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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 09 Issue 40
Volume 9, Issue 40 Atari Online News, Etc. October 5, 2007
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2007
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 #0940 10/05/07
~ eBay Urges Net Tax Ban ~ People Are Talking! ~ Puppy Linux Out!
~ New Phishing Defense? ~ National Telework Week ~ France vs. Spam!
~ Online Videos Viruses ~ Atari 2600 Turns 30! ~ Lexmark Rewards!
~ "E-mail Free" Fridays? ~ Non-English Domains! ~ 'Booze Cruise'!
-* California Web Domain Pulled *-
-* Americans Wrong About PC Security! *-
-* Spam-Scam Crackdown Nets Billions In Fakes *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, it's been really hectic the past couple of weeks. I had some
ideas to discuss this week, including my own comments regarding Joe's
editorial last week. But, I just plain ran out of time this week to
really get my comments down on paper. So, I'll work on that for next
week, and let you move ahead to the rest of this week's issue.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, we may finally have enough messages
to do a decent column. No promises, but we're going to give it a shot.
Before we get to that though (and you just KNEW that there was going to
be a 'but first...', didn't you? [grin]), I'd like to reply to a few
people who emailed me about last week's column. Normally I reply in
private, but given that last week's topic was something that I think
everyone should be involved in, ie: the exploration of space, I decided
to do it here.
Now, I realize I've got to be careful here so that I don't do something
that always ticked me off about my stint with... well, with that other
weekly Atari-related online news magazine that we were affiliated with:
The tendency to use editorials to get the last word in. It always
seemed to me to be unfair.
For those of you who missed it, or who've forgotten the topic, last week
I talked about NASA's Chief Administrator, Michael Griffin, and his
intonation that the United States should get used to the idea that
China was going to beat us back to the Moon, and that we should just
deal with it.
Most of the emails I received were quite complimentary, which always
makes me uneasy. One of my favorite English teachers always said that
if you're getting uniformly good feedback, you're probably not getting
your ideas across. Damn, Mrs. Daily, I hope you're wrong.
The few dissenting opinions I did receive, I'm happy to say, were well
thought out, cogent opinions, not hysterical or self-serving diatribes.
I'm a bit surprised, though, that no one thought to ask what the heck
talk about space travel and national pride had to do with computers in
general, and Atari computers in particular. The short answer is:
nothing. Perhaps people have just grown accustomed to my rambling on
and my ranting and raving.
Probably the most prevalent opinion was that space exploration is
expensive. I agree. Many things are expensive. Social Security is
expensive. Maintaining the national infrastructure is expensive.
Medicare is expensive. Supporting education, defending civil rights,
ensuring equal governmental representation, monitoring health... all
expensive propositions. But we do these things because there is
generally agreed to be a benefit in doing so. Even though we may not
see immediate benefits, we believe that there will be a 'payoff' down
the road. Money spent on what we collectively call "The Space Program"
may result in better, cheaper, more durable materials, scientific
advancement, discoveries about the Universe we live in, manufacturing
processes that allow for more effective or more easily produced
medicines... who knows what awaits us 'out there'? One thing is for
sure; if we don't try, we'll never know.
When Columbus set out to find a new trade route to China, he stumbled
upon the Americas. He hadn't been looking for the new world, he'd
simply been looking to get to the old world faster. While it's true
that Columbus played up the idea that these new world 'savages' could
become slaves... and ended up being considered an abject failure... his
discovery made possible all that we have today.
Another thing to think about is that this discovery was fueled not by
private business concerns, but by a government. Queen Isabella of Spain
(and by extension, the government of Spain) provided the ships and
supplies to mount this excursion. Because the results weren't what the
benefactor had anticipated, funding was stopped, and this discovery was
bounced back and forth between the major powers of Europe for
generations. During that time, resources were plundered, indigenous
inhabitants were wronged not only by being conscripted and subjugated,
but by being exposed to exotic new biological agents which they had
never encountered before, and therefore had no resistance to.
All of these things could have analogues in space exploration, and we'll
make the same mistakes all over again if we're not careful. I'm not too
worried about making Martians serve as field workers, I think it'd be a
terrible loss to science if we caused the downfall of any sort of life
we might come across on other planets or satellites because we either
didn't know that they existed, or didn't care. We have the capacity to
learn from our mistakes, and if we are mindful of our our
responsibilities we can accomplish great things.
Well, this has gone on longer than I had planned on, so I'm going to
stop here and get to the news and stuff from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'Mark' asks about an FTP server to run in conjunction with MiNT:
"What ftp server program do you suggest?
I'll need to configure it so that the outside world can't access it.
I just installed magxnet, with magic 5.0.4 on a Falcon. (I swapped the
HD, so the mint setup is not lost). I was thinking about trying it with
bnet. I've already tested 'smbclient', and I got it working. However,
the hard disk (or computer) hangs with transferring files with sizes
>1mb. Under mint and the same hardware I've never had that problem.
On the other hand, smbclient is much faster under magic than under
mint. Transfer time is the same, but logging on takes a while under
mint."
Edward Baiz tells Mark:
"There is only one ftp server I know of for the Atari. It should be on
most Atari ftp sites. I think it is just called FTP Server... It is a
simple program and not too hard to setup unlike the PC one."
'Techman' asks for advice on some 1980's vintage floppies for his 130XE:
"I recently went home to my parents house and found 2 bins of 5-1/4
disks from the mid-80s for my Atari 130XE (although I can't find the
computer and hard drive right now).
I miss all of these games and applications. More importantly I miss
many of the programs in basic I wrote. I truly wonder if all of the
data is destroyed (it has been almost 20 years).
Has anyone found old disks from their Atari that survived such a long
time? Is there a way I can verify if the data is still preserved using a
5-1/4 disk drive from an IBM PC? Even better if I can find a way to
recover the data if possible and copy it onto a new 5-1/4 disk,
preserving the file format etc. I would looking to understand my
options."
