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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 08 Issue 05
Volume 8, Issue 5 Atari Online News, Etc. February 3, 2006
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2006
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0805 02/03/06
~ Mywife Worm Due Today! ~ People Are Talking! ~ New PayPal Fees!
~ MySpace.com Probed! ~ Chicago Pirates Busted ~ IE 7 Now Available!
~ Tiffany Is Suing eBay! ~ New MS Blog Policies! ~ Worm Name Confusion!
~ Measure Tech Literacy! ~ Online Gaming Consoles ~ Ninety-Nine Nights!
-* Vista Emphasizes Security! *-
-* ICANN Places Limits On Price Hikes! *-
-* Web Companies Accused of Bowing to China! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, that damn groundhog allegedly saw his shadow, which portends to mean
that we're in for six more weeks of winter. Fortunately, we all know about
urban legends, and their lack of veracity! And, if the next six weeks of
winter weather turns out to be like the past six weeks, I can live with it.
It's been a relatively warm and not-so-wintry season so far. Still, this is
the time of year in which I start to pine for warm and sunny days of spring.
Here in New england, we refer to it as cabin fever!
Over the years, I occasionally mention how hectic life usually is; and for
me, it's usually pertaining to work. Well, that doesn't seem to change much
over the years. Work just doesn't seem to get back to a "normal" hectic
routine. I've never seen so many stressed out people; and I quite often see
myself feeling the same. Maybe I'm due for a change, or maybe even
retirement. Maybe it's the time of year, and winter blahs. Too much
pressure placed on people to push for success in the name of doing their
job, and making everyone else successful! No wonder so many businesses grow
too fast and fold just as quickly. Anyone want to chip in for a winning
Powerball ticket!? <grin>
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. I've got to tell ya... there's a real
scarcity of posts in the comp.sys.atari.st newsgroup this week. That's
happening more and more often these days, and I guess it's to be
expected. Atari hasn't made a computer in many, many moons, and all of
the more casual users have long since moved on, leaving the hard-core
users who know their machines inside and out. And people who know their
machines inside and out seldom need to ask for help on the UseNet. Well,
there are always the newbies that score a 1040 on eBay or find their old
Mega in the back of the closet and realize that they've forgotten
whatever they might have known at one time, but they're the exception
rather than the rule.
I've recently taken what little spare time circumstances have left me
with and spent it on an interesting (to me, anyway) project... putting
my operating system of choice (currently Linux) on a USB 'pen drive' and
running things from there. "Live CDs" have been around for a while now,
and they've come a long way from where they were the first time I
checked them out. The problem with Live CDs is two-fold. First, CD
drives are relatively slow. Second, you can only write to them once, so
you can't change things on-the-fly as you would with a hard drive. Sure,
you can write to the hard drive if you want to, but if the object of
this little exercise is to run from an 'alternate' drive, that that's
kind of like cheating, isn't it?
Then, someone came up with the brilliant idea of running from a USB pen
drive. They're faster than CD, and you can both read and write to them.
And, since the USB drive is incredibly portable, you can pop it into
your pocket and carry everything that 'is' your computer with you and
run it on any PC you come across (as long as it knows how to boot from a
USB device).
One night, while I couldn't sleep, my mind started to wander. 'What might
be the next step in this little game', I asked myself.
Then it hit me... my spiffy new digital camera attaches to the computer
via USB. The memory stick in the camera will hold a gigabyte of data.
Hmmm... this could be interesting.
Installing the OS on the memory stick turned out to be incredibly easy.
Whoever built the setup I decided to try out (a version of Slackware
called SLAX) did an amazing job.
The problem, it seemed, was getting the computer to look at the camera as
a bootable device. Many tries on many computers convinced me that it
just wouldn't work.
My next revelation came when I saw an ad for a USB card reader. I
wondered... could it be that easy? It turns out that it was. Once the
reader was attached to the computer, and the memory stick inserted into
the card reader, the machine booted up from it without a second thought.
So what I've got now is my entire computer system on a piece of plastic
about a third the size of a book of matches, and a reader that will fit
in the palm of my hand with plenty of room to spare. It's basically
everything that 'is' my computer... except for the computer. I've added
my favorite graphics manipulation application so that I can work on the
photographs I take on just about any computer. Yes, the memory stick
still works in the camera, so I can take pictures, pop the memory stick
out of the camera and into the card reader, and I'm ready to do whatever
I choose to.
A good friend of mine asked me, "WHY would you want to do that?"
My answer, spoken through a toothy smile, was, "Because I can!"
When you get right down to it, could there be any better reason than
that?
Okay, enough of my ranting. Let's get to the news, hints, tips and info
from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Olivier Landemarre posts this about ARAnyM:
"Here a new compiled version of Aranym with more optimizations
http://olivier.landemarre.free.fr/aranymexe.zip (2,5Mo)
And if you have not already updated it yesterday there is alway's
cygwin1.dll here working with 64bit proc.
http://olivier.landemarre.free.fr/cygwin1.zip (700Ko) "
'Badak' asks about anyone who might be interested in an IDE adaptor:
"It's a question; I am looking for all guys who are interested by IDE hard
drive adapter for STE (it will be perhaps internal , but no on the
cartridge port and not St, no STF.. sorry)
If we are 100 (minimum), Rodolphe Czuba (CT60 creator) will be ready for
looking this project so if you are REALLY REALLY interested (only serious
guys please), send your (valid) email address to this email
IDEPROJECT@FREE.FR with this message (it's an example)
- Yes, I am really interested by an IDE adapter for my favourite STE
(It's not the project but if you are interested for an IDE adapter for
MegaSTE or TT, tell me too)
It's not a preorder !!! , don't ask any info about price, size, etc. it's
just for starting the project."
