NewsScan Daily, 16 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 16 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        IBM Hides Passwords in a Chip
        Norwegian ISP Terminates Zombie Network
        XM Satellite Radio Embraces the Web
        'WINE Will Set You Free,' Hardware Vendors Told
        Newsgaming Catching On

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Calculation

IBM HIDES PASSWORDS IN A CHIP
      IBM's newest line of desktop computers come equipped with National 
Semiconductor's SafeKeeper Trusted I/O Device, which is designed to thwart 
hackers by storing passwords and other sensitive identity information in a 
chip. The security chip encrypts information using a code key accessible 
only to a special processor, essentially locking it in the PC. National 
Semi says using a hardware solution for sensitive information storage is 
inherently more secure than software-based approaches, and a company 
spokesman says Hewlett-Packard and Dell are also expected to install the 
chip on future PCs. (CNet News.com 16 Sep 2004)
<http://news.com.com/IBM+protects+passwords+with+PC+chip/2100-1029_3-5368442.html>

NORWEGIAN ISP TERMINATES ZOMBIE NETWORK
      Norwegian Internet service provider Telenor stumbled onto an illicit 
network of 10,000 "zombie" or robot computers last week after tracing 
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) communications from compromised PCs on its 
system. The robot networks, or botnets, respond to text commands issued via 
IRC from the central server by the hacker controlling the network. For 
instance, a hacker could instruct the botnet to launch a denial-of-service 
attack on a particular server. "In some sense, botnets are a more dangerous 
problem than worms and viruses," says Johannes Ulrich, CTO at the SANS 
Institute's Internet Storm Center. "They're an easy way to control 10,000 
systems, and you can do absolutely anything with them -- instruct [the 
compromised machines] to pick up a program and install it, or go to a 
particular URL or scan for other vulnerable hosts." Authorities say botnets 
are difficult to exterminate because malicious hackers often maintain a 
number of geographically dispersed servers and can just relaunch the 
network by assigning it to a different server with the same host name. The 
controlling server in this case was located in Singapore, but Ullrich warns 
that the botnet problem is likely to worsen as students return to 
universities following the summer break: "Student machines are a classic 
target." (Computerworld 10 Sep 2004)
<http://www.computerworld.com/networkingtopics/networking/story/0,10801,95847,00.html>

XM SATELLITE RADIO EMBRACES THE WEB
      XM Satellite Radio is extending its broadcast service to the 
Internet, where subscribers will pay $7.99 a month to listen to its 68 
commercial-free music stations and about a half dozen other XM offerings 
streamed through the Internet. Subscribers to XM's satellite service can 
sign up for XM Radio Online for an additional $3.99 per month. "XM has 
already built a good brand. So for people who want the same content online, 
it makes a lot of sense, especially with more broadband connections and new 
devices that let you take the content from your PC to your entertainment 
center and play it through your home stereo system," says an In-Stat/MDR 
analyst. (AP/Washington Post 15 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24108-2004Sep15.html>

'WINE WILL SET YOU FREE,' HARDWARE VENDORS TOLD
      Australia's Open Source Industry Association has urged PC vendors to 
contribute to the development of the WINE Windows-compatibility layer in 
order to ensure that they continue to make some margin at least on their 
wares. OSIA spokesman Steven D'Aprano says that if WINE is nurtured, Linux 
would be able to run most Windows applications and could deliver higher 
margins and more control to the PC vendors. "The world's PC makers are 
hurting. Most turn meager profits from their PC product lines. And some 
major players carry a loss each year," D'Aprano says. "By making WINE fully 
compatible with most major Windows applications, PC vendors can remove the 
heavy burden of the Windows OEM platform license from their costs of 
production, yet still deliver a Windows-compatible desktop into the market. 
Also, by not having to rely on Microsoft for the desktop PC platform, 
hardware vendors will improve their strategic position considerably." (The 
Age, 14 Sep 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/14/1094927571604.html>

NEWSGAMING CATCHING ON
      Most computer games today offer a fairly simplistic "shoot the bad 
guys" story line, but game developer Gonzalo Frasca says he's looking for a 
way to get more out of games. His first attempt, a game titled "September 
12th," is based on the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan following the 
September 11, 2001 attacks. "It looks just like a shooting game. You have 
this view from the air, and you have this Middle Eastern town, and you have 
this target. You see civilians walking on the streets, and these little 
black and white characters that are supposed to be terrorists." Players can 
choose to attack the terrorists, but inevitably there are civilian 
casualties too, and even worse -- "After awhile, they transform themselves 
into terrorists. So, the more you shoot, and the more you destroy, you may 
kill terrorists, but you will encourage more and more people to become 
terrorists," says Frasca. Despite the game's futility, hundreds of 
thousands of people have tried their hand at it on Frasca's newsgaming.com 
site, and Frasca has already expanded his repertoire with a new game titled 
"Madrid." Some industry observers see Frasca's attempt to blend games with 
current events as a new era in gaming. "Digital media, and particularly 
digital media of a game simulation type, is going to become one of our 
staple kinds of expressive media," says Noah Wardrip-Fruin, co-editor of a 
book on computer games. "Newsgaming, instead of some kind of passing fad, 
is just the tip of the iceberg." (BBC News 16 Sep 2004)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3653294.stm>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with 
meaningless marks on paper." (David Hilbert)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: CALCULATION
      With the goal of eradicating them all-too-common fear of mathematics 
British science writer Karl Sabbagh offers the following story:
      "The popular idea of mathematics is that it is largely concerned with 
calculations. What many people don't realize -- and mathematicians at 
parties have given up correcting them -- is that mathematicians are often 
no better calculators, and sometimes worse, than the average 
nonmathematician. An incident during my first meeting with the 
Franco-American mathematician Louis de Branges illustrates that nicely. We 
were discussing the idea that mathematicians did all their best work when 
they were young, and I asked him when he had some particular insight. 
'Let's see,' he said. 'It happened in 1984 and I was born 1932. So was I 
over fifty? How old was I then... ?' He thought for a while, wrestling with 
the problem as if it were the Riemann Hypothesis itself, and then gave up 
(because the exact figure was unimportant, not because he couldn't do it). 
Even the giants of mathematics suffer from this minor disability: 'Sir 
Isaac Newton,' said one observer, 'though so deep in algebra and fluxions, 
could not readily make up a common account: and, when he was Master of the 
Mint, used to get somebody else to make up his accounts for him.'"
      [See 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374250073/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
for Karl Sabbagh's book on the Riemann Hypothesis -- or look for it in your 
favorite library. Note: We donate all revenue from our book and media 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

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