Russ G. tells Techman:
"You need to remember what floppy drive you had. Your BASIC programs
could be on single, enhanced or double density. You probably had a
1050, XF551 or some other party drive. If you don't remember, then get
a double density drive, it will do all three formats. You will need to
find your 130XE and drive setup. There is a 10502PC or something like
that adapter to read floppies directly to PC from a Atari floppy drive.
What you might want to do is send the disks to someone to test and copy
for you. Probably wouldn't want to make new 5 1/4" copies, but copy
to .ATR images, which you could then use in a PC Atari emulator. You
could also copy the files from floppy to an .ARC file."
Steve Stupple adds:
"Fortunately there is more space on ye olde 5.25 disks so the datastream
isn't as compacted.
The 1050 drive wasn't a true double density:( but 1.5. You would need
dos 2.5 at least, I would think.
As with backing disks up, the best way would be to use an 8-bit machine,
ideally 130xe for the extra memory. Transfer it using taritalk or
something similar to the ST.
The st can work with 5.25 disk so if you have my favourite happy cart,
you can copy 5.25 to 5.25, well do whatever you want with it as you
would any other disk.
I did produce disk back up software (that could correct some crc errors,
typical disk copy protection technique of the time), along with tape
to disk when I wrote "the mockingbird menu" system. unfortunately I lost
all my source in a house fire in the later 80's:( page 6 library was
sent copies, as in the pd, along with a few others, whether they have
survived is another matter.
I was building up my 8-bit stuff as I did enjoy programming those
machines. Jury's still out at the moment.."
'Charlie' adds:
"well I am no pro with the 130 xl , but my suggestion would be to
join this group and ask for answers there, I am a member, a lot of
people help, some don't. http://www.atari-forum.com/index.php "
'Guillaume' posts:
"I just bought a 520 STe which works ok except for one thing :
The sound output (on the video plug) is very weak compared to my other
STe. I bet it's a common issue like a nearly dead decoupling
condensor somewhere between the YM chip and the output (WIIIILD
GUESS). Any help, service guide or even schematics is welcomed!"
Roger Burrows tells Guillaume:
"Try: http://dev-docs.atariforge.org/index.htm "
Guillaume tells Roger:
"Now that's DIY! Thanks for the links.
Still, if the low sound volume issue happened to you, please let me know
what you did or where the problem was."
Stephen Moss offers:
"I have not owned a STe or personally come across this problem, however
from looking at the circuit diagram there appears to be three Audio
lines... AUDIOI (Audio in?), AUDIOS (Stereo Audio mixed to a mono
channel?) and AUDIO. The Audio appears to be generated from U508
(LM1892?, page 10 of the PDF) as Left/Right audio which is them mixed
together by U504 (LM347) to provide the audio feed to the video socket
and so I would suspect one on these as the problem and it probably has
more to do with U504 then U508.
The first thing I would try it to compare the output from the Left/Right
audio sockets to that of your Working STe, if it appears to be the same
then you can eliminate U508. If you can eliminate U508 as the problem
then compare the sound you get from the L/R audio sockets to the that
coming from the video socket and see if you can tell if one channel or
both channels are quite although ideally you would be better comparing
them with an oscilloscope if you have access to one.
There are could be several causes for low volume as follows...
1) The output of U504 is defective.
2) Over time some of the resistor have gone high resistance, if either
of the 10K resistors (R527, R5338) have gone high then the gain will be
reduced and so the volume will decrease.
3) Capacitors (C529, C543) could have gone open circuit resulting is a
loss of signal transfer to U504.
I think that is the area of the PCB you should be looking at but if all
that appears to be fine then look at capacitor C416 and inductor L409
which are the final two components the audio goes through on it way to
the video connector."
Guillaume Tello asks about his TT's ST RAM board:
"I have a ST Ram expansion board in my TT with 2Mb on it. I heard that
this could be changed to a 8Mb board just changing the ram chips, is it
true?
The problem is that I can't find any ST Ram board to sell at a normal
price! If anyone has one..."
Roger Burrows tells Guillaume:
"Supposedly so, (about turning the 2 Meg board into an 8 Meg board),
although I have not tried it myself. If you need the info, let me know
- I have it printed out somewhere ...
They (ST RAM Boards) are not easy to find."
Lonny Pursell tells Roger, in reference to the documentation:
"If you still have this in electronic form I'd like to add it to the
document archive, perhaps a (do it yourself) section."
Uwe Seimet adds:
"It might be easier to find TT-RAM boards.
Guillaume, do you already have TT-RAM in your TT? Since TT-RAM is
considerably faster than ST-RAM adding TT-RAM sounds more promising to
me than adding ST-RAM."
Guillaume tells Uwe:
"Yes for sure, I have a Magnum 64Mb (and maybe a TTRamide coming soon).
But... I need a lot of ST Ram to store and replay large sounds."
Mark Bedingfield does a little research on the TTRamide and tells
Guillaume:
"Woh Mama. I just googled. looks like a nice idea. I toyed with the idea
of designing a VME IDE controller for MegaSTE and TT030. Should finish
that."
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 - The Atari 2600 Turns 30!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Wii Shortage This Holiday?
'Booze Cruise' Reality Check!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Atari 2600 Turns 30
Back in October of 1977, a little company known as Atari was hard at work
manufacturing a console that would be a foundation for future video games
to come. The Atari 2600 would introduce families to a new concept of video
gaming that up until that time was mostly monochrome television tennis.
Originally known as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), the console
came packaged with two joystick controllers, a pair of paddle
controllers, and the video cartridge game "Combat". The name was later
changed in 1982 to the Atari 2600 upon the introduction of its successor
console, the Atari 5200. The Atari 2600 was a fun gaming console for its
time for an 8-bit gaming machine, and with the exception of a few
spectacular bomb titles like "E.T.", the console helped launch
third-party gaming developer companies such as Activision, which made many
fun games for the 2600, like "Pitfall" for example.