Ronald Hall tells Badak:
"I know I already mentioned myself in the Atariage forums, but I'll
repeat it again here. I'd be interested in one for my Mega STe."
Mark Friedman adds:
"I would be interested for my Mega STE as well."
'Alison' tells Badak:
"I think people will be more inclined to formally register interest when
there's a nearly finished product as opposed to a project awaiting
kick-off.
We've all been through let's-do-this-today so many times and it never
comes to anything.
Mark Duckworth gives voice to a couple of the thoughts I had:
"I've thought about this and for me it highly depends on cost. Can you
produce the board for $25 or $100? Because it makes a difference on
justification. I already have to spend 10bazillion $ on CTPCI,
SuperVidel, etc because... well.. I love my falcon, but SCSI drives are
dime a dozen these days and I have plenty of scsi goodness on my tt and
mega ste's. And this project isn't even for TT or mega ste. Naturally
there's the problem where we're probably going to run out of scsi drives
that work on these old interfaces but I think we're a ways away from
that.
To top it all off, should I really be buying hardware for computers I
haven't used enough? (My TT's and Mega STe). I wish electricity was
free."
As an interesting sort-of corollary to the little project I mentioned
earlier, 'Roderick Hero' asks:
"Does anybody know if there's a way to boot a MSA file stored on the ST
HDD directly without writing it onto a floppy?"
Michael Bernstein tells Roderick:
"I am actually writing a (simple) program which allows to read or write
such disk images on a Atari. I want also add a MetaDOS driver which
should allow to mount such images and access them like any other drives.
I don't want add booting from images because I think, it is not easy.
While booting from such an image i need to have access to the HDD. But
to have access to the HDD i need the hard disk driver to be present which
is normally the case if I have booted from HDD."
Patrice Mandin tells Michael:
"Yeah, should be quite simple to do. And don't forget a program/accessory
to change the "mounted" floppy image.
Most autoboot floppies are games and demos, which are likely to take over
the system, hence crashing/preventing any further access to any hard disk
you could have. So you should be able to run the program in boot sector,
but not much more.
With a 68030 or higher processor with a PMMU, it might be possible to
create a virtual ST address space, so any hardware access could be
redirected softly, but it is something that needs much more work. Well,
it would be an ST emulator, using main CPU to run the program instead of
an emulated 68000."
Mark Bedingfield comes at it from a slightly different direction:
"What about redirecting the floppy to a ramdisk? I.e. load the file from
the hard drive, into memory then warm boot the ST? Obviously won't work
without a fair bit of ram, and multi disk games would be a problem too.
Especially considering most of the PP stuff etc, is packed all ready."
Michael replies:
"I have a nice book about drives on Atari ST (Scheibenkleister). This
book contains a part about a ram disk which was alive after reset and
don't need to boot a driver after reset. And it is possible to boot from
this ramdisk. It was the "Luftschloss" from Claus Brod and Anton
Stepper.
Maybe it is possible to use this ideas to load the disk image and use it
after reset to boot from."
Patrice reasons it out a bit:
"Even for a ramdisk, you'll need a ramdisk driver, that must be kept
functioning while the game/demo is running. And there is a big
probability it will get overwritten the same way as an hard disk driver.
Only cleanly written software will work with such a setup, or games/demos
that have been patched to use OS functions for disk and memory access."
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in again next week (if for
nothing else, then just to see if I've decided to do something else
unusual and of limited usefulness), same time, same station, and be
ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Ninety-Nine Nights In April!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Online Console Gaming!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Xbox 360's '99 Nights' To Launch in April in Japan
Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it will launch "Ninety-Nine Nights," one
of the highly anticipated games for its Xbox 360 console, on April 20 in
Japan.
Microsoft is counting on the game to drive sales of Xbox 360s in Japan
after sales of consoles in the first month fell short of those in the
failed launch of the original Xbox four years ago.
The company has been struggling to gain ground in Japan against local
rivals Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp., whose PlayStation 2 console is the
global best seller.
While Xbox 360 has the advantage of being the only next-generation game
console in the market - Sony and Nintendo both plan to launch
next-generation game machines this year - Microsoft had sold 112,657 units
as of January 29 in Japan, according to a survey by Enterbrain, the
publisher of leading Japanese game magazine Famitsu.
"Ninety-Nine Nights" is a big-scale battle game produced by Japanese game
designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment in partnership with South
Korean developer Phantagram.
Mizuguchi, one of Japan's top game developers behind titles such as
"Lumines" for Sony's Playstation Portable, was tapped in the hopes of
attracting Japanese game fans.
Microsoft said it does not yet have specific plans to launch "Ninety-Nine
Nights" outside of Japan.
Online Console Gaming Primed for Take-off
Online video game playing is growing up. A new generation of game consoles
is ushering in online features that promise to make playing with others
over the Internet easier and more compelling than sitting on the couch and
playing solo or with a friend.
Eyeing a much larger market, console makers are stealing a page or two from
the PC gaming playbook.
