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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 08 Issue 28
Volume 8, Issue 28 Atari Online News, Etc. July 14, 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:
Ingo Schmidt
Kevin Savetz
Lonny Pursell
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0828 07/14/06
~ GFA Basic Editor Out! ~ People Are Talking! ~ RUN Updates Available
~ DOPA Testimony Heard! ~ States Sue Chipmakers! ~ eBay Faces Threat!
~ New BITS Club Web Site ~ SAP Player Released! ~ Advan Basic Now PD!
~ Microsoft Fights Spam! ~ Online Safety Campaign ~ Firefox 2.0 Beta!
-* Spammers Shift To IM & Blogs *-
-* EU Slaps Microsoft With Hefty Fine! *-
-* Microsoft Sees January for Vista Release! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Ordinarily, I'd have my editorial comments completed prior to our release
date, but this week was a little weird. We've had some awful weather for
part of the week - thunderstorms with torrential downpours of rain and hail.
One of my [canine] kids hates thunder. When she hears it, it's time to hide
under the nearest object that she can fit under. This week, it was under
one of my two computer desks - usually the one that I want to be seated! So
this week, when I wanted to write my editorial comments, "Buffy" was
securely entrenched under my desk. There was no moving her, so I postponed
getting things done.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to let you know how I felt
about my newly-acquired DSL, and compare it to those lightning-fast days
gone by with 19,200 baud on the Atari machines. Well, I didn't manage to
get the wireless DSL going on my machine (it was fine on my wife's set-up).
Fortunately, I decided to get some outside help because I wasn't getting
anywhere. I called "Geek Squad" (I love their TV ads!). Good thing that I
did because I never would have figured it out! The guy was here for almost
two hours, but got it working. I haven't had much time to use it yet, but
I'm sure that I will get some lengthy use, and will report back. I can say
that I don't miss the dial-up process!
So, to get this week's issue out reasonably on time, let me end this now,
and make some last-minute finishing touches up so we can get this issue to
bed!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
RUN!Only and RUN!Lib Update
Hi!
RUN!Only and RUN!Lib have been updated!
Most striking feature is probably the possibility to redim fields.
Apart from that lots of bugfixes and little improvements have been made.
More info on the RUN! Software homepage under "Produkte" and
"Service/Download"
http://www.run-software.de
The page is in German, but there are very comprehensive docs in the
archive in both, German and English! Please do read them!
Cheers, Ingo =;->
mmSAP - SAP Player for GNU/Linux Released
mmSAP is a SAP player for GNU/Linux. It has a gtkmm user interface.
- Libraries required: libSAP 1.51,SDL 1.2.10, gtkmm 2.8.2
- Source code available.
Link for atarians from former Czechoslovakia:
http://www.baktra.wz.cz/software/mmsap.html
Link for other atarians:
http://www.baktra.wz.cz/english.html
GFA-Basic Editor v1.40 Released
For those that enjoy programming in BASIC.
The list-of-changes is rather large. Please read the documentation for all
the details.
Note: This version will not work correctly with previous configuration
files. You must delete the *.gbe files in your \home\ directory before you
use it!
--
FreeMiNT http://sparemint.atariforge.net/sparemint/ [Free your mind...]
Atari Team http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=30472
L. Pursell http://www.bright.net/~gfabasic/ [AtarIRC, GFA-Basic, Hades060]
Advan BASIC Re-released As Public Domain
A commercial Advan BASIC programming language has been now re-released.
After over twenty years its author, William Graziano made it widely
available under the public domain license. The compiler, tools and full
documentation may be downloaded from the http://advan.oldos.net/ site.
There is also a competition announced for the best program written in this
great BASIC implementation (look at comp.sys.atari.8bit posts).
URL: http://www.atari8.info/dodajkomentarz.php?news=405&lang=en
New Site of The BITS Club
*** B I T S ***
Hello!
The BITS Club, a modern scene group
programming for Atari ST, Amiga, Unix
and Windows, presents You their new
site in WWW:
http://thebitsclub.tripod.com/index.html
We have been using geocities.com a
while, but the bandwidth/hour was not
enough for so many fans! ;-)...
Anyway we still sponsor geocities at:
http://www.geocities.com/thebitsclub/
Greetings,
SoLo2
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. It's going to be another short column
this week... I'll tell ya that right off the bat. I've been moving
from one location (rented) to another (mortgaged) for the past
couple of weeks, and I didn't have time to "seed" the newsgroup
with interesting(?) questions.
To tell you the truth, I'm not as chock-full of interesting
questions as I used to be. Maybe, if you have a chance, you could
visit comp.sys.atari.st and ask a question or two. You know, one of
those questions that's not really of any great import, but
something that you wondered about or wanted clarification about, or
maybe something you already know the answer to, but want to share
with other people.
While cleaning out some old stuff during the move, I came across a
couple of old badges from computer shows I've been to... WAACE,
Blueridge, and the ACT show to be exact. They brought back memories
of a time when the Atari world was, if not robust, at least more
active than it is now. Users were still discovering Atari
computers, vendors were still able to making a living selling Atari
wares, and computer magazines still mentioned the ST line of
computers... as also-rans, to be sure, but they were mentioned.
Today, we're lucky to see an accurate "has been" or "also ran"
article that mentions that Atari computers were once a viable
alternative to the 'big blue machine' or the 'multi-colored fruit'.
Hell, I can remember when industry experts were scratching their
heads, trying to figure out where the industry was going next, and
if the public would be ready for it. Would the general public really
get the hang of using computers, or would they forever remain the
domain of the nerd? Well, I've been a nerd for most of my life, and
I wasn't sure, either. When I first heard of this wondrous network
known as 'The Internet' it was the provenience of University geeks
and military contractors.
Obviously, this thing was never going to fly with the general
public. Even though CompuServe, Delphi and GEnie were making
provisions to be able to send email to other services and internet
addresses, the need for these strange protocols and viewing
programs seemed like just so much hype. I mean, who could conceive
of a program so large that it's got to be written by a team? And
all of that work just to go online? And they're going to give the
program and stuff away for free? I don't think so, Charlie. I
wasn't born yesterday.