Now mostly a collector item, the original Atari 2600 and gaming cartridges
can still be found around the Internet if you want to get nostalgic. You
can also keep an eye out for the modern remake of the Atari 2600 called
the Atari Flashback 2, released in 2005, which looks similar to a Atari
2600 and has 40 titles built right in to the console.
Nintendo Predicts Holiday Wii Shortage
The Nintendo Wii is about to celebrate its first birthday, but the
shortages that held up profits last holiday season are threatening a
repeat performance. That, combined with Microsoft's Halo 3 validating its
hype, could mean a slower holiday season for Nintendo.
The Wii has far and away outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's
Xbox 360, despite the company's inability to manufacture enough consoles
to keep up with demand. And now, Nintendo of America President Reggie
Fils-Aime indicated he isn't confident Nintendo can produce enough
machines for the holiday rush.
"We have been sold out worldwide since we launched," Fils-Aime was quoted
by the San Jose Mercury News as saying. "Every time we put more into the
marketplace, we sell more, which says that we are not even close to
understanding where the threshold is between supply and demand."
With a statement like that, you have to wonder what is really going on,
said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research. A company can
certainly discover there is a far greater demand than market researchers
anticipated for the launch, he explained, noting that companies can even
have supply chain issues for months after a launch, especially with new
technologies.
"Here we are nearly a year later and Nintendo is saying it is not going
to meet the demand for Wiis," Gartenberg said. "At the end of the day,
it's a very fine balance for consumers. They may in many cases hold out
and get the device they are looking for. But if supply turns out to be
too scarce, consumers may decide that it's time to look at other
alternatives and other devices, and that can only bode well for both
Microsoft and Sony."
What also bodes well, at least for Microsoft, is the blockbuster release
of Halo 3. Fils-Aime told the Mercury News that Halo 3's impact on the
console battle this holiday season is an open question. "I am fortunate
to have a series of (games) that are all going to drive substantial sales
for me and are all targeted to different parts of the consumer mix,"
Fils-Aime said.
Indeed, consumers who opt for the Wii tend to be looking for a more
casual gaming experience than the intense shoot-'em-ups Microsoft and
Sony offer. The Wii caters to a different market segment than the
demographic that stood in line for hours to buy Halo. Still, analysts say
there is no doubt that Halo 3 is a console-seller.
"People will buy the Xbox 360 on the strength of Halo 3 and how good that
game is. If you are in the video game business, this is a situation you
want to be in," Gartenberg said. "Of course, the good news for Microsoft
is that Halo is a first party title. We are not going to be seeing Halo
for the Wii or Halo for the PS3 any time soon."
'Heavenly Sword'
The hack-and-slash genre brings a certain mindless, yet simply satisfying,
element to video games. Call it a quirk of gaming, but sometimes there's
just an odd pleasure in pressing the same few buttons over and over again.
"Heavenly Sword" (Rated T, $59.99) brings this game style to the
PlayStation3 with Hollywood-caliber production values.
One of the most noticeable things about "Heavenly Sword" has nothing to do
with action: this game has some of the best eyes in the business.
The action heroine, Nariko, shows quite an emotional range with her big
brown eyes, slicing and dicing her way through hordes of armor-clad
enemies with the game's namesake, the Heavenly Sword.
Nariko's haunting, beautiful looks are a stark contrast to the grim fact
that this weapon is slowly draining her life.
The core gameplay puts you in control of Nariko, and she's a one-woman
army who battles King Bohan and his relentless quest to obtain this weapon
of ultimate power.
There are better action games like this, notably the "God of War" series
for the older PlayStation 2, from which this game clearly borrows heavily.
But "Heavenly Sword" benefits from lush graphics on the PS3 and looks
amazing on a high-definition television.
The game offers some depth with combo moves and three ways to use the
sword. When surrounded by enemies, switching stances between ranged, speedy
and brute force attacks is a strategic decision.
There are some exciting interludes where you'll have to tap the buttons at
the right time to slide and run down giant ropes and onto a tower of
waiting enemies, for example.
It's like playing a movie at times, hardly a surprise with Andy Serkis,
who played Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" movies, once again pushing
the boundaries of acting with a memorable turn as this game's devious
King Bohan.
With his mad desire for the Heavenly Sword, Serkis creates one of video
gaming's more memorable villains, showing more than the usual
one-dimensional depth afforded most pixelated bad guys.
Not everything is heavenly in "Heavenly Sword."
Nariko isn't alone in her quest to defeat Bohan, and occasionally you'll
partake in missions as the svelte Kai.
This is where the gameplay really breaks down. Amid countless acts of
swordplay-driven heroism, you are interrupted with these very frustrating,
out of place, shooting missions.
Kai has a few where she shoots her bow and arrow to kill swarms of
baddies. Nariko too, gets sidetracked with levels that just seem out of
place in a game about big honking swordplay.
"Heavenly Sword" doesn't offer much replay value, either. Single player
mode is the only game option available, and it won't take skilled
players more than a few days to complete.
But oh, what a gorgeous few days it will be.
Three stars out of four.
Booze Cruise Video Game Gives Teens Reality Check
The Canadian developers of a video game that simulates drunk driving hope
it will make teenagers think twice about getting behind the wheel after a
night of heavy drinking.
The game, aptly named 'Booze Cruise,' was developed by Jim Parker, a
digital-media professor at the University of Calgary, and a number of his
students as a school project.
"The basic story is that this person is absolutely pissed and woke up in
the trunk of their car and now is going to drive home," Parker said.
The player, with vision narrowed and blurred and reaction times slowed to
mimic the reality of driving drunk, has 90 seconds to get home while
navigating past obstacles that include pedestrians, other cars and a
police checkpoint.
"And then just for fun, we put distractions on the side of the road, like
pink elephants," Parker said.
Police in Calgary, Alberta, provided input as the team researched the
game, trying to make it as realistic as possible. They also have high
hopes for Booze Cruise.
"I think it's going to be a great tool," said Const. Rob Haffner of the
Calgary Police Service. "Whatever education that we can get out there is
always going to be beneficial as far as drinking and driving goes."
