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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 19
Volume 6, Issue 19 Atari Online News, Etc. May 7, 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:
Kevin Savetz
Norbert Simon
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0619 05/07/04
~ Phishing Attacks Rise! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Tempus Word NG!
~ Apple To Unleash Tiger ~ Pac-Man, Live In NYC! ~ Red Hat Returns!
~ AOL Video Games Site! ~ Tax Scofflaws On Web! ~ Master Memory Map!
~ Sasser Fades, Hunt On! ~ Space Invaders Return! ~ FTC, Spammers Settle
-* Nastier Sasser Worm Coming? *-
-* Sasser Worm Takes Toll Worldwide! *-
-* Kids Site Seeks More Content and Activities *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The true test is upon us. Will the weather keep getting better now that I'm
on vacation for a couple of weeks? Or, per Murphy's Law, will it go
downhill until the day before I return to work? Well, I can only hope! I
am so in the mood to get away from the rat race for awhile to recharge.
I'll get out in the yard and do some gardening and whatever other yard work
needs doing, do some reading, work on a few of my hobbies, get in a few
rounds of golf, and just relax in general. Just me and the dogs - my wife
is saving her vacation time for later on in the summer.
Speaking of the dogs, we definitely named them aptly. Our first dog, we
named Butkus because he's built like a football linebacker (and we always
liked the name!). Our second, we named Buffy because we're fans of the
vampire slayer show. Well, we know that there are no such beasts - at least
other than on the small and big screen. But she's earned her "slayer"
title, nonetheless. A couple of years ago, a family of birds made its way
in one of the eaves of the house. Somehow one of the slats in the siding
had come loose, and the birds managed to get in under the eave. Well, over
time, more of the slats were moved or dislodged; and we just hadn't gotten
around to having them replaced. Well, this past winter really took its toll
on that area of siding, and more became dislodged. With the advent of
warmer weather, some squirrels decided to evict the squirrels, and move in
themselves. For the past week or so, I could hear something rustling inside
the walls surrounding my study. I figured maybe it was one of the birds,
deciding to do some exploring. But the noise was a little too loud to be a
bird moving about, so I figured it must be a squirrel. My guess proved true
the other day. Last weekend, while I was catching a catnap, my wife and
both dogs were on the couch. All of the sudden, both dogs jumped up, and
ran to our new sun room. The din of barking commenced. My wife went to see
what was going on, and discovered Buffy in the sun room, with a captured
squirrel! It was still alive, and she let it go. It ran around a little,
jumping to a sliding window handle, on to a patio chair. When it tried to
jump from the chair to the floor, Buffy grabbed it in mid-air! The two dogs
passed it around for a few minutes before I finally got one to drop it. We
got the dogs out of the room, and I then figured that I'd have to remove a
dead squirrel. I grabbed a broom to sweep it out of the house so I could
then dispose of it. It was still alive, after being chomped on three or
four times! Well, I swept it out anyway, and it eventually made its way out
of the immediate area.
Well, either it, or its mate, is back in the house roaming around the walls
again. They must have built a nest since this is mating season. I got
through to a pest control office, but they can't come out for another week.
So, it appears that we'll have uninvited guests for awhile longer. I did
find the entry point in the house that the squirrel got in inside the house,
and that's now closed up temporarily. Meanwhile, Buffy is patrolling
between the two rooms where the squirrels are roaming around, driving her
crazy! So much for spending a few quiet evenings at home! Regardless, it's
vacation time and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Purchase of Tempus Word NG Installed
It took a little bit longer, but now you can buy a license for
Tempus-Word NG 5.x by transfer or via PayPal.
See http://www.tempus-word.de/en/index.htm
Best Regards,
Norbert Simon
Tempus-Word Project
Master Memory Map for the Atari
The full text of the book The Master Memory Map for the Atari is now
available at AtariArchives.org.
Published in 1984 by Educational Software, the book is a thorough
introduction to the Atari 8-bit¹s memory architecture. Beginning
programmers can use it to learn the basics of PEEKs and POKEs. Advanced
programmers can learn the purpose of hundreds of memory locations, and how
to access the Atari's built-in ROM routines.
You can read the book at
http://www.atariarchives.org/mmm/
This is the 28th classic computing book to be made available at
AtariArchives.org. We are always looking for volunteers. If you would like
to help make classic computing books available online, contact us at
http://www.atariarchives.org/contact/
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. First of all, let me apologize for missing
last week's issue. You may (or may not) remember that I've got a
herniated disc in my neck. Well, it decided to give me more trouble than
usual last week, and I simply couldn't use the computer. I hate missing
an issue. It always feels like I've failed. Which, of course, I have.
Okay, on to the next subject... voting. After my column of two weeks ago
where I hammered at you about registering to vote, several people wrote
to me about it. As always I thank you for providing feedback. There are
times when I wonder if anyone reads this column and if I should still be
writing it. I know, I know, but let's face it; there is a little part of
all of us that wonders if we're making a difference... if what we're
doing is worthwhile.
That's probably why I feel so strongly about voting. It's one of the
things that we can do to really make a difference. You probably remember
me saying that we get a chance to overthrow the government every four
years and that it's not only a right but a responsibility. If you don't
vote, you don't get to complain. Our system of government only works
because we participate. But we've had this right and responsibility for
so long that we tend to take it for granted. We tend to forget that the
system needs us to function properly.
I promised myself that I wasn't going to mention this, but it's been
nagging at me a little. Two of the emails I got stick in my mind. One of
them took a decidedly odd turn. He basically berated me for attempting to
"skew" the election by getting people who wouldn't normally vote
involved. If it wasn't such an important issue, I'd have found it very
funny. I thought that the idea that some people just shouldn't vote or
weren't 'equipped' to vote went out in the 60's. I guess not.
The other email was a little different. The writer was somewhat confused
because I hadn't mentioned WHO we should be voting for. He missed my
whole point. I really don't care who you vote for (well, that's not
exactly true. I'd prefer that you vote for my choice, but the fact that
you vote is a bigger issue than who you vote for). I've tried to be
careful not to interject my personal political views here. I know that
I've failed at times, but that's only human. So once again, register and
vote when the time comes.
