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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 07 Issue 32
Volume 7, Issue 32 Atari Online News, Etc. August 5, 2005
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2005
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 #0732 08/05/05
~ New Mac Mighty Mouse! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Phishers Hack eBay!
~ Yahoo Music Search! ~ Strange Firings Site! ~ TeraDesk Updated!
~ Adware Charges Settled ~ UTexas Wins E-Mail War ~ Flea Markets Dying!
~ Elvis Car eBay Suit! ~ New Mozilla Subsidiary ~ New STOS Site Up!
-* Web Ad Pioneer Shuns Pop-Ups *-
-* Microsoft To Host Hacker Meetings! *-
-* First Round of Windows Vista Viruses Found *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's already August... Well, there's still plenty of summer left; I hope
that you're enjoying it! I'll get to enjoy another vacation in a few weeks;
we can't wait! The weather has really been great this summer overall. Yeah,
we've had some really scorcher days, but it hasn't been all that bad. An
air conditioner and pool come in handy when the mercury climbs! Still hate
that humidity, though. Can ya tell that I have relaxation on my mind this
week? <grin> Let's get right to this week's issue!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
TeraDesk 3.60 Is Available
Version 3.60 of TeraDesk open-source desktop is available at:
http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/teradesk.htm
TeraDesk is currently the only open-source desktop available for 16-bit
and 32-bit Atari computers. Developers' goal is to maintain TeraDesk as
a small, simple, fast and reliable desktop, which can run on any TOS-
compatible Atari computer, clone or emulator and which can be be functional
and competitive in the modern multitasking environments and all flavours
and versions of TOS-compatible operating system(s), while keeping, as
much as reasonable, familiarity with the original TOS desktop.
Several new features have been added since the last published version,
mostly in the areas of handling file attributes and access rights, and
manipulation of desktop and window icons. Also, some bugs have been fixed.
Users are advised to read the documentation before running the program ;)
Some features of TeraDesk may not be immediately obvious.
Have fun.
STOS Site Up!
Hello all,
We are pleased to announce that the site is online
now! Hope you find something of interest there and any
feedback would be appreciated.
We still have plenty to add to the site but this will
take time!
Try not to break it LOL
http://stos.atari.st/
Cheers,
Lee
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone, and we
find ourselves even deeper into summer. It's been hot and humid here in
my little corner of the northeast and, to tell you the truth, I'm about
ready for autumn.
I suppose I'd feel differently if I was planning a week or two at the
beach or some remote tropical island, but alas I'll be spending the dog
days of summer right here at home.
Since it's been downright nasty outside for a while, I've stocked up on
a few of my favorite movies, which I was pleasantly surprised to find
have been put out on DVD. With classics like The Day the Earth Stood
Still and Forbidden Planet... and even an MPEG of Plan Nine from Outer
Space (which is now public domain... search for it on archives.com), I
can at least have a plausible excuse for staying inside.
The Day the Earth Stood Still was probably the first 'cold war' movie,
and it was also one of the first (if not the first) movie that cast our
own government as, if not THE bad guy, at least ONE OF the bad guys.
That's not the main reason I like the movie so much though. I like it
because it takes a look at the way people work, the way their minds
work, and the interesting ways that people can take the same
information and come to such different conclusions. All of a sudden,
everyone has their own special 'insight' into what the other side is
doing and why, without ever having taken the trouble to ask.
The cold war mentality was already firmly entrenched in the fabric of
our society when the movie came out (in 1951, I believe), and the movie
does a very good job of showcasing that mindset and the seemingly
incongruous, self-defeating attitude that arises almost without fail
when fear takes the place of reason.
What I find so interesting is that, even though this movie was made more
than half a century ago, it's still a fairly accurate view into what's
going on now. I half-expected to hear the phrase "they hate our
freedom" used in the movie. THAT is the mark of a good movie.
Well, I promised myself that I'd finish this column before I settle down
and watch Forbidden Planet. Perhaps next week we'll talk about Krell
metal or Robbie the Robot or something. <grin>
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'Alison' asks about booting a MegaSTE from floppy:
"[This] Might sound like a silly question, but how do you get a Mega STE
with an internal SCSI drive to boot from floppy?
Have tried and tried and tried. Not helped with it being a German TOS
2.05. Just bought it off of eBay for £50, no real yellowing, just a bit
grubby, into the bath it goes for a good soak (minus the components
naturally)."
Coda tells Alison:
"1. Must be a cold boot.
2. Immediately after mem test finishes, hold down ALT.
You can abort the mem test, I usually press space then immediately hold
down ALT.
This works for disks that boot from the AUTO folder. Boot sector
booting disks (like some games) will boot without your intervention."
Alison replies:
"Thanks Coda!
Will try it shortly when it's back in it's case.
Next one to get me wondering is, what's the DIP switch settings."
Coda answers that one too:
"Ignore em. Only 7 is of interest, and that only puts the option to
format HD floppies in the format menu on Gem (whether or not you have
the hardware)."
Alison tells Coda:
"... I have partitioned and formatted the disk now with AHDI 5.0, tried
to patch it with the effect being that it won't do a thing without a
floppy disk in it, so reverted on the patch. May do 6.05 tomorrow to
see how that behaves.
