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Volume 4, Issue 18 Atari Online News, Etc. May 3, 2002 Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2002 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: Matthew Bacon Kevin Savetz 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.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm http://www.icwhen.com/aone/ http://a1mag.atari.org Now available: http://www.atarinews.org Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi! http://forums.delphiforums.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=atari =~=~=~= A-ONE #0418 05/03/02 ~ MyAtari Award Winners! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Flop 45 Released! ~ Microsoft Case Drags! ~ Spam Bill To Senate! ~ Free OpenOffice! ~ New eMacs For Schools! ~ DSL Deregulation Soon? ~ Microsoft Denials! ~ Melissa Creator Jailed ~ GameCube Europe Debut! ~ Media Player Coup? -* Microsoft Reduces Witnesses! *- -* Study Probes Kids' Web Porn Access! *- -* Hewlett Loses Appeal, HP-Compaq Merger On! *- =~=~=~= ->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""" Okay, enough is enough! No one can say that the weather in New England is not interesting. Last week of April and we got snow! I was supposed to travel up north to see my father and brother, but stayed in bed when I learned we had snow. Naturally, a few hours later, the sun was out and the snow practically gone. I'll head up north this weekend. It had better start to warm up as I have a couple of hundred dollars' worth of plants sitting on my front porch, waiting to get put in! My "mental health" week of vacation was short-lived. It took a very short time before I realized the vacation was over and the insanity remained! I often wonder if "workplace escapades" would sell as a book! If I could only draw stuff like "Dilbert", I'd be a millionaire overnight! Thankfully, the weekend is upon us! Until next time... =~=~=~= Results of the MyAtari Magazine Awards 2002 The results of the MyAtari 2002 Awards were recently published in the April issue of MyAtari magazine. The first annual award ceremony hosted by the online magazine proved extremely popular with its readers, generating an impressive 1,700 votes! The MyAtari 2002 Awards consisted of ten categories: - Best Atari web site of the year - Best Programmer of the year - Best Commercial release of the year - Best Shareware release of the year - Best PD/Freeware release of the year - Best Game release of the year - Best Hardware upgrade of the year - Best Atari supporting company of the year - Best Atari magazine of the year - Outstanding contribution to the Atari community Nominations for the ten categories were requested in the February issue of MyAtari from which a short list was drawn up for each category before voting began in March. As in any award ceremony, there can only ever be one winner... but for the record, below is a list of the nominees (in no particular order): Nominees: Best Atari web site of the year Atari.Org http://www.atari.org AtariAge http://www.atariage.com Little Green Desktop http://www.atari.st Atari Source http://pikachu.atari-source.com Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu Nominees: Best Programmer of the year Carl Forhan (Songbird Productions) http://songbird.atari.net Didier MΘquignon (Aniplayer) http://aniplay.atari.org Roger Burrows (Anodyne Software) http://www.anodynesoftware.com Erik Hall (MyMail) http://www2.tripnet.se/~erikhall/index.htm Leon O'Reilly (Reservoir Gods) http://rg.atari.org Nominees: Best Commercial release of the year MagiC 6.20 by Application-Systems Heidelberg http://www.application-systems.de Porthos by invers Software http://www.dsd.net/prod/atari/porthos.php Calamus SL2002 by invers Software http://www.calamus.net Papyrus 9.0 by ROM Logicware http://www.rom-logicware.de CyberVirus by Songbird Productions http://songbird.atari.net Nominees: Best Shareware release of the year Aniplayer by Didier MΘquignon http://aniplay.atari.org AtarICQ by GokMasE and Baldrick http://aicq.atari-users.net PhotoTip by Durs Locher http://home.sunrise.ch/dursoft/ MasterKEY by KickBox http://www.kickbox.de/masterkey/ Eureka by Francois Le Coat http://eureka.atari.org Nominees: Best PD/Freeware release of the year Steem Engine by Anthony and Russell Hayward http://steem.atari.org AtarIRC by Lonny Pursell http://www.q1.net/~atari/ GEM Graph 2 by Bernard Le Tirant http://perso.club-internet.fr/letirant/index_e.html zBench by Zorro http://the.zorro.free.fr/zbench.html EasyMiNT by Marc-Ant≤n Kehr http://mico-mint.atari.org Nominees: Best Game release of the year Chu Chu Rocket by Reservoir Gods http://rg.atari.org CyberVirus by Songbird Productions http://songbird.atari.net Allia Quest by Ebvision http://www.ebivision.com SCSIcide by Joe Grand http://www.mindspring.com/~jgrand/atari/ Castle Blast by Ronen Habot http://members.bellatlantic.net/vze2j83t/public_html/MyGames.htm Nominees: Best Hardware upgrade of the year CT60 by Czuba Tech http://www.czuba-tech.com ROM-port Adapter by Elmar Hilgart http://www.asamnet.de/~hilgarte/ Eclipse PCI Adapter by Istari Software http://www.uni-mainz.de/~heuno000/ECLIPSE/welcome.html EIFFEL PS/2 Adapter by Laurent Favard http://eiffel.atari.org JAMMA Joystick by Goat Store http://www.goatstore.com Nominees: Best Atari supporting company of the year Electronics Boutique / GAME http://www.eb.uk.com http://www.game.uk.com Songbird Productions http://songbird.atari.net Hozer Video Games http://www.hozervideo.com invers Software http://www.dsd.net Best Electronics http://www.best-electronics-ca.com Nominees: Best Atari magazine of the year st-computer (German) http://www.st-computer.net alive! (English) http://alive.atari.org FLOP (Czech) http://flop.atari.org Atarimagasinet (Swedish) http://www.sak.nu 2600 Connection (English) http://2600connection.atari.org Nominees: Outstanding contribution to the Atari community Randy Crihfield at Hozer Video Games http://www.hozervideo.com Matthias Jaap http://www.atariuptodate.de Carl Forhan at Songbird Productions http://songbird.atari.net Rodolphe Czuba at Czuba-Tech http://www.czuba-tech.com Anders Eriksson at Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu The lucky winners of the MyAtari 2002 Awards were: Category: Best Atari web site of the year Winner: AtariAge, www.atariage.com Runner-up: Little Green Desktop, http://www.atari.st Category: Best Programmer of the year Winner: Carl Forhan (Songbird Productions), http://songbird.atari.net Runner-up: Leon O'Reilly (Reservoir Gods), http://rg.atari.org Category: Best Commercial release of the year Winner: MagiC 6.20 by Application-Systems Heidelberg, http://www.application-systems.de Runner-up: CyberVirus by Songbird Productions, http://songbird.atari.net Category: Best Shareware release of the year Winner: Aniplayer by Didier MΘquignon, http://aniplay.atari.org Runner-up: AtarICQ by GokMasE and Baldrick, http://aicq.atari-users.net Category: Best PD/Freeware release of the year Winner: Steem Engine by Anthony and Russell Hayward, http://steem.atari.org Runner-up: EasyMiNT by Marc-Ant≤n Kehr, http://mico-mint.atari.org Category: Best Game