Parker said the design team hopes to get funding to finish a more complete
version before letting schools and police get their hands on the game.
While many teens are familiar with driving video games, Parker said the
hope is that this one will persuade them that alcohol will affect their
skills.
"This is aimed not at adults, this is aimed at people who are 13 to 16,"
he said. "We want to stop them from doing it in advance."
Bungie and Microsoft Part Company
Rumors circulating on the Internet for the past few days have proven to be
true: Bungie Studios and Microsoft have parted company.
Bungie Studios - now renamed Bungie LLC - became a privately held
independent company, effective Oct. 1, 2007. Microsoft retains a minority
equity interest in the new business, which will continue to focus on
developing games for Microsoft platforms, according to Harold Ryan,
Bungies studio head.
Microsoft and Bungie indicated in announcing the separation that they will
continue a "deep and long-term development and publishing relationship,"
focused both on the long-term success of the Halo franchise and on a new
IP created and owned by Bungie.
That news is bound to come as a disappointment to Mac gamers who have
longed for this day. From 1991 to 2000, Bungie was an independent game
development company with a very strong focus on the Mac. It developed the
Marathon first person shooter game series and Myth strategy game series;
Marathon was a Mac-first title, along with a third-person action game
called Oni.
Bungie announced its now-legendary first person shooter, on stage at
Macworld Expo in New York in 1999, indicating the game would be released
for Mac and Windows platforms. In 2000, Microsoft acquired the company,
and announced that Bungie would become part of Microsofts nascent game
division, and that Halo would become an exclusive to the Xbox platform.
Mac and Windows versions of the original Halo were ultimately released,
although it would take a couple of years.
"Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a
team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on,"
said Bungie founder and partner Jason Jones in a statement. And they will
continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to
keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we
might as well be dolphins. Or manatees.
Bungie and Microsoft recently released Halo 3, an exclusive title for the
Xbox 360. The game ran up $300 million in sales during its first week of
release - the fastest-selling video game in history, according to
Microsoft.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
EBay Urges Internet Access Tax Ban
An eBay executive warned Wednesday that fewer small businesses would sell
products through the Web auctioneer, and elsewhere online, without a
permanent ban on Internet access taxes.
Congress first imposed a moratorium on taxing Internet access - which bars
state and local governments from taxing the connection to basic Internet
content - in 1998. Since then, it has been twice extended, but is set to
expire Nov. 1.
Congress is considering legislation that would extend the moratorium for
several years or ban it permanently.
While Brian Bieron, eBay Inc.'s senior director of federal government
relations, did not directly say the company would suffer without the ban,
he said the effect would be far reaching.
"More importantly, fewer consumers will use the Internet," he said in
testimony prepared for a House hearing. "And, for the small businesses
using the Internet, that means fewer sales and less opportunity to compete
with the mega retailers."
He estimated more than 720,000 small businesses use the San Jose,
Calif.-based company as a primary or secondary marketing channel, calling
it a "lifeline" against larger retailers.
Through eBay, he said about 15 percent of sales of U.S. small businesses
are exported to other countries and small businesses can also find
products from all around the world on the Web site.
Bieron was one of five witnesses to testify before the House Small
Business Committee, which is considering the potential impact on small
businesses if the moratorium isn't renewed.
Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., who chairs the committee, said in her
opening statement that if Internet access is taxed then small businesses
could see a 15 to 30 percent increase in their Internet bills.
Americans Wrong About Computer Security
Most Americans believe their computers are protected against viruses and
spyware, but scans found that a large number had outdated or disabled
security software, according to a poll released on Monday.
Fully 87 percent of Americans polled said they had anti- virus software,
73 percent said they had a firewall and 70 percent said they had
anti-spyware software, according to the survey by security software maker
McAfee Inc and the National Cyber Security Alliance.
But when pollsters asked to remotely scan the respondents' computers, the
story turned out to be very different.
While 94 percent of those polled had anti-virus software, just half had
updated it in the past month, the survey showed. Eighty one percent had a
firewall protecting private information, but just 64 percent had enabled
it. And 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, but only 55
percent had enabled it.
Spyware not only monitors what a computer user does, but can also install
software without the user's consent and interfere with the computer in
other ways.
Bari Abdul, a McAfee vice president, said most viruses were not written by
attention-seeking hackers looking to pull a prank.
"Most of the action has gone to stealing identity," he said after speaking
at a cyber security conference sponsored by the National Cyber Security
Alliance.
Nine percent of those polled reported having had their identity stolen, he
said.
The survey questioned 378 people between Aug 2 and Sept 10 about security
on their home computers. The Cyber Security Industry Alliance is seeking
U.S. legislation to set standards for the government and private industry
to prevent data breaches and tougher criminal penalties against spyware.
The Federal Trade Commission, which is one of several government agencies
investigating cyber fraud, said on Monday it had stopped a scam that had
infected 15 million computers.
Three men, who gave up the $330,000 they made from the scam, collected
various forms of spyware and adware and used them to infect computers,
the FTC said. They made money by putting adult ads on the computers and
advertisements for Internet-based businesses or travel.
The unwanted software was hidden in free screen-savers and video files
that users downloaded.
"Every time they infect a consumer, they're getting paid," said Ethan
Arenson, one of the FTC lawyers who worked on the case.
FTC Chairman Deborah Majoras urged computer users to protect themselves
against malicious software.
"I can tell you we have two dozen open investigations into data
security," said Majoras. "We can't round up all the bad guys."
Majoras said she wanted to computer users to hit "delete" instead of
"reply" when they get spam or email which is "phishing" for personal
information that could be used for identity theft.
"Phishing absolutely drives me insane," she added.
Spam-Scam Crackdown Nets $2 Billion In Fake Checks
An international crackdown on Internet financial scams this year has
yielded more than $2.1 billion in seized fake checks and 77 arrests in the
Netherlands, Nigeria and Canada, U.S. and other authorities said on
Wednesday.
