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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 04
Volume 6, Issue 4 Atari Online News, Etc. January 23, 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
Ernest R. Schreurs
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
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Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0604 01/23/04
~ Zip Wars Call Truce! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Dutch Atari Day!
~ Antitrust Pact Working ~ eBay Feedback Nabbers! ~ The Mac Turns 20!
~ New AOL Spam-Blockers ~ Novell's Linux Entry! ~ Rainbow for Mac OS X
~ WWII Aerial Pix On Net ~ Linux On the GameCube ~ McAfee AntiSpyware!
-* RIAA Sues 532 "John Does"! *-
-* Nintendo Unveils New Portable Unit! *-
-* Spammers Scavenging E-Mail Virus Surfaces! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Northeast remains stuck in frigid conditions, although we almost made it
to the freezing mark one short-lived day. It was interesting to watch the
weather report tonight. One Boston television station has a new Doppler
radar system which very accurately provides a Doppler radar view of weather
systems in the area. As I watched one weather segment, the radar was
showing a fast-moving snow squall nearing my town. So, I decided to park
myself by the window to watch it hit. Amazing. The squall lasted only a
few minutes. It was like watching a wall of snow move down the street, pass
us, and be gone in a matter of minutes. It reminded me of a typical summer
rain shower - sunny one minute, a downpour the next, and then it's sunny
again. But seeing it develop on television with the Doppler technology made
it even more fascinating.
So, what else is happening these days? I've been following the ups and
downs of the efforts to curb spam. While the new spam law is in effect, it
doesn't appear to be doing much to slow down the onslaught of spam - at
least in my mailboxes! I seem to be getting more spam now than I ever did!
I really don't know what will be effective to stop this madness. While I
think fining the major offenders whenever possible will hurt spam, I'm not
sure it will stop it altogether. There are so many ways for the spammers to
fool spam-blockers, etc. I'm sure that there will be an eventual solution,
but in the meantime, I'm spending a great deal of time deleting the crap
every single day. I hope you're having better luck than I am.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Rainbow 1.5 for Mac OS X
A version of the Atari 8-bit/5200 Rainbow emulator has been released for
OS X. The OS X version of Rainbow adds an improved GUI and significantly
improved sound over the earlier classic MacOS version. Please visit Richard
Bannister's OS X Rainbow page to download the latest version. While there,
you may want to browse through many of the other emulators he's ported to
OS X.
http://www.bannister.org/software/rainbow.htm
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE User Group Notes! - Meetings, Shows, and Info!
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Dutch Atari day
On sunday the 8th of february 2004, the second edition of the Dutch
Atari day will be organized again in Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
The location is the Titus Brandsma-Stedelijk Dalton Lyceum.
Kapteynweg 3
3318 EC Dordrecht
The Netherlands
Participants can start building their exhibit from 10:00 am. The
event will be open to visitors from 11:00 am until 16:30. Admission
is free as far as I know. It will be organized by Jos Vlietstra, just
like last year. I can tell you that last time, we all had a good
time, so we hope that this year a lot more visitors will join the fun.
Just like last year, there will be a pile-of-giving-away-Atari-stuff!
It would be nice if everyone would bring Atari software and hardware
(working or not) that they no longer need. It will be put on a pile
where everyone can take something of their interest at the end of the
event. It might just be something your fellow Atarian has been
looking for. The event will be held in a gymnasium this year, so we
have plenty of space. Exhibitors should make sure their equipment is
properly insulated electrically. If you wish to participate contact
Jos Vlietstra by E-mail. You can see his E-mail address on this page:
http://www.geocities.com/titusbrandsmacollege/jos
Everyone should bring their own sandwiches and drinks, since there is
no place to buy these close by.
Directions:
By train: go to the station Dordrecht Zuid.
Walk on the left side of the S. van Gijnweg towards the Sterrenburg
district. After 5 minutes, you can see the back of the school. Turn
left walking on the pink Steve Biko bicycle path and follow the green
fence until you reach a gate after about five minutes.
By car: from Rotterdam take the left tube of the Drechttunnel.
Then take exit Papendrecht immediately after the tunnel. At the
traffic lights go straight for a short while, then take a right turn
onto the Laan der Verenigde Naties. At the next traffic lights go
straight on, passing the Shell pump, then take a right turn at the
next traffic light. Follow the road straight on, passing the traffic
lights, take the railroad tunnel then make sure to be in the left
lane.
Take a left onto the kapteynweg and take a left again and park.
Take the pink bicycle path again and find the gate as above.
If coming from the south, follow direction Dordrecht, take the exit
Centrum, take a right onto the Laan der Verenigde Naties and follow
the directions above.
Attention: The front of the school will be closed! Do not be alarmed,
the entrance to this event is on the back.
See you all there!
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
[Editor's note: Due to technical errors (or extreme cold temperatures), this
week's installment of People Are Talking will not be available. Stay tuned
next week!]
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Nintendo Unveils New Game Unit!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Porting Linux to GameCube?!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo Unveils Dual-Screen Portable Game Unit
Nintendo Co. Ltd., after months of hinting it would roll out a new game
product in 2004, on Wednesday took the wraps off Nintendo DS, a portable
video game system with two screens, one above the other.
Nintendo had been expected by industry players to offer some sort of new
handheld product this year to compete with Sony Corp's PSP, an advanced
handheld gaming device set for launch by the end of the year. Sony already
dominates the console games market with its PlayStation 2.
"We're not trying to take on PSP, because this machine will be completely
different than anything that exists right now," said Nintendo spokesman
Yasuhiro Minagawa.