release of the year Winner: Chu Chu Rocket by Reservoir Gods, http://rg.atari.org Runner-up: SCSIcide by Joe Grand, http://www.mindspring.com/~jgrand/atari/ Category: Best Hardware upgrade of the year Winner: CT60 by Czuba Tech, http://www.czuba-tech.com Runner-up: JAMMA Joystick by Goat Store, http://www.goatstore.com Category: Best Atari supporting company of the year Winner: Best Electronics, http://www.best-electronics-ca.com Runner-up: Songbird Productions, http://songbird.atari.net Category: Best Atari magazine of the year Winner: st-computer, http://www.st-computer.net Runner-up: alive!, http://alive.atari.org Category: Outstanding contribution to the Atari community Winner: Anders Eriksson at Dead Hackers Society, http://www.dhs.nu Runner-up: Carl Forhan at Songbird Productions, http://songbird.atari.net To read the acceptance speeches of the winners, check out www.myatari.net/issues/apr2002/foreword.htm Czech Disk Magazine FLOP Issue 45 of the Czech Atari XE/XL disk magazine Flop 45 has been released. http://flop.atari.org/ Calamus Module Updates The Calamus Positioner module is updated by a bugfixed version 2.03. A demand for the upgrade is that v2 is already present as well as Calamus 2002. And the Calamus Align Tools module is also present in a new bugfixed version 2.02. The same demand applies for the Align Tool as for the Positioner module. http://www.calamus.net/ KEYTAB 08 Beta Martin ElsΣsser reports on http://www.st-computer.net/ that he has released a beta version 08 of Keytab. ver 08 notes: Error correction in the KEYTAB library: the function Akt_getEuro queried the size of the Cookie structure incorrectly. However since then one fell back on the euro Cookie, the result was correct then anyway. There are new functions for changing to and from UNICODE: CharXךnicode and CharUnicode2X as well as BlockXךnicode and BlockUnicode2X. Three new in/export tables: "NEXT step" "IBM code PAGE 437" "IBM code PAGE 850". The KEYTAB library is now available for GFA. A big thanks at Richard Gordon Faika! The functions GetExpNrFromId and GetImpNrFromId now function correctly. After the GFA porting took place internal clearing up done in order to further reduce maintenance costs. URL: http://acspro.atari.org/KeyTab/Modern/index.html Sting Daynaport Drivers Updated Roger Burrows of Anodyne Software has released on his website an updated driver for STiNG for the Daynaport SCSI/Link ethernet adaptor. The new version is v0.55 with some minor improvements. Visit the Anodyne Software site to download: http://www.anodynesoftware.com/ethernet/main.htm Eurkea May Release Available Francois Le Coat reports in comp.sys.atari.fr that the May release of Eureka is now available. Changes include : bug fixed - problem where some point series were drawn as white on white bug fixed - problems with DMA sound playback on falcon Some emulators do not handle double buffers properly. Eureka now attempts to avoid problems. New math lib compiled and used which is much faster than the old lib. Bug fixed - management of palette under SCREEN.LDG In 256 color mode you can now rotate the pallette in variable frequencies. 0 fastest 9 slowest. Url: http://eureka.atari.org Organizer 0.47 Available In English! Mathieu Demange reports in comp.sys.atari.st... Hi folks :-) Organizer 0.47 is here in english now ! My website has been updated and some pages are now available in english too. I also added a mailing list for those who care. Here it is : http://m.demange.free.fr/organizer PS: Feel free to mail me if you think my translation isn't the best and if you think you could help me to improve it !... ;-) Best regards... Mathieu =~=~=~= PEOPLE ARE TALKING compiled by Joe Mirando joe@atarinews.org Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Yet again I find myself without anything philosophical or uplifting to talk about. No, I haven't been trying to save money by cutting my pills in half.<grin> People all over the world seem to be getting dumber and dumber and less interested in seeing someone else's point of view. Sure, WE seem to be doing okay, but I'll bet that the "other guys" think that they're the ones that have themselves together. Maybe I'm completely and totally wrong, but there seem to be somewhere in the neighborhoods of six billion incredibly unhappy morons inhabiting this planet today. And they're not just unhappy. They're bound and determined to see that everyone is as unhappy as they are. Perhaps one day we'll get everything sorted out and be content. I doubt it, but it COULD happen. Well, let's get to the stuff from the UseNet. From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup ==================================== Martin Byttebier asks about a couple of programs that he came across: "A few days ago someone uploaded an archive called *popcorn.zip* (6.478 bytes) on the Belgian Atari ftp-server. No docs are supplied. Does someone know what popcorn.prg exactly do? Also the same guy uploaded "orictool.lzh" (oriclink.c, txt2bas.c, txt2bas.ttp) What is it good for?" Lonny Pursell tells Martin: "I have a really old demo-like prg called popcorn which bounces many little balls around the screen. Perhaps it is that." Martin replies: "Hmm, quite possible. I can't test it out. It seems not to run on the Hades. Anyway It seems not to be very useful." Neil Chester asks about SCSI devices: "Just bought an Adtron Accent SPC SCSI Card Reader for my Falcon CT2B with the intention of purchasing a digital camera sometime in the future! The device is small and therefore doesn't have a through-port at the back, all there is a SCSI II connector and an ID selector which has 0-7 terminated and 0-7 unterminated. This is obviously going to be the last device in the chain with no throughport! The physical chain is the following: Falcon -> CDRW -> Epson GT9500 -> PC Card Reader IDs 7 1 2 6 Terminated Imagine my surprise when I run HDRUTIL (v8.04) and do a "Device Check", this reports the following: 01.00 Yamaha CDRW 02.00 Epson GT-9500 05.00 Adtron Accent SPC 05.01 Adtron Accent SPC 07.00 ATARI FALCON Also on the Magic/Jinnee desktop: P=Card Reader Q=CDRW And yet it should be that the CDRW comes first!? Does the Falcon scan IDs backwards (ie 7 to 0)? I have rotated the ID selector on the back of the Card Reader and done a "Bus Rescan" but it doesn't seem to change the ID from 5 (+ 01 LUN)! Is the unit faulty or is there some other switch that would work? The drive works like a dream (with a Compact Flash adaptor & 16Mb Card) - just like an ordinary disk, although Jinnee reports only 12Mb on it." Chris Simon tells Neil: "Hehe, yes - these are two things I've found too and forgot to mention in my tips to you! My card reader seems to be 'stuck' at ID 2, and yes it does have a 2.01 logical unit too. I found exactly the same thing as you, in that rotating the selector doesn't have any effect on the ID. It must be HDDRIVER or some other slight incompatibility with the Falcon. I did post about this initially but I didn't get any replies to the issues." Lonny Pursell tells Neil: "I have such readers on my Hades and TT. Very cool. My units are Microtech however." Ken Kosut asks about a problem