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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 52
Volume 6, Issue 52 Atari Online News, Etc. December 24, 2004
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2004
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0652 12/24/04
~ Apple Sues Tiger Leak! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Happy Holidays!
~ Spam Solutions Needed! ~ Diamond Computer Chips! ~ Thunderbird Winner
~ AOL Tests New Web Mail ~ Suprnova Is Shut Down! ~ Yahoo vs. Google!
~ Google Smacks Santy! ~ Hotmail Dumps McAfee! ~ PSP To Be Hit?
-* $1 Billion Spam Case Award! *-
-* Judge Nixes AOL Spamster Guilty Plea *-
-* European Union Rejects Microsoft's Appeal! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
'Twas the night before Christmas...not a creature was stirring, not even
an Atari mouse... Another holiday season has arrived. One more holiday
dinner trip for us, and then we can relax some more. Nothing Atari-related
for me this year, but that's okay. It's been that way for ten years or so.
Yet, I miss it, but have managed quite well over the years without any new
Atari "toys" to fool around with. The closest thing that I got this year
that's Atari-related was a couple of Leisure Suit Larry games for my PC.
Boy, I remember the fun I had playing those games on my ST!
Well, we'll make this week's commentary quick this week. I'm sure that most
of you will be spending your time making last minute holiday plans and
enjoying your X-mas eve. Celebrate responsibly please!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho ho ho, friends and neighbors. Well here we are, a few days before
Christmas, and I find myself with all my shopping done. Will wonders
never cease? This is probably a record for me. I'm one of those people
who always wait until the last possible moment to get my shopping done.
This year, I lucked out and was able to take the week off. I got all my
shopping done during the day when most people were stuck at work. The
stores were still crowded, but only about half of what I've come to
expect for last-minute shopping.
I guess that we can codify it and call it "Mirando's Law".... If there
are half as many people in any given store, they will each be TWICE as
annoying, obnoxious, and just plain dumb.
I'm left to wonder if the vast majority of people place any importance on
the holidays other than having to buy gifts for others and fight crowds.
I realize that I'm putting a decidedly christian slant on this, but the
spirit of the holidays is... oh, how do they put it?... Peace on earth,
good will toward men. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Now I realize that this same thought has been put forth for generations
now... probably reaching deep into the past. Or maybe I'm just getting
older and less flexible in my thinking. Nah. That couldn't be it. I'm
the same open-minded guy that I've always been. It's the rest of the
world that's gotten dumber and dumber. <grin>
Anyway, my shopping got done, and I'm now able to sit here and
contemplate the real meaning of the season. This is a holy time for
several religions, and I've always hoped that this fact would be the
starting point for some of that 'Peace on earth, good will toward men'
stuff. But alas, it is not to be... not this year, anyway. Things around
the world are probably, despite the pablum we're being fed, as bad as
they've ever been. We now find ourselves in a place and time where and
when 'compromise' means "shut up and do it my way". That's not exactly
what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they crafted the Declaration
of Independence. And craft it they did. It was a painstaking process
that would not have succeeded at all if it hadn't been for Benjamin
Franklin shuttling back and forth between all of the colonies with the
latest proposed changes and additions, constantly pushing the idea of
compromise and understanding. The process lasted for years until the
Declaration of Independence was finally in the form we are now familiar
with. THAT is compromise. THAT is tolerance. THAT is what we used to
aspire to.
If you haven't already, it's not too late to drop off some food items at
the local homeless shelter, soup kitchen, women's shelter or any
organization that helps those of us who need it at one time or another.
Most of these places wouldn't say no to a donation of a little bit of
time to help out either. I confess that I haven't done this myself, so
I'm not going to be preachy about it, but if you have the time.... <G>
I apologize to anyone who might take offense at my seemingly heavily
religious bent earlier, but it's really a more secular point of view
that I'm trying to get across here. "Peace on earth, goodwill toward
men" speaks not so much to any deity or religious belief as it does to
point a way to helping all of us, both individually and collectively, to
getting along in a constantly shrinking world. It brings to mind another
phrase made popular by in the very early days of 'the colonies'. This
one from Thomas Paine: "If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang
separately".
Well, speaking of 'hanging', there are some tree decorations and wreaths
that need to be hung up. So let's get to the news, hints, tips and info
from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Last week Sam F. asked about an AES for MiNT:
"How does one use mint without any external aes? What benefits would I
get from running just the mint kernal and say...Thing?"
Mark Duckworth tells Sam:
"If you want to run Thing you have to run an AES. Take your pick. You
can use AES 4.1 which you can download from numerous FTP sites. I could
point you to this. This will get you your basic normal falcon looking
desktop except when you launch a program you'll notice the desktop
doesn't disappear.
You could use the built in AES but this is hugely unrecommended.
Or you could use Xaaes. It does work.. Trust me. Post specific and
concise questions to the group and I will answer them for you.
IMHO MyAES, while having overwhelming potential, is not ready for
prime time yet, especially on a falcon. It still has stability issues.
Avoid it for anything but playing for now...
You could also use geneva. I've done that before.
The mint.cnf file clearly explains setup procedures. Get things running
first by using GEM="path/to/gem" or whatever in your MiNT.cnf. Then you
can experiment with loading the full easymint stuff. If you already
boot easymint to a login prompt, installation of xaaes should be a
simple matter of moving the xaaes folder from the mint binary
distribution to C:\mint\1-16-1\xaaes\, modify the video line of your
xaaes.cnf, and then run ./xaloader.prg. Tada. It works fine for me."
Jim DeClercq adds:
"One tiny addition. You can run Thing without any added AES, and there is
a reason to do this. Thing has Kobold routines in it, and is useful for
moving a large number of files.
Where does one get Kobold? I should buy a copy of that, should I ever
decide I like Xaaes."
Ronald Hall asks Jim:
"Did they ever fix Kobold for use with Mint? At one time, if I remember
correctly, you weren't supposed to use it with anything but 8+3 filename
systems/setups. Or is my memory faulty?"
Martin Byttebier tells Ronald:
"From Kobold 3.5 on one can use long file names without problem.
However if one uses VFAT partitions Kobold falls back to GEMDOS to
perform read/write actions, thus much slower.
As Kobold doesn't offer any speed benefit when used with VFAT I don't
use it anymore. Besides that Kobold is a dead project."
Peter West adds:
"You are partly right. Actually Kobold V3.5 handles LFNs, although
it switches to GEMDOS mode for LFN-enabled partitions, which
greatly slows it down (since after copying every file the
corresponding directory entry is written, so you do not get the
normal Kobold speed advantage gained by reading/writing in much
larger chunks and writing the directory entries as a batch).
However, V3.5 is only available in German - there never was an
official English version as System Solutions were expecting a V4
from Kaktus/ASH which never appeared AFAIK. I have in fact
translated V3.51 for my own purposes, and if anyone can send me
proof of purchase of a German version V3.5 I could mail the
translation to them (though it would, or course, have my
registration details)."
