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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 09 Issue 30
Volume 9, Issue 30 Atari Online News, Etc. July 27, 2007
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2007
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Patrice Mandin
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
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http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0930 07/27/07
~ Anti-Phishing Research! ~ People Are Talking! ~ New SDL Release!
~ Eavesdropping On E-mail ~ Facebook Faces Charges ~ Online Feud, Arson!
~ Dell Expands Linux PCs! ~ Test Your Knowledge! ~ Feds Warn Public!
~ FBI, China Bust Pirates ~ DIY Trojan Tool On Web ~ Internet Tax Debate!
-* Young Keep High-Tech Simple! *-
-* OLPC Now Ready for Mass Production! *-
-* MySpace IDs & Deletes 29,000 Sex Offenders *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
First Britney, then Nicole, then Paris, Lindsay, Britney again, ad
nauseum! What is it with the former Disney stars and their "born with a
silver spoon in their mouth" friends? Send them all to/back to jail and
keep them there for awhile. No, not a couple of weeks of isolation like
Paris got. Put them in the general prison population - that might just
scare them straight. What a bunch of spoiled, talent-less brats. They
sound like troubled adolescents who really need some help. Instead of
buying professional help to get them out of their jams, maybe they should
seek some other professionals to make them understand themselves. You'd
think that with all of their money, they would make something out of
themselves besides scandalous headlines.
Hey, have you read the latest/final entry in the Harry Potter series?
I'm down to the last chapter or two; I was told that I have to finish it
by the end of the day so my wife can dive into it. Anyway, if the "rumor"
is true, and this is indeed the last installment of the series, it will be
too bad. Yes, I've read them all, and I'll miss the anticipation of
another one. No more Hogwarts, nor wizards, nor Muggles. This is the end.
Whether or not this is a "good" decision is open to debate. Ride out on a
broomstick while still on top? Perhaps. It was a fun ride while it
lasted.
Sounds a little like our ride with Atari, doesn't it. We kept hearing
about the latest and greatest machines coming out, and we continued to
crave that news - had to have each new model. But, similar to Harry
Potter, the ride came to an end - and we knew that the "death knell" was
coming. While Harry Potter climbed immediately to the forefront, Atari
did not, except to its most dedicated fans. And even they realized that
Atari couldn't maintain its [limited] stature.
But have faith Harry Potter fans. We can still read the series of books
over and over again. We can discuss the merits of wizardry, or the
history of the Hogwarts' ghosts. And just as possible, dedicated Atari
fans can continue to enjoy their machines and use those terrific programs
that we've come to know extremely well over the years. As long as we "keep
the faith", both will always be there for us, one way or another.
And to tie this all into my Hollywood nymphets comments, maybe all four of
them could use a good Transfiguration spell cast upon them!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
SDL 1.2.12
Hello,
Here is a new SDL release, available on my web site:
- Teamtap support (4-joypad adaptors).
- Fixes in mouse and keyboard management.
- Save and restore FPU registers in audio and timer interrupts.
- GEM: allow creation of windows bigger than screen resolution.
- GEM: better mouse grab.
- And more fixes not specific to Atari version.
Thanks to Keith Scroggins for the intensive tests with Scummvm and
Openttd :).
--
Patrice Mandin
WWW: http://pmandin.atari.org/
Programmeur Linux, Atari
Spécialité: Développement, jeux
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Well, another week has come and gone, and
there's (surprise!) another 'celebrity' scandal. Poor little Lindsay
Lohan.
I'm guessing that Dana may want to say something about celebs and their
'problems', so I'll keep it real short on this subject.
Call me old fashioned or call me a hardass, but this chick is in
desperate need of 18 months of wearing a smock and punching a cash
register for minimum wage. And those who've 'enabled' her (gawd, I hate
that word), well they would, of course, be entitled to their 10%.
Okay, enough of that. I was going to talk about politics, but I'll bet
you're pretty tired of that. Then I thought about probing into why it
seems that everyone has 'better' cell phone technology than the United
States... but that's a lot of research and, quite honestly, I'm not up
for that much work. Then I thought; how 'bout the success of the Harry
Potter books and their author, J.K. Rowling?
We have a winner! Yeah, let's talk about Harry Potter. It's not that I
think that these are the best-written books ever, or that their author
is a genius (although there's no doubt that she's very, very
intelligent), but that she had the right idea at the right time and
followed through on it. If she'd written half of the first chapter and
said, "oh, the hell with it", who would have ever heard of Joanne
Rowling?
She went from 'Welfare Mother' to 'Billionaire in the span of 15 years,
and she did it the good old-fashioned way: She found something she
loved and was good at, and she stuck with it.
And to those who complain about 'occult' subject matter and such I say,
'get a life'. If you're worried about Harry Potter turning your kids
into baby-eating satanists, then sit them down and (gasp!) talk to
them.
Besides, 'occult' doesn't necessarily mean 'bad'. It means 'pertaining
to magic' or 'hidden'. By that definition, TRUTH is becoming occult.
There's no baby-eating, no animal sacrifice, no Black Mass.
No, by far the lion's (or griffin's) share of this series of books deals
with morality, personal responsibility and integrity.
Of course, those are dangerous traits. They all require independent
thought and a willingness to break rules when necessary.
I can remember reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, when Huck
ruminates about slavery. "Preacher don't say it's wrong", was the
phrase that's always stuck in my mind (but to be honest, I don't
remember the exact wording). Huck, like most of us, let some of the
smaller issues in his life squeak by ("Pap always said: The sweetest
melon in the world is a snitched one"), while thinking about the big
ones (helping his friend, Jim, an escaped slave).
At the time the story was taking place, slavery was legal. Helping an
escaped slave was not. And yet the young Huck takes a stand. Damn. I'm
going to have to re-read Huck Finn.
Well, anyway, if Mark Twain could take on a subject that divided a
nation, then J.K. Rowling can take on a school for the... oh, let's
call them 'metaphysically gifted'... sort of a Juilliard for
telekinetics. [grin]
Okay, now that I've pretty much expressed my undying respect for Rowling
and Mark Twain, let's get to the news, hints, tips and info available
from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'Coda' posts this tidbit about his USB Mouse Driver:
"I have decided to make the latest version of my USB mouse driver
available for public download. This is considered an ALPHA release.
There are things to fix, things to add etc, but it is usable and
works on ST/TT/Falcon with EtherNat or NetUSBee, in TOS and MiNT. As
for MagiC, you'll have to try it, I don't own it, so I can't develop
for it.
Get it from the downloads page on http://www.janthomas.org.uk/ and
don't forget to read the text file before you install it!
Obviously, if you don't have an EtherNAT (http://nature.atari.org) or
a NetUSBee (http://hardware.atari.org) there's no point in downloading
it!
Please let me know if you are using it (via the email address on my
website, NOT the gmail spamtrap address I use for usenet).
Many thanks for your patience and for being unwilling ALPHA
testers!
Version 0.90 is out.
