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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 08 Issue 27
Volume 8, Issue 27 Atari Online News, Etc. July 7, 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 #0827 08/07/06
~ Viruses Double By 2008 ~ People Are Talking! ~ SCO Dealt Suit Blow!
~ China's Blog Crackdown ~ "Mouse Potato" Added! ~ Puppy Love In China!
~ File-Sharing Thriving! ~ July Browser Bug Month ~ Minter Scolds Sony!
~ MS Ends 98/ME Support! ~ AOL Giving Away More? ~ eBay Bans 'Checkout'
-* Brits Oks Hacker Extradition *-
-* EU Regulators Support Microsoft Fine *-
-* Microsoft Plans Support for Open Document! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, we had a relatively quiet holiday week. Thankfully, the threat of
thunderstorms dampened the usual barrage of fireworks in the neighborhood
somewhat. We enjoyed our annual cookout, although we didn't go to any
extremes this year. I hope that you also had an enjoyable holiday.
It was nice to learn that Joe had an "easy" time with his recent house
closing. I remember ours wasn't too bad; he had the right idea - have
everything in order by the time you sign the papers, and all will go
relatively smoothly. It's a nice feeling owning your own home, once you get
everything moved in and get settled. Then the fun begins!! All the best of
luck to Lisa and Joe in their new home!
Speaking of home, I've finally finished moving that ten yards of loam and
four yards of mulch to appropriate places in the yard. Now I just have to
wait for the new grass to grow! I relaxed the next day by playing a round
of golf. Maybe I should have found something different to do for relaxation
because I played horribly!! Well, I guess we all have bad days on occasion.
Well, it's been a short week, and the "presses" are waiting to get this
week's issue. So, let's get right to it.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone, and
I'm in the process of moving into a new house... well, it's not a
NEW house, but it's new to me. You know what I mean.
I'd figured that it was going to be hectic, but since I'd been on
top of everything leading up to this (getting a mortgage secured,
the insurance, all the stuff to do with the realtor, etc.), I
thought that the move itself would follow suit and move along
according to my plan.
To quote Kevin Spacey in 'Superman Returns'... WRONG!
There's all these little things that weren't foreseen beforehand that
have conspired to bring things to a screeching halt.
Oh well, that's the way things go, I guess. I'll live with it
because... because... well, because I really have no choice.
Other than that, things are pretty good here. The weather has
cooperated as well (and, truth be told, even better) than can be
expected and, as I mentioned before, the things leading up to the
closing on the house went amazingly well. I mean, people would tell
me how nice it was to deal with someone who had a handle on things.
I didn't really think it was anything special, since all I did was
follow instructions and have things ready on time. But maybe that
IS something special these days.
Well, it's going to be a short column this week for two reasons.
First, I'm exhausted from TRYING to move things into the house and,
second, there aren't a lot of messages in the NewsGroup again this
week. You'll probably notice that there will be questions asked by
myself in appearing in the NewsGroup for at least a while. I'm
telling you this right up front so you don't feel like I'm 'putting
one over' on you.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that I do not 'play favorites'.
In all the years that I've been affiliated with the Atari world,
I've tried to give the viewpoints of everyone. But one thing I
won't do is waste readers' time with arguments that have little to
do with the subject at hand. So if there's a little bickering in a
thread, I leave it out. I don't care who the author is, it ain't
gettin' in here.
If you feel that you aren't being treated fairly, you are more than
welcome to write an article and submit it to the publisher, Dana
Jacobson. We can't pay you for it, but we'll give it every
consideration. That's a sincere offer, and we'll consider every
sincere submission.
I firmly believe that the cornerstone of good journalism is
sincerity... once you can fake that, the rest is easy. <grin>
Well, let's get to the messages from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Jim DeClercq asks about booting TOS from an image file instead of
from ROM:
"I have lost a disk, and forgotten a program name. What is it I
need, other than a TOS image, if I want to boot an ST machine on,
for example, 2.06, without modifying the hardware?"
Rory McMahon tells Jim:
"That would be SELTOS.
http://members.tripod.com/~piters/atari/tosload.htm "
One of the things I've always thought was kind of interesting was
the whole area of emulation. I can remember emulating an Atari
8-bit and Commodore 64 on the ST and, although I've always been of
the opinion that, if you want to run an ST, run an ST, not an
emulator on a PC, there are programs for the ST that you simply
can't find equivalents for in the PC world. In cases like that, an
emulator can be a godsend. So, since I'm scratching for posts for
this column, I post:
"Can someone (or many someone's) lay out for me the strengths and
weaknesses of their favorite Atari ST emulator(s)?
At one time, I was somewhat "up" on the state of the art, but things
have very probably changed since I last played with any of them.
Oh, and I'm not interested ONLY in solutions for WinDOZE, since I
run Linux and OS X too."
Patrice Mandin tells me:
"Hm, from what I remember about Atari machines (or more specifically
ST) emulators:
- Pacifist: was running under DOS, works also under Windows.
- Saint: Windows.
These two ones were meant to only run games and demos, so most work
has been put to accurately emulate the ST hardware. There are some
enhancement, like running the emulated 68000 at a higher frequency,
useful for people still developing ST software.
- Steem: Windows, Linux.
- Hatari: many systems.
These ones are still ST emulators, and also get some enhancements,
like having some higher resolution modes, mapping some host
directory as hard disk, etc. I prefer these two ones for running
pure ST stuff, because I only run Linux.
- Aranym: many systems.
This one is more comparable to an Atari clone (or a Falcon with an
Afterburner040 board), having a 68040 emulated, running the Falcon
TOS, so you can run some Falcon programs, but the hardware
emulation is far from complete. Useful to develop non 68000 stuff
(for 68020 or higher CPU, with FPU).
- Nostalgia, castaway, gemulator.
I don't know these ones, so you'll have to google them yourself."
Bill Glaholt takes the opportunity to ask:
"How about this question:
Are there any that support any useable connection through STinG?
I've tried to tunnel a ppp connection through STEem using a
bidirectional pipe into STEem's emulated serial port, but it's
*far* too slow.
I was hoping to be able to use a bridged TCP/IP subsystem much
in the same way that VMWare does, but no avail."
Alexander Beuscher tells Bill:
"ARAnyM supports networking, though I don't know whether STinG would
work.
See ARAnyM -> AraBridge. Not easy to configure from what I read, but
I did not try it myself yet."