The company said it would hold back most details on the new product until
the games industry's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles this
May, but said it has already begun talks with game publishers around the
world about developing software for the new device.
Industry watchers also expect Sony to show off the PSP at the Los Angeles
E3 games show.
Sony's PlayStation guru Ken Kutaragi has said the PSP will be the "walkman
for the 21st century" and it will play not only games, but music and movies
as well. He has said it will not feature a phone function like Nokia's
N-Gage.
The new Nintendo unit will feature two three-inch liquid crystal display
(LCD) screens, dual processors and up to one gigabit of semiconductor
memory.
It is scheduled for launch by the end of this year and will be marketed
alongside the company's GameCube home gaming console and Game Boy Advance
handheld device, Nintendo said.
Nintendo, the developers of legendary games such as Super Mario Brothers
and Donkey Kong, controls almost the entire portable game device market
with its Gameboy series. It forecasts global sales of 20 million Gameboy
Advance units this year.
"Chances are, knowing Nintendo, the new unit will be very price competitive
and it will be marketed for universal use, so the kids will love it as
well," said Hiroshi Kamide, analyst at KBC Securities.
Nintendo said the dual screens on the new game machine would let players
see the same game from two different perspectives, or see game action on
one screen while looking at a map of the game environment on the other.
The game system's dual processors will be based on chip designs from
British semiconductor firm ARM, a leading designer of microchips for mobile
phones and handheld computers.
The new game system comes after a series of price cuts stimulated a more
than 70 percent year-on-year rise in holiday sales for the GameCube.
The Kyoto-based game maker said it would easily achieve a global sales
target of six million GameCubes for the full business year, easing some
market concerns about the feasibility of that goal after it sold only
890,000 units in the six months to September 30.
Nintendo plans to unveil nine-month sales figures for the GameCube and
Gameboy Advance when it unveils quarterly results on January 29.
Group Begins Process of Porting Linux to GameCube
A group of programmers working to expand the reach of Linux software to
video game consoles and other computing devices on Tuesday released a
program intended as a first step toward running the free software system on
Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s GameCube.
The program, called "Linuxpreview," causes the GameCube to draw an
on-screen picture of Tux, the penguin Linux logo.
The GameCube Linux Project has made the program available to download from
its Web site (http://www.gc-linux.org).
The leaders of the project, some of whom come from a project to port Linux
to Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, were not immediately available to comment.
On their home page, project leaders suggested a Linux-powered GameCube
could eventually be used as a server, a multimedia terminal, or a desktop
client computer connected to a server.
The console is powered by a version of International Business Machines
Corp.'s PowerPC chip and is considered the least powerful of the three
major game consoles, although the Web site notes "as it is a computer with
decent RAM and a good CPU, it makes sense to port Linux to this platform."
A spokeswoman for Nintendo could not immediately comment on the project.
Sony Corp. has officially endorsed Linux efforts for its market-leading
PlayStation 2 console, going so far as to offer a $199 kit on its Web site
with a keyboard, hard drive, networked adapter and software to turn any PS2
into a Linux computer.
The Linux software system, which can be freely modified by users, is an
increasingly important rival to software made by Microsoft, particularly
in corporate applications, such as running servers.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
RIAA Sues 532 'John Does'
After suffering a legal defeat in December, the Recording Industry
Association of America is modifying its approach to pursuing online file
swappers, RIAA President Cary Sherman says. But the group is pushing on
with its program to stop illegal file trading with lawsuits, he says.
The RIAA, an industry trade group representing copyright owners, filed a
new round of copyright infringement lawsuits Wednesday against 532 computer
users who are allegedly illegally sharing copyright material using
peer-to-peer networks, Sherman said in a telephone press conference to
discuss the move.
In contrast to previous rounds of lawsuits, the RIAA filed "John Doe"
lawsuits that identify alleged file swappers only by the IP address of the
computer sharing the file. The RIAA will file a motion to require Internet
service providers that own the addresses to provide the identity of the
customers behind the addresses, Sherman says.
Previously, the RIAA used a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act to subpoena ISPs directly, without court oversight, for the names and
addresses associated with IP addresses before filing lawsuits. However, in
December the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on
behalf of Verizon Internet Services, overturning a lower court ruling that
allowed the practice.
Verizon argued that the subpoenas threatened customer privacy because they
could be issued by a court clerk without oversight by a judge and did not
require subsequent legal action by the copyright holder after receiving the
subpoenaed information.
The RIAA bundled its case against the 532 swappers into four lawsuits filed
in New York and the District of Columbia. Each suit names customers of a
different ISP, but defendants could live anywhere in the United States,
Sherman says.
He declined to name the ISPs involved in the suits and took pains to say
that illegal file swappers, not ISPs, are the target of the suits.
The suits name only "egregious" file uploaders, which describes individuals
whose computers host more than 800 files for download by other P-to-P
users, he says. No particular P-to-P networks are targets in the lawsuits,
he says.
"[The] lawsuits involve activity on a range of platforms, and we'll proceed
against all of them," Sherman says.
The RIAA has not decided whether to continue pursuing its case against
Verizon. However, the organization will not abandon similar cases pending
in other circuits, Sherman says.
"We obviously disagree with [the] Court's decision in the D.C. circuit. It
will be interesting to see if other courts think [U.S. Court of Appeals]
Judge Bates was correct," he says.
So far, the RIAA has filed 382 lawsuits. Settlements were reached in 233 of
those suits, with agreements in principle reached in another 100, Sherman
says.