Some things fixed. Some things added.
http://www.janthomas.org.uk/"
'Jao' asks for help in finding drivers:
"Does anyone know where I can find drivers for a
Forget Me Clock II?
Actually I have the original drivers, but they no longer
work (dates seem to be up to 1999 only). I'm wondering
if there are any patches available?"
Greg Goodwin tells Jao:
"Here's a post from Aly from Sept. of last year:
'The problem with th FMCII software is that it won't go past the year
1999. The hardware RTC is fine, just that the software can't set it.
SOLUTION:
Edit the file FMCII.PRG with a hex editor. Find the first two
occurrences of 63h Change these to 6Eh. And save.
Your FMCII.PRG program can now set dates up to 2010. 2006 is
106 in the FMC software.' "
Aly jumps in and adds:
"The downloadable and modified software is on atari-forum :-)
http://tinyurl.com/35k39u
[URL modified by Editor from:
www.atari-forum.com/wiki/index.php/
Fixing_the_Forget-Me-Not_Clock_software
for the sake of convenience ]
Our buddy Fred Horvat asks about MagiCMac 'Classic':
"Has anybody tried and successfully gotten MagiCMac for OS9 to run on a
PowerMac in the Classic environment from under OSX? My issue is that I
just recently upgraded machines from a G4 Cube to a PowerMac Dual G5.
The G5 does not boot natively into OS9. So from OSX I can start the
Classic environment (OS9) and try MagiCMac but all I get is a white
screen and the system appears to freeze. I never ran Classic on any of
my G4 Macs before. If I wanted OS9 I'd just boot into it. Earlier
this year I got MagiCMac 6.20 for my Cube and was trying to get MacStip
running when I bought my PowerMac G5. Now I'd like to start back where
I left off with MagiCMac for OS9 but can not seem to get it running on
the G5. I did try some other OS9 apps like iCab and Internet Explorer
for OS9 and they appear to run just fine so the Classic Environment
seems to be loaded properly on the G5."
Fidel-Sebastian Hunrichse-Lara tells Fred:
"That's, as far as I know, just impossible...
How often must I still repeat myself? MacSTip as a part of MacTCP-
Connect is a crude hack that runs only with Old World ROM machines!
Your Cube simply isn't an Old World ROM machine and therefore MacSTip
won't work on it - there's definitively just no way...
All Macs prior to the iMac use Old World ROM, while the iMac and all
subsequent models are New World ROM machines. In common use, the "Old
World" designation usually applies to the early generations of PCI-
based "beige" Power Macs (and sometimes the very first NuBus-equipped
models)."
Fred replies:
"My mistake I meant MacTCP-Connect I wanted to set up. I know what an
Old World Machine is as I have a couple 8500-120, 9500MP, and a
9600-200 which any of them could then run Mac-Stip. How then did Bengy
at http://www.magical-sides.de the old MagiC Support Site run
MacTCP-Connect on a G3-333 iMac? That was not an Old World Machine?
Like my original post said I had just gotten MagiCMac for OS/9 and was
trying to setup up the TCP/IP connection with the Mac OS and MagiC when
I got a new machine so I never did actually get it working. It appears
that on my new G5 it is not possible to run MagiC under the Classic
Environment.
[It] Stinks but not really that big a deal as I have other Macs in my
office that I can run OS9. I would have just preferred to have as much
as possible running on my G5.
If MagiCMac for OSX has TCP capability then I may be willing to spend
the money to purchase it."
'Mark' adds:
"I have heard that Magic Mac won't work with OS 9.2. But it may work
with a version of OS 9 up till 9.2, like 9.0 to 9.1.x
Classic is always going to be 9.2"
'ProToS' steps up and offers this:
"Magicmac and MacSTip work nice on 9.2.2"
Derryck Croker tells Fred:
"Andreas Kromke mentioned that the only way that there would be a TCP/IP
driver for MagiCMacX would be if someone wrote the necessary module.
I thought that there was a certain amount of shooting oneself in the
foot, but let's face it, the Internet browsing experience on the Mac is
much better!"
Guillaume Tello asks about the venerable SH205:
"I'd like to know what is the capacity of this Hard drive (20Mb?)
and what technology is inside: SCSI? (Cause I'd like to change the drive
with a greater one but keeping the DMA adapter)"
Jason Harmon tells Guillaume:
"I'm trying to do something similar to you now.
I have a MegaFile 60 with a dying drive mechanism. From what I
understand the SH 205 is a MegaFile 20 and may be very similar to what
I have. The mechanism in mine is a 5.25" 60MB RLL drive. From what I
understand, the controller in this drive serves two functions. It
converts ACSI to SCSI, and then connects SCSI to RLL. However, since
this logic is internal, I don't know how feasible it would be to try to
modify the board to be able to connect a SCSI drive to it.
I just got an ICD AdSCSI ST host adapter, and am planning on ripping the
guts out of the case and installing the ICD board and a 4GB SCSI drive
in the case."
'Captain Midnight' tells Jason and Guillaume:
"I built a my first HD with a 60MB Seagate RLL drive and Supra Host
Adapter. The HA converts to SCSI. Then a card inside the case
translates to the RLL drive. The card is actually the SCSI device.
AFAIK the card was just miniaturized to where it could be put on the
drive making it a SCSI device.
Connecting a HA directly to a SCSI drive(s) is all that's needed.
Don't think the Atari HA is a good idea , even if physically possible,
but leave that to those more knowledgeable. The HA will need to support
the new drive.
On my later SCSI drives just used 50 conductor ribbon cable, a 50 pin
IDC connectors on the drive and 2(if needed) 50 pin IDC centronics
connectors on the outside with a Link HA on one of them. A centronics
connector could be run to the outside from the internal HA as well.
Come to think of it, did do that with the Supra too before getting the
Link. Then there's termination.
I've also got 135&230MB SyQuests, a Floptical, 2 CD-ROMs and a 540MB
Quantum drive in an Atari ST 3.5" floppy case that can be chained. The
Quantum requires parity so can't be used with either of these HA,
unfortunately. Also unfortunate that it's been a long time since
playing with them."
Djordje Vukovic posts this about TeraDesk:
"Hello all;
Version 3.92 of TeraDesk open-source desktop for the 16-bit and 32-bit
lines of Atari computers is available at:
http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/teradesk.htm
This release brings a small change (just five lines of code) made to set
TeraDesk in agreement with Didier Mequignon's PICDESK utility for
displaying desktop background pictures. Recently, an inquiry from a
user made me aware of the existence of PICDESK, and it turned out that
TeraDesk was already pretty much compatible with it- the picture was
displayed, but there were some bad redraws. Only small corrections were
needed to fix that.
See the history file and/or the hypertext manual for more information
(i.e. how to set TeraDesk to enable display of desktop background
pictures).
By the way, it seems that there is a bug in PICDESK: if it is set (and
configuration saved) to display a monochrome IMG picture, on the next
startup it attempts to display a GEM picture instead- and so nothing
happens until a picture file is manually reselected.