Hard-core PC game enthusiasts spend a fortune "tricking out" their machines
with lightning-fast memory, bleeding-edge video cards and even
water-cooling systems to get an edge in multiplayer online games that can
take on a life of their own.
By contrast, console games are less interactive than PC gaming cousins and
consoles themselves are less easy to modify, which levels the playing
field. That is set to change.
Game enthusiasts say Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live online game service has
gained share with help from its blockbuster game "Halo 2" as well as its
new Xbox 360 console. The service offers multiplayer competition and
skill-matching, voice and text chat, buddy lists and shopping - all key
pillars of online gaming.
Justin Willman, a 26-year-old network administrator from St. Louis, said
the walls that separate PC and console online gaming are already crumbling.
"Xbox Live is merging those worlds," Willman said.
PC game makers still have the advantage of using the keyboard and mouse as
a controller, which allows them to give gamers more control and options in
game play.
But gamers say few, if any, of the community-oriented online PC games are
as consumer-friendly as Xbox Live, which has standardized and automated the
process of selecting servers and competitors for the best game playing
experience.
"Sometimes you just want to hit go and let it do the work for you," said
Sid Shuman, 25, an avid PC and console gamer who contributes to GamePro
magazine.
The universe of computer role-playing games - which foster virtual online
communities where people chat, form elaborate social guilds and trade
virtual assets - have taken the entertainment world by storm.
Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft," has attracted 5.5 million
users to shatter previous records. Players not only buy the PC game, they
pay a monthly subscription fee of roughly $15 per month - something that
appeals to upstart online game service providers looking for ways to turn
a profit.
Xbox Live is a central feature in Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console and
online strategies are also key for Sony and Nintendo Co. Ltd, which are
slated to release new consoles this year.
"This will be the online generation," Shuman said.
Microsoft says its has 2 million Xbox Live users in 24 countries. Its
silver membership is free to Xbox 360 owners and the $50-per-year gold
membership is required to access multiplayer features.
Sony Corp. has 180 online-enabled games for its current PlayStation 2 and
2.7 million registered users in its North America online console gaming
community. Xbox Live is considered by many gamers as the preferred service,
but analysts say Sony, the world's No. 1 console seller, will give
Microsoft a run for its money with its upcoming PlayStation 3.
David Cole, president of DFC Intelligence, a video game market research
firm, estimates that less than 5 percent of console owners now connect for
online play on a regular basis. He said that number could hit 10 percent in
the next two years as next-generation units debut.
Today's average gamer has grown up with PC, console and mobile games as
well as online shopping and chat. They are demanding that video game
companies give them the best of all worlds on all of their devices.
"Consumers are not bashful," said Chip Lange, vice president of marketing
for the online unit at Electronic Arts Inc., the world's biggest video game
publisher, which is investing in online gaming for future growth.
"The difference between online and offline play will disappear," predicted
Chris Donahue, director of Windows graphics and gaming technologies at
Microsoft.
In addition to offering publishers a new way to fight piracy by identifying
people who are copying and sharing games, the new outlet also promises an
opportunity for them to keep games fresh with constant updates and offers
of trinkets, weapons and other items.
"It will be more like a living, breathing world," said Schuman.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Vista Emphasizes Safety, Performance
Windows Vista is assuming its final form. According to Microsoft, the
latest beta, Build 5270, is nearly feature-complete, although some of
Vista's interface (code-named Aero) isn't yet in place.
We took the beta for a spin and found that its focus on security and
performance looks promising - yet still in need of much more polish.
We expected Vista's firewall to address a major shortcoming in XP's
built-in protection by alerting you to outgoing as well as incoming
traffic. But the new firewall monitors only incoming connections by
default. Microsoft contends that this is sufficient for most users. We
continue to recommend that you replace it with a bidirectional product,
such as Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.
Vista's BitLocker feature adds security to notebooks and other PCs by
letting you encrypt the entire hard drive. If your computer (or just the
hard drive) is stolen, the thief can't access your data without your
48-digit encryption key. If your computer carries the not-for-profit
Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Platform Module chip, the key is
retrieved automatically when you log in to Windows. Otherwise you can put
the key on a USB drive, which you then use to unlock your hard drive every
time you boot, or enter the key manually whenever you start your machine.
Use a thumb drive, external hard drive, or other USB storage to improve
performance via Vista's Superfetch.It's too early to judge Microsoft's
assertion that Vista will start more rapidly than other versions of
Windows, but the new Superfetch feature might speed your work. Superfetch
remembers the programs you use most often and keeps some of their
components in memory for faster relaunching. Whenever you attach a drive
to your USB port - be it a big external hard drive or a little flash thumb
drive - Vista asks whether you want to use some of the drive's capacity to
improve performance via Superfetch. If you agree, the OS shuffles files
from your hard drive over to the USB-connected drive, potentially making
access to those files much faster. We didn't notice any speed difference
in our tests, but it's still beta time.
Windows XP has difficulty going into and waking from hibernate mode or
sleep mode on some computers, and your system hardware may override your
power-saving choice. In Vista, however, you simply click the new Power Off
button for the best of both worlds: Your data is saved to disk in case of
a loss of power (as in hibernate mode), but it also stays in memory for a
short time (as in standby mode), so it revives faster.
The Vista version of Windows Media Player provides a more graphical view
of your library, including album art in library listings.The Vista version
of Windows Media Player replaces the previous release's boring text lists
of song titles with album graphics, and the new WMP 11 main menu makes
finding tunes and accomplishing other tasks easy. The program's search box
appears center stage, just where you want it; and it works better, as
well, with partial-match results appearing as you type.
