Slashdot | Creator of Sasser Worm Goes on Trial: "Tuesday July 05, @01:28PM
'Creator of the Sasser worm Sven Jaschan begins his trial today in Verden, Germany. Arrested in May 2004, Jaschan faces charges for his crimes as a juvenile. A reward from Microsoft partially led to the capture of the virus creator. From the article: 'The charges, which also include disrupting public services and illegally altering data, carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. However, court spokeswoman Katharina Kruetzfeld said that, as a minor, he faces a lesser penalty.''"

JUL. 5 9:51 A.M. ET The European Parliament moved Tuesday toward rejecting a proposed law creating a single way of patenting software across the European Union, officials said -- a move that would effectively kill the legislation since lawmakers do not plan to set forth a new version.

EU lawmakers were to vote Wednesday on the so-called software patent directive, which if approved would give companies EU-wide patent protection for computerized inventions ranging from programs for complex CAT scanners to ABS car-brake systems. Currently, patent disputes are handled by individual member states.

"It seems the momentum is growing for the rejection of the proposal," said Federico de Girolamo, spokesman for the parliament's legislative committee.

De Girolamo said legislators will consider three proposals to reject the entire bill before the actual vote. If approved, that would bury the legislation since the European Commission, which had drafted it, said it would not put forward a new draft.

Klaus-Heiner Lehne, a German member of the parliament's conservative faction who is also coordinator of the assembly's powerful legal committee, said rejection of the bill was a "very real possibility."

The bill -- which would extend patent protection to computer programs when the software is used in the context of realizing inventions -- has been bouncing around the EU institutions for five years. Rejected by parliament once and sent to the European Commission for redrafting, it has been the subject of intensive lobbying.

Big companies such as Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG are fighting hard for adoption of the bill, saying they need to invest in research and development.

"We'd miss a golden opportunity if the bill got rejected," said Marc MacGann, director general of EICTA, a group representing 10,000 companies including Nokia and Alcatel SA. "Currently there are 25 ways of interpreting patent. This law would bring harmonization and simplify things."

Open source advocates are campaigning against it, saying that individuals and small businesses could be bankrupted by expensive legal battles with software giants over fuzzy patent law.

About a hundred demonstrators protesting the proposed law gathered outside parliament on Tuesday. Clad in yellow vests with a "No to software patents" logo and holding banners saying "Software patents kill innovation" and "U.S. patents go out," they stopped cars with deputies outside the parliament entrance, urging them to vote against bill.

The bill stops short of the U.S. system that allows patenting of business methods or computer programs such as Amazon.com Inc.'s "one-click" shopping technique, which gives consumers a quick system to buy goods on its Web site.

Some 178 amendments to the bill have been tabled by parliamentarians ahead of the vote -- which is expected to drag for hours if it is needed -- and if any is adopted the proposal would go to a process called 'conciliation' between the Parliament and the EU Council which could take months to complete.

"The industry never likes conciliation," MacGann said. "It means months and months of horse-trading and uncertainty. We'd rather see the bill rejected. "

The Green Party alone has tabled 21 amendments in a last-ditch effort to dilute the legislation. Their amendments would limit the scope of the bill to include only "technical contributions," meaning any pure software code cannot be patented.

The European Commission has made the patent law an essential part of its economic reform program.

source:http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8B590UG0.htm

Amazon.com nears 10-year anniversary

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Soon after Amazon.com Inc. debuted 10 years ago, Jeff Bezos and his handful of employees spent late summer nights packing books in a tiny warehouse, scrambling to ship a growing gush of orders.

Today, the man who has grown accustomed to being hailed the king of Internet commerce runs a global powerhouse that did nearly $7 billion in sales last year, dealing in everything from banjo cases to wild boar baby back ribs.

As more businesses beef up their online operations, is the company that helped get it all started in danger of seeing its dominance eroded by the competitors it helped spawn?