PICDESK is not needed if one is using MyAES; that AES has a capability
to display desktop background pictures. Also, it seems that PICDESK
does not work with XaAES (but is ok with Atari AESes, N.AES, Geneva and
MagiC).
In TeraDesk 3.92 there are also some other small improvements and bug
fixes. Have fun."
THEN Djordje posts:
"An error has been made in the compilation of this release and it will
not work on some systems. Please do NOT download or use it until the
error is fixed. Sorry for inconvenience."
Jao now asks about transferring files:
"In my quest to replace my dying MegaFile 60, I've put together a new
hard drive system based on an ICD AdSCSI ST connected to a 4GB SCSI
drive. I've got the new drive configured with the latest ICD SCSI
drivers, a 16MB boot partition, and a whole bunch of 256MB data
partitions.
The big question I have is on how I can transfer data between my old
drive and my new one. Let's ignore for the moment all the bad sectors,
etc on the old drive.
Is there a way to connect both the ICD AdSCSI and the megafile at the
same time so that I can just copy files between the drives? I had
tried to daisy chain the MegaFile from the "out" port on the ICD
adapter, but when I did that the system would not boot from either hard
drive.
Any useful pointers would be appreciated."
Uwe Seimet tells Jao:
"It might work with another driver. HDDRIVER is prepared for handling
SCSI and ACSI drives in a mixed setup if a Link-compatible adapter is
present. Since this setup is unusual I have never extensively tested
it, though. What I would expect to work is a Megafile drive directly
connected to the ST, a Link adapter connected to the DMA OUT port of
the Megafile drive, and a SCSI drive connected to the Link.
You can use the HDDRIVER demo version
(http://www.seimet.de/hddriver_english.html) in order to check whether
you can use HDDRIVER at all with your hardware setup. Running the
ID-check should be sufficient. If both drives are recognized things
look good and HDDRIVER should be able to properly access both drives."
Jao tells Uwe:
"I tried this out (booting from floppy and then loading the trial
HDDRIVER from it).
Unfortunately, the behavior I got was rather random, with the system
seeing only the AdSCSI and not the MegaFile. I tried both orders in
the ACSI chain but in no case could I get the system to see both
drives, although once it saw the MegaFile and not the AdSCSI.
I was wondering if there is some sort of "ACSI ID" that needs to be set
to allow the computer to distinguish between multiple ACSI devices
attached to the system. I certainly have not heard of this, and there
are no jumpers on the AdSCSI board to allow this to be set.
I guess my only option may be to simply find a stack of 720K floppies
and use some backup software to backup and restore that way."
'ggnkua' tells Jason:
"I have a couple of suggestions before you start searching for your old
disk boxes.
Firstly, if you have a PC with a SCSI card you can connect the disk
there, make a disk image and then extract the files from it, or if you
use linux you can mount the disk directly. A PCI SCSI card should be
dirt cheap to get hold of if you don't have one.
Also, another idea would be to make (or buy) a cross serial cable and
use Ghostlink on window$ or do$ to transfer files from the old disk to
your PC partition and then get them back from there for your new disk.
If you find any of these 2 ideas attractive then I could dig up some
links for you. Hope this helps."
Jason replies:
"Thanks for the Ghostlink suggestion. While its a bit slow, it is
certainly easy to use and seems to be doing what I need it to.
The problem with this method is that the old drive in the MegaFile is
not SCSI. It is an RLL drive (the MegaFile has a ACSI->SCSI->RLL
controller in it, so without some additional hardware there is no way
to hook it up to my PC's SCSI card.
If there is some software than can easily transfer a whole hard drive
over serial to a PC, that would be great."
Uwe gets back to Jason and tells him:
"You have to ensure that both drives use different IDs. There are
jumpers somewhere on the Megafile board to change the ID, and there are
also jumpers on your SCSI drive to set the ID.
The AdSCSI does not have jumpers since the settings must be changed on
the drives, not on the adaptor."
Jason tells Uwe:
"Ok, I may have misunderstood how this worked. I believe the AdSCSI is
fixed as ID 6, and my SCSI drive connected to it is ID 0.
I was under the (probably mistaken) impression that devices connected to
a separate ACSI controller would be part of a separate SCSI chains and
would not collide with those on a different controller (similar to
having 2 SCSI cards in a PC and having different drives connected to
each card).
However, I will make sure the jumpers on the MegaFile board aren't set
to 0 or 6 and see what happens."
Derryck Croker gives Jason one or two tips:
"Check that you have different SCSI IDs.
Also you say you have a "bunch of partitions". TOS does has a limit
(16?) on the number you can have IIRC."
Well folks, that's it for this time around. Tune in again next week,
same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Atari's "My Horse and Me"!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Saddle Up for 'My Horse and Me!'
Atari, Inc. announced that it will publish My Horse and Me, the complete
horseback riding and equestrian lifestyle video game experience for PC,
Wii and Nintendo DS. Boasting the first and only exclusive worldwide
license from the world's foremost horse sports organization, the
Federation Equestre Internationale FEI (International Equestrian
Federation), My Horse and Me features a realistic and immersive video game
representation of the world of equestrian sports and is being developed
by W!Games for Wii and PC and by Mistic for the DS.
Delivering all the excitement and fun of the equestrian life, from sports
and leisure riding to horse care, My Horse and Me is a unique gaming
experience for anyone with an interest or passion for horses. The game
features the most accurate horse models and animations yet realized in a
video game, alongside a richly rewarding game play experience, all set
against a beautiful backdrop of charming indoor and outdoor environments.
"We are looking forward to providing the horse-enthusiast community with a
rich and authentic game that allows gamers to take care of and compete in
a variety of challenges with their horse." said Emily Anadu, Senior
Product Manager, Atari Inc. "The game's distinctive and charming depiction
of these noble animals is sure to win the hearts of horse devotees."
My Horse and Me has a rich variety of game play modes and options to give
players a deep and rewarding experience. The Championship mode lets the
player take part in competitions at indoor and outdoor locations around
the globe ranging from rustic stables and classical riding schools to
world-class tournament locations. A series of fun mini-games offer a
variety of game play experiences alongside rewarding horse care game play
and extensive customization.
The first horse sports simulation game to launch for Wii, My Horse and Me
on Wii and PC is the first title of its kind to offer both first and
third person camera modes, putting riders right in the saddle and creating
a perfect training tool for practicing disciplines that riders face in
real life.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
OLPC Now Ready for Mass Production
First, the good news. The nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child
(OLPC) announced on Monday that it has authorized the start of
mass-production of the XO laptop, a low-cost but powerful device designed
to reduce world poverty by extending the reach of the Internet to the
planet's most remote regions.
The first laptops should roll off the assembly line in October of this
year. Known as the B4, the laptop is the result of an intense
collaboration by a large number of high-tech businesses and
organizations, including OLPC, AMD, Google, Intel, Red Hat, eBay, and the
open-source community.
