa. Use the monitor which works with CT2.
I had the same problem."
Mark Duckworth adds:
"If it works in 030 mode, what you want to do is.
A: download TOS 0.99g from aniplay.atari.org if you don't have it.
If you do, you're screwed
B: update the tos with the flash tool.
THEN do the control-alt-undo.
Without tos .99g it wont' be clearing the flash of the ct60 which
overrides tos nvram probably."
John Garone asks about a problem he's having while copying files:
"My system hangs while trying to copy large files around 10 meg or more!
This started after replacing one of two hard drives. It occurs when trying
to copy from either of 2 CD drives, from either hard drive to each other or
within either hard drive! I've checked ID #s, swapped out cables (total
length is about 11 feet), reconfigured HDDriver and Extendos Gold, done
sector tests on both hard drives and a memory test on the 14 meg RAM.
I believe termination is ok (older Seagate, last in chain, no jumper =
terminated.....new Seagate, second in chain, no jumper selection or
termination power from cable).
Physical order of devices:
C-LAB Falcon
Yamaha CD R/W CRW2200S
Seagate ST15230WC SUN 4.2g
Toshiba CDROM XM-5401TA3605
Seagate ST51080N 1g
Any Thoughts?"
Jim DeClercq tells John:
"Yes, thoughts. Have you done a web search on either Seagate part number?
I have more than one ST32550W, and one of them was acting very strangely.
Found that typing the part number into a search engine box revealed that
many people had strange problems with that drive, and one fellow bought
12, and found that only 4 of them worked in his systems. That told me what
was wrong, and what to do about it. Skipping a lot of steps, after finding
those reports, I installed three jumpers on the top of that drive,
connecting termpower to the terminators, to the network, and connecting
network termpower to the drive, and now it works just fine, in the middle
of the chain, and very thoroughly in the state some people would call
terminated.
First do that web search. If you are the only one with a problem with a
drive which is about the right size for a Unix system, that is not the
problem. And, shorten those cables. Those drive should at least be in the
same county. That could be all of your problem, or fix your problem.
And, block size might matter. There is Kobold, and there is tosfix, to
break transfers up into sizes that do not cause problems. "
John now posts:
"After checking all that can be checked regarding hardware, termination,
ID#s and cables, I booted with ICD and had no problem copying a 49 meg file
from either of 2 CD drives to 2 hard drives or between hard drives but the
system hangs if I boot with HDDriver 8.04 and try to copy a file over 10
meg! Same after reducing the system down to 1 hard drive and 1 CDROM. So,
is there a bug in HDDriver 8.04 or am I not setting it right?"
Stephen Moss tells John:
"Even though you have stated otherwise I still believe that it is a
cabling problem in that basically they are to long. When I tried
using a 1 Metre extension cable with my HD on the floor I could copy
floppies to it ok but copying 720K from the HD to a floppy would
always result in the "Disk Damaged/Drive not connected" alert message.
When I went back to the shorter cable cable (12-16 inch) that was part
of the Link 97 adaptor everything was fine.
The reason why floppy to HD was ok is that the ST is relatively slow
at reading data from floppy and transfers it out in smaller chunks, I
cant remember how large these are but it is defined by TOS however it
does not work the other way because IIRC HD Drive transfers as much
data as will fit into the available RAM from where the ST then copies
it in the smaller chunks to the floppy so HD to ST data transfers
more data faster.
Now I know you will dismiss this because the longer cables worked with
the ICD Driver but as Uwe stated HD Driver uses a fuller SCSI command
set and the code may be more optimised than that of the ICD Driver, if
either if these results in faster data transfer the extra capacitance
of the longer cables will degregate the faster moving signals more
that slower signal to the point where the recipient cannot tell if it
is receiving a 1 or a 0.
You say you have checked the cables but not if you tried HD Driver
with shorter cables, if you have not give it a go you might find it
works."
John tells Stephen:
"I reduced the system down to a 6-foot cable to one hard drive with
HDDriver! No other cables. Still the same!"
Brian Roland adds:
"I might be barking up the wrong tree here...
But I didn't have much luck with HDDriver 8 on a Falcon either. In fact,
version 8 doesn't work with CuBase Audio at all.
I went back to version 7.93, which offers most of the same features as
version 8...just less optimized, and run the CAFFIX patch, and so far,
knock on wood, SCSI problems are gone.
This is on a CT2b with gobs of stuff on the SCSI BUS...wide SCSI III (with
high bytes terminated), and narrow SCSI I and II (50 pin and 25pin cables)
all mixed together. Okay, I admit when I'm doing serious audio projects I
take out all the junk and use as short a cable as possible...but in normal
day to day usage the chain is dangerously long...and so far so good.
The first thing I'd try however, is installing the CAFFIX.PRG from your
HDUTIL disk. If that doesn't do the trick, see if Uwe will send you 7.93."
Uwe Seimet tells Brian:
"This is a known issue, related to Cubase and the fact that Cubase accesses
to SCSI bus in ways not compliant to the SCSI standard. There is nothing
one can do about it, like with any software (Cubase in this case) that is
not maintained anymore."
Jason Davey asks about a graphics card for the TT:
"Can any one tell me if there are any VME display cards available for the
TT and if there is which is has the best screen resolution (colours &
pixel dimensions) and fastest redraw rate etc."
Lonny Pursell tells Jason:
"All such cards are out of production, except perhaps the one from Mario.
I do not know the status of that card.
I have owned a cyrel sunrise, setup and such was a pain at the time.
Also I had issues with certain programs incorrectly detecting the video
mode. Got rid of it.
The nova cards work pretty good, but you end up with 2 drivers, the nova
driver and nvdi or speedo if you want scalable fonts. Sold it.
Personally I recommend the Crazydots II card. Least amount of hassle,
works with everything, and you only need nvdi v5 to drive it.
