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Volume 3, Issue 35 Atari Online News, Etc. August 31, 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: Dan Iacovelli 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 #0335 08/31/01 ~ New STiK & Qdialer Out ~ People Are Talking! ~ IE Unplugged?! ~ Michael Dertouzos Dies ~ JagFests Revisited! ~ Mountain Now Free! ~ Atari Times Update! ~ Aniplayer Updated! ~ IE 6 Released! ~ Free MagiC Updates!! ~ New Worms Warning! ~ New StarOffice! -* Russian Programmer Indicted! *- -* New Judge Expedites Microsoft Case *- -* New Method of Stealth Computing Discovered *- =~=~=~= ->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""" It's been one wild week! A lot of last-minute errands and projects, all completed. It's the last unofficial week of summer - already! I say it every year - where did the time go? Time flies by much too quickly as far as I'm concerned! Well, I'm going to make the most of it anyway, and enjoy my last few days of summer and vacation. Have I told you recently that PCs stink?? There are four in our household: my wife and I each own a laptop and a desktop. My desktop is just a few months old and I have been running into trouble with it. All kinds of error messages, unplanned re-boots, Windows not loading, and more. I finally brought it in to the shop to have it checked out. Naturally, Windows was corrupt somehow. Got it fixed, but now I have to re-install everything that I had, and move everything to its proper place. It's going to take awhile. I hate these things! My Atari computers never had these kinds of problems. Program dies, delete and install it again - minutes. Software operating systems are for the birds! And we're stuck with them whether we like them or not. Lots of news this week. I'd editorialize, but it's the end of summer and it's time to relax. Please be careful over the long Labor Day weekend. Party all you want, but please do not drink and drive - be responsible! Until next time... =~=~=~= STiK 2.03 and Qdialer 0.51 Released New versions of STiK2 and Qdialer are now available from http://www.netset.com/~baldrick/stikdl.html STiK 2.03 changes ACTIVE_PPP variable. If ACTIVE_PPP is set to 1 in the default config or in a dial script, STiK2 will initiate the PPP negotiation phase immediately upon is connection by the dialer. Qdialer 0.51 changes ACTIVE_PPP support for STiK2. Patches to remote control routines (Thanks Rafal) NEGOTIATION_WAIT variable. This value determines how long Qdialer will wait for STiK2 to finish it's PPP negotiations before aborting the process. It is measured in seconds and the default value is 14. NOTE: Qdialer 0.51 may not function properly with older versions of STiK2. Crashes may occur. For more details see the documentation in the archives. http://www.netset.com/~baldrick/stik2.html Mountain Video Editing Software FREE! Remi Vanel (vanel@club-internet.fr) announced on comp.sys.atari.st ... Mountain, my video editing software for 68030 computers is now free ! Go and get it at http://tntmag.free.fr. It's a french version, if you want an english free version please ask me, it's not so difficult to do. If some one is interested by the sources : contact me ! enjoy. Remi. Update:For the moment, just download the english demo version at http://tntmag.atari.org/mounta32.htm and start building your projects. I hope I could make an english full version for next week. Magic 6.20 For All Systems Released ASH has released a free update to all versions of the Magic operating system (MagiC Atari, MagiC Milan, MagiC Mac and MagiC PC). The update is in zip file format and contains long file names, so you need to unarchive it onto a partition with long file name support. The update has added MiNT compatibility as well as a large number of Bug fixes. URL: http://www.application-systems.de/ Aniplayer 2001 v2.17 Released Changes from online documentation, V2.17 August 2001: Fix minimum X,Y of popup-menus. It's only possible to use MPEG frequency for LAME_ENC.SLB (8000,11025,12000,16000,22050,24000,32000,44100,48000 Hz), so now there is a test for remove the message 'buffer too small'. The player choose the frequency near +/- 5% than the audio source, out of this window there is a new error message. Fix the frequency selection inside the MP3 export box. Fix the calcul of size for the screen buffer on the FALCON and the 'without GEM' mode, risk of crash for videos > 320 x 240. Fix system locked during the last block played in D2D with the XBIOS sound functions (possible with MagiCMac and MacSound). Fix the window redraw in 32K/65K colors when the window is in background (problem under MagiCMac, hades, etc... not on FALCON). Fix test for the free ST-RAM under MagiCMac (ST-RAM is not required for sound). An error message "Not enough memory for sound" was possible. Fix the saturation of sound possible with MPEG Audio layer 1,2,3 files without DSP. Fix crash possible of the VDI, when ignore is selected inside the error message "Unknown compression type", zone of display null in this case. Fix display of JPEG monochromes pictures for screen in 16M colors. The size of ID3 tag for MPEG Audio files is not limited to 16 KB. Unknown compression type The directory of Aniplayer is not send to the system if the SLB is not found in the same directory, because the variable SLBPATH not worked under MiNT. The slider of the main window is displayed during the repetition of the rew and ff buttons. The zoom 2X without GEM isn't limited to 320 x 240 pixels. Add automatic delay for pictures (up to 50 frames) for play correctly some movies AVI or QuickTime who the sound was late in comparison with pictures. This delay works only when 'Skip images' is checked. Add shared library JPEG from libjpeg 6 of the Independent JPEG Group (www.ijg.org) for the JPEG export in the save image box and the display of progressive JPEG. You must install the shared library JPG.SLB on your system: MiNT 1.15.3 or MagiC 6 or MetaDOS 2.74 (or more). Atari Times Update This week at http://www.ataritimes.com: * NEW! Brian Rittmeyer's Killer App * NEW! Kasumi Ninja Review * NEW! Dear Fruitman... * NEW! Site Spotlight! * Revisit the Malibu Bikini Volleyball Review * Don't forget to check out Cousin Vinnie's Tower Toppler Contest! * Help needed with the Atari Lynx book! http://www.ataritimes.com/lynx/features/fea_lynxbook.html See you there! STiK2 v2.02 Released New version of STiK2 is up on the STiK2 site. New Support for Dynamic DNS addressing. This should hopefully make a few people happy. How to use new DNS feature. 1. Must be using PPP to connect 2. Change your NAMESERVER variable line to read as follows NAMESERVER = 0.0.0.0 !!!!! THE LAST NAMESERVER ENTRY MUST BE 0.0.0.0 IF YOU WISH TO HAVE THE ISP GIVE YOU A DNS ADDRESS !!!!! Sorry about the yelling. ;) Let me know if any problems are encountered with this. Dan Ackerman aka baldrick Stik 2 Download page:http://www.netset.com/~baldrick/stikdl.html CD Writer Suite v3.2 Is Now Available Anodyne Software is pleased to announce that CD Writer Suite v3.2 is now available. New features in this update are: . creation of audio CDs from MP3 files . backup of large partitions on multiple CDs . CDextra support . 