Guillaume Tello adds this bit of info:
"About Aranym, I would say that, it's more a TOS+GEM emulator rather
than an Atari emulator. I mean that you can't run a "dirty" program
(as many of mine!) that makes direct access to the hardware. But you
may run the others that use standard and documented calls to BIOS,
VDI, AES? etc...
Finally, slow programs on Atari that used to respect everything are
speed up under Aranym. Fast programs on ATari that used to take
advantage of every easy way of hardware just won't run...
About Pacifist, I used some time ago, it's a great emulator when
your host is an old machine with no much power. I installed it on a
486DX/50 with 4Mb. It was a notebook, so I had a kind of "Stacy" I
could travel with, bring it to work, etc...
Close to 3Mb of ST Ram, enhanced graphic modes (the best was
640x480xmonochrome), and with NVDI I was close to the speed of a Mega
STE without NVDI.
You could run color applications (640x480x16) but with a jerky
screen and slow reactions from the computer. In monochrome, it was
great, (Everest, Assemble, GFA Basic, Interface, etc...). I didn't
use it for games.
I have never tried to run PCDitto under Pacifist! That was my
experience."
As far as ARAnyM is concerned, Mickael Pointier adds:
"... Strengths:
- It's multi-platform
- It's probably the fastest atari compatible system available
- Supports things that other atari systems only dream of (like
native large resolutions and built in modern peripherals)
Weakness:
- It's not modeled after specific model of Atari, and cannot be used
to use any application that is too close from the hardware (demo,
games, ...) only Gem based applications..."
Ingo Schmidt adds his thoughts:
"MagiC-PC (Windows, Linux with wine)
========
It is the most comfortable and stable one. Under wine it has
graphics errors, but still runs!
It is also very fast. However it costs a lot. Still!
Aranym (cygwin, Linux):
======
Lots of tiny issues here and there, but it runs MiNT+XaAES, which is
great. It is very unstable under CygWin. On Linux it is quite okay,
but by far not as comfortable as MagiC-PC. Pity, because MagiC
really sucks.
Steem (Windows)
=====
I think there is a linux version, but I don't use it. Steem is
perfect for hardware close stuff (debugging, old games etc.). It
has a very good GUI and is a piece of cake to set up and use!
But you can only run TOS on it, but any TOS version you like (again
good for testing).
These are the emulators I know and use. I have stopped using aranym
again, because under CygWin it is just too unstable and I don't know
why (aranym? fvdi? libSDL? Windows? cygwin? who knows)"
'Frost' adds:
"I run Linux myself and have a bit of experience with Steem. I
currently use the latest Ubuntu Dapper Drake distro on an AMD64
running in 32 bits, a quite powerful machine.
On my computer, the sound is quite horrible and the video is not as
smooth as on Windows, I have quite a lot of frameskip. By the way, I
never run Steem as 'setuid root' because I simply hate running stuff
as root.
Beside that, Steem is as stable as under Windows.
I never tried any other emulator on Linux. I hope it helps a
little."
Our friend Lonny Pursell adds his experiences:
"I can really only speak for OSX. The ONLY one that runs at a
useable speed is MagiC-MAC. But the cost is outrageous. The DEMO
is flakey, not exactly what you'd call polished."
Moving on to a different subject, I ask about Linux and MiNT on the
Atari series of computers. I must admit that, while I was
consciously looking for someone to correct my "apples and oranges"
type of question, I hadn't expected as clear and articulate answer
as I did. Judge for yourself. I ask:
"Linux or MiNT: Which is "better"?
At one time, I was running Debian Linux on my TT, but it was so slow
when running X that I gave up on it.
I now see more people talking about MiNT/SpareMinT and whatever
else. I've been out of the loop for a while, and was wondering if
one or two of you kind souls could help out an old Atari user with
stuff like pros and cons and where to find some of the cool stuff
that you'll no doubt be mentioning."
Jean-Francois Lemaire tells me:
"You can't possibly compare the two. Linux is a completely different
operating system than the built-in TOS. There is absolutely no way
to run a TOS/GEM program under Linux on an Atari compatible
computer.
FreeMiNT is, in a sense, the latest version of TOS. SpareMiNT is a
distribution of FreeMiNT that contains about everything you would
need. EasyMiNT is a simple installer for SpareMiNT, which doesn't
have an installation program.
http://dev.sparemint.org
http://xaaes.atariforge.net "
Ronald Hall adds:
"Here are some URLs to start with:
http://atari.st-katharina-apotheke.de/home.php?lang=en&headline=EasyMiNT&texte=easymint
http://sparemint.atariforge.net/sparemint/
Also, I'd subscribe to the MINT mailing list, just send an e-mail
with "subscribe mint" as the message content to:
majordomo@fishpool.com
Read, ask questions - this will get you started."
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 - Wii May Get Early Launch!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Atari's Test Drive Unlimited!
Minter Criticizes Sony!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Nintendo's Wii May Get Early Launch
Nintendo has stated numerous times that its next generation video game
machine will be less expensive than the competition. Now it appears that it
might be on store shelves considerably earlier than many were expecting as
well.
While Nintendo has not made any formal announcements about the launch date
for the Wii, most of the industry has expected the machine to hit retail at
approximately the same time as Sony's PlayStation 3 (which is set for
November 17). Now, industry observers - and insiders - say they expect the
system to be available in October, with late September a dark horse
candidate.
Indeed, the company appears to be already manufacturing final retail units
of the Wii, according to a June 21st analyst's note from P.J. McNealy of
American Technology Research. That would give it a significant head start
over Sony (Charts), which has yet to begin final manufacturing of the
PlayStation 3. Microsoft's first Xbox 360 did not roll off the assembly
line last year until 69 days before the on sale date of Nov. 22. (That late
start in production is the root cause behind last holiday's shortages.)
"October is a reasonable timeframe," wrote McNealy.
Nintendo has downplayed any suggested dates. Other industry insiders, who
asked not to be named, though, said they, too, are expecting a September or
October launch for the Wii.
Early manufacturing will certainly help Nintendo do a better job of meeting
consumer demand. New console launches traditionally sell out fast. Because
of manufacturing problems, Microsoft (Charts) was not able to come anywhere
close to meeting worldwide demand. Widespread shortages of the PlayStation
3 are also expected. Nintendo, like Sony, has given guidance that it
expects to ship 6 million units by March 2007.
A pre-November launch wouldn't be an unusual move for the company. In fact,
it was only with the GameCube that the company opted for a November release
for a home system. The NES, which established the company as a force in the
gaming space, was released in the U.S. on Oct. 18, 1985. The Nintendo 64
dropped on Sept. 29, 1996.