The scammers, often West African organized crime groups, use ploys such
as "spam" e-mail offering to pay recipients "processing fees" for
depositing checks, which later turn out to be phony, and sending the
ostensible proceeds to the scammer, authorities said.
The ruses are aided by U.S. financial practices that quickly credit a bank
customer for deposits even though it can take far longer to discover a
fake check and reclaim the money from the customer. The victims find
themselves out the money they forward when the checks prove to be fake.
"Most Americans don't realize they are financially liable when they fall
for these scams," Susan Grant, vice president of the National Consumers
League, said at a news conference to publicize the arrests and promote
awareness of the frauds.
The crackdown netted 16 arrests in Nigeria, 60 in the Netherlands and one
in Canada, said Greg Campbell, U.S. Postal Inspection Service inspector in
charge of global security.
"We shut down Internet cafes, we arrested scammers, and significantly
disrupted the flow of fake checks into the United States," Campbell said.
Law enforcement in England also took part. Nigeria is a recognized hotbed
for the financial frauds and the other countries have significant West
African populations that include fraud operators, authorities said.
Three suspects from the Netherlands and Nigeria were extradited to New
York and are awaiting trial, said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Alice
Fischer. The United States is seeking to extradite five others.
The United States is a major draw for the scammers. But other
English-speaking countries are also targeted, in part because of the
widespread use of English on the Internet and because of Nigeria's large
English-speaking population, Campbell said.
Nigeria has brought to court 290 cases of suspected fraud, and the
prosecutions have been successful in 115 of the cases so far, said Ibrahim
Lamorde, head of that country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
He said Nigeria is doing its best to stamp out the fake-check operations.
It has seized counterfeiting equipment and convened meetings of anti-fraud
officials from across Africa. But he acknowledged Nigeria has an image
problem.
"The first country that comes to mind is Nigeria," Lamorde said.
Two-thirds of Americans said they received at least one potential scam
contact per week, and 18 percent said they or a family member had fallen
for one, in a survey conducted for an alliance of banks, consumer groups
and the U.S. Postal Service.
Grant said complaints to her group about fake checks have risen 60 percent
this year, and the average victim loses about $3,000 to $4,000.
Some U.S. banks have changed their practices, for example, by training
tellers to better inform depositors about risks, Grant said. She called
for regulations mandating that bank customers be given clearer
information.
Offers can also come in direct mail. Fisher showed hand-written envelopes
directed to her at a Justice Department address.
Inside were $850 checks with a Wal-Mart logo, with letters offering her a
10 percent cut if she would cash the checks and send the money back.
"After you laugh and think how silly it is .. this shows it (the problem)
is just completely rampant," she said.
Yahoo, eBay Work To Block Phishing
Yahoo Inc, is working with auction leader eBay Inc and its PayPal payments
unit to block fake e-mails to users purporting to be from eBay and PayPal,
hoping to spur on an industry that has been slow to fight the scourge of
so-called phishing attacks.
EBay and PayPal have upgraded their computer systems to support an
emerging technology standard known as DomainKeys invented by Yahoo that
authenticates e-mail senders are who they say they are, allowing Yahoo to
block fake e-mails.
The technology upgrade will be made available to Yahoo Mail users
worldwide over the next several weeks, the company said.
"It is a big step forward for consumers in defense against the bad guys,"
John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail, said in a phone interview.
Along with banks and pharmaceutical makers, eBay and PayPal are among the
brands most targeted by phishers seeking to trick consumers into divulging
personal information such as credit card or password data in order to
commit financial fraud.
Over the past decade, phishing has been clogging the inboxes of e-mail
users worldwide with ever more sophisticated attempts to fool users into
clicking on fraudulent sites or giving up personal financial details to
commit fraud.
But to date, many of the defenses put forward by security software vendors
and industry consortiums have failed to take hold with e-mail senders due
to their complexity or costliness, or political in-fighting over
standards, leaving individual consumers always guessing which e-mail may
be real or fake.
A PayPal official said Yahoo's system provides a way of automatically
detecting potential phishing attacks without relying on the consumer to do
anything new.
"If the consumer doesn't receive an email in their inbox then it is very
hard for the phisher to victimize them," Michael Barrett, PayPal's chief
information security officer.
Two camps have emerged among technology providers seeking to develop a
coherent approach to identifying e-mail senders.
One backed by Yahoo and Cisco Systems Inc. along with AOL, Google Inc,
International Business Machines Corp, Sendmail and VeriSign Inc is the
DomainKeys Identified Mail technology, which allows e-mail providers to
identify the Web domain from which a sender has sent e-mail.
A second standard known as Sender Policy Network (SPF) has been led by
Microsoft Corp, which offers its own version of SPF known as Sender ID.
SPF-based protections are used by Amazon, AOL, GoDaddy and eBay, which
supports both DKIM and SPF.
Chenxi Wang, a security analyst with Forrester Research, said DomainKeys
relies on more sophisticated cryptography than the Microsoft-supported
approach. This sophistication can make DomainKeys harder for Web sites to
install but offers greater long-term defense against phishing attacks,
she said.
So far, most customers have installed sender authentication inside their
e-mail systems as a monitoring tool but do not block e-mail for fear of
false positives - mistakenly treating legitimate customer e-mail messages
as phishing attempts.
However, despite the industry disagreements, an underlying consensus is
emerging among software vendors, Internet service providers and corporate
Web sites that digital e-mail signing in one form or another is the best
shot to combat phishing.
"Two years ago if you asked companies whether they were using e-mail
authentication, most people wouldn't have cared," Wang said. "Today if you
ask most organizations if they think it is a good thing people would say,
'Yes."'
"The industry is slowly coming around," Wang said. "EBay and PayPal are
some of the first to actively block unauthenticated e-mails."
France Kicks Off Nationwide Spam Fight
France is hoping to shut down spammers more quickly through a system that
makes it easier for users to notify ISPs (Internet service providers) when
unsolicited e-mails are coming from their network.
The French government funded the development of an open-source toolbar for
Microsoft's Outlook and Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail programs that people
can use to report suspected spam, said John Graham-Cumming, an Englishman
who built the software for the project, called Signal Spam.