Time will tell, but industry experts say Amazon is well positioned to maintain a firm grip on its title as the undisputed e-commerce leader.

"I think Amazon's biggest challenge is itself. They've really raised the bar for the entire industry," said Kurt Peters, editor of Internet Retailer, a monthly magazine covers the business.

In the beginning, Bezos said he had no plans to sell anything but books online. But after it went live on July 16, 1995, the business took off more quickly than anyone had predicted, and before long customers started clamoring for more.

"We actually started to get e-mails from customers saying, `Would you consider selling music, because I'd really like to buy music this way, and DVDs, and electronics?" Bezos said in a recent interview.

Amazon has nearly 49 million active customers. They bought more electronics during last year's holiday blitz than books, a first for the company.

With $6.92 billion in sales in 2004, Amazon ranked at the top of Internet Retailer's annual top 400 list, well ahead of computer maker Dell Inc., which posted $3.25 billion in online business-to-consumer sales. Office Depot Inc., which has a partnership with Amazon, wasn't far behind with $3.1 billion.

EBay users sold $34.2 billion in merchandise through the online auction house in 2004 but the magazine doesn't include it on the list because it's essentially an online shopping bazaar, not a retailer.

Scott Devitt, an analyst with the Baltimore investment firm Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc. said he thinks comparison shopping sites like shopping.com and shopzilla.com pose the most formidable threat, because they can often push prices lower than Amazon.

"But when you buy from a comparison shopping site, just like when you buy from eBay, you don't know what you're getting from the merchant," Devitt said. Amazon has had a decade to build up trust that it will deliver orders on time and cheaply enough to keep customers coming back.

Amazon's groundwork paved the way for competitors to follow, but Devitt says he thinks most retailers, especially brick-and-mortar shops, have a lot of catching up to do: "Amazon is always one step ahead."

"Earth's Biggest Selection" no doubt owes at least part of its name to the alliances it has forged with dozens of high-profile retailers, including Target Corp., Macy's, Nordstrom Inc., Toys R Us Inc. and wine.com.

"If there were a significant interruption to those, that could be a problem for Amazon," said Richard Hastings, a retail analyst for the credit-ratings firm Bernard Sands.

To hold onto its spot as top dog, Hastings said Amazon will have to keep being nimble to fend off attackers at the flanks of its business, like eBay, online DVD rental Netflix Inc. and discount retailer overstock.com Inc.

More than 900,000 third-party sellers now hawk their wares on Amazon, making up more than a quarter of last year's overall sales — a sure sign that Amazon is getting serious about taking on eBay.

And last month the company started renting DVDs in Germany, six months after it got into the same business in the United Kingdom.

Amazon hasn't said when -- or if -- it might go head-to-head with Netflix, which took over Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s DVD rental business in May after the world's largest retailer admitted it couldn't compete.

Amazon first ventured beyond books when it added music and DVDs in 1998. Electronics, toys, games, home improvement items, software and video games came a year later. Today it has 31 product categories and does business in seven countries.

International sales accounted for nearly half the company's revenue last year, and Bezos has vowed to continue expanding overseas.

Analysts say Amazon has won over the masses with its vast selection, a brand name everyone knows, a site that's easy to navigate and a reputation for reliability.

"They've developed an extremely loyal customer base, and they've cultivated that by continually lowering prices and adding features to their Web site," said Dan Geiman, an analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle.

The company has also weathered hard times that killed off most early online retailers.

As the dot-com craze reached fever pitch, it made some bad investments in failures like living.com and pets.com. When the bubble burst in 2000, it scaled back and laid off 1,300 employees. And it took several years to post a profit.

The bumps in the road and the lingering volatility of the company's stock price don't seem to phase Amazon's eternally ebullient CEO.

"During those bubble years while the stock price was going up 30 percent a month, we would have all-hands meetings, and I would ask employees, `Please do not feel 30 percent smarter because the stock went up 30 percent, because when it goes down 30 percent in a month, we'd have to feel 30 percent dumber,'" Bezos said.