Also v2 of the card does 24bit, regardless of what others say without
any add-on board. It will do 640x480 24bit, 800x600 16bit and something
like 1024x768 256c on my TT. It's also fully programmable, I actually
bumped it up to 1152x896 or so in 256c mode.
The original Crazydots only does 256c max, and 16bit with some addon board,
if you can even find the add on board anymore."
Mark Duckworth adds:
"The SuperNova card (Mach64) can do 1024x768x16 bit color. I have this
one. The Matrix Coco can also do higher resolutions/colors but they tend
to be a bit harder to find. I have a Matrix Moco/Coco upgrade card but it
is non-functional. Lastly I have an AlberTT card. This card is more or
less a rez expander, giving you 1024x768x16 colors. It's not too bad of a
card, but scrolling is painfully slow and the display isn't too crisp.
I'd let go of the AlberTT if someone threw me $50USD. I know that's too
much for this card but I don't really need to sell it. But if someone
*really* wants one, it's there. I would also sell the matrix card but I
am completely troubled by how much to charge. If someone gets the specs
for the card, fixing it is a matter of 6 wires and it's a GOOD video card,
but at the same time it's in non-working condition so charging full price
would be very unfair."
Well folks, have a happy, healthy and safe holiday. And again, please don't
drink and drive. The life you save may be MINE! <grin>
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 - Retro Gaming, Remembering Youth!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Fugitive Hunter!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Retro Games, Devices, Recall Electronic Youth
When Cindy Simmons and her husband get home from a hard day at the office,
they cozy up and relax like many young couples - by bombing enemy ships on
"River Raid" using their classic Atari video game console.
"It is just like being 11 years old again," said Simmons, 32, an on-air
radio personality from Atlanta. "Except I didn't have 30 games then - now
I do."
High-tech gadgets like digital cameras top many holiday wish lists, but
old-school items such as "Pac-Man" video games and vintage televisions are
finding an audience with tech-savvy consumers yearning for nostalgia.
Rapid advances in computer technology have allowed consumer electronics
makers to pack increasingly more power into smaller boxes, helping to grow
the CE market to almost $100 billion.
But even "thirtysomething" shoppers - the first generation to grow up with
personal "Walkman" music players and own a home version of "Space
Invaders" - are overwhelmed when confronted with Sony Corp. PlayStation 2
and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox consoles that also surf the Web and play DVDs,
or pocket devices that can store 10,000 songs.
"Devices and games are getting more complex. The learning curve is not what
it used to be and or you're not as willing to spend the time to learn as
you would years ago," analyst Danielle Levitas of research firm IDC said.
"Also, every generation experiences nostalgia, reflecting on what they did
in their free time when they were teen-agers."
The trend is most evident with video games. Teens today enjoy them
primarily on living room consoles that can, for example, simulate with
stunning three-dimensional precision, a World War II battle scene. A single
game, packed with maps and myriad weaponry, can take hours to learn and
weeks to complete.
By contrast, beloved games of late 1970s and early 1980s were no-brainers,
where strategy meant little more than picking whether to chase and chomp
the stationary picture of a strawberry or the red cone-shaped monster with
the googly eyes.
"The essence of these games was that they didn't go on for 40 hours. You
can just pick up and figure out what was going on fairly quickly and then
play," said Keith Robinson, president of Intellivision Productions, which
is also selling a version of its 1980s games for new game consoles.
At eBay Inc.'s online auction site, more than 43,000 vintage gaming items
are being offered for sale, including the classic brand names Atari,
Colecovision and Commodore. Gross merchandise sales - the value of goods
sold via the site - for Commodore alone are up 61 percent for the last
three months.
"This growth is related to the children of baby boomers wanting to
recapture a piece of their youth in the early 1980s," eBay spokesman Hani
Durzy said.
Intellivision this year is offering "Intellivision Lives!" for PS2 and
Xbox, resurrecting long-forgotten titles like "Shark! Shark!" and "Space
Armada." Its Intellivision 25 direct-to-TV controller lets users without a
console play 25 games by plugging a game controller into their TV or VCR.
Similar game controller products are available from Atari, Activision and
Namco, bringing "Dig Dug" and "Asteroids" from the era of Lionel Ritchie
and Diane Keaton to that of Missy Elliott and Ben Affleck.
Each game controller looks almost exactly like the original
joystick-and-single-button model - a relic compared to current models that
often sport six buttons and two directional sticks.
"People identify with the original Atari 2600 joystick," said Genna
Goldberg of JAKKS Pacific Inc., which makes the three joystick games. "For
many it was the first video game system they had as a kid."
Search for Osama bin Laden comes to PlayStation in Fugitive Hunter
Add video gamers to the list of governments, special forces and soldiers
hunting for Osama bin Laden.
When John Botti came up with the idea for a bounty hunter video game, he
turned to the FBI's most wanted list for inspiration. That was before
Sept. 11 but bin Laden was already No. 1 on the fugitive list. So Botti,
the 36-year-old president and CEO of Black Ops Entertainment in Santa
Monica, Calif., put him in Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror.
The PlayStation 2 title allows gamers to go after 11 terrorists, with the
search for bin Laden in mountain caves on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border
the game's final battle.
So far, it seems people like beating up on bin Laden.
"We didn't know how it would be taken," Botti said Tuesday. "But we didn't
do anything that was inappropriate and I think people like to vent their
frustration out on him."
You have to work your way up to bin Laden. First you take on murderers and
bank robbers from Miami, a militia group in Utah, a drug cartel in the
Caribbean and al-Qaida operatives in France.
Botti, whose twin brother Will is Black Ops' video-president of software
development, came up with the idea for the game after graduating from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990. He moved to California and
was living in a tough neighbourhood at the time.
"The idea kind of came from me actually living in that environment, where
there were police chases and helicopters and police dogs and gang busts all
the time. Every day," he said from California. "It was a very different
experience from growing up in a suburban section of New York."