Well, okay. I was wrong... again. Yeah, not a rare occurrence, I'm
afraid. Once I wrote a piece for a national magazine saying that
the age of per-hour billing for online access was soon to go the
way of the dodo, and that 'per-compute-cycle' billing was going to
be the wave of the future, and that it'd be a good thing for users,
since you'd only pay for the time that the remote computer was
actually doing something for you instead of for the minutes you'd
been connected. It made sense at the time, and I'd received lots of
correspondence saying that I was on to something and that
compute-cycle billing would surely become the wave of the future.
Oh well.
But to be fair, who could possibly hope to be able to foresee the
future of an industry that hasn't stopped growing? I mean, the
lowest low-end video card now has more RAM that our whole computers
had back then. And clock speeds... well, let's not get into that. I
find it too depressing.
Anyway, those old show badges made me sit and think for a while
about those shows, more than a decade ago, and how they got press
coverage in all the major trade magazines. It was quite a bit
easier back then to find other Atari users. Heck, I didn't even
join up with a Users' Group until after Atari had stopped making
computers all together. There was, quite simply, no need. While
Atari users were never as plentiful as Mac or PC users, you tended
to run into them much more often then than now.
It was nice to be able to instantly find common ground with a
complete stranger. We all knew most of the catch-phrases and
popular applications and games, and could converse intelligently
about our computers and their wares.
It's true that the ST wasn't the only computer to garner this kind
of support... the Commodore Amiga started out at about the same
time, and it's still got a following. Heck, even the Texas
Instruments TI99-4A and the Coleco ADAM still have semi-active and,
at times, almost militant userbase.
But as I've said many times before, the ST was always special to me.
It seems to have it's own personality. I'm not talking about little
idiosyncrasies like having to let it warm up for a minute or two
before trying to load from a particular partition from my hard
drive, or having to thump my monochrome monitor on the side to get
the image to clear. I'm talking about the PERSONALITY of the
machine... that undefinable something that gave you that comforting
feeling when you sat down at the keyboard. It's a feeling that I've
gotten with every ST-series computer that I've ever owned except
for one.... it was a 1040 STfm that just didn't want to be friends.
It worked alright, it never malfunctioned or broke down, it just
didn't "feel" the same as the others.
And no emulator or virtual machine ever had the same feel as my
tried-and-true friends. Even though they were running ROM images
from my own machines, were running at the same speed as my old
machines, using the same resolution and number of colors, and
running the same software, the emulators were just soulless
imitations of what I had known.
More important than the machines, however, were the people. I've
made so many friends while using my STs that they've become a major
part of the experience and, truth be told, the reason that I still
deal with the Atari world. These people are the best, and many of
them I consider to be among my best friends. Most people just can't
wrap their minds around the idea that good, close friends can be
people that you'd never met in person. Their loss, right? <g>
I'm going to save the UseNet posts from this week, and combine them
with next week's, so that we'll have a decent amount to talk about.
Who knows? Maybe I'll even have my spiffy new DSL connection up and
running by then! Yep, I've ordered a 6 Mb/sec connection for the
new house instead of the 1.5 Mb/sec connection I've got at the
apartment. While more expensive, the cost isn't horrible... hell, I
spent more per month when I first went to using my 2400 baud modem
on CompuServe! Man, was I the envy of all my friends then! 2400
baud seemed like the greatest thing in the world. Who could ever
need more than that? Even Atari's Director of Communications had a
take on the situation... 9600 baud was only used by pirates, and no
self-respecting, law-abiding Atari user would ever consider a 9600
baud modem.
My, how the times have changed.
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 - PS3 Backwards Compatible!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 'Call of Duty 3' Enlists Classics!
Xbox 360 To Go Retro!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PS3 To Play All PSOne, PS2 Games
Sony's PlayStation 3 will play almost every PlayStation game, a senior IBM
staffer has claimed. It's not clear how many PSOne titles won't play, but
according to Tom Reeves, VP of semiconductor and technology services at
IBM, even 40 of them was too high a number for Sony.
In an Electronic News interview, Reeves said: "Sony is very concerned about
quality and backward compatibility. They want to get this right. They
tested game after game after game. When there were about 40 PlayStation 1
games that didn t work properly, that didn t pass their criteria for
quality."
Sony's PlayStation chief, Ken Kutaragi, first promised the PS3 would play
PlayStation and PS2 games back in September 2003. However, how well the
next-generation console will do so and across how many titles has always
been open to question, especially once Microsoft shipped its Xbox 360
console, which still plays only a sub-set of original Xbox titles, using
emulation software. As of June 2006, the 360 will play only 227 Xbox games,
though ongoing updates to the emulation code regularly add more to the
list.
'Call of Duty 3' Enlists Classic War Movies
In creating the upcoming Call of Duty 3 game, the game developers at
Treyarch returned to the source of inspiration for previous games in the
successful combat series: war movies.
Where recent World War II games were clearly inspired by more recent films
such as Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates, Call of Duty 3 (due
this fall) takes some cues from classics The Longest Day and A Bridge Too
Far.
"We started looking at those great war movies where you have one big event
that is viewed from multiple perspectives," says Treyarch's creative
director, Rich Farrelly. As a result, Call of Duty 3 will have "lots of
great intense battles with the Allies, the U.S. and British, and we get to
introduce the Canadians and Polish forces that players haven't seen
before."
Cinematic flourishes abound in the game, which follows the Allies' attempts
to liberate France after D-Day: Air sorties can be seen in the distance as
fellow troops advance over the detailed terrain. Whizzing bullets,
resounding detonations and rampaging tanks - not to mention frenetic squad
members - create a surround-sound field that rivals movies.
In their attempt at realism, the developers - whose last game, Call of
Duty 2: Big Red One, followed the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division
campaigns, including the landing at Normandy - digitally scanned actors and
uniforms and synthesized them with squadron-sized motion-capture sessions.
Real World War II weapons and vehicles were referenced, and surviving
veterans were consulted.
Some new maneuvers aim to immerse the player even more in action that "gets
closer to what happens in a real fight," says retired Army Lt. Col. Hank
Keirsey, a consultant on this and other Call of Duty games.
New "battle actions" involve players more intimately in the game, including
hand-to-hand combat, planting munitions charges and new weapons operations.
"You have to aim quickly during the heat of battle," Keirsey says.