6x writing speed on Centurbo . many other enhancements and bug fixes. Registered users of CD Writer Suite can upgrade at no cost from Anodyne Software web site at http://www.cyberus.ca/~anodyne =~=~=~= PEOPLE ARE TALKING compiled by Joe Mirando joe@atarinews.org Hidi ho friends and neighbors. I don't know about you, but I can't figure out where the summer went. Sure, there were some hot days (quite hot, in fact), but it seems like summer just started. Now we're looking "down the barrel" of Labor Day... the end of summer. Perhaps it's because I'm getting... umm, more mature... but the seasons seem to be passing more and more quickly. I can remember my grandmother saying that everything happens in the blink of an eye, but as you get older, you blink more often. She was full of confusing sayings like that. Some of them were really quite humorous (Save your money... some day it may be worth something), some were oxymorons (That's the price you pay for living in a free country), and some were just too silly to remember. But she had a way of putting things in perspective. She never finished high school, and freely admitted to not knowing how most of the modern world worked, but she was at peace with the way things were. She knew that the simple things in life were usually the most worthwhile. Her one real vise was playing bingo. Perhaps it's because it was a simple game of chance that required no special knowledge or skill, or maybe it was just a good way to get out of the house for a while and spend some time doing something she enjoyed doing just because she enjoyed doing it. I think we could all learn a lesson from that kind of thinking. Sometimes you just NEED to do something just for the sake of doing it. The heck with "result-oriented" thinking, bottom lines, and deadlines. For some, work in the yard is the ticket... laying sod, planting flowers and shrubs, and things like that. That's too much like physical labor for me. My current project is making a telescope. It's not hard physical work, and it's not terribly hard on the brain, but it gives me satisfaction.... a release from the day-to-day stuff that becomes the background noise of our lives. Labor Day is a good chance to kick back and relax, and most of us here in the states will do just that. So, by all means, enjoy the long weekend, but please do it responsibly. There are few enough of us computer renegades around as it is without losing anyone to senseless accidents because someone got behind the wheel after one beer too many. Remember... the life you save may be MINE! Well, let's get to the news, hints, tips, and info to be found on the UseNet. From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup ==================== Last week we talked a bit about DTP on a Falcon. This week, Clayton Murray posts: "Pagestream does have a postscript driver with it. I just got a Ricoh AP2100 laser printer, and thought I wouldn't be able to use it with my Atari, but I saw a PS driver in Pagestream. I tried it out, and I'm able to print Pagestream documents fine. The Ricoh has PCL-5e, PCL6, and Postscript compatibility. Maybe some other printers don't have the PS compatibility. Oh, the Ricoh AP2100 is only MONO. I know people have been talking about COLOR printing. Hope that helps, or at least provides fuel for more discussion." James Alexander tells Clayton: "I've done a similar thing by printing postscript to disk and printing it on the lasers at college. That's one really good feature I like with the pagestream drivers. the ability to produce files to different devices, not to the printer port only." Artur Stachon posts his thoughts about how Atari could live on: "I would be happy if we could use ppc g4 or Athlon/Duron cpu for a new Atari. At home I use Amd Duron 600mhz overclocked to 1030mhz. It cost me all $500 (20gb 7200hd, 256pc 133 ram, geforce2 video card, etc...) 2 months ago. Recently Abit kt133 motherboard with duron 600 sold on ebay for $79. That's exactly what I'm using at home. Right now on Ebay Intel PIII 1ghz sells for $200 US alone. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1268020728 This Abit/duron combo (overclocked to 1030mhz) for $79 that sold a few days ago is faster than that 1ghz intel cpu alone which costs at this time $200 US. My point is, we could have a really cheap and powerful Atari computer right at this moment. So far we have a REALLY GOOD operating system MagiC. All we now need is a good motherboard design with a good controller/drivers and fast cpu (forget coldfire or 060). I am sick of my win98 booting 1:15 min. I had 2 Falcons, 2ste's, 1stfm, 1 atari 65xe. And I was always fascinated by Atari OS. MagiC is the best OS. Very neat looking and fast. Well, I don't want to buy Falcon anymore, I need something faster than 16 mhz :) Any new Atari above 600Mhz and I'll be the first one to buy it." Jeff Armstrong posts a question about NVDI and AtariWorks: "Hey everyone! I recently purchased NVDI for my TT. I am using an Atari SLM804 printer on my system. Anyway, my word processor is AtariWorks and I'm trying to print using NVDI. The laser printer is set up as my default. When I print, the TT completely halts. So I went ahead and changed the atari laser printer to unit 21 in ASSIGN.SYS to try and fix the problem. This didn't work either. Does anyone have any ideas about this? If there isn't a fix, which I'm guessing there isn't, are there any other english modern word processors for the Atari? I can't use Papyrus under my setup for some reason, it just halts the system. And I don't like the idea of their online manual system." John Nicholas Oakes tells Jeff: "I also use NVDI5 and Atariworks and Papyrus4 with a HPDJ600. Check that your configuration in the cpx has a cache settings over 250k or 512k. For Papyrus check your allocated memory and printing cache are enough, adjust accordingly and save all setting always." Jim DeClercq adds: "There just has to be a fix. I have a TT, an SLM804, NVDI, and use WordPlus as my typing program, and have no mysterious problems. Maybe that is because I had NVDI before I got an SLM804. If all else fails, reload NVDI." Jeff now posts: "I think when I posted my problem, I didn't give enough detail about what happens. I do appreciate all the suggestions so far and I have tried most of them to no avail. When I'm using AtariWorks, I go to the file menu and select "Print..." This causes some hard disk noise and the busy light on the SLM804 controller blinks twice. Then a bus error occurs, crashing AtariWorks. So I'm not sure that the size of the caches would be the problem since I can't even get to the print dialog. I do believe that the Diablo emulator might be loaded, but I'm not sure. THis might cause problems. I want to point out, though, that other programs using NVDI, such as Kandinsky and GEMGraph, can print under my setup. I'm really at a loss here. I do appreciate all the help so far!" Ken Springer tells Jeff: "Watch the monitor during boot up. It will tell you if the emulator does not load and if the SLM is not found. I don't know about AtariWorks, but you do not need the emulator for Papyrus and NVDI. NVDI has it's own SLM driver." Well folks, that's it for this week. I know it's short, but with the long weekend, I figure that you'd rather be out at a barbecue than reading this. Have a good time, and be responsible enough for the other guy too. See ya next week. Until then, keep your ears open so that you'll hear with they're saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING =~=~=~= ->In This Week's Gaming Section - Tony Hawk! Soul Reaver 2! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sega Games For Handhelds! JagFests Revisited! And more! =~=~=~= ->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. Ships `NFL QB Club 2002' This Week for PlayStation 2 Lining up at retail in time for the first snap of the NFL's 2001 season, Acclaim Entertainment, announced that this week it will ship NFL QB Club 2002 for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. The latest offering from the Company's successful gridiron franchise, NFL QB Club 2002 is the only football video game to include the exclusive ``Quarterback Challenge" mode, which allows players to compete in the real events that the NFL's top quarterbacks do each year in Hawaii. NFL QB Club 2002 is being supported by an integrated national marketing campaign and expected to be available at retail outlets nationwide on Friday, September 7, 2001. ``With its true-to-life, TV-style presentation and authentic NFL action, NFL QB Club 2002 takes gamers into the huddles and end zones for countless hours of football fun on the PlayStation«2," said Steve Felsen, Senior Director of Brand. ``We're thrilled to bring our NFL QB Club franchise to the next-generation platforms and deliver a product that is sure to score with football fans." ``NFL QB Club 2002 is as close as you can get to dropping back into the pocket and leading an offensive drive down field," said Brett Favre, Acclaim's official NFL QB Club 2002 spokesperson and 3-time NFL MVP. ``I'm sure players will especially enjoy the `QB Challenge' mode, which is one of my favorite events to compete in every year." Developed by Acclaim's Austin Studio, NFL QB Club 2002 delivers the ultimate football simulation, with state-of-the-art graphics, realistic gameplay and intuitive controls. NFL QB Club 2002 is the only football game to feature the exclusive ``QB Challenge" mode, which includes four