Sam F. now posts this about his long hours of tweaking his CT60 with
MiNT:
"Finally!!!!! I've got mint and xaaes working...woohoo!!!! The problem I
am having now is that when thing127 is being loaded, a message comes up
saying thing.rsc cannot be loaded. Any ideas? the .rsc files are right
in the same folder as thing.app is."
Nick Harlow tells Sam:
"well done, I hope to do the same over xmas..... wife allowing..."
Martin Tarenskeen give Sam a pointer:
"In mint.cnf or in xaaes.cnf set an environment variable THINGDIR to C
\THING\ or wherever your THING directory is."
Steve Sweet gives an interesting alternative option:
"Put a copy in your Home directory and also your system directory, see if
it complains then if not delete either one to confirm its favoured
location. Or re-point the appropriate path."
Henk Robbers adds:
"Glad to hear you succeeded. XaAES is worth the effort.
I am not sure if I remember correctly cause it has been a very long time
since I used Thing. I had the same problem when I used it the first time.
It might have to do with the HOME variable. If there is a HOME variable,
Thing looks there in stead of in its own directory."
Martin Byttebier tells Henk and Sam:
"Thing doesn't look at the home dir I think.
But you must set the THINGDIR variable in xaaes.cnf
Mine looks like this:
#---------- Thing -----------
#
setenv AVSERVER THING
setenv FONTSELECT THING
setenv THINGDIR c:\thing\thing "
Sam tells everyone who helped him out:
"Just to let everyone know...I now have mint,xaaes, and thing all
working...woohoo!!!!!!!!!! Now the only problem I seem to be having is
with the xaaes file selector. It will show my drive c, so how do I get
it to show me any other drives?"
More on the file selector/drives question next week.
'Mark' tells us that he....
"Used to use Pacifist on old 166MMX laptop with W98 . Now got a
Thinkpad T23 at 1.3Ghz and XP and the older Pacifist setup won't run.
So, what is the best emulator for the faster setup please and where to
locate it?"
Francois LE COAT tells Mark:
"http://aranym.atari.org is the best ... Depending on what you want to
do with your ATARI box ... Would you mind a Falcon 060 on your system?"
Martin Tarenskeen agrees with Francois:
"Yes, Aranym is great. I'm using it all the time. But for older ST games
and MIDI software maybe STeem is the first choice. You should be able to
find the STeem site with a little googling. Or maybe there is a STeem
user reading this group who can tell us more."
Mark Duckworth adds:
"Mark, I've had pretty good luck with Hatari under Linux. Not perfect,
like you said, "ain't nothin' like the real thing baby!"."
Paul Williamson asks a very interesting question about 'dongles' for
emulators:
"Does anyone know if it would be possible to build a dongle port onto a
card which fits into a PCI slot on the PC, or even something to connect
to a USB port ?
If this could be done, would it be possible for an emulator, such as
Aranym, to address it and enable the use of Cubase Score ? The PC MIDI
ports would also need to be addressed as well.
I have to accept that my Hades will not last for ever - it was repaired
recently and, although usable, still has an intermittent fault. I have
years of work (musical arrangements) which I have done in Cubase, and the
files cannot be read by the PC version of Cubase. I would have to change
them all to standard midi files, and in so doing would lose all the score
formatting information.
My Hades has an ISA dongle card, and this is addressed via the Hades
B.inf file which allows the selection of one of three dongle ports on the
card, so maybe that means it is possible to create add-on dongle ports.
I've never looked at using an emulator before, just because of being
unable to use software which needs the dongle. Anyone else out there
who would find this useful?"
Coda supplies a possible solution:
"I think its simpler just to find a cracked copy. Problem solved."
Paul tells Coda:
"Problem not solved! I have yet to hear of a cracked copy that is
stable. I have no interest in spending hours working on a piece of
software that is sure to let me down - beside which, it just happens to
be illegal."
Lonny Pursell tells Paul:
"If someone can provide the file format specifications I'd gladly make
you a tool to move them to some other format."
Mark Duckworth adds his opinion to the mix:
"Hardware wise, this isn't something that is terribly difficult. In
fact, if it's a standard ISA card, the dongle card for your Hades should
be usable on the PC. But like anything it all has the problem of
getting old. Every single device, even a dongle card created today.
The best thing you can do is have some redundancy. Keep a couple old
ST's around to make sure you can rescue data. That's why I have
something like 10 Atari machines. I know at least one will ALWAYS work."
Well folks, that's it for this week. 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 - Games Targeting Adults!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Great Year for Gamers!
PSP Likely To Be Hit!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Video Games Targeting Grownups
Shoppers browsing the video game aisles at electronics stores this holiday
season are not just shopping for kids. Chances are good that they are
looking to pick up a title or two for adults on their list.
And that is a good thing for the video gaming industry, Yankee Group's Mike
Goodman told NewsFactor. The crucial hurdle for the industry to overcome is
moving from what Goodman calls "hardcore gamers" to more mainstream
technology consumers.
Last month, Microsoft released Halo 2, the much-anticipated sequel to its
popular Halo game. The game went on sale at midnight on November 9th and
set records. Halo 2, like many video games, is rated "M," which means it is
intended for players 17 years old and above. Microsoft has counted on it to
turbo-charge sales of its Xbox gaming console.
But competitors have their own adult-oriented games as well. Grand Theft
Auto: San Andreas, for example, runs on Sony's PlayStation. It also carries
an M rating and has created a stir over controversial and violent content.
Other popular adult titles include Doom 3 and Half-Life 2.
The next frontier of online gaming, said Goodman, lies in enabling
individual consoles to connect to the Internet to allow gamers to engage in
multi-player action and publish additional content. Microsoft, with the
Xbox, has used its own infrastructure, building its own online gaming site
to which users can subscribe, a $200 million investment. Microsoft charges
a subscription fee of US$49 per year.
Sony has taken a different approach. The company makes a network adapter
available for its consoles, but it leaves the building and maintenance of
Web sites to game publishers, giveing them an advantage, said Goodman. But
from the user's perspective, the kind of aggregation that Microsoft
accomplishes through its centralized site can be attractive.
2004 Was a Great Year for Gamers
Picking the year's best and worst video games can be a lot harder than
playing them. 2004 was a great year for gamers, with some of the most
anticipated games of all time being released.
But it wasn't all fun and games...
THE BEST:
1. Half-Life 2 (PC, $50): The first game to mold intense, varied action and
hyperreal sci-fi locales with such immersive mastery. Video games will
never be the same with this latest chapter in the dangerous life of
scientist Gordon Freeman. Hollywood, take note: The future of interactive
entertainment has arrived, and it isn't showing on the silver screen.
2. City of Heroes (PC, $40): Finally, a maker of massively multiplayer
online games got it right. "City of Heroes" tossed the dungeons and dragons
in favor of superhero tights. It also dispatched with many of the genre's
grueling "leveling up" aspects and let gamers do what they really want:
band together with dozens of others to battle villains.