An online multiplayer version of the game will be playable by up to 24
players; combatants can drive tanks, jeeps and motorcycles with sidecars.
Beyond entertainment, the team at Treyarch hopes to educate players about
the legacy of those who fought in World War II. Keirsey recorded the
accounts of several veterans in his research and hopes to compile them for
DVD-like special features in a possible collector's edition of the game.
"When a young gamer plays the game, he gets to tune in to this guy to hear
these stories that have never been told," Keirsey says. "If we hadn't
talked to (the veterans), all these stories would have been lost."
Microsoft To Release 1980s Games for Xbox
Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 may exemplify the high-tech future of video game
consoles, but the company is hoping some of its avid players still pine for
the good old days of Pac-Man and Frogger.
Microsoft plans Wednesday to offer some additional updated versions of
popular 1980s-era games through Xbox Live Arcade, an online service that
lets people download free trial games and buy them for $5 to $15.
The company will offer a game every Wednesday for the next five weeks,
including some retro games with higher-end graphics and new ways to play
together. The first game on offer is the log-hopping, traffic-dodging
classic, Frogger.
Greg Canessa, a group manager for Xbox Live Arcade, said the downloadable
games service has been surprisingly successful for the company. About 5
million free trial games have been downloaded by Xbox 360 owners, he said,
and 21.7 percent of those have been "converted," meaning a person decided
to pay for the permanent version.
Many people initially thought the Xbox Live Arcade, with its focus on less
complex games, would be a potential draw for children, women or older
players who don't fit the young male demographic traditionally associated
with Xbox 360 owners. But Canessa said they've found that even the
so-called hardcore gamers are interested in the arcade games, and willing
to pay for them.
Microsoft currently has 20 arcade games available for sale to people who
own an Xbox 360, the second iteration of Microsoft's video game console.
Canessa said they hope to have about 50 titles available by the end of the
year.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two - The Return of
Team Fortress 2 and Other Surprises
Valve's Gabe Newell drops some major announcements regarding Episode Two,
including Xbox 360 and PS3 support, and the return of Team Fortress 2.
Valve founder Gabe Newell dropped a number of bombshells regarding
Half-Life 2: Episode Two at EA's summer press event. Newell revealed that
the vaunted PC first-person shooter franchise is going to arrive on the
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and that the PC and console versions will ship
with not only a new single-player game called Portals, but also with Team
Fortress 2, the ambitious multiplayer game that Valve tried to develop in
the late 90s but that quietly disappeared later on.
Half-Life 2 fans are already aware of the episodic content that Valve is
producing, in place of a Half-Life 3. Episode One, the first chapter, was
released earlier this summer to great acclaim. Well, Episode Two won't just
continue the story of Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, and the rest of humanity
battling the alien Combine for control of Earth.
For one, Valve is planning to release Episode Two simultaneously on the PC,
Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3. And it wouldn't make sense to give the
console players Episode 2, which is essentially the middle of the story, so
the console versions of Episode Two will also include Half-Life 2, as well
as Episode One. That's right, both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players will
be able to get their hands on the entire Half-Life 2 saga in one package.
In addition to that bombshell, Newell revealed that all versions of Episode
Two will ship with a separate single-player game called Portals. This is
something of an insanely inspired puzzle game that takes advantage of the
Source engine, judging from the hilarious trailer that Newell showed. The
trailer took the form of a training video for a new employee of an advanced
corporation in the Half-Life 2 universe.
The video shows a diagram and explains that as an employee of this company,
you may have to find the emergency exit to a certain room. However, there
are often obstacles in your way, like a gaping chasm. No problem, because
all you need to use is your Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device to
create dimensional doorways that let you mess with reality. For example, if
there's gaping chasm between you and your objective, just shoot a portal on
the far side of the room, then shoot a portal open on your side, then enter
the portal. You'll instantly transport from one side of the room to the
next by walking through the portal (you'll even see yourself going through
the portal).
That's the simplest example of how to use the portal gun. In other
situations, you may be under fire by a gun droid. So all you need to do is
shoot a portal open over the gun, then shoot a portal open beneath a crate, then watch the crate fall through the hole and crush the gun. It
gets even crazier, and the diagrams shown in the trailer showed some
incredibly crazy things that you can attempt, like creating a series of
portals so that you're constantly chasing yourself. Some of the puzzles
sound like they'll be -impossible,- so the challenge will be to figure out
how to use the portal gun.
This promises to be an incredibly puzzle-style first-person experience,
which Newell says is part of the goal. We wanted to take physics out of
this domain as a tool that lets you bounce grenades around to how can we
really change the game experience for our customers, he said.
Newell then dropped an even bigger bombshell by showing off Team Fortress
2. Those familiar with Valve's history know that Team Fortress 2 was an
ambitious multiplayer action game that was supposed to come out after the
original Half-Life. However, the game quietly disappeared after years of
development, and it was assumed that Valve dropped the project.
Well, Team Fortress 2 is back and will be included with Episode Two, and
it looks like nothing else on the market. Newell explained that Valve
wanted to make this action game distinct, so the graphics (which use the
Source engine) look like a Pixar animated movie. To reinforce this, the
carious character classes in the game look like cartoon caricatures. These
include the Medic with the huge needle or the Demoman with the sticks of
explosives. Other classes include the Heavy, the Spy, the Scout, the
Engineer, the Sniper, the Soldier, and the Pyro. Newell says that the goal
with Team Fortress 2 is to create -the best looking and best-playing
class-based multiplayer game.- Team Fortress 2 is certainly unique in
appearance, so we'll see how it plays.
Valve will release more information about Episode Two and all this new
content throughout the fall, and more announcements will be revealed as
the year goes on. We'll obviously keep a close eye on it, so make sure to
check back with us for more details.
New Lord of the Rings Game Announced
Electronic Arts, Inc., the world's largest video games publisher, says it
is planning to release a role-playing game based on the British author
J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
"We will launch the Lord of the Rings game at the end of 2007," says
Electronic Arts spokesperson Scott Gamel. "The game will incorporate
elements from the J.R.R. Tolkien novels and also from the recent Lord of
the Rings movie trilogy, which was produced by New Zealander Paul Jackson."