The average settlement is $3000. However, the RIAA may begin asking for
larger settlements, as awareness of the legal issues surrounding file
swapping grows, and if the RIAA's legal costs grow as a result of decisions
like those from the D.C. circuit, Sherman says.
Owners of IP addresses named in the suits may be contacted by the RIAA once
their ISP divulges their information to the organization, but before the
lawsuit is amended to name them. Previously, before filing lawsuits the
RIAA sent letters to those whose information they obtained using the DMCA
subpoenas. The December appeals court ruling precludes that, Sherman says.
The announcement of the new lawsuits was preceded by testimonials from
those with a stake in the illegal file trading issue who are sympathetic
to the RIAA's position.
Mike Negra, owner of Mike's Video of State College, Pennsylvania, says that
conversations with his customers lead him to believe that file sharing is
on the retreat, as consumers realize the legal issues involved and parents
disallow it on home computers. The message about illegal file sharing and
copyright is being lost on older teenagers and young adults, who believe
they should be able to acquire music and movies for free, he says.
Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America, gave a tribute
to fellow songwriters, who he says are being pushed out of work because of
illegal file sharing, which he refers to as "online shoplifting." Borrowing
a slogan from the National Rifle Association, Carnes defended the RIAA's
controversial program to go after file swappers, saying that consumers'
attitudes are the problem, not the Internet or P-to-P technology.
"Computers don't steal songs, people do," Carnes says.
The RIAA lawsuits have been effective in educating the public about the
legal issues involved with file swapping and reducing illegal online file
sharing in the United States, according to Mitch Bainwol, RIAA chairman.
According to RIAA polling data, the percentage of people who are aware of
the legal issues surrounding file swapping changed from 32 percent to 64
percent in the last year, he said.
Both changes in public awareness of the legal issues surrounding file
swapping and the growth of legitimate online music services like Apple
Computer's ITunes and Roxio's Napster service are evidence that the RIAA's
program is working, he said.
Spammers' Scavenging E-Mail Virus Surfaces on Net
A new computer virus capable of harvesting millions of e-mail addresses
from infected PCs was rapidly spreading across the Internet Monday,
security experts said.
The infection, known as "Bagle" or "Beagle," appears to be the handiwork of
spammers keen to collect a batch of e-mail addresses they can then re-sell
to other spam e-mail marketers or keep for their own use.
"Bagle" also contains code that could turn an infected computer into a
veritable "spamming" machine.
Security experts said it is patterned after the recent "Sobig" and "Mimail"
outbreaks, which also turned scores of computers into zombie machines that
spammers can control remotely to send torrents of get-rich-quick and sex
aid messages to other computer users.
"It seems perfectly possible that Bagle is yet another worm written by
spammers. When they have enough infected computers, they could
automatically install invisible e-mail proxy servers on each machine and
start spamming through them," said Mikko Hypponen, research manager at
Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure.
A host of virus-detection firms had placed their most severe ratings on the
e-mail, noting it was spreading quickly from Asia through Europe and now to
the United States.
The e-mail infection, or worm, contains a familiar subject line of "Hi" and
an executable file attachment identified by ".exe." The body of the e-mail
contains random characters.
The virus is triggered once a computer user clicks on the attachment,
setting in motion an aggressive e-mail harvesting program that scans all
documents on the infected computer and throughout the network it is
attached to.
Computer analysts said most corporate e-mail filters should be able to
block the infected e-mail, but that home users were particularly
vulnerable.
AOL Tests New Spam-Blockers
With its subscribers deluged by unsolicited commercial e-mail, Internet
service provider America Online is trying new technology to crack down on
one common spammer tool: forged sender addresses, which spammers and
virus-writers use to bypass blacklists and trick recipients.
AOL is testing a new e-mail protocol called Sender Permitted From across
its entire user base of 33 million subscribers. SPF is designed to
eliminate e-mail forgeries by enabling organizations to specify which
servers can send mail on behalf of their Internet domain, according to
Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesperson.
SPF stops e-mail address spoofing by modifying the Domain Name System to
declare which servers can send mail from a particular Internet domain. AOL
is using SPF to publish the IP addresses of the servers it uses for
outgoing e-mail. DNS is the system that translates numeric IP addresses
into readable Internet domain names.
Once widely deployed, SPF records could be consulted by Mail Transfer
Agents stationed around the Internet when routing e-mail messages. The
agents could then check records for particular domains to determine whether
an e-mail message's source is legitimate or "spoofed," according to Graham.
AOL briefly tested the protocol two weeks ago, before shutting it off to
make technical changes based on feedback from other ISPs, says Graham, who
declines to describe the changes.
The program is still experimental and for now AOL is not using SPF to
filter mail from other Internet domains, Graham says.
SPF "is just getting off the ground," Graham says. "AOL is interested in
putting the proposal out there and getting feedback from stakeholders."
Those stakeholders include other major ISPs such as Microsoft's MSN, Yahoo,
and Earthlink, as well as other major domain owners processing bulk e-mail,
Graham says.
The trial is a major test of SPF, which is one of a number of new
technologies designed to thwart spammers, according to John Levine,
co-chairman of the Anti-Spam Research Group.
SPF patches a hole in Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which is used to route
e-mail messages among in-boxes. Developed in the early 1980s, SMTP was
designed to provide a reliable and efficient way to relay messages between
host systems running different computer hardware and operating systems.
In recent years, spammers and viruses such as Sobig-F and the recent
Beagle/Bagel worm have exploited SMTP's flexibility, easily transposing
the actual source of messages with legitimate e-mail addresses from lists
that are traded online or harvested from infected computers' hard drives.