3. Burnout 3: Takedown (PlayStation 2, Xbox, $50): A gridlock victim's
wildest dream come true. It stood out from other racers in 2004 by
encouraging the one thing you're usually supposed to avoid - wrecking. With
this game, the bigger the crash, the better. And few games conveyed the
sense of blistering speed so well.
4. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PlayStation 2, $50): Is it violent? Yes.
Should children play it? Certainly not. For everyone else, it's an
excellent game, packed with enough detail and action to keep you playing
for months. The graphics are better than previous versions, but what made
this gang saga so compelling was the story and characters.
5. ESPN NFL2K5 (PlayStation 2, Xbox, $20): Die-hard Madden junkies will
think I'm nuts, but ESPN reinvigorated the football video game genre this
season by outrunning and outpacing Madden in a head-to-head bout. And it
can't be said enough: it's only $20, still $10 less than the reduced price
of its crosstown rival.
___
THE WORST:
1. JFK Reloaded (PC, $9.99): Among the worst ideas for a game, ever.
Downloadable and despicable, it lets you test your aim as the infamous
gunman in President Kennedy's assassination. The British-based creator
calls it an educational "docu-game." What's next, a docu-game of Christ's
crucifixion where you test your nail-hammering skills?
2. The Guy Game (PlayStation 2, Xbox, $40): If 2004 was the year of the
sequel, it was also the year when video game makers used sex more than
ever. Topping the trash-heap of soft porn games was "The Guy Game." In a
deviant twist on the quiz show format, players guessed if bikini-clad women
on spring break were sober enough to correctly answer trivia questions. The
more wrong answers these women provided, the less clothing they wore. AP
reviewer Nick Wadhams said it best: "Calling this demeaning is like saying
anteaters' favorite food is ants."
3. Terrorist Takedown (PC, $19.99): I have no problem with budget titles,
and "Terrorist Takedown" might seem like a good deal. That would be
incorrect. When this bug-ridden title worked properly (and that was rare),
all you had was repetitive target practice in a Middle Eastern setting,
where you blow away throngs of lookalike terrorists with machine guns and
artillery. With no actual fun, I masochistically accepted the many
glitches. Highlights: buildings popping in and out of existence, missing
artwork and oddly moving chunks of ground.
4. Lifeline (PS2, $40, plus required USB microphone headset): It's hard to
criticize a game that at least tries to be innovative. Instead of the
standard controller, you had to use a microphone headset and verbally issue
orders to control your character, named Rio. Problem is, Rio was a terrible
listener and even the most mundane tasks devolved into shouting matches
between me and the game. Great for drill sergeants, but not for me.
5. Spider-Man 2 (PC, $20): A pretty good game so long as you played on
PlayStation 2, GameCube or Xbox. But the PC edition was a lame,
side-scrolling affair that lacked the freeform exploration and
gravity-defying action of the console version. In this era of sequels, why
go through the extra effort of creating a bad game when a great one already
existed?
PlayStation Portable Likely to Be Big Hit
Even if you don't particularly like video games, you'd best resign yourself
to what appears certain to anyone who's spent a little time with Sony's new
PlayStation Portable: This is a gadget that's likely to eventually become a
worldwide household hit. That holds true especially if your household
includes, as mine does, a young man who grew up with the original
PlayStation.
Yet while the PSP is a dazzling game machine, delivering sharp graphics on
a 4.3-inch display and weighing just 10 ounces, it is also a multimedia
player designed for music and movies.
And within the sleek, black plastic shell of this 7-inch by 3-inch wonder,
there is Wi-Fi wireless connectivity and a USB 2.0 port for mating with
computers.
The only big drawback is Sony's decision to go with a proprietary format
for the PSP's main media: a 1.8-gigabyte disc the size of an Olympic medal.
It's dubbed UMD for Universal Media Disc.
That's what the games come on - and Sony Corp. promises to also deliver
Hollywood movies on the discs, though it hasn't said when or offered a
lineup.
The PSP went on sale in Japan this month and won't be available in the
United States and Europe until next year. It's likely that the U.S. price
will be similar to the $190 the device costs in Japan. That feels like a
bargain to anyone who remembers paying more than $299 for the original
PlayStation in the mid-1990s.
But then, the PSP has a competitor this time around in Nintendo's DS
handheld. Perhaps that's why the PSP is stoked with enough technology to be
worth twice its price tag - it's got a Memory Stick slot for storing music
and photos when the 32 megabytes of onboard memory don't suffice. You'll
have to buy the Memory Stick, though.
There's good news, also, for music fans who prize to open MP3 standard for
music. Sony formerly pushed its ATRAC proprietary standard. No longer. The
PSP is an MP3 adherent, and its sound quality is quite good.
If you want to play video that doesn't come on a UMD disc, Sony recommends
you buy special $10 computer software that will convert it to the MPEG-4
video format that the PSP and Memory Stick support.
Because of its networking capabilities, the PSP looks to have an edge on
Nintendo DS. The new Nintendo handheld works strictly as a game machine.
As for recording your own content for playing on the PSP, Sony hasn't said
whether it will sell recordable versions of UMD discs.
PSP games range in price from $24 to $46, but unfortunately there aren't
many yet. About a dozen are available so far in Japan, including "Hot Shots
Golf" from Sony Computer Entertainment and "Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos
Tower" from Capcom Co.
Sony says some 100 games are in the works, with about 20 titles promised by
the end of the year.
By contrast, about 15 Nintendo DS games are on sale in Japan so far. But
Nintendo DS, which costs about $145, can also play all the Game Boy
Advance games.
In the games I played on the PSP, the attention to detail in the graphics
was impressive.
In scenes from "Ridge Racers" made by Namco Ltd., camera flashes blink
from roaring crowds and frothy waves break on sandy beaches. I found
myself pushing on the joystick button for steering until my thumb got sore,
happily tilting the PSP with the twists and turns as roaring race cars
zipped through a swerving course, screeching on corners and sending
tire-skidding virtual sparks on the screen.
The display, from Sharp Corp., is surprisingly easy on the eyes. The
removable Lithium Ion battery lasts about four to six hours for games on a
single charge. And the built-in 802.11b Wi-Fi chip allows up to 16 PSPs to
play together.
PSP also has a microphone slot for future software with voice-recognition
and an infrared connection whose uses aren't yet spelled out.
My son needed just a few minutes of checking out PSP before deciding he's
definitely going to buy one.
Never mind that he isn't exactly sure how he's going to use its non-game
functions (He's already got an iPod, a digital camera, a cell phone and a
laptop).
Don't worry, mom, he said, everybody is going to figure it out.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
European Court of Justice To Announce Microsoft Verdict
A European Union court is to issue its initial verdict in an antitrust case
pitting US software giant Microsoft against the EU's executive commission,
the European Court of Justice revealed.
It said its Court of First Instance would deliver a ruling on Wednesday on
Microsoft's request that "corrective" measures imposed on it by the
commission for having abused its dominant market postion be suspended.
The commission last March imposed a record fine of 497 million euros (665
million dollars) on the company on grounds that it had engaged in
anti-compeititve practices. Microsoft has since paid the fine into an
escrow account pending the outcome of an appeal.