If you own Windows XP Media Center Edition, it almost certainly came
bundled with a fancy new media PC (or via a media-extender device). In the
future MCE will be part of Vista and may also be sold in a stand-alone
version, making it easier to assemble your own media-oriented PC. MCE is
undergoing tumultuous changes with each Vista release. Chances are the MCE
in this build will change significantly by the time Vista appears on
shelves late this year.
If Vista can live up to its promises, ship relatively bug-free, and smooth
out this beta version's many rough edges, the OS may prove a worthy
successor to Windows XP. Of course, that's a lot of ifs.
Internet Explorer 7 Now Available for Public Download
The beta version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is available to the
general public starting today.
Microsoft hasn't changed much in this version of the browser since PC
Worldcompared the first IE 7 beta to Mozilla's Firefox 1.5 Release
Candidate 1 and Opera 9 Preview 1. But version 7 is a different beast
entirely than the IE you are probably using today.
This new iteration of the world's dominant browser adds a number of
features long since taken for granted by alternative-browser users, such
as tabbed browsing, a toolbar-integrated search box, and limited RSS
support. Version 7 also has a much more compact and streamlined interface
than its predecessor, with a strong emphasis on dedicating as much of the
window as possible to the displayed Web site. Also included are a number of
security upgrades, like a new antiphishing filter.
To download IE 7, go here, but note that this beta of the browser is
compatible only with Windows XP Service Pack 2. And keep in mind that, like
any still-in-development version, this beta 2 release has bugs and rough
edges. Some pages don't display properly, for instance, and the browser
will crash more than you'd like.
You'll notice IE 7's interface changes right away. A mere two slim toolbars
reside up top, with navigation buttons like Back, Forward, Refresh, and
Home split up to make the best use of space.
Preview your open browser tabs with the Quick Tabs feature in the new,
streamlined Internet Explorer 7.Tabs, also new to version 7, show up on the
second toolbar. You can't move the tabs around, but you'll find a nice new
feature called Quick Tabs. Click a gridlike icon next to the tabs, and
you'll see a thumbnail-page display of all your currently open tabs.
Firefox can mimic this feature with an add-on, but neither it nor Opera
has it built in.
New security features in IE 7 include an antiphishing filter that warns
you if you happen across a known phishing site, better ActiveX management
that disables potentially vulnerable controls by default, and programming
changes that try to reduce the number of avenues for attack.
The browser also has a thorough flush feature that clears the browser
history, cache, cookies, and other personal browsing data with one
selection from the Tools menu.
IE 7 lets you easily find and bookmark an RSS feed on any given Web page.
But once you're subscribed, you have no way to get a quick preview of that
feed's headlines - as you can with Firefox's Live Bookmarks - so you lose a
significant part of RSS's usefulness.
It remains to be seen how the new IE will stack up against its increasingly
popular competitors. But its release presents no downside: IE finally gets
an upgrade, and the newly revived browser wars spur competition that
hopefully will make all our browsers better.
Deal Places Limits on '.com' Price Hikes
VeriSign Inc. must meet certain conditions in order to fully raise fees for
".com" domain names under a new tentative settlement reached with the
Internet's main oversight agency.
The new deal also would prevent VeriSign from ultimately passing on to
domain name holders separate surcharges that help fund the agency, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.
The revised accord would end a longstanding legal dispute between the two
powerhouses behind the computer servers that, as the Internet's core
address books, help people find Web sites and send e-mail.
The new deal follows months of public input and, ICANN general counsel John
Jeffrey said Monday, requires final approval by the boards of both ICANN
and VeriSign after another public-comment period.
In a statement, VeriSign called it "the best efforts of both VeriSign and
ICANN to resolve differences that have been present for several years."
If approved, both sides would drop lawsuits filed against each other over,
among other things, the introduction by VeriSign of a controversial search
service called Site Finder.
The most direct change for Internet users involves domain name fees.
Currently, VeriSign charges domain name resellers, called registrars, $6
per ".com" name; registrars can then charge domain name buyers whatever
they like, incorporating that $6 annual fee into the basic price. If the
deal is approved, VeriSign would be allowed to raise that fee, which
registrars could then pass along to customers.
The new settlement would limit those increases.
In any two of the next six years, VeriSign could raise fees by up to 7
percent a year only in response to a security threat or to comply with an
ICANN mandate.
But that leaves four years in which Verisign could raise rates by 7 percent
annually without having to justify the increases, objects Network Solutions
Inc., a registrar that VeriSign sold in 2003.
With more than 40 million ".com" names in use, a 7 percent increase could
generate as much as $17 million for VeriSign in the first year alone.
The old deal, reached in October, would have allowed VeriSign to raise the
fees every year without conditions.
Network Solutions and other critics also complained that VeriSign still
would get first rights to a renewal in 2012, thwarting any hopes
competitors had for open bidding.
But Network Solutions did applaud ICANN for prohibiting VeriSign from
passing along a separate surcharge for ".com" names.
Under the old settlement, VeriSign would have collected for ICANN up to 50
cents per ".com" name.
Now the company must pay ICANN a lump sum on its own - $6 million in the
first year, increasing to $12 million in 2009.