Well, that's enough of that. Let's get to the news, hints, tips and info
available from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Kenneth Medin posts this about EtherNEC network drivers:
"I happened to surf in at:
http://home.arcor.de/thomas.redelberger/prj/atari/etherne
and found new driver versions for EtherNEC!
Has anyone with a TT tried the new drivers with success?
EtherNEC and TT is a temperamental combination as is well known... I made
some serious attempts but the best I got from the new driver was outbound
ARP questions. These packets looks fine without errors but it seems the
TT does not receive anything at all It does read the MAC, though. Tested
with crossover cable to a Linux pc running Ethereal and Magic 6 on the TT.
The old driver works fine now but does seem extremely sensitive on my TT.
After some initial tweaking I got ENEC.STX running perfectly for over a
year. 6 months ago it started to behave strange if I rebooted the TT
after it got warm. Turned out it could not read the MAC address right
when warm! Mostly usable anyway with all sorts of strange MAC...
Things got worse and after Christmas I could not get any MAC at all and
had to revert to null modem subnet to my other TT (with Genius LAN adaptor
in the cartridge port). But, in January I suddenly discovered that
ENEC3.STX suddenly worked perfectly! No hardware or software (tried with
old backup) changes in meantime so something is aging in my TT that has
influence on cartridge port timing...
So now EtherNEC runs perfect (warm or cold) here with the old ENEC3.STX
(set to run in TT RAM and last in STING folder), but none of the new
drivers do. It's a pity Thomas Redelberger does not have a TT to test
on..."
Jean-Luc tells Kenneth:
"Neither enec.mif nor enec3.mif work on my TT (MagiC! 6.20,
MagiC-Net). I had to reinstall the previous enec3.stx."
Janez Valant adds:
"[I] Don't know for Magic-net, but on MiNT you definitely must use OZK's
drivers, [they're] superb stuff. You could give them a try with
Magic-net."
Mark Duckworth posts this about GEM Instant Messenger:
"I have a question for you, the potential future users of GEM Instant
Messenger. The path I can choose now is fairly simple. I choose to
either use the last standalone libfaim package, dated November of 2002 or
I can use the latest libfaim incarnation which is now a part of gaim. The
problem is, using the one that's built into gaim is going to take a LOT of
work. To put it simple, I've been working on it all day and haven't
gotten even 1/4 of the work done to the point where I should even THINK
about compiling, let alone be finished debugging and understand it.
The other libfaim implementation is done but it doesn't support server
side buddy lists. So I have to ask the question, what matters more.
Having server side buddy lists and the latest features, or having a
working product asap?"
Lonny Pursell tells Mark:
"Been waiting this long, what's a slightly long wait going to hurt? Also
if you port the latest stuff you will get less negative feedback.
Someone will eventually download it and wonder why it's outdated or some
feature is missing that other apps have. Just my thoughts on it since
you asked."
Mark replies to Lonny:
"2 arguments in the other direction though, If I have never sent a file
over aim in my life, nor had the need for direct connect, why should I
bother implementing it? The cardinal reason for writing open source
apps is to solve my own needs, which as long as the old code actually
WORKS, it will solve my needs.
The second argument is that the latest versions of jabberd's aim transport
is actually using an OLDER version of libfaim. Food for though, it's
*really* complicated."
Sam F. adds:
"It's your program dude! You design it the you think it should be.
All I care about personally is simply being able to IM people the way I do
now on my XP box using AIM. If that is how you're designing
it.....great!!!"
'Joe Iron' asks about installing and running Linux:
"Has anybody got any kind of experience with linux on a Falcon
(installation, speed, compatibility, etc...)? Is it worth a try?"
John Oakes tells Joe:
"At present I am using the latest version of Linux Debian Woody. If you
could get hold of a copy of Potato version, you will have less of a worry
to install. The limitation are from graphics via X with Gnome and KDE.
This is due to processing speed. It is worth a try if you want to use
alternative OS. It very good for learning Unix controlling. You still can
use the graphics via X with desktop called OLVWM, FVWM FVWM95 ICEWM and
Afterstep. If you need extra assistance I would be glad to help and there
lots of helpful newsgroups. There is no harm in giving Linux or even
Mint a try."
Maurits van de Kamp adds:
"I've seen it on a TT (which is considerably faster than a Falcon) and it
was very stable but pretty slow. Especially when you want to use X.
If you just want Unix functionality, MiNT should be nice (it's even
TOS-compatible). Again, X is extremely slow, but MiNT is nice for
combining Unix text-based apps with Atari GEM software.
If you really want a Unix without TOS-compatibility (of course,
TOS-compatibility puts limitations on the Unixeness), BSD might also be a
good choice. It's lots faster than Linux because it is better optimized
for the Atari. Apparently, even X runs at a usable speed although I've
never seen it run myself, so I don't know.
If it's really Linux itself you want, an old second-hand PC (586) can run
it faster and cheaper. Since Linux (and BSD) leaves nothing of the
Atari's "personality" in tact, there's not really any reason I could
think of for running it on an Atari, except perhaps because it's
possible, and fun to show your friends. (I must admit using Linux on a TT
felt pretty cool)."
Joe tells Maurits and John:
"Currently I'm using MiNT. The only reason that I would like to try Linux
is that I have to buy a lot of software if I want it to use MiNT
(HDDriver, NAes, Thing, NVDI, CDDriver, etc... ,just to mention the basic
things).
I've already payed for many of them). I ordered a CT60, so I don't have
much money left for my Atari.
I've heard that Linux for Atari is source compatible with other
linuxes, so the programs will cost almost 0. I think the CT60 will be
powerful enough to run Linux. (In the future I'm also planning to buy
the SuperVidel from Nature if it finally finished)."
Edward Baiz adds his own thoughts:
"Well I had Linux up and running great on my Hades060 and even had
XWindow, but after I upgraded my motherboard it would not run
anymore. From the short experience I had with it, I would say it
is something that Atari computer owners could use. Someday I will
try it again after the installation software has been upgraded."
Mike Freeman posts this about his 'ideal AES':
"With all the activity going on with AES development these days
(i.e. XaAES and MyAES), I was wondering, and thought it might make for
some good discussion, what would you want to see in your "ideal" AES?
(And perhaps some of these might actually be read by an AES developer
and included?)
Mine is mostly cosmetic, rather than protocols, as I think we already
have a good basis for that established. Here's my list...
