Volume 3, Issue 29 Atari Online News, Etc. July 20, 2001 Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2001 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: Rob Mahlert 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.delphi.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.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=atari =~=~=~= A-ONE #0329 07/20/01 ~ Napster Is Back Online ~ People Are Talking! ~ Windows XP: No Java! ~ ExtenDOS Gold Update! ~ Vintage Computer Fest! ~ MacWorld Letdown? ~ NetZero Founders Quit! ~ "Peekabooty" Software! ~ Final Fantasy X! ~ Hackers: Go Straight! ~ Atari 30th Anniversary ~ STeem Upgrade! -* Internet Tax Issues Complex! *- -* Who Is The Most Downloaded Woman?!? *- -* Microsoft Seeks Browser Monopoly Rehearing *- =~=~=~= ->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""" Ahhhh, isn't summer great?! One week of vacation down and one to go (this month!). I haven't really done much this week; it's been great! I ran a few errands that needed to be done, but other than that, it was relaxation. Out on the deck, a variety of cold drinks, some munchies, a book or two, and little else was needed. Next week will probably be a different story; my wife will also be on vacation (we couldn't get the same two weeks off)! No thought-provoking thoughts this week; the mind has been on standby all week. Some interesting news items that caught my eye, but nothing that stirred my editorial senses. So, in keeping with the season, I'll keep this very brief this week. I know you're probably all more interested in enjoying the cool summer night, or weekend pleasures. Meanwhile, I'll grab another cold beer and relax out on the deck; it's a nice cool evening. Until next time... =~=~=~= Steem v1.6 Released Many bug fixes and improvements: Bugs Fixed MFP timer counters (Amberstar) Hard drive emulation rename, sfirst/snext, exec and open mode bugs (Gulam, Soundlab, CrackArt) Memory bug (Rodland, Overlander) HBL skipping bug (Leavin' Teramis) Sound accuracy increased by a factor of 10,000 Number lock now toggles correctly Shortcuts to press the ST's shift key will now work New Features Serial port emulation ROM data cartridge support Multiple screenshots, can capture any screen effect New disk image format, can create an image of disks with strange formats (even some protected disks work) Fullscreen 640x400 mode Open files in new window option Use PC COM ports Parallel port input DIM disk image support Less-intrusive scrollers For more info, visit the Steem homepage: http://www.blimey.strayduck.com/ Pilot Atari v 1.0 Available Matthias Jaap and Dave Taylor have gotten together and released a version of the Pilot programming language for the atari. Version 1.0 is available at the following URL with complete source code in C for the language. URL: http://www.mypenguin.de/prg/progs.php3?lang=en Extendos Gold v3.3d There is a new Extendos Gold update available. excerpt from site... ExtenDOS Gold ExtenDOS Gold v3.3D is now available! Version 3.3D contains all the bug fixes and enhancements that were in earlier versions, and also fixes some bugs that were introduced in v3.3C, including a bug in handling folders with long names. General improvements in v3.3x compared to earlier versions include: support for the SCSIDRV interface. This allows ExtenDOS Gold (and therefore CDbackup, CD Writer and CD InScriptOr) to use SCSI CD-ROMs and CD recorders on any system with this interface installed. This includes MagicMac, MagicPC, and Atari compatibles running HDDRIVER support for ATAPI/EIDE via SCSIDRV. This will allow ATAPI CD-ROMs and CD recorders to be used on systems with an ATAPI interface and appropriate SCSIDRV support enhancements to CDaudio, including an improved user interface We recommend that users of CDs with long names update to v3.3D as soon as possible. As before, the update is available at no charge here. URL: http://www.cyberus.ca/~anodyne/news.htm FalcAMP RSC Competition STGHOST appears to be running a competition for the creation of new RSC files for FalcAMP. excerpt from the site... Compo rules The compo is split in 2 categories: the 16 colour rsc compo, and the 256 colour rsc compo. All RSC will have to be sent to STGHOST before the 11th of August (included). Then packages with all entries will be prepared for voting. Votes will have to be sent before the 25th of August (included). Here are some details about each compo: 16 color rsc compo The only rule is that you have to use the standard system palette. 256 color compo NVDI5 palette is the reference for 256 color rsc entries. I've been told it's the same as Jinnee's palette, but it's not sure... You can try with this palette if you don't have NVDI5. As color icons can contain as well 16 color & 256 color versions, you can compete in both categories if you want, just don't forget to say in which one you want to enter when submitting your rsc files. A few extra comments: The aim of the compo is to offer new designs to the main window, but you can also redesign all other windows :) Please make RSC files that looks good with both TOS, Naes and Magic. Don't forget to join a file describing with which OS your RSC looks friendly :) If possible, try to send both lowres and highres versions of the RSC. But I guess it's mostly the highres one which is used, so you know what to do to get more votes ;) If there are enough entries submitted, I'll try to add an rsc selector in the front end (hmm, skins ?) URL: http://deunstg.free.fr/sct1/falcamp/compo.html =~=~=~= ->A-ONE User Group Notes! - Meetings, Shows, and Info! """"""""""""""""""""""" VCF East 1.0 - Only 1 Week Away Vintage Computer Festival East 1.0 July 28th and 29th, 2001 Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center Marlborough, Massachusetts http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/ Only one week to go! The first Vintage Computer Festival for the east coast of the United States is scheduled for the weekend of July 28th and 29th at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The Vintage Computer Festival is a celebration of computers and their history. The event features speakers, a vintage computer exhibition, and a vintage computer marketplace. We showcase all different types of computers for all different kinds of platforms in all different shapes and sizes. If you wish to pass the word about the VCF along to your co-workers, a printable flyer in Word format can be downloaded here: http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/vcfeast.doc SPEAKERS AND WORKSHOPS We've got a terrific line-up of speakers at the inaugural VCF East. The speakers include: Wayne Green Founder of Byte and 73 Magazine, among many other publications. The influence of Wayne's computer publications propelled the microcomputer revolution of the 70s and 80s. Eldon Hall The "Father" of the Apollo Guidance Computer, Eldon will discuss the development the computer that brought the first men to the moon. Christine Finn Christine is bringing the discipline of an archaeologist to the study of computer history. She'll be discussing her upcoming book "Artefacts: The Material Culture of the Silicon Valley". Michael Nadeau Michael will be taking on the subject of determining the value of old computers for buying, selling and trading. He's also writing a book on the topic. Megan Gentry Megan, a former DEC employee, will be giving a workshop that every beginning collector of DEC gear will want to attend. She'll also be exhibiting the PDP 11/73 that was used to control the heating and air systems at The Mill (DEC's former headquarters). More speakers to be announced soon! The speaker schedule can be found here: http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/speaker.php3 FABULOUS DOOR PRIZES! Year after year, the VCF always has the best stuff to give away, and this year is no different o Mindset computer to be given away to one lucky attendee! o Complete NeXT "Cube" to be awarded to Best of Show exhibit! These prizes are being furnished by the Atari Historical Society. Visit the AHS at: http://www.atari-history.org EXHIBIT YOUR VINTAGE COMPUTER There is still time to register your computer exhibit! But act quickly, the registration deadline is July 20th. Exhibit your favorite computer in the Vintage Computer Exhibition. First, Second and Third place prizes will be awarded to the Best of Show exhibits! For complete details on the VCF East 1.0 Exhibition, visit: http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/exhibit.php3 The Best of Show exhibitor will win a complete NeXT "Cube", including: NeXT Cube, monitor, keyboard, mouse, desktop speaker, NeXTstep 3.3 OS, and various assorted NeXT applications. This machine is being provided by the Atari Historical Society: http://www.atari-history.org BUY/SELL/TRADE AT THE VINTAGE COMPUTER MARKETPLACE Do you have some vintage computer items you'd like to sell? Whether you rent a booth or sell on consignment, the Vintage Computer Marketplace is the premier venue for selling old computers and related items. If you would like to rent a booth or inquire about consignment rates, please send e-mail to for more information or visit: http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/vendor.php3 Booths are still available, but may not be when you decide to make your reservation! Make your reservation today! TELL A FRIEND! TELL A FRIEND! TELL A FRIEND! We really hope to see you at the first VCF for the east coast! And remember, tell your friends!! A printable flyer in Word format can be downloaded here: http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/vcfeast.doc Vintage Computer Festival East 1.0 July 28th and 29th, 2001 Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center Marlborough, Massachusetts http://www.vintage.org/2001/east/ =~=~=~= PEOPLE ARE TALKING compiled by Joe Mirando joe@atarinews.org Hidi ho friends and neighbors. My intro is going to be short this week. I just want to relay a little story and a warning to you. Several weeks ago, my brother and sister-in-law asked me for help on deciding what computer to buy. I sat down with them and talked about what they wanted, what they didn't want, and what they actually needed. Like most of us, they really didn't NEED the latest and greatest hardware. They simply wanted a good machine that would last them a few years. I got to work and configured a system online at my favorite Intel-based manufacturer's website. The machine was a sight to behold. 