Slashdot Mirror

fudgefactor7 writes "As IDG.NET tells us, the venerable .ZIP compression standard is about to undergo a bit of a schism. PKWare and WinZip, the "big two" in the .ZIP format biz are (unfortunately) going to be making their respective releases incompatible (to an extent) and an archive made with one may not be accessible from another. The problem lies with PKWare not giving information to WinZip, thus making WinZip to go it alone."

An anonymous reader writes "PCWorld is reporting: [Scott] Leviant's firm of Stanbury & Fishelman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Intuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of all U.S. purchasers of TurboTax software for the 2002 tax year. The suit alleges that Intuit engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices by failing to fully disclose the mechanisms and consequences of its product-activation technology before consumers pay for the software."

miladus writes "PCWorld is running a story about the latest effort by the Senate to oversee the FBI's use of anti-terrorist laws and 'excessive secrecy'. Senator P. Leahy (D-Vermont) along with C. Grassley (R-Iowa) and A. Specter (R-PA) are proposing the Domestic Surveillance Oversight Act (pdf file) which will require the FBI and the Department of Justice to tell 'how often they spy on American citizens under powers granted by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Act (FISA) and expanded in the Patriot Act of 2001'. The senators released a report charging the FBI and the DOJ of 'excessive secrecy' and of 'inadequate training with respect to the FISA provision' concerning the balance between privacy and security.
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Zendar writes "idg has an article about how students at the 151-year-old Tufts University were paid as little as $20/month to relay spam from computers in their dorms. Interestingly enough, the students approached the spammers about this scheme and not vice-versa."

dfung writes "This has been mindlessly discussed many times before here, but Western Digital has now introduced real enterprise-class ATA drives with SCSI-like performance specs and 30% lower price. So now you can buy a real 10K rpm ATA drive. Interestingly enough, they mention the reason for the traditional difference in price between ATA and SCSI which I never have seen mentioned here - it has to do with testing costs, not controller electronics|platter quality|etc. Another interesting tidbit is that 160 million ATA drives were sold last year. I saw about 2 million of them stacked up in the aisles at Fry's Electronics yesterday, but that sure is a lot of drives."

Natoi writes "Sony is leaving Mac and **nix users out in the cold with their new copyright method called Label Gate CD copyright system. You'd have to be running Windows and use a Sony developed proprietary software to listen to CD's published by Sony starting next year." This seems a little extreme to me, since sitting at the computer just to listen to music is stupid. What about car stereos and high-fidelity CD players?

koody writes: "IDG has an overview of how many countries are getting drawn into the debate over the relative merits of using open source software rather than Microsoft Corp.'s Windows applications. Seems like many countries would be slowly moving towards the open source community, while a few still pledge allegiance to Microsoft."

Mark Cappel writes "According to PCWorld, RMS said in an interview in India that Hurd will see the light of day this year."

Mark Cappel writes "According to PCWorld, RMS said in an interview in India that Hurd will see the light of day this year."

Mark Cappel writes "According to PCWorld, RMS said in an interview in India that Hurd will see the light of day this year."

satsujin writes: "Researchers from the University of Maryland have released a paper on the weaknesses found in the 802.11x protocol. It looks like it might not be as strong as Cisco has contended."

Tsar writes: "MTV Networks is putting their imprimatur on a line of entertainment-oriented PC's to be available early this year. Targeting the college-age crowd, they'll have TV &amp radio tuners, DVD players, remote controls, and 'MTV-specific content.' CNN has this article on CNN's SCI-TECH page, but the original story was posted last Thursday on IDG.net. There's also news of MTV's impending digital music player, which uses DataPlay's 500MB matchbook-sized discs with built-in digital rights denial^H^H^H^H^H^Hmanagement."

