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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 10 Issue 20
Volume 10, Issue 20 Atari Online News, Etc. May 16, 2008
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
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:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1020 05/16/08
~ Craigslist Sues eBay! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Fedora 9 Released!
~ CCAG 2008 Approaching! ~ OpenOffice 3.0 Beta! ~ Get Off The Couch!
~ Asus Shoots for No. 3! ~ AOL Goes Specialized! ~ CBS Acquires Cnet!
~ OLPC XO To Get Windows ~ Is The Browser Doomed? ~ WiiWare Launched!
-* MySpace Wins Anti-Spam Case! *-
-* Icahn Pressures Yahoo Stockholders! *-
-* Missouri Woman Charged in Cyber Bully Case *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Yep, still feeling my age these days! I know, I've mentioned it a few
times over the past few weeks, but by the time I sit down to put the
final edition to rest for the week, it's all I can do to hold my head up
to look at the monitor! But, it's getting a little better.
I'm making some headway getting the yard in shape, finally. Plenty to do
still, but I'm seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Now if the
weather would cooperate, I could get things moving even faster.
I wish that I had a few ideas to put down on "paper" this week to take
your minds off of the economy, politics, and various world events, but I
just can't this week. Those are pretty hefty topics that would require
my full attention and imagination to overcome! But, we can continue to
do our part to minimize your pain - A-ONE is still free, and it comes
your way every single week, rain or shine!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE User Group Notes! - Meetings, Shows, and Info!
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Reminder The CCAG 2008 Show Is May 24 2008!
Buy, sell, trade, play, and see classic video games, computers,
peripherals, memorabilia, and more at the Classic Computing and Gaming
Show (CCAG) on May 24, 2008 at the American Legion Hall--Clifton Post,
22001 Brookpark Rd, Fairview Park, OH from 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM.
Vendors, clubs, and collectors will be displaying and selling their
retrogaming and retrocomputing goods, from Pong and Atari to Nintendo,
Apple and IBM to Commodore and everything in between with many set up
for you to play with and explore. We have 4000+ square feet of space.
Help us fill it all up!
For more information please go to http://www.ccagshow.com/
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, another week has come and gone, and
the Universe has given me another lesson in the "It never rains but it
pours" department.
Last week I received a letter from the local water company telling me
that it was time to change my water meter. Okay, I'm home most of the
time now, so I called and made an appointment for them to come and
change the meter. The water meter, the letter said, would be replaced
at no cost to me.
"I'd like the guy to check the shut-off valve while he's here," I
said, "since it's in pretty bad shape. It looks like it'll fall apart
if you try to turn it."
"I'll have them check it," the woman told me, "but if they have to
replace it, we'll have to charge you for it."
"Really?" I asked, "Even though it's degraded and corroded due to the
crappy water you've been selling me?"
She got very quiet for a moment, then said, "Well, I'm afraid that's the
way it's done."
Well, several days later, the guy came to replace the meter. After about
10 minutes, he came back upstairs, saying that he couldn't shut off the
water because of the valve. "I've tried that Dubya-Dee spray and a pipe
wrench, but I'm afraid that if I put any more pressure on it that
I'll..."
"Snap the stem?" I finished for him.
"Exactly." He said. "I'm afraid that you're going to have to call and
have them shut it off at the street so that we can change the inside
valve. They charge for that, you know."
"Yeah, they told me."
So I called and made another appointment to have them come out and make
sure they could turn the outside valve off. They came, dug up my front
yard, and gave me the bad news... that valve too would have to be
changed. The outside valve, they would not charge me for, but they
WOULD charge me to come out and turn the outside valve off and on
again. Wellsir, they came out and replaced the outside valve, then
replaced the inside valve, then replaced the water meter.
So, friends and neighbors, it ended up costing me more than two hundred
bucks to have my water meter replaced for free. Yep. It never rains but
it pours.
I WAS going to rant a little bit about politics and world events like
skyrocketing oil prices, volcanoes and earthquakes, but unless you live
in a cave, you already know about all that stuff. The thing that keeps
working its way back into my mind is a quote from the movie THE BIRDS.
"Aye, it's the end of the world."
Somehow, I don't think we're quite at that point yet, but I shudder to
think about what might come next.
Well, that's enough of that for now. Let's tune in to the news, hints,
tips and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Guillaume Tello asks for help with a bunch of cards in his MegaSTE:
"I have added the HD controller and a Vortex ATonce into my Mega STE.
Since that, I can't get my NOVA graphic card to work!
I have tested the ET4000 board into a PC, it works fine.
Is there something I have "moved", a jumper or else that can influence
the VME?
I have made the tests again without the Vortex, nothing changes, the
NOVA still is down. Has someone experienced a conflict between those
pieces of hardware? Help!"
Jo Even Skarstein asks Guillaume:
"Does the TT/MSTE Nova have a separate 12V lead like the Falcon-version
does? If so, it's possible that you've disturbed the 12V feed to the
Nova when you installed the ATonce."
'Phantomm' takes the opportunity to jump in and ask:
"I have a Vortex ATonce in my Mega STE, the 386SX version with the
optional Fast Ram. I'd like to find/get the 80387SX Co-Processor for
it. Anyone have one?
I also have a NOVA Graphics Card (MSTE/TT) version, but have not
installed it into my MegaSTE yet. Thought that the NOVA was a different
board from the ET4000? I have a ET4000 board. But my NOVA is in a box
case and without looking I think it is a MACH board. Maybe both are one
in the same?