The stock has been trading in the mid-$30 range in recent months after topping $100 a share in the late 1990s. Bezos plays the unflappable optimist when he points out that, adjusting for splits, the stock started out at $1.50 a share.

"In eight years to go from $1.50 a share to $35 a share is unusually good performance by any measure," he said.

source:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1120568668209_12/?hub=SciTech

NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust — it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer.

Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said.

Scientists say the crash did not significantly alter the comet's orbit around the sun and said the experiment does not pose any danger to Earth.

The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists hope to examine to learn how the solar system was formed.

Bai is seeking damages totaling $300 million — the approximate equivalent of the mission's cost — for her "moral sufferings," Izvestia said, citing her lawyer Alexander Molokhov. She earlier told the paper that the experiment would "deform her horoscope."

NASA representatives in Russia could not be reached for comment on the case.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050705/ap_on_fe_st/russia_comet_case

The most recent build of Longhorn--Microsoft's next Windows--has some impressive visual touches, including the kinds of translucent objects found now in Apple's OS X, and more powerful ways of finding files. But it doesn't yet exhibit any breakthroughs in productivity, or promised features such as security improvements and smarter connections to handheld devices.

We tested the 64-bit version of the latest code released to developers (Longhorn build 5048) and have also viewed demonstrations of a subsequent build. The first beta version of the operating system is due for release this summer.

Over the last several years, Microsoft has touted Longhorn's trio of significant innovations: a graphics engine dubbed Avalon; a technology called Indigo that enables programs on different computers or devices to communicate; and an indexed, searchable data storage layer called WinFS. But when faced with a self-imposed release deadline of late 2006, Microsoft decided last year to pull WinFS out of Longhorn, promising to release that component as an add-on at a later date.

So what of the two remaining Longhorn design pillars? A new desktop theme called Aero is about the only sign of Avalon graphics in our pre-beta. Turning mundane buttons, window frames, title bars, and icons into animated, 3D-rendered, and sometimes transparent objects, Aero brings the Windows interface to life. Indigo, which supports enhanced Web services, won't be visible to end users.

But even though WinFS is now out of the mix, Microsoft has taken advantage of file attributes in the NTFS file system already available in Windows XP to make Explorer better at ferreting out documents according to author, camera model (for photographs), or genre or album title (for music files). The operating system lets you create virtual lists based on these attributes so that, for example, you can see every photo on your system or all Microsoft Word files, regardless of where they are stored and without having to explicitly search for them.

Longhorn will also do a better job of connecting to smart phones (Microsoft wouldn't indicate whether the phones would have to run the company's Windows Mobile operating system), cameras, and audio players, improving their integration into Explorer and making file transfers and synchronization more consistent across device types. Still notably absent from the Longhorn builds we've looked at are new versions of the Internet Explorer browser (even though Microsoft has said it is close to releasing a beta of IE 7) or any other bundled utilities. Gone, for the time being anyway, is the desktop sidebar that lurked in previous preliminary versions of Longhorn.

And in spite of announced planned enhancements such as monitoring of outbound data (Windows XP's firewall watches inbound traffic only), protection against malware, a new type of restricted user account, and a secure startup scheme to ensure that a PC hasn't been tampered with, Longhorn so far has the same minimal security toolbox as Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Though security remains an unresolved issue, build 5048 brings Longhorn's graphical user interface into sharper focus.

The new Avalon graphics engine includes a programming interface that permits Microsoft and third-party software makers alike to write applications that put the latest and greatest graphics cards to work rotating, texturing, and fading windows, as well as making menus, title bars, and other elements translucent--finally enabling Windows to catch up to Apple's OS X, several years after the fact.

We managed to activate a subset of these features in our copy of Longhorn build 5048, and they're certainly welcome refinements (see top screen). Nevertheless, the integration of accelerated graphics effects into Windows is a luxury upgrade, not a must-have productivity enhancer. And although the effects in Avalon won't necessarily require bleeding-edge hardware, they will call for a graphics board compatible with the new Longhorn Display Driver Model, likely ruling out many legacy systems.