Botti, who wrote computer games as a hobby while growing up, had hoped to
get into the film business after leaving MIT. But when times were lean, he
turned back to video games and eventually formed Black Ops in 1994.
Pre-production of Fugitive Hunter started in 1999 and when a team from
Blacks Ops finished a James Bond title, Botti put them on the new game in
2000.
So far Fugitive Hunter has done "fairly well," said Botti. "There's a lot
of competition right now."
But Black Ops is already pondering a sequel and Botti, proud of the game,
finds himself still playing it.
"It's not a game that has a $20-million production budget, but it is a game
that has some cool weapons," he said. "I just get a kick out of blowing
terrorists away."
Current events caught up with the game designers as they worked on Fugitive
Hunter.
Bin Laden was No. 1 on the most wanted list, but was hardly in the public
eye at that time. Still a publisher picked up the game and "then Sept. 11
hit."
"We actually restructured our game a little bit to remove the New York
levels and some of the other things, but we kept the al-Qaida and
Afghanistan stuff."
He also sounded out New Yorkers about the game.
"I'm from New York. I'm the last person to do anything defamatory or
insulting to my friends and family that live and work in New York," Botti
said. "Most of my good friends from MIT or high school work in Wall Street
where all that stuff went down."
Today bin Laden is still on the wanted list, with an FBI bounty of $25
million US.
Botti even spoke to the FBI during game production, to make sure Fugitive
Hunter would not cause waves by including an al-Qaida component. The bureau
had no objections, noting the terrorists had a lot more to worry about than
a video game.
Botti compares the production of Fugitive Hunter to that of an independent
film. Money was tight so, with an eye to the bottom line, Botti looked for
ways to cut costs during game production.
Black Ops' system administrator, a big man, provided the body for bank
robber Casey Webber. Other employee were used for their voices.
But Botti did not skimp when it came to the game's narrator. He got Will
Lyman, the voice of PBS's Nova and Frontline.
Lyman's instantly recognizable voice - he also stars in the ABC series
Threat Matrix - lends the game valuable authenticity.
One criticism Botti has got is that the game's final hand-to-hand battle
with bin Laden is unrealistic. According to the FBI's most wanted terrorist
list, bin Laden walks with a cane.
"It's a game," Botti countered. "If we just made the guy come out with a
cane, like when they captured Saddam Hussein it's not that eventful."
Bring down bin Laden and you get to cuff him, then boot him into a
helicopter waiting to whisk him back to justice.
Black Ops, which also shoots commercials and is looking at some movie
projects, has sold more than 5.5 million copies of its video games. It has
created some 18 titles including the boxing game Knockout Kings, James
Bond's The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies, and basketball's
Street Hoops.
Tomorrow Never Dies, for PlayStation 1, sold some three million copies
alone.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Bush Signs First National Anti-Spam Bill Into Law
President Bush signed the first national anti-spam bill into law on
Tuesday, outlawing some of the most annoying forms of junk e-mail and
setting jail time and multimillion dollar fines for violators.
The law also lays the groundwork for a "Do Not Spam" registry similar to
the "Do Not Call" anti-telemarketing list that went into effect earlier
this year.
Bush's signing marks the final legislative step in a six-year struggle to
curb the unsolicited commercial offers that threaten to overwhelm the
e-mail system.
But the law is unlikely to provide much of a Christmas present, at least
this year.
Experts say it will not immediately stop the torrent of unwelcome e-mails
touting unbelievably low mortgage rates, get-rich-quick schemes and sexual
enhancement offers that now account for more than half of all e-mail
traffic.
Skeptics say it will only encourage businesses to send out more unwanted
e-mail, as the new law allows marketers to send messages to anyone with an
e-mail address as long as they identify themselves clearly and honor
consumer requests to leave them alone.
Supporters say the law sets a helpful framework for acceptable e-mail
practices, but acknowledge it will need to be enforced aggressively to have
any impact.
"This will help address the problems associated with the rapid growth and
abuse of spam by establishing a framework of technological, administrative,
civil and criminal tools and by providing consumers with the options to
reduce unwanted e-mail," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
The new law requires pornographic e-mail to be clearly labeled, and
commercial "text messages" to cell phones will be prohibited unless users
expressly permit them.
It encourages but does not require the Federal Trade Commission to allow
Internet users who don't want to receive any unsolicited marketing to place
their e-mail addresses on a list that marketers would be required to check.
FTC officials have said on several occasions that a do-not-spam registry
would be difficult to enforce.
The law will override some tougher state laws, such as one in California
that would prevent all unsolicited commercial e-mail, and will prohibit
consumer lawsuits.
Internet marketers have begun to feel the heat as the skyrocketing volumes
of spam have strained computer networks and outraged consumers.
Prosecutors in New York and Virginia have used state laws to arrest a
handful of spammers, and large Internet service providers like Time Warner
Inc.'s America Online and EarthLink Inc. have sued dozens more for damages.
Microsoft Corp. and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer are expected to
announce another anti-spam action on Thursday.
At the national level, the Federal Trade Commission has used
deceptive-business laws to go after spammers, though settlements generally
involve promises to avoid spamming in the future rather than fines or jail
time.
Large Internet service providers and marketing and technology trade groups
praised the new law, though many said it would need to be coupled with
better filtering methods.
Forrester Research analyst Jim Nail said the law would have little effect
as spammers would simply move offshore and come up with new ways to evade
filters and cover their tracks. A better solution would be to force all
e-mail users to pay a fraction of a penny for each message sent, as a way
to discourage indiscriminate mass e-mailings, he said.
Civil-liberties advocate Ari Schwartz said the bill would likely make it
easier for Internet service providers and prosecutors to go after spammers,
though it was not without flaws.
Spammers who already violate existing fraud laws are unlikely to honor
opt-out requests, and the anti-pornography provisions could prove difficult
to enforce, said Schwartz, an associate director at the Washington-based
Center for Democracy and Technology.
