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Volume 7, Issue 32 Atari Online News, Etc. August 5, 2005 Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2005 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: To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe, log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org and click on "Subscriptions". OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org and your address will be added to the distribution list. To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to subscribe from. To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the following sites: http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm http://www.icwhen.com/aone/ http://a1mag.atari.org Now available: http://www.atarinews.org Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi! http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/ =~=~=~= A-ONE #0732 08/05/05 ~ New Mac Mighty Mouse! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Phishers Hack eBay! ~ Yahoo Music Search! ~ Strange Firings Site! ~ TeraDesk Updated! ~ Adware Charges Settled ~ UTexas Wins E-Mail War ~ Flea Markets Dying! ~ Elvis Car eBay Suit! ~ New Mozilla Subsidiary ~ New STOS Site Up! -* Web Ad Pioneer Shuns Pop-Ups *- -* Microsoft To Host Hacker Meetings! *- -* First Round of Windows Vista Viruses Found *- =~=~=~= ->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""" It's already August... Well, there's still plenty of summer left; I hope that you're enjoying it! I'll get to enjoy another vacation in a few weeks; we can't wait! The weather has really been great this summer overall. Yeah, we've had some really scorcher days, but it hasn't been all that bad. An air conditioner and pool come in handy when the mercury climbs! Still hate that humidity, though. Can ya tell that I have relaxation on my mind this week? <grin> Let's get right to this week's issue! Until next time... =~=~=~= TeraDesk 3.60 Is Available Version 3.60 of TeraDesk open-source desktop is available at: http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/teradesk.htm TeraDesk is currently the only open-source desktop available for 16-bit and 32-bit Atari computers. Developers' goal is to maintain TeraDesk as a small, simple, fast and reliable desktop, which can run on any TOS- compatible Atari computer, clone or emulator and which can be be functional and competitive in the modern multitasking environments and all flavours and versions of TOS-compatible operating system(s), while keeping, as much as reasonable, familiarity with the original TOS desktop. Several new features have been added since the last published version, mostly in the areas of handling file attributes and access rights, and manipulation of desktop and window icons. Also, some bugs have been fixed. Users are advised to read the documentation before running the program ;) Some features of TeraDesk may not be immediately obvious. Have fun. STOS Site Up! Hello all, We are pleased to announce that the site is online now! Hope you find something of interest there and any feedback would be appreciated. We still have plenty to add to the site but this will take time! Try not to break it LOL http://stos.atari.st/ Cheers, Lee =~=~=~= PEOPLE ARE TALKING compiled by Joe Mirando joe@atarinews.org Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Another week has come and gone, and we find ourselves even deeper into summer. It's been hot and humid here in my little corner of the northeast and, to tell you the truth, I'm about ready for autumn. I suppose I'd feel differently if I was planning a week or two at the beach or some remote tropical island, but alas I'll be spending the dog days of summer right here at home. Since it's been downright nasty outside for a while, I've stocked up on a few of my favorite movies, which I was pleasantly surprised to find have been put out on DVD. With classics like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet... and even an MPEG of Plan Nine from Outer Space (which is now public domain... search for it on archives.com), I can at least have a plausible excuse for staying inside. The Day the Earth Stood Still was probably the first 'cold war' movie, and it was also one of the first (if not the first) movie that cast our own government as, if not THE bad guy, at least ONE OF the bad guys. That's not the main reason I like the movie so much though. I like it because it takes a look at the way people work, the way their minds work, and the interesting ways that people can take the same information and come to such different conclusions. All of a sudden, everyone has their own special 'insight' into what the other side is doing and why, without ever having taken the trouble to ask. The cold war mentality was already firmly entrenched in the fabric of our society when the movie came out (in 1951, I believe), and the movie does a very good job of showcasing that mindset and the seemingly incongruous, self-defeating attitude that arises almost without fail when fear takes the place of reason. What I find so interesting is that, even though this movie was made more than half a century ago, it's still a fairly accurate view into what's going on now. I half-expected to hear the phrase "they hate our freedom" used in the movie. THAT is the mark of a good movie. Well, I promised myself that I'd finish this column before I settle down and watch Forbidden Planet. Perhaps next week we'll talk about Krell metal or Robbie the Robot or something. <grin> From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup ==================================== 'Alison' asks about booting a MegaSTE from floppy: "[This] Might sound like a silly question, but how do you get a Mega STE with an internal SCSI drive to boot from floppy? Have tried and tried and tried. Not helped with it being a German TOS 2.05. Just bought it off of eBay for אú50, no real yellowing, just a bit grubby, into the bath it goes for a good soak (minus the components naturally)." Coda tells Alison: "1. Must be a cold boot. 2. Immediately after mem test finishes, hold down ALT. You can abort the mem test, I usually press space then immediately hold down ALT. This works for disks that boot from the AUTO folder. Boot sector booting disks (like some games) will boot without your intervention." Alison replies: "Thanks Coda! Will try it shortly when it's back in it's case. Next one to get me wondering is, what's the DIP switch