The long-term benefit of SPF is that, when the technology is widely
deployed, e-mail providers will be able to associate reputations with
Internet domains rather than with IP addresses, which are harder to track,
according to Eric Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative, who
gave a presentation on SPF during January's Spam Conference 2004 at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
SPF itself will not stop spam, but it will help other antispam technologies
like spam traps, by enabling ISPs to track spam back to specific domains
and forcing spammers to move to new domains more frequently, Raymond said.
The combination of technologies can be likened to a "drug cocktail" that,
taken together, may stop spam, he said.
However, the protocol still has problems, including incompatibility with
some e-mail forwarding services and Web sites that use mail forwarding
features, Levine says. For example, online greeting card services and news
Web sites use forwarding to allow readers to send e-mail cards and articles
to friends, Levine notes.
SPF also causes performance problems under certain circumstances and has
features that spammers could exploit to slow down and derail the system,
he said. "I would be surprised if SPF survived in its current form, but
something like it might survive," Levine said.
Levine is more optimistic about a technology called "domain keys," which
Yahoo champions. It uses public key encryption technology at the domain
level to verify an e-mail message's sender.
AOL realizes SPF's problems and is soliciting feedback from other users on
it, Graham says.
"We want to remind folks that we're in the beta process. These are things
that are in consideration as we make refinements and enhancements (to
SPF)," Graham says.
AOL's current SPF test is scheduled to run for the foreseeable future,
pending feedback from ISPs, organizations receiving AOL e-mail in bulk,
and ordinary Internet users. However, AOL will wait for consensus within
the Internet community before making any final moves regarding SPF.
"It's premature to start looking forward. This is intended to be nothing
less than a collaborative, cooperative process," Graham says.
McAfee Adds Spyware Protection
Network Associates will become the latest security software maker to
address the growing problem of stealth surveillance software known as
spyware when it announces a new consumer product for locating and removing
the applications on Monday.
McAfee AntiSpyware will sell for $39.95, including a one-year software
update subscription. The product will compete in a growing field of
commercial and free software that sniffs out legal and illegal programs
that can log computer keystrokes, track Web browsing activity or give
remote attackers full access to a computer hard drive, according to
information from NAI.
Much like antivirus software, the new program scans a computer hard drive
and compares its contents against a database of known spyware programs.
Users can scan their hard drives for any spyware, or tailor a search to
look for a specific application, NAI says.
McAfee AntiSpyware will also be able to autoprotect computers on which it
is installed, spotting attempts to install spyware applications, the
company says.
Many leading antivirus products, including McAfee Antivirus and Symantec's
Norton Antivirus, already scan incoming e-mail and computer hard drives
for spyware in addition to computer viruses, but lack advanced features
such as quarantining and protection against spyware file execution.
Those features are more common in specialized anti-spyware applications,
which include free- and premium versions of Lavasoft's Ad-aware and
Pestpatrol from Pestpatrol. One leading application, Spybot Search and
Destroy, can be downloaded for free from the Web, with a donation to
developer Patrick Kolla encouraged, but not required.
The new product comes amid warnings about increased use of spyware
applications, which are often bundled with popular peer-to-peer
file-sharing programs like Kazaa and Grokster. In July, the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission warned consumers about danger of installing spyware along
with P-to-P applications and suggested installing anti-spyware programs
before attempting to download P-to-P software.
In recent months, leading Internet service providers such as America Online
and Earthlink announced deals with anti-spyware vendors to bundle their
products with their software, allowing customers to detect and remove the
applications.
McAfee AntiSpyware will be available for download on Monday from the McAfee
Web site.
'Feedback' Hijackers Suspended by EBay
Online auction giant eBay said today it has suspended several sellers for
uploading special programs to the eBay Web site that allowed them to remove
negative "feedback" left by previous customers.
Ebay spokesman Hani Durzy said the recent activity was limited to a
"handful" of accounts. He said the company religiously scans all of its
auction listings to ensure that sellers and buyers are not violating
auction rules.
"We are aware of this trick and proactively look for malicious scripts in
all of our listings," he said.
According to eBay, the fraudulent sellers forged their feedback profiles
using Javascript, a Web programming language designed to work well with
nearly all operating systems and Internet browsers.
On eBay, like most other auction sites, sellers create Web pages for each
product they are putting up for sale. The pages must include such basic
information as the auction deadline, product description and last bid. But
many sellers dress up the pages with photos and other add-ons. For example,
Marsha Collier, an avid ebay seller and author of "Ebay for Dummies," said
she uses Javascript to better track which sites are referring potential
buyers to her auctions and to prevent visitors from downloading content or
product photos from her auction pages.
By uploading a specifically crafted script inside the Web page describing
the product for sale, eBay said the fraudulent sellers were able to replace
negative feedback with more glowing reviews.
Trust is everything in the multi-billion dollar market of online auctions.
Buyers can't investigate a product up close, and sellers have no idea if an
auction winner will pay for the goods quickly.
Trust is established through "feedback" - reviews submitted by buyers and
sellers alike about the quality of purchased products, the time it took
for payments to be processed and for goods to arrive in the mail. Many eBay
users simply refuse to do business with users who have accrued a certain
amount of negative feedback.
With "feedback" playing such a central role in the auction world, it's no
surprise to learn that eBay took action against the fraudulent listings,
said Kevin Wray, vice president of marketing for Vendio, which changed its
name last year from AuctionWatch.com.
"In addition to a powerful search engine that links up buyers and sellers,
feedback is one of the two main pillars of eBay's business," Wray said.
"For that to be in any kind of jeopardy at all is a threat to their
business."