Will take a look and let ya know what board is attached to my Nova VME
MSTE adapter.
My MSTE is a factory 4meg, TOS 2.06, with internal hard drive. Also has
the High Density internal disk drive. I've had no problems with it and
the ATonce 386SX.
I was going to install the NOVA, but want to put a Ethernet VME board in
it. I'll try to order one, unless someone reading this has a working
one for sale/trade.
My MegaST went bad which has put me off from upgrading the MSTE.
Currently, I am going through all my Ataris, and upgrading, modifying
and cleaning them.
As for your problem, Check all cables from your Graphics board to the
VME for damage or loose connection. I don't recall if the Nova has a
driver that must be installed without checking my manual. If so, I'd
re-install it and boot up with only the necessary AUTO and ACC
programs in case you have a software conflict.
Have you used NVDI in the past with your ET4000? Also, what version is
the ATonce, is it a 286 or 386? Do you have the manual and software for
it, if so what version is the software you are using?
I'll check my manual and software version and get back to you. You said,
something about installing a HD Controller? Did your MSTE not have one
already, or do you mean something like a Link 97?"
Guillaume replies:
" I have changed the two ribbons, [It's] not that..
I reinstalled the software, not that either..
There was no internal HD support (a Mega STE Open).
Since yesterday, more problems came: now it can't see any of my ACSI
units! Booh... Is it dying?"
Phantomm tells Guillaume:
"I still do not fully understand what you mean here.
The Mega STE did not have the internal hard drive option and you
added a internal hard drive controller? Or did you add a external hard
drive controller, such as a ICD Link, Link 97, or etc?
Since your problems started when you added the HD Controller and Vortex,
I would think that it has something to do with the HD Controller.
If I knew which one you added, it would help me understand your problem.
The MSTE internal hard drive controller can be a little unstable if not
connected firm and with good ribbon cables. Also, the MSTE does have
switches that effect the internal hard drive controller board if I
remember correctly, there is a DIP that has to be in the right
selection to tell the Computer that the internal controller is
connected.
I don't know if your MSTE came from the factory without the internal
hard drive connector or not? Some were made without it.
If you did not come with one, and you added one, then you may need to
set a selector switch. I have the info here somewhere, will look it up
asap. But need to know what type of HD controller you connected and are
trying to use? A internal unit connected to the motherboard?
Or one connected to the Hard Drive Port on the back of the Mega STE?"
Piotr Mietniowski asks for help with his Eiffel interface:
"I have [a] problem updating my Eiffel interface. I downloaded [the]
last version 1.10 Eiffel control panel. During the boot of my falcon
with CT63 I have information on the screen:
"Eiffel 1.0.9 10/2004 and in the next line: Press fire during power-on
for old firmware." What does it mean.
From this archive eiffel.lzh I loaded eiffel.hex and press program
flash, when finished i closed this control panel and reboot my falcon,
but no change during the run of falcon I see the same information like
previously.
The second problem is in the joystick I observed that in few games (for
example Goods) the fire is not active.
Does anybody know what the problem is?"
Dave Wade shares the sorrow:
"I seem to have issues with "Fire" as well."
Piotr tells Dave that his...
"Joystick is OK because it works fine in a clean falcon without Eiffel."
Sebastian Pohl posts this about a mod:
"I just got a bunch of pictures of an interesting 19" Atari
modification. The unit housing the atari itself is 3 units high, the
one with the screen is 6 units high. It was used for music recording, a
cubase dongle is still plugged in. Does anyone know what this thing
really is and what it is worth and where i can find someone that really
will appreciate this thingie? :)
pictures:
http://www.twisted-artwork.de/pics/atari1.JPG
http://www.twisted-artwork.de/pics/atari2.JPG
http://www.twisted-artwork.de/pics/atari3.JPG "
Michael Bernstein tells Sebastian:
"As I read 19" Atari i remember a project from a german electronic
magazine ELRAD (from 1992) which rebuild a Mega ST to a 19" version.
Your pictures show a atari with housing. Because the ELRAD project did
only show the 3 cards, i did not see, if your project was based on the
ELRAD project."
Well folks, that's it for this time around. Tune in again next week,
same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Nintendo Launches WiiWare!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Nintendo's Wii Fit Wants
You Off The Couch!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo Launches WiiWare
Nintendo has launched a new channel for games distributionWiiWare
<http://wiiware.com>. Games are downloaded over the internet by
redeeming WiiPoints, which can be purchased at the Wii Shop Channel or
at retail outlets...the benefit to this system being that kids can buy
the points over the counter with cash rather than relying on an adult
with a credit card (although there are parental controls). The intention
is to give smaller games developers a channel to sell their wares other
than the expensive retail distribution methods: "WiiWare is to the video
game industry what independent films are to Hollywood," said Cammie
Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales &
Marketing, using an analogy that doesn't really fit but gets the idea
across. WiiWare is being described as Nintendo's answer to Microsoft's
Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PlayStation Store, although it has launched
with 8 games in Europe and 6 in the US has descriptions and prices for
the games)...New games, at various Wii Point values, will be added to
WiiWare on Mondays.
Nintendo's Latest Game Wants You Off The Couch
Sumo wrestlers were the main inspiration behind Wii Fit, Nintendo's
latest attempt at getting you off the couch when you play video games.
