Volume 4, Issue 43        Atari Online News, Etc.       October 25, 2002   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2002
                            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:

                                Kevin Savetz
                                Tim Conrardy



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                                  =~=~=~=



A-ONE #0443                                                 10/25/02

   ~ Lobby Seeks Spam Laws! ~ People Are Talking!    ~ Royalties Extension!
   ~ E-mail Scam On Yahoo!  ~ New Version of Office! ~ ARAnyM Update News!
   ~ Man Fined For Spamming ~ OLGA Finds New Support ~ Google Missing Sites!
   ~ MSN Locks Fees, Pop-Ups~ New Ways To Can Spam!  ~ New Pulsar Version!  

                  -* Massive Web Attack Is Probed *-
               -* CodeHead's MIDI Software Available! *-
           -*  AOL Launches Kids' Safety Buddy Program!  *-



                                  =~=~=~=



->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



I always thought that there were four seasons, but it appears that I may 
have been taught incorrectly!  Somehow, fall is missing this year.  Although 
the leaves appear to be changing colors, it's downright cold out there; and, 
we even had snow this week!  Last I checked, this was still October!  I hope 
that this doesn't mean I've thrown my last steak on the barbecue this year!
I'm not even ready to think about getting the snow-thrower ready for winter 
and bringing in the patio furniture.

I've probably mentioned this in the past once or twice, but I'll do it again 
this week.  One of my biggest pet peeves is telemarketing.  Wouldn't I be 
happy if someone created a telemarketer hunting season!  Naturally, it would 
have to be legalized!  Or, if when we got one of these calls, we could push 
a button and somehow not only would our number be deleted from that 
telemarketing database, but a small firecracker or something blew up the 
caller's phoneset!  You know, something like the traditional jokester's 
version of the firecracker load in the cigar routine!

After putting this week's issue together, it was apparent that an issue that 
ranks right up there with telemarketing continues to make the 
technology/internet headlines: e-mail spam.  I mean really, are there people 
out there who actually believe that they've won a cruise on a weekly basis?  
Or that they can make millions that easily?  Or that the deal of a century 
won't end up costing them their life's savings?  And the sex sites, the 
viagara offers, and every other con game that you can imagine!  Do these 
spammers really believe that they have the right to intrude like this 
because there are people who will "take advantage" of these "wonderful" 
offers being made to them?  If people do, fine.  But at least give the rest 
of us the opportunity to "opt out" of these offers and never bother us 
again!  And if they don't fine the hell out of them!  Finally, according to 
one of the articles in this week's issue, an Oregon man has been fined for 
e-mail spam!  Hurray!  We need more of that.  Thankfully, another of my pet 
peeves - Jehovah's Witnesses - hasn't intruded into my life electronically.  
I'm sure they'll find a way to do that eventually!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



                   New on TAMW: CodeHead MIDI Software!


Hi All

NEW ON TAMW:

The CODEHEAD MIDI Software is now released:


http://tamw.atari-users.net/codehead.htm

This includes GenPatch, MidiSpy and MIDI Max.

Thanks for all those involved with the release!

ALSO: General Midi (GM) compatible instrument definition
file for the Atari Mozart's Dice program. Created by
Martin Tarenskeen.

http://tamw.atari-users.net/mozart.htm

ENJOY!


Tim



                         OLGA Finds New Maintainer


Originally written by Thomas Much, OLGA has offered linking of objects 
under GEM for any applications supporting the protocol. However, since 
the original programmer moved on to work with other platforms, OLGA has 
not been updated since back in 1998.

This might be about to change now, since Dutch Programmer Henk Robbers 
(XaAES, TT-Digger) has expressed that he wishes to maintain future 
versions of OLGA.

http://members.ams.chello.nl/h.robbers/Home.html



                           ARAnyM 0.6.8 Released


Petr Stehlik has announced:

New version of Aranym, the not yet well known Atari/TOS compatible, 
completely free, high power virtual machine aiming at fulfilling all 
needs of serious Atari users has been released. This new version is 
working on Mac OS X and contains a small IKBD fix that allows running 
the GFA Basic. All info, source and binary packages for most favorite 
operating systems are (or soon will be) available at the URL below.

Also please let me clear up the smoke that appeared after I used a "TOS 
clone" title for aranym last time. After a careful analysis by a group 
of dedicated people in comp.sys.atari.st we have found out that neither 
Aranym, Milan, Medusa, Hades nor any other non-Atari brand machine is a 
"TOS clone". The only TOS clone known today is EmuTOS, which is used as 
the boot heart of our aranym, BTW.

All the machines that run TOS can safely be called TOS machines and so 
Hades, Milan and Aranym are all TOS machines (with the noticeable 
exception that Aranym is a virtual machine, meaning that it can run on 
virtually any hardware :-)

http://aranym.atari.org



                         New on TAMW: PULSAR ver 2!


Hi All

Looks like lots of releases this month.

Neil Wakeling and I have been beta testing a new version of PULSAR, so
it is now in version 2. Lots of new features. It's amazing we are still
coding for our platform! Neil has put in over 30-40 hours on this new
version. Please visit my newly created page and help yourself to the
new PULSAR: the Analog Sequencer Simulator!

http://tamw.atari-users.net/pulsar.htm


Tim Conrardy
Tims Atari MIDI World
http://tamw.atari-users.net



                                  =~=~=~=



                             PEOPLE ARE TALKING
                          compiled by Joe Mirando
                             joe@atarinews.org



Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Time for "spring ahead, fall back" this
weekend. I love this time of year! Mornings are crisp and bracing here in
the northeast at this time of the year.

I'm not what anyone would consider a morning person, so that chilly air
wakes me up good and fast. It's not the same once it gets really cold and
the snow hits the ground. By then it's too cold. During the springtime
you're going from cold weather to warm weather. There's nothing "bracing"
about that. Going from spring to summer is worse yet.