Thing that confuses me is that if a floppy disk is present it HD boots
immediately, take the disk out and it adds another 5-10 secs before
it'll recognize the space-bar being pressed and then the FDD light
stays on continually until a disk is inserted. Should it do that? The
only HD related visible file I have on the HDD is SHDRIVER.SYS in the
root, removed AHDI.PRG which was in the AUTO folder as it was loading
twice, so guess that's install already in the boot sector. As already
mentioned, if I patch AHDI with HD_PATCH then it stops recognizing the
HD as a logical drive.
Have read the experiences of others on the various forums so trying not
to duplicate here, their problems seem to centre around HD upgrades and
formatting alone.
Lots to write up.
Will boot from floppy if Ctrl-Alt-Del is pressed, then ALT for a short
while until it picks up the boot sector with ALT still being held, else
gets halfway through the FDD boot and reverts to the HD boot. Can't get
it to do it from power-on ALT or reset ALT though. Takes a bit of
getting used to to get it right, bit of a black art this MSTE floppy
booting."
'Chris' asks:
"Has anyone gotten MultiTOS to work on a CT60?"
Ronald Hall asks Chris:
"I just have to ask...why? I mean why would you want to? MultiTOS is
old, slow and buggier than my front porch light on a long summer
night..."
Chris replies:
"Yeah maybe, but its easy to setup and not linux based. I don't know of
any alternatives, not like I use multitasking that often anyhows..."
Ronald tells Chris:
"Before I'd go with MultiTOS, especially for multitasking, I'd recommend
Neodesk/Geneva, and although I'm not a big MagiC fan, I guess I'd still
have to recommend it over plain MultiTOS as well.
My first, best recommendation though, would be to take the time to learn
and install MINT.
You don't have to use the unix "features" of MiNT. And its not linux
based.
MiNT is basically a TOS, not GEM, replacement (developed from MULTITOS).
The Unix part of the MiNT distribution (Sparemint) is just a set of GNU
unix based tools. You don't have to have them but it gives you a lot
more power and freedom if you do.
Download the latest Freemint package which includes the MiNT kernel and
an AES (XAAES) and put your desktop of choice with it.
You don't want to run MULTITOS, plus the AES that comes with it is full
of bugs."
Joseph Place asks for help with his EtherNEC cartridge:
"I think I may have damaged my Falcon cartridge port by plugging in
the EtherNEC upside down! Now my Falcon/CT60 just resets over and
over as soon as it is turned on with the EtherNEC plugged in.
Without the EtherNEC it boots fine. This really stinks because I
have gotten so used to MintNET and multitasking now! The EtherNEC
still works with my STe, so I don't think it is damaged, but I wish
it was that instead of the Falcon! Can anyone offer help here, or am I
doomed to single TOS until the EtherNAT comes out; somewhere over the
rainbow??"
Chris tells Joseph:
"Apparently there are fuses on the port, if they blow and you plug
something in, its probably pulling down some address lines causing the
rebooting."
Lyndon Amsdon adds:
"Thats right, I wouldn't worry about damage to the Falcon! There is a
fuse located on the Falcon motherboard near the cartridge port. I
can't remember the part number, but it's something like 0.5A or 1A but
doesn't look like a regular mains/household fuse. You could bridge it
with a single strand of copper wire, but only if you don't plug things
in upside down again!"
Our buddy Rob Mahlert jumps in and posts:
"This sounds like my problem! The EtherNEC worked on my TT fine. When I
moved it to my CT60 it stopped working. CT60 won't boot with the
EtherNEC installed. And my TT is in storage. Wish I had room to have
all my Atari's setup.
Besides jumping the fuse, I have no way to test to see if it's blown.
Do the micro fuses change in color? Meaning give a "blown" look like
normal fuses. It looks like the fuse in F1, so I can't tell. I must
need glasses now.."
Well folks, that's it for this time around. I'm off to watch Forbidden
Planet now. Until next week, remember to listen to what they are saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Delta Force - Black Hawk Down!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Blind Teen's Video Game Prowess!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Delta Force - Black Hawk Down Ships
Entertainment software developer and publisher NovaLogic, Inc. is giving
gamers the chance to step inside the combat boots of America's elite
warriors. "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down," the company's highly anticipated
tactical shooter, is now available at retail stores nationwide with a
portion of all game sales going to the Special Operations Warrior
Foundation. Rated "T" for teen by the ESRB, the game is available for the
Xbox video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the
PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system from Sony.
The game shatters records in console gaming history by offering the largest
multiplayer games ever with up to 50 players to battle over Xbox Live, or
up to 32 players on PlayStation 2 via GameSpy. Set in Somalia in 1993, the
game follows the events of Operation Restore Hope and the battle of
Mogadishu, which gained widespread attention in the Black Hawk Down book
and feature film.
"In making the game we had two goals - first and foremost we wanted to
create a fun and innovative title, but we wanted to do it in a way that
honors those who served. More than any other entertainment medium to date,
'Delta Force - Black Hawk Down' tells the unabridged story of the heroes
that fought in Somalia," stated Dave Pollack, NovaLogic's Vice President of
Sales and Marketing. "To ensure that the game was accurate we worked with a
number of subject matter experts that fought on the ground during the
campaign. The result is a game that is not only fun to play, but also tells
an important story. The soldiers that fought in the battle of Mogadishu and
took part in both Task Force Ranger and Operation Restore Hope campaigns
got the job done."
"Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" follows members of the elite Delta Force,
US Army Rangers and 10th Mountain Division as they participate in a number
of daring raids against the oppressive Somali warlords in and around
Mogadishu.
"Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" features include:
* 16 single player missions
* Biggest multiplayer games in console gaming history
* Co-op and split screen gaming options 7 Insertion by MH-6 helicopter
transports, Black Hawks and ground based transports.
* Multiplayer "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" offers eight game types,
including Deathmatch, Search & Destroy, Capture the Flag and Team King of
the Hill and allows players to compete as one of four different character
classes.
* Arsenal of authentic weapons as used by US Special Forces during
Operation Restore Hope and Task Force Ranger
NovaLogic has also teamed up once again with the Special Operations Warrior
Foundation so that a portion of the proceeds from "Delta Force - Black Hawk
Down" will be donated to the foundation. The Special Operations Warrior
Foundation provides college scholarship grants, along with financial aid
and educational counseling, to the children of Special Operations personnel
who were killed in an operational mission or training accident.
Founded in 1980, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides
education counseling and college scholarship grants for every child of
special operations forces who lost a parent in an operational mission or
training accident. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation is the best
way to honor our fallen comrades because their children are the most
important and lasting things they leave behind. For more information about
the Special Operations Warrior Foundation or to make a donation, visit the
Special Operations Warrior Foundation website at
http://www.specialops.org Delta Force
Blind Teen Amazes With Video Game Ability
Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as "Mortal Kombat."
In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others
his age.
Except for one thing: He's blind.
And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln
gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble.
"I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an
extension of his body. "I can be beat."
Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while
playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated,
eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego.
"I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game.
Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's
disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient
and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in
certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to
audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Invaders" and
"Asteroid," onto the modern combat games.
"I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued
playing while facing away from the screen. "It's beyond me."
Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7.
"He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his
father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of
controllers."
When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile
and just shrugs.
"I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get
along very well."
Now they get along just fine.
While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way through the
introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the
game he wanted.
He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't need any help.
"How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a
battle in which his character is frozen in place.
"You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off.
"That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his
blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen.
How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father.
"He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry
Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it
was."
Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in
Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in
and think he can easily beat the blind kid.
That attitude doesn't faze Mellen.
"I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said,
displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing
backwards."
There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said.
He will be a senior in high school next year. After graduation, he plans to
take a year off because he wants a break from school.
When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study - what else? - video-game
design.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Internet Ad Pioneer Now Shunning Pop-Ups
A pioneer of software that tailors pop-up ads to Internet users' browsing
habits is beginning to shun a practice that has invited much derision and
plenty of lawsuits. A new service Claria Corp. is launching this month will
still deliver advertising to the computer desktops of Web surfers. Only
this time, they won't be annoying pop-ups.
So-called personalization - targeting surfers with ads based on their
online outings and errands - was always Claria's goal, says its co-founder
and chief executive, Jeff McFadden.
Pop-ups delivered via adware, which is often criticized as sneaky in its
installation, were merely a stepping stone as Claria waited for the
technology to improve and the behavioral-targeting market to ripen, he
said.
"It was never a destination," McFadden told The Associated Press. "There's
a lot of people who aren't fans of the pop-up model."
Some might consider that an understatement from the head of a company whose
name has become synonymous with adware, which many consider a cyberparasite
or worse.
Although Scott Eagle, Claria's marketing chief, said market forces
ultimately drove the decision, he acknowledged the new strategy could help
improve the image of a company that has bothered more than consumers.
The New York Times Co. and L.L. Bean Inc. are among businesses that have
sued Claria for delivering pop-up ads that they said subverted paid
advertising or lured visitors to rivals. Claria even changed its name in
2003 from Gator Corp., though the company insists it wasn't a response to
mounting criticism.
"It is a little naive of them to believe they can introduce a product and
have the sins of the past forgotten completely," said Jeff Lanctot, vice
president of media at Avenue A/Razorfish, an ad-placement agency whose
sister company makes behavioral-targeting technology that could compete
with Claria's.
"They have to be completely aboveboard and take extra steps other companies
don't have to do to gain trust back," said Ari Schwartz, associate director
with the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Many of Claria's critics remain skeptical.
Claria's new services will still require a software download "just like the
old Claria software," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard University student who
specializes in spyware research. "The question is how sneaky they are going
to be about it."
Claria's software typically comes bundled with free products such as its
own eWallet password-storage program and file-sharing software like Kazaa.
Though licensing agreements disclose the ad components, many computer users
don't bother reading them. And that prompts complaints that Claria isn't
doing enough to obtain consent.
In the new model, Claria will work with developers of toolbars and
instant-messaging programs as well as reputable Web sites - and largely
have them bear responsibility for branding and getting consumer consent.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau says pop-ups peaked at 6 percent of all
online advertising two years ago and have been declining since. America
Online Inc. stopped selling pop-up ads in 2002, and most Web browsers now
block them.