Pricing for the Wii remains a question mark, but the most likely price
points are $199 or $249. That would put it considerably below the PS3,
which will sell two versions for $499 and $599. Microsoft is not expected
to cut the prices of the two versions of the Xbox 360, which currently
cost $299 and $399.
That price would also be closer to the sweet spot for mainstream consumers,
which the company has said is its primary target this generation. The Wii
breaks many of the video game industry's traditional rules for a "next
generation" console. Graphics on games that have been shown to media are
not dramatically better than those found on GameCube games - and the system
will not support high definition video, unlike its competitors who are
using the move to HDTVs as a major part of their system. Nintendo president
Satoru Iwata has also vowed to keep game prices lower than the $60 price
tag for many Xbox 360 games (a price that's expected to be mirrored for
many PS3 titles).
The most unusual aspect of the Wii, however, is its controller, which
resembles a television remote-control. Instead of worrying about which
button or which thumbstick corresponds to which action, Wii players will
simply move their hands and wrists. That movement is then translated into
onscreen movements. The remote also features two prominent buttons where
the player's thumb and forefinger will rest.
Nintendo also has yet to announce the full list of games that will launch
alongside the Wii, though it has confirmed "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight
Princess" and "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption" - the latest installments in
two of the company's premier franchises - will be available on day one. A
new Mario game - "Super Mario Galaxy" - is deep in development, but will
most likely come out after the Wii has launched.
Atari Plays a Waiting Game With Test Drive Unlimited
In any commercial creative enterprise, delays are almost always considered
a bad thing. The team making the product gets nervous under the pressure.
The intended audience rolls its eyes or even starts to lose interest
altogether. And perhaps most important, the folks paying the bills get
antsy, or worse, about when they will (they hope) make their money back.
So when executives involved with Test Drive Unlimited, the ambitious online
racing simulation due later this summer, start talking about the game, the
first surprise is that they actually trumpet its long, difficult and
expensive production process, which began in 2003 and has cost between $15
million and $25 million.
The second surprise is Test Drive Unlimited itself, a sprawling, sumptuous
experience that seems poised to become one of the more engaging games of
the year. The game models the entire Hawaiian island of Oahu and allows
players to race any of 90 cars over more than 1,000 miles of roads.
Extensive testing is still needed to fine-tune the innovative online mode,
but the idea is that thousands of players will cruise the island
simultaneously over the Internet, challenging one another at any traffic
light to lay down some rubber. On the Xbox 360, the game's main system,
the graphics dazzle and the cars evoke a realistic sense of speed.
But perhaps the biggest shock is that this is all coming from Atari, a
major brand of the digital age but a company that in recent years has
become known for making cheap B-list games often thinly derived from tired
licenses like the "Matrix" film series. With Test Drive Unlimited, Atari
is attempting a revitalization of its own reputation, to recapture some
"street cred" among gamers.
"Frankly, we've been a poor-performing company for far too long," Nique
Fajors, Atari's vice president for sales and marketing, said last week.
(Atari has turned over much of its management in the last 18 months; Mr.
Fajors joined the company last summer.) "We have not delivered to our
stockholders, to our retail partners or, most fundamentally, to gamers for
far too long. We're hoping that Test Drive really helps bring credibility
back to the brand."
Video games are created by development teams, while publishers like Atari
foot the bill and receive most of the profits if the game is a hit. When
publishers get impatient, elite development studios like Blizzard and Maxis
have the track record, resources and clout to tell their corporate masters
to back off.
Most developers, however, can't do that. And so one of the perennial tales
in the game world is of the impatient (or hard-nosed, depending on your
perspective) publisher that refuses to give the high-minded (or profligate)
developers any more time or money to complete the supposed masterpiece they
are working on. The result is usually a rushed game that makes no one
happy.
That story is one Atari is historically familiar with, which is why the
company seems so proud of itself now for allowing Eden Games, the French
developer of Test Drive Unlimited, to do the job.
"From a product quality standpoint, you should know that we have delayed
this game four times," Mr. Fajors said, adding that the game was originally
supposed to ship alongside the Xbox 360's debut last November. "The old
Atari would have shipped it in the launch window or certainly in the March
time frame regardless. The new Atari would certainly have loved that
revenue sooner, but now the viewpoint is that we will ship it when it's
ready and not before, which is what is done for all the truly great
products."
In addition to Atari, there is another company rooting for Test Drive
Unlimited: Microsoft, which created the Xbox 360. But that is not just
because every sale of the game will generate a royalty for Microsoft. More
broadly Microsoft is relying on the game to highlight the breadth of
experiences possible over Xbox Live, the Internet service that now links
60 percent of all 360 users worldwide.
The 360 has beautiful graphics, but with the even more powerful
PlayStation 3 on its way from Sony this November, Xbox Live has become
perhaps the 360's most important selling point. The system already allows
gamers to track their friends online seamlessly, to engage in unlimited
voice chat using headsets and microphones and of course to play with and
against one another.
But by creating the entire island of Oahu as a persistent online
environment, Test Drive Unlimited is the biggest step yet toward the
emergence of multiplayer games designed specifically for the next
generation of consoles. Massively multiplayer online games, known as
M.M.O.'s, allow thousands of players simultaneously to inhabit common
virtual spaces that have traditionally been made for PC's, not consoles.
In World of Warcraft, the top such game, a player might take a stroll
through a city and see hundreds of players disguised as elves, gnomes and
dwarfs, all milling about at the same time.
Test Drive Unlimited is not a true M.M.O. because even when thousands of
users are on the island, the player can see and race against only seven
others at a time. But as the player drives from one end of Oahu to another
- along the beach and through streets and mountain passes - the seven other
players viewable in the vicinity will constantly change.
Such a system is an immense technical challenge, and it represents the kind
of advanced game play and innovation that Microsoft is hoping for on Xbox
Live. The bigger picture is that just about every game company in the world
these days is trying to figure out how to keep gamers engaged over months
and years through online communities.
"It isn't about just selling a $50 or $60 product at retail anymore," said
John Smith, the top United States liaison to third-party publishers like
Atari for Microsoft's game group. "It's about how you also keep people
engaged with your title over time, and that means online content."
"In terms of the massively multiplayer style of gaming, we don't want to
see people just try to bring over concepts from the PC world," he said.
"We're really encouraging people to design specifically for the 360 and do
right by the console. And Test Drive is the first one out of the gate like
that."