settings." Coda answers that one too: "Ignore em. Only 7 is of interest, and that only puts the option to format HD floppies in the format menu on Gem (whether or not you have the hardware)." Alison tells Coda: "... I have partitioned and formatted the disk now with AHDI 5.0, tried to patch it with the effect being that it won't do a thing without a floppy disk in it, so reverted on the patch. May do 6.05 tomorrow to see how that behaves. Thing that confuses me is that if a floppy disk is present it HD boots immediately, take the disk out and it adds another 5-10 secs before it'll recognize the space-bar being pressed and then the FDD light stays on continually until a disk is inserted. Should it do that? The only HD related visible file I have on the HDD is SHDRIVER.SYS in the root, removed AHDI.PRG which was in the AUTO folder as it was loading twice, so guess that's install already in the boot sector. As already mentioned, if I patch AHDI with HD_PATCH then it stops recognizing the HD as a logical drive. Have read the experiences of others on the various forums so trying not to duplicate here, their problems seem to centre around HD upgrades and formatting alone. Lots to write up. Will boot from floppy if Ctrl-Alt-Del is pressed, then ALT for a short while until it picks up the boot sector with ALT still being held, else gets halfway through the FDD boot and reverts to the HD boot. Can't get it to do it from power-on ALT or reset ALT though. Takes a bit of getting used to to get it right, bit of a black art this MSTE floppy booting." 'Chris' asks: "Has anyone gotten MultiTOS to work on a CT60?" Ronald Hall asks Chris: "I just have to ask...why? I mean why would you want to? MultiTOS is old, slow and buggier than my front porch light on a long summer night..." Chris replies: "Yeah maybe, but its easy to setup and not linux based. I don't know of any alternatives, not like I use multitasking that often anyhows..." Ronald tells Chris: "Before I'd go with MultiTOS, especially for multitasking, I'd recommend Neodesk/Geneva, and although I'm not a big MagiC fan, I guess I'd still have to recommend it over plain MultiTOS as well. My first, best recommendation though, would be to take the time to learn and install MINT. You don't have to use the unix "features" of MiNT. And its not linux based. MiNT is basically a TOS, not GEM, replacement (developed from MULTITOS). The Unix part of the MiNT distribution (Sparemint) is just a set of GNU unix based tools. You don't have to have them but it gives you a lot more power and freedom if you do. Download the latest Freemint package which includes the MiNT kernel and an AES (XAAES) and put your desktop of choice with it. You don't want to run MULTITOS, plus the AES that comes with it is full of bugs." Joseph Place asks for help with his EtherNEC cartridge: "I think I may have damaged my Falcon cartridge port by plugging in the EtherNEC upside down! Now my Falcon/CT60 just resets over and over as soon as it is turned on with the EtherNEC plugged in. Without the EtherNEC it boots fine. This really stinks because I have gotten so used to MintNET and multitasking now! The EtherNEC still works with my STe, so I don't think it is damaged, but I wish it was that instead of the Falcon! Can anyone offer help here, or am I doomed to single TOS until the EtherNAT comes out; somewhere over the rainbow??" Chris tells Joseph: "Apparently there are fuses on the port, if they blow and you plug something in, its probably pulling down some address lines causing the rebooting." Lyndon Amsdon adds: "Thats right, I wouldn't worry about damage to the Falcon! There is a fuse located on the Falcon motherboard near the cartridge port. I can't remember the part number, but it's something like 0.5A or 1A but doesn't look like a regular mains/household fuse. You could bridge it with a single strand of copper wire, but only if you don't plug things in upside down again!" Our buddy Rob Mahlert jumps in and posts: "This sounds like my problem! The EtherNEC worked on my TT fine. When I moved it to my CT60 it stopped working. CT60 won't boot with the EtherNEC installed. And my TT is in storage. Wish I had room to have all my Atari's setup. Besides jumping the fuse, I have no way to test to see if it's blown. Do the micro fuses change in color? Meaning give a "blown" look like normal fuses. It looks like the fuse in F1, so I can't tell. I must need glasses now.." Well folks, that's it for this time around. I'm off to watch Forbidden Planet now. Until next week, remember to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING =~=~=~= ->In This Week's Gaming Section - Delta Force - Black Hawk Down! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Blind Teen's Video Game Prowess! =~=~=~= ->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Delta Force - Black Hawk Down Ships Entertainment software developer and publisher NovaLogic, Inc. is giving gamers the chance to step inside the combat boots of America's elite warriors. "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down," the company's highly anticipated tactical shooter, is now available at retail stores nationwide with a portion of all game sales going to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Rated "T" for teen by the ESRB, the game is available for the Xbox video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system from Sony. The game shatters records in console gaming history by offering the largest multiplayer games ever with up to 50 players to battle over Xbox Live, or up to 32 players on PlayStation 2 via GameSpy. Set in Somalia in 1993, the game follows the events of Operation Restore Hope and the battle of Mogadishu, which gained widespread attention in the Black Hawk Down book and feature film. "In making the game we had two goals - first and foremost we wanted to create a fun and innovative title, but we wanted to do it in a way that honors those who served. More than any other entertainment medium to date, 'Delta Force - Black Hawk Down' tells the unabridged story of the heroes that fought in Somalia," stated Dave Pollack, NovaLogic's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "To ensure that the game was accurate we worked with a number of subject matter experts that fought on the ground during the campaign. The result is a game that is not only fun to play, but also tells an important story. The soldiers that fought in the battle of Mogadishu and took part