Even so, Claria claims it commanded 20 percent of the adware market with
$100 million in revenues last year, mostly from pop-ups delivered through
software on some 40 million computer desktops.
The 7-year-old company, which has 235-odd employees at its Redwood City,
Calif., headquarters and other locations, began a pilot in May of a new ad
network called BehaviorLink that serves banner ads targeted to a user's
interests.
With software for it installed, someone reading online news articles on
maternity might get pitches for baby products.
And while Claria's pop-up ads sometimes covered up someone else's Web site,
BehaviorLink ads come with the site's permission. In some cases, Claria
buys ad space and resells it at a premium; in others, Claria works out a
revenue-sharing arrangement.
Companies like Revenue Science Inc. and Tacoda Systems Inc. also offer
behavioral-targeting services but they use browser "cookies" instead of
software downloads, meaning they could potentially reach more users overall
but won't have Claria's across-the-Web targeting capabilities.
The product Claria is launching this month, in a test version, is called
PersonalWeb.
It generates "personalized Web portals" on the fly so that a user who just
checked baseball scores and movie show times might get a page pulling top
items from ESPN and Moviefone.
The page will also display targeted ads from BehaviorLink.
An existing portal can also buy Claria's technology to incorporate
personalization. Though Yahoo Inc. and others now have customization
features, they rely on users to set preferences and are not automatic.
BehaviorLink and PersonalWeb combined, Eagle said, will mean more time
spent on each site and more value for each ad.
Traditional advertising has up to 30 times the potential of adware pop-ups,
he said, making Claria a possible target for acquisition. He insisted,
though, that Claria was happy to remain independent, and he refused to
comment on reports that Microsoft Corp. has been in talks to buy Claria.
Claria still must navigate some challenging terrain on privacy and consent,
and many key decisions still need to be worked out.
For example, although Claria said it would obtain permission before
activating PersonalWeb, it is negotiating on a site-by-site basis whether
that permission would be limited to a specific site that runs PersonalWeb
or cover the entire network.
Claria says its data on browsing habits are all anonymous, but it is open
to letting partners link such information with personally identifiable
information.
Whatever happens, users will be fully informed before they accept, said
Reed Freeman, Claria's chief privacy officer. Benefits to the consumer, he
said, will be easier to explain than the previous trade-off between free
software and more pop-ups.
Larry Ponemon, one of three outside privacy consultants hired by Claria,
said complaints about privacy stem more from annoyance with pop-ups rather
than any data collected. Non-adware companies might capture more data but
get fewer complaints, he said.
Claria still must win over the Web sites that once sued it. Eagle said most
have been willing to listen, even if they have yet to sign deals.
Advertisers that have shunned pop-ups, meanwhile, have been more willing
to run traditional ads through Claria, Eagle said, though he declined to
name any of the 250 advertisers participating in BehaviorLink's pilot.
Elias Plishner, head of the interactive group at Universal McCann ad
agency, said many companies that previously weren't willing to "dip their
toes into behavior marketing" might now be willing to give Claria a chance.
Advertising.com Settles FTC Adware Charges
An America Online Inc. subsidiary will no longer bundle its anti-spyware
program with software that tracks consumers' online habits and force-feeds
them pop-up ads, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.
Advertising.com Inc. also agreed to regular check by the FTC in order to
settle a deceptive-advertising suit filed by the consumer-protection
agency.
Advertising.com, also known as Teknosurf.com, promoted its SpyBlast program
as a way to protect users' computers from "hackers," the FTC charged. But
those who downloaded the product also installed a separate program that
monitored their online behavior and served them pop-up ads.
Such advertising programs, known as "adware," are considered a form of
spyware by many consumer advocates because consumers typically don't know
they're installing them.
Advertising.com didn't provide consumers with adequate notice that SpyBlast
came bundled with the adware program, the FTC charged.
Advertising.com did not admit or deny guilt as part of the settlement.
AOL, a division of Time Warner Inc., bought Advertising.com for $435
million in June 2004.
An AOL spokesman said that Advertising.com had only been in the adware
business for a brief period during 2003. The company makes most of its
money by selling banner ads, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said.
"They were not in this business when we purchased them," Weinstein said.
"Advertising.com does not now and will not in the future distribute adware
products."
The House of Representatives in May voted to stiffen jail sentences and
establish multimillion-dollar fines for spyware purveyors. The Senate has
not yet acted on the bill.
New Mouse for Macs Has Multiple Buttons
Apple Computer Inc.'s neglect of the humble mouse is over. It now offers a
model that's nimble.
Apple introduced on Tuesday its first computer mouse with multiple buttons,
including four sensors and a tiny scroll ball. Although a departure from
the company's traditional mouse, the "Mighty Mouse" looks very similar to
the single-button model Apple has long produced.
The most obvious difference is the relatively tiny scroll ball at the
mouse's head, which can move cursors diagonally as well as up and down
across display screens and can be pressed to "click" functions.
Like Microsoft, Apple has for years built added functionality into its
operating systems to accommodate multi-button mice. But you had to buy mice
made by other manufacturers, such as Microsoft Corp. or Logitech, to take
advantage.