The panel also determined that the company had to offer a European version
of its Windows operating system without its Media Player software, which
offers access to audio and video content.
Brussels also ordered Microsoft to provide competitors with the information
they need to enable their products to communicate with Windows.
Microsoft reponded by seeking first of all the cancellation by the court of
the commission's decision and secondly - in the matter that will be decided
Wednesday - a suspension in the corrective measures until a judgement on
the merits of the case.
The company is fiercely opposed to any measures that could affect its core
strategy, which is based on the integration of new features into its
Windows operating system.
European Court Rejects Microsoft Appeal
Microsoft will begin immediately to comply with sanctions imposed by the
European Commission, following a decision handed down today by Europe's
Court of First Instance (CFI), but the company still holds out hope that it
eventually will be vindicated.
The CFI denied Microsoft's appeal and confirmed that the software giant
must offer an unbundled version of Windows, without Windows Media Player,
and must make available to its competitors technical details necessary to
allow non-Microsoft work group servers to achieve interoperability with
Windows PCs.
In effect, the decision means that Microsoft now has to allow European
consumers to buy its operating system with such multimedia software as
RealNetworks' RealPlayer and Apple's QuickTime. Microsoft said it would
comply beginning in January 2005. In addition, Microsoft will be forced to
share data protocols and other proprietary specifications with its
competition.
In a conference call with reporters this morning, Brad Smith, Microsoft's
general counsel and senior vice president, said the company is now offering
a Web site where competitors can get information on its communications
protocol licensing, and will release in January in Europe a version of
Windows that meets European Commission demands.
"First and foremost, we have to comply with the court's ruling," Smith
said. At the same time, he noted that the CFI recognized that some of the
company's arguments on the merits of the case are valid and may ultimately
prevail upon the full appeal.
"The court noted that it is appropriate to have safeguards for the
licensing of communications protocols, and that our practices do not
restrict competition," said Smith. The integration of new features in the
operating system is a long-standing practice, benefiting both users and
developers, Smith said in citing the court decision.
The European Commission determined in March that Microsoft was guilty of
antitrust abuses, following a five-year investigation of the company's
business practices and product configurations.
In that ruling, the commission mandated that Microsoft strip Media Player
from its Windows operating system and share information with competitors.
It also imposed a fine of US$497 million. The commission argued that
consumers and computer manufacturers need a choice between taking Windows
with WMP or with a different media player.
Since then, the company has reached settlements with several prominent
adversaries, including Novell, Sun Microsystems and Time Warner. Microsoft
argued that with these competitors now satisfied, there is less need for
the Commission to pursue its litigation.
Smith suggested that Microsoft may take its case to the European Court of
Justice, saying that while no decision has been made to pursue the issue,
"clearly there is a case for optimism as the litigation path moves
forward."
Microsoft says in a statement: "We continue to believe that the
commission's remedies will bring very few benefits to competitors and
consumers in Europe, and will in fact harm many users of the Windows
operating system and the thousands of companies across Europe who have
built their businesses on the Windows platform."
Along with limiting industry opposition, Microsoft is prepared to continue
the fight against sanctions to protect its business, Yankee Group analyst
Laura DiDio told NewsFactor.
"Microsoft will fight hard on this one," she said. "They feel that the EU
could affect their products in Europe, and that includes the future line
as well as current products. This involves trade agreements and
international treaties, so it involves much more than Europe."
Judge Nixes Guilty Plea in AOL Spam Case
A federal judge refused to accept a guilty plea Tuesday from a former
America Online software engineer accused of stealing 92 million e-mail
addresses and selling them to spammers.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein of Manhattan federal court said he was not
convinced Jason Smathers, 24, had actually committed a crime under new
federal "can-spam" legislation that took effect earlier this year.
Smathers, of Harpers Ferry, W.Va., planned to enter guilty pleas to charges
of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. But the
judge turned him away and scheduled another hearing for January.
Under a plea deal worked out with federal prosecutors, Smathers faced a
potential prison term of 18 months to two years, plus fines.
The judge, who said he dropped his own AOL membership because he received
too much spam, said it was not clear that Smathers had deceived anyone - a
requirement of the new law.
Federal prosecutor David Siegal urged the judge to accept Smathers' guilty
plea, saying "billions and billions of unsolicited e-mails" had been sent
to "people like Your Honor" because of Smathers' conduct.
"Everybody hates spamsters, there's no question about that," Hellerstein
said. But he added: "I'm not prepared to go ahead, Mr. Siegal. I need to be
independently satisfied that a crime has been created."
Smathers' lawyer, Jay Goldberg, said the judge did not appear to be
questioning the constitutionality of the "can-spam" law itself, which took
effect Jan. 1.
"He is questioning whether the conduct here met the standard of deception,"
he told reporters outside court. Smathers himself declined comment.
Hellerstein asked lawyers for the government to file a brief by Jan. 12
spelling out why Smathers can be prosecuted under the law - why his conduct
was deceptive, not just fraudulent.
He set a hearing for Jan. 28. Goldberg told reporters there was a chance
his client would withdraw his guilty plea altogether, but said he would
wait and see what the government turned in.
Authorities said Smathers, who was fired by AOL in June, used another
employee's access code to steal the list of AOL customers in 2003 from its
headquarters in Dulles, Va., and sold it to spammers for more than
$100,000.
Court papers said Smathers sold the list to Sean Dunaway, of Las Vegas, who
used it to send unwanted gambling advertisements to subscribers of AOL, the
world's largest Internet provider.
Charges are still pending against Dunaway.
The stolen list of 92 million AOL addresses included multiple addresses
used by each of AOL's estimated 30 million customers. It is believed to be
still circulating among spammers.
The "can-spam" legislation, modeled after the government's popular
do-not-call telephone list, is designed to cut down on unsolicited e-mail
messages trying to sell products, from Viagra to home mortgages.
In September, a California man pleaded guilty under the "can-spam" law
after federal prosecutors accused him of sending unsolicited e-mails, some
for pornographic Web sites.
Prosecutors said they believed the plea was the first under the act.
ISP Awarded $1 Billion in Anti-Spam Suit
A federal judge has awarded an Internet service provider more than $1
billion in what is believed to be the largest judgment ever against
spammers.
Robert Kramer, whose company provides e-mail service for about 5,000
subscribers in eastern Iowa, filed suit against 300 spammers after his
inbound mail servers received up to 10 million spam e-mails a day in 2000,
according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Wolle filed default judgments Friday against
three of the defendants under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act and the Iowa Ongoing Criminal Conduct Act.
AMP Dollar Savings Inc. of Mesa, Ariz., was ordered to pay $720 million and
Cash Link Systems Inc. of Miami, Fla., was ordered to pay $360 million. The
third company, Florida-based TEI Marketing Group, was ordered to pay
$140,000.
"It's definitely a victory for all of us that open up our e-mail and find
lewd and malicious and fraudulent e-mail in our boxes every day," Kramer
said after the ruling.