"From the French perspective, spam is like any other criminal activity
that is affecting the French people," Graham-Cumming said.
Most users today simply delete spam email from their inboxes, in part
because they don't have a simple tool for reporting spam to their ISP. The
SignalSpam project aims to provide them with such a tool.
When users receive spam messages, the toolbar provides an easy way for
them to forward the message to a central database. The messages are then
sent to the ISP whose network they originated from, and the ISP decides
whether to shut down the account of the sender, Graham-Cumming said.
France is ranked as the 10th worst country for generating spam, according
to The Spamhaus Project Ltd., which publishes a list that can be used in
e-mail servers to block known spamming IP (Internet protocol) addresses.
The U.S. is the worst, followed by China, Russia and the U.K.
If a spam message originates outside of France, SignalSpam takes no
action. If a message comes from a legitimate marketer, the system can send
an automated response to the person who reported it telling them how to
unsubscribe to the mailing list, Graham-Cumming said. Marketers are
encouraged to register with Signal Spam.
The system's success will depend on people's willingness to install the
tool bar. Since the project launched in May, about 3.5 million spam
e-mails have been collected in the database, which can be used to
generate statistics on spam trends.
By the end of the year, Signal Spam plans to release a toolbar for
Outlook Express, another Microsoft e-mail client, Graham-Cumming said.
Signal Spam is also in talks with Web-based e-mail providers, such as
Microsoft and Google Inc., on developing a reporting mechanism.
Some ISPs have been accused of profiting by allowing spammers to use their
network, while other ISPs don't take action against spammers due to the
expense of shutting them down. However, Signal Spam has received broad
support from French ISPs, according to Graham-Cumming.
In the next couple months he expects the database to start to reveal spam
trends that could shed greater light on how to stop the problem.
Eventually, Signal Spam may also turn its attention to closing phishing
sites more quickly. Spam e-mails often try to entice people to a
fraudulent Web site in order to trick them into divulging their personal
information.
Online Videos May Be Conduits For Viruses
Online videos aren't just for bloopers and rants - some might also be
conduits for malicious code that can infect your computer.
As anti-spam technology improves, hackers are finding new vehicles to
deliver their malicious code. And some could be embedded in online video
players, according to a report on Internet threats released Tuesday by
the Georgia Tech Information Security Center as it holds its annual
summit.
The summit is gathering more than 300 scholars and security experts to
discuss emerging threats for 2008 - and their countermeasures.
Among their biggest foes are the ever-changing vehicles that hackers use
to deliver "malware," which can silently install viruses, probe for
confidential info or even hijack a computer.
"Just as we see an evolution in messaging, we also see an evolution in
threats," said Chris Rouland, the chief technology officer for IBM
Corp.'s Internet Security Systems unit and a member of the group that
helped draft the report. "As companies have gotten better blocking
e-mails, we see people move to more creative techniques."
With computer users getting wiser to e-mail scams, malicious hackers are
looking for sneakier ways to spread the codes. Over the past few years,
hackers have moved from sending their spam in text-based messages to more
devious means, embedding them in images or disguised as Portable Document
Format, or PDF, files.
"The next logical step seems to be the media players," Rouland said.
There have only been a few cases of video-related hacking so far.
One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without
prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program
silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also
tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube.
That reflects the lowered guard many computer users would have on such
popular forums.
"People are accustomed to not clicking on messages from banks, but they
all want to see videos from YouTube," Rouland said.
Another soft spot involves social networking sites, blogs and wikis.
These community-focused sites, which are driving the next generation of
Web applications, are also becoming one of the juiciest targets for
malicious hackers.
Computers surfing the sites silently communicate with a Web application
in the background, but hackers sometimes secretly embed malicious code
when they edit the open sites, and a Web browser will unknowingly execute
the code. These chinks in the armor could let hackers steal private data,
hijack Web transactions or spy on users.
Tuesday's forum gathers experts from around the globe to "try to get
ahead of emerging threats rather than having to chase them," said
Mustaque Ahamad, director of the Georgia Tech center.
They are expected to discuss new countermeasures, including tighter
validation standards and programs that analyze malicious code. Ahamad
also hopes the summit will be a launching pad of sorts for an informal
network of security-minded programmers.
Tiny Linux Hits the Streets
A very small Linux operating system, known as Puppy Linux, has had a
"major upgrade" after version 3.0 hit the streets this week.
What makes Puppy Linux different from other distributions of Linux is that
the Puppy 3.0 Live CD can be run direct from the CD, without installing to
a hard disk. Indeed, the operating system is just 97.6MB in size.
Puppy is designed to be a very small Linux operating system designed to be
"reliable, easy to use and fully featured." The entire operating system
and all the applications can be run entirely from RAM. It comes with
applications such as SeaMonkey/Mozilla Application Suite, AbiWord,
Sodipodi, Gnumeric, and Gxine/xine.
One of its most compelling features is that users can boot from the disk,
work, and then save their files back to CD for the next time they boot
the CD. It can also be run from USB storage sticks or Zip disks. This
allows the Puppy operating system to be used on older computers, or as an
emergency rescue system, a Linux demonstration system, or as a complete
general purpose operating system.
According to developer Barry Kauler, Puppy Linux 3.0 is a major upgrade
over previous releases. One of the major changes in this release is a
move to make Puppy Linux and Slackware compatible to allow users to
install Slackware packages on Puppy. Slackware is one of the oldest Linux
distributions, and aims to be the most Unix-like Linux distribution.
"To that end, I used all the building block packages from Slackware 12,
such as glibc 2.5, gcc 4.1.2 and gtk 2.10.13," said developer Kauler.
"Most of the libraries in Puppy are now from Slackware. Note, though, this
does not in any way make Puppy a clone of Slackware- apart from aiming for
binary compatibility, Puppy is fundamentally unique from the foundations
upward."