Designers of the new Apple device wanted a scroll ball that was less
obtrusive than other models and wouldn't impede those who chose not to use
it, said David Moody, vice president of Macintosh hardware product
marketing.
In lieu of actual buttons beyond the scroll ball, the optical-scanning
mouse has four sensors that can be programmed for multiple actions, just
like the left and right buttons on many PC mouses.
Mighty Mouse, which connects via a USB port, will retail for $49. It is
PC-compatible but won't be able to move your cursor diagonally in
Microsoft's Windows, Apple said.
Rolling out a multi-button mouse eliminates another important difference
between Macs and PCs. In May, Apple announced that it would cease using IBM
processors in favor of Intel chips, which power most PCs.
With the new mouse, Apple is seeking to tap into the accessory market,
which includes such gadgets as flat-screen monitors, computer speakers, and
remote controls, said Richard Shim, senior analyst at research firm IDC.
"There is no doubt that in the overall PC market, where margins are thin,
there are opportunities for accessory makers," Shim said. "There is a huge
install base of PCs out there so there is money to be made if you can hit
on a popular accessory."
Apple said that it was granted permission to use the Mighty Mouse name, but
offered no other details. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon superhero that was
produced by Terrytoons in 1942.
Microsoft to Host Hacker Meetings
Microsoft is working on plans to make a recent hacker meeting held on its
Redmond, Washington, campus a twice-yearly event, according to a
spokesperson for the vendor's security group.
The company plans to host another Blue Hat security event in the fall,
though no specific date for it has been set, Stephen Toulouse, a program
manager in Microsoft's security unit, said on Monday.
"We're looking at doing this again in the future," he said of the two-day
event, which was held in March. "As we continue to engage with security
researchers, we've become more comfortable getting into these face-to-face
interactions with them."
The Blue Hat event's name is a reference to the annual Black Hat security
conference, with the color in the title changed to blue because that's the
color of the badges Microsoft employees wear on campus. This year's U.S.
Black Hat meeting was held last week in Las Vegas.
In sessions at the initial Microsoft Blue Hat event, security researchers
demonstrated to Microsoft executives and developers how flaws in the
software giant's products could be exploited.
In one presentation, hackers set up a wireless network and showed how a
laptop running Windows XP Service Pack 2 could be lured into joining a
potentially malicious network, Toulouse said.
Demonstrating these kinds of possible security holes hit home with product
developers, which is why Microsoft wants to host the event regularly,
Toulouse said.
"There was a moment where everything just stopped," Toulouse said of the
wireless network presentation. "You've got guys in the audience who wrote
that code... Some of the things developers coming out of the talks were
expressing [were] great ideas to go off and change the way products are
[developed] to make sure this won't happen again."
This kind of reaction from developers is in line with Microsoft's goal for
the Blue Hat events, which is to help make Microsoft's product line as a
whole more secure, he added.
Mozilla Foundation Forms Subsidiary
The Mozilla Foundation that organizes development of the Firefox Web
browser has formed a corporate subsidiary, an unusual move for a technology
nonprofit.
"The Mozilla Corp. is not a typical commercial entity," said Mitchell
Baker, the new subsidiary's president. "Rather it is dedicated to the
public benefit goal at the heart of the Mozilla project, which is to keep
the Internet open and available to everyone."
Mozilla Corp. will work mainly on developing and delivering free software
products such as the Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail program. The
foundation will manage projects, set policies and organize relationships
among developers.
The new business will be based in Mountain View, as is the foundation. It
is expected to have about 30 employees, compared with three or four at the
foundation, Baker said.
Its software will remain free.
Frank Hecker, director of policy for the Mozilla Foundation, said the
for-profit arm will give the project more options. Already, Google Inc.
pays Mozilla an unspecified amount to ship Firefox with a version of
Google's search engine as the default home page.
In the future, the project could consider letting other companies hire its
employees to develop new features, Hecker said. There are no plans, though,
to offer paid technical support services.
Creating a business is unusual in the open-source world, where communities
of programmers - often from different companies - develop software. Some
popular projects, however, have formed nonprofit legal entities to relieve
some of the burden of business.
The developers of the popular Apache Web server did that in 1999, forming
the Apache Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation was formed as a nonprofit in
July 2003 to provide organizational, legal and financial support to the
Mozilla project.
"With this reorganization, the Mozilla Foundation will look much more like
the Apache Foundation than it currently does," Baker said.
The Mozilla project was formed during the so-called browser war between
Netscape Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp. In 1998, Netscape
released its underlying code in an effort to compete against Microsoft's
Internet Explorer.
The project continued even after America Online Inc. bought Netscape and
Microsoft captured the vast majority of the Web browser market. Two years
ago, AOL drastically cut its involvement but helped launch the Mozilla
Foundation.
The Mozilla Firefox Web browser, officially released in 2004, has been the
project's biggest success.
To date, the free software has been downloaded more than 75 million times
and its market share is estimated to be approaching 10 percent.
Yahoo Betas Music-Search Service
With the beta launch of Audio Search, Yahoo is making it a whole lot easier
for music fans to find the tunes they are looking for online. Audio Search
is a new tool that provides prompt access to 50 million audio files from
the most popular music services and independent outlets.