Because they are so huge, sumo wrestlers need two scales to weigh
themselves. Wii Fit's balance board works kind of like two scales fused
together, which, as its designers found, makes it instantly more fun
than just one. The game has sold more than 2 million copies in Japan and
it's been a hit in Europe. Nintendo Co. hopes to recreate that success
when Wii Fit goes on sale in the U.S. on Monday.
In the U.S., pre-launch buzz around the game - whose activities range
from yoga to snowboarding - is reminiscent of the Wii's debut. The
console, initially elusive in stores and online, is still often in short
supply a year and a half after its release.
Wii Fit, which costs $89.99, is currently sold out in pre-launch sales
on Amazon.com and the Web sites of retailers GameStop Corp. and Wal-Mart
Stores Inc., while Best Buy Co.'s Web site lists it as "coming soon."
"Our main premise in creating Wii Fit was (to) create a game that allows
you to check your weight," Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer
behind Mario and Zelda, told The Associated Press through a translator
during a recent visit to the U.S.
Miyamoto, 55, started checking his weight daily about five years ago, a
few years after he began exercising to stay healthy. Tracking his
progress, he said, was fun and his family soon caught the bug.
"We ended up buying a brand new scale, and I started thinking that if
there was a way I could weigh myself in the living room and make a
product out of it, that would be something everybody could relate to,"
Miyamoto said.
With the scale as a launching pad, Miyamoto and Wii Fit's other
developers added balance-based fitness activities and games. In one, you
play a penguin trying to catch fish in the air while balancing on a
block of ice. Like the Wii's motion-sensitive wireless controller, Wii
Fit's balance board is intuitive and takes no video game skills to master.
During play the balance board becomes a snowboard, skis or a tightrope.
The game's fitness regimen includes yoga, aerobics and strength
training, as well as tracking of your weight and body mass index. You
can even jog without the board, holding the Wii's wireless controller in
your hand. The exercises start in one- or two-minute spurts, so you
don't overextend yourself, and you progress to new levels as you get
more proficient.
The goal of Wii Fit, Miyamoto said, is simply to get people to think
more consciously about their health.
Instead of going after core-gamers - the "Grand Theft Auto" audience of
boys and young men - Nintendo has been roping in the whole family,
including moms and grandmothers, and getting them playing (and buying)
the Wii.
Wii Fit seems to be expanding the Wii's audience even more. In Japan,
between 30 percent and 40 percent of people who bought Wii Fit also
bought a video game system for the first time, according to Miyamoto.
Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners, said Wii Fit exemplifies
how the appeal of video gaming has expanded.
"It's becoming less threatening, easier to digest," Hickey said.
The game's launch outside the holiday season may also show the industry
is maturing into a form of mainstream entertainment. While game
companies still make most of their money around the holidays, Hickey and
other analysts expects this to change.
"There is no reason you have to be tied to the holiday months any more,"
he said. "Like the movie business (games are) a legitimate form of
entertainment in the non-Christmas tree months."
While some in the industry have questioned how long Nintendo can keep
its momentum - after all, more causal gamers may not want to spend every
spare dollar on a new video game - analysts are upbeat.
"I don't think we even had the imagination a year ago that Wii Fit could
be compared to 'Grand Theft Auto," Hickey said, referring to the popular
crime game franchise, whose latest installment shattered sales records
when it hit store shelves last month.
If U.S. sales compare to Japan's, Hickey said Wii Fit will likely sell
about 3 million copies in its first couple of months, depending on
supply constraints.
Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing at
Nintendo of America, said people have responded in "unprecedented
numbers to retailers' pre-sales." While the game sold out online,
Dunaway said Nintendo wants to ensure there is a "healthy balance"
between brick and mortar stores and online pre-orders.
With its exercise components, weight and body mass index tracking (as
well as gentle nudging when you don't exercise for a few days) Wii Fit
can certainly sound more like a health gadget than a game. In Miyamoto's
eyes, however, it's a video game.
"In my mind anything that lets you interact on a TV screen, technically
speaking, is a video game," he said. "But it's true that with Wii Fit
you are doing things that you typically don't do, like checking your
weight."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
OpenOffice 3.0 Public Beta Released
OpenOffice.org said Wednesday that it had made the beta version of
OpenOffice 3.0 available for download. The organization recommended that
beta users not use the software for production, however; you have been
warned.
What's new? "The most immediately visible change to OpenOffice.org 3.0
is the new 'Start Centre', new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom
control in the status bar," according to OpenOffice.org. "A closer
look shows that 3.0 has a myriad of new features. Notable Calc
improvements include a new solver component; support for spreadsheet
collaboration through workbook sharing; and an increase to 1024
columns per sheet. Writer has an improved notes feature and displays
of multiple pages while editing. There are numerous Chart
enhancements, and an improved crop feature in Draw and Impress."
"Behind the scenes, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will support the upcoming
OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, and is capable of opening files
created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx,
.xlsx, .pptx, etc.)," the group added. "This is in addition to read and
write support for the MS-Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt,
etc.). "
The new release is also Mac-friendly, running on Mac OS X without X11,
with the look and feel of any other Aqua application, the developer
group said.
Fedora 9 Released
I'm a confirmed Ubuntu fan, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the
release of Fedora 9 this morning. Fedora is the community-maintained
Linux distribution that's the foundation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
(RHEL), the leading commercial version of the open source OS. No
surprise, then, that it has a tremendous following.