head-to-head events: speed and mobility, accuracy, long-distance throw and read and recognition. In addition, the game will include an array of exciting features, including: -- Exclusive Quarterback Club license, allowing players to access current and retired members, such as John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young, Jim Kelly and Phil Simms; -- All 31 NFL clubs, uniforms and stadiums; -- More than 1,500 NFL players; -- Innovative precision defensive play calling, allowing players to create more than 300 different play combinations; -- Play-by-play from Kevin Harlan and color commentary from Bill Maas; -- More than 1,500 all-new, motion-captured animations for seamless action on the field; -- Real-life player facial textures for more than 350 starting NFL players; -- Realistic player models, featuring blinking eyes, jaw motions and facial expressions; -- Five modes of play: Practice, Exhibition, Season, Playoffs and Quarterback Challenge; -- TV-style presentation. NFL QB Club 2002 will be available nationwide on Friday, September 7, 2001, for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system at a suggested retail price of $49.99. In addition, Acclaim is promoting the game with a sweepstakes contest, and will be giving away a grand prize of a trip to the 2002 NFL Quarterback Challenge on the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii. For more information about NFL QB Club 2002, please visit www.acclaimsports.com. Top-Selling Sports Franchise Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Rides Onto Nintendo 64 Platform Tony Hawk's winning run continues with the release of Activision Inc.'s highly anticipated Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Nintendo 64. The game, which is currently available on North American retail shelves, allows players to skate as the legendary pro skater, Tony Hawk, performing hundreds of real-world tricks through authentic locations. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 has been rated ``E" (``Everyone" - content suitable for persons ages 6 and older - Comic Mischief, Mild Lyrics, Mild Violence) by the ESRB, and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99. ``Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Nintendo 64 takes skateboarding to the next level for N64 gamers with updated graphics, player modes and unique customization features," said Dave Stohl, vice president, North American Studios. ``The game features enhanced skating physics that lets players pull off new moves and trick combos." Developed by Edge of Reality, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 features the franchise's signature control scheme as they link an increased number of tricks and combinations, including new grabs, grinds, inverts, manuals, lip and nollie tricks. In addition to Tony Hawk, players can ride like one of 12 other skaters including Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Rune Glifberg, Eric Koston, Bucky Lasek, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Elissa Steamer and Jamie Thomas in the ultimate skating adventure ever to come to the N64. Players can show off their skills in international skate parks including Marseilles, New York, Philadelphia and Skate Street in Ventura. Each park is packed with ramps, rails, fun boxes and other objects that allow the player to trick off of just about everything in sight. Adding to the game's replayability, the 3D skate park editor allows players to build their own dream parks from scratch, with a variety of ramps, rails, pipes and fun boxes to choose from. Players can see, in real-time, exactly how the park will look, and can even test ride the park in various stages of development. Gamers can also canvas their own personality onto the virtual landscape with the new create-a-skater feature. This tool allows them to choose such characteristics as weight, height, dress, board type, tricks and skating skills. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 allows players to compete against each other in the original modes of Trick Attack, Graffiti, and Horse plus the newly added Tag Mode. In addition, the new multiplayer contest disciplines of Regular and Best Trick allow 1-8 players to take turns skating heats in the competition levels of the game. Eidos' Highly Anticipated Soul Reaver 2 Selected as PlayStation 2 Exclusive Eidos Interactive announced that Soul Reaver 2, the follow-up release to the 1.5 million-unit-selling video game Soul Reaver, will be released exclusively for the PlayStation 2 in North America. As the third installment in the Legacy of Kain series, Soul Reaver 2 is slated to hit store shelves this Fall. ``We are pleased to be able to continue our strong partnership with Eidos Interactive, built through the success of popular PlayStation franchises such as Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain," said Andrew House, Senior Vice President, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. ``As PlayStation 2 penetration continues to reach unprecedented levels in all markets worldwide, consumers will welcome new installments of these popular franchises, like the upcoming release of the platform-exclusive Soul Reaver 2. Supported by SCEA's co-marketing program, Soul Reaver 2 promises to deliver an unrivalled gaming experience, making it a perfect companion for PlayStation 2." ``Soul Reaver 2's selection as a PlayStation 2 exclusive proves the strength and consumer popularity of the Legacy of Kain brand," said Rob Dyer, President of Eidos Interactive. ``Soul Reaver 2 elevates the entire series through its deep storyline, award-winning voice-acting, and advanced streaming engine technology that showcases the capabilities of the PlayStation 2 hardware." Soul Reaver 2 begins precisely where the critically-acclaimed original title left off, with Raziel emerging from the Chronoplast time portal, and returning to different eras of Nosgoth's past in his relentless pursuit of Kain. Over the course of his journey, he unearths the mysteries of Nosgoth's ancient races, and exposes the secrets behind the corruption of the Pillars and the vampire genocide. Confronting the shadows of an unremembered past, Raziel discovers a web of destiny stretching eons into Nosgoth's dim, unrecorded history. As his destiny comes full circle, he finds his personal vendetta transformed into a hero's journey, with the fate of Nosgoth hanging in the balance. Gamers will encounter all new enemies while playing Soul Reaver 2, including vampire hunters, Sarafan warrior-priests, spectral spirits, undead warriors and extra-dimensional demons. The game boasts immersive, gothic realms featuring highly detailed architecture, enhanced graphics and engaging storylines all tailor-made for the PlayStation 2. Soul Reaver 2 boasts several new technical advancements that ensure fluid and realistic gameplay. Clearly apparent is the constant 60 frames-per-second frame-rate delivering a smooth gaming experience. The Soul Reaver 2 game engine can display 30 times more graphic detail than its predecessor -- the architecture alone features up to ten times more polygonal detail when compared to the original Soul Reaver, and the character models are five to six times more intricate. The addition of real-time inverse kinematics to the animation engine ensures that Raziel always interacts realistically with his environment, regardless of the terrain. Crystal Dynamics utilizes streaming engine technology, which makes for no load times in Soul Reaver 2. Finally, the game features an all-new combat system, providing Raziel with new fighting moves and improved enemy artificial intelligence (AI). Sega in Pact to Bring Games to Handheld PCs Game maker Sega Corp. and software developer Synovial Inc. of America on Thursday announced a deal that will this year bring classic Sega games such as ``Sonic The Hedgehog" to handheld computers. Under the deal, Sega of America, the U.S. unit of Japan's Sega, will license its game content to privately held Synovial. The first product derived from the alliance is Virtual Game Gear, software that resurrects Sega's defunct Game Gear handheld game system on devices powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC operating system (OS), such as Compaq Computer Corp's iPAQ. Synovial said the Virtual Game Gear software and