In a telephone interview from Lyon, France, Ahmed Boukhelifa, the game's
producer, said all of the delays had allowed his team finally to make the
game it had envisioned.
"There are a lot of racing games out there, we know," he said. "But this
is not just a game where you go through menus, pick a car, pick a race and
go around and around on a track. In Test Drive, I'm in my house, I go to
the garage, look at my collection of supercars, and I drive down the
street, and I can just meet people and race whenever we want, like in real
life.
"Or I can go to a car dealer and pick out a new car. Or I go to a club to
see my friends. We wanted to create a whole world around the racing, and
we wanted to do it online."
"We wanted to offer the players a huge playground and in that playground
give them lots of toys and tools to create their own challenges," Mr.
Boukhelifa said. "Test Drive is about playing your way, not our way. We
didn't see a game like that out there, and now hopefully there will be."
Video Game Legend Criticises Sony
UK video gaming stalwart Jeff Minter has criticised Sony for being "smug"
about its PlayStation 3 console.
Mr Minter, who founded Llamasoft in 1982 and developed a light synthesiser
for the Xbox 360, said the machine was "expensive" and lacked launch games.
His comments were published in the respected video game magazine Edge.
Sony chief executive Howard Stringer recently defended PS3's price - of
about 400 - saying it was "high" but that the console was "future proof".
Mr Minter, writing in his regular column for Edge, said: "They seem
absolutely certain that even when they say it's going to be considerably
more expensive than existing consoles... nevertheless us eager customers
will rush out in droves to buy it because it's, hey, a new PlayStation."
Mr Minter, who is famous for his 1980s games Llamatron and Gridrunner, said
Sony was "incredibly arrogant".
The PlayStation 3 will have a global launch in November with most analysts
expecting the initial delivery of two million consoles to sell out
immediately.
If the PS3 lives up to its total potential, then I don't think anyone will
be worried about Nintendo or Xbox's cheaper price - Howard Stringer, Sony
CEO.
Sony has said it hopes to ship four million PS3s by the end of the year.
Last month Mr Stringer said: "The price of the PS3 is high but you're
paying for potential."
He added: "Obviously, it's a higher-risk strategy - as all new inventions
are - but if the PS3 lives up to its total potential, then I don't think
anyone will be worried about Nintendo or Xbox's cheaper price."
The new PlayStation comes with a Blu-ray high definition DVD player inside
and Sony is hoping that its inclusion will prove attractive to gamers
moving into the HD era.
The Japanese company has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in a new
processor called Cell, which is at the heart of the new console.
Microsoft has said it will soon sell an external HD-DVD player, which is a
rival format to Blu-ray, but has not specified a price.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Judge Deals Blow to SCO in $5 Billion Linux Lawsuit
The holidays came early for devotees of the Linux operating system when a
judge last week threw out the majority of claims brought against IBM by
the SCO Group in its $5 billion intellectual property rights case.
The lawsuit, filed by the Utah-based firm in 2003 and scheduled to go to
trial next year, alleges that IBM "misappropriated confidential and
proprietary information" and used pilfered Unix code to help build Linux.
Magistrate Brooke C. Wells of U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on
Wednesday dismissed 182 of SCO's 294 claims in a 39-page ruling that
criticized the company for failing to comply with repeated requests to
provide IBM and the court with specific details about which lines of code
were stolen.
"SCO's arguments are akin to SCO telling IBM, 'Sorry we are not going to
tell you what you did wrong because you already know,'" Wells wrote. "Given
the amount of code that SCO has received in discovery, the court finds it
inexcusable that SCO is, in essence, still not placing all the details on
the table."
SCO has said that it could not provide the requested information because
the company dealt with "methods and concepts" as opposed to specific lines
of code. "Our legal team is reviewing the judge's ruling and will determine
our next steps in the near future," said SCO spokesperson Blake Stowell.
According to most industry observers, the ruling is a blow against SCO and
an affirmation for Linux followers who felt the case lacked merit and was
simply a desperate attempt by a company on its last legs to profit from
IBM's success with Linux.
"It's put up or shut up time for SCO," said Laura Didio, a Yankee Group
analyst. "The judge said, in effect, 'If this is a legal tactic to spring
a last-minute surprise, I'm not buying it.'"
According to Didio, in the event that SCO "really doesn't have the goods,"
then the company's case and a "good deal of what was left of their
credibility also just got tossed out along with the claims."
SCO and David Boies, the company's attorney, need to step up to the plate
and deliver some solid evidence, or fold, she said.
If SCO is successful in its lawsuit against IBM, the outcome could
reverberate throughout the tech industry. Shortly after filing the lawsuit,
SCO sent letters to companies known to use Linux, warning them of just such
an eventuality.
However, it remains unclear whether a ruling against SCO will help ease
the worries of companies considering the open-source platform.
Michael Goulde, an analyst with Forrester Research, said the case has
created an "energy-wasting cycle" for companies concerned about using
open-source software without indemnification.
"If there had never been a SCO suit, then the issues around this probably
would never have come up the way they do fairly consistently," Goulde
explained. "The concern about any risk can be traced back to this suit."
Goulde added that even if the suit were dismissed completely, enterprises
would not be so quick to forget about the case because the specter of the
possibility of being sued will still exist.
"The reality of the risk does not always matter to people. SCO brought up
this 'what if' kind of scenario," Goulde said. "The really strongly
risk-averse companies will still point to the fact that [a lawsuit] could
happen."
China Cracks Down On Blogs, Search Engines
China's Internet regulators are stepping up controls on blogs and search
engines to block material it considers unlawful or immoral, the government
said Friday.
"As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the
blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS,
blog and search engine under control," said Cai Wu, director of the
Information Office of China's Cabinet, quoted by the official Xinhua News
Agency.
The government will step up research on monitoring technology and issue
"admittance standards" for blogs, the report said, without providing any
details.
China encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block
access to obscene or subversive material. It has the world's second-biggest
population of Internet users after the United States, with 111 million
people online.
China launched a campaign in February to "purify the environment" of the
Internet and mobile communications, Xinhua said.
China has 37 million Web logs, or blogs, Xinhua said, citing a study by
Beijing's Tsinghua University. It said that number was expected to nearly
double this year to 60 million.
The government has launched repeated crackdowns on online material
considered pornographic.
Blogs Blocked In BlueGrass State
A blog ban has been kicking up dust in the bluegrass state, where
government employees are cut off from Internet content, including some that
has criticized their governor.