You can think of Fedora as a testing-ground for RHEL; it's where you can
find the latest cutting-edge features before they make their way out to
the officially-supported distribution. That means it's really best
suited for hobbyists, but it's also a good way to get the jump on the
best that Linux has to offer.
The biggest change for this release is the inclusion of KDE 4, the most
recent edition of the desktop software that powers Fedora. (Ubuntu, on
the other hand, uses the competing Gnome by default.) KDE 4 brings new
icons and changes under the hood that should make Fedora run faster and
use less memory than earlier versions.
Fedora also now joins Ubuntu in shipping Firefox 3, which is still
currently in beta - so be prepared for some plug-in difficulties until
third-party developers get their add-ons up to speed.
Other changes include support for the new ext4 filesystem, the ability
to resize Linux and Windows partitions at install time, built-in support
for encrypted filesystems, and improvements to how Fedora handles Xen
virtual machines - not to mention the usual host of bugfixes. For a
visual tour of the new release, check out the official slideshows.
You can download Fedora 9 from one of the official servers now. Torrent
files are available in addition to the regular disc images; or - in
another change for this release - you can use Jigdo, a distribution
system that helps speed up large downloads by breaking them into smaller
chunks (somewhat like BitTorrent).
Asus Pins Future on Small But Mighty Laptop
Asus plans to be the No. 3 laptop maker in the world in six years.
Pretty ambitious, considering that many Americans probably have never
heard of the Taipei, Taiwan-based company.
Asus' big goal rides on a tiny product: a hugely successful, itty-bitty
laptop called the Eee PC. It's a bit larger than a tissue box, weighs
just 2 pounds and starts at the bargain-basement price of $299.
There's nothing quite like it on the market. Buyers - many of them early
adopters - are snapping up Eee PCs almost as fast as Asus can make them.
The company expects to sell nearly 2 million in the first six months of
the year. They're available at Best Buy, Amazon and many local retailers.
This week, Asus launches a $549 version with a bigger screen and more
features. A desktop version is on the way, probably this summer, says
Jackie Hsu, president of Asus' U.S. division. More Eee products are on
the drawing board.
The company has helped create a new type of computer - a laptop that's
both small and inexpensive, says tech analyst Bob O'Donnell at
researcher IDC.
Asus made 81% of the laptops that sold for less than $500 last year, but
its good times probably won't last, O'Donnell says. Just about every PC
maker is considering its own tiny, inexpensive laptop. That means that
little Asus - the No. 9 PC maker in the world - could soon face
competition from giants Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer, he
says.
The market will grow, but not fast enough to generate numerous big
successes, O'Donnell says. "Asus has gained a lot of mindshare for
such a little company. But they're going to be under a lot more pressure."
The market for sub-$500 laptops was marginal until 2007, when 430,000
were sold, O'Donnell says. That number is expected to jump to 3.6
million this year, with the vast majority of sales in the USA and Asia.
That's a surprise. Cheap, small laptops were rare until a non-profit
group, One Laptop Per Child, started cranking out student-size computers
in 2007 that sold for about $200. They were designed for a limited
market, mainly schools in developing nations. So were similar computers
from a rival project, Classmate PC.
In the USA, Japan and other developed nations, most small laptops
remained high-end business models that sold for a premium. Lenovo's
2.4-pound IdeaPad U110 starts at $1,899, while Sony's 1.2-pound
Vaio UX starts at $2,500, for example.
Asus changed that. It took the same low-cost model employed by OLPC and
used it to create a computer that shoppers in developed countries wanted
to buy.
Hsu says few tech-savvy Americans would use the Eee PC as their primary
laptop. One midrange, $399 model has a 7-inch screen and a keyboard that
feels cramped to adult hands. Its 900-MHz Intel Celeron processor is
much less powerful than those found in most laptops. And its 4-GB hard
drive is only as big as Apple's (AAPL) smallest iPod. But it's just fine
for e-mail or simple Web surfing - which makes the Eee PC a great backup
laptop to take on the road, Hsu says. It's also a good gift for kids or
elderly parents, he says.
Asus tried to compensate for the Eee PC's technical shortcomings with an
easy-to-use interface that appeals to this audience. The original Eee PC
offered games, Web browsing and other features on a simple screen
layout, based on the open-source Linux operating system. The company
later released a version running Microsoft's Windows XP.
Asus' parent company, AsusTek, used to be best known for making
motherboards, a crucial if unsexy component in every PC.
AsusTek also manufactured computers for Apple, Sony, Hewlett-Packard and
others behind the scenes. That's fairly common. Many brand-name
companies focus on design and marketing, and hire outside factories to
do at least part of the manufacturing.
AsusTek also sold laptops under its own name. But that market was
limited, partly because its manufacturing customers didn't want the
competition.
AsusTek addressed that issue this year by becoming a holding company,
with three separate firms underneath. Pegatron makes components and does
manufacturing for other companies. Unihan makes plastic computer cases
and other parts. And the renamed Asus builds products it sells under its
own name, such as the Eee PC.
The change hasn't alienated manufacturing customers so far, Hsu says.
"We think it's OK. Orders haven't fallen," he says.
Asus has also rolled out cellphones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
and home networking gear. It's considering expanding into any product
that combines computing, communications and electronics. "We want to
grow," Hsu says.
But rivals will soon start moving onto Asus' turf, says tech analyst
Martin Reynolds at researcher Gartner. One potentially huge threat:
Apple. The company behind the iPod "has been looking really hard at the
future," Reynolds says. "You could see Apple notebooks getting really
low in price."