Ebay officials would not go into any more details about how the
perpetrators managed to pull off their scam or how many listings or
accounts were involved.
Neel Mehta, a research engineer with Atlanta based Internet Security
Systems, said the culprits may have taken advantage of a previously unknown
bug in Javascript.
"Web scripting languages are extremely complex and can generate unexpected
results when used maliciously," Mehta said. "New bugs are discovered in Web
scripting languages on a weekly basis."
Ebay's Durzy said the company is working on a technical fix to ensure the
problem does not arise in the future. One way to do that would be to
institute stronger restrictions that automatically prevent users from
uploading auction pages that appear to contain the Javascript in question,
Durzy said.
He added that Ebay allows sellers to use scripting in their listings
largely because the auction community has demanded it.
The disclosure comes at a time when Ebay and other major Internet companies
are battling a wave of online fraud schemes. On Thursday, the Federal Trade
Commission said its received more complaints about Internet auction fraud
than any other online scam. Internet auctions accounted for 48 percent of
all Internet fraud complaints filed with the commission last year, the FTC
said.
WinZip, PKWare Call Truce in Format War
The venerable .zip file format may survive, after competing companies that
market compression products have reached an agreement to support each
other's improvements - sort of.
WinZip has just released a new beta of its forthcoming WinZip 9.0, which
can decrypt protected archives created by competing product PKZip, from
PKWare. PKZip itself can't decrypt files compressed under the newest
version of WinZip, but PKWare's free viewer can.
The status is a compromise, after a clash last summer. It appeared then the
popular compression standard would split in two, as market leader WinZip
and market founder PKWare promoted incompatible security improvements.
The rivalry continues. PKWare has applied for a patent on its encryption
technology, an act that appears to be in violation of the open standard
philosophy of the company's founder, Phil Katz.
Katz, who died in 2000, wrote the original PKZip and placed the archive's
specifications in the public domain. This encouraged competition and
turned .zip into the industry standard for compressed archives.
PKWare representatives say the company is still committed to an open
standard. But in recent years, as PKWare has added new encryption
capabilities to PKZip, competitors have complained that PKWare was slow in
releasing details of the technology.
PKWare added the most recent new feature, virtually unbreakable 256-bit
AES encryption, early in 2003. Then, in May, WinZip posted the first beta
of WinZip 9.0, featuring its own, incompatible 256-bit AES encryption.
Suddenly, users could find themselves with an AES-encrypted .zip file that
couldn't be opened by a program that supports AES-encrypted .zip files.
The situation changed this week, when WinZip posted on its Web site the
third public beta of WinZip 9.0, a new test version of the unfinished
program that raised the compatibility concerns eight months ago.
WinZip officials are not estimating when the update will be finished and
released in final form. But with this beta, you can decrypt an
AES-encrypted archive created by PKWare - but you can encrypt only to the
WinZip standard.
"We did not have enough time to test [PKWare-compatible] encrypting," says
Edwin Siebesma, WinZip president. He says he's comfortable with the amount
of testing WinZip has done on decryption, where "there's not an awful lot
you can do wrong."
The new beta also lacks certificate-based encryption, a PKZip addition
from 2002. Last June, WinZip and other companies complained that PKWare
was keeping the details of certificate-based encryption to itself,
creating a one-company version of the .zip format. PKWare has since
published the certificate-based specs, but WinZip isn't using them.
According to Siebesma, "We don't see a market for that."
PKWare, meanwhile, just posted to its Web site a new, WinZip-compatible
version of its free PKZip Reader. The Reader enables anyone with a PC to
decompress and (with the relevant password) decrypt .zip files. The new
version can decrypt AES-encrypted .zip files created in WinZip as well as
PKZip.
Meanwhile, PKWare is working to claim ownership rights on the
improvements. Last year the company gave a single name, SecureZIP
Technology, to all of its security improvements. These include not only
AES encryption, but also digital signatures and certificates.
The company has also applied for a patent, arguably a major change from
Katz's original intention of an open standard. PKWare President Steve
Crawford defends the policy as a way to enforce a single standard.
"We saw that there was a lot of steering off with how vendors were
implementing security," Crawford says. "It was important from our
perspective to have a single format."
In PKWare's defense, the proposed patent only covers the method of
accessing the file format, not the format itself. What's more, the details
are posted on PKWare's Web site, and the company is offering its
competitors free licenses.
For the time being, at least, the two companies appear to be cooperating.
As WinZip's Siebesma put it, "The user is the big winner."
Judge Says Microsoft Antitrust Pact Working
A federal judge on Friday said she was satisfied with Microsoft Corp.'s
efforts to comply with its landmark antitrust settlement after the company
announced new steps, including free access to some of its Windows operating
system code.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the 2002 settlement with
the government was working and she brushed aside concerns from the Justice
Department that a key provision had failed to live up to expectations.
"The decree seems to be operating," Kollar-Kotelly said. "We only have
concerns about one provision."
The comments came during a conference with the Justice Department and
Microsoft, held to update the judge on how well the company is complying
with the settlement.
In a report to Kollar-Kotelly last week, antitrust enforcers at the
department complained the settlement had fallen short on a key provision
designed to make sure rivals can make their server software work properly
with the Windows operating system."
In response to the concerns, Microsoft gave Kollar-Kotelly a list of
changes it will make to make it simpler and easier for competitors to
license the necessary computer code.
Microsoft attorney Rick Rule said Microsoft would make 20 of the 113 pieces
of the necessary computer code, known as protocols, available for free by
download.
Rule said Microsoft also would simplify and shorten the licenses. He told
the judge that Microsoft is working hard to entice other companies to take
advantage of them.