Tsar writes: "MTV Networks is putting their imprimatur on a line of entertainment-oriented PC's to be available early this year. Targeting the college-age crowd, they'll have TV &amp radio tuners, DVD players, remote controls, and 'MTV-specific content.' CNN has this article on CNN's SCI-TECH page, but the original story was posted last Thursday on IDG.net. There's also news of MTV's impending digital music player, which uses DataPlay's 500MB matchbook-sized discs with built-in digital rights denial^H^H^H^H^H^Hmanagement."

downundarob writes: "Last year, BT said it had discovered that it holds U.S. patent 4,873,662 for the invention of hyperlink technology used on the Internet, and on Dec. 13, 2000, the London-based telecommunication company filed suit in federal court in White Plains, New York. A court date was set Monday in the lawsuit brought by British Telecommunications PLC (BT) against U.S.-based Prodigy Communications Corp. for patent infringement through the ISP's (Internet service provider) unauthorized use of the hyperlink. The full story is here."

TrAvELAr writes: "'There is a backlog,' says Mark Croft, lead product manager for Windows XP. According to this article on IDG, Microsoft has underestimated it's popularity of the new Windows XP family license. In an effort to slow piracy within single households, Microsoft has introduced the family license which will allow the user to install multiple copies of it's Windows XP operating system at a slightly discounted price of a $10 savings. Croft also states that the savings reflects the cost of Microsoft not having to produce another disc."

TrAvELAr writes: "'There is a backlog,' says Mark Croft, lead product manager for Windows XP. According to this article on IDG, Microsoft has underestimated it's popularity of the new Windows XP family license. In an effort to slow piracy within single households, Microsoft has introduced the family license which will allow the user to install multiple copies of it's Windows XP operating system at a slightly discounted price of a $10 savings. Croft also states that the savings reflects the cost of Microsoft not having to produce another disc."

daramannen writes ""The committee is examining whether switching the Bundestag's more than 5,000 computers to open source would improve stability and security, as well as save money, Schroer said. By the committee's estimate, implementing open source software throughout the federal government could result in savings of 250 million marks (US$116 million)." "

shelflife writes: "This story says 'It is the first time in history that the maker of a computer virus has been tried in the Netherlands -- indeed one of the few times it has been done in the world. Hypponen knows only of one conviction. A man was sentenced to 18 months in jail in the U.K. in the early 1990s. The man served 11 months, said Hypponen.' but that can't be true. What about Robert Morris? Anyway, the requested sentence is amazingly light -- 240 hours of civil service." The really interesting part is that this kid wasn't even a programmer. He just downloaded a kit. Shows how far this Virus Craze has gone in the last few years.

securitas writes "ID reports that German utilities started offering high speed Internet access via power lines last month, and Sweden and the Netherlands are not far behind. The companies claim to have resolved problems of interference and line noise. US trials are taking place in secret with Reston VA based PowerLine Technologies. Nortel and Siemens abandoned the technology in 1999 but if this is for real DSL and cable may have a new competitor."

mickeyreznor writes: "I came across this interesting article in the Washington Post. Apparently AOL is trying to pull the same kind of stunts that got Microsoft in trouble with the DOJ. I'm not sure where I stand on this whole issue, but it seems to be a very interesting situation. Seems like we're going to have an all-out corporate war in the upcoming months." With news that the number of internet users is shrinking, AOL needs a way to bring in new subscribers -- and the DOJ's pressure on Microsoft appears to have opened a door.

natet writes "The Japan Patent Office once again shows it knows technology. They recently informed Amazon that unless Amazon can show them differently, they will reject the "One-Click" patent on the grounds of prior art. " So there are sane patent offices out there. On an almost completely offtopic and unrelated note, Hemos and I are planning on being in Japan for the Tokyo LinuxWorld in a few weeks, so I'll see you guys there. Bring translators and we can talk about anime ;)

npongratz writes "Hailing from the world of physics, chemistry, and assorted geewhiz, Lynx Photonic Networks announced a photonic switch with less than 5ns packet switching. "...multiterabit switching systems..." That's what I call bitchin' switchin'." And unlike certain optical switches discussed here before based on bubbles moving in liquid, this variety "does not have any moving parts, nor does it require a change in the physical state of the light signal." 5 nanoseconds.