1.7 Gigahertz, plenty of RAM, good video card, big monitor, DVD ROM and CD Read/Write drives, and kickin' sound system. It came in at less than his maximum price, so he was happy. He's not a computer person, so he just shook his head when I explained all of the cool stuff that this computer had. My sister-in-law is a bit more computer savvy, but not my too great an amount. So when they began having trouble with the system after installing AOL's latest and greatest offering, it was she that spent the time on the phone with tech support. The problem was that she kept getting virtual memory errors when running the AOL software. Because I was the one that configured and recommended this manufacturer, I stopped by and tried several things like increasing the amount of virtual memory and repairing Win2K. I still don't know what the exact problem was, but if I used AOL to dial up and connect to the web, and used AOL's browser, I got the same VM errors that she had been getting. If I used Explorer after connection, I could surf to my heart's content without encountering any problems. With this information in hand, she called the manufacturer's tech support line and patiently did everything that they told her to do. This (after a total of nine hours on the phone with tech support) resulted in a completely non-functional collection of plastic, metal, and silicon pieces. Something had gone awry and the operating system had been wiped from the hard drive and the installation CD didn't seem to be readable. The CD had to be sent back before the company would send a new one. And that's where they stand now. The moral of my story, boys and girls, is: Know what you're getting into, and don't rely exclusively on tech support. In this case, they heard hoofbeats and thought "Zebra" instead of "horse". Had they simply had the foresight to say, "Okay, what happens if you minimize the AOL app and run Explorer?", I'm sure that they'd now be happily cruising around on the net. Okay, let's get on with the news and stuff from the UseNet. From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup ==================== 'Matt' asks about multi-tasking OSs on his Atari: " A few questions for MiNT... 1. I've got a new SCSI 1Gb drive for my MegaSTE, to avoid loosing space, I want to format about 500 Mb (32 Mb partitions) for TOS and the rest with an extended format like ext2fs for Mint... So is it possible and with which utility can I format the last 500 Mb into ext2fs ? (or better format minix ?) 2. Does anybody have a english version of the Gemini 1.a (free desktop like Jinnee) ? 3. When I have re-installed MagiC 6.1, have got the message at reboot : 'MagiC ist nicht personaliziert...' why ??? Maybe my install disks are corrupted... if someone can send me his install disks...." Edward Baiz tells Matt: "Yes, I believe that is possible [having different file systems on the same hard drive]. I am doing almost the same thing, but I am using a separate drive for Mint/MintNet. Never heard of [Gemini], but it sounds nice. I have and use Jinnee and it is a great desktop for Magic. I also have Thing and it is great for Mint. At the beginning of the [MagiC] installation you are asked some questions where you fill in your name etc. That may be the problem." Dr. Uwe Seimet adds: Yes, this is possible. The ext2fs partition can be prepared with the ext2fs tools available for MiNT. BUT: If I remember correctly ext2fs is not supported or at least not tested for the MC68000. This is because the MC68000 lacks certain bit manipulations that are very useful for implementing ext2fs efficiently. Frank Naumann should probably comment on this. I think the README included in the ext2fs distribution also says so." Edward Baiz asks about the THING desktop: "Well I am finally going to install MintNet on my Hades, I have all the files and am ready to go. I want to especially load in the X Server that will allow me to run X Window applications right on the GDEM desktop. The computer needs to be in the 256 color mode for this. The problem is that when I try to boot up in the 256 color mode, Thing gives me a BUS error along with Twilight, Edith, and Gemjing. I can boot up in all the other color modes (mono, 32k, 64k, 24bit, 32bit). Anyone know as to why this happening? I have N.AES 1.2 and Thing 1.27. I bought the N.AES CD from Woller and Thing was on it. I am not sure it that makes me a registered user or not." Martin Tarenskeen tells Edward: "I THINGk you are [registered]. The unregistered version will show "Shareware" in ugly letters all across your desktop and doesn't remember window positions. If your version does not have this, why should you pay more?" Martin Byttebier adds: "Everyone who has bought the N_AES CD is a registered user of the N_AES version of Thing. This version can only be used with N_AES." Edward tells Martin: "Well I guess I have to just email him. I figured I had a different version of Thing when I could not run it from my Magic, Geneva or Regular TOS desktop." Edward now asks: "I notice that when I run some programs under Thing (Qdialer) the colors on the dialer are messed up. Is there a special color pallette I need to have? How are people adjusting the window colors under Thing?" Henke Robbers tells Edward: "It might be a colour cpx. I remember when I got my TT a few weeks that I unintentionally made fore and background colour the same. I thought I ruined the TT. (10 years ago :-) After rebooting without HD I was able to conclude that the colour cpx set the palette when it is activated at start up. So I refreshed the cpx from the installation disc and that cured it. Thing should work fine with the default palette." Jon Gibbons asks: "Just wondered, is it possible to get both the MEGA ST and the MEGAFILE into the same shell ? This was just an idea that sprung to mind as ye olde Megafile is taking up quite a bit of room." Uwe Seimet tells Jon: "I don't think so. The Megafile hard disk drives are 5 1/4 inch drives, which will not fit into the case of the MegaST." Jon tells Uwe: "I tried it earlier on today .. the drive would (just about !) fit, but the extra mainboard and power supply were too big to fit in :( Also I don't think there would be a way to screw down the extra board + power supply. However it looks as if the positions for screws for the drive are already there in the ST case ...." Lyndon Amsdon tells Jon: "I think you should be able to power the drive from the computers PSU. Megas are designed for a HD to be fitted internally." Djordje Vukovic tells Lyndon: "Yes, but not an old power-hungry monster like Megafile. However, some more modern drive with smaller power consumption (and smaller size) would fit nicely, heat less, and there is an ACSI connector inside the box so the ASCI/SCSI host adaptor can be put in there too. Remember that some ventilation has to be maintained so it would not be good to jam the box full of additional hardware." Peter West asks for help with converting JPEG files: "I have some JPEGs that a friend wants to use on his web page. Unfortunately the scanner was set far too dark (no, he can't re-scan). Is there any Atari ap that would allow me to lighten them and save them as JPEGs again? I have tried some of my image processing programs but most won't handle JPEGs (other than load them). I finally tried Calamus, which loaded and processed them, but couldn't save as JPEG - only TIFF and BMP. I saved as TIFF and then used Imagecopy to convert to 256-colour GIFs, but what started out as a 25 kB JPEG finished up nearly half a meg of GIF! Don't think anyone wants to download that! Any ideas how this could be done? I tried converting the GIF back to JPEG in the new Pixart, but the computer crashed each time - with or without MagiC and Thing." Anders Eriksson tells Peter: "ImageCopy v4 can load the Jpegs, automatically add more light and save back as Jpeg again. Same with several other programs, GemView for example." Peter asks Anders: "How do you do that? The only brightness etc. sliders