Known as The Lord of the Rings, The White Council, the game will be
developed at Electronic Arts' Redwood City, California studio. The
executive producer for the role-playing game will be Electronic Arts
developer Steve Gray.
The Lord of the Rings movies, which are the copyright of U.S.-based New
Line Cinema, were a smash hit, grossing US$3 billion at the box office
worldwide.
Frustratingly, Electronic Arts is giving away very few details about its
new game. "We are not disclosing a lot of information about the game at
this stage, as it has not been developed yet," Gamel says. "The game is
intended for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC. It will not be
available for Nintendo's Wii games console format."
Gamel says that in the Electronic Arts game, a human player will be able
to take on the character of an elf, a hobbit, a man or a dwarf. "The goal
will be for the player to become a hero through the way he or she interacts
with the other on-screen characters," he says.
In a statement, Electronic Arts says that the game will explore the world
of Tolkien's Middle-earth, the imaginary land portrayed in the British
author's books.
Players will form alliances with the White Council, whose members include
the Tolkien characters Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond, Electronic Arts says
in the statement.
Also, Electronic Arts says that the game, which it describes as being
"highly graphical," has yet to be rated by the ESRB. It has created a
Website, www.whitecouncil.ea.com, where more information is provided about
the Lord of the Rings game.
Mukul Krishna, a analyst covering the digital entertainment industry for
U.S. market research firm Frost & Sullivan, says he expects the Lord of the
Rings role-playing game to be a big success for Electronic Arts.
"Announcing this new game is a very smart move on the part of Electronic
Arts," Krishna says. "The company is right on the button with the game.
All the indications are that Lord of the Rings role-playing game will be a
big success and will have a lot of sales."
Krishna said that the world has seen blockbuster-selling video games become
movies. "Now we are seeing blockbuster movies such as the Lord of the Rings
become very successful video games," he says.
Krishna says the new game will take full advantage of new video games
technology.
"The new generation of games consoles are so much more interactive and let
players do a lot more than older-generation consoles," Krishna says "For
example, you can wave the new consoles around in the air, if you want to
mimic a sword fight, and the charactiers on the screen will also wave their
arms in the air as if fighting."
"The role-playing game genre involves sword-play, and our game will
incorporate sword fights," Gamel says. "But there is a lot more to
role-playing games than just fighting. players will get heavily involved
in a role playing game."
Krishna says that players will get heavily involved in a role-playing game
such as Electronic Arts' Lord of the Rings title.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Spammers Shift to Blogs and IM
A growing number of spammers are using mobile text messaging, blogs,
instant messaging, and social-networking sites to deliver their unsolicited
sales pitches, a new report has found.
Despite the increased prevalence of advanced spam-fighting tools, spam is
once again on the rise, and spammers are abandoning more traditional
methods of electronic communication in favor of those that permit more
targeted spam blasts, according to new research by MessageLabs.
The research also indicated that spammers have begun to develop more
sophisticated and malicious software to harvest e-mail addresses and even
steal the identity of unsuspecting netizens.
"The increased convergence of threats across e-mail, Web, and instant
messaging - combined with the increased sophistication of techniques - is
an interesting new development," said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer
at MessageLabs. "A harmless looking e-mail can quickly become a Web
threat."
Old-style e-mail spam, the report indicated, has lost some momentum as the
most popular medium for unsolicited commercial messages as spammers have
turned their attention to newer communications channels.
Blogs, for example, have become a quagmire of comments posted by spammers
that contain links to "disposable spam domains," MessageLabs found.
Spammers have started using social-networking sites such as MySpace to
create phony, yet convincing, profiles containing links to "automated
instant messaging 'chat-bot' sirens" that entice unwary MySpacers to
"lucrative webcam sites" and then either advertise their wares or attempt
to plant spyware on their computers.
In addition, the spammers are using bait in the form of "friend requests"
that are generated by special software to target online profiles in large
numbers, the report said.
The increased effectiveness of spam filters for e-mail and the lack of any
such filters for newer communication technologies are part of the reason
spammers have turned to new channels to distribute their messages,
explained Paul Stamp, an analyst at Forrester.
"Whereas most companies and service providers have reasonably effective
spam filters, new communication channels are largely unprotected and offer
rich pickings for spammers wanting to make sure their messages get
through," Stamp said.
But not all is lost for blogging and instant messaging, analysts say.
Vendors who have concentrated their efforts on security for the Web and
e-mail are starting to keep an eye on these new channels, Stamp pointed
out.
Instant-messaging spam and blog spam promise to make these channels of
communication as useless as e-mail would be without spam protection, he
concluded.
Microsoft Fights Web Spam
Researchers at Microsoft this week released a new report and tool aimed at
preventing Web spammers from exploiting Internet search engines to drive
traffic to spam URLs.
The tool, called the Strider Search Defender, identifies spam URLs that are
being distributed through social networking, forum, and blog-hosting Web
sites, and can prevent those URLs from being indexed by search engines,
said Yi-Min Wang, group manager of the Cybersecurity and Systems
Management Research Group in Microsoft Research.
Instead of commenting on user pages of popular forums and blog sites - such
as Google BlogSpot or MySpace - spammers will send URLs that link to spam
Web sites to as many Internet forum pages as they can, he said. Since these
URLs appear so frequently on valid Web sites, search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft's own MSN will index them and they will begin
appearing in search results, Wang said.
"They create a URL they want people to click and they put that into every
possible open forum and guest book they can," he said. "Some search
engines will see that this URL is everywhere on the Web so [they think] it
should be popular. But it doesn't have the kind of relevance to be in the
top search-engine results."
The tool uses elements of technology previously developed in Microsoft
Research in projects called Strider, HoneyMonkey, and Typo Patrol to search
forums that have been spammed and to identify spam URLs in the hope of
removing them before they are indexed by search engines. It also has an
element that can distinguish between legitimate URLs on Web forums and spam
URLs, Wang said.
In the cases when a spammer uses what is called a "doorway domain" to set
up a spam site, the tool can identify the domain that is being exploited
and notify its administrators, he said. A doorway domain is a legitimate
URL, such as www.blogger.com, that spammers use to set up a spam site so
it looks like a valid Web site, and thus will fool users and search
engines.
"If they put [what looks like a] blog URL into your forum and everyone
else's, they will fool the search engine," Wang said.