And by preventing individual lawsuits, Congress shut the door on an
effective way to harness consumer anti-spam sentiment, he said.
"There shouldn't be extremely high expectations for this law," he said.
Microsoft, New York State Sue E-Mail Spammers
Microsoft Corp. and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Thursday
sued a group of e-mail marketers they said were responsible for sending
billions of fraudulent spam messages.
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, said the defendants in the
civil lawsuits include New York marketing firm Synergy6 Inc. and Scott
Richter, who runs Westminster, Colorado-based Optinrealbig.com LLC.
Spitzer, known for his aggressive pursuit of corporate fraud in recent
years, has previously brought three lawsuits against so-called spammers,
those who send unsolicited commercial e-mails.
The lawsuit, filed by Microsoft in King County Superior Court in Washington
state and jointly with the New York attorney general in New York State
Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims the spammers violated New York and
Washington state laws by offering free goods in exchange for personal
information, using false sender names, false subject lines, misleading
sender e-mail addresses and falsified transmission information.
"We believe Scott Richter is clearing several million dollars a month in
profits," Spitzer told reporters at a news conference in New York, adding
that the joint legal action was aimed at driving Richter and Synergy6 into
bankruptcy.
Spitzer said Richter was responsible for sending more than 250 million spam
messages per day and profited handsomely from his business.
Richter rejected the legal claims by the New York attorney general and
Microsoft, but did not deny the profitability of his enterprise nor the
volume of advertising messages.
"We intend to fight it (the lawsuit) and it's not going to affect us,"
Richter said. "It's going to take an army" of lawyers.
The New York attorney general for the first time teamed up with the private
sector to enhance its subpoena power with technology tools from
Microsoft, Spitzer said.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which has gone on the offensive
against e-mail advertising touting everything from get-rich-quick schemes
to pornographic Web sites, is developing anti-spam technology and waging
legal warfare against spammers.
The company, whose MSN Internet and Hotmail e-mail services have millions
of subscribers around the world, has said spammers clog its networks with
traffic and hurt consumers with e-mails that appeared to come from a
foreign government's defense ministry, a hospital or elementary schools,
among other purported senders.
Microsoft said 2.4 billion, or 80 percent of the e-mails its users receive
every day, are spam. Research firm IDC estimates 7.3 billion junk e-mails
are sent daily.
Spam will cost American companies more than $10 billion in 2003, according
to consulting firm Ferris Research. Albert Decker, director of security and
privacy services at computer consultant EDS Corp., said the cost savings
from reducing spam will be in the billions, simply from the improvement in
productivity and reduction of processing work.
After investigating the messages, Microsoft was able to determine who sent
them, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said.
"The finger is now pointing at them," he said. "There is no doubt in our
minds that the lawsuits today are being filed against the right people."
Microsoft has admitted that legal action alone won't stem the flood of spam
piling up in inboxes every day.
Microsoft said it filed five additional lawsuits against other spammers
who allegedly used the same transmission path in New York that originally
led investigators to Richter and the spam network.
Verizon Communications and Microsoft have previously brought suits against
the world's largest spammers.
"If these people have any money left ... we will be happy to pursue the
remainder," Smith said. "We need to send a strong message that this is
illegal and doesn't pay."
Representatives from Synergy6 were not immediately available for comment.
On Tuesday, President Bush signed into law the first national anti-spam
bill, which bans some forms of junk e-mail and sets jail time and
multimillion-dollar fines for violators.
But experts say the new law is not likely to stop the torrent of
unsolicited commercial e-mail, because it lets businesses send messages to
anyone with an e-mail address as long as they identify themselves clearly
and honor consumer requests to leave them alone.
In addition, some are concerned that businesses may outsource the work to
people outside the United States to escape penalties. Spitzer acknowledged
any such move would make his work harder, but told Reuters he is confident
the obstacles will be overcome, "no matter if it's someone pushing the
button in India, Egypt or Alabama.
"The fact that someone else pushes the button doesn't eliminate the
liability of the person who is trying to make this a business," he added.
Dutch Court Throws Out Attempt to Control Kazaa
The Dutch supreme court on Friday threw out an attempt by a music copyright
agency to put controls on popular Internet file-swapping software system
Kazaa, a ruling the music industry attacked as flawed.
The decision is a fresh blow to the media industry, which has fought to
shut down file-sharing networks they say have created a massive
black-market trade in free music, films and video games on the Internet.
"The victory by Kazaa creates an important precedent for the legality of
peer-to-peer software, both in the European Union as elsewhere," Kazaa's
lawyers Bird & Bird said in a statement.
The decision by the Dutch court, the highest European body yet to rule on
file-sharing software, means that the developers of the software cannot be
held liable for how individuals use it. It does not address issues over
individuals' use of such networks.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the music
trade group representing independent and major music labels including
Warner Music, Sony Music, BMG, EMI and Universal Music, criticized the
ruling as "one-sided" and vowed to continue its legal crusade elsewhere.
"Today's ruling on Kazaa by the Dutch Supreme Court is a flawed judgment,
but still leaves no doubt that the vast majority of people who are using
file-swapping services like Kazaa are acting illegally - whatever country
they are in," the group said in a statement.
The music industry in the United States, feeling the pinch of successive
years of declining CD sales, has begun suing individual downloaders, many
of whom are Kazaa users. The IFPI has said a similar legal campaign could
be launched in Europe.
The Supreme Court rejected demands by Buma Stemra, the Dutch royalties
collection society, that distribution of Kazaa cease and that future
versions be modified so that copyrighted materials cannot be exchanged over
the network, lawyers representing Kazaa said.
Kazaa and other new breed peer-to-peer networks have argued they have no
centralised servers and therefore cannot control what is exchanged by their
users, a defense the IFPI and other media organizations challenge.
The IFPI maintained Kazaa could be modified to filter out copyrighted
works. They also demanded the company warn Kazaa users that unauthorized
distribution of such materials was illegal.