Yep, autumn is just about right for me. Of course, I don't have to worry
about raking leaves or any of the other bits of yard work that need to be
done... my landlord takes care of that. I'm free to do nothing more than
wake up in the morning and get hit in the face with that cool, crisp air
and wake up.

I think that too many people these days are just plain too busy to enjoy
simple things like a chilly morning, but when you come right down to it,
that's really all there is... simple things. Things only look complicated
because we tend to lump everything together to try to save time. Yeah,
right. How often does THAT work?

I find that, if you take a complex job and break it up into its simplest
parts, it's really not as difficult as it seems. But no one thinks about
that anymore. It's always "more, faster, cheaper" and no one asks about
what it takes to get things done as long as they do get done.

Well, I'm going to step down off my soapbox now, but the next time you
come upon a complex problem, think about what I said about breaking it
down. I'm not the guy who came up with the idea, just the guy who
reminded you about it.

Now let's get to the news, hints, tips, and info available from the
UseNet.

From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
==============================

'Klaas' asks about using an IDE hard drive on a TT:

"Does anyone know how i can connect an IDE device to my TT ?
I want to have more space for storing my files. I already tried an old
Iomega SCSI Jaz drive, but it messed up everything."

Dr. Uwe Seimet tells Klaas:

"There is no way to connect IDE drives to the TT. Any SCSI drive will
work, however, because the TT has a standard 8 bit SCSI bus. JAZ drives
are used by quite a lot of TT owners, there are no known issues with
them."

'BR' asks about recovering data from a sick hard drive:

"My hard disk , that means at least one partition of my 10-year old
48MB Seagate drive is defective.While copying , there was a read write
error , computer crashed and the FAT of this partition has been
destroyed.

Undelete utilities won't work , I think sectors of the FAT are bad.

Most of the data was plain ASCII text , so it must be somewhere on the
HD , even if some of the sectors are defective it must be possible to
recover some of the data.

What I need now is some kind of disk monitor. I have several ones that only
support floppy disks and with these it was always possible to recover data
from a floppy disk. But they don't work with hard disks.

Or [how about] a program which allows me to save certain sectors to one
file.

There were about 200 ASCII files, each maybe 1Kb, not much, maybe
200Kb of a 12Mb Partition."

Peter West tells BR:

"KnifeST should be able to do that. If the files are only 1kB, they
won't be fragmented. Knife has a 'build' feature - preferably on a
floppy in your case. Don't know where you can get it - it was
commercial rom HiSoft but has featured on a cover disk. It's no
good with large partitions, but should be OK with your 48 Meg one.
But it can take quite some time, as you have to decide whether the
next cluster belongs to what you already have when the files are
over a cluster long."

James Haslam asks about sites that cause CAB to crash:

"I'm having a problem getting into a particular site, using Cab 2.7c with
Dan Ackerman's OVL v1.4401 (via StinG v1.26). I keep getting a Basic Error
report which then crashes Cab completely. I have MagiC v6.01 on my Falcon,
it only affects Cab and MagiC keeps on going. I have tried shutting down
and restarting to no avail.

The site is one I have used many times fine with Cab. It is the Dreambook
Management login page (Dreambook is a Guestbook site, which I use with my
website).

Can someone have a look with their setup, especially if you use a similar
setup to mine?

This is the URL I'm trying:
http://manage.dreambook.com/index.cgi?Nscmd=Nlogout "

Pascal Ricard tells James:

"Same problem here (Cab 2.8). Looking with IE on the PC, I can see that
the first <html> tag is missing on this page."

Edward Baiz adds:

"Yes, I tried to access it also and Cab 2.8 crashed. However when I used
the Cab.ovl file for MagicNet, Cab did not crash, but told me that the
file cannot be found. This usually means the site has updated their HTML
source code to a point where Cab cannot interpret it. Cab either needs to
upgraded or else Dan needs to release another OVL file. Of course when
Highwire comes out, it will probably load the above site with no
problems."

Martin Tarenskeen jumps in and adds:

"I have tried with CAB 2.8 and CAB.OVL 1.8604 with SSL support for
MiNTnet.

I also tried with lynx_ssl for MiNTnet. Both seemed to work fine. I'm
seeing a connection being made to a https://... type of URL. I think https
means that SSL support is needed to connect ?"

Greg Goodwin asks about a cartridge that caught his interest:

"Saw an add for a cartridge that would break the source code of any ST
program.  I was thinking if so, this would be helpful in porting ST games
to the Atari Jaguar.

But I digress, can anyone tell me about this?  Does anyone have one to
sell?"

Steve Sweet tells Greg:

"I'd have thought that TT-Digger would do that, its a powerful software
application.  http://digger.atari.org/  "

Jon Cumberbatch asks about teaching a German TT to speak English:

"Can anybody help me? I have just bought an Atari TT and a Mega STE but
they are German models, so I think TOS/GEM will be in German and the
keyboard won't be QWERTY. Does anybody know how to go about converting to
English?"

Steve Sweet tells Jon:

"Bypass TOS altogether by using Magic, you get Multitasking as a bonus. It
will also speed up that TT."

Greg Goodwin adds:

"There are a couple of pieces of software for the ST that remap the
keyboard (the silk screening on the keys will still be wrong, of
course!).  Try ger2eng.prg and keyb_sys.lzh, both of which should be
in your email by the time you read this."

Peter Schneider adds his thoughts:

"But both "solutions" will show the disadvantage that the characters
shown on the keyboard won't match the characters you type.

I think the best is to replace both the keyboard _and_ the eproms."

Hallvard Tangeraas asks about MagicMac upgrades:

"I've just got myself a new Mac (PowerMac 9600 with a G3 processor
upgrade), to replace my good old Quadra 840av (68040 processor).

I've been using MagiCMac on the Quadra, but since it's an old version
(2.2.1. I think) it doesn't work on anything higher than MacOS 7.x, so
I've had two operating systems installed on the Mac: 8.1 and 7.6.1.