"Microsoft is willing to go that extra mile to try to get additional
licensees signed up," Rule said.
The judge conceded the provision at issue "has not yet yielded the
hoped-for results," but she said it "may be just too early to tell."
Making the server protocols more accessible could help companies such as
Sun Microsystems Inc., which are battling Microsoft in the market for
software that runs servers, the powerful machines that manage computer
networks.
It's the second time Microsoft has agreed to streamline the server protocol
licenses. Last year, Microsoft took other steps to make the licenses more
attractive and address other Justice Department concerns about the
settlement.
But to date, only 11 companies have signed licenses for the Windows
protocols. The department said most have been for development of niche
products that are unlikely to spur the broad competition to the Windows
desktop.
Stephen Houck, the attorney for a group of state attorneys general who are
also part of the settlement, said the shortcomings in the licensing were a
major problem.
"We regard it as one of the most important provisions in the judgment,"
Houck said. "We believe there is much more that can and should be done to
make this program work as it should."
But Kollar-Kotelly was unperturbed. She said some of Microsoft's
competitors might be holding off on licensing the Windows protocols because
they are waiting for the outcome of "external proceedings," a reference to
a separate antitrust case the European Commission is pursuing against
Microsoft.
Instead Kollar-Kotelly praised Microsoft and the department for working
cooperatively on other parts of the settlement.
"I am pleased to see that the parties seem to be cooperatively resolving
the complaints that have been raised," the judge said.
Showgoers Favor Novell's Linux Entry
Novell Inc. looms large at LinuxWorld this year. Now that its SuSE Linux
acquisition is done, what does that mean to Linux? Nabbed at the show for
on-the-spot interviews, many showgoers pointed out that what Linux needs
most is money. Some worried, though, that the SuSE Linux they know will
ultimately fade away.
"Novell is a trusted company. It's good to see that they're in there
supporting Linux," said Andy Stein, IS director for the City of Newport
News, Va.
Schalk Steyn, engineer at EBS Dealing Resources, wasn't quite as confident.
"Linux does need money. I get nervous, though, whenever a big company buys
anything," Steyn said. "I hope Novell doesn't 'do anything' to SuSE. The
best thing Novell can do is to leave SuSE alone."
Steyn definitely wants SuSE to stick around. His company is now migrating
from Sun Microsystems to Red Hat Linux. "One of the reasons we're switching
from Sun, though, is that we don't want to get locked into a single vendor.
SuSE has represented a strong fallback position in Linux."
"I'm glad Novell is helping SuSE. Until now, Linux has been too volatile
for us to use on the back end," said Sam Storms, a systems programmer at
IDA.
In an intriguing reversal of usual patterns, IDA uses SuSE and Debian Linux
on the desktop, but Unix on its servers.
Not everyone, however, held such a positive opinion of Novell. Fernando
Pando of CPG Group isn't sure Novell can make a go of things with SuSE.
"Novell is still that ugly child who won't stay in his room. That company
is still desperate. If only they'd hung onto TCP/IP!" Pando said.
"We'll see whether they can make any money with Linux. Linux is free
software. Things are changing. We are now the generation that doesn't want
to be told what to do-that wants to figure out things for themselves.
Proprietary companies like Novell won't be with us much longer."
One Ohio-based Novell reseller though thinks that not only will Novell make
money, the switch to Linux will make money for him as well. "I loved
NetWare, but I was losing customers from it to Microsoft. I know I can keep
them, and get some new ones as well, now that I have Linux from a company
that they trust."
The Mac Turns 20
It was insanely great, the computer for the rest of us, and out to change
the world. The Apple Macintosh marks its twentieth birthday this week,
and - hubris and hype aside - the Mac has made an acknowledged impact on
personal computing.
A graphical user interface manipulated via mouse, new usability standards,
still-evolving multimedia support, and simply cool design are among the
Mac's credits, say industry observers, PC users, and Apple pioneers. PC
World asked many longtime industry players, including some involved in the
Mac's early days, what the Macintosh has taught the PC - and, essentially,
the computing industry. And, on the flip side, what has the PC taught the
Macintosh?
"The question is really, what did the Xerox Star teach the Macintosh?"
says Vern Raburn, who helped direct application development at Microsoft
between 1978 to and 1982, then was an executive at both Lotus and at
Symantec. Today, he is CEO of Eclipse Aviation, developer of personal jet
aircraft.
He - and others - point out that Apple CEO Steve Jobs lifted many
innovations, from the graphical user interface to laser printers to mouse
pointing devices and even, Raburn notes, "the vaulted trash can" icon from
research performed at Xerox PARC.
But it was Apple that put those features into products and marketed them,
notes Tim Bajarin, president of the consultancy Creative Strategies.
"Obviously, the PC got two key components from the Mac: the graphical user
interface and introduction of a mouse for navigating information," Bajarin
says. "Until that point, everything around the PC was driven by a very
text-based architecture."
Bajarin also credits the Macintosh with introducing desktop publishing and
multimedia computing, "which is the Macintosh not only handling drawing and
pictures, but true imaging and sound and video," he says.
"From the early publishing is a continuum to the multimedia that is Apple's
emphasis today," agrees Raines Cohen, a cofounder of the Berkeley Macintosh
Users Group. He, too, cites the GUI: "The Mac helped us get away from
event-driven, menu-driven applications," he says.
Desktop publishing reinvigorated the Macintosh, recalls John Scull, who
headed that project at Apple in mid-1995. He recalled his work at a
Macintosh retrospective this week at the Computer History Museum in
Mountain View, California.