games will be embedded into new Pocket PC computers sold later this year, and users will eventually have the option buy additional games. Sega, which earlier this year unplugged its gaming hardware business to focus on making software, said the partnership marks the first time its game content will appear on a personal digital assistant, or PDA, in the U.S. Sega on Thursday said it continues to work on creating games for Palm Inc.'s Palm OS, the most popular handheld computer operating system and chief rival to Pocket PC. But few details have emerged regarding the timing or scope of those Palm-based products. Some 350 games were developed by both Sega and third party software makers for Sega Game Gear, which was unveiled in 1991. When introduced, Synovial's Virtual Game Gear will allow Pocket PCs to simulate the same ``gaming experience" that consumers enjoyed on Game Gear, the company said. =~=~=~= ->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr! """"""""""""""""""" JagFest, A Look Back (A retrospect of the past 4 years events) By Daniel M. Iacovelli (This article was originally written for the Jagfest 2001 program which is available at GoatStore.com, however, due to length extranets it got cut down to a one-page article leaving out some the good parts. So as a favor to the Jaguar fest attendees and those who didn't attend I have decided to reprint the article as written uncut and complete. Enjoy!! ) If some would have asked me back in 1997 (when the first Jagfest was held in Rosemont, IL) if this event would be Continued in the coming years, I would have probably said no. But looking how popular this event has got with help from hobbyist and developers like Carl Forhan and Scott Walters. Than you add the popular game that the whole Jaguar community has been waiting for "BattleSphere" and then you have a whole different story. Atari Video club was involved in about every fest with the exception of fest 2000 (although we did make the fest issue for that year). The following is a retrospect article that looks back at the fest since the first one: Jagfest 1997,the one that started the whole thing ,held in Rosemont, Illinois on 7/19/1997. This also marked the first ever Jagfest issue for the Atari Video Club. AVC also had the honor of holding pre-fest dinner at a local Burger king in Melrose Park,IL the night before. Jagfest'97 official hosts were: Jeff Grimshaw, Kevin Manne and Wes Powell (with Chad Ridgeway maintaining the first fest website). Highlights of this event was seeing Battlesphere being played in a network play (this was before it was finished), hearing Tom Harker talk about Battlesphere and AirCars, hearing that a new company called Visual Dimensions 3D was interested in making games for the Jaguar and Lynx. Besides the games I mentioned a couple of Telegames games were also being shown like World Tour racing, even though Carl Forhan wasn't even known back then as he is now. He had somebody show off his new lynx games Ponx, SFX and Planar Wars. Some com-lynx gaming was going on with War Birds and Cal. Games. We even got to see the first Movie by Fard. I didn't stay long though I had to leave at 4pm. I estimated about 40 people have attended for this event. Jagfest 1998, held in Corfu, NY on 8/1/98,hosted by Kevin Manne and Dave Homenuck. (Chad was again in charge of the fest site). I wasn't able to attend this event but I appointed Dane Stegman as AVC representative for the fest. It also marked the first Atari mania competition for the fest (The second annual Jagfest issue was also available). Highlights: Battlesphere and Air cars were again back for showing. Other new games were being shown: Worms, Iron Soldier 2, and Zero 5. This year also marked the first of Jag fest tourneys (scheduling problems made tourneys impossible to hold last year with exception of a pong tourney between Kevin and Wes). The tourneys are as followed: Tempest 2k (which was used for the Atari Mania competition which was won by Wes Powell),Super Burnout (won by Wes Powell), Ultra Vortek (another tourney won by Wes), and Psychedelic Pong Championship (won by Kevin Mosley). Jaguar dealers were allowed at this event like Dantec and Dark Knight games. (TNT Terry for the Lynx was also being shown, as well as Gorf 2k on a modified BJL jaguar) Attendance for this event was estimated at 40 to 50 people. Jagfest 1999, held in Rochester, MN, on 6/18/99, and hosted by Carl Forhan (Songbird Productions) and Miach Rowe (AKA ET Hunter on JI). Carl also did the Web site for this fest and Kevin Manne set up a main page for Jagfest in general (the old fest site from the first year got changed into this one). AVC was able to attend this one, but we did have two major problems: 1. Due to printing problems copies of the fest issue weren't available but were displayed and requests were being taken at the fest for them and 2. due to scheduling problems with Carl and myself, AVC's annual Atari Mania competition for the fest had been dropped and later used as a on-line competition. Highlights: BattleSphere (again), Protector and Sky Hammer made its official appearance at the fest ,Gorf 2k on a BJL was being run. The tourney that was held as follows: Tempest 2000, Breakout 2000, Zero Five (which was won by Clay hands down) and a couple of 2600 and 7800 tourneys. Dealers were also welcome to the fest besides Songbird, Zentanyx Multimedia, plus some others but weren't able to attend. As for the Atari Mania competition it was won by Ratko Jovivic. The attendance for this event was estimated at 40 to 60 people. Jagfest 2k, held in Austin, Texas on 6/24/2k, hosted by Tim Wilson and OMC Games. AVC was planning to attend this event but due to printing problems with the fest issue (which was printed on 8/15/2k) and travel problems we were unable to attend. Also as far I know that some tourneys were being played at this fest. As for what was being played, I don't know (There was no Atari mania competition). Highlights:(Battlesphere again), Brett Hull hockey proto, Total Carnage proto, Phase Zero proto, Slam Racer, Sky Hammer, Hyper Force, and Protector. Attendance for this event was estimated at 15 to 30 people. Euro-Jagfest 2k, held in Germany on 11/12/2k, hosted by Lars Hannig and Diederik van Dijk. This was being the first ever fest for overseas Atari gamers it turned out to be large. (There was no fest issue for the Euro fest since AVC only handles US fests). Some tourneys were being played as well. Highlights of this first Euro-Fest were: Battlesphere (of course), Protector, Sky Hammer, Soccer kid and even a Nuon system. Attendance for this event was estimated at 20+ people. Which now brings us to this years Fest being subtitled Beyond Tempest (btw: fest'99 was subtitled as Celebrate Atari) hosted by Goat Store (Dan Loosen and Gary Heil) and co-hosted by Dan Iacovelli (Atari Video Club chairperson), Randy Femrite (Webmaster of The Atari Jaguar Directory) and Fard Muhammad (AKA The Ultimate Atarian). We hope you enjoyed this year's fest (details in last week's issue of A-ONE). =~=~=~= A-ONE's Headline News The Latest in Computer Technology News Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Intel Hits 2 Gigahertz Milestone, Slashes Prices Intel Monday passed the two gigahertz speed milestone with a new Pentium processor and slashed prices in cuts quickly matched by rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The new processor pushes Intel, which was beaten to the one-gigahertz milestone last March by AMD, further ahead in the battle for faster computer chips, dangling new bait to get consumers to snap up new computers despite economic lethargy. The chip rivals, caught in a price war, dropped prices over the weekend as deep as 54 percent for Intel's 1.8 gigahertz processor and 49 percent for AMD's 1.4 gigahertz chip. While AMD's fastest chip falls short of 2 gigahertz -- or 2 billion cycles per second -- the company has said its chips are more efficient than Intel's and can be faster even at lower clock speeds. Clock speed is only one factor in chip power. Intel said it was tops. ``Is a P4 the fastest thing on the planet? Yes, unquestionably across the board. And it will get faster and faster and faster," said Louis Burns, general manager of Intel's desktop platforms group, speaking at the launch. He also said Intel would start supporting