Now, with the new PowerMac I'm having trouble installing 7.6.1. for some
reason -each time I try, the installation program crashes, so perhaps it
won't work. Someone told me that I'd probably need a minimum of MacOS 8
on a G3 equipped Mac, so if that's the case (I'm currently using MacOS
9.1. on it) I'll have to upgrade MagiCMac which I was hoping to avoid (I
don't use it that much and really don't want to spend much more money on
it)... but in case I do have to upgrade, does anyone know how much it'll
cost to upgrade from my current version to something that works with
MacOS 9.x?"

Jo Vandeweghe tells Hallvard:

"If you already own a previous version not so much I think ...... just
look at the ASH page:
http://www.ash-software.de/atari/

But you must know it's also possible to run OSX on your machine with a
minimum of hassle installing XPostFacto which will allow your "old"
computer to run the new system ...... Only you must have a compatible
graphic card like an ATI Radeon or older 128 one.
It already exist an OS X version of MagiCMac ......
BUT don't expect to run any musical application using MIDI interface
........ a pity but that's all you won't be able to use.
MagiCMac is great at using Calamus and everything else ..........
If you need more information let's talk I'm using a 8600 which is the same
computer than yours excepting I only have 3 PCI slots and I have Audio +
Video Inputs and Outputs that the 9600 don't. "

Didier Mequignon tells Jo:

"There is just a little problem... this version is 7 or 10 times slower
than the version under MacOS 9.x. For example it's not enough for play
divx files. Under MacOS X now Aranym seems a better solution."

Paul Williamson asks about emulators, clones, what-have-you:

"There's been a lot of postings recently on emulators, clones etc.  As I
understand it there is no way to run any of the dongle protected
programmes such as Cubase with an emulator.

The dongle port and built in MIDI interface is an important feature of
the Atari.  My Hades has a card which takes the dongles and Cubase runs a
treat on it (not sure about Cubase Audio, but I think it is possible at a
price).

To me no emulator can be considered an "Atari" unless it fulfils the
basic functions of an Atari.  Can it be done with Aranym ?  Will it be
possible on the Coldfire ?  (I do hope so)."

Citrad Fertr tells Paul:

"There are two possible ways how to use dongle keys on machines without
ROM port.

First way is to use an ISA/PCI/VME ROM port adaptor. Second way is to
simulate the dongle key (e.g. grab it into binary file if it's a kind of
(E)(P)ROM and then map this file ROM port memory area).
And, of course, third possibility is to modify a program itself to be able
to work without dongle key (read: use a cracked version)."

Well folks, that's it for this time around. I know it's short, but there
must me more people like me out there who are taking the time to enjoy
the cool weather. 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  - Nintendo Faces Antitrust Suit!
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    French Game Makers Face Huge Debts!
                                   
                                   


        
                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



                 Nintendo Faces EU Antitrust Fine Next Week


European antitrust regulators next week will fine Japanese video game maker
Nintendo and a number of its distributors for sales practices it employed
in the mid-1990s, EU Commission sources told Reuters.

Nintendo Co. Ltd. was accused in 2000 of collaborating with distributors to
limit cross-border flow of its products in an effort to raise wholesale
prices.

The EU is expected to take up the matter next week, slapping the world's
No. 2 video game maker with a fine. The Nintendo settlement is on the
commission agenda for Wednesday, EU sources said.

"A formal decision has not yet been received from the European Commission.
However, we are aware that a decision is imminent," a Nintendo spokesman in
London said.

The size of the fine could not be confirmed. A spokesman for Nintendo of
America confirmed that Nintendo had already set aside funds to deal with
the fine.

In 2000, the European Commission said it believed Nintendo and seven of
its distributors participated in a "cartel-like" arrangement with the aim
of partitioning the market and inflating wholesale prices for its consoles
and games.

Nintendo has cooperated with the EU from the outset of the investigation,
which dates back to 1995. Nintendo no longer operates its European retail
channel in this manner.

Shares in Nintendo, which earlier this month cut its hardware shipment
forecast for 2002/03, have been in a tailspin, down 19 percent this month.
It closed up 2.6 percent on Friday at 11,350 yen in Tokyo.

Demand for Nintendo's premier product, the GameCube, has tailed off lately
in the crucial Japanese and German markets. Still, the company expects to
ship 3 million GameCubes to European resellers by year-end.



               French Video Games Makers Must Zero in on Debt


French video games makers are in a tight spot having zapped their cash in
recent years and borrowed heavily to fund expansion in a consolidating
industry.

Analysts said that risks tied to Infogrames' hefty debt helped to knock
some 80 percent off its share price this year, and will continue to weigh
unless refinancing solutions are found.

But its smaller domestic peer, Ubi Soft, is under less strain with a
gearing of 50 percent, against a whopping 255 percent for Infogrames. But
even it could face some refinancing snags further down the line, analysts
said.

"Debt is Infogrames' key problem and it is urgent to find a solution,"
said OddoPinatton analyst Gregory Ramirez.

"Ubi Soft is under less pressure, but cash generation remains a problem
and could threaten its ability to reimburse its convertible bonds in
2006," he said.

Investors mostly worry about how Infogrames, Europe's largest video games
maker, can repay its 537 million euro-debt without resorting to financing
solutions that could hurt its shareholders.

Some 80 percent of Infogrames's debt is made up of convertible bonds, with
bonds worth 125 million euros expiring on July 1, 2004, and bonds for 309
million due on July 1, 2005.

Separately, Infogrames also faces short-term working capital requirements
tied to the delivery of its games during the crucial Christmas season,
analysts said.

Infogrames has made short-term cash generation a priority, hoping to
achieve this through 20 percent sales growth and an annual cost savings
program in Europe of 25 million euros.

"Only the capacity to generate very significantly positive cash flows
before the July 1, 2004 (bond) expiry could save the group," said CIC
Securities analyst Laurent Ducoin.

In fact most analysts doubt free cash flow generation alone can match
Infograme's debt.

"Cash flow generation will not be enough to meet the 2004-05 deadlines,"
said SG Cowen analyst Jean-Patrick Mousset in a recent research note.