The home of the derby and Mint Julips is now the center of a national
debate over what Internet content employees should be able to access. In
Kentucky, however, the argument has taken on political tones.
Government officials have maintained that they have blocked content to
improve productivity, but critics contend that free speech rights are
threatened. They claim the state is discriminating against some forms of
leisure Web surfing and not others and should not be able to do so because
it is a public entity, not a private employer.
In June, the state blocked access to Bluegrassreport.org after bloggers and
campaign manager Mark Nickolas criticized the state's Republican
administration in a New York Times article. State officials later lifted a
block on a free market Web site, saying it contained information relevant
to state policy.
State leaders said the ban targeted blogs and pornography, but they also
blocked access to online Bible study groups.
Now, Nickolas is weighing legal options and critics are revealing more and
more sites that are blocked, as well as frivolous ones featuring non-work
related content like The Simpsons, which are still allowed.
At the same time, the government is going through its "blacklist" to remove
and justify the Web sites it contains.
Nickolas explained on his Web site and in a column that the issue is not
about government employees' Web access on the job, it's about government
deciding what constitutes legitimate news and a legitimate viewpoint.
"If government is required to uphold the constitutional guarantees of a
free press, isn't it a fundamental conflict if it gets to decide what
constitutes the press in the first place," he asked.
Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary John Farris, who also
serves as the state's chief information officer, has now donned a third hat
" that of guest columnist in local newspapers, where he defends the state's
actions regarding Internet use.
Citing a Gartner Group report, Farris points to reports that Americans
squander up to 40 percent of their daily productivity with Web surfing. He
also airs some of the state's dirty laundry, including an audit in 2003
that showed that the state's transportation department workers accessed
pornographic Web sites 6,000 times on state computers during four days of
monitoring.
Farris further defends against charges of censorship and First Amendment
violations by explaining that the audit also uncovered piracy through the
transportation department's computer system. In that case, French hackers
were to blame, according to Farris. The state's "Acceptable Use Policy"
also prohibits misuse of state computers. The state installed Webwasher, an
anti-hacking, anti-virus e-mail and Internet filter to help enforce the
policy. Farris said that he requested a report soon after entering his
current position on June 8 and discovered massive use among employees for
entertainment purposes. He decided to have Webwasher block several
categories, including entertainment and blogs, he said.
"Since that time, many Web sites have claimed that they have been
individually singled-our or unfairly targeted," he said in his written
statement. "I assure you this is not the case. Admittedly, the
software-based categorical blocking of Web sites is not a perfect science.
In fact, because of the large amount of "gray area" that comes with
blocking of Internet access, we have asked the software vendor to
categorize sites that were not initially identified."
EU Regulators Support Fining Microsoft
In a major step toward new penalties against Microsoft Corp., Europe's
antitrust regulators voted unanimously Monday in favor of fining the
world's largest software company for flouting a 2004 ruling, two people
close to the case said.
The regulators backed EU plans to penalize the company but did not discuss
the amount of the fine - which they will do at another meeting next week,
according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because no
formal decision has been reached.
The European Commission threatened in December to levy daily fines of up
to 2 million euros ($2.5 million) against Microsoft for not complying with
an order to supply rivals with "complete and accurate" information to help
them develop software that works smoothly with Microsoft's Windows
operating system.
Under the rules, the commission must consult regulators twice - once on the
principle of the ruling and on the amount - before it announces the fine.
Regulators agreed on the principle Monday.
The commission declined to comment on Monday's meeting. Microsoft said it
was working to meet deadlines to fix problems with the technical
information it is compiling so that rivals can better work with its
ubiquitous operating system.
Microsoft said it has a team of 300 people working full-time on a framework
to supply the information. Six of seven installments have already been
delivered, it said.
Late last year, independent trustee Neil Barrett, a computer science
professor, reported that 12,000 pages needed a drastic overhaul to make
them workable.
"Microsoft is dedicating massive resources to meet the aggressive schedule
and high-quality standards set by the trustee and the commission in this
process," the Redmond, Wash.-based company said in a statement. "Our
engineers are working around the clock to meet the seventh and final
delivery date for this project scheduled for July 18."
Microsoft has said any fine at this stage would be "unjustified and
unnecessary" while it was still working to comply with the ruling.
But the commission said a decision to levy fines was not connected with
this project and Microsoft had already had 18 months to comply after a
court rejected its appeal against immediate sanctions.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that the EU would make a final
decision to fine Microsoft on July 12 - which could see Microsoft faced
with a maximum 418 million euro ($525 million) penalty. The commission
refused to confirm this date.
The EU has never before fined a company for failing to obey an earlier
order.
In December 2004, Microsoft lost a legal bid to stop antitrust sanctions
while it was appealing the ruling that obliged it to share communications
code with rivals, offer a version of Windows without Media Player software
and pay a record 497 million euro ($613 million) fine.
The EU's second-highest court heard its appeal in April and must still
deliver its verdict. Its judgment can be appealed to the European Court of
Justice.
EBay Bans Google Checkout
EBay customers won't be able to use the newly launched Google Checkout
service to buy products, according to the auction Web site.
Google Checkout is now listed among other payment services such as
Netpay.com, Qchex.com, ePassporte.com, and BillPay.ie that are not
permitted on eBay.
The Google offering lets online shoppers store credit card and address
information with Google so that they don't have to re-enter the same
information each time they buy an item from a different Web site.
At the time of the service launch, in late June, Google took pains to
insist that the offering would not compete with PayPal, the online buying
service that is owned by eBay.
EBay did not return calls requesting details about why it is banning Google
Checkout but an analyst says that the potential competition to PayPal is
likely to blame.
"I think there's only one answer here which is [eBay is] afraid for the
competition," said Jaap Favier, a vice president at Forrester Research.
"Google Checkout could be an enormous threat for PayPal."
Even if the current Google Checkout service doesn't exactly compete head on
with PayPal, it could in the future. Favier expects Google to become
increasingly active in e-commerce in the longer term and it would make
sense for Google to boost the Checkout service to offer more capabilities
that could make it similar to PayPal.
On the eBay Web page that describes its acceptable payment policy, it says
that when new payment services arise, eBay will evaluate them to decide if
they're appropriate. Some payment services may not be permitted on eBay
although they may be appropriate services for consumers in other contexts,
the page says.
The page also says that eBay considers a number of factors to determine
which payment options will be accepted including enough financial, privacy,
and fraud protection; the identity, background, and other business
interests of the payment service provider; and the regulatory status of the
provider.