in both Task Force Ranger and Operation Restore Hope campaigns got the job done." "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" follows members of the elite Delta Force, US Army Rangers and 10th Mountain Division as they participate in a number of daring raids against the oppressive Somali warlords in and around Mogadishu. "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" features include: * 16 single player missions * Biggest multiplayer games in console gaming history * Co-op and split screen gaming options 7 Insertion by MH-6 helicopter transports, Black Hawks and ground based transports. * Multiplayer "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" offers eight game types, including Deathmatch, Search & Destroy, Capture the Flag and Team King of the Hill and allows players to compete as one of four different character classes. * Arsenal of authentic weapons as used by US Special Forces during Operation Restore Hope and Task Force Ranger NovaLogic has also teamed up once again with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation so that a portion of the proceeds from "Delta Force - Black Hawk Down" will be donated to the foundation. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides college scholarship grants, along with financial aid and educational counseling, to the children of Special Operations personnel who were killed in an operational mission or training accident. Founded in 1980, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides education counseling and college scholarship grants for every child of special operations forces who lost a parent in an operational mission or training accident. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation is the best way to honor our fallen comrades because their children are the most important and lasting things they leave behind. For more information about the Special Operations Warrior Foundation or to make a donation, visit the Special Operations Warrior Foundation website at http://www.specialops.org Delta Force Blind Teen Amazes With Video Game Ability Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as "Mortal Kombat." In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. Except for one thing: He's blind. And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble. "I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body. "I can be beat." Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego. "I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game. Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid," onto the modern combat games. "I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued playing while facing away from the screen. "It's beyond me." Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7. "He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers." When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs. "I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well." Now they get along just fine. While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the game he wanted. He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't need any help. "How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place. "You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off. "That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen. How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father. "He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was." Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the blind kid. That attitude doesn't faze Mellen. "I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards." There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said. He will be a senior in high school next year. After graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a break from school. When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study - what else? - video-game design. =~=~=~= A-ONE's Headline News The Latest in Computer Technology News Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Internet Ad Pioneer Now Shunning Pop-Ups A pioneer of software that tailors pop-up ads to Internet users' browsing habits is beginning to shun a practice that has invited much derision and plenty of lawsuits. A new service Claria Corp. is launching this month will still deliver advertising to the computer desktops of Web surfers. Only this time, they won't be annoying pop-ups. So-called personalization - targeting surfers with ads based on their online outings and errands - was always Claria's goal, says its co-founder and chief executive, Jeff McFadden. Pop-ups delivered via adware, which is often criticized as sneaky in its installation, were merely a stepping stone as Claria waited for the technology to improve and the behavioral-targeting market to ripen, he said. "It was never a destination," McFadden told The Associated Press. "There's a lot of people who aren't fans of the pop-up model." Some might consider that an understatement from the head of a company whose name has become synonymous with adware, which many consider a cyberparasite or worse. Although Scott Eagle, Claria's marketing chief, said market forces ultimately drove the decision, he acknowledged the new strategy could help improve the image of a company that has bothered more than consumers. The New York Times Co. and L.L. Bean Inc. are among businesses that have sued Claria for delivering pop-up ads that they said subverted paid advertising or lured visitors to rivals. Claria even changed its name in 2003 from Gator Corp., though the company insists it wasn't a response to mounting criticism. "It is a little naive of them to believe they can introduce a product and have the sins of the past forgotten completely," said Jeff Lanctot, vice president of media at Avenue A/Razorfish, an ad-placement agency whose sister company makes behavioral-targeting technology that could compete with Claria's. "They have to be completely aboveboard and take extra steps other companies don't have to do to gain trust back," said Ari Schwartz, associate director with the Center for Democracy and Technology. Many of Claria's critics remain skeptical. Claria's new services will still require a software download "just like the old Claria software," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard University student who specializes in spyware research. "The question is how sneaky they are going to be about it." Claria's software typically comes bundled with free