It's unlikely that Asus will be able to win by cutting costs. Even cheap
laptops cost about $200 to make, O'Donnell says. (Asus' non-Eee laptops
sell for an average price of $1,250.)
Hsu, a longtime Asus executive who came to the USA last year, already
knows how to sound like an American business leader. "We hope to see
more competitors come in. We want a big pie," he says.
The question is how big the pie will get. O'Donnell says many companies
are overestimating it.
But O'Donnell and others agree that the PC market will never be the same
again. "Low-cost laptops are here to stay," Reynolds says.
CBS Acquires Cnet To Expand Its Online Audience
CBS Corp. will spend $1.8 billion to purchase Cnet Networks, a
technology news site, the broadcaster announced Thursday. CBS will pay
$11.50 per share in an all-cash deal. The acquisition puts CBS on the
top 10 list of U.S. Internet sites, the company said, with 54 million
unique visitors per month.
Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS, said the Cnet acquisition will
add a platform to extend CBS's online content to a "whole new global
audience."
Moonves said the combined company will have "significant additional
exposure to the fastest-growing advertising sector and can accelerate
[the company's] growth through a number of new content, promotion and
advertising initiatives."
Cnet's flagship publication is a general tech-news site, but its broader
network also offers technical information through its ZDNet and
TechRepublic properties. It also owns the MySimon online shopping tool
and other sites for the entertainment and lifestyle markets.
Cnet's sites will be integrated into the CBS Interactive Group, which
includes mainstream entertainment, news and sports sites, as well as
music webcaster last.fm, finance show Wallstrip, and MobLogic.
"The whole thing gives CBS an expanded reach. Cnet is an attractive
brand and its ZDNet asset gives it international reach," said Greg
Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research. The
acquisition is "consistent with CBS trying to extend its reach online
and bolster its traditional media."
What does CBS want with a technology-focused brand like Cnet? The key is
Cnet's strength in consumer technology. "While its leading brands are
very tech-focused, it's a trusted name in consumer technology, which
extends to a whole range of things," Sterling said. Indeed, consumer
technology is rapidly becoming synonymous with entertainment, as
evidenced by the entertainment-fueled growth of Apple.
Still, Cnet comes to CBS with some negatives. Cnet recently laid off 10
percent of its staff in a cost-cutting measure and the company badly
squandered an early opportunity with its MySimon price-comparison tool,
Sterling said.
Writing in The New York Times, Saul Hansell suggested that Cnet may be
forced to hand over its prized News.com domain name to CBS News. In that
case, some News.com reporters might find themselves redundant.
What will be the impact of the acquisition on IT readers of Cnet's
sites? "I don't think it will have any immediate impact," Sterling said.
"If over time CBS diminishes its credibility somehow, that may change.
But in a way its good for Cnet to be acquired by an organization with a
rich journalistic pedigree. CBS has some some interest in journalistic
credibility compared to some other organizations." And, he said, "CBS
gets some content [with Cnet] that may be interesting in other ways."
The deal has been approved by Cnet's board and is expected to be
completed in the third quarter of this year.
Icahn to Yahoo Board: Sell to Microsoft Or Leave
Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang spent months fending off Microsoft
Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid. Now he may only have a few weeks to
persuade the software maker to revive its last offer of $47.5 billion,
or risk being fired in a shareholder mutiny led by activist investor
Carl Icahn.
Spurred on by outraged shareholders, Icahn notified Yahoo Thursday that
he will lead a revolt to oust Yang and the rest of the Internet
company's board unless they renew negotiations with Microsoft that fell
apart May 3 when the two sides couldn't agree on a price.
To pressure Yahoo, Icahn has nominated an alternate slate of directors
to replace the current board in an election scheduled July 3 at Yahoo's
annual meeting. If the uprising is successful, an Icahn-led board
presumably would fire Yang as CEO and try to negotiate a sale to Microsoft.
To gain leverage in the looming battle, Icahn revealed that he has spent
more than $1 billion snapping up 59 million Yahoo shares and options to
give him a 4.3 percent stake in the Sunnyvale-based company. He plans to
seek approval from the Federal Trade Commission to acquire up to $2.5
billion in Yahoo stock, including his current holdings.
Icahn's challenge opens a dramatic new chapter in a saga that began Jan.
31 when Microsoft stunned Yahoo with a takeover bid that started out at
$44.6 billion, or $31 per share, and then rose to $47.5 billion, or $33
per share, earlier this month.
The showdown now features at least five billionaires with diverse
agendas:
Yang and fellow Yahoo co-founder David Filo, who believe Yahoo is worth
at least $53 billion; Icahn and basketball team owner Mark Cuban, who
has agreed to help shake up the company that made him rich; and
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who, until recently at least, viewed Yahoo
as a key weapon in his crusade to topple Internet search and advertising
leader Google Inc.
Hoping to seal the deal, Ballmer orally offered to buy Yahoo $33 per
share. But Yang and Filo - speaking on behalf of Yahoo's board - sought
$37 per share, a price the stock hasn't reached in more than two years.
The impasse prompted Ballmer to withdraw the bid.
In a letter sent Thursday to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, Icahn lambasted
the board's actions as "irresponsible" and "unconscionable," given that
Yahoo's stock stood at $19.18 before Microsoft first made its bid. He
urged the board to reopen the talks.
"I believe that a combination between Microsoft and Yahoo is by far the
most sensible path for both companies," Icahn wrote.