The new settlement also makes clear that ICANN isn't immediately approving
Site Finder, which VeriSign introduced in late 2003 to help Internet users
find Web sites when they mistype addresses.
Following complaints that Site Finder broke some Internet tools like spam
filters and gave VeriSign an unfair competitive advantage in search, the
company suspended the service.
Verisign subsequently sued ICANN, complaining that the agency was making
it difficult for the company to create new businesses. ICANN countersued.
With the settlement, changed little in the revision, ICANN would create
procedures and deadlines to more quickly review any new services VeriSign
might introduce.
The new deal also adds performance benchmarks and privacy protections.
VeriSign still faces two lawsuits over the proposed settlement, and the
plaintiff in one of them, calling itself the Coalition for ICANN
Transparency, said the new terms were inadequate. ICANN also is a
defendant in the CFIT lawsuit.
"It's pretty clear that VeriSign and ICANN are aware of the areas that are
most objected to by the Internet community, but I do think that the
revision posted offers change in name only," said John Berard, a spokesman
for the group.
Researchers Warn of File-Destroying Worm
If you have computer files you'd rather not lose, now is a good time to
make sure your anti-virus software is up to date. A worm set to activate
Friday will corrupt documents using the most common file types, including
".doc," ".pdf," and ".zip."
Hundreds of thousands of machines are believed to be infected, mostly in
India, Peru, Turkey and Italy, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer
for Finnish security company F-Secure Corp.
The worm, known as "CME-24," "BlackWorm," "Mywife.E" or a number of other
monikers, even tries to disable anti-virus software that is out of date,
he said.
Thus, users should make sure their software is turned on and has the latest
definitions, generally available for free from the software vendor's Web
site. F-Secure also has created a free removal tool.
"If you are infected, and you find out about it today, you still have time
to get rid of the virus," Hypponen said.
As worms go, the spread of BlackWorm is relatively low. But worms these
days are generally designed to help spammers and hackers carry out attacks,
not to destroy files as this one does. So the impact this time may be more
severe.
Microsoft Corp. issued an advisory Tuesday warning customers about the
worm, which affects most versions of its Windows operating system.
Users should be safe if they have the latest anti-virus software or if
their computers are set with limited privileges, a common setting in larger
organizations. They are vulnerable if they, like many small business and
home users, leave their computers set with full administrative rights.
And users should check the date on the computer. The worm hits the third of
every month, so if the computer's local calendar settings are off,
Hypponen said, files may be destroyed sooner or later, even if the
computer is never turned on Friday.
Researchers Fear Confusion on Worm Name
Friday's file-destroying worm goes by "Mywife" at Microsoft Corp. and
McAfee Inc., "Blackmal" at Symantec Corp. and CA Inc. and "Kama Sutra" in
most media reports.
At F-Secure Corp., it's version "E" of "Nyxem," while Sophos PLC says it's
version "D." Others variably refer to it as "Kapser," "KillAV," "Grew" or
"Blackworm."
The official name? "CME-24."
The moniker may seem much ado about nothing, but security researchers worry
that the variance could confuse consumers.
Customers of one vendor's product, for instance, may believe they are
protected against "Nyxem.D" when in fact that vendor uses "E."
Or they may hear about "Kama Sutra" but don't realize their product already
protects them from "Kapser," prompting phone inquiries that overload
support desks.
The confusion partly results from the speed with which worms spread.
"Anti-virus companies when they get a sample need to act on that quickly,"
said Ken Dunham, director of the rapid response team for VeriSign Inc.'s
iDefense. "They don't have time in their competitive environment to be able
to go out and coordinate and have a nice little talk" about naming.
Security researchers face many decisions coming up with that initial name.
Often, a new outbreak is a variation of an existing worm, so the vendor
will use the next letter in the series.
But sometimes the variation is so small that not every vendor calls it a
separate version, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure.
Or the variation may be a bit larger, prompting some vendors to use a new
name, while others use the next letter, he said.
That's why some vendors began referring to Kama Sutra as "Grew.A"; it
destroys files rather than try to overload Web sites with fake traffic, as
previous versions did.
But they share code and techniques with predecessors, so F-Secure went with
"Nyxem.E," rearranged from the acronym for the New York Mercentile
Exchange, whose Web site was targeted by the initial variant.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is attempting to unify naming
through the Common Malware Enumeration, or CME. The larger outbreaks are
assigned a random number - in this case "24" - to bring the various names
under a single umbrella. A Web site making that information public launched
in October.
But "CME-24" doesn't quite have the same ring as "Kama Sutra," so named
after the Hindu love manual because of the pornographic come-ons in e-mails
spreading it. Media outlets began adopting Kama Sutra, even though no major
security company calls it that.
"It's primarily a media term," Dunham said. "It's something people are
going to read about."
eBay's PayPal To Collect Fee On Deposits
eBay Inc., the online auction house, will start collecting a fee to manage
money deposited in its PayPal Money Market Fund, the company said.
PayPal, an electronic payment service with some 87 million customers in
more than 40 countries, sweeps funds that customers keep in their accounts
into the money market fund.
The company currently pays a 7-day average yield of 4.38 percent on money
in those accounts. That is the highest rate of any money-market fund in the
United States, according to Peter Crane, managing editor of IBC's Money
Fund Report.
The move will have no material impact on the financial results of PayPal's
parent, eBay, a PayPal spokeswoman said.