"Since the inception of the XO laptop more than two years ago," said
Gustavo Arenas, AMD's corporate vice president for high-growth markets
and innovations, "AMD has been committed to helping the One Laptop per
Child program succeed. We are proud to serve as a technology partner to
such a noble and life-affecting project. The B4 machine paves the way for
a final XO laptop that will change the lives of millions of children."
The computer runs on an efficient Linux-based operating system called
Sugar, and the newest model incorporates some technological innovations
that might well make their way into the mainstream laptop market. One of
these innovations is a screen that is easy on the eyes and is capable of
being easily read in full sunlight.
Another innovation is enhanced durability for widely varying climates and
conditions. OLPC maintains that the laptop will function perfectly well
in the rain, during dust storms, or even sitting in a puddle after a
downpour. The Wi-Fi antenna - part of the computer's mesh-networking
capability that is designed to allow an entire village to share a single
Internet connection - also helps protect the computer from falls of up to
5 feet.
In addition, OLPC's B4 has extremely green power requirements. When being
used as an e-book, the B4 consumes less than 1 watt of power, and can run
for up to 12 hours on its battery, which can be recharged by hooking it
to a solar-powered, multicomputer charger in a school, or even by using
a built-in pull cord.
And now the bad news - or at least, the not terribly surprising news.
According to Reuters, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported
last Thursday that one of its reporters saw pornographic images on several
OLPC laptops in Abuja.
Reuters quoted NAN as saying that "[e]fforts to promote learning with
laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely
browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials."
OLPC officials quickly announced that they would add filtering software
to the B4 laptop configuration, but did not respond to queries about
which filtering software would be added or who would be responsible for
determining the settings of the software.
Dell To Expand Linux PC Offerings
Dell Inc Windows, said the founder of a company that offers Linux support
services.
Mark Shuttleworth, who created a version of Linux software named Ubuntu,
said Dell is happy with the demand it has seen for Linux PCs that were
introduced in May.
Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard Co, now
offers three consumer PCs that run Ubuntu Linux.
"What's been announced to date is not the full extent of what we will see
over the next couple of weeks and months," Shuttleworth said an interview
late on Wednesday.
"There are additional offerings in the pipeline," he said. Shuttleworth
founded Canonical Inc to provide support for Ubuntu Linux.
A Dell spokeswoman, Anne Camden, declined comment, saying the company
does not discuss products in the pipeline.
She added that Dell was pleased with customer response to its Linux PCs.
She said Dell believed the bulk of the machines were sold to open-source
software enthusiasts, while some first-time Linux users have purchased
them as well.
Open-source software refers to computer programs, generally available
over the Internet at no cost, that users can download, modify and
redistribute.
The Linux operating system is seen as the biggest threat to Microsoft's
Windows operating system.
Shuttleworth said sales of the three Dell Ubuntu PC models were on track
to meet the sales projections of Dell and Canonical. He declined to
elaborate.
Companies like his privately held Canonical Inc, Red Hat Inc make money by
selling standardized versions of Linux programs and support contracts to
service them.
There are dozens of versions of Linux, available for all sorts of
computers from PCs to mainframes and tiny mobile devices.
Shuttleworth said his company was not in discussions with Hewlett-Packard
or the other top five PC makers to introduce machines equipped with
Ubuntu.
The other three top PC makers are Lenovo Group Ltd, Acer Inc and Toshiba
Corp.
Nothing Sure But Death And The Internet Tax Debate
As a federal ban on discriminatory and access taxes on the Internet
approaches a Nov. 1 expiration date, Congress is once again embroiled in
a question that comes up every three or four years: To what degree does
the Internet merit special federal protection from state and local tax
collectors?
The tax moratorium, which does not affect the states right to tax
e-commerce, was first passed in 1998 and was extended twice since then.
While some senators have recently suggested they are not fully convinced
it should be preserved, House members overseeing the issue agree that it
should be, either temporarily or permanently.
"It sounds like just about everybodys in agreement that weve got to
extend the moratorium and perhaps make it permanent," said Rep. John
Conyers, D-Mich., Thursday at a hearing of the House Judiciary
Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.
Lawmakers agree that the very definition of Internet access needs to be
refined because not all states have interpreted it the same way. Its
clear today that states cant tax the provision of Internet connectivity,
such as DSL and cable modem services. However, the bans proponents want
a broader definition to make it clear that the transport components of
Internet connectivity (such as Internet backbone service) and services
unrelated to access, such as e-mail and instant messaging, wont be taxed
either.
The major telephone companies and cable providers are the key proponents
of a permanent Internet access tax ban, and they are joined by IT
companies, including Apple and Cisco, as well as Internet-based
businesses, including Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo. Collectively lobbying
as the Dont Tax Our Web Coalition, these groups would bear the brunt of
access taxes if the ban isnt preserved or if Congress doesnt make it
clear that services unrelated to access arent included in it. The cost
of such taxes would be passed along to business and consumer end users.
The coalition is divided on the issue of Internet sales taxes, which will
likely be addressed in separate legislation.
The states are pressing for a narrower definition of Internet access,
fearing that if the definition is too broad they will be unable to tax
traditional telecommunications and video services that are bundled with
Internet access. VoIP was explicitly exempted when Congress last extended
the ban, and the states are concerned that non-access related emerging
services, such as IP TV, could end up tax-free if service providers bundle
them with connectivity.
Two bills pending in the House would make the ban permanent, but questions
have arisen whether the Internet is sufficiently mature to thrive without
eternal federal protection. A pending Senate bill would extend the ban
for another four years.
"Since 1998, [Internet-related business has] grown and in 2006 was deemed
to be worth an estimated $108.7 billion," said Rep. Linda Sanchez,
D-Calif., who chairs the subcommittee. "What was still seen as a novelty
by some in 1998, has become a daily part of life at home, in school, and
in the workplace."
The states support the Senate bill, arguing that Congress should not pass
a permanent ban on an unpredictable technology. The Senate bill also
preserves an exemption for nine states that had Internet taxes in place
in 1998. David Quam, director of Federal Relations at the National
Governors Association, told lawmakers at Thursdays hearing that the
House legislation would cost those states as much as $120 million in tax
revenue a year.
School Conducts Anti-Phishing Research
The e-mail appeared to be a routine correspondence between two friends.
"Check this out!" it read, then listed a Web address.
But the note was fake, part of an online ruse called phishing that has
become a scammer's favorite way to get sensitive information from
unsuspecting computer users.
The catch? The scammers were Indiana University researchers, the e-mail
an experiment.
"I didn't know I was being used," said Kevin McGrath, 25, a doctoral
student at Indiana University whose e-mail address was one of hundreds
used as "passive participants" for an experiment to study who gets duped
by phishing.
As universities nationwide study ways to protect online security, methods
at Indiana are raising ethical and logistical questions for researchers
elsewhere: Does one have to steal to understand stealing? Should study
participants know they are being attacked as part of a study? Can
controlled phishing ever mimic real life?