He estimated Infogrames would be cash flow negative by 39 million euros in
fiscal year 2002/03, positive by just 21 million in 2003/04 and by 39
million euros in 2004/05.

"For Infogrames the optimistic scenario is internal cash flow generation
with video games selling well in the United States to pay back debt, but
with high R&D and marketing costs that's very unlikely," said one sector
analyst.

Analysts said there were still a number of other possibilities for
Infogrames to reduce its debt.

It could restructure a portion of its debt as it did back in December, but
to do that it must also demonstrate its capacity to be profitable so as to
regain bankers' confidence after a series of profit warnings dented
management's credibility.

Infogrames could also resort to a capital boost -- though it has repeatedly
denied having such plans as the solution would be dilutive to shareholders
-- or refinance outstanding bonds by a new issue or renegotiate loans with
banks.

"But given market conditions and risk aversion, the road to financial
markets and bankers looks shut," said another analyst.

Infogrames could also turn for help to an outside company like a console
producer, an independent software publisher or a financial institution or
buy back its bonds in the market as they trade well below book value or
sell its treasury stock.

Another solution would be selling assets like development studios,
franchises or licenses.

Analysts also say Infogrames could be taken over by a rival given its low
valuation, although it has repeatedly stated it wanted to remain
independent.

"Infogrames could be bought by a rival company but this would mean buying a
lot of debt. It may be better for some to let it go bankrupt and then buy
some of its assets," said one sector analyst.

Ubi Soft also has less debt than Infogrames and more time to buy it back.
It has a strong catalog of quality games and its management has a better
image with investors, but it may still find it hard to repay its debt,
analysts said.

Gross financial debt stood at 228 million euros at end March 2002 and was
mainly made up of 2005 and 2006 convertible bonds worth some 150 million
euros.

"After Christmas 2004 and a possible downturn in the market cycle,
refinancing may be more difficult. The main issue is, can they create
enough cash?," said OddoPinatton Gregory Ramirez.

SG Cowen estimated in a recent research note that Ubi Soft would generate
only five million euros in available cash during the 2002/07 period.

"If Ubi Soft cannot reimburse the 150 million euros in 2005 and 2006
convertible bonds on its own, alternative ways must be considered," the
note said.

Because its convertible bonds offer a large discount to reimbursement
price, Ubi Soft could buy them back through a debt loan or issue new shares
against the bonds, analysts say.

Ubi Soft recently bought back 24 percent of its 2006 convertible bonds at
61 percent of their balance sheet value.

Other solutions range from attracting new shareholders to raising its
capital, but market conditions are hardly ideal.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



                     FBI Seeks to Trace Internet Attack


The White House sought Wednesday to allay concerns about an unusual attack
this week against the 13 computer servers that manage global Internet
traffic, stressing that disruption was minimal and the FBI is working to
trace the attackers.

Most Internet users didn't notice any effects from Monday's attack because
it lasted only one hour and because the Internet's architecture was
designed to tolerate such short-term disruptions, experts said.

The White House said it was unclear where the attack originated, who might
be responsible or whether the attack could be considered cyber-terrorism.

"We don't know. We'll take a look to see if there are any signs of who it
may or may not be," spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "I'm not aware there's
anything that would lead anybody in that direction. History has shown that
many of these attacks actually come from the hacker community. But that's
why an investigation is under way."

The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center and agents from its
cyber-crime division were investigating, FBI spokesman Steven Berry said.

Civilian technical experts assisting with the investigation, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the FBI was reviewing electronic logs of
computers used in the attack to determine the origin of those responsible.

"It's the nature of these things that they're never easy to untangle and
yet sometimes there are clues left behind," said Steve Crocker, chairman
of an advisory committee on the security and stability of these servers
for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Another expert, Paul Mockapetris, the chief scientist at Nominum Inc., said
those responsible appeared to use generic "ping flood" attack software that
had been installed on computers across the globe using many different
Internet providers. His company provides consulting advice to some of the
organizations operating the servers.

"It was a fairly large attack, but it doesn't look to be an attack designed
to do maximum damage," said Richard Probst, a vice president at Nominum.
"Either it was a wake-up call or a publicity stunt or a probe to understand
how the system works."

In so-called "denial of service" attacks, hackers traditionally seize
control of third-party computers owned by universities, corporations and
even home users and direct them to send floods of data at pre-selected
targets.

The attack on Monday was notable because it crippled nine of the 13 servers
around the globe that manage Internet traffic. Seven failed to respond to
legitimate network traffic and two others failed intermittently during the
attack, officials confirmed.

Service was restored after experts enacted defensive measures and the
attack suddenly stopped.

"There was some degradation of service; however, nothing failed and
providers were able to mitigate the attacks pretty quickly," Fleischer
said.

A spokesman for Office of Homeland Security, Gordon Johndroe, disputed
experts who characterized the attack as the most sophisticated and
large-scale assault against these crucial computers in the history of the
Internet. He said the attack did not use any special techniques and was
not particularly sophisticated.

"There were minor degradations, but no failures," Johndroe said.

Computer experts who manage some of the affected computers, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the attack effectively shut down seven of the
13 computers by saturating their network connections and partially
saturating the connections for two others. Although the servers continued
operating, they were unable to respond to legitimate Internet requests.

The 13 computers are spread geographically across the globe as a precaution
against physical disasters and operated by U.S. government agencies,
universities, corporations and private organizations.

"The public harm in this attack was low," agreed Marc Zwillinger, a former
Justice Department lawyer who investigated similar attacks against
e-commerce Web sites in 2000. "What it demonstrates is the potential for
further harm."

Monday's attack wasn't more disruptive because many Internet providers and
large corporations and organizations temporarily store, or "cache," popular
Web directory information for better performance.

Although the Internet theoretically can operate with only a single root
server, its performance would slow if more than four root servers failed
for any appreciable length of time.



                      Yahoo Users Hit With E-Mail Scam


Users of Yahoo's paid services were targeted by scam artists trying to gain
access to their personal information, including credit card numbers.