Kramer's attorney, Kelly Wallace, said he is unlikely to ever collect the
judgment, which was made possible by an Iowa law that allows plaintiffs to
claim damages of $10 per spam message. The judgments were then tripled
under RICO.
"We hope to recover at least his costs," Wallace said.
There were no telephone listings for the three companies in Arizona and
Florida. Nobody replied to an e-mail sent Saturday to Cash Link Systems.
According to court documents, no attorneys for the defendants were present
during a bench trial in November. The lawsuit continues against other named
defendants.
Laura Atkins, president of SpamCon Foundation, an anti-spamming
organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., said she believed it was the
largest judgment ever in an anti-spam lawsuit.
"This is just incredible," she said. "I'm not aware of anything that's been
over $100 million."
Real Answers Needed to Solve Spam
Spam gained a nefarious twist this year with the development of phishing
scams, but phishing wasn't the least of IT departments' problems. They
faced numerous roadblocks to protecting user in-boxes from unwanted e-mail.
Next year, solutions to many of these problems-including how to reliably
identify e-mail senders and what, exactly, must be done with the mail
protocol-should be forthcoming. But vendor squabbles-often reflected in the
lassitude of standards bodies-likely mean that e-mail will remain an
essential but increasingly burdensome business tool.
The only thing that seemed to match the spam proliferation rate during the
last year was the dizzying number of anti-spam vendors hawking goods
designed to thwart unwanted e-mail. An industry consolidation seems
inevitable.
However, the tremendous variety of anti-spam consumers-from large
enterprises that often go with a stand-alone anti-spam appliance to small
and midsize organizations drawn to outsourced anti-spam services or
anti-spam software that integrates directly with the e-mail server-means
that many spam-stoppers will likely be around for much of 2005.
Based on anti-spam tests I've conducted in the last couple of years, it's
clear that most anti-spam vendors are generally successful at clearing spam
out of the incoming mail stream.
For now, this means IT managers who are shopping for anti-spam protection
should take advantage of the crowded field to get the best price per
mailbox.
However, this doesn't mean that all anti-spam products are equally
effective. Aside from platform (appliance, service or software), the
biggest differentiator among spam systems is the amount of time it takes to
maintain them. Anti-spam tools that require lots of user involvement over a
sustained period of time should be scrapped.
Likewise, systems that require administrators to do much more than
occasionally print spam catch-rate reports (that is, those that require
administrative involvement to resurrect "good" e-mail that was mistakenly
marked as spam) should get the heave-ho.
SMTP, the IP upon which e-mail is based, does not provide a reliable way to
identify the sender of a mail message. Correcting this fundamental flaw
won't, in and of itself, stop spam.
However, sender authentication is essential for any of the anti-spam
technologies that have been developed thus far to continue being effective.
These technologies include Bayesian filtering, reputation measurement,
address-book acceptance lists, call-to-action triggers and even simple
keyword filtering.
This is why it was so disheartening to see MARID (MTA Authorization Records
in DNS), the IETF Mail Transfer Agent Authentication in the DNS Sender ID
scheme, crash in flames this fall. So far, no concerted, industrywide
effort seems to have coalesced to pick up the banner of sender
authentication.
This means it will be another great year to be in the spamming business,
and IT managers are going to have to go with the flow as anti-spam vendors
continue to attempt to outwile the voraciously wiley spammers. Until sender
authentication is established, the need to update anti-spam systems will be
relentless.
Thank goodness the anti-spam vendors seem up to the task of finding
ever-more-clever ways of sorting good e-mail from bad.
Hackers Aim to Sabotage Holiday Computing
Hackers, spammers and spies go into overdrive in December and January, when
unsuspecting neophytes unwrap new computers, connect to the Internet, and,
too often, get hit with viruses, spyware and other nefarious programs.
"People want to get on the Net right away, just like they want to put
together and start using any Christmas present," said Tony Redmond, chief
technology officer of Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer giant
Hewlett-Packard Co., whose new PCs ship with 60 days of virus and adware
protection. "They should be warned that the Net is a very, very dangerous
place."
Susan Love's problems began with a smile.
The New York City fund-raiser clicked on a happy-face attachment in a
friend's e-mail last year. The virus crashed her computer within an hour.
Love, 57, salvaged her data. But within a few months her computer's
performance slowed to a crawl. In December 2003, she upgraded to a Sony
Vaio with an extra-large monitor and Microsoft Windows XP operating system.
Within a few days, "spyware" - programs that sneak onto computers
uninvited - began sponging up valuable memory. Then her e-mail stopped
arriving.
Instead of crafting holiday e-mails, she spent hours installing the latest
antivirus, anti-advertising and anti-spyware software. She also instituted
a rule: Her computer never gets turned off, so security programs patch
vulnerabilities around the clock.
"You have to become something of a nerd to make sure your computer is
safe," said Love, a former English teacher who recently installed
anti-adware on her daughter's computer. "If you don't sweep the computer
every night, you could hit."
Love won't be the last to get a holiday crash-course in computer security.
Although few researchers produce holiday-specific security data, experts
at IBM Corp., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., software companies and
Internet service providers agree that the holidays are prime time for
hackers.
Holiday viruses are so rampant that consumers could be attacked even if
their first online destination is to a Web site for updating security
patches.
Kris Murphy, help desk coordinator for North Carolina Internet service
provider Indylink.org, said his minister got attacked last year, only a
few minutes after unpacking and connecting the machine. At the time of
infection, the minister was updating security patches to Windows.
"Hackers know that you are most vulnerable as soon as you go online for the
first time," said Murphy, whose 10-person company hires temp consultants
during the holidays to handle higher call volume. "Inexperienced people
tend to fall into traps more readily because they don't recognize that this
guy might be trying to get your credit card information."
Technology executives describe the relationship between hackers and
security programmers as an arms race - both sides keep ratcheting up fire
power. But lack of consumer awareness - if not downright naivete - allows
the war to escalate.
According to a recent survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance, of
the 185 million Americans with home computers, one in three say they'll
never get hit by viruses or other cyber attacks. In a Consumer Reports
study, 36 percent of U.S. home computers showed signs of being infected
with spyware and only 41 percent of surveyed households said they actively
try to prevent it.
American businesses are savvy about firewalls, spam filters, multiple
passwords and other network protections, said Stuart McIrvine, director of
corporate security strategy at IBM. But problems at the consumer level -
from spyware to security risks in coffee shop wireless networks - are so
severe that every hardware and software vendor should be worried about a
backlash.
Seasonal attacks start around Thanksgiving, when online shopping begins an
annual spike and marketers pummel consumers with junk e-mail - from the
perfect stocking stuffer for a balding spouse to a limited-offer holiday
cruise.
With the rise in e-commerce, identity thieves try even harder to obtain
credit card and other financial data from wireless and home networks. They
set up dummy Web sites that seem to be hosted by major financial
institutions in hopes that gullible consumers will provide their account
information.