Britain OKs Hacker's Extradition to U.S.
Britain's top law enforcement official on Thursday approved the extradition
to the United States of an alleged computer hacker accused of damaging U.S.
military systems.
Gary McKinnon, 40, has two weeks to appeal the order, signed Tuesday by
Home Secretary John Reid, the Home Office said.
A judge ruled in May that McKinnon, who has been indicted in New Jersey
and northern Virginia, should be sent to the United States to face trial.
The decision required Reid's approval. His office said he was not convinced
by the arguments McKinnon raised in his defense.
McKinnon said he planned to appeal, telling British Broadcasting Corp.
television "I am very worried and feeling very let down by my own
government."
He is accused of illegally accessing 97 computers, causing at least
$700,000 in damage in the largest attack on the U.S. government's computer
networks, U.S. government attorneys told a British court.
Court records in Virginia allege McKinnon caused up to $900,000 in damage
to computers, including those of private companies, in 14 states.
McKinnon, an unemployed computer system administrator who lives in London,
has said he did not intend to cause damage, but was seeking evidence that
America is concealing the existence of UFOs.
But Judge Nicholas Evans said he left messages on one system protesting
U.S. foreign policy.
"U.S. foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism," Evans
quoted one such note as saying.
McKinnon was arrested in 2002. He opposed extradition, claiming he could
face prosecution under U.S. anti-terror laws.
He is accused of hacking into U.S. government computers including a system
at the Pentagon between February 2001 and March 2002.
He allegedly accessed a network of 300 computers at the Earle Naval Weapons
Station in Colts Neck, N.J., and stole 950 passwords.
The alleged break-in occurred shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and
shut down the whole system for a week, Evans said. The station is
responsible for replenishing the Atlantic fleet's munitions and supplies.
It is up to officials in New Jersey and Virginia to decide where McKinnon
will be tried.
If convicted of the charges in New Jersey, McKinnon faces a maximum
sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, U.S. Attorney
Christopher J. Christie said when the indictment was disclosed.
Although McKinnon was able to view sensitive details about naval munitions
and shipbuilding on the U.S. computer systems, he did not access classified
information, an investigation found.
File-Sharing Networks Still Thriving
A year ago, when the Supreme Court ruled against Grokster and gave the
recording and motion picture industries greater power to sue over illegally
shared copyrighted music and movies, file-sharing software seemed destined
for the recycle bin.
The recording industry claimed at the time that the decision laid the
groundwork for the dawn of a new era. "We will no longer have to compete
with thieves in the night whose businesses are built on larceny,"
proclaimed Sony BMG CEO Andrew Lack.
Yet one year after the Supreme Court's decision, file-sharing networks are
alive and well, and statistics show their membership is growing.
After the court ruling, several file-sharing companies said they would
change their illegal ways and begin to abide by the law. In fact, Sam
Yagan, chief executive of MetaMachine, the company that developed the
eDonkey service, told a Senate committee that his company would reform
rather than deal with the threat of litigation in the wake of the Grokster
decision.
But while certain peer-to-peer (P2P) operators hit the delete button and
shut down or turned legitimate, others, including LimeWire, Morpheus, and
Kazaa, have kept their doors open for business.
According to BigChampagne, a company that tracks file-sharing activities,
there was an average of 9.7 million simultaneous file-sharing users at any
given time during May, including 6.7 million users in the U.S. alone. Those
figures, according to the company, represent an increase of about one
million users worldwide over the same period last year.
Despite these and other stats, RIAA Chief Executive Mitch Bainwol claimed
in June that unauthorized music-swapping had been contained. "The problem
has not been eliminated," Bainwol was quoted in a USA Today article as
saying. "But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing,
thriving business, and file-trading is flat."
In contrast to the positive spin the recording industry is placing on its
antipiracy initiatives, Frost & Sullivan analyst Mukul Krishna said he
thinks the RIAA and the Justice Department seemed to have lost a lot of
the momentum generated by the Grokster ruling. As a result, he said, a
growing number of people have started going back to P2P services.
"It has been surprising that the steam that was there from [the RIAA] and
the Feds has run out," Krishna said. "We were expecting to see much more
high-profile [activity], and seeing P2P networks start toeing the line,
but that really hasn't happened."
Because songs and movies are free on file-sharing networks, it is a lure
that almost irresistible to young people that make up the bulk of P2P
users, said Paul Jackson, a Forrester analyst. "There is always a core -
typically young people, possibly students - that will try to get something
for nothing," Jackson said.
Nitin Gupta, a Yankee Group analyst, offered a similar take, noting that it
is difficult for any business to compete with free alternatives. Content
makers, he said, should "focus on creating new business models" that allow
music listeners to discover and share music in a way that generates revenue
and does not cannibalize CD sales.
One of these ways is of course iTunes, which is reported to have sold more
than one billion tracks to date. However, a recent study by Frost &
Sullivan found that fewer than one in 100 tracks loaded on an iPod is a
download from the iTunes music store.
"Younger people will look for anything that is free because they don't have
credit cards or always want to get parental consent," Krishna said.
McAfee Predicts Viruses to Double by 2008
Although widespread virus outbreaks may be a thing of the past, the total
amount of malicious software being written is on the rise, according to
McAfee.
On Tuesday, McAfee vendor added the 200,000th definition to its threat
database, and the security vendor expects the total number of identified
threats to double in another two years. McAfee's antivirus products use
these definitions as digital fingerprints to determine which software
should not be allowed to run on a user's PC.
After a bit of a lull in their efforts, virus writers have spent the past
few years creating more of this software than ever before, said Jimmy Kuo,
a research fellow with McAfee's Avert Labs.
Between 1999 and 2002, McAfee's database held steady at around 50,000
definitions, but since then, the number of different worms and viruses
being created has jumped, he said.
At the same time, the number of serious outbreaks has dropped dramatically.
In 2004, McAfee counted 48 virus outbreaks of at least medium severity. In
2005, that number dropped to 12. This year there haven't been any.
These trends reflect the growth and increasing professionalization of
hacker culture that no longer seeks the fame that accompanies a worldwide
virus outbreak. Instead of fame, hackers want money, Kuo said.
"There are now hackers for hire in spamming and phishing campaigns and
they're in it to work," he said. "When you create a big incident... the
police react and they go searching for you," he added. "So the bad guys
don't create these incidents anymore."
McAfee may be bragging that it has discovered a large number of virus
definitions, but there's a down side to all of this good work: sluggish
computers.