Microsoft has yet to announce minimum Longhorn system requirements, but for PC buyers seeking insurance that a new system will run Longhorn, the company advises getting 512MB of RAM and a "modern" CPU--more than Windows XP needs. As with most of the recent Windows updates, the easiest way to get Longhorn will be on a new PC, and by late 2006 most PCs will be 64-bit. Reflecting that trend, all editions of Longhorn will include both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. (Microsoft officials say that they are still mulling over whether features included in the Tablet PC and Media Center editions of XP will continue to require special editions of Windows.)

Less clear in build 5048 is Microsoft's vision for searching, indexing, and grouping files. WinFS was intended to create a systemwide data-indexing system accessible to Windows and to various applications, both on the local computer system and on linked devices. With the removal of WinFS from Longhorn, indexing is scaled back, although not forgotten. Familiar folders like My Documents and My Pictures still allow you to sort contents according to attribute type, such as file date, size, author, title, subject, attached keywords, bit rate (in the case of audio files), or camera model (in the case of digital pictures).

Regrettably, Microsoft won't immediately extend virtual lists and other Longhorn search and indexing capabilities to third-party apps. Those programs will have to wait for the appearance of WinFS sometime after Longhorn's release.

Perhaps conscious that its failure to satisfactorily secure Internet Explorer has driven millions of the browser's users to switch to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox--and possibly hoping to avoid a similar exodus to Mac OS X or Linux--Microsoft has announced several security initiatives such as a new low-rights user account that will let the owner make routine system changes (such as installing a driver) while limiting malware exposure.

Buyers of new 64-bit computers will undoubtedly opt for Longhorn's enchanting interface and new device support--especially if security improves. It remains to be seen, though, whether additional innovations will give Windows XP users more reason to upgrade.

Scott Spanbauer is a PC World contributing editor.

source: http://pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121435,00.asp

Build your own Chat-Cord

Slashdot | Sunscreen Not So Good for You?: "Tuesday July 05, @06:32AM
'Don't like sunscreen? Maybe that tan is good for you. It looks like people are rethinking the common wisdom of avoiding sun exposure... 'research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer'. Maybe if Kurt Vonnegut ever does address MIT grads, he will say something else...'"

Real Wood iPod by ZapWizard
Published: 5th July 2005 by Geoff Richards




Foreword by Geoff Richards: the mercurial magician of modding, ZapWizard aka Joshua Driggs, has created a modern masterpiece, dubbed the Wood iPod. In his words, he'll talk you through its construction.



I have had a 20GB 4th gen iPod since they came out, but I have never liked the white finish. As part of Project Redwood I am also applying a wood finish to just about everything on my desk to have a matching set. And the iPod was not excluded.



First off the original iPod. Note the white click wheel that was made to replace the gray wheel. The dock was painted black, as it will sit inside a wooden cover. (not yet made)



First the iPod was taken apart. There are lots of guides on how to do this - this one has videos - but any website with instructions for iPod battery replacement will do fine. Once I had the shell separated I could start to work on the new faceplate.



I did not want to simply apply a wood veneer, or a fake finish to the iPod. I wanted to use real wood. To do this I needed to carefully carve out a duplicate faceplate out of a raw piece of wood. The wood I am using is African Padauk. It is a high quality hardwood that is very easy to work with, and naturally red in color.

This entire project was done by hand using a Dremel rotary tool. First the edges of the wood were curved (right) using a router attachment.




Next, the wheel was traced out in the proper place and cut out. Then the hole for the screen was measured and cut out. I did this by first drilling holes to remove the bulk of the material.




An exact duplicate, or at least as exact as can be done by hand. By far the hardest part was carving out the back of the faceplate - the final thickness was only 2mm thick. During this process the wood split four times, and was glued back using gorilla glue.