In addition to specifications for the tool, Microsoft Research also
published information in its report to encourage owners of free Web-hosting
sites, search engines, and publicly accessible Web forums to do what they
can to prevent Web spammers from exploiting search engines.
Wang said free Web-hosting sites such as MySpace and Google BlogSpot can
use Microsoft's methodology to identify spammers that might be using their
sites as doorway domains. He said he hopes that search-engine companies
will use the specifications for the tool described in the report to
optimize their search engines to ferret out spam URLs.
Additionally, users who have blogs or forums on Web-hosting sites can help
alleviate the problem of Web spamming by shutting down sites that are still
active online but that they no longer visit or use, Wang said.
Congress Hears Testimony on DOPA
Debate began in earnest this week over federal legislation that would ban
access to MySpace, Facebook, and other social-networking Web sites at U.S.
public schools and libraries.
Supporters of the proposed bill are touting it as an effective way to
protect children from sexual predators, while those opposed to it are
warning that it won't solve the problem it tries to address and amounts
instead to Internet censorship.
During a hearing on Tuesday held by a House subcommittee to discuss the
Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (DOPA), Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio,
voting record) (D-Texas), said that as participation in Internet "social
communities" rises daily, so do the news reports of a multitude of
potential dangers these new sites pose.
"Schools and libraries that receive service subsidies have an obligation
to ensure that their subsidized communications services do not become a
hunting ground for pedophiles," he said. "If social networking sites are
not taking the necessary precautions to prevent the exploitation of
children on their sites, then, at the very least, Congress should prohibit
the use of federally-mandated funds to access Internet sites that put
children in harm's way."
Echoing those remarks was Greg Abbott, Attorney General of Texas, who cited
several instances in which investigators using social-networking sites
caught sexual predators who had tried to solicit minors in chat rooms.
While parents and schools bear some responsibility in monitoring the
children's behavior, said Abbott, "The great weight of the problem must be
shouldered by the very creators and hosts of these networking sites and
chat rooms that provide the opportunity for child predators."
Protecting children is a noble objective, said Chris Kelly, chief privacy
officer at Facebook, but he expressed concern over the vague nature of the
"easily access" or "may easily be subject to" standards that DOPA uses as
a basis for cracking down on a social-networking site.
"We are not certain that there is an effective way to articulate likelihood
of such an event, though we do appreciate the attempt to distinguish
between a distant possibility and a more easily foreseeable one," Kelly
testified. He noted that any federal legislation should encourage the use
of technology to protect children but avoid discouraging the "pro-social
aspects" of online sites.
Offering a similar take was Beth Yoke of the American Library Association,
who said that language used in DOPA is flawed because the bill uses the
term "social networking sites" to describe almost all interactive Web
applications in which users converse or otherwise interact with each other.
"The popularity of interactive online environments is extending to the
corporate world, as a number of businesses, including corporate leaders
like Ernst & Young and IBM, are increasingly moving to the use of
interactive Web applications as a primary mode of business communication,"
Yoke testified.
Visited primarily by teenagers and young adults, social networks such as
MySpace and Facebook are collections of online profiles that include
photos, blogs, and other content. Teens use the sites to connect to other
teens, voice opinions, and make new friends.
The hugely popular sites, while seemingly innocuous, have come under fire
recently from critics claiming that they amount to huge databases of
victims for child predators. In fact, MySpace was sued for $30 million
recently by a 14-year-old girl who alleges she was sexually assaulted by
another user of the site.
No one can fault the government for attempting to protect children, said
Mukul Krishna, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, in a recent interview. But
the legislation is too broadly written to enforce, he said, and, as
written, would block access to Yahoo, Google, and plethora of other sites.
"You cannot fault the thought behind it, but, clearly, a lot of thought
did not go into doing anything but making a lot of noise," Krishna said,
"because everyone knows that, as it is, the bill cannot be passed."
News Corp. Launches Online Safety Campaign
The parent company of MySpace.com and Fox is devoting millions of dollars
in television air time and online ad space for a public service campaign
on Internet safety.
Central to News Corp.'s campaign, announced Thursday, is a spot featuring
Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer on the Fox action drama "24."
"On TV Jack Bauer has 24 hours to make the world safe. In real life it only
takes a few minutes to do the same for our kids," Sutherland says. "To
protect them you don't need the latest state-of-the-art technology. You
just need a few simple tips: Don't let them run into trouble on the
Internet - use common sense."
The 20-second ad then directs viewers to CommonSense.com, a site run by
Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors and reviews media and
entertainment for parents. There, parents may download a guidebook and a
tip card on Internet safety, including a recommendation that they become
involved with what their kids do online.
The campaign comes as parents, schools and law-enforcement officials
increasingly warn about the dangers of sexual predators at
social-networking sites, which provide messaging and other tools to
encourage users to expand their circles of friends.
MySpace has gotten the brunt of the attention given its position as the
industry leader, with some 92 million registered users, about 20 percent
of them minors.
In June, the mother of a Texas teenager who claims she was sexually
assaulted by another MySpace user sued the social-networking site and News
Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. The lawsuit claims MySpace is
negligent in protecting teen users despite numerous warnings of the
dangers.
Attorneys general from at least four states also have issued calls for
MySpace to do more to protect teens.
Over the past several months, MySpace has responded to the concerns by
hiring a safety chief and changing its privacy policies to try to make it
more difficult for adults to contact younger teens.
MySpace and other News Corp. sites also had earlier run ads aimed at
educating users about the dangers.
The new campaign is directed at educating parents and teens on what they
can do.
"We can build the best technology features in the world and the best safety
features, but unless we raise education and awareness around the use of
those, it doesn't do anything," said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief
security officer.
James Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, said the campaign will
be especially important for parents and educators because "a lot of older
folks have no idea about what their kids are doing on the Internet."
The spot is to run on several Fox cable stations, including FX, Fox Movie
Channel and the National Geographic channel. Online video and banner ads
will appear on MySpace.com, FoxSports.com, IGN.com, AmericanIdol.com and
other Fox Interactive Media sites.
Nigam could not say how much News Corp. was committing, other than to say
it was "millions and millions of dollars worth of time and space."