1. Editable window frames (like Natframe on Magic), but allowing the
user to define a transparent color (like a transparent GIF) that
allows what's behind the window to show through. Then let the user
define for themselves the dimensions of each window element. This
would let you create more contoured windows rather than the dull,
squared-off windows we're currently limited to. For example, one could
conceivably make a window frame that has a wavy outer edge, or curved
corners, or even a completely circular window frame, with a square
section cut out of the center where the actual window data is
displayed. You could even make window elements that seem to float away
from the edge of the window by putting transparent pixels in between.
2. An *option* the user can associate with individual programs to
display either standard AES 4.1 icons or Magic icons for that program.
For instance, you can set most programs to follow the standard AES 4.1
definitions, but define the option for Papyrus to use Magic-compatible
icon handling so that the icons in the program are in color instead of
grey and black. This might be handled similarly to how Geneva handles
program runtime options independently.
3. A single-tasking emulation mode option for programs that don't run
under a multitasking environment. For instance, Cubase doesn't seem to
work well (at least for me) under any environment but single-tasking
TOS or Geneva. So any time I want to use it, I have to reconfigure my
OS and reboot, or reboot using a boot manager. I'd like to just be
able to run the program from within my multitasking environment, have
the AES freeze other running programs and become single-tasking, just
for that program, the way Geneva does, only under Mint or Magic OS.
Anyone else have ideas? I'd be interested in see what kind of things
other people would like to see."
Jo Even Skarstein tells Mike:
"The correct place to fix this is in Papyrus, not in the AES. Bodging is a
sure way to bloat and instability.
A way to replace and add new object types to the AES without resorting to
userdefs. E.g. by loadable modules. This way it's possible to "skin" the
entire AES, not just the window frames. And you can add new functionality
in a much safer way than today."
Mike replies:
"Well, I agree with you ideologically. Unfortunately, in most cases I
don't think that'll ever happen. For example, I don't think CAB will
ever see another update, and its icons are designed for Magic. On any
other AES, CAB's icon masks just look ugly and strange. And I've dealt
with ROM on the Papyrus issue, and they won't budge. So, my opinion
is, why not let the user make the decision on which AES protocols to
use? I'm sure there are not so many differences between the Magic and
AES 4.1 GUI protocols that it'd make things *that* unstable and
bloated. Anyway, these are just my own personal "wish list items", and
aren't anything that absolutely must be done. Just ideas...
I also thought of some other things to add, like non-blocking
drop-down menus, so that programs can continue running when they are
opened, and MacOS X- and Windows XP-like shadowing effects behind
anything displayed on screen (i.e. menus, windows, icons, etc.) for
machines fast enough to handle it."
Sam F. asks a question about installing MiNT:
"I'm trying to install mint using easymint. It's looking for an LNX or
RAW partition. I suppose I'm required to have hddriver to be able to
accomplish this? If not, how do I do it."
Mark Duckworth tells Sam:
"Hrmm.. You don't. Though I suppose a utility could be made easily enough
to adjust the partition id. It's not rocket science or anything (but not
something you should know how to do). If you have an HDD editor you could
edit it yourself actually.
But alas when it comes to actual software that can do it for you, the only
thing I know of is HD-Driver.
Course when I send you an HDD this will all be done for you. But I sure
didn't think about the legalities of NVDI and all that. What licenses do
you have? I guess I could setup everything for you but you're going to
have to put your own nvdi.prg and such on the drive."
Sam replies:
"I've got NVDI 4, Extendos Pro, Atariworks, and Pagestream. I am
planning to order HDDriver this week...as soon as I can locate a North
American source."
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in again next time, same time,
same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Return of Space Invaders!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" AOL To Open Video Games Site!
Pac-Man. Live In New York!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sony, Nintendo Aim to Wow Gamers with New Handhelds
Sony Corp plans to unveil its first new major game hardware in four years
next week with a handheld machine that aims to unlock Nintendo's
stranglehold on the mobile game market.
Nintendo plans to answer back also at E3, the game industry's annual trade
show held in Los Angeles, by taking the wraps off a new handheld of its own
that the Kyoto-based company says is unlike any gaming device ever made.
Lofty expectations - Sony has dubbed the PlayStation Portable (PSP) as "the
Walkman for the 21st Century" that can play games, movies and music - have
inflated the hype for the PSP and Nintendo's new machine, codenamed "DS."
The pre-E3 buzz has gamers excited about DS, a mobile machine with two
screens one above the other. Industry insiders have said one of the screens
will be a touch panel.
"This will not be a machine where you push the 'A' button or 'B' button and
move the direction pad, but a completely different way to interact with the
device," said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of "Famitsu" game magazine
publisher EnterBrain.
In fact, the gaming community has been so perplexed by the idea of the DS
and how it might be designed that one Web site, Gizmodo.com, has offered a
bounty to the first person to send it a photograph of the unit before its
public unveiling.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has said he wanted to come up with a new
type of machine to cater to gamers alienated by the trend toward more
complex titles, while inspiring software developers to get creative again.
At E3, the creators of "Super Mario Brothers" are expected to display up
to 30 titles, a number that Sony will be hard-pressed to match for the PSP
since some of its software specifications have yet to finalized.
"I still don't have a great sense of how much PSP there's going to be (at
the show)," said American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy.
Sony suffered a setback with the PSP in February when it postponed the U.S.
and European release until early 2005, missing out on this year's holiday
demand. The PSP is slated to go on sale in Japan before the year-end.
Tokyo-based Sony has said it targets shipments of three million PSP units
in the business year ending March 31.
Sony will try to succeed where others have failed in breaking up Nintendo's
virtual monopoly over the handheld game market with its GameBoy line.
Last year, Nokia tried to muscle in with the N-Gage, a hybrid phone and
game device, but has not managed to dent Nintendo's 90 percent market
share. It plans to offer a revamped model from May in Europe and Asia.
"The challenge is more on Sony's side than Nintendo's," said Hiroshi
Kamide, analyst at KBC Securities. Working in Sony's favor is its game guru
Ken Kutaragi's track record of beating Nintendo in its backyard. In the
console battles of the 1990s, the PlayStation toppled Nintendo64 by
catering to developers with cheaper and more advanced CD-ROMs.
Kutaragi is again trying to appeal to software makers by making the
development process for the PSP similar to that of the PS2.