With Audio Search, users can sift through podcasts, downloadable music
files, albums and other content ranging from newscasts and music videos to
album reviews and artists' images.
Yahoo has hooked up with a long list of music providers, including Napster,
eMusic, MusicMatch, GarageBand.com and RealNetworks. The search engine also
has tapped into its own search offerings - including video, image and news
search - to retrieve audio content.
Audio Search represents the next step in services developed by Yahoo and
others to compete with popular peer-to-peer networks, said Yankee Group
analyst Michael Goodman.
"What is interesting about this is that, unlike other music search
offerings, the Yahoo search engine crosses a broad array of music
services," he said.
Users thus have more tracks at their disposal and can find songs or other
audio files that would be more difficult to locate by searching each site
separately.
To make the service even more useful, Audio Search is integrated with
Yahoo's My Web custom-search offering so that users can save audio searches
and share their musical tastes through Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
feeds.
Those who currently subscribe to an online music service can take advantage
of a feature in the new service that retrieves audio files from a provider
with a one-click connection to the selected service. Yahoo stands to
benefit from this capability by collecting a fee from each download.
Seeing music services as lucrative opportunities, Yahoo launched Yahoo
Music Unlimited in May of this year, with subscriptions to that service
selling for well below those of competing music services.
First Family of Windows Vista Viruses Unleashed
An Austrian hacker has earned the dubious distinction of writing what are
thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft's Windows Vista
operating system. Written in July, the viruses take advantage of a new
command shell, code-named Monad, that is included in the Windows Vista beta
code.
The viruses were published last month in a virus-writing tutorial written
for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation
Front, and take advantage of security vulnerabilities in the new command
shell. Unlike the traditional Windows graphical user interface, which
relies heavily on the mouse for navigation, command shells allow users to
employ powerful text-based commands, much as Windows' predecessor, DOS,
did.
The viruses were written by a hacker calling himself "Second Part To Hell,"
and published on July 21, just days after Monad was publicly released by
Microsoft, according to Mikko Hyppnen, chief research officer with
Helsinki's F-Secure. Second Part To Hell is the pseudonym of an
Austrian-based hacker who also goes by the name Mario, Hyppnen says.
Because of its sophistication, the new command shell offers new
opportunities for hackers, Second Part To Hell wrote in the tutorial, a
copy of which was obtained by the IDG News Service. "Monad will be like
Linux's BASH (Bourne Again Shell)--that means a great number of commands
and functions," he wrote. "We will be able to make as huge and complex
scripts as we do in Linux."
F-Secure has named the virus family Danom (Monad in reverse). Having
examined the code, Hyppnen says that the Danom family is disruptive, but
not capable of causing significant damage to Windows users. "These are
proof-of-concept viruses," he says, "where virus writers want to break new
ground and write the first viruses for a new platform."
Most security experts had not expected to see a Windows Vista virus so
soon, Hyppnen says. "The only surprise here is that it came so early," he
says. "It's been eight days since the beta of the operating system was
out." Monad was released several days prior to the Windows Vista beta.
Still, Danom's release does raise questions about whether Microsoft should
enable the Monad shell by default in Windows Vista.
Because Monad's scripting capabilities will be used by only advanced users,
Hyppnen believes Microsoft should not offer the software as part of the
standard Windows Vista package when it becomes commercially available in
the second half of 2006. This would make the software less prevalent, and
therefore less attractive to virus writers, he says.
Microsoft "got burned" in including similar software, called Windows Script
Host, by default in its Windows 2000 operating system, he says. "Since it
was on the system, all the virus writers were exploiting it," he says.
Phishers Hack eBay
A flaw has been discovered on eBay's Web site that would have allowed
fraudsters to successfully redirect the sign-on process to a phishing site.
Reported by British antiphishing outfit Netcraft, the clever scam
apparently started with fraudsters sending e-mails asking eBay users to
update their accounts. So far so normal, as such fake eBay e-mails are
currently one of the phishing world's persistent lines of attack.
Disarmingly, however, the link provided was genuine and led to the correct
eBay sign-in page, signin.ebay.com. If users clicked on the link,
parameters embedded in the otherwise normal stream of characters at the end
of the link actually redirected users away from the page after the sign-in
page to a fake phishing page, via an open relay hosted at servlet.ebay.com.
The end result would have been that users gave away information allowing
phishers to hijack their accounts, either as a way of laundering money or
for launching fake auctions.
According to Netcraft's Paul Mutton, the company first learned of the
attack from users of its antiphishing toolbar - which stops the attack -
and reported the flaw to eBay last week.
This is not the first time such an attack has been attempted on eBay users.
In March, phishers launched an almost identical redirect-style attack,
which spoofed the sign-on page itself. Mutton said he considered the latest
attack more subtle as it manipulated the real sign-on page, and would
therefore be harder for users to detect.
"I believe this new exploit is more serious because it is more convincing,"
Mutton said. "It is something they can prevent by enforcing stricter coding
conventions." At the time of going to press, eBay was unavailable for
comment.
The moral is not to click on links in e-mails just because they look
genuine, a fairly disturbing conclusion as this is one of the main criteria
people use. Netcraft's toolbar, a Web browser plug-in for Microsoft's
Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, is designed to protect against
phishing websites, not least by analyzing the sort of characters used in
this attack.