Indiana researchers say the best way to understand online security is to
act like the bad guys.
"We don't believe that you can go and ask people, 'Have you been
phished?' There's a stigma associated with it. It's like asking people,
'Have you been raped?'" said Markus Jakobsson, an associate professor of
informatics who directs IU's Anti-Phishing Group.
The university has conducted nearly a dozen experiments in the last two
years. In one, called "Messin' With Texas," researchers learned mothers'
maiden names for scores of people in Texas. Maiden names often are used
as a security challenge question.
Another conducted in May found that 72 percent of more than 600 students
tested on the Bloomington, Ind., campus fell for an e-mail from an account
intended to look familiar that sought usernames and passwords.
By contrast, only 18 percent of 350 students in a separate control group
were fooled when they received e-mails from addresses they did not
recognize.
The experiments found that hackers have the most success by using
hijacked Web addresses or e-mail accounts that look real. The research
also showed computer users generally have little knowledge of Web site
security certificates and leave themselves open to attack with poorly
configured routers or operating systems.
Understanding those weaknesses is a key to combatting phishing, which
accounted for nearly three-quarters of 11,342 online attacks recorded
between January and March, according to the US-Cert, which monitors
online attacks for the Department of Homeland Security.
Many companies have taken steps to protect consumers, but none have
proven entirely effective; which is why IU believes it's important to
understand phishing "in the wild," as Jakobsson describes it.
Federal laws governing university research allow scientists to use
deceptive means if the risk participants face is minimal and no greater
than what they would face in daily life.
Peter Finn, who serves on the Indiana review board that approves the
studies, said the university believes the phishing experiments fall
within those guidelines; even though about 30 students complained about
the methods.
"The probability of harm from the study is nowhere near the magnitude of
the harm that would result from actual phishing attacks," Finn said.
Jakobsson said researchers take steps to protect information from hackers
who might snoop on the studies. The fake Web sites and e-mails used in
the phishing attempts are created behind a secure server. No information
submitted by test subjects is stored. The experiments, which are not
encrypted in order to mirror real conditions, record only that someone
gave information; not what they provided.
Celia B. Fisher, a human research ethicist at Fordham University in New
York, said the experiments qualify as "deception research" and are legal,
even necessary.
"There is no way to find this information out without deceiving the
participants, because as soon as you tell them what you're doing, you
won't have any real information," she said.
But Lorrie Cranor, who directs an anti-phishing group at Carnegie Mellon
in Pittsburgh, said controlled laboratory studies can be just as useful.
The school has developed an online tool accessible only from its labs
called "Anti-Phishing Phil" to lead participants through scenarios based
on actual phishing attempts. The experiment hopes to determine which
methods work the best at deceiving users.
Cranor's research has found that successful phishing attempts rely on
human vulnerabilities such as greed, curiosity, ignorance and fear.
"When you talk to someone, you look in their eyes and say, "Does this
look like they're telling the truth?' And we get pretty good at making
these judgments," she said. "But most of are not very good at making
these judgments online."
Conditioning users to recognize those weaknesses before it's too late is
the safest way to combat phishing, she said.
"If we were to collect personal information from people, we have to be
very careful," Cranor said. "You don't want to be responsible for holding
a list of people's Social Security numbers."
Lawsuit Seeks To Shut Down Facebook
The owners of a rival social networking Web site are trying to shut down
Facebook.com, charging in a federal lawsuit that Facebook's founder stole
their ideas while they were students at Harvard.
The three founders of ConnectU say Mark Zuckerberg agreed to finish
computer code for their site, but repeatedly stalled and eventually
created Facebook using their ideas.
The lawsuit's allegations against Zuckerberg include fraud, copyright
infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. It asks the court to
shutter Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to
ConnectU's founders.
Facebook has responded by asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. A
hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Facebook started in 2004, a few months before ConnectU went online, and
now has 31 million users, compared with about 70,000 users for ConnectU,
based in Greenwich, Conn. Last year, Facebook turned down a $1 billion
buyout offer from Yahoo Inc.
A spokeswoman for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook declined to comment.
But in court filings, Facebook's attorneys say ConnectU has no evidence
for "broad-brush allegations" against Zuckerberg, and deny he pilfered
his ideas for Facebook from his fellow Harvard students.
"Each of them had different interests and activities," they wrote. "Only
one of them had an idea significant enough to build a great company. That
one person was Mark Zuckerberg."
Facebook and ConnectU connect college students and others online. Both
allow users to post profiles with pictures, biographies and other
personal information and create extended networks of people at their
schools or jobs or with similar interests.
ConnectU originally filed suit in 2004, but it was dismissed on a
technicality and immediately refiled. The lawsuit claims that in December
2002, ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss - who are brothers -
and Divya Narenda began to develop a social networking site for the
Harvard community called Harvard Connection.
In November 2003, the three asked Zuckerberg to complete software and
database work on the site. They repeatedly asked him to finish before they
graduated in June 2004, and Zuckerberg assured them he was working hard to
complete it, the lawsuit says.
"Such statements were false and Zuckerberg never intended to provide the
code and instead intended to breach his promise ... and intended to steal
the idea for the Harvard Connection Web site, and in fact he did so," the
suit alleges.
Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook.com in February 2004. ConnectU started
its Web site in May of that year. By beating ConnectU to the market,
Facebook gained a huge advantage, the lawsuit claims.
ConnectU's founders have written on their Web site about the "ups and
downs" of their company history, including a programmer "who stole our
ideas to create a competing site."
"But we've been troopers," they wrote. "At first we were devastated and
climbed into a bottle of Jack Daniels for a bit, but eventually emerged
with a bad headache and renewed optimism. We weren't going to lie down and
get walked over like this."
China, FBI Bust Software Counterfeiters
Chinese police have busted up two criminal organizations and seized
pirated software worth half a billion dollars, the culmination of two
years of work with the FBI, officials from both countries said Tuesday.
The gangs pirated Microsoft Corp. and Symantec Corp. software and sold it
around the world, including in the United States, said Gao Feng, an
official with China's Ministry of Public Security.
In a news conference from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Gao said
police arrested 25 people and seized property worth about $8 million.
Chinese police also confiscated counterfeit software with an estimated
retail value of $500 million, according to an FBI statement.
Gao said Chinese police discovered in 2005 that the Chinese gangs were
colluding with suspects in the United States and notified the FBI's
Beijing office.
China has long been the world's leading source of illegally copied goods,
including designer clothes, movies and music. The country has been under
pressure to crack down, and that has been increasing ahead of next year's
Summer Olympics in Beijing.
The Business Software Alliance, a trade group that tracks piracy, said in
a statement Tuesday that software counterfeiting in China has dropped in
recent years. But the group claims that global piracy took a $40 billion
bite out of worldwide software revenue in 2006.
According to the FBI, Chinese police arrested Ma KePei and 10 others in
Shanghai. Ma was indicted in 2003 in a New York court for making and
distributing counterfeit Microsoft programs, but fled to China - where he
is now accused of making fake Symantec security software.