In a statement e-mailed to Computerworld Friday, a spokesperson for the
Sunnyvale, California-based Internet portal said that an individual or
individuals posing as part of Yahoo had sent e-mails to users in an effort
to trick them into disclosing their online account information.

The spokesperson said Yahoo "takes all reports of fraud by third parties
very seriously" and has alerted its users to the scam.

Although the spokesperson couldn't provide further details, according to
published reports, less than 24 hours elapsed between the time the bogus
e-mail was sent and the time Yahoo sent out its own mass e-mail to its
users Thursday morning advising them not to respond to the phony request.

It wasn't immediately clear what the fraudulent e-mail to customers said.

A Yahoo spokesperson said Thursday that some users fell for the request
and divulged their credit card numbers, although most did not.

Yahoo also said it didn't know the origin of the fraudulent e-mail.

Last month, online payment service PayPal was also targeted by scam artists
trying to get the personal information of its users. However, unlike Yahoo,
PayPal didn't notify its customers of the scam.



                     Top Marketing Lobby Seeks Spam Law


The deluge of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, has become such a scourge that
even the world's leading consumer marketing lobby says the time has come
for federal restrictions.

The Direct Marketing Association, which once opposed any federal anti-spam
legislation, says it will now lobby for federal and state laws that aim to
control the growth of million-message batches of e-mails flogging
everything from raunchy sex videos to carpet cleaning.

But one top bulk e-mailer says the guidelines proposed by the DMA on
Monday would help stabilize his business. And an anti-spam group believes
the DMA proposal could actually increase unwanted e-mail.

A daily flood of spam not only vexes consumers and Internet providers,
whose attempts to block it are circumvented by stealthy e-mailing
technology, it also makes legitimate commercial e-mail indistinguishable
from unwanted spam, says the DMA, which has 4,700 members.

"We need legislation," said Jerry Cerasale, the DMA's vice president for
government affairs. "We believe the sheer volume will just swamp the
medium and the medium will no longer be useful for marketing."

The guidelines proposed by the DMA, which is holding its annual convention
in San Francisco this week, aim to prohibit marketers from sending
unsolicited e-mails that use deceptive identifiers, such as false subject
lines and return addresses.

Cerasale said marketers should be required to list the physical address
and contact information of the business on whose behalf the message is
sent. And, he said, a prominent "unsubscribe" option should be available
for recipients who wish to halt further mailings.

"If you can't unsubscribe, there's no way to stop it," Cerasale said. "We
need to give the consumer the means to try and stop it."

Cerasale said the DMA supports unsolicited e-mail marketing as long as it
targets a certain demographic or interest group - say, 25-to-35 year-olds
or homeowners - and isn't merely sent to every e-mail address one can
gather.

Such guidelines "might clear out some of the scam artists, but would
probably increase the amount of unsolicited e-mails sent by 'legitimate'
companies," said John Mozena, co-founder of the Coalition Against
Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail.

Mozena, based in Detroit, said his group pushes for an "opt-in" solution
that permits e-mail marketing only at the recipient's request - or from
companies with which the recipient is a customer.

The European Union enacted such a law, which takes effect Oct. 31, 2003.
About half the U.S. states have anti-spam laws, none as strident as the
European measure.

For his part, Tom Cowles, who heads Empire Towers Corp., one of the world's
largest bulk e-mail firms, said he agrees "wholeheartedly" with the DMA
proposal because he believes it will give his business more legitimacy.

Cowles and other spammers say they've been forced to cloak their messages
with fake headers and use other deceptive identifiers because anti-spam
activists harangue the Internet service providers who host their businesses.

When the service provider discovers the spam business, the spammer's Web
site is often taken down - and with it disappears the software to remove
the recipient from future unsolicited mailings.

Cowles said guidelines should restrict e-mail content while forcing
Internet providers to host marketers that follow the rules.

E-mail marketing "should be similar to any other kind of marketing," said
Cowles, of Bowling Green, Ohio. "Deceptive advertising should be penalized.
If someone wants to be removed from your list, they should be removed."



                     Searching for New Ways to Can Spam


Shifting from daily nuisance to serious IT and business concern,
uncontrolled spam is prompting customers to arm themselves with tools to
fight back against productivity loss, potential liability, and
bandwidth-clogging consequences that unsolicited commercial e-mail can
bring to an enterprise.

Targeting a growing concern on the anti-spam battlefront, IronPort Systems
on Wednesday introduced technology designed to prevent legitimate e-mail
messages from being weeded out by anti-spam filters.

IronPort rolled out two e-mail delivery appliances based on the company's
Virtual Gateway technology, which allows users to assign a specific
outbound IP address to each message based on campaign or message type. The
technology, in essence, creates a separate virtual machine for each
mailing, separating critical transaction confirmation messages from other
marketing messages that might be snared by a spam filter, according to
Scott Banister, chairman and chief technology officer of IronPort, based
in San Bruno, California.

"Companies are finding that if they send out e-mail marketing newsletters,
increasingly ISPs are deploying anti-spam systems that often inadvertently
trap messages that are legitimate," Banister says. "No one wants to be
throwing out babies with the bath water."

IronPort's Virtual Gateway assures that even if a marketing message is
trapped by a filter, other traffic being sent from the same infrastructure
will be unaffected, he says. The two new delivery appliances, the A60 and
A30, are designed for high and low volume requirements, respectively.

Similarly, last week vendors Postini and BrightMail introduced new
anti-spam products and services designed to help end-users restore normalcy
to workplace operations being hampered by hundreds upon thousands of e-mail
messages targeting random inboxes and servers over the Internet.

In fact, most corporate customers and service providers are oblivious to
the massive amount of spam proliferation caused by automated e-mail address
"harvesting" over the Web, says Joyce Graff, vice president and research
director of Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner.

"[Spam] is burning your resources, it's keeping your message transfer agent
busy doing stupid things, it's clogging bandwidth, clogging disk space, and
most important stealing people's time," says Graff. "Even more important,
it's creating a very upset work environment."