I can find are for the screen and another for printing. Are you saying there is a way to use them for copying as well? I can't find that in the manual. Or would this need another screen grab? Difficult as I am running in 32k colours max at present on my RGB monitor." Edward Baiz tells Peter: "PhotoTip version 3 does this just fine under Magic/Geneva/N.AES. Just load in a JPEG and you can lighten or darken it to your pleasure. Then you can save it out in a TIFF or JPEG form. You can download it at the site below, but you need to register it to get it's full potential. http://home.sunrise.ch/dursoft/progs_e.html" Harry Sideras adds: "Doesn't LookNSee do this? There's a brightener module with various settings as well as JPEG import and export (as you must already know). Alternatives are Positive Image and Imagecopy of course. With IC bear in mind that if you change the brightness in Options\Screens\Colours before loading the JPG when you resave as JPG you will be losing further colours from the screen depth that you are in, so I'd advise running in maximum colour depth before you try it. I just had a quick go in IC4 and the X-convert option didn't seem to account for the brightness for me." Leo 'Z' asks about networking ST and PC: "I am an ex-atari user who kept his 4meg STE in the loft for the past 3 years or so. I fished it out yesterday, got the HD connected again and am now enjoying a trip down memory lane! I've got a PC running windows ME, and am wondering if there is anyway to share data between them in a more modern way than by using floppies. I not only would like to share files, but also a net connection (?) IS any of this possible? I seem to remember a prg which enabled to (or more?) STs or Falcons to be networked by using the midi ports. Maybe this would be some kind of solution? Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if its to tell me it can't be done! I look forward to any replies...." Edward Baiz tells Leo: "There are two program that will do this. One is Ghostlink which needs a null modem cable. The is PARCP (I use this) which needs a special cable connected to the printer ports of each computer." Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in 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 - Atari Anniversary Edition! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Final Fantasy X! Decimator! EA Sports Rugby! And more! =~=~=~= ->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Square's 'Final Fantasy X' Goes on Sale in Japan Finally, fantasy is a reality. On Thursday, Japanese videogame developer Square Co Ltd released the long-awaited ``Final Fantasy X," the latest in a series of the popular role-playing games of which 31 million copies have been sold worldwide since 1987. Hardcore fans -- mostly teenage boys -- eager to get their hands on the first copies waited for hours outside the doors to a popular Tokyo software chain that opened at 6:30 a.m. ``As soon as I saw the poster saying the game would be available from today, I had to get my hands on it," said one 15-year-old boy, making his purchase before heading to school. "I love the story and I've wanted to buy it for a long time." In Final Fantasy X, which costs $71 apiece and is played on Sony's PlayStation 2, gamers can play the role of Tidus, a cocky, competitive 17-year-old with blond locks, or Yuna, a 17-year-old whose conservative dress and calm disposition mask a single-minded desire to crush her evil nemesis, Shin. And for the first time, gamers can hear their characters speak rather than follow their dialogue in text. ``The upgrades in the gaming machines allow us do more with 3-D animation and computer graphics," said a Square spokeswoman. Square is betting heavily on the popular game series to bring it back to profitability after a parent operating loss of 2.31 billion yen ($18.62 million) in 2000/01. So far, the company is off to a good start. ``As of July 17th, we had initial shipments of 2.14 million units and advanced orders of 1.4 to 1.5 million units," said Square CEO/President Hisashi Suzuki. Square said that both of those were new sales records for Playstation 2 games. ``The game is selling very well. Our expectations were to sell between 1,000-1,500 copies of the game in the first day," said Virgin Megastore manager Asami Hasegawa. ``We're well on our way to meet and even break those targets." While analysts say they expect the game to sell well and lift Square's earnings this year, they are wary of the company's venture into the movie-making business and note it would take a while to earn back the initial costs of about $35 million for developing the game. Square had intended to launch Final Fantasy X by the end of March but said in January it was postponing the release to improve the game's quality. ``Square cannot expect the volumes it saw in Final Fantasy IX because the installed base of PlayStation 2 is much smaller at this point. There is less overall demand," said Jay Defibaugh, analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. Nonetheless, the company is staying optimistic. ``We've reached the two million figure. Now we're targeting three million units, but ultimately we would like to eclipse the all time record of 3.8 million units," said Suzuki. PlayStation 2 shipments in Japan as of the end of March totaled 4.75 million, only one-quarter the number of the original PlayStation, according to Sony Computer Entertainment. And the much-hyped ``Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," the first completely computer generated (CG) science fiction film, received a lukewarm response when it opened in the United States on July 11, grossing $11.5 million in its opening weekend. Industry insiders said they were confident that the movie, which cost $137 million to produce, will be better received in Japan when it lands in September, and that, more importantly, it will not dampen enthusiasm for the game on which it is based. Nuby Interactive Ships Decimator for PlayStation Game Console; Licensed Dual Analog Controller Hits Retail Shelves Nuby Interactive LLC has begun shipping its new full-featured analog controller, the Decimator, designed for the PlayStation game console, to retailers nationwide. The Decimator is the newer of only two third-party dual analog controllers to receive a license from Sony Computer Entertainment America and the only of these with a button remapping feature. ``This full-featured controller was clearly designed with the gamer in mind. Each feature was developed to meet the needs of today's gamers and the demands of the latest games," said Paul Chen, Nuby's vice president of sales and marketing. The Decimator features a positive ergonomic design that has been created to fit all hand sizes, children and adults. Its modern form and black/blue color scheme complement the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Color coordinated rubber grips are built-in to prevent loss of grasp during heavy game play. It is the only licensed controller offering Macro-Map for improved game play. Macro-Map allows gamers to reassign eight of the primary buttons with twelve possible moves, adding unmatched versatility to the controller. It also has all of the features used on the PlayStation and PS one original controllers, making it compatible with all versions of PlayStation. Electronic Arts Ships EA SPORTS Rugby for the PlayStation 2 Electronic Arts Inc. launched EA SPORTS Rugby for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. This is the first rugby title available on the PlayStation 2 console in North America. Electronic Arts shipped the title last month in Australia and Europe. EA SPORTS Rugby features licensed content from the Australian Rugby Union, and from a number of other bodies including the New Zealand Rugby Union, South African rugby Football Union, the Rugby Football Union, Federation Francaise de Rugby and Scottish Rugby Union. Bill McLaren, the voice of rugby, provides the commentary. ``There is a huge loyal rugby following with rugby clubs across North America and EA SPORTS Rugby captures all the essential elements of international rugby that will please these fans," said Chip Lange, vice president of marketing, North America. ``EA SPORTS is committed to covering the world of sports and this is an exciting next step in our videogame library." EA SPORTS Rugby combines stunning graphics, sophisticated physics models and AI (artificial intelligence) that immerses gamers into the big hitting, fast paced world of international rugby. The PlayStation 2 console gamers will enjoy the depth of gameplay, team management offerings and unparalleled graphic presentation of the rugby franchise. To master EA SPORTS Rugby, with hopes of winning the Tri-Nations Series, the Bledisloe Cup, the Six Nations and other international tournaments, gamers will have to become intimately familiar with their squads of players, and the types of set plays they operate against different opposition...selecting specific players for certain games. With 600 players in all, this will be a challenging yet fun task. The game features 25 faithfully modeled international stadiums, including Twickenham, Murrayfield and Ellis Park. Developed by The Creative Assembly