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Volume 4, Issue 28 Atari Online News, Etc. July 12, 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: Henk Robbers Kevin Savetz 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 #0428 07/12/02 ~ Game Testers Paradise! ~ People Are Talking! ~ eBay To Buy PayPal! ~ Gnutella Pioneer Dead! ~ CPS Games Site Update! ~ File-swapping Suits! ~ Gator Ordered To Stop! ~ HighWire .06A Preview! ~ XaAES Update News! ~ Red Cat Rummy 500! ~ Reservoir Gods Site! ~ New UPX Is Out! -* Sites Pressured By Explorer? *- -* New Web ID Standards To Be Unveiled *- -* Paypal, eBay Shareholders File Lawsuits! *- =~=~=~= ->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""" What a gorgeous week around here! This would have been the ideal week for a vacation in New England. A couple of "hot" days and the rest of the week was perfect. Even the smoke from the Canadian wildfires couldn't seem to ruin it for us. I hope that everyone (at least in the U.S.) had a terrific long holiday weekend. Our neighborhood block party was successful, albeit hot. I may have mentioned this last week, but it was worth a repeat comment! It's still fairly quiet out there in the world of computer technology. As I've mentioned before, summer months seem to cause a slowdown in the news, unless you're a major corporation doing something funny with the books! It used to be that "big business" got that way through hard work. Who ever thought that the work involved would be creative bookkeeping! And you wonder why people are cynical toward big companies. Well, I'm going to get ready to start the weekend off right and have a nice cold drink and relax. I don't know about you, but I look forward to weekends and the opportunity to take it easy. Hey, we deserve the break! Until next time... =~=~=~= XaAES v0.951 A new version of XaAES is available on my homepage 1 At last got the button down fallthrough event working. (Fall through evnt_multi(MU_BUTTON, down) and the button is already (or still) down) Good news for CAB users among many others. 2 Fix in button event handling: if the mouse is locked and the app has a classic dialogue on the screen and is not in a form_do() and is waiting for mouse events, it will now receive the event. 3 More fixes in fitting text in boxes. Now 3D widening effect is taken into account. 4 More fixes in drawing of transparent text. 5 More fixes in handling windowed and classic dialogues. (Because window creation is postponed until form_do() is called, I could do away with the handling of the 3 pixel gap caused by form_center() on outlined boxes). 6 Fix in graf_slidebox(): Forgot to set the mouse distance rectangle properly. Have fun. Read the history file! -- Groeten; Regards. Henk Robbers. mailto:h.robbers@chello.nl http://members.ams.chello.nl/h.robbers/Home.html A free multitasking GEM for MiNT: XaAES (heavily under construction); http://xaaes.atari.org Interactive disassembler: TT-Digger; http://digger.atari.org A Home Cooked teXt editor: AHCX HighWire v0.06A Public Preview The HighWire development team has released a new HighWire v0.06A Public Preview. This version has been released to show people that bug fixing and improvements are being worked on. To see a list of changes, please read the HISTORY.TXT file in the release ZIP or the Change.log file on the HighWire site. It is also being release with the hope that bugs can be tracked down quicker with the help of the Atari Community. Please report any bugs to the HighWire Development Team using the HighWire bug tracker on http://highwire.atari-users.net UPX 1.22 Is Out UPX is an Ultimate Packer for eXecutables. Changes in 1.22 (27 Jun 2002) * INFO: http://upx.sourceforge.net is the permanent UPX home page * atari/tos: the stub now flushes the CPU cache to avoid problems on 68030+ machines * source code: additional compiler support for Borland C++ 5.5.1, Digital Mars C++ 8.28 and Watcom C++ 11.0c http://upx.sourceforge.net Red Cat Rummy 500 A new card game for the ST series of computers is released. It's called Red Cat Rummy 500 and has mainly been made in the late nineties but was put on ice, until now when it's out at last. Red Cat Rummy 500 can be downloaded from the DHS 'Scenenews'. http://www.dhs.nu/ CPS GAMES Website Updated The cps-games site has been updated to include our progress towards bringing affordable ST upgrades into action. View our progress online as we invent and build more kits. WE also have a for sale section selling used and new Atari parts. Pages get updated weekly, this week our first 1.44meg external drive was built and put into action! http://www.cps-games.co.uk/for sale.htm http://www.cps-games.co.uk/projects/projects.htm reservoir-gods.com Launches The folks at Reservoir Gods have announced: We are pleased to announce the launch of a new website for Reservoir Gods: http://www.reservoir-gods.com Here you can find all our atari productions: games, demos, emulators, tools and issues of Maggie diskzine. We have also launched a high scores competition for our latest game "GodPey". To compete in this, please send your GODPEY.SAV file to pink@reservoir-gods.com =~=~=~= PEOPLE ARE TALKING compiled by Joe Mirando joe@atarinews.org Hidi ho friends and neighbors. The first week back to work after vacation is always a tough one, isn't it? I'm beat. Why is it that a week of vacation always results in two extra weeks of work when you get back? I'm quite sure that this phenomenon isn't localized to my area, but knowing that I'm not alone doesn't seem to help much. I've been going crazy trying to get things in order again, and I'm actually making some progress, but it's taking its toll. There aren't as many messages in the NewsGroups as I'd like to see, but I guess we've got to make do with what we've got, right? I still find it amazing that there is any interest at all in our favorite computer, even though it was a marvel of its time. Let's face it: Atari hasn't made a computer in years now, and those of us who still have and use them are the die-hards. There aren't many new apps coming out for the ST these days (although the ones that are coming through the pipeline are simply amazing), and most computer users just don't have what it takes to hang around anymore. And that's really okay. You see, one of the main problems with the PC world these days is the userbase. Some of these people aren't equipped to handle a pad and pencil, let alone a computer. That's why customer support is such an expense for computer companies. There are just too many dumb people who either don't realize that they're dumb, or figure that they're entitled to be dumb. I'm sorry, but that's just not the way it should be. Computer companies would be much better off if they made you take an IQ test before you could buy one of their products. I'm not saying that you should have to be a super-hacker or Ubergeek in order to own a computer, but a basic understanding of what computers do would be nice. In addition to being Director of Quality Control, I'm also "the computer guy" at work, and I see a lot of stupidity where computers are concerned. It still amazes me that people who are otherwise fairly intelligent seem to turn to mush when confronted with a computer monitor. I've tried just about everything to get people to smarten up about computers, but nothing seems to work. It reminds me of something that one of my professors used to say... "Nothing can be made foolproof because fools can be so ingenious. Well, let's get on with the news, hints, tips, and info from the UseNet. From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup ==================================== Chin-Whan Choi asks about using an ST with a television: "I am using an Atari Mega ST 2 for my MIDI stuff. I also own some old games and wanted to play some on weekend. So, I connected the Mega ST with a colour screen cable to my TV-Set, normally it should work fine. But, it is very difficult to see anything. I opened the eyes and I can hardly see the desktop on the TV screen. It is a very dark screen I get. And, I cannot recognize any colours. I tried two different cables and TV-sets, but the problem remains. I am using TOs 2.06. Does anybody know this problem? Is this a severe hardware problem? In 640*400 Mode on a Atari SM 124, it works without any problem." Jon G tells Choi: "Hmmm.. i've seen and solved this problem before, but only with Scart cables ..... Are you using standard RF cables ? If not, and you're using Scart, let me know." Choi tells Jon: "I was using a cinch cable and a SCART cable. Both cables didn't work properly, so i concluded that the Computer has a problem." Jon replies: "With this kind of thing, when I had this problem before, we had two different Scart cables. A Sony one that was supplied by a local dealer, and one Philips, that came with the CM8833 monitor. It seems thats the Sony and Philips cables had slightly different pinouts. I'm not sure where you can get different cables from today, but if you get the pinouts from somewhere, i'm sure you could get an electronics shop of some kind to fit it for you." Dave Wade adds: "I have had this problem with my STe and its either the lead or the TV. The MEGA only produces RGB out and your leads (or TVs) are either only designed for composite, or the way the SYNC is being generated is fooling the TV into looking for Composite. I know someone sent me the solution some time ago but I can't find it. Try checking out the group archives at groups.google.com..." Carey Christenson adds: "I also have had a similar problem with my Falcon030. When I first got it and wanted to hook it to a 19 inch VGA monitor. I found that it was a setting inside of NVRAM. Do you use a program like this??? For VIDEONORM I have PAL and VGA clicked on for VIDEOMODUS I have nothing clicked on but there are other