products such as its own eWallet password-storage program and file-sharing software like Kazaa. Though licensing agreements disclose the ad components, many computer users don't bother reading them. And that prompts complaints that Claria isn't doing enough to obtain consent. In the new model, Claria will work with developers of toolbars and instant-messaging programs as well as reputable Web sites - and largely have them bear responsibility for branding and getting consumer consent. The Interactive Advertising Bureau says pop-ups peaked at 6 percent of all online advertising two years ago and have been declining since. America Online Inc. stopped selling pop-up ads in 2002, and most Web browsers now block them. Even so, Claria claims it commanded 20 percent of the adware market with $100 million in revenues last year, mostly from pop-ups delivered through software on some 40 million computer desktops. The 7-year-old company, which has 235-odd employees at its Redwood City, Calif., headquarters and other locations, began a pilot in May of a new ad network called BehaviorLink that serves banner ads targeted to a user's interests. With software for it installed, someone reading online news articles on maternity might get pitches for baby products. And while Claria's pop-up ads sometimes covered up someone else's Web site, BehaviorLink ads come with the site's permission. In some cases, Claria buys ad space and resells it at a premium; in others, Claria works out a revenue-sharing arrangement. Companies like Revenue Science Inc. and Tacoda Systems Inc. also offer behavioral-targeting services but they use browser "cookies" instead of software downloads, meaning they could potentially reach more users overall but won't have Claria's across-the-Web targeting capabilities. The product Claria is launching this month, in a test version, is called PersonalWeb. It generates "personalized Web portals" on the fly so that a user who just checked baseball scores and movie show times might get a page pulling top items from ESPN and Moviefone. The page will also display targeted ads from BehaviorLink. An existing portal can also buy Claria's technology to incorporate personalization. Though Yahoo Inc. and others now have customization features, they rely on users to set preferences and are not automatic. BehaviorLink and PersonalWeb combined, Eagle said, will mean more time spent on each site and more value for each ad. Traditional advertising has up to 30 times the potential of adware pop-ups, he said, making Claria a possible target for acquisition. He insisted, though, that Claria was happy to remain independent, and he refused to comment on reports that Microsoft Corp. has been in talks to buy Claria. Claria still must navigate some challenging terrain on privacy and consent, and many key decisions still need to be worked out. For example, although Claria said it would obtain permission before activating PersonalWeb, it is negotiating on a site-by-site basis whether that permission would be limited to a specific site that runs PersonalWeb or cover the entire network. Claria says its data on browsing habits are all anonymous, but it is open to letting partners link such information with personally identifiable information. Whatever happens, users will be fully informed before they accept, said Reed Freeman, Claria's chief privacy officer. Benefits to the consumer, he said, will be easier to explain than the previous trade-off between free software and more pop-ups. Larry Ponemon, one of three outside privacy consultants hired by Claria, said complaints about privacy stem more from annoyance with pop-ups rather than any data collected. Non-adware companies might capture more data but get fewer complaints, he said. Claria still must win over the Web sites that once sued it. Eagle said most have been willing to listen, even if they have yet to sign deals. Advertisers that have shunned pop-ups, meanwhile, have been more willing to run traditional ads through Claria, Eagle said, though he declined to name any of the 250 advertisers participating in BehaviorLink's pilot. Elias Plishner, head of the interactive group at Universal McCann ad agency, said many companies that previously weren't willing to "dip their toes into behavior marketing" might now be willing to give Claria a chance. Advertising.com Settles FTC Adware Charges An America Online Inc. subsidiary will no longer bundle its anti-spyware program with software that tracks consumers' online habits and force-feeds them pop-up ads, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday. Advertising.com Inc. also agreed to regular check by the FTC in order to settle a deceptive-advertising suit filed by the consumer-protection agency. Advertising.com, also known as Teknosurf.com, promoted its SpyBlast program as a way to protect users' computers from "hackers," the FTC charged. But those who downloaded the product also installed a separate program that monitored their online behavior and served them pop-up ads. Such advertising programs, known as "adware," are considered a form of spyware by many consumer advocates because consumers typically don't know they're installing them. Advertising.com didn't provide consumers with adequate notice that SpyBlast came bundled with the adware program, the FTC charged. Advertising.com did not admit or deny guilt as part of the settlement. AOL, a division of Time Warner Inc., bought Advertising.com for $435 million in June 2004. An AOL spokesman said that Advertising.com had only been in the adware business for a brief period during 2003. The company makes most of its money by selling banner ads, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. "They were not in this business when we purchased them," Weinstein said. "Advertising.com does not now and will not in the future distribute adware products." The House of Representatives in May voted to stiffen jail sentences and establish multimillion-dollar fines for spyware purveyors. The Senate has not yet acted on the bill. New Mouse for Macs Has Multiple Buttons Apple Computer Inc.'s neglect of the humble mouse is over. It now offers a model that's nimble. Apple introduced on Tuesday its first computer mouse with multiple buttons, including four sensors and a tiny scroll ball. Although a departure from the company's traditional mouse, the "Mighty Mouse" looks very similar to the single-button model Apple has long produced. The most obvious