There are now more antivirus signatures than there are files on a typical
PC, according to Andrew Jaquith, a senior analyst at the Yankee Group.
"Collectively the industry is creaking under the load of all of it," he
said.
With its 200,000 definitions, McAfee's software is going to cause some
trouble on some PCs, Kuo admitted. "For those companies that still have
really old machines, they basically stop updating their dat [virus
definition] files after a while," he said. "If you run it on a 1998-style
machine, it's not going to run very well at all."
But even if newer "behavior-based" antivirus techniques begin to take a
front seat in identifying viruses, definitions will not go away because
they serve an important role in cleaning up systems that have already been
compromised, Kuo said. "In terms of preventing you might lean more upon
behavior-based [techniques]" he said. "But after you've been hit by
something you're going to want to go to definitions."
July is Browser Bug Month to Researcher
The creator of a widely used hacking tool has promised to publish details
on one browser vulnerability per day for the month of July.
HD Moore, the hacker behind the Metasploit toolkit, began publishing
software that demonstrates bugs in various Web browsers on July 1. He has
dubbed his effort the Month of Browser Bugs.
Moore said that he decided to embark on the project to show the kinds of
results he has generated by using a variety of automated security testing
tools known as "fuzzers."
"This information is being published to create awareness about the types
of bugs that plague modern browsers and to demonstrate the techniques I
used to discover them," Moore said in a Sunday blog posting.
The Month of Browser Bugs code does not include details that would allow
attackers to run unauthorized code on a victim's machine, Moore said.
So far, the security researcher has published information on bugs that he
found in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Apple's Safari browser.
Microsoft has had an advance look at the bugs, some of which can cause the
browser to crash, said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager with
Microsoft's security response center. Others have been fixed in previous
security updates, he said.
In an e-mail interview, Moor said that, while Microsoft fixed some of the
bugs with its recent MS06-021 security update, "the actual details of these
bugs have not been made public."
The relationship between Microsoft and Moore - a speaker at Microsoft's
home-grown Blue Hat hacker conference - has been strained of late. Two
weeks ago, the security researcher blasted Microsoft for implying that he
had acted irresponsibly in disclosing a Microsoft flaw involving a recently
patched vulnerability in the Remote Access Connection Manager service,
which Windows uses to create network connections over the telephone.
Moore published his code nine days after the bug was patched, but Microsoft
criticized the disclosure, saying that it came too soon.
This criticism did not sit well with Moore. "Microsoft is doing themselves
a disservice by asking for vulnerability information on one hand and then
condemning the folks who provide it with the other," he said in a blog
posting, adding that the software vendor "obviously has some communication
issues to resolve."
Providing details about 31 new browser bugs will certainly attract
attention, but Moore's disclosures won't suddenly make the Web more
dangerous for people who "practice reasonably safe surfing" and avoid
suspect Web sites, said Russ Cooper, a senior information security analyst
at Cybertrust.
"Saying we are at risk due to browser vulnerabilities is akin to saying we
are at risk due to being in a car," he said via instant message. "Yes, this
is true...but you can certainly reduce the risk of harm while in a car
through reasonable knowledge, use, and maintenance. The same is true with
browsers."
Microsoft Ends Support for Windows 98 and ME
Starting next week, more than 70 million Windows users running older
operating systems will no longer receive security updates from Microsoft.
Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition (ME) users will have to fend for
themselves without the protection of the security patches and other
software fixes that Microsoft regularly issues. Without the updates, users
could be vulnerable to attacks by hackers attempting to capitalize on
unpatched flaws.
Microsoft, which originally planned to discontinue the security updates
for these older operating systems in January 2004, decided to extend its
support until July 11 in an effort to maximize the amount of time consumers
and businesses still using the older software needed to upgrade.
"The surprise is that they have continued their support for so long despite
the fact that there have been many other versions of their operating system
around since these versions came out," said Mukul Krishna, a Frost &
Sullivan analyst.
Industry estimates put the number of PCs running a licensed version of
Windows 98 and Windows ME at around 13 percent of the total number of
Windows users.
According to Al Gillen, an analyst with the research firm IDC, about 48
million computers were running legal versions of Windows 98 at the end of
last year, while another 25 million were still using Windows ME.
Gillen said he anticipates the percentage of users running the antiquated
operating systems to drop to 6 percent of total Windows users by the end
of 2006.
"The laggards are those users who are going to keep these systems around
until they either catch fire or simply don't turn on one day," Gillen was
quoted as saying. "Generally speaking, these people who run old operating
systems are probably not waiting on the edge of their seat for the next new
Windows operating system to arrive."
Many of the affected users, Krishna said, do not even realize that they
have support from Microsoft. This set of users, he said, probably will not
upgrade until their hardware dies.
Schools and consumers are likely to be affected most by the removal of
support, with schools taking the biggest hit because budget constraints
could make it difficult for them to purchase Windows XP, said Michael
Silver, a Gartner research analyst.
There are, however, steps users can take to protect themselves until they
can afford to upgrade. Strong antivirus software is one way. And, at the
very least, users should visit Microsoft's Windows Update page to download
the latest patches before the July 11 deadline.
Of particular concern, according to Silver, are Windows 98 systems that are
connected to the Internet by way of broadband. "PCs on broadband are the
most urgent to secure," he said. "New applications don't generally run on
Windows 98 anyway. [Users should] budget to get these PCs replaced."
AOL May Give Away More of Its Services
AOL LLC may give away even more of its services, including its vaunted
AOL.com e-mail accounts now limited to paying subscribers, to boost ad
revenues and offset declines in subscriptions, a person familiar with the
discussions said Thursday.
One proposal under consideration among top AOL executives calls for Time
Warner Inc.'s online unit to stop charging subscription fees to users who
have high-speed Internet access or even dial-up service from a rival
provider.
The person familiar with the talks said a major strategic review over the
past several months sought to identify additional ways to keep users within
the AOL family regardless of whether they want to keep paying monthly fees
of as much as $25.90 a month.
Under the plan, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the company
would continue to charge the fees for those needing dial-up access through
AOL.
Over the past year and a half, AOL has been making more of its articles,
video and other services available for free on its ad-supported Web sites.
But some features, including AOL.com e-mail, remained available only to
paying subscribers.
AOL offers free e-mail services, but only through its Web site and with an
AIM.com address. AOL offered to forward former subscribers' AOL.com e-mail
to AIM accounts, but many didn't bother because they had to give friends
new e-mail addresses anyway.