"There were a lot of complaints from game developers when PlayStation
shifted to PS2, so Kutaragi has been saying he wants to make it as easy as
possible to create games for the PSP," said EnterBrain's Hamamura.
Sony's efforts to woo buyers with a line-up of attractive software titles
got a boost when Electronic Arts Inc, the world's biggest game developer,
said last month it would have four to six games for the PSP by March 31,
2005.
For years, Nintendo's strategy has been to offer hardware at low prices,
while making most of its money from software sales.
Analysts speculate that its DS pricing strategy will be no different. As a
game machine targeting children, the DS is not expected to top $250,
despite having two liquid crystal display (LCD) screens and two
microprocessors.
Sony's PSP could come with a price tag significantly higher, because it
will be marketed as an all-in-one entertainment system. The PSP promises a
wide-screen LCD monitor and the capability to play two hours of DVD-quality
video.
It is also expected to offer wireless Internet connectivity and a
proprietary storage device, Universal Media Disc (UMD), with three times
the capacity of a CD-ROM.
"Whatever happens, I don't think Sony can beat what Nintendo is offering
at the moment (with the GameBoy Advance), which is $99," said KBC's Kamide.
"It depends how much money Sony wants to lose every time it sells one of
these things."
Return of the Original Invaders
Remember when the world was invaded by aliens in 1978? When millions of
innocents around the world were caught in a hypnotic trance, locked
slack-jawed in the spacemen's spell? When a small Japanese company called
Taito took a brief ride to the top of the video-game industry?
Well, Taito sure remembers - it's never been able to duplicate the
worldwide, breakout success it had with Space Invaders, the industry's
first mega-hit. And the company hasn't been quiet about the silver
anniversary of its flagship title.
Space Invaders shows the almost unstoppable aliens that changed the
video-game world."
In Japan, the celebration kicked off last year with a budget-priced
PlayStation 2 title, Space Invaders Anniversary, a collection of
arcade-perfect versions of the classic game and all its progeny. Marking
the milestone in the United States is another budget title, this time
exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube - a brand-new, Taito-developed
shooter called Space Raiders, best described as a 21st-century re-imagining
of the seminal hit.
Space Invaders was the genesis of the space-shooter genre. Its game play
was simple yet madly addictive - as never-ending waves of aliens descend
from the top of the screen, the player moves left and right, firing
straight up to keep them at bay. Space Raiders brings this game play form
back to life with all the trimmings of modern-day video-game design.
These days, practically every video game needs cinematic elements like cut
scenes, characters and a story line. Space Raiders makes sure to pack all
those in. Rather than a tiny anonymous spaceship, you play one of three
gun-toting, stereotypical movie-hero humans - teenage street punk Justin,
beautiful TV reporter Ashley or vengeful cop Naji.
Playing through the game's Story Mode, cut scenes that set up each
character's story line - one-dimensional as it may be - are interspersed
throughout the shooting. Contrary to what you might expect from a
budget-priced shooter game, the graphics and presentation are of
surprisingly high quality. Space Raiders' visuals stand up technologically
against pretty much anything on the market today.
Of course, if it seems like the entire budget was blown on these cinematic
trappings, that's because the game play isn't nearly as polished. In part
this is because Raiders seeks to mimic Invaders - your character can run
left to right on the bottom of the screen, shooting up at the grotesque
varieties of aliens before they reach or shoot you. The block-shaped
barriers that provided temporary cover in the original classic are replaced
by cars and oil drums.
Upgrades to the game play, oddly, come straight out of the arcade games of
the 1980s - power-ups that make the character move faster, "super weapons"
like grenades and laser beams, rapid fire, and the like. Even with these
additions, the action gets repetitive quickly. Unlimited "continues" let
players pick up right where they left off - this is a necessary evil in
home versions of arcade games that were designed to keep the player pumping
in quarters, but is a bad design choice in a game designed exclusively for
home systems.
A story-free, high-score-oriented Survival Mode and a two-player
cooperative game add to the fun, but not much. In true old-school fashion,
you can't even save your place - you have to make it through the story in
one go or not at all. The only thing Space Raiders saves is high scores -
fitting, in that Space Invaders was the first arcade game with a
high-score counter.
In fact, Space Invaders dropped a laundry list of firsts on the game
industry - it was one of the first original Japanese game designs, one of
the first games to use a microprocessor rather than solid-state
transistor-based hardware, and the first game to feature characters
designed in the Japanese anim style.
Those cute little aliens became cultural icons worldwide - even the
homepage for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the trade show that
spotlights the bleeding edge of video-game development, features a Space
Invader. And Raiders character Justin's retro-styled jacket has an Invader
printed on it, just like those worn by American kids who've never even
played Space Invaders but know what it means.
That's the impact of Taito's original game - those little guys have
transcended their original purpose and now serve as iconic signifiers that
mean "video games." Space Raiders trades mainly in nostalgia - a game-play
structure defined by its restrictions, cinematic scenes that show the
classic saucer-shaped mother ship bearing down on the city, releasing its
bug-like hordes.
In a purely nostalgic sense, it might be enough of a novelty to warrant the
price of admission. But it's difficult to escape the irony - once, Taito
set the standards and invented out of thin air what would become accepted
conventions of video-game design at the basic level. Twenty-five years
later, the company struggles to keep up with the rest of the industry.
Space Raiders, developed by Taito and published by Mastiff, is available
now on the Nintendo GameCube for $20. It is rated T for Teen.
Sony Announces Champions: Return to Arms for the PlayStation2
Sony Online Entertainment Inc. announced Champions: Return to Arms, the
sequel to the critically acclaimed Action/RPG, Champions of Norrath.
Champions: Return to Arms, developed by Snowblind Studios (the creators of
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and developers Champions of Norrath) and
published by Sony Online Entertainment, will be available exclusively for
the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system in the first quarter of
2005.
"Champions of Norrath was an incredible success and left PlayStation 2
gamers definitely wanting more," said Donald Vercelli, senior vice
president of sales and marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. "Champions:
Return to Arms will build upon the progressive features of the first
edition with more single-player adventures, a deeper online and multiplayer
experience, plus new characters, monsters, weapons and items."
Champions: Return to Arms combines the creative talent of Snowblind
Studios with SOE's expertise in developing fantasy worlds to create a
unique visual style, immersive storylines, and highly interactive worlds.