Graff says that tools capable of launching a myriad of spam-related attacks
are becoming readily available over the Internet. This enables even
beginners to send out spam, and fuels con artists to perpetrate hoaxes,
identity theft, fraud, bulk junk mail, and mass market advertising.
Spammers easily can set up and dispose of multiple free e-mail accounts to
hide their tracks.

According to the Gartner analyst, many spam attacks bombarding enterprises
feature increasingly vulgar and insensitive content. This raises the
question of whether a company is legally responsible for blocking
inappropriate spam messages viewed by its employees.

Postini customer Lee Rocklage, IT manager of Redwood City, California-based
DPR Construction, estimated about 40 percent of his company's daily e-mails
at one time were spam. Before deploying Postini's Security Manager product,
he notes that offensive e-mail proved a major distraction and was "the
biggest complaint" from his employees.

"It became a concern," says Rocklage. "We're a service-oriented company and
having to sort through all of the unnecessary e-mails each morning to
identify those that were important or required a quick response can be very
time-consuming."

Last week, Postini announced the availability of Postini Perimeter Manager,
Postini Security Manager, and Postini Resource Manager, serving as three
new service offerings to heighten e-mail protection against spam, viruses,
and Directory Harvest Attacks.

BrightMail, which offers a software license as well as a services model,
made noise on the spam battlefield last week with the launch of BrightMail
Anti-Spam 4.0 Enterprise Edition. Designed to support Microsoft Windows
2000 and Sun Solaris environments, the new version can remove randomness
inserted by spammers in the header of an e-mail message body to reduce
polymorphic spam attacks and can generate rules against slightly altered
attacks, says Ren Chin, director of product development at San
Francisco-based BrightMail.

Albert Rodriguez, president of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based ImageMaster
Financial Publishing, says the "annoyance" of unwanted e-mails forced him
to seek out a product such as SurfControl's Anti-Spam Agent, which could
not only filter spam, but also provide his staff the ability to flag or
isolate e-mails for further inspection.

"The product is blocking spam but it's doing it by allowing us to have
control of exactly what comes through and what doesn't. If it weren't for
that, we wouldn't have gotten it," says Rodriguez, who says a queue has
been set up to flag key phrases, Web addresses, and re-direction attempts.

Graff, the Gartner analyst, says it is critical that customers stay away
from generating false positives that could prevent legitimate business or
e-mail messages from getting through even if it appears "off-color."

Toward that concept, IronPort offers a Bonded Sender program, designed to
integrate with the appliances, which lets companies use a financial bond
to stand behind valid e-mail messages. Described as a kind of first-class
postage stamp for e-mail, the Bonded Sender service signifies to ISPs and
corporations that the message sender has a legitimate business relationship
with the recipients, Banister says.



                     Oregon Man Fined For Spam E-Mails


An Oregon man was ordered Friday to pay nearly $100,000 in the first case
brought under Washington's tough law against "spam" e-mails.

Attorney General Christine Gregoire's office estimates that Jason Heckel,
28, of Salem, sent as many as 20,000 unsolicited e-mails to Washington
residents in 1998, trying to sell a $39.95 booklet called "How to Profit
from the Internet."

The case was the first brought after the Legislature banned commercial
e-mail with misleading information in the subject line, invalid reply
addresses or disguised paths of transmission.

Judge Douglass North ordered Heckel to pay a $2,000 fine and more than
$94,000 in legal fees.

Heckel didn't appear in court. In a written statement he said he never
intended to break the law, and that he made only about $680 from book
sales.

Heckel's lawyer Dale Crandall said he plans to appeal, and argued that
state anti-spam laws violate the U.S. Constitution's protection of
interstate commerce.

"It would create a patchwork of laws that would be impossible to keep up
with," Crandall said.

Gary Gardner, executive director of the Washington Association of Internet
Service Providers, one of the anti-spam law's backers, said he hoped the
fine is the beginning of a new push to enforce the law.

"Our goal was never to make any money on this stuff," Gardner said. "It's
to put these people out of business."



                     AOL Launches Kids' Safety Campaign


America Online is launching a new Internet-safety campaign for kids built
around an automated instant-messaging "buddy" that dispenses advice in real
time.

Kids can add "AOLSafetyBot" to their buddy lists of friends on AOL Instant
Messenger. It's programmed to answer, within seconds, such questions as
whether kids should agree to physical meetings with online acquaintances
or reveal such personal information as their address and age.

Some experts wonder, however, whether a scripted program can always be an
appropriate guide in a complicated online world, given varying age groups
and parental preferences.

The SafetyBot campaign, being launched Wednesday, also includes a Web site
at AOL's SafetyClicks.com, where kids can play a trivia game and watch a
video featuring characters from the Cartoon Network (news - web sites), a
unit of AOL Time Warner.

People who don't use AOL's instant-messaging software can also find the
SafetyBot buddy on the SafetyClicks site.

Automated instant-messaging buddies, or bots, are not new, but past ones
have been mostly devoted to marketing and promotions. Internet safety
resources also exist elsewhere as Web sites, among them Disney's
SurfSwellIsland.com.

AOL said it created SafetyBot to bring safety resources to a forum with
which kids are already familiar. The company's instant-messaging software
is the most popular on the Internet, with more than 150 million registered
users.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than 40
percent of teenagers on the Internet use instant messaging (news - web
sites) on a given day, compared with 11 percent for online adults.

"Instant messaging clearly is a form of communications that they enjoy so
there was a natural predisposition to using a bot," said Tatiana Gau,
AOL's senior vice president for integrity assurance.

According to a 2000 study by Crimes Against Children Research Center at
the University of New Hampshire, one in five youths aged 10 to 17 received
unwanted sexual solicitations over the Internet within the year. Only a
quarter of them told a parent.

Will kids use the bot instead of asking parents for advice? Will parents
depend on the bot to supervise their kids?

Gau said the bot is not meant for that or as a substitute for other safety
resources.