Next a new screen has to be fabricated. This was done using a piece of lexan plastic, and was hand cut by dremel to fit the hole in the wood. It took two attempts to get a piece that fitted well.



In order to get the glossy finish that would approximate the finish on a normal iPod I coated the wood with three coats of Envirotex Lite. The dust cover in this photo touched the coating while it was setting and that area was sanded off before the final coat. A click wheel and select button were then cut out of African Padauk Veneer and given the same treatment. They are different in color as the veneer came from a different piece of wood.




The iPod was the carefully fitted back together. Thankfully, it was still fully functional. Hot-glue was used to hold the LCD and Click-wheel PCB onto the wood.



The iPod fits together nearly as perfectly as before. A little hot-glue was used to fill any gaps.



Here are the Before and After shots


To finish off, here is some final eye candy:




You can see more of ZapWizard's amazing work at www.zapwizard.com

source:http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2005/07/05/wood_ipod_zapwizard/1.html

File-share defender fired over TV show

Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Monday July 4, 2005
The Guardian

A software engineer and champion of peer-to-peer file sharing is planning legal action after being sacked for expressing his views on BBC's Newsnight.

Alex Hanff, 31, was just a week into his job as a consultant at Aldcliffe Computer Systems in Lancaster when he was invited on to last Monday's edition to comment on the US supreme court's decision to hold software companies responsible for permitting illegal file sharing over their networks.

source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1520513,00.html

Slashdot | Eastern Ink Painting on a Computer: "Monday July 04, @10:50PM
'Traditional Oriental ink painting is more easily done with real brushes than with a computer program because you need to model how the ink is flowing into an absorbent surface such as paper. In this brief article, Technology Research News writes that 'researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have developed a brush-and-ink-style paint program, dubbed MoXi, that uses a model of pigment particles in water flowing into paper.' These virtual Chinese brushes simulate in real time the ink dispersion and could be available on your PC within two years. This longer overview contains more details and references. It also includes pictures generated with MoXi. Finally, it looks at a potential trademark problem over the name MoXi.'"

Study Finds Value in Spam By Robert Roy Britt Senior Writer posted: 30 June 2005 03:21 pm ET

A steady diet of spam -- the electronic variety -- can be good for you. Researchers split a group of more than 2,100 Canadians into two groups. One group got emails that promoted healthy lifestyles, the other got none. "These were informative and motivational messages sent weekly for 12 weeks," explained study leader Ron Plotnikoff of the University of Alberta. The emails promoted the benefits of a good diet and physical activity. Those who were effectively smapped, as a group, saw their mean body mass index (BMI) go down, meaning it improved. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Overall BMI rose for the control group, which did not get the emails. Spam has been estimated to cost the U.S. economy several billion dollars a year in decreased productivity and anti-spam efforts. Meanwhile, the new study shows that mass email might produce small effects on a case-by-case basis, but it could be effective because of the low cost and large reach, Plotnikoff said. "We need to improve the population's health," he told LiveScience. "Also we need more creative ways to reach the 'hard to reach' groups." The results will be published in the July/August 2005 edition of the American Journal of Health Promotion. source:http://www.livescience.com/technology/050630_email_value.html

Slashdot | Anatomy of a Hack: "Monday July 04, @06:57PM
'Informit.com is running an extensive article about the anatomy of a hack against a sample network. It's an excerpt from a book titled Protect Your Windows Network: From Perimeter to Data. Even though it makes references to Windows, the techniques can be applied to other operating systems fairly easily.' From the article: 'Although attacking networks can be fun and informative--not to mention illegal if you do not have all the proper permissions--the fact remains that the vast majority of us do not need to know how to do so. Frankly, becoming a good penetration tester (pen tester) takes more than a week-long class. It takes commitment, dedication, intuition, and technical savvy, not to mention a blatant disregard for the rules and the right way to do things.'"