In Shenzhen, a boomtown just over the border from Hong Kong, 14 people
were arrested for making fake Microsoft programs, including Windows Vista
and Office 2007. Six manufacturing and retail facilities were shut down,
the FBI said.
"The majority of Chinese-based distributors advertised their products
aggressively and recruited distributors via the Internet," the bureau
said. Suspects were in custody and have been charged with copyright
violations.
In related actions in Los Angeles, FBI agents seized about $2 million in
counterfeit software from the Chinese groups.
Bonnie MacNaughton, a senior attorney on Microsoft's worldwide
anti-piracy team, said the Shenzhen group was the "largest criminal
syndicate in Microsoft's history," responsible for an estimated $2
billion in fake software sales.
"We believe that these arrests and the seizures associated with them will
have significant impact on the distribution of high-quality counterfeit
software," MacNaughton said in a phone interview.
Microsoft provided investigators with information gathered from customers
and partners. The company's 2-year-old Windows Genuine Advantage program,
which scans computers for counterfeit programs, has substantially
increased the number of piracy leads, MacNaughton said.
MacNaughton would not directly say whether piracy remained a problem in
China, and instead noted that "we have a long way to go before we have
all of our customers using genuine software."
New DIY Trojan Tool on Sale on the Internet
A new kit for building and customizing Trojan malware has been discovered
for sale on the Internet.
With the appropriate name 'Pinch,' the tool lets criminals with little
technical knowledge specify a number of parameters such as which type of
password to steal from infected machines. Alternatively, the tabbed-based
interface can be made to turn the program into a straightforward
key-logger set to capture all keystrokes, take screenshots, or steal
specific file types.
Most disturbing of all, the program can also be configured so that
infected systems are simply turned into proxies or bots to carry out
malicious activity on remote computers, including downloading and
hosting other malware. In addition, it can be hidden from the infected
PC's owner by opening unusual ports through which to communicate, or
invoking rootkit-like self-protection.
"Pinch's main danger is that it is very easy to use, so any malicious
user with basic computer knowledge could create a Trojan in a very short
time for very little money," explains Luis Corrons, technical director
of PandaLabs, the company that has publicized the program.
The program is sophisticated enough to attack a named list of
anti-virus engines, interfere with Windows firewall settings, and spread
using a variety of means, including operating as a mass-mailing worm.
Its origins are unclear, but judging by the screenshots in PandaLabs'
analysis of the software, it is most likely Russian.
Malware kits are becoming one of the year's big stories even if their
origins lie further back in time.
Earlier this year, a DIY program for man-in-the-middle phishing was
found doing the rounds on the wrong Web sites. It is certainly
noteworthy that there are now a small but growing band of programs
designed to automate the often complex programming behind malware for
the non-programming criminal.
Government Warns Public On Fake E-mails
The federal agency charged with protecting consumers from Internet scams
now finds itself wrapped up in one.
Identity thieves have sent thousands of bogus e-mails purporting to be
from the Federal Trade Commission - as well as the Internal Revenue
Service and Justice Department - in an attempt to trick consumers into
divulging personal financial information.
The agencies are the latest institutions to be exploited in "phishing"
scams, long the bane of large banks and credit card issuers.
Analysts who track online crime say that while financial institutions
are still the most commonly hijacked brands, the use of federal agencies
in the hoaxes is increasing and reflects criminals' desire to take
advantage of the familiarity and authority of various government
departments.
Phishing typically involves sending fraudulent e-mails that include links
that direct recipients to fake Web sites where they are asked to input
sensitive data. Phishers may also include attachments that, when clicked,
secretly install "spyware" that can capture personal information and send
it to third parties over the Internet.
Criminal gangs in the United States and overseas use the information to
steal thousands of dollars from consumers or to sell their identities in
what experts describe as a sophisticated underground economy surrounding
identity theft.
The FTC said in June that corporate and banking executives, among other
consumers, have received fake e-mails with spyware attachments purporting
to be from the agency.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, said June 27 it has received over
23,000 complaints about IRS-related phishing scams since an investigative
arm of the department began tracking them in November 2005.
The scams have been "unprecedented both in terms of sophistication and
the volume of reports we have received," J. Russell George, Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration, said in a written statement.
Michelle Lamishaw, an IRS spokeswoman, said most of the hoax e-mails tell
recipients they are under investigation or that they have a tax refund
pending. Some are more sophisticated, including those targeted to small
businesses that mention obscure agencies known primarily to business men
and women such as the California Franchise Tax Board.
But government officials said recipients of such e-mails should be
suspicious of their origin for one simple reason: federal agencies rarely
communicate with citizens over e-mail.
Lois Greisman, associate director of the FTC's division of marketing
practices, said, "We are the agency that brought you the Do Not Call
Registry and CAN-SPAM," she said, referring to a 2003 law restricting
commercial spam. "We're not likely to send out unsolicited e-mails."
Peter Cassidy, a spokesman for the Anti-Phishing Working Group, said
phishing first surfaced early this decade and took off in 2003. The APWG
is a consortium of corporations, banks, software providers and law
enforcement agencies whose members include eBay Inc., Microsoft Corp. and
Yahoo Inc.
The scams are still growing rapidly: the number of phishing Web sites
jumped to 37,438 in May, the APWG said in a report released July 8, more
than triple the 11,976 reported in May 2006.
Phishing can carry significant economic costs for the victims and rewards
for the perpetrators. Jeff Fox, technology editor at Consumer Reports,
said that last September his group estimated consumers had lost $630
million to phishing scams in the previous two years.
A recent report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress's
investigative arm, put the figure at $1 billion annually.
Despite efforts to educate the public about the dangers of clicking on
unknown links and attachments in spam e-mail, many computer users still do
so.
Consumer Reports estimates that 8.2 percent of online households have
submitted personal information in response to fraudulent e-mails in the
past two years, Fox said. "It's astounding," he added.
An entire underground economy has developed around identity theft,
Cassidy said, with some groups specializing in sending fraudulent spam,
while others act as brokers for stolen personal information. Both may be
hired by organized crime groups that steal and launder money.
The rise of well-organized, financially motivated computer hackers is one
of the biggest changes in online crime in the past ten years, said Dave
Marcus, a research manager at security software maker McAfee Inc.
They have effectively replaced the stereotypical computer geek who seeks
notoriety by creating the latest, nastiest computer virus, he said.
On the Net:
http://onguardonline.gov/index.html
Test Your Knowledge Of Online Scams
Think you're smart at recognizing online scams?
Take a quiz to find out.
McAfee Inc.'s SiteAdvisor service has created a 10-question test to see
whether you can spot "phishing" attempts to steal passwords and other
personal information by mimicking popular Web sites such as eBay Inc.'s
PayPal and News Corp.'s MySpace.
In eight questions, you are presented with two Web sites or e-mail
messages and are asked to identify the authentic one. The final two
questions test your general knowledge about scams.