he's having with CAB: "I am trying to read some .HYP and .REF files that came with my CAB 2.7 package. I have a folder called: BUBBLE It contains: BUBBLE.APP BUBBLE.HYP BUBBLE.REF BUBBLEGEM.CPX Under MagiC 6.02 I installed application (BUBBLE.APP) associated files: *.HYP *.REF I copied BUBBLEGEM.CPX to CPX folder, rebooted. Why can't I see the .HYP or .REF file? Do I have to use ST-GUIDE in order to view this type of file?" Martin Tarenskeen tells Ken: "*.HYP and *.REF are !NOT! BUBBLE.APP associated files. Please de-install. You can install ST-GUIDE.APP for *.HYP files. Installing for *.REF files is not needed." Joseph Place asks about scanner software: "I need to find an upgrade for Migraph Touchup. I have 1.62, which works fine on my STe, but I cannot scan on my Falcon. I know there is a version 2.5. Can someone help?" Derryck Croker tells Joseph: "Have you tried switching the 68030's cache off? The General Setup CPX (where you set keyboard repeat rate etc) is the place to look." Joseph tells Derryck: "I received my Falcon with no software. I have a General Setup CPX, but there is no option for the CPU cache. Perhaps the one I have is for ST?" Derryck replies: "Very likely, there should be a popup menu under a box called "Chip Select". On the other hand, the CPX I'm using was supplied with my CT2 card." Well folks, that's it for this time around. I know that it's been a short column, but there really wasn't a lot going on with the UesNet. Perhaps people are ramping up to take advantage of the warm weather that is sure to be upon us before too much longer. Tune in again 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 - Play Computer Games For Pay! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" GameCube To Debut In Europe! JagFest News! And much more! =~=~=~= ->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Get Paid to Play Computer Games People who spend too much time playing video games have new hope for gainful employment as Nintendo (news - web sites) of America announced plans Tuesday to pay 50 people about $100 a day to play computer games all summer long. For gamers, the program "is sure to be the best summer job ever," said Peter MacDougall, Nintendo's executive vice president. From July to August, members of the "Nintendo Street Team" will earn their pay by showcasing the Nintendo GameCube and handheld Game Boy systems at concerts, malls and fairs. Candidates must be at least 18-years-old and must fill out an application and create a two-minute video explaining why they deserve the job. Applications must be in between May 13 and June 14, and can be found on the company's Web site. GameCube Launch Full of Buzz Nintendo Co. Ltd. Friday will be the latest to launch a new, high-powered video games console, the GameCube, in Europe's hotly contested market behind a $90.7 million marketing blitz. Nintendo has registered 50,000 pre-orders for the machine in the UK, said David Gocen, managing director of Nintendo Europe. GameCube will retail for 199 euros in Europe and for $188.60 in Britain. The Japanese company is battling for control of a $20 billion-plus market that now rivals film and music as the most popular entertainment pastimes, but analysts think it will have a hard time catching up with market leader PlayStation 2. The purple-colored Cube will be around 100 euros cheaper than rivals PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which sport similar high-speed microprocessors that enable realistic graphics. Sony's new PlayStation has been on the market for over a year, while Microsoft's Xbox was launched in March. Shops throughout Europe, which have cleared entire floors to profit from the booming computer games market, will open their doors at midnight to welcome GameCube buyers. "I'm determined to be among the first few at HMV, so technically I'll have my Cube in less than 24 hours, therefore no days, we are into hours, minutes and seconds now," one games enthusiast wrote on Internet chat-room uk.games.video.gamecube. At the HMV and Dixons on London's Oxford Street Thursday, gamers lined up to trial the GameCube and Xbox. The graphics on both systems received equal praise, but GameCube was favored by those looking for a cheap price, compact size and the long-standing reputation of Nintendo's games. Abdul, 28, owner of Nintendo's older console N64, criticized Nintendo for being "always late" with a new machine but said that it "never compromised on its games. "Ten out of ten Nintendo games are good," he added. Meanwhile, 31-year-old first-time buyer Simon classified the black and bulky Xbox as "not very sexy." Nintendo has shipped 500,000 consoles for launch and plans to add another 500,000 in the next eight weeks, Gocen said. The timing of GameCube's launch could create challenges, industry observers say. It is making its debut a few weeks before schools let out, while the economy is sagging and the games console market is the most competitive in memory. "I don't think GameCube will catch PlayStation 2, simply because of the head start it has," said Toby Scott, editorial director of industry news letter, Games Analyst. "The tussle is between GameCube and Xbox for who gets to come in second. And that is just too tough to call," he added. The importance of the European video game market has grown considerably in the past five years. According to Games Analyst, European video game hardware and software sales will reach $7.5 billion in 2002, accounting for 31 percent of global sales. Gocen said the European market represents over 20 percent of global sales for Nintendo. "The potential in Europe is huge," he told Reuters Thursday. "It is a market we intend to be successful in." Microsoft's Xbox, which launched in March, has had a disappointing debut in Europe. Sales in Germany and France have fallen below expectations. Last month, Microsoft slashed the price of Xbox by as much as 38 percent in Europe to 299 euros and by 34 percent in Britain to 199 pounds in an effort to revive flagging sales. Critics attributed soft demand for Xbox on its spring launch, a comparable dearth of exclusive games and the lofty initial price tag. Aside from the spring launch, Nintendo has made swift moves to avoid making mistakes similar to Microsoft's. Nintendo, which has the most established brand in the business, has attracted a loyal fan base because of what critics say all comes down to superior games. Toby, 23, said: "I'm definitely going to get this one. The Xbox is too big and expensive and my mate has a PS2, so I know what that's about." PlayStation 2 took off to a flying start, because it doubled as a DVD video player. GameCube, which does not include a DVD player, is a pure games machine. It will launch with 20 games, many of which are exclusives. =~=~=~= ->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr! """"""""""""""""""" Jagfest 2002 News Greg George, Webmaster of The Atari Times website, has announced that he is now accepting payment for the Sixth Annual Atari Jaguar Festival (dubbed Jagfest 2k2) in downtown St. Louis, Missouri at The Mayfair Wyndham Historic Hotel. (806 St. Charles Street St. Louis, Missouri 63101. Phone: 