"Obviously as a bot, it has intelligence and the ability to answer and
handle certain questions," she said. But "they have certain limitations as
all bots do."

Many of the answers emphasize telling parents if, say, an online
acquaintance asks for a meeting or personal information.

Parry Aftab, a leading Internet-safety expert, applauded efforts to make
learning about safety fun.

"The kids will play with it, and if they play with it, maybe they will
learn something," she said. But she cautioned that correct answers may
depend on age and other factors - for instance, some parents may want to
handle meeting strangers differently.

The AOL bot offers only generic responses.

And even safety experts may disagree on the proper approach. Aftab said
she used to recommend that kids give strangers a false name - until
someone pointed out that kids might then consider lying permissible
behavior.

"There is not always one clear answer," she said.

The AOL bot, made available to The Associated Press for testing, was good
about giving relevant answers on general safety issues, such as sending
photos to strangers, protecting passwords and confronting bad language.

But it did not always answer questions head-on.

For example, the question "Could you meet me at Kmart?" returned a warning
never to meet online friends in person without a parent. The question
"Could you come to Kmart with me?" returned a generic message introducing
the bot.

Off-topic questions occasionally yielded humorous answers.

What are your hobbies? "I like to dance. (The "electric slide" is my
favorite.) I also like to read and surf the Internet."

Why are you annoying? "Well, I am a bot."

Other times, even on questions related to Internet safety, the bot said it
couldn't understand and directed the user to ask again, visit a menu of
safety tips or ask a parent.

AOL officials say the bot, which only responds when addressed, was
programmed to make such replies rather than guess and potentially give a
wrong answer. More questions and answers will be added over time.

On the Net:

AOL safety site: http://www.safetyclicks.com

Aftab site: http://www.wiredkids.org

Disney safety site: http://www.surfswellisland.com



                     Webcasters Get Royalties Extension


Smaller Internet music broadcasters are getting an extension on copyright
royalty payments that would have been due Sunday, which means they can
avoid shutting down.

The webcasters will still have to pay up to $2,500 each in fees by Monday.
But that is far less than the tens of thousands of dollars that many of
them would have owed.

The extension, granted by the recording industry and performance artists
Friday, came a day after the Senate recessed for the elections without
approving copyright rate revisions negotiated between webcasters and the
copyright holders.

The changes, unanimously approved by the House earlier this month, would
have significantly reduced payment obligations for smaller webcasters, who
complained that the higher rates could have put them out of business.

"From the beginning, we have wanted to work with webcasters, and this
temporary payment policy is another example of our commitment to the
webcasting industry," said John L. Simson, executive director of
SoundExchange, the organization collecting payments on behalf of the music
industry and the artists.

Only webcasters that would have qualified for reduced payments under the
webcasting bill will be eligible for the extension. Simson's statement,
issued late Friday, said the extension will be in effect until Congress
could act on the bill.

The statement does not say what would happen if Congress never passes the
bill, or if the president does not sign it, although the statement refers
to "this Congress" - which adjourns at year's end. A message left with
Simson after business hours was not immediately returned.

Traditional radio broadcasters have been exempt from paying royalties to
recording labels and performance artists on the grounds that the broadcasts
had promotional value. In 1998, Congress passed a copyright law requiring
such royalties from webcasters.

An arbitration panel proposed rates of $1.40 per song heard by 1,000
listeners, and the U.S. Copyright Office halved them in June and set the
Sunday deadline for payments.

Under the settlement awaiting legislative approval, smaller webcasters
could calculate payments based on how much they earn or spend. For a small
webcaster like Ultimate-80s, that meant owing $7,700 instead of $24,000.

Even the reduced rates are too high for some. Internet Radio Hawaii
briefly went offline, although it has come back after listeners donated
more than $2,000.

Hundreds of other stations had previously shut down.



                  MSN Says to Lock Fees, Halt 'Pop-Up' Ads


MSN, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet service, said on Thursday it will lock in
its monthly dial-up access fee at $21.95 for 12 months, compared with
archrival America Online's monthly rate of $23.90.

In another effort to one-up its AOL Time Warner Inc.-owned rival, MSN also
said its latest version, MSN 8, would no longer display pop-up advertising,
which appears in separate windows as users surf the Web.

Earlier this month, America Online said it would sell no more pop-ups to
outside companies, but said it would continue to display pop-ups promoting
its own properties. MSN, in contrast, is halting both outside and in-house
pop-ups.



               Microsoft Starts Testing New Version of Office


Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it started preliminary testing of the next
version of its Office productivity software, as the world's largest
software maker prepares its products for Web-enabled services.

The next version of Office, code-named "Office 11" and due out in mid-2003
after user testing, will include many of the building blocks of Microsoft's
broad .NET initiative that aims to provide software and services that will
work across platforms and devices, Microsoft said.

Office 11 will broadly support XML, or extensible markup language, which
allows data to be shared and exchanged between different types of programs,
Microsoft said, making it more suitable for business users.

"It's about being connected and connecting business processes," said David
Jaffe, lead product manager for Office.

Office, which includes the Word application for documents, Excel for
spreadsheet analysis and Powerpoint for presentations, will also be more
closely integrated with a feature called SharePoint, which allows groups
of people to work on the same document and collaborate without having to
exchange files and e-mail repeatedly, said Jaffe.

Office, which nearly equals and sometimes exceeds Windows as Microsoft's
largest franchise, is beginning to see a slowdown. In Microsoft's latest
business year, ended June 30, the "Information Worker" segment, which
includes Office, dipped 2.5 percent.



                      Airborne Computer Mouse Unveiled


Much of personal computing is about "can you top this?" development, so a
mention a few weeks ago about a rechargeable wireless optical mouse brought
in another rechargeable, wireless mouse.

The difference is, this one's airborne.

Meaning, like all optical mice, it doesn't need a desktop mouse pad. But it
also doesn't need a desk.

The $79.95 Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse from Gyration, Inc., of Saratoga,
Calif., uses gyroscopic sensors to control the cursor movement as you move
your wrist, arm, whatever through the air.