The supreme court upheld a March 2002 ruling in which an appeals court
ruled in favor of Fasttrack, the Amsterdam-based firm that developed Kazaa.
Fasttrack later sold the technology to Sharman Networks Ltd of Australia.
The media industry has launched a similar suit in the United States against
Sharman, which many see as the crucial legal showdown for determining the
legal future of file-sharing.
Kazaa has become the undisputed king of file-sharing networks. In October,
Kazaa registered over 17.5 million European and American users, according
to Internet measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings.
In the Netherlands alone there are 3.6 million users.
"This is a historic victory for the Internet and consumers," Niklas
Zennstroem and Janus Friis, the founders of Kazaa, were quoted in the
lawyer's statement as saying.
Court: Net Music Subpoenas Not Allowed
In a surprise setback for the beleaguered recording industry, a U.S.
appeals court ruled that record labels cannot force Internet service
providers to name customers who illegally copy music online.
Existing copyright law does not allow record labels to force Internet
providers to turn over customer names without a formal lawsuit, the court
said, adding the industry's legal argument "borders upon the silly."
The decision complicates the recording industry's efforts to stamp out the
online traffic in copyrighted songs over "peer to peer" networks like
Kazaa, a practice the industry says has contributed to plummeting CD sales.
The Recording Industry Association of America has reached out-of-court
settlements with at least 220 Internet users after tracking their activity
online and forcing Internet providers to turn over their names.
The trade group will continue to file lawsuits against those it suspects of
copyright violations but will not be able to warn them beforehand, an RIAA
official said in a statement.
"Regardless of this decision, we will continue to defend our rights online
on behalf of artists, songwriters and countless others involved in bringing
music to the public," said RIAA President Cary Sherman.
Verizon Communications challenged the practice last year, arguing that a
1998 copyright law does not require it to turn over customer names without
a lawsuit.
A lower court earlier this year upheld the recording industry's tactics,
and the appeals court declined to halt the practice while it considered the
case.
But in a strongly worded ruling, the appeals court sided with Verizon,
saying a 1998 law does not give copyright holders the ability to subpoena
customer names from Internet providers without first filing a formal
lawsuit.
"In sum, we agree with Verizon that (the law) does not by its terms
authorize the subpoenas issued here," Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote.
The recording industry's "digital online fishing expedition" violates
customer privacy and due-process rights, said Sarah Deutsch, a Verizon vice
president and associate general counsel.
"Verizon is definitely interested in working with all of the copyright
community in finding ways to stop piracy, but we have to do it in a way
that supports the balance between users' rights and the rights of the
copyright holder," Deutsch said.
The RIAA did not provide immediate comment.
An independent copyright expert said the recording industry will have to
meet a higher legal standard before filing lawsuits against users in the
future - which could avoid further public-relations embarrassments such
as the 12-year-old girl who was one of the first to be sued.
"In some ways it's kind of a mixed blessing for the recording industry,
because they're not going to end up having the grandma in Massachusetts
who is accused of having Linkin Park and hip-hop music on her computer,"
said Gigi Sohn, executive director of Public Knowledge, a Washington think
tank.
RIAA members include Vivendi's Universal Universal Music Group; Time Warner
Inc.'s Warner Music; EMI Group Plc; Sony Corp's Sony Music; and Bertelsmann
AG's BMG.
Internet Sales Tax Effort on Hold for Now
The debate over whether the Internet should remain a huge tax-free
marketplace for U.S. shoppers probably will not be resolved in 2004,
according to policymakers and experts who cited the upcoming presidential
election as a political disincentive to action as well as stubborn
resistance by some lawmakers and business interests to any effort to tax
electronic commerce.
That prospect would be a setback for a quiet but dogged effort led by state
officials and some of their allies in the business community to get
Congress to authorize state governments to collect taxes on their
residents' Internet purchases.
"I would be stunned if there was a vote on this in a presidential election
year," said Bartlett Cleland, associate general counsel for the Information
Technology Association of America, a high-tech lobbying group that has
lobbied against the plan.
The co-chairman of the states' working group on Internet sales taxes
agreed. "I don't think anyone doubts this is going to be a tough sell in
Congress during an election year," said Diane Hardt of the Streamlined
Sales Tax Project.
Nevertheless, Hardt's group is working overtime to persuade more retailers
to voluntarily collect taxes from their customers in every state that has
a sales tax.
"There are huge financial incentives for the states to get this done, and
the states would like to get this money as soon as possible," she said.
Some state legislatures have already voted to modify their sales tax codes
to accommodate the plan, but the endgame almost certainly will play out in
the halls of Congress. Reps. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) and William Delahunt
(D-Mass.) introduced a bill earlier this year that would give the
congressional go-ahead to the sales tax plan, but that proposal will die
if it does not get a vote before the end of 2004.
The stakes - by some estimates - are high. An oft-cited 2001 study by two
professors at the University of Tennessee said that the amount of
uncollected taxes on e-commerce will grow to $45 billion by 2006.
States have long argued that it is unfair that they can't tax all Internet
commerce, especially when sales taxes are a principal way to ensure that
business activities support vital local services like education and
transportation services.
Collecting taxes on online retail transactions is equally appealing to the
so-called "bricks-and-mortar" business community, which sees the Internet's
tax-free status as a powerful force discouraging shoppers from heading out
to physical stores. Even online retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and
Amazon.com, which initially balked at the idea, have started to support it
this year. Wal-Mart and Target, which maintain both physical and online
stores, are particularly anxious to eliminate any state claims on
previously unpaid taxes on online sales.
On the other side of the debate are groups like the ITAA and the
Microsoft-funded Association for Competitive Technology, which oppose the
plan as currently written. These groups say they support simpler state
taxes but don't want to see the Internet economy sucked dry by
over-taxation.