314-421-2500) on Friday, July 12th and Saturday, July 13th 2002. Admission cost for this event is $25.00 for those who wish to pre- pay and $30.00 for those who wish pay at the door; this cost covers for both days. Table prices are as follows (admission price is included): Visitor tables: $35.00 before July 9th (after July 9th its $40.00), Dealer Tables: $45.00 before July 9th (after July 9th its $50.00) (extra tables are $5.00 each). You can pay either by paypal (greg@ataritimes.com ) or by sending a Check or Money Order to Gregary D. George, 347 Banyan Drive, Winter Haven, FL 33884 Attn. Jagfest payments For more information On Jag fest 2k2 e-mail Greg George at greg@ataritimes.com, James Garvin at omc@omcgames.com or Daniel Iacovelli at atarivideoclub@yahoo.com or visit the Jagfest 2002 site at http://omcgames.com/jagfest/ (be sure to visit the Jag fest message board and post your ideas for this event.) Announcements from B&C Computervisions New Lynx Daemon's Gate $49.95 Tons of new items ready or soon to be ready to ship. Ready now!! Lynx Daemon's Gate Test Cartridge. This appears to be a complete working Deamon's Gate for the Lynx. It is a Role Playing Game by Imagitec, the same people who did Viking's Child. No instructions yet. I will post instructions as you the role players E-mail them to me. Now shipping at $49.95 S&H. Call today. Coming soon. Demolition Man Video sequences for the Jaguar on Un-encrypted CDROM. My first batch of 30 had a bug from the duplicator and did not work. Hope to be shipping in a week for the initial price of $30. This is 20 minute of video sequences made for the game but do not include any of the actual game play. Also it requires one of our new CD Bypass cart, or Jagfree, or Protector SE, or Battlesphere Gold, or CD R, or a DEV System to run this un-encrypted CD ROM. Shipping next week our new CD Bypass cart at $39.95 allows you to run Un-encrypted programs on your Jaguar CD-ROM System. Also we plan to start shipping Charles Barkley Shut Up & Jam for the Jaguar in May. We have 5 more CD-ROMs in the works that will be IBM compatible with developer stuff from Atari Engineering. Hope to sell these at $14.95. First one is RAW digital and sounds sources for Demolition Man and another is Jaguar Artwork files in EPS, TIF & Gif format and another Leonard Tramiels TT hard drive backup, and another ST & TT Atari Archives and another??? Watch for details. http://www.myatari.com/ =~=~=~= A-ONE's Headline News The Latest in Computer Technology News Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Judge Rules in Favor of HP on Compaq Deal Vote A Delaware court on Tuesday ruled in favor of Hewlett-Packard Co. and against dissident shareholder Walter Hewlett, clearing the path for HP's $18 billion purchase of No. 2 personal computer maker Compaq Computer Corp. . Delaware Chancery Court Judge William Chandler upheld HP's March 19 shareholder vote on what would be the largest technology merger ever. Hewlett lawyer Stephen Neal confirmed that Hewlett had lost but said he had not read the decision or decided whether to appeal it. "We'll look at it and haven't made any decision yet," he told Reuters after the decision was made public. Analysts had said before the decision it was unlikely that a higher court would overturn a ruling by Chandler. The judge said Walter Hewlett had failed to meet the burden of proof on both points in the lawsuit he filed against Palo Alto, California-based HP. Hewlett alleged that HP had coerced a large shareholder, Deutsche Bank, by threatening to withdraw future investment banking business with the company. Hewlett also alleged that HP had failed to disclose to investors additional financial information that painted a less favorable picture of the two company's integration progress, but Chandler denied that as well. "The plaintiffs can point to nothing in those exchanges (between HP executives and Deutsche Bank) that indicates a threat from management that future business would be withheld by HP from Deutsche Bank and there is no indication that the PWG (proxy working group at Deutsche Bank) believed its discretion had been limited by such a threat," Chandler wrote. "I conclude that plaintiffs have failed to prove that HP disseminated materially false information about its integration efforts or about the financial data provided to its shareholders," he wrote. Earlier, shares of HP closed up 13 cents at $17.10 while Compaq fell 15 cents to $10.15 on the New York Stock Exchange, reflecting marginally higher uncertainty that the merger would go through. Since the merger was announced on Sept. 3, shares of HP have underperformed the computer hardware sector, dropping 26 percent, compared with a drop of 16 or 17 percent for both International Business Machines Corp. and Compaq and a 3 percent drop for the American Stock Exchange Computer Hardware Index . Hewlett-Packard Closes $18.7 Billion Compaq Merger Hewlett-Packard Co. on Friday closed the largest acquisition in technology industry history, ending a divisive merger battle as it bought Compaq Computer Corp. for $18.69 billion in HP stock. Opponents led by Walter Hewlett, son of HP co-founder Bill Hewlett, tried in vain for eight months to stop the deal. Shareholders by a bare 3 percent margin approved the deal, which creates a computer and printer maker with sales of nearly $80 billion, rivaling industry leader International Business Machines Corp. . HP will change its symbol on the New York Stock Exchange to HPQ from HWP beginning on Monday, while Compaq shares will trade no more. An HP spokeswoman said Compaq shareholders would get letters explaining the stock swap in the next week. The plan by HP to purchase the No. 2 personal computer company overcame its last major hurdle this week when a Delaware court ruled against dissident Hewlett, who had filed a lawsuit to block the merger. The new company officially launches on Tuesday, when HP will begin rolling out product plans, announce more senior managers, and start the grueling process of cutting some 15,000 jobs, about 10 percent of the new company's work force. Microsoft Denies Making Windows Incompatible A Microsoft Corp. executive on Monday denied charges that the company tries to gain advantage by making Windows operating system incompatible with rivals' software. Microsoft Vice President Robert Short, the fourth Microsoft executive to testify in the landmark antitrust trial, said the software giant makes "significant efforts" to make its operating system work well with its competitors' software. "I emphatically disagree with the suggestion that Microsoft deliberately introduces incompatibilities to prevent our competitors' software from working with our products," Short said in written testimony. Three other Microsoft officials, including company chairman Bill Gates, have already appeared in court to try to convince U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly not to impose severe antitrust sanctions proposed by nine states still suing Microsoft. The software giant reached a settlement with the Justice Department and nine other states in November. That agreement is designed to