Low End PC Archive
Low End PC Archive for October 2002
Articles on Low End PC
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- more in the September 2002 archive
Around the Web
- Web: Does search engine's power threaten Web's independence?, Stefanie Olsen, Cnet, 10.31. A look at Google's domination of the search side of the Internet.
- Virus: BugBear tops virus charts as Klez refuses to die, John Leyden, The Register, 10.31. "The nasty BugBear worm finally displaced the irksome Klez-H as the most common virus circulating on the Internet this month."
- News: MS gets top security rating for Win2k, makes big noise, John Lettice, The Register, 10.30. It took 3 years, several service packs, and some hot fixes, but Win2k is now certified as secure.
- Rights: Speech is either free or it isn't, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, Low End Mac, 10.30. "Free-speech is under siege seemingly everywhere these days, most insidiously under the pretext of anti 'hate speech' and anti-discrimination legislation."
- Forum: Microsoft: You need permission to sell our software, Slashdot, 10.29. "This action by Microsoft should serve as a warning to any corporation that has a significant investment in Microsoft licenses."
- News: Microsoft, others oppose Kmart bluelight.com sale, Yahoo/Reuters, 10.29. "The licenses that debtors (Kmart) have of Microsoft's products are licenses of copyrighted materials and, therefore, may not be assumed or assigned with Microsoft's consent."
- Analysis: Microsoft's media monopoly, Farhad Manjoo, Salon, 10.29. Burst.com claims Microsoft stole its streaming video system and colluded to keep Burst out of the market.
- Opinion: You will pay more for broadband, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, Low End Mac, 10.28. The cable companies dominate broadband, and they will find ways to charge heavier users more for Internet access.
- Web: Free software org burned by PayPal, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 10.27. "PayPal seems to have numerous legal loopholes through which to escape responsibility for accounts under its control."
- Dark Side: Guerilla marketing tactics spawn viral fears, John Leyden, The Register, 10.25. Not exactly a virus, EULA actually asks permission before using user's Outlook address book.
- Humor: Die evil scum!, Joy of Tech, 10.25. The bane of the Web.
Rights: Closing spyware
loopholes, Mark Rasch, The Register, 10.25. "if you have the
ability to read a contract, the terms of which indicate that by
installing the software you agree to be bound by the terms, this is
insufficient to form a binding agreement."- News: Dana bridges the gap between PDA and laptop computer, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 10.24. AlphaSmart's new Dana runs Palm OS, has full size keyboard, runs 30 hours on a charge.
Rights: Google
excluding controversial sites, Declan McCullagh, Cnet, 10.24. "This
is not pre-emptive--we only react to requests that come to us...to
avoid legal liability, we remove sites from Google search results pages
that may conflict with local laws."- Web: Let's put users first, Carla Passino, E-Media Tidbits, 10.24. "I quickly found out just how many sites force their font size to an exact (and usually very small) number of points, preventing users from modifying text size to suit their needs."
-
Rights: Band can't
sell own music on eBay, Brad King, Wired, 10.24. "On two occasions,
the company mistakenly identified Ziemann's album - which was
advertised as a CD-R - as infringing on somebody's copyright...."
- Spam: No easy money suing spammers, Joanna Glasner, Wired, 10.24. Not easy, but sometimes you do win against the spammers.
Rights:
Google complies with law, excludes 'controversial' sites, Slashdot,
10.24. "To conform with some French and German laws, Google has removed
listings for over 100 sites which it believes to be anti-abortion,
pro-Nazi, white supremacist or anti-semitic."- Tech: End of the road for CD burners, Mark Hachman, Extreme Tech, 10.23. Drives and media may never get much past 48x, but new Mt. Ranier disc format holds promise.
Huh?: BBC
wins police Tardis case, BBC.com, 10.24. Metropolitan Police
attempted to wrest control of Dr. Who's Tardis from the BBC.- Web: CNET's download.com fees, Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 10.23. Shades of .mac - download.com to start charging authors $99 for posting their software (mostly free- and shareware).
- Rights: Washington State Congressman attempts to outlaw GPL, NewsForge, 10.23. Could Microsoft (also in Washington state) be behind move to undermine GPL for federal projects?