difference is the relatively tiny scroll ball at the mouse's head, which can move cursors diagonally as well as up and down across display screens and can be pressed to "click" functions. Like Microsoft, Apple has for years built added functionality into its operating systems to accommodate multi-button mice. But you had to buy mice made by other manufacturers, such as Microsoft Corp. or Logitech, to take advantage. Designers of the new Apple device wanted a scroll ball that was less obtrusive than other models and wouldn't impede those who chose not to use it, said David Moody, vice president of Macintosh hardware product marketing. In lieu of actual buttons beyond the scroll ball, the optical-scanning mouse has four sensors that can be programmed for multiple actions, just like the left and right buttons on many PC mouses. Mighty Mouse, which connects via a USB port, will retail for $49. It is PC-compatible but won't be able to move your cursor diagonally in Microsoft's Windows, Apple said. Rolling out a multi-button mouse eliminates another important difference between Macs and PCs. In May, Apple announced that it would cease using IBM processors in favor of Intel chips, which power most PCs. With the new mouse, Apple is seeking to tap into the accessory market, which includes such gadgets as flat-screen monitors, computer speakers, and remote controls, said Richard Shim, senior analyst at research firm IDC. "There is no doubt that in the overall PC market, where margins are thin, there are opportunities for accessory makers," Shim said. "There is a huge install base of PCs out there so there is money to be made if you can hit on a popular accessory." Apple said that it was granted permission to use the Mighty Mouse name, but offered no other details. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon superhero that was produced by Terrytoons in 1942. Microsoft to Host Hacker Meetings Microsoft is working on plans to make a recent hacker meeting held on its Redmond, Washington, campus a twice-yearly event, according to a spokesperson for the vendor's security group. The company plans to host another Blue Hat security event in the fall, though no specific date for it has been set, Stephen Toulouse, a program manager in Microsoft's security unit, said on Monday. "We're looking at doing this again in the future," he said of the two-day event, which was held in March. "As we continue to engage with security researchers, we've become more comfortable getting into these face-to-face interactions with them." The Blue Hat event's name is a reference to the annual Black Hat security conference, with the color in the title changed to blue because that's the color of the badges Microsoft employees wear on campus. This year's U.S. Black Hat meeting was held last week in Las Vegas. In sessions at the initial Microsoft Blue Hat event, security researchers demonstrated to Microsoft executives and developers how flaws in the software giant's products could be exploited. In one presentation, hackers set up a wireless network and showed how a laptop running Windows XP Service Pack 2 could be lured into joining a potentially malicious network, Toulouse said. Demonstrating these kinds of possible security holes hit home with product developers, which is why Microsoft wants to host the event regularly, Toulouse said. "There was a moment where everything just stopped," Toulouse said of the wireless network presentation. "You've got guys in the audience who wrote that code... Some of the things developers coming out of the talks were expressing [were] great ideas to go off and change the way products are [developed] to make sure this won't happen again." This kind of reaction from developers is in line with Microsoft's goal for the Blue Hat events, which is to help make Microsoft's product line as a whole more secure, he added. Mozilla Foundation Forms Subsidiary The Mozilla Foundation that organizes development of the Firefox Web browser has formed a corporate subsidiary, an unusual move for a technology nonprofit. "The Mozilla Corp. is not a typical commercial entity," said Mitchell Baker, the new subsidiary's president. "Rather it is dedicated to the public benefit goal at the heart of the Mozilla project, which is to keep the Internet open and available to everyone." Mozilla Corp. will work mainly on developing and delivering free software products such as the Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail program. The foundation will manage projects, set policies and organize relationships among developers. The new business will be based in Mountain View, as is the foundation. It is expected to have about 30 employees, compared with three or four at the foundation, Baker said. Its software will remain free. Frank Hecker, director of policy for the Mozilla Foundation, said the for-profit arm will give the project more options. Already, Google Inc. pays Mozilla an unspecified amount to ship Firefox with a version of Google's search engine as the default home page. In the future, the project could consider letting other companies hire its employees to develop new features, Hecker said. There are no plans, though, to offer paid technical support services. Creating a business is unusual in the open-source world, where communities of programmers - often from different companies - develop software. Some popular projects, however, have formed nonprofit legal entities to relieve some of the burden of business. The developers of the popular Apache Web server did that in 1999, forming the Apache Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation was formed as a nonprofit in July 2003 to provide organizational, legal and financial support to the Mozilla project. "With this reorganization, the Mozilla Foundation will look much more like the Apache Foundation than it currently does," Baker said. The Mozilla project was formed during the so-called browser war between Netscape Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp. In 1998, Netscape released its underlying code in an effort to compete against Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The project continued even after America Online Inc. bought Netscape and Microsoft captured the vast majority of the Web browser market. Two years ago, AOL drastically cut its involvement but helped launch the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla Firefox Web browser, officially released in 2004, has been