give computer makers more freedom to feature non-Microsoft software on the machines they sell. But nine states, including California, Massachusetts and Iowa, have refused to go along with the settlement, saying it is inadequate and won't prevent future antitrust violations. Short's testimony takes issue with comments by executives from competitors Novell Inc. , Sun Microsystems Inc. and Red Hat Inc. , who told the judge in earlier testimony that she should force Microsoft to disclose more of the inner workings of Windows. Short said different versions of Windows work better with rivals' software over time because they adhere to a growing number of industry standards and he cited examples in which the company is cooperating with some of its most bitter rivals to make software programs "interoperate" with each other. "Given these efforts, the notion that Microsoft 'retaliates' against software developers who do not do what Microsoft wants is completely unfounded," Short said. Microsoft's case got more backing earlier on Monday from an executive from Qwest Communications International , who told the court that the software giant would not be able to thwart emerging competition in the Internet services business using its monopoly power. Qwest vice president Gregg Sutherland disputed earlier testimony from a representative of SBC Communications Inc. that without the strict antitrust sanctions, Microsoft could crush SBC's planned Internet-based messaging service. "It couldn't happen," Sutherland told the judge. "That would be a nonsensical thing for any (competitor) to do." But under questioning from the states' lawyer, Sutherland acknowledged that he knew little about Microsoft's past anti-competitive conduct and had no experience with the kind of Web-based services at issue in the case. "I have no specific (knowledge) about Microsoft's plans," Sutherland said, when pressed about how he prepared for his testimony. In his written testimony before Kollar-Kotelly, Sutherland tried to rebut allegations made by SBC engineer Larry Pearson. Pearson, leader of a team at the No. 2 regional telephone company that is developing SBC's Unified Messaging Service (UMS), told Kollar-Kotelly Microsoft was well-placed to crush the product, scheduled for initial deployment later this year. Pearson said Microsoft had enormous economic incentive to block or degrade communication between Windows-based PCs and Internet servers running non-Microsoft software like those of SBC. Sutherland said any company that wants to compete in the telecommunications business must make its technologies work seamlessly with other companies' services. "A communications product or service that fails to meet this expectation of ubiquitous connectivity would have little or no prospect of commercial viability," Sutherland said. Under questioning from states' attorney John Schmidtlein, however, Sutherland conceded he had no direct experience with Web-based messaging and was only a part of a small group at Qwest that is studying the possibility of getting into the business of Web-based messaging. He also admitted the group was formed less than a month ago -- nearly two months after Microsoft named him as a witness in the antitrust case. "My intention is to offer the court an understanding of how the communications world works," Sutherland told the judge. "My testimony is not specific to Microsoft's behavior on the Windows desktop." Microsoft Shift Surprises States The states suing Microsoft fought on Tuesday to bring in more evidence after the company shortened its own witness list in the antitrust penalty hearings. Microsoft won't call eight of its remaining 16 witnesses, so the states - having already rested their case - may not be able to use company e-mails and other documents to bolster their assertion that stronger penalties than those in the federal settlement are needed. Howard Gutman, a lawyer for the states, quoted what he said was a letter from Dell Computer to Microsoft executives complaining about the new contracts drawn up after the federal deal had been reached. "Dell cannot imagine that the intent of the (federal settlement) decree was an even greater degree of control by Microsoft," Gutman read. Gutman said the states also have evidence from Gateway, Sony and other computer makers. The settlement required that Microsoft have uniform contracts with computer makers that license its Windows operating system. Microsoft had been accused of using its contracts to reward friends and punish less cooperative companies. The states planned to use the Dell e-mail, as well as many other documents, while questioning Microsoft executive Richard Fade. Fade, who handles Microsoft's relationships with computer manufacturers, agreed during an earlier interview with the states that many computer makers were unhappy with the new contracts. Fade and three other Microsoft officials were dropped from Microsoft's witness list Monday. Microsoft lawyer John Warden objected to the states' plans to add the documents into evidence. "We are in our case, they have rested their case," Warden told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. "That is not what conduct of a trial is in our system, that a plaintiff presents a moving target to a defendant." Gutman said the states had referred to some of the documents during their opening statement when the case began in mid-March. Kollar-Kotelly did not say when she would rule on the issue, but indicated that she was skeptical of the states' tactic. "You don't usually use somebody else's documents during their part of the case," she said. The states want computer manufacturers to be able to remove Microsoft's Internet Explorer and other features of Windows and substitute competing software. Other provisions would require Microsoft to disclose technical information to software and hardware developers, and make the company license its Office business software for use on competing operating systems. The original judge in the antitrust case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft broken into two companies after concluding that it illegally stifled competitors. An appeals court upheld many of the violations but reversed the breakup order and appointed Kollar-Kotelly to determine a new punishment. The nine states surprised Microsoft a week before the hearings were due to start by unveiling sweeping changes to their intended penalties. As a result, Kollar-Kotelly let Microsoft interview an official for one of the states, California assistant attorney general Tom Greene. Microsoft played a tape of Greene's deposition Tuesday afternoon. Microsoft tried to trap Greene on what the company considered inconsistencies and vague portions of the penalty proposals. In response to a question, Greene said Microsoft would be expected to test every possible combination of a modular version of Windows, which Microsoft has said would be impossible. The states have dismissed that argument from Microsoft, saying Microsoft doesn't currently test every configuration. Greene also gave some insight into why the states want Microsoft to give away a license to the software blueprints