Virus writers hide viruses and worms in holiday-themed e-mails, seasonal
greetings cards and screensavers.
"W32/Zafi-D," a mass mailing and peer-to-peer worm, harvests addresses from
Windows address books and other files. Infected e-mails' subject line
begins, "Merry Christmas!" and the text reads, "Happy Hollydays."
The most vulnerable computers are the ones that have sat under Christmas
trees for days or weeks. If a consumer buys equipment that arrives on Dec.
15, and it sits in the living room until Dec. 25, it could be hit by
hundreds of viruses written in the 10-day interim.
Tony Ross, analyst at British security firm Sophos Plc., advised consumers
to get a CD-ROM with the newest updates from their electronics vendor,
next-door neighbor or the computer at their office before connecting to
the Internet. They should prohibit children - who tend to be liberal in
distributing their personal data - from using the machine until it's
patched.
Consumers should vigilantly buy and update security software, which can
add hundreds of dollars over the course of a computer's lifetime. Popular
anti-spyware and anti-adware programs include Webroot Software Inc.'s Spy
Sweeper ($29.95 for a one-year subscription), LavaSoft's Ad-Aware SE
Professional ($39.95), Tenebril Inc.'s SpyCatcher ($29.95), the free Spybot
Search & Destroy and Computer Associate Inc.'s eTrust PestPatrol ($39.95).
Some experts wonder whether the computer has become the digital age
equivalent of a puppy - an enthralling treasure on Christmas morning, but
a sinkhole for time and energy for years after. At very least, computers
are far more demanding than the typical holiday toy, which merely requires
batteries.
"At some point, people who receive them for Christmas often ask, 'Is this
computer a gift or a curse?'" Ross said.
Popular File-Sharing Site Shuts Down
One of the Web's most popular file-sharing sites has shut down less than a
week after Hollywood announced a flurry of lawsuits against operators of
such Internet servers.
A note posted on Suprnova.org, which facilitated sharing among users of the
BitTorrent program, said the site was "closing down for good." The
collection of links to downloadable files, including music, movies and
books, was taken down.
"We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried
everything," the statement said.
Reached via Suprnova.org's chat room, the site's anonymous operator refused
to comment on why it had shut down.
Last week, movie studios sued more than 100 operators of U.S. and European
sites that host BitTorrent links but did not name the defendants.
Suprnova.org was the most popular repository for links to files that could
be downloaded using the BitTorrent program.
Another site that carried BitTorrent links, N4p.com, said it had shut down
due to a civil complaint that cited the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Torrentbits.org and Phoenix-torrents.com also shut down.
Still, there were plenty of sites with BitTorrent links alive on Monday,
including a "mirror," or copy, of Suprnova.org.
BitTorrent has grown quickly in popularity this year, and now accounts for
more than a third of all traffic on the Internet, according to the research
company Cachelogic.
The program owes its popularity in part to its immunity to industry
attempts to confound it with bogus decoy files, which have swamped some
other networks. BitTorrent also allows for efficient and speedy downloads.
The Motion Picture Association of America last week said it is planning
similar action against operators of servers that direct data for the
DirectConnect and eDonkey file-swapping services.
Apple Sues Three for Posting Mac OS X on Net
Apple Computer Inc. has sued three men for illegally distributing test
copies of the next version of its Mac OS X operating system on a
file-sharing Web site, court records showed on Tuesday.
The lawsuit is the second in as many weeks by the maker of the popular iPod
digital music players and iconic Macintosh personal computers to thwart the
release of its software and details of its unannounced products.
Apple claims in its suit that two different versions of Mac OS X,
code-named Tiger, were made available on the Web on or about Oct. 30 and
Dec. 8 of this year.
The company has said it will ship Mac OS X "Tiger" in the first half of
2005, after previewing it to the Mac community at a trade show last June.
Apple makes test versions available to certain software developers under
strict confidentiality conditions and lets them test the prerelease
software and develop or change their own programs to work with the
software.
The company said in its lawsuit that the two different versions were made
publicly available by the men, who were members of the Apple Developer
Connection.
"Members of Apple Developer Connection receive advance copies of Apple
software under strict confidentiality agreements, which we take very
seriously to protect our intellectual property," the company said in a
statement.
According to the suit, the men released the software on a Web site that
employs BitTorrent file-sharing technology, which is used to rapidly
distribute large files of electronic data, and is also widely used to
distribute pirated copies of motion pictures via the Internet.
"Apple's future operating results and financial condition are substantially
dependent on its ability to continue to develop improvements to the Mac OS
and related software applications in order to maintain perceived design and
functional advantages over competing platforms," the company said in its
civil complaint, filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court, Northern
District of California, San Jose.
Apple's Macintosh computers and Mac operating system compete principally
with personal computers using Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Windows operating
system. Apple currently has a less than 5 percent share of the overall PC
market.
On Dec. 13 Apple, based in Cupertino, California, filed a lawsuit against
unnamed individuals who leaked details about new products by posting
information on the Internet.
The lawsuits come weeks ahead of the Macworld conference in San Francisco,
the annual show where Chief Executive Steve Jobs typically unveils the
latest Apple products in front of thousands of the Mac faithful.
Google Smacks Down Santy Worm
Web search engine company Google is blocking efforts by a new Internet worm
to use its search engine to find vulnerable computers on the Internet, the
company announced this week.
Google is blocking searches launched by Santy.A, a new Internet worm that
targets servers running phpBB, a popular electronic bulletin board software
package, according to a statement from the company. Without any native
ability to scan for vulnerable computers, Google's action halted Santy.A's
spread, according to antivirus companies.
Santy.A targets servers running phpBB. Antivirus companies first detected
the worm Tuesday, though it may have been spreading silently well before
that, according to Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer at The SANS
Institute's Internet Storm Center.
The worm used a vulnerability in phpBB, an open source software product
that is managed by the phpBB Group, to spread across the Internet,
infecting computer servers that host online bulletin boards and defacing
those sites with the words "This site is defaced!!! NeverEverNoSanity
WebWorm."
A phpBB component called viewtopic.php allows malicious commands to be
passed to and executed on servers that run a vulnerable version of the
phpBB software. Secunia, a Copenhagen-based security company, first
reported the vulnerability on November 19. An updated version of phpBB
software that fixes the flaw was released on November 18.
Estimates of the impact of the Santy worm vary widely. Searches on a beta
version of Microsoft's MSN Search feature for the text used to deface sites
returned over 30,000 hits. However, identical searches on other engines,
including the official MSN Search engine, Yahoo, and Google search engines
returned far fewer hits, ranging from 785 (MSN) to 2030 (Yahoo).
However, using searches for telltale signs of infection, such as defacement
text, is an inexact way to determine the actual number of Santy infections,
says Ullrich.
"Santy will only deface sites if it can overwrite files, and it may not
always be able to do that based on the configuration of the Web server
[running phpBB]," he says.
Also, an analysis of the Santy code revealed that the worm spread quietly
for a while, infecting phpBB servers but not overwriting files and defacing
the bulletin boards, Ullrich says.