And, says the specs, it will do it from 25 feet away. Could be - the review
unit was only tested from 10 feet, because farther than that, I couldn't
see the cursor anyway.

When it's sitting on a surface, the Ultra Cordless functions like most
other opticals, with left-click, scroll and right-click buttons. But when
you lift it, the usual red optical glow disappears and the gyroscopes take
over when you depress a big button on the underside.

The best technique is to move the cursor to where you want to go and then
release the underside trigger button. The cursor freezes on screen, and you
can then click or whatever.

Using it makes you seem like you're trying to catch fruit flies in
one-handed slow motion, and will probably draw a few curious stares from
family or colleagues. And then they'll want to try it out.

Installation involved popping the receiver into a USB port and giving the
mouse a nine-hour charge in the supplied charging pod.

Beyond the obvious application for those who willfully lay Powerpoint
presentations on their fellow human beings, those whose wrists hurt when
they mouse ought to give this a look. With a little experimentation, I
found I could easily control the cursor by moving my whole arm, or, with
the mouse held in both hands, my whole torso.

And, with the mouse held at belt level, it could even be controlled by
walking back and forth. Or doing a hula. (Of course the office door was
closed - the flock of 20-somethings outside have enough to snicker about as
it is.)

Aerobic mousing aside, those who surf the net will find it easier to do
without being tied to a horizontal surface.

The Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse doesn't care whether the machine is a PC
or a Mac. And it reports data at 80 hertz, faster than the typical
wireless, so cursor movement is smooth.

Gyration says the mouse is moving into retail and is available online at
GyrationDirect.com.



                      New York Fines Microsoft for Ads


Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates is boasting that the software giant
will spend $300 million to promote the latest version of its Internet
service.

He may have underestimated by just a bit.

After plastering city sidewalks, streets and other public property with
butterfly-shaped advertising decals, New York City has sent Microsoft a
$50 summons.

Microsoft vice president Yusuf Mehdi said the company was sorry.

"We made a mistake with the decals, and we take full responsibility for
what happened," Mehdi said in a statement issued by Microsoft's public
relations firm, Waggener Edstrom. "We're working with city officials to
clean up the decals immediately."

City officials in New York, Chicago and San Francisco have fought back
against similar illegal "guerrilla" ad campaigns by IBM, Snapple and Nike.

In April, IBM paid San Francisco $120,000 in fines and cleanup costs for
an ad campaign in which sidewalks were spray-painted with ads. Chicago also
fined the computer maker for similar corporate graffiti.

In New York, municipal workers removed hundreds of Microsoft decals on
Thursday and planned to remove hundreds more on Friday, said Transportation
Department spokesman Tom Cocola.

"We intend to hold your firm directly responsible for this illegal,
irresponsible and dangerous defacing of public property," Cesar Fernandez,
the department's assistant counsel, said in a letter to Microsoft.

Fernandez said Microsoft could be sued if it sticks more ads on city
property.

A public relations spokeswoman for Microsoft, Kathy Gill of the Waggener
Edstrom agency, said Thursday that the software company received a city
permit to place the blue, green, orange and yellow butterflies on streets
and sidewalks.

Gill didn't say which city agency issued the permit, and Cocola said the
DOT has not seen it.

On Friday, another Microsoft spokeswoman cast doubt on whether the company
had permission to post the ads, saying Microsoft was "looking into it."

The decals were part of a splashy promotional campaign for the company's
release of an upgraded MSN Internet service stocked with Disney's content.

Many of the decals were clustered on sidewalks near Central Park, where
Gates and Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner announced the deal
Thursday.

"It's a real coup," Gates said during the kickoff spectacle, flanked by
Eisner and a pair of extras in Mickey and Minnie Mouse suits. Pop star
Lenny Kravitz played an invitation-only concert at the event.

Neither mentioned the sidewalk decals, which seemed to mimic the New York
promotions by Nike and Snapple.



                         Sites Missing From Google


What you get through Google's powerful and popular search engines may
depend on where you live.

A report Thursday from Harvard Law School found at least 100 sites missing
from search results when accessing Google sites meant for French and German
users.

Most of the missing sites are ones that deny the Holocaust or promote white
supremacy. France and Germany have strict laws banning hate speech, while
the United States favors freedom of expression even for unpopular
viewpoints.

The sites themselves were not blocked. But the effect is the same when
users cannot find them, said Danny Sullivan, editor of
SearchEngineWatch.com.

"Search engines are an incredible tool for people to locate information on
the Web," Sullivan said. "If you pull a Web site out of a search engine,
you are in some degree censoring, in some degree making it inaccessible to
some people."

In a statement, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said the company must
occasionally remove sites to avoid legal liability. Such removals, he
said, are in response to specific requests and are not done preemptively.

"We carefully consider any credible complaint on a case-by-case basis and
take necessary action," Tyler said. "We only react to requests that come
to us."

Google, Yahoo!, Amazon and several other companies run separate sites for
different countries, often in native languages and featuring local
currencies. The primary, ".com" version is generally considered the U.S.
site, though it is accessible from elsewhere, including France and Germany.

Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for
Internet & Society, and Ben Edelman, a Berkman researcher, found about 65
sites excluded from Google.de, the German site. They found 113 sites,
including the 65, missing at Google.fr, the French site.

Testing was conducted Oct. 4-21.

Edelman said users would have no inkling of any exclusions unless they
compared search results side by side. He suggested Google could better
serve users by inserting a "placeholder" where sites are removed due to
government or other censorship.

Google's stated policy calls for removing links when site owners request
them.

It also removes them for legal reasons, most prominently when the Church
of Scientology International complained of copyright violations at a
Norwegian site run by critics.

After free-speech advocates complained, Google agreed to notify the site
ChillingEffects.org when it gets a copyright-related removal request.

Google, as a private company, is generally not bound by the free-speech
guarantees in the First Amendment, which applies to restrictions imposed
by government.

But Edelman said that private or not, the company has a public
responsibility as a widely used resource.




                                =~=~=~=


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