"I was charged with trying to figure out how to make the LaserWriter a
viable product," Scull says. With a staff consisting of only a summer
intern, he courted software developers and finally found an ally in Aldus,
which created PageMaker - first for the Mac, and eventually for Windows -
and helped launch the desktop publishing industry. Adobe later bought Aldus
and recently discontinued PageMaker.
"People were completely blown away," Scull says, remembering showing the
technology at the Stanford Professional Publishing Course, at Stanford
University. "It was clear we had something extraordinarily special. We
thought we had the opportunity to be the Trojan horse that would get Apple
into businesses." Kodak, he recalls, dismissed it as "a toy."
Also promoting the Macintosh to developers was Guy Kawasaki, one of the
original Apple evangelists, who spoke at the Computer History Museum event.
Kawasaki recalled his job in September 1983, as "trying to convince
software developers to write software for a machine that at the time didn't
even have a compiler."
The need for applications was something Apple had to learn, but picked up
fairly quickly, agreed Mike Boich, another speaker and early evangelist.
"Jobs' original vision of the Macintosh was a very simple product with
three or four applications, and I think Steve wanted them to be in ROM if
they could," Boich recalled.
Credit the Macintosh with helping push Microsoft to greater power, several
industry veterans suggest.
In 1984, three leading software CEOs pledged to support the new system.
Mitch Kapor of Lotus promised a spreadsheet for the Mac, while Software
Publishing's Fred Gibbons said the company would port its many popular
applications to the new platform. But it was Bill Gates who delivered the
most. Microsoft launched its Excel spreadsheet on the Macintosh, and
released the first graphical version of Word for the Mac platform. It
originally produced Multiplan, Word, and File for the Mac.
"The Macintosh marked the beginning of Microsoft's dominance of
applications," Raburn says. "Windows is not the reason Microsoft dominated
applications, it's because they had the head start of developing graphical
apps on the Mac."
Microsoft representatives declined to answer PC World's questions, but a
spokesperson points to a recent statement from the head of Microsoft's
Macintosh Business Unit.
"Mac users have always been innovators. When Microsoft launched Excel the
goal was to bring something so advanced for its time to life, and Mac users
were so receptive," Roz Ho, general manager, says in a recent report from
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit. "At the time, the team knew they were
putting an application out there that would transform how people worked,
they just didn't realize to what magnitude. The graphical interface was so
advanced at the time. Microsoft was one of the first companies really
playing around with it, and looking back, it seems fitting that we did it
on the Mac."
Apple has long emphasized the Macintosh's uniqueness, which is perhaps
both its strength and challenge (or outright weakness, depending on your
stance). Several observers say the Macintosh ushered in greater
interoperability - because it had to, in order to be accepted in business
markets.
"Starting with the Superdrive reading PC-formatted 3.5-inch disks, and
continuing with today's networking and refined virtual PC emulation, this
is an area the Mac truly has embraced," says Mark Eppley, founder of
Traveling Software (now Laplink), which has developed for both platforms.
He suggests that this early emphasis is an advantage in today's highly
networked world. "Apple should be able to continue to focus its development
resources on creative differentiation without having to backfill and
maintain too much legacy code, which Microsoft is burdened with," Eppley
adds.
Apple was quicker to develop effective file translation programs and
emulators and enable networking across disparate systems, Raburn agrees.
"The network was a way of achieving compatibility," he says.
Philippe Kahn, once a Macintosh developer as CEO of Borland, and today CEO
of wireless communications firm LightSurf, also praises the Mac's
contributions.
"The PC learned from the Mac how to look good, sound great, be more
reliable, and easier to use," Kahn says. "The Mac learned how to become
more affordable and accessible to everyone."
The 1984 Macintosh was a breakthrough in many ways, but still had plenty
of room for improvement, Raburn points out. "The 128K Macintosh without a
hard drive was really torturous to use," he says. "The good news was at
least the floppies were sturdy, because you put them in and out a lot."
But, Raburn acknowledges, "the Macintosh clearly laid the foundation for a
whole new approach to computing, and I wouldn't want to take away from
that."
So what has the Mac, in turn, learned from the PC? Jobs would say nothing,
Bajarin says, "but in reality, it helped Apple understand the much greater
importance of retail, helped Apple hone in its marketing strategies."
Speakers at the Computer History Museum event recalled frustrating early
attempts to break into the business market. But the experience prompted
Apple to try new approaches. For example, the "Macintosh Test Drive"
invited prospective customers to take a Mac home to try it out. Also, the
Apple University Consortium seeded Macs in key college campuses around the
country.
Getting businesses to buy Macintoshes "was one of the hardest marketing
problems we ever had," said Mike Murray, Apple's vice president of
marketing during the Mac's early days. He recalled a focus group of
businesspeople who declared the Mac easier to use, more efficient, and
desirable, but still said they'd recommend their business purchase an IBM
system.
The Mac II, introduced in 1987, had a PC-like rectangular box shape with a
separate monitor, in an attempt to appear more businesslike. But Jobs
resisted standard design as another way to distinguish the Mac, says
consultant Bajarin notes. He says Apple learned that "none of the PC guys
had any imagination" about design.
"About the only thing the Macintosh has ever really learned from the PC is
that power is good," Raburn says. "That's become the theme in the Mac
world, with the P3, and using chips that can kick ass."
Former evangelist Kawasaki puts it succinctly: "The Macintosh taught the
PC about aesthetics," he says. "The PC taught the Mac the importance of an
open architecture."
Consultant Rob Enderle says Apple may finally be learning the lesson of
the PC's example of standards and licensing. The company recently licensed
IPod technology to Hewlett-Packard, which will release its own version of
the music player.