Starting March 1, PayPal will cut the fund's yield by one-quarter of a
percentage point to help cover the costs of managing the money, the company
said in letters sent to customers via e-mail on Monday. A copy was obtained
by Reuters on Tuesday.
The change will make rival mutual funds more competitive with PayPal. The
Fidelity Money Market Fund, for example, has a seven-day yield of 4.12
percent, according to the investment firm's Web site.
"PayPal's number one ranking might be in jeopardy," Crane said.
PayPal declined to say how much money is in the fund, but Crane estimates
that it has roughly $500 million. That is more than double the $221 million
it had as of December 31, 2004, according to a fund prospectus.
"As the fund has grown, PayPal has continued to pay the costs of
administering the fund without any reimbursement," the company said in its
e-mail. "The fund will start to reimburse PayPal for a portion of its
expenses - which include legal, technical, compliance and advisory services
and related charges that are customary for mutual funds."
The yield cut will not completely offset PayPal's costs for running the
fund, PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires told Reuters. She said she couldn't
elaborate on the details of the expense structure.
Earlier this month eBay announced changes in the fees it charges to sell
items on the eBay.com Web site. It raised transaction fees on goods sold
for between $25 and $975. At the same time, it cut fees on lower-priced
items and some optional features available to eBay merchants.
The changes in auction pricing are likely to add to earnings, eBay Chief
Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta said when they were unveiled on January 18.
But PayPal spokeswoman Pires said on Tuesday that the mutual fund's yield
cut will not have a material impact on eBay's financial results.
The PayPal Mutual Fund was launched in November 1999, the same year that
the online payment processing service went live. eBay bought the company in
October 2002 for about $1.5 billion.
PayPal Asset Management invests all its assets into another fund that is
run by Barclays Global Fund Advisors.
MySpace.com Subject of Sex Assault Probe
Police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been
sexually assaulted by men they met through the popular Web site
MySpace.com.
The girls, ages 12 to 16, are from Middletown and say they were fondled or
had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed.
None of the incidents appeared to be violent, said Middletown Police Sgt.
Bill McKenna.
He said it was difficult to determine the exact number of victims because
some girls have been reluctant to disclose that they met their assailants
online.
The social networking Web site allows users to create profiles that can
include photos, personal information and even cell phone numbers.
In a statement Thursday, MySpace.com said it was committed to providing a
safe environment for its users. The site, which includes safety tips, also
prohibits use by anyone younger than 14, though a disclaimer says the
people who run the site can't always tell if users are lying about their
ages.
Tiffany Sues eBay for Selling Fakes
Tiffany & Company, the famous New York-based jewelry retailer, is suing
San Jose, California-based online auction firm eBay for allowing its Web
site to be used to sell counterfeit jewelry.
The landmark lawsuit also alleges that eBay, in addition to facilitating
sales of fake Tiffany goods, also makes millions of dollars from fees
charged for counterfeit sales.
Two years ago, Tiffany bought several hundred items on eBay and found that
three quarters of the items purchased were counterfeit.
The Tiffany lawsuit, which originally was filed in 2004 in a New York State
court, is expected to go to trial by the end of this year, according to
press reports.
If Tiffany wins its case, eBay's business model could suffer a severe
blow, as this would open the door for other brand owners to sue it over
counterfeit sales.
But eBay claims it is only a marketplace that brings together buyers and
sellers, and cannot be held responsible for sales of counterfeit items.
"We are disappointed that Tiffany filed the suit, given that we have
cooperated with their brand-protection efforts for several years through
our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program," said Hani Durzy, an eBay
spokesperson. "Through VeRO, we have worked with Tiffany to develop
substantial proactive monitoring efforts and given them the tools to report
problem listings, which we promptly remove."
Durzy said that eBay will continue to cooperate with Tiffany along these
lines but will fight the legal action because "its claims are without
merit."
"If the court finds in Tiffany's favor, this would set a precedent and
would place additional pressure on eBay to ascertain the provenance of
goods sold," said Stacey Quandt, research firm Aberdeen Group's director
of security solutions and services.
"Determining whether this would be a death blow depends on the damages and
the number of fraudulent goods sold on eBay," said Quandt. "The outcome
could also spark both legitimate and fraudulent insurance offerings to
protect consumers."
Martin Reynolds, an analyst with research firm Gartner, said he suspects
Tiffany has a hidden agenda in wanting to sue eBay. "Tiffany would really
like to restrict secondary sales of its products, as this would then force
people to buy exclusively from Tiffany," he said. "The net effect would be
to increase Tiffany's sales."
It is not cost-effective for Tiffany to go after all the second-hand
antique stores that sell genuine and counterfeit Tiffany products,
Reynolds said. "But if this lawsuit scares eBay into taking all Tiffany
products off its Web site, then Tiffany will have managed to strike a major
blow against second-hand sale of Tiffany items."
Reynolds said that eBay has a policy of immediately taking action when it
determines that counterfeit products are being sold on its Web site.
"EBay has a team of people and also computer systems, which trawl its site
in search of counterfeit items," he said. "But it is not possible to catch
everything. If someone displays a photograph of some Tiffany jewelry, how
can eBay tell whether it is genuine?"
If Tiffany is going to sue eBay for profiting from counterfeit sales, then
it should also go after the credit-card companies whose cards are used to
pay for purchases of counterfeit items, Reynolds said.
"You could even argue that it should also sue the U.S. government, because
people use U.S. banknotes to buy fraudulent items," he said.