EU Slaps Microsoft With Fine
European Union regulators fined Microsoft an extra 280.5 million euros
($357.3 million) on Wednesday for defying a 2004 antitrust ruling, and
warned the company to comply or face bigger fines in future.
The tough new penalty is the first of its kind and comes on top of a record
497 million euro fine the Commission imposed in its landmark antitrust
decision against the U.S. software giant in March 2004.
"The EU Commission cannot allow such illegal conduct to continue
indefinitely. No company is above the law," Competition Commissioner Neelie
Kroes told reporters.
The Commission required Microsoft to provide technical information to rival
server software makers after it found the company abused the dominance of
its Windows operating system, used worldwide on 95 percent of personal
computers, to squeeze out competitors.
"Microsoft did not even come close to providing adequate information,"
Kroes said.
The fine covers the period from December 16 to June 20 at 1.5 million euros
daily. It fell short of a possible daily maximum of 2 million euros.
Microsoft faces a further fine of up to 3 million euros a day if it still
does not comply by July 31.
The move signals the Commission's determination to force the company to
obey its order and a loss of patience after Microsoft had two years to
comply and used virtually every available legal and court procedure to spin
out the process.
"It puts (Kroes) in a position of authority generally, which will make
business across the board much more inclined to comply," said Chris Bright,
a London competition lawyer, adding that energy companies could be the next
focus.
The Commission's hardline approach contrasts with that of the United
States, which in 2000 had similar findings against Microsoft but ended up
reaching a settlement on sanctions. Last month, the U.S. judge supervising
the case called the implementation of the settlement "disappointing."
The American process was so troubled that Microsoft and the court started
over again in May this year, taking a cue from what the U.S. judge called
"the European Commission's direction." Kroes noted this new U.S. approach
on Wednesday.
Microsoft said it has made massive efforts to comply with the Commission's
2004 ruling and now has 300 people working to complete its package by an
agreed deadline of July 18.
It called the fine unjustified, but said that will not slow its effort to
comply. Microsoft, which has appealed against every ruling against it so
far by the Commission, said on Wednesday it will appeal against this
decision too.
"We do not believe that any fine, let alone a fine of this magnitude, is
appropriate given the lack of clarity in the Commission's original
decision," said Brad Smith, the company's top lawyer, in a conference
call.
But he said that Microsoft remains totally committed to full compliance
with the Commission's 2004 decision.
Kroes called the original order "crystal clear." It required
interoperability information on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
The EU's second highest court is already reviewing an underlying challenge
by Microsoft to the original Commission decision, and conducted a hearing
in April.
After years of investigation, the Commission found in 2004 that Microsoft
used the near-monopoly power of its Windows operating system to harm
competitors making workgroup servers, which run printing and sign-on
services in offices.
It ordered Microsoft to give rivals the information needed so their servers
could compete on a level playing field with Microsoft's own by
interconnecting smoothly with Windows.
It also found that Microsoft harmed competitors by illegally bundling its
Windows Media Player with the operating system, leaving consumers little
incentive to buy rival software to watch films or listen to music.
The bundling issue poses concerns already voiced by Kroes about Microsoft's
next operating system, Vista, which could package Internet search functions
or software that creates fixed documents and thus threaten Google and
Adobe.
"The launch next year (of Vista) will hopefully be in a shape in which all
those 2004 decision items are taken into account," Kroes said.
Microsoft's Smith said the company had made "design changes" to Vista after
Kroes wrote to the company in late March and that he expected feedback from
the Commission soon.
States To Sue Chipmakers
Thirty-four U.S. states will sue seven computer memory chip makers on
Friday, including Micron Technology and Infineon Technologies, over charges
they conspired to rig the U.S. market to keep prices artificially high.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said on Thursday 33 other states
would join a lawsuit alleging the chip makers violated state and federal
antitrust laws during a conspiracy to fix prices for dynamic random access
memory, or DRAM, chips, from 1998 through June 2002, when there was a glut
in the market.
The lawsuit follows a U.S. Justice Department probe launched in 2002 that
resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines levied against
Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, Elpida and other chipmakers.
The federal investigation followed a sharp plunge in the prices for memory
chips used in computers and other electronics, which forced a wave of
industry consolidation and pushed several chip makers near bankruptcy.
Micron spokesman Dan Francisco said he could not comment specifically on
the lawsuit because the company had not yet seen it. But he noted that the
Boise, Idaho-based chip maker has been in talks to resolve the issue.
"We have been involved in discussions with state attorneys general for a
long period of time," Francisco said. "As I understand it they wanted to
get these cases on file while we discuss the potential for resolution."
Germany's Infineon could not immediately be reached for comment on the
complaint seeking damages estimated as high as hundreds of millions of
dollars.
The complaint, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District
of California, charges the companies with fixing DRAM chip prices,
artificially restraining supply and rigging bids for contracts.
Those actions caused computer makers such as Apple Computer, Compaq
Computer, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business
Machines Corp. to pay more for chips and then pass those costs on to
consumers, said Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, another lead
plaintiff in the case.
The largest four of the DRAM makers - Samsung, Hynix, Micron and Infineon
- and their U.S. units control roughly 70 percent of the U.S. market, which
in 2003 represented about $5 billion of the $17 billion in worldwide sales.
Lockyer said he was one of the leaders of the lawsuit because much of the
alleged illegal conduct took place in California, home to Silicon Valley,
where many of the chip makers have operations.
The lawsuit names many of the world's top-ranked memory chip makers
including South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc.; Taiwan's Mosel Vitelic
and Nanya Technology; Japan's Elpida Memory, a joint venture of Hitachi and
NEC; and NEC Electronics's NEC Electronics America.
An Elpida spokesman declined to comment as did a representative from NEC,
who said the company has not yet seen the lawsuit. The other chip makers
named in the lawsuit could not immediately be reached for comment.
The lawsuit does not name South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's
leading memory chip maker, because California has entered into an agreement
with the company in order to reach a potential settlement, said Tom
Dresslar, a spokesman for the California attorney general.
ISPs Urged To Lock Out File-sharers
The British music industry stepped up its campaign against illegal
file-sharing on Monday by demanding that two Internet service providers
suspend 59 accounts it believes are being used to swap copyrighted songs.