for its Internet Explorer Web browser. Greene said the Web browser should become a "public utility" for the software industry, because Microsoft gained market share as a result of squelching competition. Internet Explorer "is a fruit of the poisonous tree of Microsoft's illegal conduct," Greene said. States Say Microsoft Planned Media Player Coup A Microsoft Corp. executive presented a plan in 1999 to conquer the market for audio and video delivery over the Internet using a tactic already employed to fend off a rival Internet browser, a federal judge was told on Thursday. Nine states seeking stiff antitrust sanctions against the software giant cited a Jan. 3, 1999, e-mail to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates outlining a plan to use the dominant Windows operating system to promote Microsoft's Netshow media streaming software over that offered by RealNetworks Inc. Microsoft executive Anthony Bay urged Gates to "reposition streaming media battle from Netshow vs. Real to Windows vs. Real" and "follow the (Internet Explorer) strategy wherever appropriate." The nine states have rejected a proposed settlement of the four-year-old landmark case, saying it is too weak to prevent Microsoft from continuing to abuse its Windows monopoly. An appeals court last year upheld trial court findings that Microsoft had illegally preserved the Windows monopoly by tactics that included commingling the operating system code with its Internet Explorer program to fend off Netscape. A states' attorney presented the e-mail while questioning a Microsoft executive who denied in written testimony that the company had used the Windows operating system monopoly to thwart RealNetworks' media players. Will Poole, a vice president in charge of Microsoft's Windows New Media Platform Division, said he wasn't sure whether Bay's strategy was ever adopted. However, later in 1999, Microsoft integrated Netshow into the Windows Media Player that is bundled into every copy of Windows. "You wanted to integrate the media player deeper into Windows in the same way Microsoft integrated Internet Explorer into Windows?" states' attorney John Schmidtlein asked Poole. "The point was ... to communicate the entire breadth of Windows technologies that were available," Poole replied. "There are aspects of the battle that were very similar to Netscape. There are aspects of the battle that were very different," he said. Poole told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that RealNetworks Inc. was the dominant media-playing software despite its complaints about Microsoft. "The inclusion of multimedia technology in Windows has not impeded RealNetworks' ability to create competing media players that run very well on Windows and to distribute and promote those media players broadly to users," Poole said. RealNetworks Vice President David Richards testified in March during the hearings that Microsoft had withheld technical data from RealNetworks to ensure that its player would not work as well with Windows as the Windows Media Player. The nine states want Microsoft to provide a version of Windows in which add-on features like the media player can be easily removed to level the playing field for Microsoft's competitors. These states, including California, Connecticut and Iowa, have rejected a proposed settlement reached between Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department in November. The proposed settlement would let computer makers promote rival software by hiding -- but not removing -- certain Windows features. Microsoft has said its Windows program is a tightly bound set of components that rely on each other to work properly. Making the Windows Media Player removable might be good for Microsoft competitors such as RealNetworks, Poole said. "I am confident that it would not be good for developers of software and Web sites that rely on (media) functionality in Windows or for consumers generally because the performance of their programs would be degraded," he said. The hearings on the non-settling states' demands are now in their seventh week. Kollar-Kotelly is also weighing whether to endorse the proposed settlement signed by nine other states that were party to the original case. Apple Targets Hard-Hit Schools with New eMac Computer Apple Computer Inc. introduced on Monday a mid-range computer for its crucial but hard-hit education market, where the iconic personal computer maker faces increasing competition. The eMac is based on the previous-generation iMac computer, bundling the guts of a computer in a housing built around a cathode-ray-tube monitor, Apple said in a statement. The eMac has a 17-inch monitor instead of the 15-inch iMac screen and a G4 processor, Apple's top of the line, and will be priced at about $1,000 to $1,200. The eMac fills a price performance gap between the redesigned iMac with a flat panel monitor, a G4 chip, and a price tag beginning at $1,400, and the older generation of colorful, cathode-ray-tube iMacs based on the G3 processor, which cost $800-$1,000. Apple has said that education budgets are shrinking along with tax receipts in the U.S. economy, while it is also fighting off incursions into the education market by Dell Computer Corp. and other PC vendors. Senators Seek to Deregulate High-Speed Internet Senators seeking to encourage high-speed Internet access introduced a bill on Tuesday that would subject all services to the same regulatory constraints, regardless of how they are delivered. The bill, drafted by Louisiana Democrat John Breaux and Oklahoma Republican Don Nickles, seeks to boost competition by easing regulations on digital subscriber line, or DSL, services, which provide speedy Internet connections over telephone lines. Unlike other services that deliver high-speed, or "broadband," Internet connections over cable-TV lines, satellites, or wireless antennas, DSL and other telephone services are highly regulated at both the state and local level. The Breaux-Nickles bill would direct the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) to revise its regulations so that all services would face the same low regulatory hurdles. The move would benefit large local-phone companies such as Verizon Communications and SBC Communications Inc., which would be free to expand DSL service without making their new facilities available to competitors, as they must do with their existing networks. Unlike a controversial bill that passed the House earlier this year, the Senate bill would not deregulate long-distance voice services, or allow local-phone companies to shut out rivals from their existing networks. "I think this bill is a simple way that says, 'We should have parity when it comes to the regulation of broadband,"' Nickles said. The bill would allow an ailing telecommunications industry to compete on a level playing field with the cable-modem operators who currently control 68 percent of the broadband market, Breaux said. Local-phone giants, known as the "Baby Bells," and telecommunications equipment makers praised the bill, but independent providers said it would enable the Bells to shut them out of the market entirely because Internet and voice traffic often use the same network. "This bill would reduce consumer choice and create a deregulated monopoly or duopoly over all local telecom services," said John D. Windhausen, president of the Association for Local Telecommunications Services, which represents independent local-phone networks. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings will hold a hearing on the bill, Breaux said. Spam Bill Bound for the Senate Floor, Sponsor Says A measure that would crack down on the unwanted junk e-mail known as "spam" will soon head to the Senate floor, Sen. Conrad Burns said on Thursday. The measure enjoys enough support to win the Senate Commerce Committee's stamp of approval when it is brought up for a committee vote this month, tentatively scheduled for May 16, the Montana Republican said. "It looks like we're finally going to get some action on spamming," Burns said. "I think the bill is in pretty good shape right now." Burns said he was confident the bill would pass the Senate, although Majority Leader Tom Daschle has not yet committed to bring it up for a vote. While 22 states have passed anti-spam legislation, efforts in Congress have stumbled over opposition from direct marketers who say their activities would be unfairly limited. The Federal Trade Commission has since February gone after "spammers" who violate existing laws that prohibit false or deceptive trade practices. Spammers who use deceptive subject lines or do not respond to consumer requests to be taken off their contact lists are candidates for FTC action, which rarely results in fines or jail time. Burns' bill, co-sponsored by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, would not impose any new restrictions on commercial e-mail. Rather, it would strengthen the enforcement authority of the FTC and state attorneys general, allowing them to impose fines of up to $30 per e-mail, with a cap of out $1.5 million. Spammers that hide their identities would also face criminal penalties, and the bill would allow Internet service providers to sue to keep them off their networks. Burns said spam annoyed Internet users and imposed economic costs on businesses whose e-mail networks carried the unwanted messages. On a personal level, he said his own e-mail account was overrun with spam. "I bet you there's 50 (unsolicited messages) on there when I get home tonight, and not one I recognize," Burns said. Study Probes Kids' Web Porn Access Protecting children from pornography on the Internet is too complicated to rely merely on laws or computer programs that try to block sexually explicit material, a National Research Council committee concluded Thursday. A combination of steps is needed and a crucial factor is the involvement of parents and teachers in educating children, said the committee that has been studying the issue since 1998. "As a parent, it's important to acknowledge the Internet is a public place. You wouldn't let your small child wander around the airport by themselves and, by the same token, you shouldn't let them wander around the Internet by themselves," said committee member Winifred B. Wechsler, a consultant from Santa Monica, Calif. Former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, chairman of the panel, added that parents and grandparents have an obligation to educate themselves about the Internet so they can guide and supervise children. There's a place for law enforcement and blocking programs but these can be circumvented, Thornburgh said. During the study, he said, "one of the things that impressed itself upon me ... was the counterproductive nature of absolutist views" from people who would rely on any one approach to the problem. He drew a parallel with swimming pools. "Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim," Thornburgh said. Committee member Janet Ward Schofield of the University of Pittsburgh noted that there are great differences of opinion about what children need to be protected from, creating problems in finding solutions that will work broadly. "One of the things that struck me the most was the incredible diversity of public opinion about what is appropriate. Some people protested access to materials which others thought were innocuous," she said. Committee members also noted that in addition to avoiding pornography children need to be taught that not everything they read on the Internet is true and to be wary of strangers they may meet in chat rooms who may turn out to be predators. Panel member Geoffrey R. Stone of the University of Chicago said that while Internet screening filters and law enforcement can help protect children, "Overreliance on those methods will lead to a false sense of security." The study was welcomed by Judith F. Krug, director of the office for intellectual freedom of the American Library Association. "I am particularly pleased to see that filters are not touted as the only solution, nor even the best solution," she said. "If you educate children you are developing an internal filter that is going to remain with them throughout their life." The study comes as a three-judge federal panel in Philadelphia is weighing the constitutionality of a law requiring public libraries to install pornography-blocking software on their computers. And on Wednesday, members of Congress, angry at the Supreme Court for striking down parts of an anti-child pornography law last month, proposed legislation they hope will succeed in banning computer simulations of teen-agers or children having sex. The NRC report estimated that, worldwide, there are about 400,000 for-pay adult Internet sites out of more than 2 billion publicly accessible Web pages. While most of the debate concerning the Internet has focused on commercial sites, there are many other sources of sexual material, including person-to-person file exchanges, unsolicited e-mail, Web cameras and chat rooms. "Solutions that focus only on commercial sources will therefore not address the entire problem," the panel said. Creator of 'Melissa' Computer Virus Sentenced David Smith, the babyfaced New Jersey man who three years ago unleashed a computer virus named after a Florida stripper and caused an estimated $1.2 billion in damage, was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 20 months in a federal prison and a $5,000 fine. The former AT&T computer programmer pleaded guilty in December, 1999, to one federal count of knowingly spreading the "Melissa" virus to cause damage. Smith's attorney, Edward Borden, said he had hoped for no prison time but Judge Joseph Greenaway said the prison term was needed to deter others from committing the same crime. Smith had faced a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and restitution, but the judge said he received a lighter sentence because he cooperated with ongoing federal and state investigations. U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie declined to discuss the probes but said there would be more computer-related prosecutions "in the near future". Smith, 34, of Aberdeen Township, New Jersey, told Greenaway he had made "a colossal mistake" by spreading the virus, which