"It becomes a slippery slope when a marketplace like eBay is held
responsible for the products sold on the site," said Forrester analyst
Sucharita Mulpuru. "It's like the Pasadena flea market at the Rose Bowl
being held liable for every fake product or tchotchke sold through its
venue."
The responsibility of policing items really rests with the buyer when
products are being resold, said Mulpuru, whether it's a swap meet or an
online auction.
"That said, I see Tiffany's point of view," said Mulpuru. "It diminishes
their brand when fake products are sold under their name, especially when
those products are positioned as genuine."
Mulpuru believes it will be impossible for Tiffany to succeed in getting
every fake item removed from eBay. "I would be really surprised if eBay is
ultimately held liable for misrepresented items on its site," Mulpuru said,
suggesting that the lawsuit's main purpose might simply be to send a signal
to illegal resellers that someone's watching.
Internet Companies Accused of Bowing to China
Lawmakers on Wednesday accused U.S.-based Internet companies of giving in
to pressure from China and helping to censor Web users in violation of
American principles of free speech.
They also criticized the four companies - Microsoft Corp., Yahoo! Inc.,
Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc. - for failing to attend a congressional
briefing that was staged to bring to light how Internet companies do
business in China.
Microsoft and Yahoo! issued a joint statement made available saying that,
by themselves, they lack the leverage to influence world governments. The
statement suggested the four companies could work together with governments
to better protect the interests of all Internet services.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights
Caucus, said, "There has been a string of disturbing incidents in which
U.S.-based Internet companies have bowed to pressure from Beijing."
He said that instead of using their considerable resources to develop new
technologies to bypass government gatekeepers, the Internet companies have
agreed to guard the gates themselves.
Google provoked criticism last week by launching a new search engine in
China that will censor some results to comply with the country's
free-speech restrictions.
Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group, said it had proved that
Yahoo! helped the Chinese police identify and convict Shi Tao, a journalist
who criticized human rights abuses in China.
Lantos, top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said:
"These massively successful high-tech companies, which couldn't bring
themselves to send representatives to this meeting today, should be
ashamed. They caved in to Beijing for the sake of profits."
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said American companies will continue to expand in
the Chinese market, "but they should not let profits take precedence over
traditional democratic values such as freedom of speech."
Although Beijing has supported Internet use for education and business, it
fiercely polices content. Filters block objectionable foreign Web sites,
and regulations ban what the Chinese consider subversive and pornographic
content and require service providers to enforce censorship.
Foreign companies have adopted Chinese standards, saying they must obey
local laws.
In their statement, Microsoft and Yahoo! said they wanted to assure
lawmakers and the public "that we do not consider the Internet situation
in China to be one of `business as usual.'"
Carolyn Bartholomew, acting chairwoman of the U.S.-China Economic and
Security Review, a congressionally mandated monitoring group, said China
has begun to assume the role of technological leader among the developing
nations in its region.
"China serves as the regional Internet provider for surrounding oppressive
regimes, including North Korea and Uzbekistan," she said. "Through this
role as Internet gatekeeper China exports its filtering technologies to
other governments that may choose to employ them."
While attendance at Wednesday's briefing was not mandatory, companies could
be compelled with subpoenas to attend a Feb. 15 hearing on the issue, said
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House International Relations
subcommittee on global human rights.
In an interview, the lawmaker criticized U.S. Internet companies, saying
they were helping China arrest and torture activists and screen information
from its citizens.
"This is not benign or neutral," Smith said of companies acceding to
China's demands. "They have an obligation not to be promoting
dictatorship."
US Accuses Cyber-piracy Group of "Massive" Theft
A secretive group of cyber-pirates stole copyrighted software, games and
movies in what law enforcement authorities on Wednesday termed a "massive"
theft for their own pleasure, not profit.
The indictments were announced by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in
Chicago against 19 members of the underground piracy group known as
"RISCISO," led by Sean O'Toole, 26, of Perth, Australia.
Another member of the group implicated in the FBI's investigation, dubbed
"Operation Jolly Roger," was Linda Waldron, 57, of Barbados. Extradition
will be sought for both.
As many as 60 members of the group, many of whom work in the computer
field and live across the United States, tapped into their tightly
controlled computer servers loaded with stolen merchandise that would fill
23,000 compact discs and was valued at $6.5 million, prosecutors said.
Initially, the stolen software was sent to servers set up overseas.
"This was not someone illegally downloading a song," Fitzgerald said in
announcing the 15-count indictment charging conspiracy to commit copyright
infringement and other charges. "These were copyright violations on a
massive scale."
The secretive RISCISO group - an acronym for Rise in Superior Couriering,
plus the common file format ISO - cracked expiration and encryption codes
built into trial software available on the Internet, on computer games,
and on first-run movies intended only for reviewers and screeners,
prosecutors said.
An FBI agent in charge of the probe said group members apparently acted in
part out of the "thrill" of breaking the codes and to use the stolen items
themselves, and did not appear to have tried to profit financially from
the theft. An informant helped the FBI crack the case.
All 19 face a charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement that
carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine,
plus restitution, prosecutors said.
Microsoft Amends Blog Shutdown Policies
Microsoft Corp. says it is setting new policies on shutting down Web
journals after its much-publicized squelching of a well-known Chinese
blogger at the request of Chinese officials.