Champions: Return to Arms introduces two new playable races, more character
customization options, thousands of items, weapons and spells, beautifully
detailed environments, the ability to import characters from the original
game, a whole new storyline, innovative medal system which unlocks secret
gameplay modes, more online and multiplayer options and much more.
Champions: Return to Arms offers an online multiplayer component for no
additional cost to players (players are responsible for providing a
broadband internet connection and PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor for online
play). Up to four players per game can adventure in Norrath via their
broadband internet connection, using the PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor
(sold separately). Players have the freedom to join an existing game or
host their own through SOE's matchmaking service, SOEGames.net. Champions:
Return to Arms has both USB headset voice and keyboard chat support,
allowing players to plan strategies during online play (USB
headset/keyboard optional, each sold separately). Alternately, up to four
players can use the Multitap (sold separately) to play together on a single
PlayStation 2.
The Champions of Norrath have destroyed the god Innoruuk, shattering his
body into shards of hate. Innoruuk's followers and allies have taken it
upon themselves to gather these shards in order to resurrect their fallen
prince. Firiona Vie has called upon the champions to take up the crusade
against evil to rid Norrath of this evil threat once and for all. The game
is designed to offer more than 100 hours of gameplay per character,
unlimited battles, deadly missions and the ability to import characters
from the original game.
The game also features:
* A continuation of the engrossing fantasy storyline of Champions of
Norrath, with exciting twists and turns that require the player to
choose his or her fate
* Two new playable races
* Earn medals based on gameplay performance, which can then be used
to unlock secret levels
* Thousands of new items, weapons, armor and magical artifacts to
acquire
* All-new and beautifully detailed environments
* New spells and abilities for all classes
* A host of new monsters to battle and non-player characters to
encounter
* Innovative medal system which unlocks secret gameplay modes
* Secret Epic items of incredible power found through unlockable side
quests
* The ability to import characters from the original game and start
at a higher difficulty level
* Increased level limits - take characters to level 80!
* More than 50 gameplay areas along with a mission system containing
non-linear side quests
* Multitap support for up to 4 players
* Superior online multiplayer options for up to 4 players via Network
Adaptor - no additional subscription fees required (players must
provide their own internet connection and PlayStation 2 Network
Adaptor for online gameplay modes)
* All new multiplayer and online gameplay options
AOL Launches Site for Video Games
America Online on Wednesday unveiled a video game site for high-speed
subscribers, a bid to attract more customers toward the broadband service
it sees as key to its future growth.
AOL, which has faced declines in its dial-up subscriber base and
speculation that parent Time Warner Inc. may spin it off, has been
aggressively promoting AOL for Broadband as an alternative for people
looking to get more out of their Internet connections.
"It's vitally important strategically that we continue to grow the AOL for
Broadband service," Matthew Bromberg, vice president and general manager of
AOL Games, told Reuters. "Nothing is more popular with broadband users than
games."
AOL said it would offer members discounts on games of up to $15 in some
cases, and other special promotional offers, through a partnership with the
Web site of specialty games retailer Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp.
In addition to the games it already offers from Electronic Arts Inc.'s Club
Pogo, AOL said it would add games and game demos from companies including
TryMedia, GameHouse and Funkitron. They offer titles like "Scrabble,"
"Slingo," "Mah Jong" and "Daily Jigsaw," among others.
Many of the games, AOL said, are of the type that often appeal to women
gamers. Its own research has found that women over 40 are the most frequent
online gamers, more so than men or teenage boys, and some of the games were
chosen with those demographics in mind.
The site will also provide game reviews, screenshots and other items from
leading games Web site GameSpot, as well as original video programing
featuring game play hints, celebrity interviews and game reviews.
One of the new video programs is "Face Off," in which AOL members will
compete on PC and console games against a regular group of players.
"It's sort of 'American Gladiators' meets gaming by way of music videos,"
Bromberg said.
AOL will showcase the new site next week during E3, the annual video game
industry trade show in Los Angeles. More than 60,000 people are expected
to attend the event in Los Angeles.
Pac-Man Game to Jump from Computer to City Streets
"Life imitates art far more than art imitates life," Oscar Wilde once
wrote. Little did he know that life would eventually also imitate video
games.
New York University students plan to stage a real, live Pac-Man game on
Saturday in the streets of Greenwich Village, as part of a project
exploring how computer games work when transplanted into real-world
settings.
In the hugely popular 1980s game that became a cultural icon, Pac-Man, a
yellow circle with a wedge removed for his mouth, gobbled up dots while
evading ghostly rivals Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde who also try to gobble
him.
This weekend a man in a yellow costume will weave through the streets
collecting dots while being pursued by people dressed in ghost outfits
whose aim is to stop him before he gathers all the dots.
The characters' movements will be controlled by five interactive
telecommunications students, who will instruct them via cell phones from a
room with a game map. They will use the map to update the latest position
of the players and to see where to send them next.
Frank Lantz, the New York University professor who assigned the project,
said his "big games" class is aimed at helping students think of new ways
to design games in different spaces.
"We're invading an existing public space and transforming it into a game
space," said Lantz. "Video games were often very solitary, so part of the
impulse (behind the project) is to explore more types of social
interaction."
Perhaps Pac-Man will be glad he waited 25 years before socially interacting
with hurried New Yorkers. All will be revealed on Web site
(http;//www.pacmanhattan.com) after the game.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Sasser Worm Hits Countless PCs Worldwide
The fast-spreading "Sasser" computer worm has infected hundreds of
thousands of PCs globally and the number could rise sharply, a top computer
security official said on Monday.
"If you take a normal Windows PC and connect to the Internet, you will be
infected in 10 minutes (without protection)," Mikko Hypponen, Anti-Virus
research director at Finnish data security firm F-Secure, told Reuters.
F-Secure says the worm, which surfaced over the weekend, automatically
spreads via the Internet to computers using the Microsoft Windows operating
system, especially Windows 2000 and XP.
The spread of the virus has been muted so far, Hypponen said, as it emerged
on a weekend, and with holidays closing offices in places like the United
Kingdom and Japan on Monday.
But the spread was expected to worsen as the work week hits its stride,
Hypponen said, adding he believes the worm originated in Russia.
It was not immediately known what impact the worm was having on computer
networks of U.S. companies as they started the business day.