The Santy worm marked some firsts, including the use of a popular search
engine as part of a worm's spreading mechanism. However, the lessons to be
learned from Santy's spread are already well established: keep on top of
software patches and "harden" the configuration of public-facing servers
by preventing users from being able to take unnecessary actions, such as
overwriting files, he says.
AOL Tests Free Web Mail Service
America Online is experimenting with a new version of its e-mail offering,
with an eye on delivering Web-based mail to the masses at no charge and
keeping pace with competitors Yahoo, MSN and Google.
On Wednesday, AOL began beta testing the new version of AOL Mail on the Web
for a select number of members, company spokesperson Jaymelina Esmele told
NewsFactor, calling it "a significant upgrade for the product."
Among the features being tested are a revamped user interface, performance
enhancements that make it quicker for members to access mail, and
improvements designed to make it easier for AOL members to manage their
mail on the Web, said Esmele. Further details are not being divulged at
this time, she added.
"This service will be available to AOL members next year and lays the
foundation for the free Web mail service we plan to offer to a wider
audience in 2005," Esmele said.
Such a move would help boost the Internet portal's subscriber base and
counter the offerings of AOL's rivals. Yahoo now offers e-mail users 100
megabytes of storage for free. Those willing to pay a subscription price
will have access to 2 gigabytes of storage space and other services.
Microsoft, too, has increased the amount of storage it provides to users of
its free Hotmail service to 250 megabytes, and also will add antivirus
scanning.
The primary objective is to fend off a challenge from Google, which is
testing a free e-mail service with a full gigabyte of storage capacity,
representing some 500,000 pages.
The battle for free e-mail highlights the falling cost of storage capacity,
but also a rush to direct customers to portals and search services, which
can generate revenue.
"The Internet portal and search-engine market, in general, is becoming
increasingly competitive," Yankee Group analyst Patrick Mahoney told
NewsFactor. "All of them are looking for any way to differentiate
themselves, to garner more customers or keep current customers satisfied."
Within the space of a few months, free e-mail with large amounts of storage
has become the de facto minimum standard for Internet content providers,
such as Yahoo, AOL and Google, which is not necessarily good news for the
companies.
E-mail accounts, at one time, were considered a revenue source for these
providers, Mahoney noted. The premium accounts still will be, of course,
but given the storage available in the free accounts now, the paying
accounts will represent a much smaller portion of revenue.
First Look: Thunderbird 1.0 a Winner
If you find yourself spending more time sorting your e-mail than reading
it, consider the Mozilla Foundation's new Thunderbird e-mail client. The
free program, which complements the group's Firefox browser, combines
advanced e-mail sorting functions, first-rate spam filters, and
lightning-fast performance to help you cut through your inbox like a hot
knife through butter.
I tested version 1.0 of Thunderbird (a 5.8MB download). After years of
using Microsoft Outlook, the switch was like trading in a big, lumbering
Buick for a Mustang GT. A mere second after you launch the program, it's
ready to retrieve your mail or compose a message. With Outlook, you launch
the app and then go get a cup of coffee while it loads its numerous modules
and applets.
Thunderbird's interface is equally sleek, borrowing many of the best
elements of its sibling Firefox. The icons are stylish yet easy to
identify, and navigation is simple and efficient. Best of all, you're not
bombarded with anything like Outlook's quasi-advertising links and toolbar
items.
Like most people, I'm in too much of a hurry to create a nice, neat folder
hierarchy for my received e-mail, so I tend to keep all my messages in the
inbox. That's why my favorite Thunderbird feature - and the one that may
get me to dump Outlook for good - is the ability to create custom views of
the inbox based on easy-to-set rules.
For example, I created a "Family view" that shows only messages from people
in my personal address book named "O'Reilly" (I could add other names or
conditions to this rule as well). Now when I want to see only messages from
my family, I simply click the View drop-down menu and select "Family view."
Of course, any e-mail program worth its salt today has to be able to handle
spam, too. Thunderbird's Junk Mail Controls include adaptive filters that
are trained to identify spam based on the contents of your incoming
messages. The feature also helps keep viruses off your system by blocking
JavaScript from executing in news and mail messages.
Thunderbird supports all POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, as well as AOL Mail
and HTML mail. Users of Netscape Webmail or Microsoft Hotmail need to
download free plug-ins available through the Mozilla.org site.
In addition to e-mail, Thunderbird offers support for newsgroup access and
includes an RSS news reader. The program has a basic Address Book, but it
lacks a calendar.
Despite Thunderbird's open-source underpinnings and collective development,
the program's documentation is sparse. The link in Thunderbird's Help menu
to the support Web site was broken each time I tested it, too.
The program shows its 1.0 nature in other ways, as well. For example, when
I entered contact information in my Personal Address Book entries, the
cursor continually disappeared, and my first attempt to save a contact
record failed.
Still, Thunderbird proved robust enough to become my number one e-mail
client in no time. I don't use Outlook's calendar feature, so Thunderbird's
lack of one doesn't bother me. I can say unequivocally that if you're still
using Microsoft's outdated Outlook Express, you should switch to
Thunderbird immediately - no questions asked.
With Thunderbird version 1.0 the Mozilla Foundation has created a fast,
simple, and fully functional e-mail client. The fact that it just happens
to be free is icing on the cake.
E-mail client is fast, functional, and free; but documentation is scarce
and there are still a few bugs.Street: Free to
downloadhttp://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
Google/Yahoo Rivalry Moves Into 2005
Even as they trade counterpunches punctuating their similarities, Internet
heavyweights Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have strived for different goals -
distinctions that may become more apparent as the fierce rivalry moves into
2005.
Google, owner of the leading online search engine, is devoted to a
single-minded mission: transforming the way the world finds and stores
information, even if that means sending people somewhere else.
Yahoo, owner of the world's most popular Web site, is taking a more
multidimensional approach as it strives to be all things for all people -
a one-stop destination for recreation, work and research.
"The differing visions of the companies' founders and management teams will
likely lead them down very different paths," UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter
predicts in a recent research report.
The philosophical contrasts already influence how the rapidly growing
companies spend the money that's cascading into their bank accounts.
Mountain View-based Google devotes significantly more of its budget to
research and development, with more than $300 million - about 30 percent
of its operating cash flow - earmarked for capital expenditures this past
year. Meanwhile, Sunnyvale-based Yahoo is expected to spend $215 million
to $235 million on capital expenditures, or about 20 percent of its
operating cash flow.
Schachter believes the capital expenditure gap will widen in 2005 when he
projects Google will spend $450 million while Yahoo allots about $250
million. If those estimates pan out, Google's capital expenditures, broken
down as a percentage of operating cash flow, will be similar to such
technology leaders as Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp.
Google also takes a more laissez faire approach toward innovation,
embracing new ideas and products long before the company's management
figures out how everything fits into the overall business plan.
"We are compiling this collection of very cool technologies and taking our
sweet time figuring out what to do with them," Google chief financial
officer George Reyes said during an investment conference in early
December.