the project's biggest success. To date, the free software has been downloaded more than 75 million times and its market share is estimated to be approaching 10 percent. Yahoo Betas Music-Search Service With the beta launch of Audio Search, Yahoo is making it a whole lot easier for music fans to find the tunes they are looking for online. Audio Search is a new tool that provides prompt access to 50 million audio files from the most popular music services and independent outlets. With Audio Search, users can sift through podcasts, downloadable music files, albums and other content ranging from newscasts and music videos to album reviews and artists' images. Yahoo has hooked up with a long list of music providers, including Napster, eMusic, MusicMatch, GarageBand.com and RealNetworks. The search engine also has tapped into its own search offerings - including video, image and news search - to retrieve audio content. Audio Search represents the next step in services developed by Yahoo and others to compete with popular peer-to-peer networks, said Yankee Group analyst Michael Goodman. "What is interesting about this is that, unlike other music search offerings, the Yahoo search engine crosses a broad array of music services," he said. Users thus have more tracks at their disposal and can find songs or other audio files that would be more difficult to locate by searching each site separately. To make the service even more useful, Audio Search is integrated with Yahoo's My Web custom-search offering so that users can save audio searches and share their musical tastes through Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Those who currently subscribe to an online music service can take advantage of a feature in the new service that retrieves audio files from a provider with a one-click connection to the selected service. Yahoo stands to benefit from this capability by collecting a fee from each download. Seeing music services as lucrative opportunities, Yahoo launched Yahoo Music Unlimited in May of this year, with subscriptions to that service selling for well below those of competing music services. First Family of Windows Vista Viruses Unleashed An Austrian hacker has earned the dubious distinction of writing what are thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. Written in July, the viruses take advantage of a new command shell, code-named Monad, that is included in the Windows Vista beta code. The viruses were published last month in a virus-writing tutorial written for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation Front, and take advantage of security vulnerabilities in the new command shell. Unlike the traditional Windows graphical user interface, which relies heavily on the mouse for navigation, command shells allow users to employ powerful text-based commands, much as Windows' predecessor, DOS, did. The viruses were written by a hacker calling himself "Second Part To Hell," and published on July 21, just days after Monad was publicly released by Microsoft, according to Mikko Hyppnen, chief research officer with Helsinki's F-Secure. Second Part To Hell is the pseudonym of an Austrian-based hacker who also goes by the name Mario, Hyppnen says. Because of its sophistication, the new command shell offers new opportunities for hackers, Second Part To Hell wrote in the tutorial, a copy of which was obtained by the IDG News Service. "Monad will be like Linux's BASH (Bourne Again Shell)--that means a great number of commands and functions," he wrote. "We will be able to make as huge and complex scripts as we do in Linux." F-Secure has named the virus family Danom (Monad in reverse). Having examined the code, Hyppnen says that the Danom family is disruptive, but not capable of causing significant damage to Windows users. "These are proof-of-concept viruses," he says, "where virus writers want to break new ground and write the first viruses for a new platform." Most security experts had not expected to see a Windows Vista virus so soon, Hyppnen says. "The only surprise here is that it came so early," he says. "It's been eight days since the beta of the operating system was out." Monad was released several days prior to the Windows Vista beta. Still, Danom's release does raise questions about whether Microsoft should enable the Monad shell by default in Windows Vista. Because Monad's scripting capabilities will be used by only advanced users, Hyppnen believes Microsoft should not offer the software as part of the standard Windows Vista package when it becomes commercially available in the second half of 2006. This would make the software less prevalent, and therefore less attractive to virus writers, he says. Microsoft "got burned" in including similar software, called Windows Script Host, by default in its Windows 2000 operating system, he says. "Since it was on the system, all the virus writers were exploiting it," he says. Phishers Hack eBay A flaw has been discovered on eBay's Web site that would have allowed fraudsters to successfully redirect the sign-on process to a phishing site. Reported by British antiphishing outfit Netcraft, the clever scam apparently started with fraudsters sending e-mails asking eBay users to update their accounts. So far so normal, as such fake eBay e-mails are currently one of the phishing world's persistent lines of attack. Disarmingly, however, the link provided was genuine and led to the correct eBay sign-in page, signin.ebay.com. If users clicked on the link, parameters embedded in the otherwise normal stream of characters at the end of the link actually redirected users away from the page after the sign-in page to a fake phishing page, via an open relay hosted at servlet.ebay.com. The end result would have been that users gave away information allowing phishers to hijack their accounts, either as a way of laundering money or for launching fake auctions. According to Netcraft's Paul Mutton, the company first learned of the attack from users of its antiphishing toolbar - which stops the attack - and reported the flaw to eBay last week. This is not the first time such an attack has been attempted on eBay users. In March, phishers launched an almost identical redirect-style attack, which spoofed the sign-on page itself. Mutton said he considered the latest attack more subtle as it manipulated the real sign-on page, and would therefore be harder for users to detect. "I believe this new exploit is more serious because