Kauler has also "totally rewritten the key scripts that control how Puppy
boots up, is configured, and shuts down." Other changes include better
USB writing method, after "finally getting periodic flushing of RAM to
Flash drive working properly- this is part of a mechanism that constrains
writes to Flash drives so that they don't burn out."
Sample Non-English Domains Coming Soon
Sample addresses in nearly a dozen languages will be added to the
Internet's central directories as early as next week, paving the way for
Web surfers around the world to get online without knowing any English.
At this point, the 11 domain names are meant primarily for software
developers and Web site designers to test the new system, but they are the
first such names entered in the 13 key domain name directories, known as
root servers, after years of discussions and limited-access tests.
If the global tests go well, non-English domain names could be in use by
the end of 2008.
Users outside the United States long have clamored for non-English
domain-name scripts, finding restrictive the current limitation to the
letters a through z, the numbers 0 through 9 and the hyphen.
It is sometimes possible to create addresses in foreign languages, but the
suffix - the ".com" part of an address - must use English characters. So
the current tests involve non-English suffixes.
The 11 suffixes now under review will read "test" in Arabic, Persian,
simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean,
Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil.
They were chosen based on the online communities that have expressed the
most interest in and need for non-English domains, said Tina Dam, director
of the Internationalized Domain Names program for the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, which oversees Internet
addressing policies.
U.S. authorities are still reviewing the suffixes. They are expected to
approve the test versions next week, and the tests will begin after that.
On Oct. 15, ICANN plans to unveil mechanisms for individuals and
businesses to try out the new suffixes. They won't be able to register
domain names, but will be able to create Web sites and pass around
non-English Web links. They will also be able to try locally popular Web
browsers, beyond the major ones already tested.
Everyone in the world will essentially be invited to try to break the new
system, Dam said. A 24-hour hot line is being established to allow ICANN
to quickly suspend the test if any problems might disrupt other domains
such as ".com" and ".uk."
The technology for the root servers themselves will not change. ICANN and
the standards-setting Internet Engineering Task Force have instead
developed techniques - using a system known as Punycode - for software to
convert the non-English domains into codes using only the 37 characters
now permitted.
Among major browsers, only the one from Opera Software ASA fully
implements Punycode, Dam said.
Users of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple
Inc.'s Safari should be able to get to the Web sites, she said, but until
developers finish their work, portions of the Web address may appear in
English characters even after being entered in another language.
E-mail applications and Web-based mail systems ultimately will have to
recognize Punycode as well. Approval of that technology is expected by
year's end.
www.sex.asia Likely To Be Internet Domain In Demand
The Internet address www.sex.asia is likely to be the domain name most in
demand next week when dot Asia Web sites are launched, Europe's .eu
Internet domain registrar EURid said on Friday.
"No one knows which names will be most popular...but EURid's experience
offers some clues. In the first two days .eu domain names became
available, EURid received 227 applications for sex.eu, 118 for hotel.eu
and 94 for travel.eu," EURid said in a statement.
"The .asia registry will probably see the same rush for generic names but
that will pass," said Marc Van Wesemael, general manager of EURid.
Dot asia addresses are due to become available from October 9. The
distribution of the domain names is being managed by DotAsia Organisation
(www.registry.asia), a not-for-profit group based in Hong Kong.
Feds Shut Down California's Domain Name
The Federal government pulled the plug on the ca.gov Web domain used by
the State of California on Tuesday, setting into motion a chain of events
that threatened to grind government business to a standstill within the
state.
State IT staffers were able to fix the problem within a few hours,
narrowly averting disaster, but the situation shed light on what observers
are calling a shocking weakness in the state's IT infrastructure.
The story behind the shutdown, and how the U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA) came within hours of shutting down the State of
California's Internet presence is a complex one, but as with so many
stories on the Internet, it begins with pornography.
In early September the Transportation Authority of Marin, a ten-person
agency charged with managing transportation funding in Marin County,
California, discovered that the servers that handled the agency's Web and
domain name service had been hacked and were being used to create links
to pornographic Web sites.
Domain name servers are used to translate the www.website.com domain names
we type into our browsers into numerical IP addresses, used by computers.
Together these Domain Name System (DNS) servers form a web-like database
telling all of the computers on the Internet how to find each other. In
the case of the Transportation Authority, there was one authoritative
server responsible for telling all other DNS servers where to find
computers operating within the tam.ca.gov domain.
The agency spent a frustrating two weeks trying to get its Internet
service provider, StartLogic Inc., to resolve the problem, said Dianne
Steinhauser, executive director of the Transportation Authority of Marin.
Then in mid-September it delegated domain name server authority for the
Transportation Authority's domain to the ca.gov name server, run by the
state's Department of Technology Services, she said. That meant that the
state's servers and not StartLogic's were now responsible for keeping the
authoritative domain record for tam.ca.gov.
Unfortunately, it also meant that if an outside observer believed that the
DNS server responsible for tam.ca.gov had been hacked, he might have
assumed that the ca.gov name server was compromised as well. And that,
apparently, is where the trouble really began for the State of California.
On Tuesday, at around 2 p.m., the federal organization responsible for
managing the.gov top level domain pulled the plug on the ca.gov domain,
according to Jim Hanacek, a public information officer with California's
Department of Technology Services. The "ca.gov domain was removed as a
valid address by the federal General Services Administration, who has an
office that oversees the use of the.gov domain," he said.
Only the GSA knows for sure why this was done, but Hanacek said that the
problems that had been experienced by the Transportation Authority of
Marin were behind the move. "Our understanding... is they were seeing
signs of some redirects over to pornographic sites and that is what caused
them to shut down that domain."
A GSA spokeswoman did not dispute California's account of what happened,
but said that her agency was looking into Tuesday's events and "will be
able to provide an update once the details are gathered."
Security experts expressed amazement Wednesday that the federal
government would undertake such a drastic move without first trying to
resolve the problem with the state. "That's hard core, given how much
stuff there is under ca.gov," said Cricket Liu, vice president of
architecture with DNS appliance vendor Infoblox Inc. "Maybe they thought
there was some sort of imminent threat."