The British Phonographic Industry trade group called on Cable & Wireless
and Tiscali to join a crusade against consumer practices that have
undermined music companies in recent years.
"We have said for months that it is unacceptable for ISPs to turn a blind
eye to industrial-scale copyright infringement," BPI Chairman Peter
Jamieson said in a statement.
"We are providing Tiscali and Cable & Wireless with unequivocal evidence of
copyright infringement via their services," he added. "It is now up to them
to put their house in order and pull the plug on these people."
Fans Pushing Back Against File-Sharing Suits
Music fans from Texas to Dusseldorf are organizing in an attempt to push
back against the music industry's lawsuits over online piracy.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation is reviving its efforts to ignite a
lobbying movement among music fans and recording artists. In addition to
updating its page on file sharing, the group is urging its blog readers to
sign petitions asking governments on both sides of the Atlantic to do away
with lawsuits against music fans.
"There are over 60 million people in the United States who use file
sharing - more than the number of people who voted for our current
President," EFF states. "If we all band together and stand up for our
rights, we can change the law."
Derek Slater characterized the Recording Industry Association of America's
campaign against peer-to-peer file sharing "irrational" and urged Americans
and Britons to sign petitions to develop constructive alternatives so
artists can earn money, while listeners share music.
The latest push appears to be a response to BPI's file-sharing lawsuit.
While an American petition urging Congress to end the music sharing
lawsuits has gained 80,000 signatures through EFF's Web site, the newer
British one on Flowerburger.com appears to have less than 200 signatures
from people scattered across the globe. The site claims to support
musicians and their earnings but opposes suing the fans for payment.
EBay Faces Competitive Threat
EBay Inc. faced a double blow Thursday as it announced a key executive's
plans to leave and an analyst said Google Inc.'s new online payment service
represents a bigger threat than expected to the Internet auction company's
health.
Jeff Jordan, who most recently was president of eBay's PayPal payment
business, led eBay's North America division from 2000 to 2004 and had been
presumed by some analysts as the likely successor to Chief Executive Meg
Whitman. He said in an interview that he wants to spend more time with his
wife and two children.
He will be replaced by Rajiv Dutta, who has been with the company since
1998, serving as chief financial officer, head of strategy and president
of Skype, the Internet phone service eBay acquired last year.
One report, by Lehman Bros. analyst Douglas Anmuth, said Jordan's departure
was "highly significant" because it comes as eBay is facing new challenges
and competitive threats.
"We view the senior management changes announced today with concern as the
come at a critical time for eBay as it seeks to stimulate growth in its
core markets while integrating various acquisitions," he wrote.
Besides eBay's $2.6 billion purchase of Skype, the company last year bought
Shopping.com for $685 million.
Whitman said in an interview that she was undaunted by Jordan's departure,
noting that Dutta and other executives taking new roles were well
acquainted with eBay's business.
"EBay has very deep management bench strength," she said, calling that "a
testament to the strong management team that's been built over the last
five or six years."
The disclosure of Jordan's plans came the same day that another analyst,
Citigroup's Mark Mahaney, cut his earnings growth estimates for eBay, based
on his analysis of Google Checkout, an online payments service unveiled
last week. Mahaney slashed his target price for eBay to $40 from $51.
Mahaney said he found Checkout, which has been under development for less
than a year, to be faster, easier and less expensive than PayPal.
"As we see it, this speaks volumes about Google product development skills
and PayPal's lack of innovation," Mahaney wrote.
"As the growth potential of PayPal off of eBay has been part of our core
investment thesis on the stock, we view this Checkout development as
materially raising eBay's risk profile."
Dutta responded that PayPal, with more than 105 million account holders,
remained the uncontested leader in a terrain fraught with risks.
"People will tell you that launching a payment service is complex," he
said. "As with any competitor we will pay a lot of attention to what
anyone does in this space."
Dutta declined to say whether eBay intended to lower PayPal's fees to
address its competition.
Among the other management changes, Alex Kazim, currently vice president
of products for Skype, will assume Dutta's role as president of Skype.
Former Shopping.com CEO Lorrie Norrington is becoming president of eBay
International. She replaces Matt Bannick, who will oversee eBay's
initiatives in corporate philanthropy and the developing world.
Firefox 2.0 Beta Set To Launch
Get ready for a new round in the ongoing fight among Internet browsers.
Mozilla is set to formally release the first beta of Firefox 2.0, a highly
anticipated follow-up to the increasingly popular browser that many say
will steal the thunder from Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft's
next-generation browser that is slated to be released later this summer.
Although Mozilla already has made a test version of the beta available for
download by way of FTP, the company will not formally launch Firefox 2.0
Beta until later this week, "until all testing has been complete," said
Alex Guerra, a spokesperson for Mozilla.
"Possibly Wednesday or Thursday," he noted.
New features in Firefox 2.0 include improved performance, new tabbed
browsing controls, an antiphishing tool, and an integrated spell checker.
Samir Bhavnani, director of research at Current Analysis, pointed out that
although Firefox has been able to garner a lot of positive publicity,
Microsoft's Internet Explorer still has "a lion's share" of the browser
market.
Bhavnani downplayed the new features in Firefox 2.0, saying users might not
see a whole lot of difference between 2.0 and earlier versions of the
browser.
"A lot of changes are background changes, which are security in nature,"
he said.
In related news, Amsterdam-based OneStat, a company that monitors Internet
statistics, released a report on Sunday revealing that Firefox has a total
global usage share of 12.93 percent, a figure that increased by 1.14 points
since May.
By way of comparison, the total global usage share of Internet Explorer is
83.05 percent, which represents a 2.21 percent decrease since May.
OneStat's report found that, in the U.S., the most popular browsers as of
July are: Microsoft Internet Explorer at 79.78 percent, Firefox at 15.82
percent, Apple's Safari at 3.28 percent, Opera at 0.81 percent, and
Netscape at 0.20 percent.
Microsoft Sees January Vista Release
Microsoft Corp's release of Windows Vista should begin in November with
roll-out to businesses and broader release of the software to general
customers by January, company officials said on Tuesday.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told local software partners at a Cape Town
technology conference there was an "80 percent chance" Vista would be ready
as scheduled for broad release in January, a company spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, said the current plan was to
begin releasing Vista to business customers in November, with the general
release in January.