it is more convincing," Mutton said. "It is something they can prevent by enforcing stricter coding conventions." At the time of going to press, eBay was unavailable for comment. The moral is not to click on links in e-mails just because they look genuine, a fairly disturbing conclusion as this is one of the main criteria people use. Netcraft's toolbar, a Web browser plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, is designed to protect against phishing websites, not least by analyzing the sort of characters used in this attack. Court OKs Blocking of Unsolicited E-Mails The University of Texas didn't violate the constitutional rights of an online dating service when it blocked thousands of unsolicited e-mails, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday. White Buffalo Ventures, which operates LonghornSingles.com, had appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying it had complied with all anti-spam laws. The company argued that the university violated its constitutional rights by filtering out 59,000 e-mails in 2003. White Buffalo also claimed a federal act that allows certain e-mails superseded the university's anti-spam policy. The 5th Circuit panel found that the federal anti-spam law, CAN-SPAM, does not pre-empt the university's policy and that the policy is permissible under the First Amendment. The law requires messages to have a title that correctly states the contents of the e-mail, a valid address and that companies honor requests to unsubscribe. The court did not need to rule on whether the state university e-mail servers are public or private. The Austin-based service had legally obtained the addresses from the university, but the university started blocking the e-mail messages saying White Buffalo was part of a larger spam problem that had crashed the computer system. The university said it was also responding to complaints from students and faculty. At the time, UT issued a cease and desist order, but White Buffalo refused to comply. So UT blocked all the e-mail messages from White Buffalo's IP address. The court determined that White Buffalo complied with federal law, that its e-mails were not illegal, but the law applies to UT as it would to an Internet service provider that employs protection measures. Man Sued in EBay Dispute Over Elvis Car A 66-year-old man has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against a New York man who reneged on a bid he made on eBay to buy a 1969 Mercedes Benz that was once owned by Elvis Presley. In his lawsuit, Gene Epstein of Wrightstown, Pa., claims that Jason Shepherd of Ballston Lake, N.Y., entered a "buy-it-now" bid of $245,000 for the vehicle. But when it came time to collect, Shepherd allegedly claimed that the bid was a mistake made when his daughter accidentally hit a key on his computer, Epstein said. Attempts to reach Shepherd for comment were unsuccessful. The lawsuit is seeking for Shepherd to pay the original bid, along with $150,000 in damages. "Once an item is removed from the active sale list on eBay and listed as sold, its reappearance on the active auction listings creates the impression that the item being sold is in some way unsaleable or unmarketable," the lawsuit said. Epstein said, however, that he would settle the case if Shepherd issues a specifically worded apology he drew up and pays a "token" amount. Representatives from eBay could not be reached for comment. Web Site Devotes Itself to Strange Firings Getting fired is rarely a happy event, but that doesn't mean you can't have a sense of humor about it. That's what Simply Hired, a 5-month-old employment-related Internet startup, counted on when it started an affiliated Web site devoted to the stories of workers who have received a pink slip for a silly, outrageous or embarrassing reason. The Mountain View-based company is even offering a prize to the biggest "loser" - a Caribbean cruise that will include passengers famously fired by Donald Trump on his popular television show, "The Apprentice." The contest will be judged by a panel that includes Phil Kaplan, an irreverent entrepreneur who learned a thing or two about sad-sack stories while running a Web site about the foibles of failing Internet companies during the dot-com bust. Kaplan's old site, which had a profane name, helped inspire simplyfired.com, said Kay Luo, marketing manager for Simply Hired, whose specialty search engine scours for job listing posted on help-wanted sites such as Monster.com, HotJobs.com and craigslist. The early submissions at simplyfired, which was launched Monday, includes a posting from Mark Jen, who was fired from Google Inc. earlier this year for discussing the highly secretive company on his Web log. Virtually all the other postings have been made under pseudonyms. The musings include stories about being fired for doing perverse things with prosthetics, refusing to cook the company books and neglecting to sign a holiday card for the boss. Internet Auctions Bring a Big Shift To Once-Quirky Flea Markets Joe Bumb's trove of local sports memorabilia - baseball cards, jerseys, autographed photos - was once the centerpiece of his flea market store, attracting eager collectors from all over the world. Today Bumb displays them more out of habit than in hope that someone will buy them. He knows shoppers will go to the Internet in search of a better deal. The popularity of eBay and other online auction houses is transforming the age-old ritual of the Sunday flea market. Some have been depleted as vendors find it more lucrative to put their best stuff online. Others have been remade as clearinghouses for cheap, mass-produced goods from places like China, Taiwan and Mexico. The result is that going to flea markets, once known for their quirkiness, is no longer about the hunt for a unique item amid a lot of junk, some customers say. It's now about running errands. Bumb's antiques and collectibles store, American Precious Metals, which his family has operated for 25 years, is a rarity in the flea market world nowadays. Nearly all other 2,200 spaces on the 45-acre swath of desert that is the San Jose Flea Market are taken up by vendors hawking things like shiny plastic toys, shifts for baby girls in every pastel color imaginable, rows of cowboy boots and prints of Jesus Christ. "It's like a giant Wal-Mart," said Rich Alvari, director of sales for the flea market. "You don't see that garage sale knickknack stuff that people used