Court OKs Blocking of Unsolicited E-Mails
The University of Texas didn't violate the constitutional rights of an
online dating service when it blocked thousands of unsolicited e-mails, a
federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.
White Buffalo Ventures, which operates LonghornSingles.com, had appealed
to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying it had complied with all
anti-spam laws.
The company argued that the university violated its constitutional rights
by filtering out 59,000 e-mails in 2003. White Buffalo also claimed a
federal act that allows certain e-mails superseded the university's
anti-spam policy.
The 5th Circuit panel found that the federal anti-spam law, CAN-SPAM, does
not pre-empt the university's policy and that the policy is permissible
under the First Amendment.
The law requires messages to have a title that correctly states the
contents of the e-mail, a valid address and that companies honor requests
to unsubscribe.
The court did not need to rule on whether the state university e-mail
servers are public or private.
The Austin-based service had legally obtained the addresses from the
university, but the university started blocking the e-mail messages saying
White Buffalo was part of a larger spam problem that had crashed the
computer system.
The university said it was also responding to complaints from students and
faculty.
At the time, UT issued a cease and desist order, but White Buffalo refused
to comply. So UT blocked all the e-mail messages from White Buffalo's IP
address.
The court determined that White Buffalo complied with federal law, that its
e-mails were not illegal, but the law applies to UT as it would to an
Internet service provider that employs protection measures.
Man Sued in EBay Dispute Over Elvis Car
A 66-year-old man has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in
Philadelphia against a New York man who reneged on a bid he made on eBay to
buy a 1969 Mercedes Benz that was once owned by Elvis Presley.
In his lawsuit, Gene Epstein of Wrightstown, Pa., claims that Jason
Shepherd of Ballston Lake, N.Y., entered a "buy-it-now" bid of $245,000 for
the vehicle.
But when it came time to collect, Shepherd allegedly claimed that the bid
was a mistake made when his daughter accidentally hit a key on his
computer, Epstein said.
Attempts to reach Shepherd for comment were unsuccessful.
The lawsuit is seeking for Shepherd to pay the original bid, along with
$150,000 in damages.
"Once an item is removed from the active sale list on eBay and listed as
sold, its reappearance on the active auction listings creates the
impression that the item being sold is in some way unsaleable or
unmarketable," the lawsuit said.
Epstein said, however, that he would settle the case if Shepherd issues a
specifically worded apology he drew up and pays a "token" amount.
Representatives from eBay could not be reached for comment.
Web Site Devotes Itself to Strange Firings
Getting fired is rarely a happy event, but that doesn't mean you can't have
a sense of humor about it. That's what Simply Hired, a 5-month-old
employment-related Internet startup, counted on when it started an
affiliated Web site devoted to the stories of workers who have received a
pink slip for a silly, outrageous or embarrassing reason.
The Mountain View-based company is even offering a prize to the biggest
"loser" - a Caribbean cruise that will include passengers famously fired by
Donald Trump on his popular television show, "The Apprentice."
The contest will be judged by a panel that includes Phil Kaplan, an
irreverent entrepreneur who learned a thing or two about sad-sack stories
while running a Web site about the foibles of failing Internet companies
during the dot-com bust.
Kaplan's old site, which had a profane name, helped inspire
simplyfired.com, said Kay Luo, marketing manager for Simply Hired, whose
specialty search engine scours for job listing posted on help-wanted sites
such as Monster.com, HotJobs.com and craigslist.
The early submissions at simplyfired, which was launched Monday, includes
a posting from Mark Jen, who was fired from Google Inc. earlier this year
for discussing the highly secretive company on his Web log.
Virtually all the other postings have been made under pseudonyms. The
musings include stories about being fired for doing perverse things with
prosthetics, refusing to cook the company books and neglecting to sign a
holiday card for the boss.
Internet Auctions Bring a Big Shift To Once-Quirky Flea Markets
Joe Bumb's trove of local sports memorabilia - baseball cards, jerseys,
autographed photos - was once the centerpiece of his flea market store,
attracting eager collectors from all over the world. Today Bumb displays
them more out of habit than in hope that someone will buy them. He knows
shoppers will go to the Internet in search of a better deal.
The popularity of eBay and other online auction houses is transforming the
age-old ritual of the Sunday flea market. Some have been depleted as
vendors find it more lucrative to put their best stuff online. Others have
been remade as clearinghouses for cheap, mass-produced goods from places
like China, Taiwan and Mexico.
The result is that going to flea markets, once known for their quirkiness,
is no longer about the hunt for a unique item amid a lot of junk, some
customers say. It's now about running errands.
Bumb's antiques and collectibles store, American Precious Metals, which his
family has operated for 25 years, is a rarity in the flea market world
nowadays. Nearly all other 2,200 spaces on the 45-acre swath of desert that
is the San Jose Flea Market are taken up by vendors hawking things like
shiny plastic toys, shifts for baby girls in every pastel color imaginable,
rows of cowboy boots and prints of Jesus Christ.
"It's like a giant Wal-Mart," said Rich Alvari, director of sales for the
flea market. "You don't see that garage sale knickknack stuff that people
used to love to explore."