deran9ed writes: "Interesting outlook from an article on IDG detailing the use of encryption, and the negative campaigns against it. "When the Feds -- be they CIA, FBI, NSA, or Treasury Department -- discuss crypto, they make it sound as if anyone using it must be a child pornographer, drug smuggler, or terrorist." I wonder if the government feels the same about corporations encrypting their business plans in order to avoid having them stolen. Here's the article." The author has a point. SSL and SSH (or whatever it's called now) are widely used. But how many people routinely encrypt their email?

deran9ed writes: "Interesting outlook from an article on IDG detailing the use of encryption, and the negative campaigns against it. "When the Feds -- be they CIA, FBI, NSA, or Treasury Department -- discuss crypto, they make it sound as if anyone using it must be a child pornographer, drug smuggler, or terrorist." I wonder if the government feels the same about corporations encrypting their business plans in order to avoid having them stolen. Here's the article." The author has a point. SSL and SSH (or whatever it's called now) are widely used. But how many people routinely encrypt their email?

Mark Cappel writes: "Computerworld reports the Canadian equivalent to the US FCC is considering licensing the use of cellphone jammers. One person quoted in the article says, essentially, if a property owner does not want people to use cell phones on his property, then why not jam 'em?"

Mark Cappel writes: "Computerworld reports the Canadian equivalent to the US FCC is considering licensing the use of cellphone jammers. One person quoted in the article says, essentially, if a property owner does not want people to use cell phones on his property, then why not jam 'em?"

Anonymous Coward writes "The IDG News Service reports the industry "is proposing a system to detect illegal content on Web sites, and block access to those sites via German ISPs." The blocks would be installed at "key Internet junctions" that would disallow access to the offending sites. Andy Müller-Maguhn at the Chaos Computer Club is quoted in the story, and calls the scheme absurd." This scheme has been floated before - looks like it's going full speed ahead.

ATKeiper writes: "One year after the DDoS attacks against major Web sites, C|Net reports that there are still 'no strong defenses deployed' against such attacks. The only person so far accused by prosecutors is Canadian teen hacker mafiaboy, whose trial starts in a month. Was it a forgettable stunt? A much-needed wake-up call for insecure e-commerce sites? Lame script kiddies giving hackers a bad name?"

alanjstr writes: "IDG News is reporting that Matsushita (aka Panasonic) has developed a floppy drive that will fit 32 MB onto a regular floppy disk. 'To increase the data capacity of a standard floppy, Matsushita's FD32MB system employs zone bit recording -- a system used to encode data onto hard disks and optical disc systems that more efficiently uses the space to record data.' The new drive also supports SuperDisks for 240 MB storage capacity. A Google Search for 'FD32MB' turned up lots of stuff in Japanese. More details and discussion are available here starting back last November." According to the article which starts that PC Market thread, "The new technology increases the number of sectors per track to between 36-53 sectors, compared with its current number of 18 sectors, and its memory capacity per track can be raised from 9.2KB-18.4KB to 27KB." Imagine what the cooler-than-heck Linux Router Project could do with these!

Bill points us to this story about IBM notebooks fitted with digital writing/doodling pads. It's designed to capture images rather than OCR text, but I could still see it being a useful tool in a few different situations. Doesn't seem to be any info about this on IBM's site, though.

Mark Cappel writes "Here's a holiday guide to games for Linux, published by Linuxworld.com. Share and enjoy." The only game on there that I know some people have been playing is Tetrinet. I've been playing with SC3U quite a bit lately - I highly recommend it.

Mark Cappel writes "Here's a holiday guide to games for Linux, published by Linuxworld.com. Share and enjoy." The only game on there that I know some people have been playing is Tetrinet. I've been playing with SC3U quite a bit lately - I highly recommend it.

Freshly Exhumed writes "British Telecom, believing (seemingly against historical fact ) that an old patent entitles it as the rightful owner of the hyperlink, has filed suit against Internet provider Prodigy. Frivolous and of little merit? Great non-quote from Tim Berners-Lee!"

An anonymous reader sent in a good story listing the tech issues and breaking them down by candidate. Of course to me, the best part is the huge percentage of questions where yes/no wasn't good enough and a little asterick denotes "but" so you really don't know what half the candidates think of half the issues anyway. Regardless, tomorrow is the day. No matter what you believe, get out and vote tomorrow.