U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines suffered a computer glitch on Saturday that
caused delays and cancellations of certain flights across its system, but a
spokesman said there was no information yet as to the cause.
A Microsoft representative was not immediately available for comment, but
said in a statement that customers could protect themselves by erecting
personal firewalls that separate internal networks from public networks,
and by downloading Microsoft security patches.
The company also said it was working with law enforcement officials,
including the Northwest CyberCrime Taskforce, to analyze the worm and to
identify those responsible for it.
Finnish bancassurer Sampo temporarily closed all of its 130 branch offices
on Monday as a precaution.
In Australia, Westpac Bank said it was hit by the worm, and branches had to
use pen and paper to allow them to keep trading, The Australian newspaper
reported.
"With Sasser it seems that companies are (using software) patches better
and more quickly than last year (with virus "Blaster"), but for those that
are hit, they are hit hard," Hypponen said.
Blaster infected computers around the globe last year.
The current worm does not need to be activated by double-clicking on an
attachment, and can strike even if no one is using the PC at the time. When
a machine is infected, error messages may appear and the computer may
reboot repeatedly.
"Compared to what happened with Blaster ... last August ... this virus has
all the same features," Hypponen said, noting that both worms exploited
relatively new holes in Windows and frequently caused computers to reboot.
Microsoft said Blaster cost it "millions of dollars of damages," and has
issued a $250,000 bounty for information on the whereabouts of its author.
F-Secure said corporate networks should be protected against Sasser and
its variants by firewalls - Internet road blocks that separate internal
from public networks.
F-Secure said the worm emerged 18 days after Microsoft posted a
corrective-code software patch on its Web site. This continues a common
pattern with viruses whereby companies announce flaws in their software
and hackers race to exploit them.
For home computer users, people should make sure they have downloaded the
patch from Microsoft to fix the breach. If their computer is infected, it
must first be downloaded before the virus is removed or else the PC could
catch the worm again.
Hypponen said he was not sure there was a better way for companies to alert
users to software problems.
"There are always going to be security holes in mainstream products," he
said. "Even if these are not made public, the bad boys will find out about
them anyway."
Security Experts Warn of Nastier Sasser Worm
Computer security experts warned on Wednesday that the Sasser worm could
merge with earlier virus-like programs to wreak more havoc on the Internet,
just as companies and PC users clean up from the last attack and
authorities hunt for those responsible.
Since appearing on the weekend, the fast-moving Sasser computer worm has
hit PC users around the world running the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows
2000, NT and XP operating systems, but is expected to slow down as computer
users download anti-virus patches.
But Sasser could mutate by combining with the two-month-old Netsky worm,
making it a launching pad for further Web attacks that would put it on par
with Blaster, the destructive worm that appeared last year and used
infected computers to attack Microsoft Corp.'s Web site.
For now, the more benign Sasser worm does its harm by duplicating itself
and slowing down Internet connections.
"My expectation is that Netsky and Sasser variants will merge and become
what we call one 'abundant threat' that attacks through e-mail and software
vulnerabilities," said Jimmy Kuo, a research fellow at Network Associates
Inc.'s McAfee anti-virus unit.
The fast-moving Sasser worm, which has hit home users, corporations, and
government agencies throughout Europe, North America and Asia, does not
appear to damage hardware such as disk drives but it may damage software
applications on PCs, analysts said.
Estimates on how many users have been hit globally by the virus vary from
150,000 to 1 million, although analysts say the final tally could be in
the millions by the time the four Sasser variants work their way through
the Internet.
Analysts were also unsure what economic damage Sasser had caused so far
but said the costs associated with things such as installing new software
on PCs and labor costs are likely to make it an expensive clean-up process.
Infected computers - if they are not cleaned up with a security patch and
protected by firewalls and anti-virus software - could be used by virus
writers to launch future attacks, experts said.
Microsoft said on Wednesday it was working with the Northwest Cybercrime
Task Force, a joint effort by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
Secret Service, to hunt down those responsible for the latest worm
outbreak.
Microsoft created a page (http://www.microsoft.com/sasser) on its corporate
Web site to deal with the Sasser threat and also offered a clean-up tool to
rid infected computers of the worm, said Stephen Toulouse, security program
manager for the company's Security Response Center.
The world's largest software maker declined to say whether it planned to
offer a bounty, such as the $250,000 reward it offered for the Blaster worm
creator.
One theory about the motives behind Sasser is that the creator is part of
a Russian group calling itself the "Skynet anti-virus group," the same
group behind the recurring Netsky e-mail virus outbreak.
A message found deep in the coding of a recent Netsky variant claimed
responsibility for Sasser, analysts said.
Police say criminal groups, many of whom are believed to operate from
Eastern Europe, have hatched a string of computer viruses and worms capable
of taking over PCs.
The origin of Internet threats is notoriously difficult to track, but
authorities managed to find teenagers responsible for creating a copycat
version of the Blaster worm. Minnesota teen Jeffrey Lee Parson was arrested
in August, followed by the arrest of an unidentified juvenile in
Seattle in September.
Sasser Fizzles Out as Search for Culprits Heats Up
Sasser has reached the end of its natural lifecycle and soon will become a
bad memory. Although the mass downloading of firewalls played some part in
defeating it, the worm simply "blacked out," Alfred Huger, senior director
of engineering, Symantec, told NewsFactor.
"Sasser and other similar worms generally hit a point of saturation - they
have hit all the machines they are likely to hit in a given period of
time," he explained.
Although Symantec does not have the number of total machines affected by
Sasser, the company received about 8,000 submissions from their customers
and tracked about 100,000 infections using Symantec programs, says Huger.
It is still a mystery where Sasser originated, and it may remain a mystery, says Huger. "[Tracing] doesn't happen very successfully with
worms of this nature."
Sasser affected Windows 2000 and Windows XP computers and bypassed Windows
98 , ME and NT systems. Microsoft has announced that it is working closely
with law-enforcement agencies, including the Northwest CyberCrime Taskforce
(a joint effort between the FBI and U.S. Secret Service) and Interpol.
Turned loose on April 30th, W32.Sasser.A and its variants exploited the
local security authority subsystem service (LSASS) buffer-overflow
vulnerability identified by Microsoft last month and spread by scanning
randomly chosen IP addresses on Microsoft systems that were not patched. A
patch to close the hole had been available for download for 18 days before
Sasser was found.