Rep. Istook remains optimistic that his bill will pass, said spokeswoman
Micah Swafford. She noted a 2001 vote in which the House of Representatives
voted by a 2-1 margin in favor of a nonbinding resolution supporting the
online sales tax plan.
But given the strong anti-tax sentiment among the House Republican
leadership, some proponents of the plan are looking to the Senate for a
better reception, said Maureen Riehl, vice president of state and industry
relations for the National Retail Federation.
"There's just not as much of an anti-tax crowd in the Senate. They don't
see this issue like many House Republicans do. The senators seem to
understand that what we're talking about here is collection, not a new
tax," Riehl said.
Even though the House leadership under Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas)
is opposed to the plan, many of its ardent supporters are Republicans who
have practically built their careers as anti-tax hawks. Istook, the lead
sponsor of the House bill, is well known for being tough on taxes, as is
Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), sponsor of a similar bill in the Senate. Other
conservative Republicans backing the state effort include Reps. Ray LaHood
(Ill.) and Spencer Bachus (Ala.), and Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Kay
Bailey Hutchison (Texas).
For these lawmakers, online sales taxes are a matter best left to the
states.
"Some of those are very staunch states'-righters," said Richard Prem,
director of global Internet taxation for Amazon.com. "When people look at
these issues, they realize that there's a more fundamental issue than just
taxes on the line here."
Two of the senators currently supporting the states on issues of taxing
Internet access and sales - George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Lamar Alexander
(R-Tenn.) - are former governors and remember the difficulties they faced
in handling tight state budgets, Prem noted.
Some lawmakers are sympathetic to the complaints of large, established
retailers in the offline world that say it is unfair for their online
counterparts to get a tax break, said Gary Gudmundson, spokesman for the
Ohio Department of Taxation. "Traditional retailers provide jobs, they pay
taxes ... How can you ignore them? Not to mention that they're much bigger
players financially."
At this time, 45 states require citizens to pay sales taxes on their
purchases, even if they're made online or in another state. Few online
businesses collect those taxes because there's no way for other states to
force them to hand over the money. That stems from a 1992 Supreme Court
decision that says businesses can't be forced to collect taxes for a
different state than the one they're located in. In that ruling, the court
said Congress can authorize the collection of Internet and catalogue sales
taxes across state lines, but only if the states simplify their tax systems
first.
To do that, the Streamlined Sales Tax Coalition must develop a system for
the states to get their dues while making sure that smaller online
businesses are not swamped by having to comply with thousands of different
tax jurisdictions.
If some technology lobbyists have their way, the Internet sales tax effort
will fade away.
NetChoice, a lobbying group that represents online auction giant eBay and
travel Web site Orbitz, said that the plan's supporters have not done
enough to answer difficult questions about how it will work, including how
to certify tax software vendors, educating online merchants and how the
states will exchange revenue.
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), meanwhile, said in a June study
that the amount of money states could get from Internet sales taxes might
be far less than they claim - just $3.2 billion by 2006.
The states might win more support from the business community if they cut
a range of other corporate income and franchise taxes, said Stephen Kranz,
tax counsel for the Council on State Taxation.
"That could very well be the play that earns the states the momentum they
need to get their tax plan approved," Kranz said.
Neil Osten, director of telecommunications and commerce at the National
Conference of State Legislatures, said some states fear that additional
tax breaks could cancel out any increased tax revenues collected on
Internet sales.
Riehl of the National Retail Federation said that one possibility under
consideration is combining the sales tax plan with a proposal to limit how
states charge business activity taxes.
Business activity taxes include franchise taxes and business license taxes
that usually affect only the companies that are established in the local
area where the tax is applied. Some states have angered companies by
seeking to expand the taxes to more kinds of corporate activity including
sending salespeople or delivery trucks that cross state lines for even
just a few minutes or hours.
House lawmakers introduced legislation that would bar states and
localities from levying businesses activity taxes against out-of-state
companies unless the company has a store, shipping center or other property
physically located in the taxing jurisdiction.
Riehl said that the idea is a good one but has no guarantee of success.
"We will know by the first of March whether this thing will get the
traction it needs next year or not."
Linux 2.6 Arrives
Linus Torvalds released the long-awaited Linux 2.6 on Wednesday night,
although it won't be adopted by major Linux distributors any time soon.
The release, which Torvalds announced to the Linux-kernel mailing list,
comes almost three years after the last Linux release, 2.4, in January
2001. (Late beta versions of the 2.6 kernel have been available since
July.) The source code is now available at The Linux Kernel Archive.
In his announcement note, Torvalds wrote, "This should not be a big
surprise to anybody - since we've been building up to it for a long time
now, and for the last few weeks I haven't accepted any patches except for
what amounts to fairly obvious one-liners."
Linux 2.6 isn't flawless. "Some known issues were not considered to be
release-critical, and a number of them have pending fixes," Torvalds said.
"Generally, they just didn't have the kind of verification yet where I was
willing to take them in order to make sure a fair 2.6.0 release."
Torvalds will continue to track the Linux 2.6 tree, but now that Linux 2.6
is a stable release, he will begin to turn his attention to the next
version of Linux, 2.7, and Andrew Morton will take over as the maintainer
of Linux 2.6.
Commercial releases of the 2.6 kernel by major Linux distributors still
remain months away. Red Hat Inc. won't be adding 2.6 until the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 4 product line comes out in 2005. SuSE Linux AG will
include 2.6 sooner with its summer 2004 release of SuSE Linux Enterprise
Server 9.
This new version of Linux brings several improvements for enterprise users.
It now supports up to 32 processors, 64GB of memory with 32-bit processors,
and new file systems such as IBM's Journaling File System (JFS) and Silicon
Graphics Inc.'s XFS. Version 2.6 also supports Non-Uniform Memory Access
(NUMA), which will aid it on advanced multiprocessing systems.