A Yahoo representative said the company would respond to Icahn "soon."
Yahoo shares rose 61 cents, or 2.3 percent, to finish Thursday at
$27.75. That's the stock's highest closing price since Microsoft broke
off talks.
While Icahn made it clear he wants Yahoo sold to Microsoft, there are no
guarantees the software maker is still interested in buying its rival.
A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on Icahn's letter, saying the
Redmond, Wash.-based company has "moved on."
Besides Icahn, the alternate slate of nominees includes Cuban, who sold
Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $8.1 billion in stock in 1999. Cuban used
part of his Yahoo windfall to buy the Dallas Mavericks, a National
Basketball Association franchise that he still owns. He called upon
Yahoo to sell to Microsoft in a February blog posting.
If Yahoo can't find a way to placate Icahn, the battle threatens to
distract Yahoo and the rest of the company's management from their
turnaround efforts, said James Post, a Boston University professor
specializing in corporate governance and ethics.
"Senior management cannot concentrate on managing the business when they
are concentrating on managing critical relationships with angry
shareholders," Post said.
And there's no doubt Yahoo shareholders are furious, said Darren
Chervitz, co-portfolio manager of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns
about 100,000 Yahoo shares.
"There's a strong feeling that Yang and the board did not do their
fiduciary duty," Chervitz said. "They had a very strong offer on the
table and did everything to brush it aside, if not sabotage it."
Paulson & Co., a New York hedge fund that owns 50 million Yahoo shares,
said Thursday that it will back Icahn's alternate slate of directors if
Yahoo's board doesn't negotiate a sale to Microsoft.
Icahn has a long history of challenging corporate boards overseeing
troubled companies. Most recently, he has forced major changes at
Blockbuster Inc. and Motorola Inc. He also played a pivotal role in the
recent $8.5 billion sale of business software maker BEA Systems Inc. to
rival Oracle Corp., which dropped an earlier bid of $6.7 billion.
The billionaire investor's other notable nominees to the Yahoo board
include: venture capitalist Adam Dell, whose brother, Michael, founded
Dell Inc.; and Frank Biondi Jr., the former chief executive of Viacom Inc.
Icahn also recruited two nominees that Microsoft reportedly lined up for
a possible hostile takeover attempt that never materialized. Those two
are advertising executive Edward Grey and former Nextel Partners CEO
John Chapple.
The revolt threatens to jettison Yang, 39, from the company that he
started with Filo, 41, while they were graduate students at Stanford
University 14 years ago. Together, Yang and Filo still own 134 million
Yahoo shares, or nearly 10 percent of the company.
Yang has argued Yahoo eventually will be worth more than Microsoft's
last offer if it can expand its share of a rapidly growing Internet
advertising market. He has pledged to boost Yahoo's net revenue growth
by 25 percent in 2009 and 2010 - well above the company's recent pace of
12 percent.
"It is irresponsible to hide behind management's more than overly
optimistic financial forecasts," Icahn wrote Bostock.
Although Ballmer and other Microsoft executives have been saying
publicly they don't need to buy Yahoo to bolster the company's
unprofitable Internet operations, many analysts have dismissed the
statements as posturing.
Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal believes Microsoft will
eventually buy Yahoo for $33 or $34 per share. The "body language from
Yahoo and Microsoft do not suggest that both companies have really moved
on," Aggarwal wrote in a Thursday research note.
If the two companies really abandoned hope for a deal, Aggarwal reasons
they would have already announced other moves indicating they were
heading in a new direction.
For instance, Yahoo has been discussing a possible advertising
partnership with Google for weeks without agreeing to a deal. And if
Microsoft weren't still interested in Yahoo, Aggarwal believes the
company would have already announced another acquisition or "radical
changes" in its strategy for building a more compelling Internet search
engine.
AOL Sheds Its Brand To Draw Specialty Audiences
Unless you're looking carefully, you'll likely miss the fact that the
new Asylum Web site for young men is a creation of Time Warner Inc.'s
AOL. Same for WalletPop on personal finance, Spinner on indie music and
StyleList on fashion.
The AOL brand is taking a back seat as the company long associated with
dial-up Internet access for the masses quietly launches dozens of sites
targeted at specialized audiences.
AOL figures that to grow its audiences - and draw additional advertising
the company crucially needs to offset plunging revenue from its
shrinking base of Internet access subscribers - it must break from a
one-size-fits-all model and let its specialty sites set their own
designs and editorial tone, shedding the AOL brand when necessary.
Bill Wilson, AOL's executive vice president for vertical programming,
said the company has been retaining the AOL name for some sites - AOL
Body is one, after research showed women 25 and up respond well to the
brand.
And the brand isn't completely invisible even if AOL isn't part of the
site's name. There's usually a small AOL logo somewhere, along with
links to other AOL sites. The right mix, Wilson said, is the product of
research on what makes the most sense for consumers.
Take Asylum, which has grown into a leading site for young men since its
December launch. The name was chosen partly to convey humor and irreverence.
"If we put it out as AOL Men, we got the feedback it wouldn't connect,"
said Mike Rich, a senior vice president who oversees Asylum and other
specialty sites. "People just didn't connect this type of content with
the AOL brand."
Wilson said AOL's unbranding can help potential visitors know that the
site isn't part of its subscription service, which AOL started breaking
down in late 2004 in favor of free, ad-supported sites.