If the proposal is adopted, those subscribers would be able to keep their
AOL.com address and use the AOL software with which they're familiar.
The AOL software also would allow subscribers to continue using instant
messaging, Web journals and other services without having to download
separate software or figure out Web-based options. That would ease the
transition and encourage them to keep using AOL services, the person
familiar with the matter said.
Details that still to be worked out include whether AOL would give away
security and parental-control software now part of the paid package, the
person said.
AOL had 18.6 million U.S. subscribers as of March 31, a drop of 835,000
from the previous quarter and down from a peak of 26.7 million in September
2002.
Rob Enderle, an industry analyst with the Enderle Group, said AOL needs to
avoid becoming a company "caught in the middle" - trying to juggle both a
paying subscriber base and a free, ad-based model without doing either
well.
AOL must accelerate the shift to free, he said, to become closer to what
its rivals like Yahoo Inc. already do, even if it means painful cuts in
revenues in the short run.
"By doing this they are certainly going to take a bigger hit, but they may
be able to turn the company to growth," he said. "A smaller company that
is growing is better than a larger company slowly in decline."
According to Time Warner's regulatory filings, AOL subscriptions generated
$1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2006, contributing to the unit's
profit of $269 million. But that's still a 13 percent drop in subscription
revenue from the same period last year.
Advertising generated less revenue - $392 million in the quarter - but that
was an increase of 26 percent.
According to the Journal, AOL expects that 8 million of its existing
dial-up customers would jump on the offer, costing as much as $2 billion
in annual subscription fees.
In a research note, Michael Nathanson of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC
said the plan carries "execution risk and the likelihood for downward
revisions" in Time Warner's finances.
The AOL plan requires ad revenues to grow significantly, although some of
the lost revenue could be offset by lower expenses, including layoffs in
marketing and customer service.
Just two months ago, AOL announced about 1,300 layoffs, or roughly 7
percent of its global work force, in the latest cuts to affect mostly its
service centers.
Enderle said the discussions could be seen as a sign some of AOL's previous
strategies didn't meet expectations.
Earlier this year, AOL partnered with several cable and phone companies to
provide AOL-branded high-speed service, in most cases for $25.90 a month,
as a way to encourage dial-up users to migrate to broadband. AOL has not
released figures on how many took the offer.
The proposal under consideration would let Internet users who already have
broadband elsewhere get AOL without switching providers.
Microsoft Plans Support for Open Document Format
Microsoft is extending an olive branch to the open-source community with
the launch of an initiative to provide interoperability between the
company's Office Open XML file format and the rival Open Document Format
(ODF).
The Open XML Translator project, which involves a group of third-party
partners, will make available free software tools for older versions of
Microsoft Office so that documents produced by the Office applications can
be easily converted to ODF files.
The objective is to give organizations more choice when it comes to
composing and storing documents by bridging the gap between the two
different technologies.
Microsoft has enlisted the help of France-based Clever Age and other
independent software
companies, including Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika
in Germany, to build the translation tools. The project will be hosted on
the SourceForge development site.
A complete version of the translation utility for Microsoft Word should be
available by the end of this year, with Excel and PowerPoint utilities
expected in 2007.
"There is some momentum behind ODF, so it is in Microsoft's best interest
to offer a connection to that standard," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe
Wilcox. He noted that Office formats and ODF are substantially different in
that ODF derives from a single application platform - OpenOffice - while
Office has separate Word, Excel, and PowerPoint document systems.
"Microsoft has contended that true document fidelity can only be achieved
through support of its file formats, and that something will be lost in
translation, but we have already seen that interoperability works with
Adobe and other complex imaging formats," Wilcox said.
Forrester Research analyst Kyle McNabb said Microsoft's decision to
cooperate is good news for large organizations that want the option to use
their existing Microsoft applications as well as ODF.
"It may be more cost effective to use the open standard file format, but
some enterprises and governments are not happy with the tools available
with ODF, compared to what's offered with Office," he said.
Still, ODF is gaining a following because it provides the archival
longevity that is critical for government operations. Massachusetts, for
one, has mandated that all state government offices use ODF by 2007 to
ensure that documents are accessible long into the future.
"Now that ODF is an accepted standard, Microsoft has to take it seriously,"
McNabb said. "And the fact that they are funding this open-source project,
using outside partners, shows that the company understands it has to
cooperate."
Puppy Love Goes Online in China
One hundred lonely Shanghai dogs will have a chance to find their ideal
mates at a dog-dating event hosted by China's first professional online pet
matchmaking company, the Shanghai Daily said on Thursday.
The event, later this month, is organised by gougou520.com, which will try
to match the pooches with the perfect partners - though it may not only be
the dogs that benefit.
"For single pet owners, this may lead to a real romance. We found most
people who register are under 35 and working-class singles," the Web site's
director, Zhou Handong, told the newspaper.
Zhou said the service had matched 100 pets, using basic data and
personality information, and registered 2,000 since it launched in
December.
Raising dogs was banned under the rule of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong as
a bourgeois pastime and was only made legal a few years ago as living
standards rose.
Mouse Potatoes, Himbos and Googling Go Mainstream
Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes, google officially became a verb and
drama queens finally found the limelight on Thursday when they crossed over
from popular culture to mainstream English language.
The mouse potato (who spends as much time on the computer as his/her 1990s
counterpart did on the couch), the himbo (attractive, vacuous - and male)
and the excessively emotional drama queen were among 100 new words added
to the 2006 update of America's best-selling dictionary, the
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the dictionary
for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the
world wide web.
New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop culture
and industry are chosen each year by Merriam-Webster's team of editors
after months of poring over books, magazines and even food labels.
"They are not tracking verbal language. They are looking for evidence that
words have become assimilated into the written English language," said
Arthur Bicknell, senior publicist with Merriam-Webster.
"Unfortunately with slang words by the time it has become assimilated it
probably isn't cool anymore. If the grown-ups are using it, forget it!,"
Bicknell said.
Other words making their debut this year were soul patch (a small growth
of beard under a man's lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows joining together)
and supersize - the fast food industry phrase for extra large meals.
The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming cellphone
call signals) and spyware (software installed in a computer to
surreptitiously track a user's activities) while biodiesel and avian
influenza came from the world of science.
America's first dictionary - Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of
the English Language - was published 200 years ago and also introduced a
crop of fresh words that have now become familiar.
Those "new" words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology and, naturally,
Americanize.
=~=~=~=
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