The strategy has produced an exotic casserole that includes e-mail,
shopping and news services, three-dimensional maps, digital photography,
tools for creating Web logs, or blogs, and software for searching the
information stored on computer hard drives.
Yahoo takes a more practical approach to technology, first identifying
what people want and then building or
buying a product designed to give
visitors one less reason to leave its Web site - already the world's most
popular online destination.
Yahoo wants to be "essential to people's personal and professional lives,"
spokeswoman Mary Osako said.
The emphasis has pushed Yahoo into territory that Google hasn't tread upon.
The list of Yahoo services unavailable at Google include instant messaging,
music, gaming, fantasy sports leagues, job placement, matchmaking and
broadband service.
While it offers free versions of all its services, Yahoo constantly looks
for ways to charge its visitors for extra bells and whistles. Google, in
contrast, gives just about everything away except a recently acquired 3-D
mapping product called Keyhole, which charges $29.95 for its basic
software.
As it continues to sprout more tentacles, Yahoo is morphing into a media
company and its 7,000 employees vastly outnumber Google's 2,700 workers.
Yahoo already promotes heavily to spread its message, spending $551
million, or 22 percent of its revenue, on sales and marketing through the
first nine months of 2004.
Google so far only has bought ads to attract job applicants. Through the
first nine months of 2004, Google spent $170 million, or 8 percent of its
revenue, on sales and marketing.
With so many more things to do on its site, Yahoo's fortunes are tied more
closely with the switch from slower dial-up Internet connections to higher
speed broadband services. Web surfers with broadband already spend 22
percent more time on Yahoo's site than visitors using dial-up, Schachter
said. Broadband users spend 3 percent more time on Google's bare-bones
site.
Like Yahoo, Google shares one key characteristic with media companies -
virtually all of its sales come from advertising. But Google prizes
innovation over profits.
"In some businesses, the salespeople tell the engineers what to do, but at
Google the engineering team is really our driving force" said Marissa
Mayer, the company's director of consumer Web products. Google is trying
to foster a research-driven culture akin to General Electric Co., 3M Co.
and DuPont Co., Mayer said.
Yahoo also has its geeky side, perhaps best embodied by the company's
co-founders, former Stanford University computer graduate students Jerry
Yang and David Filo. After starting Yahoo in 1995, Yang and Filo later
encouraged two other Stanford computer graduate students, Larry Page and
Sergey Brin, to continue developing the search engine that became Google.
Although the two companies are no longer friendly partners, Yahoo still
holds a substantial stake in Google.
Yahoo generated a $105 million profit by selling 2.3 million Google shares
during the summer and still owns another 5.9 million shares - worth about
$1 billion as of mid-December.
Yang and Filo have remained at Yahoo, but the company's key decisions are
made by a management team headed by former Hollywood movie mogul Terry
Semel, who has also brought in several lieutenant with media backgrounds.
That list includes the recent hiring of former ABC television executive
Lloyd Braun to oversee Yahoo's entertainment division - a move that may
foreshadow the company's push to generate more of its own original content
on its site.
Page and Brin have structured Google so they retain final say over all
decisions. They run the company in collaboration with the company's CEO
Eric Schmidt, who holds a doctorate in computer science - a common thread
at Google.
"We want Google to be the very place to work for the very best computer
scientists in the world," Reyes said. "Google is truly a learning
organization."
Microsoft's Hotmail Drops McAfee Antivirus
Microsoft Corp. has switched from McAfee Inc.'s antivirus technology to
Trend Micro Inc.'s for its free Internet e-mail service MSN Hotmail.
Under the agreement announced by Trend Micro Monday, it will provide
anti-virus technology to some 187 million Hotmail accounts worldwide.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee's technology was used to scan Hotmail's
attachments and e-mails. No reason was given for the change, and spokesmen
for the companies weren't immediately available for comment.
Scientists Seek to Forge Diamond Computer Chip
Only a few are singing about them yet, but it could turn out that diamonds
are a computer's best friend.
Damon Jackson is one researcher who sees the sparkling gems as a way to
overcome the limitations of the silicon chips that serve as the brains of
computers and the machines they run.
"It's not a pie-in-the-sky idea," said Jackson, who works in the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory east of San Francisco. "I would not be
surprised at all, as more people start to look into this, if five or 10
years down the line that diamond would be a common material in a computer."
He showed off a microscope focused on a $1,500 natural diamond topped with
a spiral of electronic circuits. On a second diamond, eight circuits
pointed upward to the summit.
Electronics and the most treasured of jewels may appear an unlikely
marriage but for the shortcomings of today's chips and new advances in
creating diamonds.
A conventional computer chip is a slab of silicon topped with millions of
transistors - tiny switches that provide the computing power as electricity
passes through them.
That blitz of electricity produces heat, a scourge of chip designers that
may halt progress in making faster silicon semiconductors after a decade or
so.
Enter the diamond, which already has a major presence in manufacturing
because of its strength and extremely high melting point.
"You can operate a diamond-based transistor at higher temperatures than you
could a silicon-based transistor," said John Venables, an advisor at the
Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Venables was already predicting diamond computer chips in 1990, when he
headed a National Academy of Sciences study. Skeptics say the failure of
such expectations to materialize points to the significant obstacles in
making diamond chips.
"It's not on the mainstream radar screen," said Pushkar Apte, vice
president of technology programs at the Semiconductor Industry Association
in San Jose, California.
Even now, Venables does not expect home computers to carry stickers saying
"diamond inside" any time soon. Instead, he sees diamond chips in
specialized devices like satellites, which have difficulty disposing of
heat in space.
The price of such chips remains potentially daunting, but scientists hope
new techniques in man-made diamonds will lower costs. "The initial cost is
huge," Jackson said at Livermore. "Once it works, your cost per unit
drops."
Jackson starts his work with a natural one-third carat diamond. Once he has
put the circuits on it, he sends it to the University of Birmingham in
Alabama, where Professor Yogesh Vohra patented a process to grow diamonds
by essentially cooking methane and hydrogen gases in a very hot microwave
oven.
Vohra seals the Livermore jewel with a man-made diamond layer. He foresees
the eventual development of an entirely man-made diamond chip with the
circuitry also made of diamonds.
"What we have done with Livermore is show that we could embed the
electrical circuits on a high-quality diamond," he said, adding that
engineering challenges make a full diamond chip unlikely before five or 10
years.
Serious work on manufactured diamonds dates back half a century, but
scientists have seen growing success in recent years. Several private
companies are already marketing the man-made gems.
Scientists are also working on using other materials - including other
carbon-based compounds - to allow for continued fulfillment of Moore's Law,
which predicts that computing power will double roughly every two years.
With current technology, "we are rapidly approaching the time when the laws
of physics will limit our implementation of Moore's Law," Semiconductor
Industry Association President George Scalise said recently. "We are now in
a worldwide race to develop new technologies that will enable progress in
semiconductor devices to continue at the pace we have seen for nearly 40
years."
=~=~=~=
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