Ltd., in the United Kingdom, EA SPORTS Rugby is the culmination of three years research and development. EA SPORTS motion capture technology captured professional rugby players' moves to enhance the game with greater realism. Running, passing, tackling, jumping for the ball and packing into scrums all show a great level of detail and animation. =~=~=~= ->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr! """"""""""""""""""" Infogrames Celebrates Three Decades of Atari Video Gaming With Atari Anniversary Edition for Sega Dreamcast and PC Twelve Games From the Golden Age of Arcades Live Again Infogrames celebrates 30 years of Atari classic arcade fun with the release of Atari Anniversary Edition for Windows 95/98/ME computers and Sega Dreamcast video game consoles. This special one-disc, 12-game compilation is being released to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Atari's founding in 1972 as the first company ever established solely for the purpose of creating and marketing video games. The multi-billion-dollar interactive entertainment industry that has developed since Atari's founding owes much to the vision of Atari and the groundbreaking titles that are found on Atari Anniversary Edition. This monster compilation of 12 of the best-known games from Atari's arcade stable of the '70s and early '80s includes Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, and Warlords. All come authentically recreated in emulated form just like you remember them from the arcades. In addition to the 12 classic arcade games that helped launch an industry, Atari Anniversary Edition also includes a multimedia supplement of video interviews with original game designers, images of noteworthy memorabilia, original press releases, and more. The PC version has a bonus collection of desktop themes (mouse pointers, system icons, font, screen saver, wallpaper) for each game. Both versions include a collectable Atari logo sticker to show your Atari pride. Developed by Digital Eclipse, Atari Anniversary Edition is available at most major retail outlets for $14.99 E.R.P and is rated ``E" for everyone. JAGULATOR V1.5.0 RELEASED from the Jagulator website... Back again!!! Two days ago I released some screenshots of some homebrew jaguar code that was running on Jagulator. Well today I decided to release v1.5.0 so that you too get a chance to see them running. This release is part of my new strategy to regularly release Jagulator as it develops. As I mentioned previously, I was having problems with the JoyPad emulation. This is now working and is demonstrated well with the 'Team Tap Tester' Jaguar Demo written by Matthias Domin. I also managed to fix a bug in the transparency code which now means that only the images requiring transparency have them (unlike all images before the bug - DOH!). The four demos that are working (fully or partially) with Jagulator 1.5.0 are: TeamTap Tester, JagMania, JDC Demo v1 and Colors. Visit the Jagulator site to download v1.5.0 and the demos URL: http://www.jagulator.com/ For the downloads page: http://www.jagulator.com/main.htm www.atari-jaguar64.de Updated Hi Everybody ! Diederik and I spend the last week working on another big update of www.atari-jaguar64.de and here is it: http://www.atari-jaguar64.de We hope you like it. Almost every section is updated. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask. Regards, Lars. Jaguar Development Club Keeping the first 64-Bit video game system, the great Atari Jaguar, alive. E-Mail: starcat@atari-jaguar64.de http://www.atari-jaguar64.de http://www.jaguar-development-club.de http://www.e-jagfest.de =~=~=~= A-ONE's Headline News The Latest in Computer Technology News Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Napster, PlayMedia Deal as Court Deadline Looms Napster announced Monday that it has chosen PlayMedia Systems, Inc. to design a playback and file security system that PlayMedia CEO Brian Litman says will "preserve the delicate balance between security, listener convenience, and music enjoyment." Napster and PlayMedia issued the joint announcement at around the same time that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals informed Napster that the song-swapping entity must file its emergency federal appeals court brief by August 9th. The court said that the record labels, which are suing over copyright infringements, will then have up to four weeks to rebut Napster's brief to the appeals court once Napster files it. Meanwhile, Napster officials see the PlayMedia deal as the latest step in its quest to legitimize itself in the eyes of the major record labels. Napster said the company plans to implement PlayMedia's AMP technology to power its proprietary media players. In addition, PlayMedia will continue to set up such developing technologies as customized playback, decryption and encryption for Napster. PlayMedia technology will also be used in new software that will control the way subscribers to the new Napster acquire and play copyright-protected music. Napster interim CEO Hank Barry appeared optimistic in his assessment of the alliance. "Napster is at the forefront of using some extremely advanced rights management and security technologies in a file-sharing environment," Barry said in a prepared statement. "PlayMedia's technologies and consulting services will give our users a satisfying experience for discovering and listening to new music." Webnoize music analyst Ric Dube told NewsFactor Network that Napster, in its attempts to appease its enemies, is now working within a framework that consumers don't want. Dube told NewsFactor that many consumers, including those faithful to the old Napster peer-to-peer (P2P) system, have the idea that when they pay for a monthly subscription, the songs they download will be theirs to keep and use in whatever form they wish -- much like the old Napster. But Dube said that the new system "will limit music and limit what users can do with that music." Dube said that Napster's licensing deal with MusicNet, for example, is a bad one for consumers because it follows a rental paradigm. "You pay US$10 a month to download 50 songs, about 20 cents a song," Dube said. "But at the end of each month, you have to pay another 20 cents to keep this same song. "After five months, you've spent a dollar on the song. At this point, it would have been cheaper to have bought the CD, where you get, say, 15 songs for $15 and the right to do whatever you want with them," Dube added. "Because of the way it's structured, [the new Napster] becomes a promotional mechanism for selling CDs [and] does not threaten the status quo." While Dube said it's too early to assess Napster's fate, he said the prognosis "doesn't look good." "Content made Napster hot," Dube told NewsFactor. "Now that there's no more [easy access] to unlimited content, and consumers don't want to be nickel-and-dimed to death," they are already looking into the next generation of P2P servers such as Kazaa and MusicCity, he said. Appeals Court Puts Napster Back in Business A federal appeals court on Wednesday gave embattled song-swap service Napster Inc. the green light to resume business over the Internet -- overruling a lower court judge who had demanded more assurances on copyright protection. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Napster, which has been voluntarily offline since the beginning of the month, was allowed to resume operations ``pending further order of the court." The decision by the court's three judge panel overruled an earlier ruling by federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who on July 11 instructed Napster to stay offline until it could show it had done everything in its power to make its new song-filtering system 100 percent effective. Napster officials expressed pleasure with the appeals court decision, but did not to say if the company would immediately resume trading music. ``We're pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals granted our request for a stay," Jonathan Schwartz, Napster's general counsel, said in a statement. ``We're studying the implications of the decision. We continue to push ahead with the launch of our new membership service later this summer." Napster has been under legal attack for more than a year by the recording industry, which has accused it of facilitating music piracy over the Internet and running roughshod over copyright law. In its efforts to remain in business, Napster has vowed to relaunch itself as a subscription service, charging members in return for monitored access to copyright-protected material. On Wednesday, Napster informed users that it would soon launch a second-phase, beta test of the new service after some two months of internal tinkering. The company has said that about a million people have signed up to participate in the test of the new service, which will be free. ``We want to make sure that Napster's first bona fide 'official release' meets the highest technological standards," Napster said in an e-mail to users. It added that, once the system is fully operational, more half of what subscribers will pay Napster will go directly to the artists, songwriters and other rights holders whose works are transferred between members of the Napster community. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has been spearheading the legal drive against Napster, issued a statement underlining the temporary nature of the appeals court's stay. ``We are confident that after a thorough review, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold Judge Patel's decision," RIAA Executive Vice President Cary Sherman said. ``The evidence in this case clearly shows that Napster has not done all it can to police its system...it is important to note that today's ruling does not change in any way the fact that Napster must prevent copyrighted works from appearing on its system as previously ordered by the Court." Napster was hit with a preliminary injunction in March when Patel ruled that it must block song files that the recording industry identifies as being covered by copyright. Napster, struggling to comply with Patel's order, voluntarily suspended file-sharing July 2 for a self-imposed shutdown as it sought to fix technical glitches related to its latest filter upgrade. Prior to the self-imposed shutdown, the once wildly popular song-swap service, which enables people to trade compressed MP3 computer files of their favorite music, had been rapidly losing users to other song-swap systems. The system had already seen usage shrink to an average 1.5 songs shared per user, down from an average of 220 in February, according to the research company Webnoize. Analysts said the longer Napster remains shut down, the higher the risk of losing users forever to other alternatives. Microsoft Seeks Browser Monopoly Rehearing Lawyers for Microsoft on Wednesday afternoon asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to revisit a central issue of the antitrust case: that the Redmond, Washington software giant created a monopoly by integrating the same instructions into both its browser and operating system. Microsoft told the federal court that "critical evidence was overlooked -- or misinterpreted -- on the technical question" of whether the company " 'commingled' software code specific to Web browsing with software code used for other purposes in certain files in Windows 98." Boston antitrust attorney Michelle Miller told NewsFactor Network that she was surprised at Microsoft's request, saying the company has a "real uphill battle" getting a rehearing. Miller said it could take "a couple weeks to several months" for the appeals court to respond. Three weeks ago, an appeals court held that the company was guilty of "exclusionary conduct" by meshing software instructions in its browser and operating system, as well as not allowing computer makers to remove the browser from the Windows desktop, and returned the case to a lower court to set a penalty. In its current request, Microsoft said its upcoming Windows XP includes the ability to uninstall Internet Explorer. Microsoft also claims an earlier ruling on the commingling of code was in error, and says the issue "is important because it might be read to suggest that [PC makers] should be given the option of removing the software code in Windows 98 (if any) that is specific to Web browsing." Justice Department officials said Wednesday that both the trial court and the federal appeals court have ruled in the government's favor on the issue, according to reports. The state of Iowa will respond to Microsoft's request, say reports. New Mexico recently settled its case with Microsoft after the company agreed to pick up the state's legal bills. The Justice Department has requested that the penalty phase of the antitrust judgment be resolved quickly. The appeals court said on June 28th that there would be a 45-day waiting period, allowing both the government and Microsoft time to formulate appeals. But on July 13th, the government asked a federal appeals court to rush the case. There is "no good reason to delay issuance of the mandate until mid-August or later," the U.S. Justice Department told the court. A Microsoft spokesman said Wednesday that the company still seeks an out-of-court settlement. Microsoft confirmed reports on Monday that it had talked with Justice Department antitrust chief Charles James in an effort to reach a settlement. The move was confirmed just prior to Microsoft's relaxing its Windows license agreement, allowing computer makers to delete Internet Explorer from the upcoming Windows XP desktop. Analysts view Microsoft's latest legal maneuvering as protecting its decision to increase the bundling of features into its operating system, according to reports. Microsoft has been criticized for tightly integrating Internet, music, photography and instant messaging services into Windows XP. Some legal experts question Microsoft's request for a rehearing, since the June 28th ruling was unanimous. Microsoft Opposes Speeding Antitrust Case Microsoft said on Friday it opposed the government's request for a U.S. appeals court to expedite the antitrust case against the company back to a lower court ahead of schedule. The software giant first wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to rule on its request that the panel re-examine part of its recent ruling on the case, the company said in a court filing. Microsoft also asked the court to send the case back to a lower court after it rules on the rehearing and, within a week after that decision is issued, the company said it would decide whether to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court. ``This filing asks for an appropriate and limited time period for the company to address any legal issues related to the Court of Appeals ruling," said Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma. The Justice Department and 18 states said in their motion that the case should be moved back to a lower court judge quickly, arguing the software giant's conduct should be reigned in as soon as possible. Unless the appeals court grants the government's request, the case is expected to go back before a U.S. District Court judge no earlier than mid-August, under a June 28 ruling by a federal appeals court. A Justice Department spokeswoman had no immediate comment on Microsoft's filing. On June 28, the appeals court overturned a lower court's order that Microsoft be broken into two companies but upheld findings that the company abused its monopoly in the market for personal computer operating systems. The appeals court rejected findings that Microsoft attempted to monopolize the Internet browser market, and it ordered a new lower court judge to consider remedies against the Redmond, Washington-based company and determine whether it illegally tied its Internet browser to Windows. If the appeals court agrees to speed up the case, it would give prosecutors more time if they decide to ask for remedies that involve Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, due to be released in October. ``As we move forward quickly with the logical next steps in the legal process, we remain committed to working with the government to try and resolve the remaining issues in this case through settlement," Varma said. Earlier this week, the company asked the appeals court to re-examine its ruling that it illegally ``commingled" computer code of its Internet Explorer browser and Windows operating system. The company said it filed the rehearing request with the appeals court because it believes the ruling was based on "clearly erroneous" findings of a lower court judge. Internet Tax Issues Get More Complex The Internet tax debate has moved beyond simply whether to extend the ban on access and discriminatory taxes to whether state commercial taxes can be imposed online as well as offline. The Internet tax debate has moved beyond simply whether to extend the ban on access and discriminatory taxes to whether state commercial taxes can be imposed online as well as offline, an analyst said Tuesday. There is active consideration now for a middle ground that if states simplify their tax system out-of-state companies could collect sales taxes on Internet transactions. The questions now are to what degree states must simplify their sales tax and how much certainty each state must have that it will get the authority to collect sales tax at the end of this process, said Bill Whyman, Internet analyst at the Precursor Group in Washington, D.C. For IT managers and corporate executives, changes in state tax systems translate to different accounting methods and added costs to collect the added fees. Several bills are floating in the House and Senate to address the looming expiration on the ban on cyber taxes in October. Congress has only about seven working weeks remaining before the October deadline because of the lengthy summer recess, a limited period for complex bill passage. The slew of bills agree on extending the freeze either for five years or permanently on Internet access taxes and multiple and discriminatory levies. But sales tax simplification, business activity taxes and a lack of clarity on what constitutes a physical presence in a state for tax purposes have made it difficult for lawmakers to find agreement on comprehensive legislation. Companies that transact business over the Internet are covered under the same 1992 court ruling