Another infamous worm - Blaster - also exploited a vulnerability to break
into computers, says Huger.
Whether Sasser or Blaster will take the prize for having inflicted the most
damage still remains to be seen. "It's a question that will be answered
once all of this has calmed down," says Huger. "Sasser seems to have
infected roughly the same number of machines as Blaster. The
vulnerabilities they took advantage of were very similar, and the fact that
Sasser rebooted computers is identical to Blaster as well. Therefore I
think the damage is going to be very similar."
To combat Sasser, Microsoft recommended enterprises use a firewall to block
incoming traffic on all unused ports, especially port 445, as well as use a
personal firewall, such as Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall for
remote PCs and laptops. Microsoft also recommended installing the MS04-011
security update.
Although Sasser is fading into the sunset, enterprises probably have not
seen the last of this type of worm. "This is something I think we are going
to have with us for some time to come," says Huger.
Apple to Unleash Tiger
Apple will offer developers an early look at the next version of Mac OS X
at June's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, the company has
announced.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs will show off Mac OS X 10.4, code-named Tiger, for the
first time publicly on June 28 to kick off the five-day event, which has
long been a must-see show for Mac developers. The company has released few
details about the update, which continues the cat naming theme of previous
OS X releases.
The announcement that Jobs will preview Tiger at WWDC suggests the company
may release the final product as early as the fall. Last year, Jobs used
his keynote at the conference to give the first public demonstration of OS
X 10.3, code-named Panther, which was released in October. If Tiger is
released before the end of the year, it will be the fourth major upgrade
of OS X since its debut in 2001.
Apple has previously used WWDC to introduce new hardware, too, with last
year's show marking the debut of the Power Mac G5. The announcement that
Jobs will show off Tiger is bound to increase speculation that the company
will also show off new hardware.
In related news, Apple has issued the latest in a series of security
patches for OS X. Security Update 2004-05-03, available through the
Software Update preference panel, includes updated versions of AFP Server,
IPSec, and CoreFoundation, and is available for both client and server
versions of OS X 10.3.
The company has also patched a potential security hole in its QuickTime
software, which allowed a malformed movie file to force QuickTime to crash.
QuickTime 6.5.1 is also available through Software Update.
Red Hat Returns to Linux Desktop Market
Red Hat Inc returned to the desktop Linux market on Tuesday, outlining a
strategy to get more businesses to adopt the freely available operating
system for running desktop personal computers.
Red Hat pulled out of the desktop market last year to focus on providing
update and support services for Linux-based servers, the networked
computers that serve up Web pages, store data and run complex applications.
The new software, called Red Hat Desktop, is aimed at corporations,
governments and academic environments that need a large number of desktops
with centralized management, said Red Hat chief executive Matthew Szulik.
"Clearly our main competitor is Microsoft," Szulik told Reuters in a
telephone interview ahead of an announcement in London.
Szulik said many businesses were beginning a "hardware refresh" period,
where they will be upgrading to new personal computers and will face a
choice between Linux and Windows, which both run on the same Intel Corp
based microprocessors.
Szulik said the European market presented the greatest opportunity for Red
Hat to sell its services for Linux systems, since many European companies
did not sign on to Microsoft's latest licensing plan.
"That marketplace has the greatest near-term potential," Szulik said.
Targeting businesses in Europe would also put Red Hat into direct
competition with Novell Inc, which bought German Linux distributor SuSE
Linux in January.
Growing investor confidence in the Linux distribution model has boosted Red
Hat and Novell's market values recently, with their valuations outpacing
the rest of the software sector.
Based on the average of analysts' forecasts for their current fiscal years,
Red Hat is trading at 100 times earnings, while Novell has a price-earnings
ratio of 60, according to data collected by Reuters Research, a unit of
Reuters Group Plc. The broader software sector is at 28 times earnings.
Linux, which can be copied and modified freely, unlike proprietary software
such as Microsoft Corp's Windows, has become a popular alternative for
businesses seeking to lower their information technology costs.
Previously, Red Hat sold software update and support services to homes and
businesses, but moved out of retail and focused its efforts on selling such
services to companies.
Microsoft still dominates the desktop PC market, with Windows running on
more than 90 percent of the world's PCs.
Red Hat said its new Linux desktop would include a suite of standard
software, including e-mail, Web browsing and productivity programs for word
processing, spreadsheets and presentations.
The key feature behind the new offering, Szulik said, was the ability to
install and manage a large number of desktop PCs in a network, an
extremely expensive task.
FTC Settles With Alleged Spammers
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled charges against two alleged
spammers who used what the FTC called "deceptively bland subject lines,"
false return addresses, and other methods to lure unsuspecting consumers,
including children, to sexually explicit material.
The FTC announced this week a settlement with Brian D. Westby of Ballwin,
Missouri, and Martijn P. Bevelander a Netherlands resident, who allegedly
used unsolicited e-mail to drive business to adult Web sites titled
"Married But Lonely." The settlement bars the two from using false subject
lines and false header information in e-mail and requires that the
defendants give up $112,500 earned from their spamming efforts.
The defendants faced no charges under the Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, which went into effect
January 1, because the spamming activity happen before CAN-SPAM became law,
the FTC says.
Westby's lawyer, Sean Moynihan, of the Klein, Zelman, Rothermel & Dichter
law firm in New York, says his client is glad to put the case behind him.
"While we didn't feel anything Mr. Westby did was improper or in any way
affected the purchasing decisions of consumers, we understood the economic
reality of litigating this case," Moynihan says.
The FTC filed suit against Westby and Bevelander in April 2003, accusing
the two of sending spam with subject lines disguising the contents of the
e-mail. Subject lines included "Did you hear the news?" and "New movie
info." When consumers opened the e-mail messages, they saw sexually
explicit solicitations to visit the defendants' adult-oriented Web sites.
With consumers not expecting adult-themed content, some may have violated
company policies against adult material on work computers, the FTC says in
a press release. In other cases, children may have been exposed to
inappropriate adult-oriented material, the FTC complaint notes.
The defendants' spam provided a hyperlink or an e-mail address for
consumers who wished to unsubscribe, but when consumers used the hyperlink
or e-mail address to exit the mailing list, they received an error message.