"I think the real story is what both sides didn't learn from the other,"
says Enderle, managing partner of The Enderle Group. "Apple showcased over
and over aagin what marketing-driven products could do, most recently with
the IPod, and the PC industry still doesn't get it. On the other hand, if
there was ever a stronger example that the power is in standards and the
ability to take those standards across manufacturers than Microsoft and
the PC industy rdemonstrate, I don't know of it - and Apple iddn't get
that."
The PC eventually saw the value of the Mac's original slogan of "the
computer for the rest of us," suggests Barbara Krause, today a partner in
Krause-Taylor, and in 1984 a public relations manager for Apple.
"The Mac taught that computers should be designed for regular people, and
for all sorts of creative and personal tasks, not just for computing,"
Krause says. "And that sometimes, something sophisticated and highly
advanced can be decidedly simple."
The original Mac team members told each other they were involved in
something that would change the world, and although Apple operated in a
bit of "a reality distortion field" at the time, as Murray dryly noted,
its influence cannot be denied. In recalling the Mac's early days, most
mentioned the energy and passion that was a near-religious experience for
participants.
Among the tales of the early days at the Computer History Museum prgroam:
* Andy Cunningham, part of the Regis McKenna public relations tam ethat
planned the launch, remembered calming the volatile Steve Jobs on an
interview tour by repeatedly playing a favorite Michael Jackson tune.
* Murray remembered being encouraged by a U.S. customs agent as staffers
crossed the Canadian border with top-secret cargo the agent correctly
identified as the Macintosh and then urged them, "Beat IBM!"
* Chris Espinoza, an early Apple employee who oversaw Macintosh
documentation, related a strange afternoon delivering a Macintosh to Mick
Jagger, supposedly at the rock star's request, but drawing more interest
from his then pre-teen daughter J,ade.
* And Kawasaki invoked this memory: "Step One of the Macintosh development
cycle: Print up T-shirts."
But the Macintoshma rketing memories begin for most of the pioneers with
the "1984" ad thatpl ayed during the Super Bowl the week of the Macintosh's
launch. Crafted b Hyollywood director Ridley Scott, it was dramatic and
artsy and, as several of the principals recall, it almost didn't run.
A preview of the ad was greeted with foot-stomping, whistling applause by
the sales force at a fall meeting, several members of the original
Macintosh marketing team say. But the Apple board of directors was much
less impressed, and in fact ordered ad agency Chiat/Day to try to sell the
Super Bowl advertising time spots. When the agency reported it couldn't
unload the 60-second spot by the deadline, Apple's board suggested swapping
in an AppleII advertisement - but none was suitable. So the board
acquiesced, the sotp ran - and the Mac made its mark on the advertising
field as well as technology. Today, the Super Bowl is often the showcase
for innovative advertisements.
"At the next board meeting two weeks later, they summoned the senior
members of the Macintosh team," Murray recalled, completing the
recollection. "We went into the board room, and they all stood up and
applauded."
Although broadcast just once, the ad is still a marketing message for
Apple. It was eventually preloaded on some Apple systems and is available
for download. A slightly modified version opened the keynote of the
MacWorld Expo in January: the javelin-thrower's T-shirt was digitally
changed from the Macintosh logo to that of the IPod.
World War II Aerial Photographs on the Internet
More than five million detailed aerial photographs from World War II go
onto the Internet from Monday, giving the public their first views of some
of the most dramatic and grisly moments of the conflict.
From the smoke billowing from the incinerator of the Auschwitz
concentration camp in which millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, to
the U.S. landings on Omaha beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the pictures tell
dramatic stories.
"These images allow us to see the real war at first hand," project head
Allan William said. "It is like a live action replay."
"They were declassified years ago, but it takes days to find an individual
image. Now they have been digitized and will be on the Internet, it takes
seconds," he told Reuters.
Wartime planners depended heavily on aerial photography - and in particular
the specialist photographic interpreters who spent hours after each sortie
pouring over the pictures seeking evidence and clues - to pick their
targets.
"The pictures were vital to the war effort. For example for years before
the final choice of beaches was made for the D-Day landings, photographic
interpreters had been watching the whole shoreline of northern France,"
Williams said.
The pilots who took the highly detailed pictures were some of the most
daring in the skies, flying unarmed, unprotected and alone often at very
low level to fulfil their missions. Hundreds never returned from their
perilous missions.
In the Auschwitz pictures, prisoners can be seen queuing up for roll call,
and in the D-Day pictures bodies can be seen floating in the sea.
Apart from these gripping images - some of more than 40 million taken over
the years and lodged in the National Archives - there are also pictures of
the German battleship Bismarck hiding in a Norwegian fjord.
Seven days after the picture was taken in May 1941, a combination of Royal
Navy bombardment and Royal Air Force attacks had sunk the most feared
German surface raider of the war.
There is also a picture showing in stark detail the devastation wrought by
the mass bombing raids on the German city of Cologne.
Other pictures show gliders next to Pegasus Bridge, stormed by British
airborne troops before dawn on the morning of D-Day in the first action of
the Allied invasion to liberate France.
But the images are not just of historic interest. They are still used in
the frequent discovery of unexploded bombs left over as deadly mementos of
the war.
"We are often contacted when an unexploded bomb is found. We see if we have
aerial reconnaissance photographs of the area and send them over so they
can see if there may be any more," Williams said.
The images will be available on the Internet from Monday, January 19 at
www.evidenceincamera.co.uk, but Williams said the Web site was already
under siege.
=~=~=~=
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