lower priced memory with a new ``chip set" for the Pentium 4 in a couple of weeks. ``We didn't just cut prices. We accelerated the roadmap dramatically. Our factories are cranking," Burns said. The Intel announcement, made in advance of its semiannual technical conference, comes amid slumping business for makers of personal computers, which have cut prices and offered extra features in order to induce sales. ``They want to make the Pentium 4 a much better value compared to AMD," ahead of the busy fourth quarter, holiday shopping season, said Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Edelstone. Intel's factories could meet weak demand -- the question is whether the faster chip will catalyze buyers, he said. ``The economy is soft, unemployment is increasing and there certainly is a risk that consumer demand in any big ticket item ends up disappointing," Edelstone said. Consumers have slowed computer purchases, in part because of a lack of applications for ever more powerful versions, although Intel's Burns said the October that introduction of Microsoft Corp.'s new operating systems, Windows XP, would give buyers two good reasons to act. Computer makers rushed to incorporate the two gigahertz chip in their product lines. Following Intel's announcement, No. 1 PC maker Dell Computer Corp. and rivals said they would use the chip in arrays of PCs. Ather Haidri, head of the Hewlett-Packard Co. business-oriented Vectra line of PCs, said many businesses would wait for a new configuration of the Pentium 4, which would use SDRAM memory, a cheaper alternative to high-performance RDRAM. Intel will ship the new chip set in a couple of weeks rather than late this year as it once expected. ``Because of the costs associated with SDRAM, that mainstream volume will switch to P4 technology with that introduction this fall," Haidri said. Price cuts will bring a new Pentium 4 system to less than $1,000 by the end of the year, he forecast, matching estimates by Intel. The Pentium 4 chip will be sold for $562 each in 1,000 unit quantities, Intel said. A chip that runs at 1.9 gigahertz, also introduced Monday, will be sold for $375. In March 2000, AMD and Intel reached a milestone in the development of computer technology by building microchips that run at a billion cycles per second, or one gigahertz. Intel's Burns said the Pentium architecture could be stretched up to speeds of 10 gigahertz in the next 5 to 10 years. The company also expects to start mass-producing wider and thinner sheets of silicon next year that will allow it to increase production. Morgan Stanley's Edelstone said that AMD would probably hit a 3 gigahertz ceiling with its current architecture next year. That would open the door for Intel to tout its clock speeds. ``Clearly, Intel is going to play the Megahertz game," he said. Pentium 4 To Reach Notebooks Next Year Intel will bring the Pentium 4 to the notebook market in the first half of next year and then follow a year later with Banias, a new portable chip the company says will greatly increase battery life. More speed and less power are the themes dominating Intel's chip strategy in portables. The Pentium 4 will run at more than 1.5GHz when it emerges next year and hit 2GHz by the end of 2002, Frank Spindler, vice president of Intel's mobile products division, said during a keynote address Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum. Then, in the first half of 2003, the company will debut Banias, which will contain a number of new power-management features that will allow for all-day battery life. One feature, for instance, will shut off subsections of the chip when not in use. Right now, electricity runs to most subsections of PC processors even if the particular subsection is not in use. With Banias, only those parts needed at a given time will get juiced. Banias chips will also come with a function called Micro-ops fusion. Under this technology, different processor operations are fused early in the computing process, which cuts down the number of instructions-- and hence work--a chip has to execute. Banias engineers are also redesigning individual transistors to reduce power consumption. Both chips will find their way to the mainstream of the notebook market, he added. "You will see Pentium 4 in 5- to 6-pound notebooks when it comes out next year," said Spindler. "The mobile Pentium 4 will include all of the features of the desktop Pentium 4." Banias, too, will likely be a mainstream technology. Earlier, analysts predicted the chip might be confined to the mini-notebook segment. Often, energy-efficient chips get relegated to specialty submarkets because they run at lower speeds than standard notebook chips. Spindler, however, stated that Banias will "play a broad and signficant role in the mobile market." The techniques developed with Banias will also likely migrate to other chips, other Intel executives have said. Besides processors, notebook designers and component makers will continue to try to conserve power by tweaking other parts. Next year, for instance, Intel will come out with the 830 chipset. The 830 integrates a graphics chip into the chipset, which connects the processor to other components. The chipset currently consumes about 13 percent of the power needed to run a notebook, while the graphics chip eats up 14 percent. Integration will substantially decrease power consumption, Spindler said. Display makers and hard drive manufacturers are also working on power conservation. Overall, 30 percent of active power consumption can probably be reduced, said Spindler. Microsoft Releases Explorer 6.0 The latest version of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser, made available for free download Monday, is drawing protests because it doesn't support two rival products commonly used on Web sites. Internet Explorer 6.0 will not automatically support the embattled Java programming language or Netscape-style ``plug-ins," though users and developers will have tools to make the browser compatible with those products. Microsoft decided to dropped support for the plug-ins - additional software that lets users play music, watch videos or perform other tasks - in favor of Microsoft technology called ActiveX. Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said the move was for increased security. The change means that certain programs, most notably QuickTime, will not work unless the Web site developer changes the code to meet Microsoft's requirements. Rob Enderle, who follows Microsoft for Giga Information Systems, said the company probably decided to make the change because it was becoming more costly to support Netscape-style plug-ins. Although some users and developers complained that they weren't given enough lead time to update their systems, Enderle said he doubted the move would have a major effect on users. He also doubted the company was trying to gain an edge over QuickTime, a music and video player made by Apple that competes with Microsoft's Windows Media Player. ``If it was just a QuickTime move they would have done it in such a way that QuickTime stayed broken," Enderle said. A legal settlement with Java creator Sun Microsystems earlier this year kept Microsoft from including new versions of the Java support in its system, and the software giant responded by dropping Java completely. Now, users will have to download a patch to see Web pages made using Java, unless they are upgrading from a previous version of Internet Explorer. Sun, angered over the change, has been trying to rally support among users to force Microsoft to reinstate some sort of Java support in its system. The free version of Internet Explorer 6.0 is virtually the same browser users will find in Windows XP, the forthcoming version of the company's desktop operating system, Cullinan said. The company is touting such user-friendly features as the ability to easily download and print pictures off Web pages and play music and videos. The browser also will have added security. The final code for Windows XP, due out in October, was shipped to manufacturers Friday for mass production. That move prompted the company to provide Internet Explorer 6.0 for download, the company said in a statement. Sun Shows New Version of StarOffice Sun Microsystems is showing Linux fans the next version of StarOffice, the