Within hours of the GSA's move, the state had begun working with the
federal agency to reverse the damage caused by delisting the ca.gov domain
from the world's DNS servers, Hanacek said. Although there were some
isolated reports of state Web sites being inaccessible or e-mail not going
through, the disruption caused by the event was minimal and things were
back to normal by 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Because it takes time for DNS servers to update their records California
managed to avoid disaster, but if Hanacek's office had not taken action
within 24 hours, Web access and email to all state agencies using the
ca.gov domain would have been cut off, Liu said. "It would have been
crippling."
Hanacek said that the state is working with the GSA to make sure that this
type of event doesn't happen again. "I'm sure that we'll have some
processes in place to make sure that the right parties get advanced
notification of a significant change like this."
Fridays Go From Casual To E-mail-Free
Overwhelmed by e-mail? Some professionals are fighting back by declaring
e-mail-free Fridays - or by deleting their entire in-box.
Today about 150 engineers at chipmaker Intel will kick off "Zero E-mail
Fridays." E-mail isn't forbidden, but everyone is encouraged to phone or
meet face-to-face. The goal is more direct, free-flowing communication
and better exchange of ideas, Intel principal engineer Nathan Zeldes says
in a company blog post.
E-mail-free Fridays already are the norm at cell carrier U.S. Cellular
and at order-processing company PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services in
Alpharetta, Ga.
Prominent techies are tackling the problem individually by declaring
"e-mail bankruptcy" - deleting or archiving an entire in-box and
starting over. Among them: prominent tech bloggers Jeff Nolan, Michael
Arrington and Vanessa Fox, and venture capitalist Fred Wilson.
E-mail overload is caused by the sheer volume of messages zipping around
the globe. Each day, about 39.7 billion person-to-person e-mails, 17.1
billion automated alerts, and 40.5 billion pieces of spam (unsolicited
commercial e-mail) are sent worldwide, researcher IDC says. White-collar
workers often receive 140 messages a day, executive coach Marsha Egan
says.
E-mail can be a useful communication tool, and people who write a lot of
it are more likely to receive it, IDC (IDC) tech analyst Mark Levitt
says. But it can quickly get out of hand.
"I didn't even have time to figure out where to start," says Edward
O'Connor, a Web developer from San Diego who declared e-mail bankruptcy
two weeks ago. O'Connor had about 750 messages dating back three years,
almost all of which needed a reply. "I was completely overwhelmed," he
says.
Egan says even the busiest e-mailers can, with care, keep control of
their in-boxes. Her tips:
* Don't use e-mail to avoid unpleasant tasks. "I couldn't believe people
who had never talked to each other but worked in the same office," says
Scott Dockter, CEO of PBD. Dockter started e-mail-free Fridays about a
year-and-a-half ago. Since then, the number of messages his 400 employees
send has dropped by about 75%.
* Don't constantly check for new messages. It can take four minutes to
refocus on work after checking an e-mail, Egan says. Jay Ellison, chief
operating officer of U.S. Cellular, estimates that his 7,000 employees
spend about 1½ hours a day on their in-boxes. E-mail-free Fridays give
them more time to solve customers' problems, he says.
* Respond to important messages first - even if they're difficult.
Less-pressing issues can wait until a free moment, Egan says.
'National Telework Week' Gets A Show Of Congressional Support
The federal government has a special day, week, or month for everything,
so why not telecommuting?
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, has promoted the idea by
sending a letter requesting the creation of a "National Telework Week" to
President Bush and introducing a resolution to promote the idea. Wolf
said he wants to encourage more employers to consider the option.
"The best part of telework is that it improves the quality of life for
all," Wolf said in his written statement Tuesday. "Nearly 20 million
Americans telework today, and according to experts, at least 40% of
American jobs are compatible with telework. Telework reduces traffic
congestion and air pollution. It reduces gas consumption and our
dependency on foreign oil."
Wolf said telework provides parents with flexibility to meet personal and
professional demands, increases opportunities for people with
disabilities, and helps fill the nation's labor market shortage. He also
said that companies reap benefits, including cost savings, lower absentee
rates, increased retention, higher productivity, and improved morale.
He also cited George Mason University research showing that for every 1%
of the Washington metropolitan region workforce that telecommutes,
traffic delays drop by 3%.
"Just a few weeks ago the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M
University released its annual traffic congestion study which calculates
that congestion creates a $78 billion annual drain on the U.S. economy
due to 4.2 million lost hours of productivity and 2.9 billion gallons of
wasted gas," he said. "That's not even considering the air pollutants
caused by idling vehicles around the nation."
Wolf pointed out that leaders in the Office of Personnel Management and
General Services Administration support telework and want to promote it
within the federal government.
"National Telework Week would be an ideal time for employers, for just
one day during one week of the year, to allow employees to work from home
or an alternative work site to find out the benefits of telework," Wolf
said. "It's time to give it a shot."
Wolf said "work is something you do, not someplace you go."
"Hopefully we can make telework as commonplace as the morning traffic
report," he added. "There is nothing magical about strapping ourselves
into a car and driving sometimes up to an hour and a half, arriving at a
workplace and sitting before a computer. We can access the same
information from a computer in our living rooms."
Lexmark Offers Online Rewards Program for Recycling Ink
While they say that the best things in life are free, the best things
should also be good for the environment.
On Tuesday, Lexmark announced an online rewards program letting
consumers receive free inkjet cartridges for returning them.
Here's how the program works: buy five ink cartridges from
Lexmarkstore.com (no other retailer) within a 12-month period, then
you'll receive one ink cartridge for free. Next, if you return those
five empty cartridges to Lexmark within that 12-month period, you can
get a second free cartridge. Basically, consumers can receive two free
cartridges for every five bought and returned.
So it's either 5 purchases or 5 returns (or both) within the required
period. The good news is, if you buy a tri-pack of eligible cartridges,
then that counts as three cartridge purchases.
=~=~=~=
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