Afterward, the McAfee site presents telltale signs to look for, such as
misspellings and suspicious Web addresses.
You can also download a tool that can help warn of sites known or
suspected to be phishing scams. SiteAdvisor researchers also identify
sites that produce spyware, viruses, excessive pop-up ads, junk e-mail
or other threats.
Visit http://tinyurl.com/ytec4u to take the quiz.
MySpace Deletes 29,000 Sex Offenders
Popular Internet social network MySpace said on Tuesday it detected and
deleted 29,000 convicted sex offenders on its service, more than four
times the figure it had initially reported.
The company, owned by media conglomerate News Corp, said in May it had
deleted about 7,000 user profiles that belonged to convicted offenders.
MySpace attracts about 60 million unique visitors monthly in the United
States.
The new information was first revealed by U.S. state authorities after
MySpace turned over information on convicted sex offenders it had removed
from the service.
"The exploding epidemic of sex offender profiles on MySpace - 29,000 and
counting - screams for action," Connecticut Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal said in a statement.
Blumenthal, who led a coalition of state authorities to lobby MySpace for
more stringent safeguards for minors, and other state AGs have demanded
the service begin verifying a user's age and require parental permission
for minors.
The minimum age to register on MySpace is 14.
"We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered
sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites
follow our lead," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in
a statement.
The service has come under attack over the past year after some of its
young members fell prey to adult predators posing as minors. The families
of several teenage girls sexually assaulted by MySpace members sued the
service in January for failing to safeguard its young members.
Late last year, it struck a partnership with background verification
company Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp. to co-develop the first U.S.
national database of convicted sex offenders to make it easier to track
offenders on the Internet.
Convicted sex offenders are required by law to register their contact
information with local authorities. But the information has only been
available on regional databases, making nationwide searches difficult.
As of May, there were about 600,000 registered sex offenders in the
United States.
You're Not the Only One Reading Your E-Mail
Do you know who is reading your e-mail?
Has the fact that there is a good chance that your place of work is
reading your outbound e-mail, even those that you send from your personal
Web mail accounts, changed your behavior?
Did you know that more than one-quarter of U.S. companies have fired an
employee in the last year for violating e-mail policies?
If your answer to all three of the above questions was "no," you might
breathe a sigh of relief to learn that your answers put you squarely in
the majority of U.S. employees. But the relief will last only until the
implications of these answers set in. The odds are, someone else in your
company knows you're reading this article right now.
Nearly one-third (32 percent) of large U.S. companies employ staff to
read or otherwise analyze outbound e-mail, and this amount grew to 39
percent among companies with more than 20,000 employees.
This was among the findings of the 2007 Outbound E-Mail and Content
Security in Today's Enterprise study conducted by Forrester Research and
released July 23 by Proofpoint, an e-mail security firm based in
Cupertino.
Not only are companies reading outbound e-mail, they're employing
individuals whole sole purpose is to sift through the contents of an
employee's computer. More than one in six of the companies surveyed
employed staff whose primary or exclusive job function was to monitor
e-mail content. This number jumped to nearly one-fifth (19.4 percent)
among companies with more than 20,000 employees.
Who are the paid snoops at large organizations? Is "E-Mail Eavesdropper"
a new job title?
"There are a multitude of people within an enterprise that may have this
role, from the e-mail administrator to compliance folks who are
responsible for making sure that e-mail isn't violating any internal
policies," Keith Crosley, director of market development at Proofpoint
told eWEEK.
While this level of peering over an employee's shoulder may seem
excessive, the companies in question are not likely to agree. They
estimated that nearly one in five outgoing e-mails (18.9 percent)
contained content that posed a legal, financial or regulatory risk. The
most common form of non-compliant content was e-mail that contained
confidential or proprietary information.
Companies weren't found to be sitting idly by when they learned of a
potential leak. More than one in three (33.8 percent) organizations
surveyed had investigated a suspected e-mail leak of confidential or
proprietary information in the last 12 months. Just shy of one-third
(31.8 percent) had investigated a possible violation of privacy or data
protection in the same time frame.
Furthermore, more than one quarter of companies (27.6 percent) had
terminated an employee for violating e-mail policies in the last year,
and nearly half (45.5 percent) had disciplined one.
Read more here about MessageLabs managed e-mail service that lets
enterprises control content sent to and from employees.
Of all violations that companies monitored for, offensive content that
did not threaten an organization's security was the least of their
concerns.
"While companies are concerned about all of these things, offensive
content consistently comes in at the bottom of these concerns. For all
companies, 57 percent said they were concerned about monitoring e-mail
for offensive content," said Crosley.
Despite cracking down on employees who were putting confidential
information at risk, a surprising number of companies had no published
e-mail policy whatsoever, though the number had declined since 2004, the
first year the survey was conducted.
"One thing that was really good to see was we saw the biggest adoption
of acceptable use policies this year of all the years we've done this
survey. But, I was still surprised to see that 11 percent still did not
have a formal mail use policy," said Crosley.
In addition to e-mail policies, the wide variety of opportunities to
share information with Web 2.0 and social media software signaled a need
for policies with a greater reach.
"Organizations really need to have well thought out and clearly
articulated policies on media and information sharing, from YouTube to
blogs, e-mail and message boards," said Crosley.
Though the majority of organizations surveyed (59.4 percent) had
conducted a formal training on e-mail security policies in the last 12
months, a significant amount had not.
"Policies aren't any good unless employees know what they are. You need
to articulate it and educate them," said Crosley.
"You want to be able to consistently apply these kinds of actions and be
clear about what you allow and what you don't allow; what you want to
protect and what is public. The point is not to get people in trouble,
[but] to protect digital data and comply with regulations," said Crosley.
Wasting Time At Work? You're Not Alone
Americans who feel bored and underpaid do work hard - at surfing the
Internet and catching up on gossip, according to a survey that found U.S.
workers waste about 20 percent of their working day.
An online survey of 2,057 employees by online compensation company
Salary.com found about six in every 10 workers admit to wasting time at
work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour
working day.
Personal Internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting
activity according to 34 percent of respondents, with 20.3 percent then
listing socializing with co-workers and 17 percent conducting personal
business as taking up time.
The reasons why people wasted time were varied with nearly 18 percent of
respondents questioned by e-mail in June and July said boredom and not
having enough to do was the main reason.
The second most popular reason for wasting time was having too long hours
(13.9 percent), being underpaid (11.8 percent), and a lack of challenging
work (11.1 percent).
"While a certain amount of wasted time is built into company salary
structures, our research indicates that companies with a challenged and
engaged workforce can expect more productivity in return," said Bill
Coleman, chief compensation officer at Salary.com.
While the amount of time wasted at work seems high, Coleman said the
numbers have improved, with the amount of time wasted dropping 19 percent
since Salary.com conducted its first annual survey on slacking at work in
2005. Then workers reported wasting 2.09 hours of their working day.
"I think (the decline) is really a result of the economy and that
there's more business, more work available and less time to sit around
wondering what you are going to do with your day," Coleman told Reuters.