most viable competition to Microsoft's Office package, and will release the beta version in October. Sun acquired StarOffice from Hamburg, Germany-based Star Division in 1999, and has made it available as a free download in an effort to undermine popular programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint that help to keep the Windows operating system dominant. The company also released the source code for the software under the General Public License ( GPL), the same license that allows anyone to see, modify and distribute Linux software. But the current version, 5.2, has been roundly criticized as a large and sluggish product. By default, the program tries to take over many desktop functions, coming with its own "Start" button and file browser, and all its programs load at once. Version 6.0 will break these programs into individual applications that can run independently, said software demonstrators at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo where the software has been demonstrated this week. Among those anticipating the new version is Matthew Szulik, chief executive of top Linux seller Red Hat, who stands to gain if Linux becomes more useful on ordinary computers. "I believe StarOffice 6.0 will be a compelling release," improving performance and manageability, Szulik said in an interview. The desktop feature, as well as an e-mail checking program, both will be removed from version 6.0. StarOffice 6.0, as with the current version, will run on Linux, Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows machines. Sun had been working on a Mac OS X version but canceled the plan. In April, Sun announced it was turning over the project to open-source programmers at the OpenOffice development site. "Sun firmly believes that there is enough support within the Mac OS X community to continue development on the port, and we invite Mac developers throughout the world to contribute their efforts to finishing the work that must be done to make this port a strong rival to other office software suites," Sun said at the time. A beta version of the software is scheduled to arrive in October, said Herb Hinsdorf, manager of Sun's Linux Program Office. The new version will also begin a switch to new, nonproprietary XML-based file formats that anyone can emulate. Because the inner workings of Microsoft file formats aren't published, it's difficult for companies to create "filters" that can read and write Microsoft files. Because of Microsoft's dominance in the office software market, file compatibility is key for any competitor. Though files can be read and written, the "macros"--small programs used to automate tasks in Microsoft Office--won't necessarily run in StarOffice, Sun said. By using a new compression scheme, StarOffice files will be about half the size as in version 5.2. Justice to Expedite Microsoft Case A federal judge called lawyers in the Microsoft antitrust case to a Sept. 21 hearing to set the stage for a new chapter in the protracted case. Citing the need to expedite the proceedings, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also ordered the Justice Department and Microsoft to file a joint report by Sept. 14 outlining proposals for bringing in new witnesses and seeking additional documents. The order was filed on Tuesday. Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee randomly selected by computer last week to preside over the landmark case, will determine what punishment Microsoft should face for illegally trying to squelch its competitors. She also will review whether Microsoft broke the law by bundling its Internet Explorer software with its Windows operating systems. Such decisions could prompt a new round of testimony and discovery. Both sides will report to Kollar-Kotelly what additional information they will seek from each other and when they hope to get it. ``We look forward to resolving the remaining issues in this case and will work with the government to respond to the court's order," Microsoft said in a statement. Justice Department lawyers also acted to move ahead. On Wednesday, the department filed a motion asking the judge to expedite a meeting between the two sides, a moot point since Kollar-Kotelly had already scheduled the meeting. A federal appeals court denied Microsoft's bid to delay the case and sent it back to the district court, where it was assigned to Kollar-Kotelly. She replaces Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who had ordered Microsoft to be split into two separate companies but was later removed from the case. An appeals court upheld his finding of antitrust violations but overturned his breakup order. Microsoft also has appealed to the Supreme Court. U.S. Urges High Court to Reject Microsoft Appeal The Justice Department on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Microsoft Corp.'s request for reconsideration of an appeals court ruling the company violated U.S. antitrust laws. The department said Microsoft had provided no good reason why the case should be reviewed. And it disputed the company's argument the initial ruling against the company should be disqualified because of misconduct of a lower-court judge. Microsoft's argument for Supreme Court review, ``rests squarely on a mischaracterization of the court of appeals' ruling," the Justice Department said. The department also said that, since Microsoft may later appeal other portions of the case, ``granting (a review) now would likely lead to multiple, piecemeal requests for review... ``The proceedings on remand should now go forward," the government's lawyers concluded. ``There is no warrant for further delay." The government's filing comes a week after the appeals court sent the case back to district court, where U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly will hold hearings to determine what sanctions should be imposed on Microsoft to prevent future abuse of its monopoly in personal computer operating systems. At issue in the Supreme Court appeal is Microsoft's contention the original ruling against the company, handed down last year by District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, was tainted because of Jackson's misconduct. Jackson gave secret press interviews before handing down the ruling. In them, he derided Microsoft executives and compared them to common criminals. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sharply rebuked Jackson in a June ruling and reversed his order that Microsoft be split in two. But the appeals judges unanimously upheld Jackson's ruling that Microsoft holds a monopoly in the PC operating systems market and used illegal tactics to defend it. In its subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court, Microsoft attorneys argued the appeals judges erred by refusing to throw out all of Jackson's conclusions. Responding Friday, the Justice Department argued that, under past legal precedent the appeals court was under no obligation to throw out Jackson's findings. ``There is no risk of injustice because there is no reason to suspect that the findings of fact were tainted. The court's findings were fair and thorough, virtually unchallenged by petitioner," the government said in its brief. The Justice Department also said it would be a mistake for the Supreme Court to review a portion of the case before the entire case has been resolved by the lower courts. The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to hear the case after the judges return from summer recess in October. On Wednesday, District Judge Kotelly ordered both sides to report on the remaining issues in the legal battle by Sept. 14 and scheduled a meeting on the case for Sept. 21. She will also consider whether the company violated the law by tying its Internet Explorer browser into the Windows operating system. Russian Programmer Indicted in California A Russian computer programmer and his employer have been charged with five counts of copyright violations for writing a program that let readers disable certain restrictions imposed by electronic-book publishers. If convicted, Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, could face up to five years in prison for each count in the federal indictment and fined $250,000. ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow could be fined $500,000 if convicted. Prosecutors said the indictment, announced Tuesday, was the first under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forbids technology that circumvents copyright protections. The indictment alleges that the programmer and the company conspired for ``commercial advantage and private financial gain." The closely watched electronic publishing case has generated international protests since Sklyarov was arrested in Las Vegas on July 16. He was preparing to return home to Moscow after speaking at a computer security convention. ElcomSoft's program is legal in Russia. Sklyarov's supporters say his work merely restores the ``fair use" privileges consumers have traditionally enjoyed under U.S. copyright law. Defense attorney Joseph Burton had been trying to work out a plea bargain. ``We were hopeful that the government would see the wisdom and justice in not pursuing a case against Sklyarov," Burton said. ``Even if one were to ignore the serious legal questions involving the (copyright protections), this case hardly cries out for criminal prosecution. Sklyarov's and ElcomSoft's actions are not conduct that Congress intended to criminalize." Sklyarov, who is free on $50,000 bail but must remain in Northern California, was to be arraigned Thursday. San Jose-based Adobe Systems had complained to the FBI that Sklyarov's employer was selling a program that let users manipulate Adobe's e-book software so the books could be read on more than one computer or transferred to someone else. However, Adobe dropped its support of the case on July 23. The indictment said ElcomSoft was culpable because it sold the program for $99 in the United States through an online payment service based in Issaquah, Wash., and with a Web site hosted in Chicago. It was not immediately clear how ElcomSoft would be tried in the case. Sklyarov is the only member of the company to have been arrested. The head of ElcomSoft, Vladimir Katalov, was quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency Wednesday as saying that he expected the indictment ``but still hoped that Dmitry would be left out of the court case." ``Proving Sklyarov's guilt will not be easy, but to let him go now would amount to admitting the illegality of his arrest," Katalov said. Critics of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act say it represses free speech and legitimate computer research. At least one lawsuit seeks to have aspects of the law declared unconstitutional. ``If there are legal things to do with the tool, then you don't ban the tool and you don't ban the person who came up with the tool," said Brad Templeton, chairman of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, an Internet civil liberties organization based in San Francisco. IE Unplugged Microsoft is treating its removal of plug-in support from Internet Explorer as a long-overdue bug fix. Larry Seltzer questions Microsoft's real motives for pulling the plugs. Some people like to complain about all the new features that come with new versions of software. Microsoft recently took the unusual step of removing a feature from Internet Explorer, but don't get the idea that they're doing us a favor. For many years, IE has supported Netscape-style plug-ins, which are client-side programs that can be invoked from a Web page using the EMBED tag. IE's support for ActiveX controls was always preferred, and ActiveX development was always more polished. There were a few cases of commercial applications available only in plug-in form and some other popular programming techniques that rely on plug-ins. But developers and users could always rely on IE supporting plug-ins. Not any more. News stories came out recently about Internet Explorer 6--the version that comes in Windows XP--and how it no longer supports plug-ins. (In fact, Service Pack 2 for Internet Explorer 5.5 also disables plug-in support in that browser.) I asked Microsoft why they would do such a thing. Their response, according to Waggener Edstrom, a PR firm representing Microsoft, was that they aren't saying why. They did say this: * Microsoft made the decision not to support old style Netscape plug-ins in IE 6.0 and IE 5.5. * Content creators can continue to create plug-in components that are built on ActiveX technologies, as has been the case since Internet Explorer 3. * Microsoft is continuing to work with key partners to ensure the best online experience for its customers. You'd think that supporting plug-ins was a mistake to begin with. But of course, their unwillingness to explain why they are removing plug-in support indicates that there's no good reason for it. They just don't want people writing or relying on plug-ins anymore. Microsoft's knowledge base article Q303401 gives some further explanation of the issue. A recent AP story in the Wall Street Journal quoted Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan as saying that removing plug-ins was intended to increase security, although the article doesn't elaborate on how it would increase security. The same story quoted Rob Enderle of Giga Information Systems as speculating that it had become "more costly to support Netscape-style plug-ins." Once again, there was no elaboration. Neither explanation makes sense to me, and if there really were a good reason I think Microsoft would have told me. Most of the press attention for loss of plug-in support has gone to Apple's QuickTime and Sun's Java Plug-in, but in fact these are small potatoes in terms of actual Web usage. By far the most popular use of a plug-in is for background sound. Have you ever gone to a Web page, probably of the "my first Web page" variety, and gotten an annoying jingle, probably a MIDI file, playing in the background? Such pages almost certainly use a plug-in. I know how I feel about pages like this, and it's tempting to think that doing away with such sounds is worth all the trouble caused by eliminating plug-ins, but I'll leave that judgment to historians. In the meantime, if you actually want to "fix" this on your own pages, you can use IE's proprietary BGSOUND tag. I look at QuickTime and Sun's Java Plug-in and I have to wonder why they never made an ActiveX control to begin with. They really should have considered this possibility. But very few sites use these controls, especially the Java plug-in, so few users will be inconvenienced. Microsoft's knowledge base article also lists Finale MusicViewer by Coda Music Technology, and AlternaTIFF by Medical Informatics Engineering. Within a couple of months all of these vendors will offer ActiveX versions, Web pages will be updated to use them, and the issue will be done with, but some people will have another reason to resent Microsoft. It's worth pointing out that Microsoft is hardly the first company to remove a widely implemented browser feature. Netscape 6 abandoned proprietary models for layers and other features that began in Netscape 4. There are still a lot of Web pages out there that use these features. Luckily for developers, nobody in the real world actually uses Netscape 6. Over the long term, Microsoft treats developers really well. I honestly think this is the single biggest reason for their success. It's rare that they do something like this that inconveniences absolutely everyone, including users and developers, as well as some competitors. And it's one thing for them to make a change like this in a new major version of the product, but to do so to an existing version and through a service pack is quite inconsiderate. Service packs are supposed to be for bug fixes. If plug-ins are a bug that they just fixed, they should at least come out and say it. But Microsoft's silence on their reasons for killing off plug-ins says all that needs to be said. Michael L. Dertouzos, 64, Computer Visionary, Dies Michael L. Dertouzos, a computer scientist with a knack for explaining the ways that high technology affects people's lives, died on Monday night in Boston. He was 64. The cause of death is unknown, pending an autopsy. Mr. Dertouzos, a faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1964, became the director of the institute's Laboratory for Computer Sciences in 1974. Under his leadership, the laboratory developed many of the technologies that underlie today's computers, including one of the best-known methods for scrambling