AOL parent Time Warner was more blunt in a regulatory filing:
"If AOL cannot effectively build a portfolio of alternate brands that
are appealing to Internet consumers, AOL may have difficulty in
increasing the engagement of Internet consumers on its Web products and
services. AOL believes that the `AOL' brand is associated in the minds
of consumers with its dial-up Internet access service."
AOL is by no means alone in promoting alternative brands.
Google Inc. has its homegrown Orkut social-networking service alongside
its Picasa photo products and YouTube video-sharing site, both brands
that came in through acquisitions. On the other hand, the Keyhole brand
disappeared when Google bought the mapping concern, which became Google
Earth.
Yahoo Inc., meanwhile, has Flickr photos and recently launched Shine for
women.
Microsoft Corp. has a slew of brand names, including MSN, Hotmail and Live.
But unbranding represents a reversal for AOL after it tried to make its
Moviefone and Netscape acquisitions more AOL-like. Type in
"Moviefone.com," for instance, and you're automatically redirected to
"movies.aol.com."
"AOL currently implies legacy. It implies old. It implies out of date,"
said Rob Enderle, an industry analyst with the Enderle Group. "If you
want to attract a new, young audience to a site, attaching 'AOL' is
probably a kiss of death. They are wise to use the new individual
property brands."
Windows To Run on One Laptop Per Child Computer
Microsoft Corp reached an agreement to make available its Windows
operating System software for the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's XO
Laptop, the company said on Thursday.
Microsoft was not part of the project started by Massachusetts Institute
of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte to develop an inexpensive
laptop computer for elementary school children in developing countries.
In recent months, the two sides have engaged in more serious talks and
started testing the XO Laptop's Sugar software package on Microsoft's
Windows operating system, which runs on more than 90 percent of the
world's computers.
Microsoft said it plans to start trials of Windows on the low-cost
laptop in key emerging markets as early as June. Customers will be able
to choose to run the computer on either a Windows or a Linux operating
system.
Sugar was designed only to work with a free Linux operating system that
engineers from Red Hat Inc. Eventually, the goal will be to develop
versions of the laptop to run both Linux and Windows, leaving the user
to decide which operating system to run when the machine boots up,
Negroponte said.
Sugar is a suite of educational software that includes a user interface
for the green-and-white machines with a display that switches from color
to black-and-white for viewing in direct sunlight.
Craigslist Sues eBay, Alleges Corporate Spy Plan
Online classifieds leader Craigslist.com filed a countersuit on Tuesday
against business rival eBay Inc, alleging eBay had used its minority
stake in Craigslist to steal corporate trade secrets.
In a lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco,
Craigslist challenged allegations in an eBay suit filed in Delaware
state court in April that accused Craigslist of discriminating against
eBay as a shareholder.
EBay's suit in Delaware Chancery Court charged Craigslist had used
"clandestine meetings" to dilute eBay's 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist
to 24.85, or less than a quarter of the company.
A spokeswoman for eBay was not immediately available to comment on
Craigslist's countersuit.
In addition to unfair competition and fraudulent business claims, the
countersuit accuses eBay of copyright infringement and using misleading
advertising on Google to run ads for its rival Kijiji site that appeared
to be Craigslist ads.
The lawsuit demands that eBay restore all shares of Craigslist owned by
eBay or for the court to require eBay to divest its holdings in
Craigslist. The suit asks for a cut of eBay profits and for punitive
damages.
EBay, the world leader in online auctions and payment services, took a
minority ownership stake in Craigslist nearly four years ago as part of
a strategy to buy up classified advertising services both in the United
States and Europe.
In 2004, eBay began to expand into the market through the acquisition of
online classified businesses Marktplaats and later, LoQuo and Gumtree.
In 2005, eBay launched its own free online classifieds site named Kijiji
in nearly a dozen markets in Europe and Asia. A year ago, it entered the
United States.
Kijiji operates in hundreds of German cities and is popular in countries
ranging from France to Italy to India and Taiwan.
Craigslist's complaint alleges a plot by eBay to use its position as a
minority shareholder in Craigslist and its position on the board to
pressure Craigslist into a full-scale acquisition deal by eBay.
Barring that, Craigslist argues that eBay used its position to gather
competitive information that led to the launch of eBay's rival
classifieds business. It charges eBay code-named this its "Craigslist
killer" in internal strategy discussions.
"In the months leading up to the launch of its competing Kijiji site ...
eBay used its shareholder status to plant on Craigslist's board of
directors the individual responsible for launching and/or operating
Kijiji," the latest suit alleges.
MySpace Wins $230 Million Anti-Spam Judgment
A notorious "Spam King" and his partner now owe MySpace about $230
million in damages after a federal judge awarded the popular online
hangout what is believed to be the largest anti-spam judgment ever.
The judgment is a big victory for MySpace, although service providers
often have a tough time collecting such awards. But even if the News
Corp.-owned site never collects, it hopes the judgment deters other
spammers.
"Anybody who's been thinking about engaging in spam are going to say,
`Wow, I better not go there,'" MySpace's chief security officer,
Hemanshu Nigam, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Spammers don't
want to be prosecuted. They are there to make money. It's our job to
send a message to stop them."
U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins in Los Angeles ruled in MySpace's
favor Monday after Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines failed to show up
for a court hearing.
Wallace earned the monikers "Spam King" and "Spamford" as head of a
company that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails a day in the 1990s.