to love to explore." As the Internet continues to expand as a place of commerce, it is changing the relationships between sellers and buyers, giving some a boost and stifling others. This year, about 63 percent of Americans are expected to buy something online, for a total of $79 billion, according to research firm Jupitermedia Corp. The San Jose Flea Market, the largest open-air market in the nation, still attracts a huge number of customers, up to 60,000 in a weekend, but the experience is radically different than even a decade ago. Instead of suspense, there's reliability. Instead of meandering, there's efficiency. Bargaining is more of an exception than the norm. "I do sometimes find some unusual stuff here, but mostly I buy things like socks and sunglasses," said Jennifer Costa, 46, an information technology coordinator from the area who was shopping on a recent weekend with her husband. Michael Shahrabani, 46, a real estate developer from Arlington, Va., who once furnished his entire house with vintage furniture from flea markets around the country, said he thinks the community atmosphere of many flea markets is being destroyed. "I know eBay has its place but . . . it's not as much fun. Buying something on the Internet just doesn't have the same feel as interacting as a vendor. Vendors have a story about the things they are selling. It may have been a family heirloom or come from countries far away," said Shahrabani, who operates a flea market in Arlington that is trying to preserve its secondhand roots. Flea markets - part discount store, part carnival - have been around in one form or another for centuries, but they began to boom in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. The San Jose Flea Market opened its doors in March 1960. It was the creation of George Bumb, who was in the landfill business and who kept finding usable castoffs in his junkyards. He wanted to create a place where people with items they no longer wanted could link up with people who wanted those items. Over the years such commerce became an important part of the country's entrepreneurial culture, providing an opportunity for someone to start a business without putting a lot of money down and without making a long-term commitment. The number of flea markets has been steadily growing, according to the National Flea Market Association, with 2.25 million vendors and $30 billion in sales annually. Joe Bumb, 50, George Bumb's nephew, was one of the lucky entrepreneurs who got a boost from the flea market. His store has a revenue of about $100,000 each month, although in recent years business has become more difficult. He sells mostly jewelry these days, but finds that people don't believe they're getting a bargain unless they check it out on the Internet. "Eventually I won't need a store or rather the store won't help much anymore," Bumb said. "I will be doing this from my garage with a computer." The Internet side of his business is thriving, with revenue of $20,000 a month and growing. Neil Lopez, 40, the online sales manager, now a variety of items, from Barbies and Nintendo systems to rare coins. "Customers that we had coming through our doors, say, seven to 10 years ago, they just don't come in anymore. They are online," he said. The customers who do show up are far more sophisticated than in years past, said Julie Campbell, 46, manager of the Bellwood Flea Market in Richmond, Va. "The ones that come into flea markets, if there's something in particular they like - let's say Spiderman lunch boxes - they look it up in books and eBay before coming so they know the prices," Campbell said. Same for the vendors selling them. While it's possible to occasionally find a bargain, she added, it's less likely nowadays that someone will find a 50-cent gold necklace or a first-edition Beatles record for $5, as some of her acquaintances reported they did in the past. In the Washington area, a number of flea markets are held, including in Georgetown, Eastern Market, Bethesda, Columbia and Arlington. The Internet has made it possible for a new generation of entrepreneurs to thrive in the great Silicon Valley tradition. They buy new items wholesale and sell them at a profit at the flea market. With rents starting at only a few hundred dollars a month, the risk is minimal. Vincente Velazquez and his wife, Esther, buy new women's dresses wholesale for $22 and sell them at the San Jose Flea Market for $45. Mercedes Lara, 32, who runs a baptism and communion store that sells children's clothing, said part of the appeal of the flea market is the diversity of merchandise. "At some retail stores the same stuff is there for months," said Lara, who works with her mother, daughter and two sisters-in-law. "Everybody brings in new stuff all the time here. It changes daily." Campbell said that while the number of vendors selling new items has grown to more than half of her Richmond market over the past few years, she tries to keep encouraging people to bring in stuff from their attics or garages. "To me that's what a flea market is - secondhand items, recycling them to a new family," she said. Shahrabani is also among those trying to hold the line. About five years ago, he started a new market near the Court House Metro station in Arlington that only accepts vendors selling original or secondhand wares - "stuff you wouldn't find at a shopping center," he said. One vendor sells old advertisements, another vintage books. There are a few landscape photographers and a woman who makes her own purses. Shahrabani said that a few days ago a vendor showed up with 200 copies of the new Harry Potter book and wanted to sell them at the market. Although the market was only 60 percent full, he turned her away. "I said, 'That's not the kind of item we want to have here,' " Shahrabani remembered telling her. "The flea market is not just about how much rent we can get but it's about creating an event, an atmosphere." It's an emotional reaction that Alvari, from the San Jose Flea Market, shares, although he is resigned to the new reality. "Part of us are a little disappointed in what's happened" to flea markets, Alvari said. But, change "is the nature of everything. It's the nature of progress." =~=~=~= Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for profit publications only under the following terms: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of request. 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