The FTC also alleged that the defendants used false "reply to" or "from"
information in the e-mail, making it appear that some innocent third party
was the sender. As a result, thousands of undeliverable e-mails flooded
back to the computer systems of those third parties.
Kids Site Seeks More Content
The Kids.us site launched two years ago as a safe place for children
online, but it faces the same challenge as child-oriented services in the
real world do: offering enough activities to keep the kids coming back.
Though more than 1700 site names have been registered to launch pages on
www.kids.us since it was created in 2002, only 13 have live sites with
content, note members of a congressional subcommittee overseeing the
project.
At a meeting of the subcommittee Wednesday, representatives expressed two
concerns: increasing registration and encouraging registered members to
launch pages on the site.
The site, authorized by Congress as an Internet haven for children, gives
Web addresses ending in.kids.us to groups with sites providing what is
considered appropriate content. NeuStar performs ongoing and extensive
monitoring of content, and outside links are banned, to help ensure a safe
zone for youngsters on the Internet.
The law creating the site was a reaction to growing concern over the safety
of children online.
"Between 1996 and 2002 the number of online child pornography and child
sexual exploitation cases opened by the FBI went from 113 to 2370,
representing a 1997 percent increase in just six years," says Michael
Gallagher, acting assistant secretary for the Department of Commerce,
explaining the motivation for the site.
But the lack of external links means participants must either replicate
their child-friendly site or build a new site, which demands time, money,
and commitment.
Active participants include Crayola.kids.us, Hasbro.kids.us,
LegoLand.kids.us, and the recently launched PBSKids.kids.us.
Cindy Johanson, a PBS vice president, says PBS is carefully watching the
traffic on its Kids.us site. Launch costs were extensive, and PBS officials
are monitoring progress to determine whether the site is worth the cost,
she adds.
At the Wednesday meeting, the subcommittee asked for suggested incentives,
such as tax breaks, to persuade more companies and not-for-profit
organizations to join the Kids.us endeavor. While witnesses expressed
excitement about the site's prospects, they offered little in the way of
tangible suggestions to make it more popular.
NeuStar plans to launch a major marketing campaign this spring to attract
new participants and encourage current registered users to make their sites
live, says Richard Tindal, NeuStar vice president.
It commonly takes six to eight months from registering a domain name to
launching a site, Tindal notes. He says Congress should consider this
typical lag to be a bit longer with Kids.us sites because of the intense
work of building new pages and getting approval.
"We have 13 sites. This is pitiful. No one's going to use this. We have to
get this going," answered Representative Christopher Cox (R-California)
during the meeting.
Kids.us can learn from the success of the PBSKids.org site in attracting
children to a safe site that educates and entertains, Johanson says. PBS
has learned that young visitors don't use the Internet in the same way
adults do: "In short, they dive deeper and they stay longer," she says.
The average visitor to PBSKids.org views more than 80 pages of content in
one visit, which on average lasts 36 minutes, she notes. In contrast, an
average PBS.org visitor usually views 7 web pages and spends 4 minutes on
the site. Traffic to the PBS site averages 334 million page views and 16
million unique visits per month.
Phishing Attacks Skyrocket
A new study by research firm Gartner found that the number of online scams
known as "phishing attacks" have spiked in the last year and that online
consumers are frequently tricked into divulging sensitive information to
criminals.
Long a nuisance, phishing scams have exploded in the past year, Gartner
says. The survey results suggest that 76 percent of all known or suspected
phishing attacks occurred in the last six months, and 92 percent of known
attacks happened in the 12 months preceding the study.
The study, which ended in April 2003, surveyed 5000 adult Internet users
and found that around 3 percent of those surveyed reported giving up
personal financial or personal information after being drawn into a
phishing scam. Phishing scams use e-mail messages and Web pages designed
to look like correspondence from legitimate online businesses.
The results suggest that as many as 30 million adults have experienced a
phishing attack and that 1.78 million adults could have fallen victim to
the scams, Gartner says.
Phishing attacks typically begin with e-mail messages purporting to come
from established companies such as EBay, Best Buy, Citigroup, and others.
Web page links within the e-mail messages direct recipients to Web sites
disguised as official company Web pages where the recipient is asked to
enter personal information such as their social security number, account
number, password, or credit card information.
The U.S. federal authorities and leading
Internet service providers such
as America Online, Earthlink, and Microsoft have taken a more aggressive
stance on the scams.
In March the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of
Justice moved to stop a phishing scam that had tricked hundreds of Internet
users into giving credit card and bank account numbers to Web sites that
looked like those of AOL and PayPal, part of EBay. The FTC charged Zachary
Keith Hill of Houston with deceptive and unfair practices in that case, and
the DOJ named Hill as a defendant in a criminal case it filed in Virginia.
A success rate of 3 percent is plenty to encourage further attacks, Gartner
says.
ISPs need to address the phishing problem to prevent the Internet and
e-mail from being discredited as a medium for customer transactions,
Gartner says.
Massachusetts Posts Tax Scofflaw Names on State's Web Site
Massachusetts' tax delinquents, who owe the state a total of $140 million,
gained some unwanted visibility after the state started posting their names
on its Web site, a Department of Revenue spokesman said on Thursday.
The state started posting the names of 1,481 individuals and businesses who
owe $25,000 or more on Wednesday after notices were sent to the scofflaws
nine months ago.
The state initially told them they had six months to respond. Those who
failed to contact the state were sent a second notice telling them they had
90 days to pay up or their names and debt would be publicized, said
spokesman Tim Connolly.
The warning brought in about $1.5 million from about 300 people, he said.
In the past the state has published names of tax delinquents in newspapers,
but the procedure was cumbersome and time-consuming, he said.
Connolly said he was not sure how effective the tactic might be, but said
other efforts to collect the money had been exhausted.
"Most of these cases are cases where we've tried virtually everything we
can to collect the tax," he said.
Earlier this year, Rhode Island tried a similar measure, listing its top
100 tax delinquents on the Internet.
While any extra income would be welcome for state coffers, Massachusetts'
fiscal picture is improving. Last week, the state reported that as of the
end of April, year-to-date revenue collections increased by $867 million,
or 7.2 percent. The $12.972 billion tax revenues collected were $517
million over forecasts for the first 10 months of the fiscal year.
=~=~=~=
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