There has been speculation that the much-expected new operating system
could be delayed, although this has been denied by top company officials.
Microsoft originally targeted a 2005 launch for the new Windows, then
pushed the release to 2006 before announcing in March that Vista would
again be delayed to improve the product.
The new versions of Microsoft's Windows and Office software are central to
the company's efforts to revive a stock that has underperformed major
indexes since the start of 2002.
Gates made his comments to Microsoft software partners at a conference in
Cape Town to discuss how technology can be harnessed to boost Africa's
competitiveness.
Man Controls PC - With His Mind
A paralyzed man using a new brain sensor has been able to move a computer
cursor, open e-mail and control a robotic device simply by thinking about
doing it, a team of scientists said on Wednesday.
They believe the BrainGate sensor, which involves implanting electrodes in
the brain, could offer new hope to people paralyzed by injuries or
illnesses.
"This is the first step in an ongoing clinical trial of a device that is
encouraging for its potential to help people with paralysis," Dr Leigh
Hochberg, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said in an interview.
The 25-year-old man who suffered paralysis of all four limbs three years
earlier completed tasks such moving a cursor on a screen and controlling a
robotic arm.
He is the first of four patients with spinal cord injuries, muscular
dystrophy, stroke or motor neurone disease testing the brain-to-movement
system developed by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc in
Masschusetts.
"This is the dawn of major neurotechnology where the ability to take
signals out of the brain has taken a big step forward. We have the ability
to put signals into the brain but getting signals out is a real challenge.
I think this represents a landmark event," said Professor John Donoghue of
Brown University in Rhode Island and the chief scientific officer of
Cyberkinetics.
The scientists implanted a tiny silicon chip with 100 electrodes into an
area of the brain responsible for movement. The activity of the cells was
recorded and sent to a computer which translated the commands and enabled
the patient to move and control the external device.
"This part of the brain, the motor cortex, which usually sends its signals
down the spinal cord and out to the limbs to control movement, can still
be used by this participant to control an external device, even after years
had gone by since his spinal cord injury," added Hochberg, a co-author of
the study published in the journal Nature.
Although it is not the first time brain activity has been used to control
a cursor, Stephen Scott of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada said it
advances the technology.
"This research suggests that implanted prosthetics are a viable approach
for assisting severely impaired individuals to communicate and interact
with the environment," he said in a commentary in the journal.
In a separate study, researchers from Stanford University Schools of
Medicine and Engineering described a faster way to process signals from
the brain to control a computer or prosthetic device.
"Our research is starting to show that, from a performance perspective,
this type of prosthetic system is clinically viable," Stephen Ryu, an
assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford, said in as statement.
Bartending, RFID Style
On a busy Saturday night, a good bartender makes a lot of money for the
bar's owner, but an overly generous bartender-or one fond of pouring free
drinks for friends-can cost the owner even more.
A Miami-based 7-year-old beverage-monitoring software company is drinking
from the keg of RFID and is selling a tilt switch that attaches to bottles
and updates an Internet database every time the bottle is poured. Hilton,
Hyatt, Outback Steakhouse, TGI Fridays and others are reportedly testing
the system.
It's not merely recording how many times the bottle is poured, but it
factors in the tilt of the bottle, the duration of the pour and the
bartender's pouring style to calculate how much liquid is leaving the
bottle.
"The software converts the tilt into an estimated volume, and the
conversion is automatically perfected based on the history of each bottle;
hence it becomes more accurate over time and adapts to each bartender's
habits. When the bottle is empty, our sensor knows it and the software
readjusts the historical pours of each bottle to the known volume of the
bottle," said Beverage Metrics CEO David Teller, who said his company has
between $5 million and $10 million in annual revenue. "Our system
reconciles pours to ring-ups and recipes and automatically decides what is
a long pour that should be changed to two pours [and] when to combine short
pours in sequence."
Because the server that watches the tilt-tracking RFID system also tracks
the POS (point-of-sale) system, it can also know what ingredients
bartenders are using to make drinks and
whether they are following the
authorized recipes in addition to whether they are pouring too much or too
little.
Gentag is touting a way to add classic active-tag capabilities-including
temperature sensors-to lower-cost passive RFID tags. Click here to read
more.
Teller said he expects the sensors to eventually sell for "less than $2
with housing, attachment means, on/off switch, tilt switch, TI micro,
five-year battery and RF circuit." Right now, though, the price is closer
to $5 plus a subscription fee roughly equivalent to about 1 percent of
revenue, Teller said.
Teller argues that his system fits perfectly within the typical restaurant
supply chain.
"We are at the cusp of changing the hospitality industry as significantly
as POS did, by deploying miniature active RFID tags to every bottle
received off the truck. The system reconciles the purchase order to the
received goods, and the sensors ping every hour, thereby updating the
inventory automatically," he said. "When a bottle arrives at a bar or
banquet, the system knows where it is by the receiver location. When a
bottle is tilted, the inventory is reduced by that amount and value. When
the drink is rung up on the POS, it is reconciled against the pour. If
there's no payment registered, the open pour is an alert. When the bottle
is empty, it automatically builds the purchase order."
Although the system's readers have a range of about 50 feet, Teller said a
bartender can't outsmart the system by pouring a drink beyond the range of
the sensor-or simply disabling the sensor-because all of the tags are in
periodic content with the server.
"It issues an alert if the tag is removed," he said. "If the sensor doesn't
ping, 'Hey, I'm here' after an hour, we start paying attention to that
guy."
John Fontanella, an RFID analyst with the Aberdeen Group, dubbed Teller's
system "an interesting idea" but wondered whether wireless rings around the
bottles would scare off customers and chill some of the bartender-drinker
relationship.
"Will it be invisible to customers? Remember those machines that were used
to accurately pour a drink every time? They were all over the place, and
now I never see one. There is a reason why: It ruins the intimacy created
between customer and bartender," Fontanella said. "Good bartenders take
care of good customers. It's as simple as that, and that's what brings them
back. If the customer is unaware, or if it is in a bar with a great deal of
transient traffic, it makes sense."
But Fontanella is even more cynical about whether it will truly minimize
theft. "I'm already thinking about how bartenders will beat this," he
said. "They will find a way."
=~=~=~=
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