The Redmond software company, operator of a popular blogging technology
called MSN Spaces, said Tuesday that it will endeavor to make blogs
available to users elsewhere even if Microsoft decides it is legally
obliged to block them in a particular country.
The company also pledged to provide users with a clear notice that it has
shut down a Web site when the decision to do so stemmed from a legal
mandate. Previously, it has simply said the content was unavailable.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's top lawyer, said in an interview that the
circumstances of a shutdown will dictate whether a blog's archived content
alone will continue to be available elsewhere, or whether the person can
continue posting information to users outside the country that ordered the
blockage.
"Some of this, I think, we just have to recognize is evolving technology
and changing law," said Smith, speaking by phone from a Microsoft-sponsored
government conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
MSN Spaces, which allows users to post journals, pictures and other content
on the Internet, boasts 35 million users, including 3.3 million in China.
The company has maintained that it is important to be able to provide users
across the globe with such tools even if local laws constrain what it can
make viewable in specific countries.
"We think that blogging and similar tools are powerful vehicles for
economic development and for creativity and free expression. They are tools
that do good," Smith said. "We believe that it's better to make these tools
available than not, but that isn't the end of the discussion,
either."
Late last year, Microsoft shut down the site of a popular Chinese blogger
at Beijing's request. The blog, written under the pen name An Ti by Zhao
Jing, touch on sensitive topics such as China's relations with Taiwan and
press freedoms in China.
Microsoft rivals, including Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., also have grappled
with - and received criticism surrounding - how they censor their offerings
in foreign countries.
Google said last week that it would filter sensitive topics from Web
searches in China. Yahoo came under fire last year after it provided the
government with e-mail account information for a Chinese journalist who was
later convicted for violating state secrecy laws.
Smith said Tuesday that Microsoft hopes to build industry and government
support for more formal policies on dealing with content censorship
requests from foreign governments, but he wouldn't say whether he had
spoken with competitors such as Google and Yahoo directly.
John Palfrey, executive director of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for
Internet and Society, lauded Microsoft's moves as an important first step.
But he expected Microsoft to face considerable government pressure if it
does start disclosing government censorship and makes good on its pledge
to show censored data outside the country in question.
"Where we'll see whether the policy is meaningful or not is the first time
the state comes to Microsoft ... and says, "So you're publishing to the
world the subversive political statements of somebody online. Who is it?'"
he said. "Does Microsoft fold or stand pat?"
New Exam Aims to Measure Tech 'Literacy'
When it comes to downloading music and instant messaging, today's students
are plenty tech-savvy. But that doesn't mean they know how to make good
use of the endless stream of information that computers put at their
fingertips.
Educators and employers call those skills "technology literacy," and while
everyone agrees it's important to have, it also is difficult to measure.
Now a test that some high school students will begin taking this year could
help.
The ICT Literacy Assessment touches on traditional skills, such as
analytical reading and math, but with a technological twist. Test-takers,
for instance, may be asked to query a database, compose an e-mail based on
their research, or seek information on the Internet and decide how reliable
it is.
The test's initials stand for "Information and Communication Technology,"
and a version is already used by some colleges. On Friday, the nonprofit
Educational Testing Service plans to announce details of a new version that
some high school and first- and second-year college students will begin
taking this spring.
ETS also designs and administers the SAT, but says this isn't designed as
an admissions test. Rather, the goal is to show schools whether their
students know how to use technology effectively and responsibly.
But the exam may prove difficult to sell to schools in an era of tight
budgets and concern about over-testing. And "technology literacy" skills
aren't as precisely testable as, say, geometry.
Still, Princeton, N.J.-based ETS says educators increasingly recognize the
"three 'r's" have to be mastered not just on paper but also as part of the
tech-heavy 21st-century workplace. Education officials in at least two
states - Texas and West Virginia - are monitoring early results to see if
the test would be useful.
"Students know how do a lot of things with their iPod, but what is the
educational value of accessing a lot of information?" said Anita Givens,
senior director for instructional materials and educational technology at
the Texas Education Agency, which is also considering whether the test
could help evaluate teachers. "Having a lot of information at your
fingertips is like going to the library and not reading anything."
Students will receive an individual score on a point scale of 400 to 700,
and schools will get reports showing how students fare in seven core
skills: defining, accessing, managing, integrating, evaluating, creating
and communicating information.
The new "core" version that will be sold to high schools can be taken in a
school computer lab over about 75 minutes and consists of 14 short tasks,
lasting three to five minutes each, and one longer task of about 15
minutes. Students may be asked, for example, to determine what variables
should go where in assembling a graph, and then use a simple program to
create it. They could also be asked to research a topic on the Web and
evaluate the authoritativeness of what they find.
Students "really do know how to use the technology," said Dolores Gwaltney,
library media specialist at Thurston High School in Redford, Mich., one of
a handful of high school trial sites for the test over the next few weeks.
"But they aren't always careful in evaluating. They go to a source and
accept it."
Cassandra Barnett, library media specialist at Fayetteville High School in
Arkansas, another trial site, said she can't be sure her district will
eventually adopt the test. Tests like the SAT and ACT, integral to college
admissions, will always get priority, she said.
But Barnett said she thinks schools increasingly recognize the importance
of such skills.
"When our grandparents went to school, there was a finite amount of
information," she said. Now, she said, the focus is "not so much that I
have to learn everything there is to learn, but now I need to learn how to
find what I need to know."
=~=~=~=
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