As the Internet continues to expand as a place of commerce, it is changing
the relationships between sellers and buyers, giving some a boost and
stifling others. This year, about 63 percent of Americans are expected to
buy something online, for a total of $79 billion, according to research
firm Jupitermedia Corp.
The San Jose Flea Market, the largest open-air market in the nation, still
attracts a huge number of customers, up to 60,000 in a weekend, but the
experience is radically different than even a decade ago. Instead of
suspense, there's reliability. Instead of meandering, there's efficiency.
Bargaining is more of an exception than the norm.
"I do sometimes find some unusual stuff here, but mostly I buy things like
socks and sunglasses," said Jennifer Costa, 46, an information technology
coordinator from the area who was shopping on a recent weekend with her
husband.
Michael Shahrabani, 46, a real estate developer from Arlington, Va., who
once furnished his entire house with vintage furniture from flea markets
around the country, said he thinks the community atmosphere of many flea
markets is being destroyed.
"I know eBay has its place but . . . it's not as much fun. Buying something
on the Internet just doesn't have the same feel as interacting as a vendor.
Vendors have a story about the things they are selling. It may have been a
family heirloom or come from countries far away," said Shahrabani, who
operates a flea market in Arlington that is trying to preserve its
secondhand roots.
Flea markets - part discount store, part carnival - have been around in one
form or another for centuries, but they began to boom in the 1950s and
1960s in the United States. The San Jose Flea Market opened its doors in
March 1960. It was the creation of George Bumb, who was in the landfill
business and who kept finding usable castoffs in his junkyards. He wanted
to create a place where people with items they no longer wanted could link
up with people who wanted those items.
Over the years such commerce became an important part of the country's
entrepreneurial culture, providing an opportunity for someone to start a
business without putting a lot of money down and without making a long-term
commitment. The number of flea markets has been steadily growing, according
to the National Flea Market Association, with 2.25 million vendors and $30
billion in sales annually.
Joe Bumb, 50, George Bumb's nephew, was one of the lucky entrepreneurs who
got a boost from the flea market. His store has a revenue of about $100,000
each month, although in recent years business has become more difficult. He
sells mostly jewelry these days, but finds that people don't believe
they're getting a bargain unless they check it out on the Internet.
"Eventually I won't need a store or rather the store won't help much
anymore," Bumb said. "I will be doing this from my garage with a computer."
The Internet side of his business is thriving, with revenue of $20,000 a
month and growing. Neil Lopez, 40, the online sales manager, now a variety
of items, from Barbies and Nintendo systems to rare coins. "Customers that
we had coming through our doors, say, seven to 10 years ago, they just
don't come in anymore. They are online," he said.
The customers who do show up are far more sophisticated than in years past,
said Julie Campbell, 46, manager of the Bellwood Flea Market in Richmond,
Va.
"The ones that come into flea markets, if there's something in particular
they like - let's say Spiderman lunch boxes - they look it up in books and
eBay before coming so they know the prices," Campbell said. Same for the
vendors selling them. While it's possible to occasionally find a bargain,
she added, it's less likely nowadays that someone will find a 50-cent gold
necklace or a first-edition Beatles record for $5, as some of her
acquaintances reported they did in the past.
In the Washington area, a number of flea markets are held, including in
Georgetown, Eastern Market, Bethesda, Columbia and Arlington.
The Internet has made it possible for a new generation of entrepreneurs to
thrive in the great Silicon Valley tradition. They buy new items wholesale
and sell them at a profit at the flea market. With rents starting at only
a few hundred dollars a month, the risk is minimal.
Vincente Velazquez and his wife, Esther, buy new women's dresses wholesale
for $22 and sell them at the San Jose Flea Market for $45. Mercedes Lara,
32, who runs a baptism and communion store that sells children's clothing,
said part of the appeal of the flea market is the diversity of merchandise.
"At some retail stores the same stuff is there for months," said Lara, who
works with her mother, daughter and two sisters-in-law. "Everybody brings
in new stuff all the time here. It changes daily."
Campbell said that while the number of vendors selling new items has grown
to more than half of her Richmond market over the past few years, she tries
to keep encouraging people to bring in stuff from their attics or garages.
"To me that's what a flea market is - secondhand items, recycling them to
a new family," she said.
Shahrabani is also among those trying to hold the line. About five years
ago, he started a new market near the Court House Metro station in
Arlington that only accepts vendors selling original or secondhand wares
- "stuff you wouldn't find at a shopping center," he said. One vendor sells
old advertisements, another vintage books. There are a few landscape
photographers and a woman who makes her own purses.
Shahrabani said that a few days ago a vendor showed up with 200 copies of
the new Harry Potter book and wanted to sell them at the market. Although
the market was only 60 percent full, he turned her away.
"I said, 'That's not the kind of item we want to have here,' " Shahrabani
remembered telling her. "The flea market is not just about how much rent
we can get but it's about creating an event, an atmosphere."
It's an emotional reaction that Alvari, from the San Jose Flea Market,
shares, although he is resigned to the new reality.
"Part of us are a little disappointed in what's happened" to flea markets,
Alvari said. But, change "is the nature of everything. It's the nature of
progress."
=~=~=~=
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