- Benchmarks: USB 2.0 against FireWire, Xbit Labs, 10.23. No matter how you slice it, FireWire outperforms supposedly faster USB 2.0 in real world testing.
Web:
Danish watchdog
calls for ban on intrusive online ads, Drew Cullen, The Register,
10.23. "...calls in Denmark to ban in-yer-face online ads such as
'shutter' banner rolldowns and interstitials."- Spam: Direct marketers endorse anti-spam laws, Declan McCullagh, ZDNet, 10.22. Direct marketers turn about face, say level of junk spam makes legitimate spam ineffective. Or something like that.
- Dark Side: Is Microsoft licensing forcing banks to break the law?, Dan Orzech, Boston Internet.como, 10.22. "...we're either out of compliance with Microsoft's licensing, which is not acceptable, or we're out of compliance with the law, which is not acceptable either."
- Dark Side: IE holes open up Web booby traps, Robert Lemos, Cnet, 10.22. Nine security flaws in IE 5.5 and 6 uncovered - Windows version, of course.
- Opinion: The dying art of plain text email, Manuel Mejia Jr, Triasic Mac, Low End Mac, 10.22. Two types of email can make life very difficult for those with ancient PCs, other vintage hardware, and Unix shell accounts.
- Advice: How to land the job you want, Steve Watkins, The Practical Mac, Low End Mac, 10.22. Practical advice for those who want to find a job in the information technology field.
- Hardware: Faster write-speed DVD drives unveiled, Kuriko Miyake, Digit, 10.18. Pioneer, Sony, and Teac unveil 4x DVD burners. Sony drive to support DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW.
- Huh?: Campaign: Send AOL CDs back, CNN.com, 10.18. "We're going to AOL and say, 'You've got mail. Please stop this.'"
- Dark Side: Ad campaign leaves pie on Microsoft's face, David Pogue, New York Times, 10.17. "...more likely, Microsoft's latest blunder demonstrates is neither jealousy nor wounded pride; it's pure arrogance."
- Opinion: Forced obsolescence, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, Low End Mac, 10.18. Today's PC buyers are looking for features and value, not buying because their old computer is obsolete.
- Dark Side: Internet Explorer flaw abets attackers, Dennis Fisher, eWeek, 10.16. "Security researchers have identified a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer that enables an attacker to steal cookies, forge Web content and run code on [Windows] machines."
- Benchmarks: Does a 52x CD burner burn 6.5 times faster than an 8x burner?, Bare Feats, 10.16. New 52x drive outperforms 48x, but doesn't meet 6.5x faster expectations vs. 8x.
- Advice: Email quotes and inclusion conventions, The Jargon Dictionary, 10.16. "The practice of including text from the parent article when posting a followup helped solve what had been a major nuisance...."
- Advice: A look at the IT job market, Steve Watkins, The Practical Mac, Low End Mac, 10.15. "Jobs are harder to come by, and the Information Technology sector has not gone unaffected."
- News: Gateway to sell stuff in stores, John H. Farr, Applelinks, 10.14. Gateway decides it might be a good idea to actually sell computers in their stores.
- Web: Online gambling laws a good bet, Lauren Weinstein, Wired, 10.14. "When it comes to Internet gambling, all bets are off."
Forum:
Australian anti-spammer wins court case, Slashdot, 10.14. More
insights into the Australian anti-spam court ruling.-
Rights:
Anti-spammer wins court case, Caitlin Fitzsimmons, News
Interactive, 10.14. "The Australian court system upheld the right of
internet activists to campaign against junk email...."
Rights: Web
sites blackout over Spanish monitoring law, John Leyden, The
Register, 10.14. "Spanish Web site operators have taken their sites
offline in protest at government proposals to regulate online
content."- Analysis: The PC's new tricks, David Kirkpatrick, Fortune, 10.14. PC sales down, PC makers bleeding red ink - yet Dell and Apple are profitable.
- Advice: Reasons not to switch, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, Low End Mac, 10.11. Four good reasons for sticking with Windows instead of switching to a Mac.