as mail order catalog businesses. Companies do not have to collect sales taxes from online or mail order sales unless the company has a branch located in that state. That physical presence threshold is called nexus. As the debate becomes more complex, deal-breaker issues that will have to be resolved before legislation can be passed center on how to define physical presence for the business activity tax and what is the limit on the number of sales tax regulations, Whyman said. Business activity taxes include licensing, franchise or occupation taxes. Currently, there are 7,500 state and local taxing districts. If enough states simplify their tax systems, the government would allow equal tax treatment between Main Street and online and other remote retailers under some proposals. -Many in the industry are concerned that if out-of-state vendors are required to collect sales tax on Internet transactions, states will use it as the proverbial 'camel's nose under the tent' to impose all other kinds of business activity taxes, such as franchise and income taxes,- he said. Some have proposed a -bright-line- test for what triggers jurisdiction for business activity taxes. Virginia Congressmen Bob Goodlatte, a Republican, and Rick Boucher, a Democrat, introduced the latest bill on Tuesday, the Internet Tax Fairness Act. The lawmakers propose a permanent ban on Internet access and discriminatory taxes. But they also designed their bill to clarify standards by which states could collect business activity taxes. States will be able to impose taxes on income from interstate commerce if the company has property and employees in that state for at least 30 days. High-tech groups praised the -bright-line- nexus standard in the Goodlatte-Boucher bill. -Such clarification is extremely necessary in our digital economy to eliminate the potential for double taxation and uncertainty among businesses,- said Ken Wasch, president of the software & Information Industry Association. That bill does not address sales tax on Internet commerce and the effort to streamline state taxing laws. Apple's Macworld Letdown If an individual had the ability to listen to the thoughts and utterances of Mac users across the globe Wednesday morning, that person would more than likely have heard the simultaneous grumbles and moans of all those that watched the latest Macworld Expo from Apple Computer, as virtually none of the expectations were met. Most industry analysts had hoped for flat panel iMacs, an Apple branded PDA, major speed jumps, and Steve Jobs' famous "one more thing," which usually features a product or announcement that steals the show. While Apple did unveil some new products and made a few announcements, for the most part, these were mostly minor software updates, incremental hardware upgrades and repackaged examples of existing Apple technologies. Jobs started his keynote speech by talking about the company's recently introduced retail effort, while also mentioning that the company plans to open additional stores in Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago. Shortly afterward, the focus changed to OS X. It was made known that there are over 1,000 applications shipping now for OS X, that 29 percent of developers plan to deliver an OS X native application within three months and that 55 percent plan on delivering their software within a six-month time period. Steve then handed the show floor to 10 unique software developers -- including Microsoft, Adobe, Quark, Filemaker, Connectix, IBM, WorldBook, Blizzard, Aspyr and Alias Wavefront -- so that each could represent their company's upcoming OS X applications. After each featured upcoming copies of software to be available for OS X, Steve re-took the stage and talked specifically about OS X. It was this presentation that was most significant for Apple, as it dealt almost entirely with OS X's much-needed accelerated user interface. Those of you who have had the opportunity to use OS X up until now might have been disenchanted with the operating system's sluggish performance. Fortunately an upcoming (September) update to OS X (10.1) alleviates these performance concerns. Applications in 10.1 appeared to launch incredibly fast and window resizing and minimizing are no longer a burden, as is the case now in 10.0.4. It'll be interesting to see how the OS fares in performance comparisons now that the interface is optimized. After the OS X presentation was finished, Jobs turned to hardware, beginning with the company's iBook. Recent sales statistics proved to be impressive: According to Jobs, 182,000 iBooks shipped in only two months time -- the highest number of notebooks Apple ever shipped under one product line in a single quarter. When Jobs mentioned the iMac, Expo attendees held their breath in anticipation for what they hoped would be the product announcement that would reenergize Apple's one product line in the greatest need of a significant update. Instead of these significant updates, the iMac retained its aged form factor and reverted to last year's colors of Indigo, Ruby, Snow and Graphite, with only minor speed improvements (500/600/700MHz). If any good news came of this announcement, it's that Apple did away with those disgusting patterns that were introduced only a few months ago. When it came time for Apple to unveil its new Power Mac towers, Expo attendees at least had one new thing to look at. Apple introduced a slightly modified enclosure based on the company's G4 tower casing while also offering updated internals. The new high-end machines come in 733, 800 and Dual 800 MHz configurations. The 866 and Dual 800 models will come with a new-and-improved SuperDrive as standard equipment. nVIDIA GeForce 2 cards are also standard, with GeForce 3s as a BTO option. The high-end model now comes with a dual-display graphics card that has both VGA and ADC connectors. The single-processor 733 and 800 PowerMacs are available now, the Dual 800 in August, and the 866 "soon," which we take to mean September-ish. The obligatory PowerMac vs. Pentium bake-off took center stage shortly after the new G4s were introduced. Apple pitted its 866 G4 against Intel's 1.7Ghz P4 -- Intel hasn't yet shipped its 1.8 GHz processor just yet -- in a comparison using Adobe's PhotoShop and MicroMatt's Media Cleaner. As always, Apple completed its comparison tests twice as fast as the Wintel machine, which brought about discussion from Apple's No. 1 hardware man Jon Rubinstein about "the MHz Myth." While this speech made a complicated subject very simple, its subject matter might best be addressed to the multitudes that still associate speed with MHz/GHz. The show ended after Steve Jobs re-introduced minor updates to the company's DVD software. iDVD 2.0 (Mac OS X-only) will ship this autumn, with a host of impressive new features such as background encoding, up to 90 minutes of video, motion menus, slideshow soundtracks, and new presentation styles. It will be a free upgrade to existing iDVD users. I'm confident that Apple has a whole lot more that it's holding back for better economic times. I, along with the rest of the Mac community, was hoping that Apple would release these products at the Expo as an act of defiance of the current economic slowdowns. Oh well. I guess its back to the waiting game again. NetZero Founders Resign to Start New Company Internet service provider NetZero Inc. on Tuesday said its four founders have resigned to start a new company -- almost six weeks after NetZero agreed to buy rival Juno Online Inc. to form a new company called United Online. The company, which was founded in July 1997 and went public in September 1999, said in a statement that NetZero President Ronald Burr and three other founders have resigned to start a new company called Layer2 Networks, focusing on broadband. The other founders that resigned were Stacy Haitsuka, senior vice president of technology; Harold MacKenzie, vice president of software, and Marwan Zebian, vice president of networking and communications. None of the executives will be replaced. Gerald Popek was named chief technology officer in October 2000 and Randy Tamura was recently hired as NetZero's vice president of software to take over some of the daily responsibilities of the founders. NetZero Chief Executive Mark Goldston said in a phone interview that the executives and he realized about a year ago that the company was getting to a size and scope where their skills were not being best used. Therefore, the executives had been spending much of their time looking at venture opportunities in high-speed and wireless services. However, those opportunities did not fit into where NetZero was going, especially with the Juno deal. ``As we go forward, we are going to have to rationalize the employee base from both companies. It was very clear to them that they weren't going to have ongoing operational roles in the new company because they had diminished roles in the existing company," said Goldston, who will become president and chief executive of United Online. NetZero launched its free Internet service in October 1998, but has recently expanded beyond free access as Internet advertising spending dries up. It now offers paid access and aims to corner the discounted Internet access market to compete against bigger players such as market leaders AOL Time Warner Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. ``It's a bittersweet decision. NetZero is something we have created and are very attached to but are very confident in the management team that exists and their ability to carry the company forward," Burr said in an interview. Layer2, which will soon be looking for financing, hopes to provide the connection between the ``last mile" of broadband, or from the central office to the home. ``There is no provider who provides the connection from the last mile to the Internet and all ISPs have to build it themselves, which is a big reason broadband has run into bottlenecks in deployment" Burr said. He added that there is a high probability that NetZero and Layer2 will be working together in the future. Microsoft XP Won't Include Java Microsoft will not include the Java programming language in its new Windows XP operating system, the software giant said Tuesday. Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla said the company decided not to include the language so it wouldn't violate a legal settlement agreement. Java maker Sun Microsystems Inc. in January settled a lawsuit it brought against Microsoft three years ago in U.S. District Court in San Jose, charging Redmond-based Microsoft with infringing a licensing agreement to use Java. Java, introduced by Sun in 1995, lets developers write a software application that can run on a variety of computers, regardless of the underlying operating system. The language is widely used on Web sites and Sun had hoped to make Java a universal programming language. Sun alleged that Microsoft violated the terms of an agreement signed in 1996 by creating a Windows-only version of Java that was incompatible with other software. Sun also claimed copyright infringement, but a judge later dismissed that part of the claim. Under an agreement, Microsoft agreed to no longer license from Sun any current or new versions of Java, but it would have been allowed to distribute products carrying outdated versions of the Java technology for seven years. Microsoft also had to pay Sun $20 million, and was barred from using Sun's ``Java Compatible" trademark. ``In the wake of the settlement agreement with Sun and the resolution of that litigation this approach simplifies our implementation and adherence of that agreement," Pilla said. In light of the settlement agreement, which gave Microsoft just seven years to phase out Java, he said the decision should come as no surprise. ``The reality is that (Java program) represents a lot of code that the vast majority of users don't need," Pilla said. A Sun spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press Tuesday. Pilla denied that the move was aimed at phasing out support for Java in Microsoft applications. He said Windows XP users will be able to easily download Java off a Microsoft update site if they come across a software application running on Java. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia also addressed Microsoft's use of Java in its ruling last month that unanimously reversed the breakup of Microsoft. The court overturned the court-ordered breakup of Microsoft, but upheld the trial judge's finding that the software giant violated antitrust laws by muscling hardware and software companies into giving its operating systems preferential treatment. In its ruling, the court said that making an incompatible version of Java was not illegal, but said that its agreements with software vendors to use only the Microsoft-compatible Java version was illegal. Microsoft, meanwhile, has recently begun developing a set of Internet services, called .NET. based on another programming language, called XML. The .NET strategy calls for selling a series of paid services over the Internet that users can access on any computer device. This could range from booking plane flights to buying concert tickets. Latest Destructive Virus, SirCam, Spreading Quickly A new virus has been discovered that has the possibility to fill up users' hard drives, delete files, distribute private documents, hide itself from typical virus scanners, and propagate itself across the Internet using the Microsoft Outlook address book. The Symantec Anti-Virus Research Center (SARC) has ranked the threat of the virus, entitled SirCam, a four, with five being the most serious. The McAfee Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT), as well as the Trend Micro Virus Information Center, ranks the virus as a medium threat. SirCam also joined Trend's Worldwide Virus Tracker Top 10 list at number 3. The virus usually comes as an e-mail attachment with the file name "SirCam32.exe." There are several payloads of the virus that randomly occur. One user could actually be a carrier of the virus but never be infected. "When you run it, it does three things that are sort of odd and unusual," said Steve Trilling, director of SARC. The first thing it does is compute a random number that has a 1 in 33 chance of triggering the machine to fill up all the remaining space on the hard disk by adding text to a system file in the Recycle Bin (c:\recycled\sircam.sys) at each startup. Next, the virus will check to see if the date is October 16. If it is and the Windows operating systems is using a European date format (day/month/year), then it will again generate a random number that has a 1 in 20 chance of triggering the machine to delete all the files on the hard drive. Finally, it will export a random document form the hard drive and append it to the body of the virus when it propagates itself to other users. This could present a privacy breach if the document is confidential. Another unusual characteristic of the virus is that when it uploads a file from the hard drive to send to other users, it will append the file name with either .exe, .bat, .tif., .com, or .link. If it uses .link or .bat, the virus will essentially "neuter" itself, Trilling says, ceasing to operate. The virus stores itself in the Microsoft Windows Recycle Bin, where most virus scanners don't scan for viruses. Trilling says Symantec, which first discovered and issued a patch for the virus on Monday, has received 200 submissions of the virus from around the world, 40 of which were from corporate customers. McAfee has received 50 worldwide submissions, 30 over the evening between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The virus is also a worm, spreading by sending itself out to all the addressees in a person's Microsoft Outlook address book, and copies itself to any shared drives it finds. The e-mail that people get is either in English or Spanish, and the body of the message varies although it typically looks like this: Hi! How are you? I send you this file in order to have your advice I hope you can help me with this file that I send I hope you like the file that I sendo(CQsendo) you This is the file with the information that you ask for See you later. Thanks Patches have been available for download for most of the week from the major anti-virus software vendors. Those that don't fix their systems could have an ugly awakening October 16, Trilling says. The last well-known virus to use a date as its trigger was the Chernobyl virus, which went off on April 26, 2000, the anniversary of the Chernobyl incident in Russia. That virus also was distributed months before the actual trigger date (August 1999), giving users plenty of time to patch their systems before the virus went off. Vincent Gullotto, senior director of McAfee AVERT, says not everyone patches their anti-virus systems. Among McAfee's customer base, Gullotto says about 50 to 60 percent perform weekly updates, another 30 percent update monthly, and the rest either update less often or not at all. Hackers Advised Against Life of Crime at Defcon Jamboree At the world's largest hacker convention -- a raucous and paranoid gathering of loners given to black T-shirts and wild pranks -- the veterans had a message for the younger, up-and-coming hackers: go straight. The opportunities of a career in business and the risks of a life of cybercrime was the serious subtext to the DefCon conference this week, where attendees are notorious for jamming hotel video systems, pouring cement down toilets, and getting the group banned from past venues. ``DefCon is a cross between a Star Trek convention and a Ramones concert," said Bruce Schneier, a regular speaker at DefCon, a cryptography expert and chief technology officer of a network monitoring firm, Counterpane Internet Security. This year's meeting, at the Alexis Park Hotel, featured sessions on how an interest in hacking can be parlayed into work as a security consultant and even the show's organizers announced that they had formed their own firm. ``I'd rather invest money in starting another business than putting it in the stock market," said Jeff Moss, who organized the first DefCon nine years ago and also puts on a conference that takes place right before DefCon, Black Hat Briefings. Black Hat, held at Caesar's Palace, attracted 1,300 earlier in the week and about 5,000 were expected at DefCon, where professionals and dedicated amateurs