Linux 2.6 also includes fundamental improvements in how it deals with
devices, which should make it easier for OEMs to deploy Linux on their
computers. In addition, this Linux has improvements to almost every element
of the operating system, from system processing to networking to expanded
support for embedded devices. For more technical details on Linux 2.6's
changes, see IBM's "Towards Linux 2.6" white paper and Joseph Pranevich's
"The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6."
Cayam Worm Angles For eBay Account Info
Another phishing expedition appeared on the Internet Thursday, this one
dubbed W32/Cayam and targeting eBay users.
Cayam, which poses as a message from eBay with a subject heading reading
'Verify your eBay account information,' actually contains a worm in its
attached file. When that attachment is opened, the worm displays several
legitimate-looking screens that ask the user to enter his eBay user ID and
password, then complete a seemingly official form.
The form request a whole host of personal and financial information,
including the user's Social Security number, credit card information, and
bank checking account number.
The worm propagates by lifting addresses out of the target PC's copy of
Microsoft Outlook and e-mailing copies of itself to others, and can also
spread via the peer-to-peer Kazaa and eMule networks.
Phishing, a term used to describe malicious e-mail that pose as legitimate
messages from major corporations - usually with the intent to trick the
recipient into disclosing personal or financial information - have been
more aggressive this year than ever before, according to mail filtering
firm Postini, which tagged an increase in the potentially lucrative
practice as one of its top ten predictions for 2004.
Earlier this month, the Mimail series created a stir by trying to fool
users into giving up account information for eBay's electronic payment
service, PayPal.
Spam Slayer: 2003 Spam Awards
Seven billion commercial e-mail messages crossed the Internet daily in
2003, easily breaking all previous spam records. And despite new laws, and
ISP suits against spammers, the amount of junk e-mail transmitted daily is
forecast to hit 9 billion in 2004, according to antispam software maker
Brightmail. Today about half of all e-mail is spam, the firm reports.
For those of you keeping score in the spam wars, let's take a look back at
the spam-busting year of 2003 and hand out a few Spam Slayer awards.
Worst Worm
The Sobig e-mail worm that clogged in-boxes in August was the most prolific
virus of 2003, according to a top ten list of viruses published by
antivirus software vendor Sophos. The UK-based firm says the Sobig worm
accounted for almost 20 percent of the virus reports it got this year.
Coming in second was the Blaster worm, with 15 percent.
Fastest Worm
Sobig was not only the most prolific, but spam-busting firm Postini says
it was also the most nimble worm of 2003. On one dark day, Postini tracked
the Sobig worm as infecting 4.5 percent of all e-mail that the service had
filtered. That was a 2000 percent up-tick from Postini's routine e-mail
infection rate of 0.3 percent.
Most Common Pitches
The junk e-mail equivalent to death and taxes are pitches for
pharmaceutical supplements, male body part enlargement, Viagra, sexually
explicit porn, scams, and mortgages. According to Postini these categories
are the most common spam subjects.
Most Annoying Spam
Perhaps it's a no-brainer, but for posterity, the winners are: spam related
to pharmaceutical supplements, male body part enlargement, Viagra, sexually
explicit porn, scams, and mortgages.
Energizer Bunny Award
The 2003 spam message that most resembles the energetic rabbit was an Iraqi
variation of the familiar Nigerian Scam 419. That e-mail hoax, which has
been making the rounds for years, involves an alleged plea for assistance
getting cash out of a country under siege - for a generous cut.
In the updated version, Eng Farouk Al-Bashar, allegedly the oldest son of
an oil-rich Iraqi family, pleads for help. The e-mail asks for assistance
in transporting $12.5 million in cash from a Baghdad vault. For your
trouble you get 10 percent, or a negotiated amount. Yeah, right!
Best Spam Scam Newcomer
The Mimail e-mail worm easily wins this title. Mimail variants infect PCs
with a payload containing instructions to launch distributed
denial of
service attacks against a number of antispam and e-commerce Web sites.
Antispam firms say this devilishly ingenious way to thwart their efforts
will likely grow in 2004.
Biggest Defeat
Three leading antispam sites that hosted spammer blacklists were shut down
in August after becoming victims of distributed denial of service attacks.
It's believed spammers launched the attacks using the Sobig worm.
The targeted sites were Osirusoft, Spam Prevention Early Warning System,
and the Spam Open Relay and Blocking System. All were intermittently
inaccessible; and, according to some online discussion forums, Osirusoft
has shut down permanently.
Spamiest Day
February 15 was the busiest day of 2003 for spam, according to
spam-filterer Postini. That day, 82.4 percent of all the e-mail it filtered
for its customers was spam, Postini representatives say. Overall, however,
October was the spamiest month, the company reports.
Lawyers to Love
In August, EarthLink filed lawsuits against two unsolicited commercial
e-mail rings with operations in the United States and Canada, accusing them
of sending spam that has cost the ISP millions. The ISP wants to recover an
estimated $5 million in lost employee productivity and Internet bandwidth.
That was the cost of managing more than 250 million e-mail messages sent
from e-mail addresses on its network, according to EarthLink.
Shortest-Lived Spam Law
California took a stand against spam e-mail in September, approving some
of the toughest antispam legislation in the nation. The new law would
prohibit anyone from sending unsolicited commercial e-mail advertisements
to a California e-mail address.
The new law is to take effect in January. Meanwhile, Congress has taken a
stand that supplants California's measure. The federal Controlling the
Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act was
approved in December. It is expected to get President George W. Bush's
signature any day now, and will take effect in the summer.
The federal legislation requires unsolicited e-mail messages to include a
mechanism that allows recipients to indicate they do not want future
mailings. It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to offer within six
months a plan to establish a national do-not-spam list, similar to the
national do-not-call telemarketing list now in effect.
What Took You So Long?
The FTC aired concerns in November over exploitation of a Microsoft Windows
service. The Windows Messenger Service is intended for network
administrators to send notices to users, but it's being usurped by third
parties to send pop-up spam.