he named after a stripper he knew Florida, in March 1999. It infected more than a million computers across the world. Since then, other viruses have been more costly. According to Computer Economics, a company that assesses the financial impact of security threats and incidents, the "I Love You" (or "Love Bug") virus in 2000 cost $8.75 billion worldwide, followed by "Code Red" viruses in 2001 which cost $2.62 billion. "I cannot take back what I did no matter how much I want to...," Smith said. "I didn't intend nor could I have imagined that it would end up this way. It's been the worst three years of my life." Smith also said in a letter to the court that "people think of a computer virus as an all powerful, destructive program when in reality it is a simple, tiny piece of computer code." He said the widespread nature of Melissa was something "completely unexpected" and he had not imagined just how much the damage the virus would cause. "I wrote it to be harmless and benign and I didn't then nor do I now have a grudge against society," the letter said. At the time, Melissa was the fastest spreading virus in history. Smith was arrested on April 1, 1999, at his brother's home in Eatontown, New Jersey. Authorities had traced the bug to his computer earlier in the day. Smith is scheduled for sentencing on Friday in Monmouth County Superior Court in Freehold, New Jersey, on a state charge of computer-related theft, carrying a maximum 10-year prison term and $150,000 fine. State prosecutors have agreed that any sentence will run concurrent with and not exceed the federal sentence. Smith's access to computers and the Internet will be restricted during his prison term. He was also ordered to 42 months of supervised release and to perform community service. Cybersqatters Claim Victory In Domain Battle In a victory for cybersquatters and others who snatch up domain names containing personal monikers, a dispute-resolution board has refused to turn over Web addresses containing the words "Kathleen Kennedy Townsend." Townsend, Maryland's lieutenant governor and a potential candidate for governor this year, discovered that a Baltimore man had registered several Web addresses with her name, including kennedytownsend.org and kathleenkennedytownsend.com. Townsend argued that she has a trademark on her name and asked the World Intellectual Property Organization's Arbitration and Mediation Center--one of the groups charged with settling domain-name disputes--to transfer the addresses to her. However, the owner of the disputed sites said that, among other things, he has a free-speech right to use Kennedy's name because she is a political figure. The board refused to turn the Web addresses over to Kennedy, saying it's relying on a new mandate that it deal only with personal names that are being commercially exploited. "The panel finds that the protection of an individual politician's name, no matter how famous, is outside the scope of the policy since it is not connected with commercial exploitation," according to the WIPO ruling issued earlier this month. The disputed domain names are either under construction or do not resolve to a site. So far, rulings have been mixed on whether people have the right to shut down unauthorized Web sites that use their names in the address. Actress Julia Roberts and vocalist Madonna have won the rights to their names, but New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President George W. Bush have not. In recent years, courts and dispute-resolution panels generally have allowed Web site owners to keep domain names if they parody the person or remain unused. However, owners of sites that seek to capitalize on a famous person's name, or cybersquat, often lose. Less clear, however, is the situation surrounding political figures. When someone is rumored to be running for office, foes and fans of the potential candidate often snatch up Web sites in the hopes of parodying or supporting the person. Free OpenOffice Picks Up From StarOffice OpenOffice.org developers have put the finishing touches on their productivity suite, which provides users and businesses with an alternative to Microsoft's Office suite. The free OpenOffice uses the same code base as the StarOffice software for which Sun Microsystems charges a fee. OpenOffice.org 1.0, available now, includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation graphics and other applications. It is the result of 18 months of collaboration between Sun developers and more than 10,000 volunteer developers, a venture that began when Sun donated the StarOffice code to the open-source or "free software" community. Under the open-source development model, the application's original code is freely available for developers to modify and redistribute, as long as the redistributed versions continue to be open. For example, Finland's SOT sells an office suite based partly on OpenOffice. OpenOffice has been a useable product for months, but the release of a 1.0 version is important from a psychological point of view, since many users and businesses are reluctant to adopt a product before it has reached its first "full" release. StarOffice 6.0, the update to version 5.2, is expected to arrive in a few weeks. While OpenOffice.org is a separate project from StarOffice, with contributions received directly from thousands of volunteer developers, Sun draws heavily on OpenOffice code for StarOffice--to the point where the basic programming code and functionality of the two suites are nearly identical. StarOffice contains some enhancements not found in OpenOffice, such as special fonts and a database, while support and training services are also available from Sun. StarOffice 6.0 is available now as part of paid versions of the latest Linux distribution from MandrakeSoft. Sun bought StarOffice from a German firm and initially gave the software away. Version 6.0, which is generally considered more usable than its predecessor, was free in beta-test form, but Sun said it found that businesses were more receptive to a paid-for product. Industry analysts say moving to a pay basis could actually increase StarOffice's penetration in businesses. "If StarOffice becomes a profitable business for Sun, enterprises will incur less risk and be more assured of the product's longevity," wrote Gartner analyst Michael Silver in a March report. "Gartner remains sceptical of the business model for free office software." Both StarOffice and OpenOffice.org run on various flavours of Linux and Unix, as well as on Windows. Many enterprises have grown uneasy with Microsoft's licensing plans and have been evaluating alternatives, according to industry observers. Partly because of this, Gartner believes StarOffice has a chance of gaining 10 percent of the productivity suite market by 2004. Mozilla, an open-source version of the Netscape browser, has also benefited from interest in alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Mozilla 1.0 is expected in the next few weeks. =~=~=~= Atari Online News, Etc.is a weekly publication covering the entire Atari community. 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