come to swap information about computer network vulnerabilities and how to fix them. Sessions covered the esoteric -- like microcontroller hacking and the use of intelligent agents in attacking and defending networks. Featured games included ``Spot the Fed," "Hacker Jeopardy," and a ``Capture the Flag" competition where contestants attempt to break into a secured test network. The competition ``helps you become a better systems administrator," said ``Graphix," a 17-year-old participant, who like many hackers prefers to be known only by a screen name. The event also featured a bazaar where vendors hawked books with titles like ``How to Hide in Public Places," ``Lip Reading Made Easy," and ``You and the Police." Despite its underworld image, DefCon is a place where veteran hackers can influence their younger colleagues in positive ways, attendees said. ``You have people who are here to see their idols and their idols are telling them to stop doing the bad hacking," said Eric Ohlson, a security consultant for Breakwater Security Associates, based in Seattle. Jack Holleran, who served as technical director of the National Security Agency's National Computer Security Center until retiring earlier this year, is one of several law enforcement personnel who volunteer at DefCon. ``I think like a parent," said Holleran, the father of five. "Many hackers don't have socialization skills. It's my belief that they deal with people who can understand what they're talking about." Holleran said it is useful for federal agents to be involved in the show. ``It helps them (hackers) see that there are different ways of doing things," he said. ``That they may be able to do what they want to do without getting a felony conviction." ``Aqualung," 23, who sports an ultra-thin mustache and favors black clothing, said on the sidelines of the convention that he hopes to bank on his 14 years of computer experience to start a small consulting firm. Aqualung said he has advice he can give companies on the vulnerability of their networks to break-ins through employees dial-up connections, he said. The hacker has unearthed a lot of ``interesting stuff" by doing so-called ``war dialing," setting his computer to automatically dial available local phone numbers to find open connections. With that kind of random probing, he was able to tap patient information from a veterans hospital in Long Beach, California, he said. ``I'm not the kind of person who goes in and breaks stuff," Aqualung said. ``I just go in and look around. I try to be ethical." Moss, the conference organizer, said helping educate younger, often socially isolated hackers to the consequences of illegal computer activity is one of the main reasons he continues to run the annual show. Earlier that day, Moss said he encountered one attendee hacking into an ATM cash machine in a hotel lobby trying to make its screens display ``DefCon." ``As long as they know the risks, my job has been done," he said. ``I don't want to see really bright kids in high school not be in computer security because they screwed up." Hacker Group: Software Will Make Censors 'Powerless' Hacker-developed software aimed at foiling the efforts of repressive governments to censor free speech and squelch dissidents on the Internet is under development and will be completed soon, according to a group that bills itself as "ethical hackers." Hacker collective Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) had originally planned to unveil its "Peekabooty" anti-censorship software project at the DefCon 2001 hacker convention, which ended Sunday in Las Vegas, but said earlier that the project would be delayed because further testing was needed to weed out technical problems. The software makers say governments will be powerless to counteract the software because it will be released as open source code, which means that anyone can add to or modify it, and it will "mutate beyond recognition." The convention, once a secretive gathering of underground hackers, has evolved closer to the mainstream in recent years, and this year's gathering was addressed by federal law enforcement officials, human rights experts, and even a U.S. congressman. "We are talking about more constructive, more positive ways of dealing with human rights abuses," freelance human rights researcher Greg Walton told the group. "It's not ethical to own someone's Web site as a way of getting the message out." Federal agencies even used the lure of government jobs to appeal to the hackers. "The objective of coming and having a 'Meet the Fed' panel is to give folks who have not crossed the line yet a positive alternative," Department of Defense spokesman Jim Christy said. "There is a whole lot of talent here. Let's put that talent to good use." The cDc said it has 28 people on the anti-censorship software project, including IT professionals, lawyers, humans rights workers and students from the U.S., Israel, Canada, Europe, Taiwan and China, as well as "informal layers of support." On its Web site, the group describes the software as a "distributed collaborative privacy network. It allows clients to evade most forms of DNS (domain name service) filtering. It will also make Web page requests directly to a distributed server cloud that processes the requests and trans-serves content back to the requesting client." Members of the Peekabooty network will be able to request specific documents or files to be put on the network. Then, when the files appear, the browser will package them, encrypt them to further shield the data, and send them back to the individual computer making the request. The software is aimed at repressive governments that crack down on Internet free speech, like China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. But Internet censorship has also become a hot-button issue in countries not generally thought of as repressive. In Ireland, for example, the government recently introduced legislation banning opinion polls during the week before elections and referendums. Germany bans Nazi-related material, and Australia restricts access to pornography. In the UK, activists claim that Web portals are censoring gay e-mails. "The liberal democracies have talked a far better game than they've played on access to information," the cDc says on its site. "... if our leaders aren't prepared to defend the Internet, we are." The group uses what it calls "disruptive compliance" to get its message across. "We are trying to intervene to reverse the tide of state-sponsored censorship of the Internet through the inventive use of code," says the group, which only uses code names. "It's the opposite of 'civil disobedience.' We favor using disruptive technologies that comply with the spirit and original intent of the Internet." Who Is the Web's Most Downloaded Woman? The race is on to find the world's most downloaded woman -- and the British are offering a wrinkly soap star to prove that shapely lovelies from Australia and America are not the answer. Chances are that the British interpretation of ``Who wants to be an Online babe" do not gel with the wider Internet world, which is more attuned to the charms of busty challenger Sarah Jane from down-under or current web queen Danni Ashe, a 32-year-old U.S. porn star. August 1 is D-day, or at least D-cup day, when Sarah Jane afficionados try to topple Ashe (www.billiondownloadwoman.com) in a 24-hour frenzy of hardcore clicking. ``Log on and be part of history," said the Australian's Web site www.sarahjane.com.au, in a salacious entreaty to user ``Log on and be part of history," said the Australian's Web site www.sarahjane.com.au, in a salacious entreaty to users to out-click fans of the U.S. diva. Blonde Sarah Jane, described by her Web site as an actress -- albeit one in a scarlet fishnet bodysuit -- has set her sights on ousting the pneumatic stripper Ashe of ``Danni's Hard-Drive" fame as the virtual world's favorite woman. Unseating Ashe would need at least 70,000 clicks a day, given that the U.S. star says she is already three times more popular than super-downloaded teen-pop goddess Britney Spears, with lifetime hits of more than a billion. But now there's a surprise late entry. Britain hopes that 72-year-old Kathy Staff, frumpy female star of the decidedly softcore television series Last of t he Summer Wine, can use irony, innuendo and wrinkly tights where physical attributes lack. ``We're out to stop her (Sarah Jane). Help us put Nora Batty up there with the best of them," BBC Radio Five Live, promoters of the alternative babe, said on their Web site. Whoever wins, the record keepers are not playing ball. The Guinness Book of Records said Ashe held the download title last year but that she had to subsequently share her crown with another model, Cindy Margolis, when it became harder to measure hits. ``We did have a category for most downloaded woman but we discontinued it last year because its just nigh on impossible to verify," said a spokesman for the Guinness Book of Records. May the best woman win. =~=~=~= 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. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of Atari Online News, Etc. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.