In October, Microsoft said it will disable the Messenger Service on
Windows XP machines with the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2, expected
to ship in the first half of 2004.
Crowning the Spam King
Scott Richter is the Internet's poster boy for spam. Richter is chief
executive of OptInRealBig.com, an $18-million-a-year business that sends
out zillions of e-mail messages every day hawking adult porn, Viagra, and
mortgages.
Richter says he sends out 80 million e-mail advertisements daily. He
endorses curbing spam and creating an industry code of ethics. He is
president of the E-Mail Marketing Association, a group that says it wants
to work with the FTC to help stop spam and build consumer trust. According
to the EMA Web site, the code of ethics has been "coming soon" since I
first checked in September.
People's Choice: Best Free Spam Filter
You spoke and I heard you. I've gotten many glowing reviews of the spam
filter SpamBayes. Indeed, I like it too - and you can't beat the price.
What makes the program unique is that SpamBayes doesn't use predetermined
spam definitions. Rather, it constantly evolves by scanning your in-box to
build custom definitions.
Charity Begins Online with Internet 'Givelist'
Do you really need another sweater?
If the answer is no, but if people keep asking what you want for the
holidays, you might consider a Web site meant to meld charity and online
shopping.
The U.S.-based site, www.whatgoesaround.org, offers a vast smorgasbord of
900,000 non-profit groups, but it is not just a clearinghouse. It's a place
where users - so far it is targeting Americans - can register their charity
preferences.
So when your grandmother wonders what you might like for the holidays, you
won't have to settle for another sweater - you can point her to the Web
site and your personal "givelist" of preferred charities.
And if you can't decide what to give Grandma but she hasn't figured out how
to use the site, you can donate to a non-profit group you choose in her
honor.
Whatgoesaround.org, named in a nod to the expression "What goes around,
comes around," is the brainchild of marketing expert Sylvia Stein and
composer-lyricist Holly Gewandter.
Billing itself as "a new non-profit organization that's revolutionizing
giving in America," the site went live on Nov. 12, and by Wednesday had
channeled more than $16,000 to U.S.-based non-profit organizations and the
U.S. arms of such international organizations as Amnesty International and
Doctors Without Borders (news - web sites).
More than 1,800 Americans have registered on the site.
"A lot of gift-giving is forced, I call it gift fatigue," Stein said by
telephone from New York. "This is for the 50-year-old who doesn't want to
write 50 thank you notes for 50 gag gifts about turning 50."
The site aims to remove some of the rampant materialism from giving, not
just at the holidays, but at other occasions where presents of money are
customary, such as weddings, bar mitzvahs and memorials for the dead.
It's not supposed to feel like a traditional charitable donation, Gewandter
said in a telephone interview. It's supposed to feel more like shopping.
"Culturally, Americans have developed this incredible culture of shopping,
it's become entertainment, it's become a major activity, a favorite
pastime, but we're all drowning in stuff," she said. "People want to do
good but it's a very complicated mix, and we started thinking, what if we
could create this site as a shopping site, not as a charity site."
Those who want to use the site must register personal information,
including an e-mail address, and then select charities from the site's
list, either by issue, name or locality.
Children have their own section on the site, and in addition to listing
favorite charities, kids can ask for donations to a "changejar" for later
giving.
Stein said e-mail has been overwhelmingly positive, and provided one
missive that summed up the site's appeal to "everyday philanthropists."
"I talked it over with my fiance... and we came up with a plan," the e-mail
read. "We'll both set up gift lists and donate to each other for Christmas.
That way, when people ask us what we got each other, we can tell them about
the site and they might use it in the future. A while ago, we agreed to
exchange nothing but stockings filled with small items, since we both have
way too much stuff."
Gewandter said she hoped for a side benefit from the site: a reduction in
direct-mail charity donation requests.
N.Y. Uses EBay to Sell Surplus Property
New York state has been quietly selling surplus items for more than a year
through the highly successful online auction house eBay, officials said
Tuesday.
"You would be amazed at what people will buy. It's been great," said
Jennifer Meicht, a spokeswoman for New York state's Office of General
Services.
Using the seller name "nyssurplus-albany," the state OGS is currently
peddling a host of items including eight new Goodyear tires and a bunch of
storage lockers.
"We started as an experiment, selling some surplus property and, based on
our initial success, we've been slowly adding more items," Meicht told the
New York Post, which first reported on the eBay sales in its Tuesday
editions.
OGS sales on eBay have already earned the state almost $300,000 on hundreds
of items, she said.
Chris Donlay, a spokesman for eBay, said New York is one of at least 14
states that are making use of the online auction service to sell surplus
property, unclaimed assets and the like.
"The U.S. Post Office also sells undeliverable items" on eBay, Donlay said.
In addition to New York, Donlay said other states using eBay services
include California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts,
North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
The eBay spokesman said about 86 million buyers and sellers use the service
worldwide.
"It's possible to get some great bargains now during the holiday season,"
said the OGS's Meicht.
As of late Tuesday morning, the lot of eight Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires,
size P225/70R15, had been bid up to $511. The auction on the tires was to
end Wednesday morning.
According to eBay buyers, dealing with New York's OGS is generally a good
experience. The state has a positive feedback rating of 98.8 percent. OGS
registered as a seller with eBay in January of last year, according to the
state's eBay listing, but Meicht said OGS' selling didn't begin until
October of last year.
The OGS spokeswoman said the Internet selling saves the state
administrative costs over its live auctions and "has opened up a larger
market for us."
"We're getting rid of things that in the past we have had to simply throw
away ... (and) we're getting great prices," Meicht said.
The OGS spokeswoman said eBay buyers have bought everything from a cotton
candy machine to cobblestones from the state.
Meicht said most of the items sold by the state have been office equipment.
She said a real surprise was that OGS is now getting up to $100 each for
used gray metal desks that it used to have to junk.
"We even sold an old canoe," she added. "It came without paddles."
=~=~=~=
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