- Web: Trojanized Sendmail distro circulated, Thomas C Greene, The Register, 10.09. "An enterprising computer enthusiast has managed to insert a Trojan in the source code for a recent Sendmail distro...."
- Virus: Worms turn on Win/Linux users, John Leyden, The Register, 10.07. BearBug, Slapper, and Opaserv busy infecting Windows, Linux PCs.
- Web: W3C patent board recommends royalty-free policy, Bruce Perens, Slashdot, 10.07. "After a year of argument and see-sawing, W3C's patent policy board has voted to recommend a royalty-free patent policy."
- Review: A tale of 12 mice, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, TwinCities.com, 10.06. "Call me a curmudgeon, but I wish mouse vendors wouldn't get rid of models that work just fine...."
- Opinion: Hello computer, Jason Walsh, Metamute, 10.05. "...isn't it about time we stopped pointing and clicking?"
- Web: Google degraded? Geeks aghast, Paul Boutin, Wired, 10.05. "...for the first time since its launch in 1998, Google results have been degraded rather than improved by the latest tweak to its proprietary scoring algorithm for Web pages...."
- Rights: Copyright wars legislation goes to bat for the consumer's interest, Charles W. Moore, Applelinks, 10.04. "Consumers have rights and expectations that cannot be ignored by industry goliaths."
- Web: How and why the Internet broke, Michelle Delio, Wired, 10.04. "Those massive e-mail delays, slow Internet connections and downed e-businesses were all caused by a software upgrade that went horribly wrong...."
- Virus: Two new epidemics wreak havok on PCs, Seng Li Peng, atNewYork.com, 10.03. Not one new Windows virus this week, but two. Opasoft and Tanatos threaten Windows users.
- Virus: Bugbear virus spreading rapidly, Paul Roberts, Yahoo/IDG, 10.03. "Once activated, the virus shuts down vital processes used by antivirus and firewall software, records user keystrokes to capture passwords, sends copies of itself...."
- Virus: It's a bug, a bear and a worm, Michelle Delio, Wired, 10.03. "...the Bugbear worm, also known as Tanatos, is coded to allow a malicious hacker complete control over infected computers."
- Opinion: Old Unix and Mac computers never die..., Glenn Fleishman, GlennLogs, 10.02. "...Mac and Unix users wind up using machines til they die or get really really old."
- Rights: New bills aim to protect consumers' use of digital media, Heather Fleming Phillips, SiliconValley.com, 10.01. "Lofgren's bill would ensure consumers can copy CDs, DVDs and other digital works for personal use, just as they now do with TV shows and audio tapes."
- Dark Side: New alerts have analysts doubting Microsoft security, Paul Roberts, InfoWorld, 10.03. "A string of new security alerts from [Microsoft] has prominent industry analysts and security experts predicting that the company's goal of making its software secure may remain elusive."
- Web: E-mail hits snail-mail pace, Michelle Delio, Wired, 10.03. "Slow e-mail delivery and sluggish Internet connections on Thursday are due to a technical problem at WorldCom's UUNet division."
- Opinion: Adventures in ebook reading, Jeff Adkins, Mac Lab Report, Low End Mac, 10.03. "I didn't really get 'into' the PDA thing until my wife introduced me to ebooks - books published electronically specifically for use on a PDA or other small device."
- Tech: Hard disk roundup: Heat, noise, and performance, Sander Sassen, Hardware Analysis, 10.01. Looking at cost, capacity, performance, heat, and noise, some drives are better choices than others.
- Analysis: Steal your interface: A history, Leander Kahney, Wired, 10.01. "Standard features in most computer interfaces . . . were dreamed up by people working in bedrooms or back offices."
- Web: What the Net is doing to you, Mark Ward, BBC News, 10.01. "...academics are starting to find out how important an agent of social change the internet is...."
- Web: Slashdot turns 5, Slashdot, 10.01. Five years of news for nerds, first posts, and assorted geekiness.
- Rights: States settle CD price-fixing case, David Lieberman, USA Today, 10.01. States get the money. CD buyers get to keep their overpriced CDs. TANJ.
- Rights:
Ex-cons say
they want to vote, Fox News, 10.01. State restrictions prevent 3.9
million from casting ballots.
- more in the September 2002 archive
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