A reader writes: "The IETF has announced that they are developing new printing standards for network printing." Printing -- exciting, eh? But one of those necessary evils in life.

Kanasta writes: "LG has a cell phone an MP3 decoder in one, but only in Korea. It has a slot of a MultiMediaCard, which apparently is used in various other mp3 players. Includes a built in remote, and there are speakers on the charging unit! It says 'You can download MP3 music to the phone,' but what exactly they mean isn't clear."

James Ensor writes, "I'm sure you'll all be just thrilled to hear that Ericsson has developed and is implementing a way to do targeted ads on Internet enabled cellphones. They envision TV-like FMV commercials in the future. I can hardly, umm, wait."

smeng58 writes "InfoWorld's Bob Metcalfe asks why, if Linus Torvalds is truly a believer in Open Source, Transmeta Corp. has seen fit to make Crusoe, or at least its VLIW "code morphing", proprietary. The column goes on to say that, since the processor will run Windows code, there must be some thing wrong with Linux. Sad when a computer pundit appears not understand what x86 code is. "

swilson writes "Not to be outdone by Amazon, Priceline has sued Microsoft and Expedia for patent infringement of their "name-your-price" business model. You can check out the story on The Standard." To get the facts straight, Priceline sued Expedia in October, and now Expedia/MSFT is filing a motion to dismiss the suit. MSFT is saying that Priceline stole the idea from someone else originally, which is an interesting argument in itself. I think we should make a comic book called "Patent Wars". It'd be like "Secret Wars", except duller.

Porag_Spliffing sent us a choice quote from this well researched Gartner group piece which says "The lack of standards in the Linux community, coupled with a lack of key productivity applications and with Unix complexity, will continue to make Linux a poor choice for the mainstream business productivity user."

Bruce Inglish writes "InfoWorld Pundit (and inventor of Ethernet) Bob Metcalfe just posted his 99/6/19 column entitled: "Linux's '60s technology, open-sores ideology won't beat W2K, but what will?" in which he predicts that "Linux will fizzle against Windows" and compares the Open Source community to communism and the Back-to-the-Earth Movement. "

Kazen sent us a link an an InfoWorld story where Balmer talks about Open Source for Windows 2000. Is he serious? What would it mean? Betcha it would mean YAOSL (yet another Open Source License).

An anonymous reader sent us a link to an article that expresses the most amazing cluelessness about Linux I've seen yet outside of the creative panel that brings us Jesse Berst. A few good points, and a bunch of obnoxious flame dragging statements that make me irritable. It's like he's trying to bait Slashdot readers. Don't take the bait. This one isn't worth it.

RMS at the Singapore Linux conference on Saturday pointed out the obvious: the bottleneck in fixing the Y2K problem comes from proprietary licensing practices. Perhaps Y2K damage will help hammer the free software point across... Notice thato RMS said "Business and making money are not bad" - only restricting others' freedoms.

Myko was the first to write in with an article confirming that the FCC has decided that ISP Calls are Long Distance. This opens all sorts of problems that quite simply reduce down to the consumer getting charged more money for our crappy slow modem connections.

David Sifry writes "According to PC World Online, it only takes a Palm Pilot, some software, and 10 seconds to copy certain types of car keys for infrared door locks. Those pilots sure have lots of uses! The full story is here. " I dig the software that lets you use your Palm IIIs irda port as a universal remote. 4" range sucks, but still. I wonder if I could get my laptop to do that.

just another geek sent us a link to this IDG story where you can read about the new line of NetWinders that are coming out. The new 'WS' models are designed to be servers in the same tiny box as we're used to. Looks like Cobalt has got some competition in the funky-lookin-non-x86-linux-server department.

Eric Anderson writes "IBM has licensed the picoJava processor from Sun. It intends to make chips for other companies as well as its own use. The picoJava chip is significant in that it directly executes all java bytecodes without running a virtual machine. It is still compatible with other programming languages, of course. It is also an unusual processor in that it uses a "random access stack" with, and I quote, "dribble" instead of a set of registers.

To read more go to the IDG article"