data, the RSA encryption system, and innovations that helped bring the World Wide Web into popular use. Charles M. Vest, the president of M.I.T., described Mr. Dertouzos as "larger than life," saying: "He was at once a leader, builder, visionary and caring human being. Few individuals have so personally and profoundly shaped their institutions and professional fields." Mr. Dertouzos was instrumental in creating a home within his labs for the World Wide Web Consortium, a forum of companies and organizations that promotes the development of the Web. He recruited Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, to the labs. Though he worked in some of the highest realms of computer science, Mr. Dertouzos always insisted that technology be designed to serve people and not the other way around. In 1999, for example, the labs announced the "Oxygen Project," a $50 million effort undertaken with the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to make computers easier to use, the institute said, and "as natural a part of our environment as the air we breathe." Mr. Berners-Lee, in a tribute posted on the Web (www.w3.org/People/ Berners-Lee/2001/MLD.html), wrote, "Michael had been promoting the vision of the information marketplace long before the Web came along." In the tribute, Mr. Berners-Lee recalled Mr. Dertouzos's ability to cut through confusion to get things done. It was early in the life of his fledgling organization, and he recalled that the small group was "frankly quite adrift." At that moment, he recalled, Mr. Dertouzos "took us in hand" and held "one dramatic eight-hour meeting in which the mission, goals and structure of the team was in place, and everything looked at once logical and possible." In an interview yesterday, Mr. Berners-Lee recalled his friend as being "very effective but unbelievably human and warm at the end of the day, and much more interested in the human than in the project." Michael Leonidas Dertouzos (pronounced der-TOO-zohs) was born in Athens on Nov. 5, 1936. His father was an admiral in the Greek navy, and his mother was a concert pianist. Although he recalled dreaming of going to M.I.T. as a young man, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the University of Arkansas, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees. He worked briefly at Baldwin Piano and then entered the M.I.T. doctorate program, earning the degree in 1964; he never left. During the Carter administration, Mr. Dertouzos was chairman of a White House advisory group that helped to redesign computer networks there, and represented the United States in a delegation to the 1995 G-7 Conference on the Information Society. He was co-chairman of the World Economic Forum on the Network Society in Davos, Switzerland, in 1998. In his free time, he was an avid sailor and woodworker. Mr. Dertouzos, a resident of Weston, Mass., married Hadwig Gofferje in 1961. They divorced in 1993. In 1998 he married Catherine Liddell, who survives him. He is also survived by two children, Alexandra Dertouzos Rowe and Leonidas M. Dertouzos of Boston, and a granddaughter. A scientist in his own right, Mr. Dertouzos held patents on such inventions as a thermal printer, a graphical display system and a graphic tablet. He also tried to communicate his vision of science and technology to a broader audience in eight books, including his last, "The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us" (Harper-Collins), which was published this year. He foresaw technological change in his books and speeches. In 1976, he predicted that there would be a personal computer in one of every three homes by the mid-1990's, and described the vast online information marketplace that the Internet would become in antediluvian 1980. "He is one of the truly articulate spokesmen for the field," said David D. Clark, a senior research scientist at the laboratory. "It's a big loss for us, because there are very few people who had their arms so much around what our field is, and what it should aspire to be." In "The Unfinished Revolution," Mr. Dertouzos sought an elusive harmony between technology and humanity. He wrote that intractable problems like the ethics of genetic engineering, school violence everything from choosing a school to running a nation would require the kind of thinking that transcended "pure technology" and "pure faith." He wrote, "We need to bring these back together if we want to find our way through the maze of an increasingly complex world." Bridging that gap is difficult, he wrote, but essential. "We will be better off and we will be finishing the ultimate Unfinished Revolution," he wrote, "if we reach for these goals using all our human dimensions in concert, standing once again in awe before the sunset, the wheel, and what may lie behind them." New Method of Stealth Computing Found Uncovering a relatively benign vulnerability in the Internet, researchers have tricked Web servers around world into solving math problems without permission in a practice known as ``parasitic computing." Unlike hackers who exploit flaws to gain direct access to machines, the University of Notre Dame computer scientists created a virtual computer by using the fundamental components of the Internet's infrastructure, according to a report in Thursday's journal Nature. Each problem was broken down into smaller pieces that were evaluated by servers in North America, Europe and Asia. The results from each were used to reach a solution. The process works a lot like distributed computing, which draws huge amounts of processing power from multiple Internet-connected computers for such tasks as searching for alien life and cracking encryption keys. In parasitic computing, however, the work is performed without the server owner's knowledge or permission. The parasitic computing probably did not break any laws. Still, the approach raises ethical questions, said Vincent Freeh, a Notre Dame computer science professor and co-author of the report. ``When you're on the road, do you use a McDonald's restroom without buying a hamburger?" he said. ``That's the ethics of what we're dealing with." The research was primarily an academic exercise and not a particularly good way to solve problems. For one, sending out data over the Internet requires more work than the simple problems solved in the experiment. ``In no case did we say it could be efficiently exploited," Freeh said. Scott Blake, director of security strategy at BindView Corp., a network security firm, agreed it is unlikely the technique will exploited because the system is simply too inefficient. ``We don't think anyone should think their computer is going to be used for nefarious purposes," Blake said. ``This is entirely theoretical. I'm not convinced there is going to be a practical application of it." New Worm Warnings Antivirus vendor Central Command Inc. is warning PC users about a new worm masquerading as an E-mail message from Microsoft Corp.'s tech support. The worm, Win32.Invalid.A@mm, targets executable (.exe) files, encrypting infected files with a random encryption key, making it nearly impossible for victims to access the targeted files. The worm enters a user's system through the bogus E-mail message with the subject line "Invalid SSL Certificate." The message falsely warns readers that an invalid SSL certificate used by many Web sites may cause a buffer over-run in Microsoft Internet Explorer and enable an attacker to access the user's system. The E-mail also contains the attachment, sslpatch.exe. Users who click on the attachment will execute the virus, which then seeks a live connection to the Internet. If no connection is found, the virus activates its payload, which searches for all executable files in the directory where the virus resides, as well as the parent directory. It will then encrypt all of the executable files it finds, rendering them useless. If the virus does find an Internet connection, it will conduct a search for all * .ht * files in the "My Documents" directory. The virus copies an E-mail address from any file that contains a "mailto:" string and then mails a copy of itself using its own E-mail software. Central Command lists the worm as a medium risk. So far, only one copy of the worm has been reported. =~=~=~= 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.