He left that company, Cyber Promotions, following lawsuits from leading
Internet service providers such as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, only to
re-emerge in a spyware case that led to a $4 million federal judgment
against him in 2006.
"MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on
our site," Nigam said in a statement. "We remain committed to punishing
those who violate the law and try to harm our members."
Nigam told the AP that Wallace and Rines created their own MySpace
accounts or took over existing ones by stealing passwords through
"phishing" scams.
They then e-mailed other MySpace members, he said, "asking them to check
out a cool video or another cool site. When you (got) there, they were
making money trying to sell you something or making money based on hits
or trying to sell ring tones."
MySpace said the pair sent more than 730,000 messages to MySpace
members, many made to look like they were coming from trusted friends,
giving them an air of legitimacy. Under the 2003 federal anti-spam law
known as CAN-SPAM, each violation entitles MySpace to $100 in damages,
tripled when conducted "willfully and knowingly."
In court papers, MySpace said the activities resulted in bandwidth and
delivery-related costs, along with complaints from hundreds of users.
The company also said some of the outside Web sites contained adult
material, potentially harming teens who use MySpace.
The Los Angeles-based company described the amount of the award as a
"landmark."
John Levine, a board member for the anti-spam advocacy group Coalition
Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, said that past spam judgments he
knows of have been in the tens of millions of dollars.
There was no telephone listing for Wallace in the Las Vegas area, to
which he moved in 2004 to pursue night club promotion work. Service was
disconnected for two listed numbers for Rines in Stratham, N.H., his
last known address; a third number in Stratham was unlisted.
Collins awarded the amounts sought by MySpace: $157.4 million jointly
against Rines and Wallace and an additional $63.4 million against Rines
under CAN-SPAM - plus $1.5 million more against the pair under
California's anti-phishing law and $4.7 million in attorneys fees.
MySpace said it was entitled to another $3 million from Rines and
Wallace under a different section of CAN-SPAM.
Collins also issued injunctions barring similar activities in the future.
MySpace has another anti-spam case pending against a high-profile
defendant, Scott Richter, who it claims gained access to MySpace
profiles using stolen passwords and then sent spam bulletins from those
accounts.
MySpace said the junk messages from Wallace and Rines came after
Richter's.
Missouri Woman Charged in 'Cyber-Bully' Case
A Missouri woman whose online taunting was blamed in the 2006 suicide of
her 13-year-old neighbor now faces criminal charges.
A grand jury on Thursday handed up an indictment charging Lori Drew, 49,
of O'Fallon, Missouri, which is 30 miles west of St. Louis, with one
count of conspiracy and three counts of unauthorized computer access. A
federal grand jury in California heard the case because that is where
MySpace, the Web site where the taunting occurred, is located.
Drew, her teenage daughter and a third woman, Ashley Grills, who worked
for the Drew family, reportedly created a MySpace.com profile under the
fictional name Josh Evans in order to taunt Megan Meier, who had been a
friend of Drew's daughter and lived on the same block.
"After approximately four weeks of flirtatious communications between
Josh Evans and [Meier], Drew and her co-conspirators broke off the
relationship," the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California
said in a statement. "Within an hour [Meier] hanged herself in her room.
She died the next day."
Drew was vilified after the incident, which drew international
attention. In a February 2008 interview she claimed to have been
barraged with threatening calls after the story broke, and her address
and phone number were posted online.
Is The Browser Doomed?
Since its inception, the Web has been synonymous with the browser.
Pundits hailed NCSA Mosaic as "the killer app of the Internet" in 1993,
and today's browsers share an unbroken lineage from that humble beginning.
Today's Web sites are another matter, however. Gone are the static pages
and limited graphics of 15 years ago. In their place are lush, highly
interactive experiences, as visually rich as any desktop application.
The Web has become the preferred platform for enterprise application
delivery, to say nothing of online entertainment and social software. In
response, new kinds of online experiences have begun to emerge,
challenging old notions of what it means to browse the Web.
Take Twhirl, a desktop client for the Twitter online service.
Double-click its icon and the application launches in seconds. Its
window is small and stylized, with an attractive, irregular border and
configurable color schemes. What few controls it has are convenient and
easy to use. It's sleek, fast, and unobtrusive. In short, it's
everything that navigating to the Twitter Web site with a browser is not.
But don't be fooled. Although it looks and feels like an ordinary
desktop application, Twhirl's UI is rendered with HTML, CSS, Flash, and
ActionScript. Essentially, it's a Web app.
Twhirl is built on Adobe AIR, which has a lightweight client library
that allows Web developers to use familiar tools and languages to build
first-class desktop applications. Software created with AIR is fully
interactive and network-enabled, with a rich UI. But unlike traditional
Web applications, AIR apps gain the immediacy and user engagement that
come from running outside the browser window.
"The browser is terrific for transient experiences - things that a
user might do once in a while, or for a short amount of time," says Ed
Rowe, director of AIR engineering at Adobe. A frequently accessed
service like Twitter, on the other hand, cries out for a lightweight
client. AIR allows the same developers to build both.
But AIR is only one branch in the Web's ongoing evolution. Already,
Google, NetSuite, Salesforce.com, Zoho, and others are using Web tools
and infrastructure to deliver full-fledged enterprise software, defying
the limitations of today's browsers. As the static Web gives way to RIAs
(rich Internet applications), client software must continue to adapt and
evolve; and in some cases, this could very well mean stepping beyond the
traditional browser altogether.
=~=~=~=
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