Wasting Time Online Could Be A Thing Of The Past
Does your company monitor how much time you spend on YouTube and eBay?
Perhaps it should.
Employees waste more than 81 minutes of work time in personal computer
activity on average and 13% squander more than two hours a day
on
recreational computer activities, according to an old AOL/Salary.com
survey.
And, those considered top employees can be the worst offenders.
To minimize all that time lost, software provider Ascentive has launched
a "workplace activity management" application called BeAware Corporate
Edition. The software aims to help increase employee productivity, cut
down on wasted time, and protect company data.
A remote set-up option allows employers to install the software to each
employee and track all employee PC activity with live, real-time
monitoring of emails, web surfing, chat and program use. Individuals,
departments, and the enterprise can view resulting reports.
The system can also notify individuals and groups when a user accesses
specific words, Web sites or applications. Ascent offers a stealth mode
it says makes the program undetectable.
The software can track employees as they work in the field, at other
company offices or on the road. It offers a personal time feature that
allows employees to take care of personal business during lunch and other
approved breaks. Ascent promises privacy during those times and allows
pop-up windows to tell employees how much personal time they have for
computer use.
Ascentive President Adam Schran said BeAware can help reward employees
for great behavior.
"It's now easier, almost effortless, for bosses to help make their
companies more efficient and effective," he said, adding that software
has little (1%) impact on network speeds.
It can be deployed to 10,000 employees. The application goes for $89.95
per computer, with discounted rates for five computers or more.
"Our clients have told us that they see unwanted Internet usage by their
employees drop as much as 90% almost immediately after BeAware is
installed," Schran said in a prepared statement.
Then again, there is always the water cooler.
Young Keep It Simple In High-Tech World
While young people embrace the Web with real or virtual friends and their
cell phone is never far away, relatively few like technology and those
that do tend to be in Brazil, India and China, according to a survey.
Only a handful think of technology as a concept, and just 16 percent use
terms like "social networking," said two combined surveys covering 8- to
24-year-olds published on Tuesday by Microsoft and Viacom units MTV
Networks and Nickelodeon.
"Young people don't see "tech" as a separate entity - it's an organic
part of their lives," said Andrew Davidson, vice president of MTV's VBS
International Insight unit.
"Talking to them about the role of technology in their lifestyle would be
like talking to kids in the 1980s about the role the park swing or the
telephone played in their social lives - it's invisible."
The surveys involved 18,000 young people in 16 countries including the
UK, U.S., China, Japan, Canada and Mexico.
Terms most frequently used by the young when talking about technology
related to accessing content for free, notably "download and "burn."
The surveyors found the average Chinese computer user has 37 online
friends they have never met, Indian youth are most likely to see cell
phones as a status symbol, while one-in-three UK and U.S. teenagers say
they cannot live without games consoles.
"The way each technology is adopted and adapted throughout the world
depends as much on local cultural and social factors as on the
technology itself," said Davidson.
For example, the key digital device for Japan's young is the cell phone
because of the privacy and portability it offers those who live in
small homes with limited privacy.
They found Japanese children aged eight to 14 have only one online
friend they have not met, compared to a global average of five. Some 93
percent of Chinese computer users aged 8-14 have more than one friend
online they have never met.
Davidson said this was encouraging those aged 8-14 in China to select
online over television - a trend not seen in any other market in that
age group.
The changes in how the youth market engages with technology is keenly
followed by advertisers and content firms.
"Traditional youth marketing considered opinion formers and influencers
to be a small elite, but these days the elite has become much larger,"
said Davidson.
For parents worried about what their children are getting up to amid
the wave of gadgets, little has changed in a generation.
The surveyors found the most popular activities the under-14s enjoy
were
watching TV, listening to music and being with friends. The rankings
for those older was similar although listening to music was top.
Man Burns Down Trailer In Online Feud
A Navy man who got mad when someone mocked him as a "nerd" over the
Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas
to teach the other guy a lesson.
As he made his way toward Texas, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer
Russell Tavares posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several
states' borders, as if to prove to his Internet friends that he meant
business.
When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy's trailer down.
This week, Tavares, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison after
pleading no contest to arson and admitting he set the blaze.
"I didn't think anybody was stupid enough to try to kill anybody over an
Internet fight," said John G. Anderson, 59, who suffered smoke inhalation
while trying to put out the 2005 blaze that caused $50,000 in damage to
his trailer and computer equipment.
The feud started when Anderson, who runs a haunted house near Waco,
joined a picture-sharing Web site and posted his artwork and political
views. After he blocked some people from his page because of insults and
foul language, they retaliated by making obscene digitally altered
pictures of him, he said.
Anderson, who went by the screen name "Johnny Darkness," traded barbs
with Tavares, aka "PyroDice."
Investigators say Tavares boiled over when Anderson called him a nerd and
posted a digitally altered photo making Tavares look like a skinny boy in
high-water pants, holding a gun and a laptop under a "Revenge of the
Nerds" sign.
Tavares obtained Anderson's real name and hometown from Anderson's Web
page about his Museum of Horrors Haunted House.
Tavares took leave from his post as a weapons systems operator at the
AEGIS Training and Readiness Center in Dahlgren, Va., and started
driving. Investigators say he told them he planned to point a shotgun at
Anderson and shoot his computer.
Instead, when he got to Elm Mott - after posting one last photo of a
"Welcome to Texas" sign - Tavares threw a piece of gasoline-soaked
plastic foam into the back of Anderson's mobile home and lit a flare,
authorities say.
Tavares' attorney, Susan Kelly Johnston, said his trip to the Waco area
was a last-minute decision during a cross-country trip to visit his
parents in Arizona. She said he never intended to hurt Anderson and did
not think he was in the trailer when he set the fire.
James Pack, an investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office,
caught up with Tavares after talking to people in several states and
Spain who had been involved in the online feud. Tavares' cell phone
records showed he was in the Waco area at the time of the fire, Pack
said.
Tavares told investigators that Anderson had spread computer viruses and
insulted his online friends for too long, Pack said.
"He lost everything - all over an Internet squabble," the investigator
said.
Tavares was discharged last year from the Navy, where he earned several
medals - including the pistol expert and rifle expert medals - in his
nine-year career, said Navy spokesman Mike McLellan.
Tavares would not let the feud go even at his sentencing. According to
Pack, Tavares took cell-phone photos of Anderson in the courtroom while
the judge was hearing another case. Authorities ordered the photos
erased.
Anderson, an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam, said he continues to be
harassed online, has been startled by people knocking on his window late
at night and found bullet holes in a door to his business.
He said he is convinced the harassment is related to the Internet feud
and plans to spend $30,000 on more fencing topped with barbed wire.
"Before this happened, the rule was: Nobody messes with the haunted
house guy," Anderson said.
=~=~=~=
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