options as well. Now that I have an Eclipse ATI GC I don't even need to worry about this program. Hope this helps!!!!" Steve Sweet asks everyone involved: "Are you using RGB cables or composite video cables and is the relevant monitor set to match. Some types of monitor require a 12 volt at 10K ohm pull-up on pin 8 of its SCART socket to force it into composite mode and 12v at 10K ohm pull-up to pins 8 and 12 to force RGB. Its also possible you need to cycle your TV through its modes, i.e, COMPOSITE/RGB/svhs, maybe even PAL/ntsc to get the correct result." Martin Takenskeen asks about the Hotlist feature in CAB: "Anyone else having trouble with the Hotlist in CAB 2.8 (full licensed version, not demo) when using MiNT? With single TOS it works fine on my system, but when using MiNT the Hotlist shows nothing when I open it. Can't remember having had any trouble with version 2.7." Martin Byttebier (I think) tells Martin T.: "Just rename hotlist.htm into hotlist.html. I'm not sure but I believe you must use lowercases too." Martin T replies: "mm, strange behaviour. But I have it working now. I have my CAB folder on a TOS partition. So I've copied "HOTLIST.HTM" from there to my $HOME directory, which is on a ext2 MiNT partition, and renamed it to "hotlist.html". CAB apparently also looks for it on that location. Now I can use CAB and the Hotlist both with MiNTnet and with STiK2/Single TOS. Why should I, but it is possible." Tony Cianfaglione asks for help with his external hard drive: "I hooked up the external Megafile 20 to my Mega STe and changed the SCSI switch settings on the switch in the external HD and tried a boot. At first, the Mega would simply boot as normal and ignore the external HD. Now the Mega doesn't even recognize its own HD with the multiple partitions and instead simply runs the empty floppy drive for a while before giving me a basic screen of 2 floppy icons and a trash can. I've unhooked the external and have tried booting the Mega with its internal only. Repeated bootings fail to recognize the internal HD... I took the HD out of the Mega STe, reseated a few chips, cleaning off any possible corrosion and tapping the HD lightly on the side to see if stiction was a problem. The HD started working on its side but not lying flat. I reseated the daughterboard and its chips and tried it again. The HD seems to be back functioning again." Jean-Luc Ceccoli gives Tony a good-natured ribbing: "It just wanted to make you a joke!" Harmut Surmann asks for help with retrieving old files on a new machine: "15 years ago i wrote my master thesis on an atari 1024 ST with a text program called signum. Now, i am looking for a possibility to read or convert these old signum files? Any hints? My first idea was to use an simulator. I found an atari 1024ST emulator for linux but i didn't have the old program files (signum). Any hints were i can download the software?" Rein Bakuhizen van den Brink tells Harmut: "Try Papyrus from R.O.M. Software in Berlin, demo-version can be down-loaded..." Mark Duckworth asks for info about his ICD Link2: "I was wondering if anyone would happen to have any advice for me. I recently purchased a new Mega STe to replace the fried one I already had and apparently the Link got taken down too. It works and the light lights up but it doesn't get detected by ICD's software. It is the clear link/2 denoted on ICD's website. Is that surface mount chip on the adapter something I might be able to find in a store or an ICD custom chip? I sent a mail to ICD support but does anyone have any other ideas and most importantly, does anyone in the US or canada have a link or mega ste compat internal scsi host adapter for sale for a bit less than $100?" Lyndon Amsdon tells Mark: "My ICD link that plugs into the DMA port has a programmed chip inside, and it's not a GAL and likely to have it's fused burnt to stop people reading the internal layout." Well folks, I told you that there weren't a lot of NewsGroup messages this week. We've now come to the end of the messages. All I can tell you is... 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 - Nintendo Hires Video Game Fanatics! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" =~=~=~= ->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Nintendo Hires Video Game Fanatics For Stephen Pelletier, the addiction started when he was 3. His father brought home a video-game console, spent an hour or so setting it up and as soon as the game - Pong - appeared, Stephen was hooked. "I'll never forget the little white square I saw on the television," the Whidbey Island resident said wistfully. Now 24, and wearing a 15-inch flat-screen TV on his chest, a pack full of batteries on his back and a game console and joysticks dangling from his waist, Pelletier is one of approximately 50 video-game aficionados hired by Nintendo to be walking video games this summer. "I don't consider this work. Smiling and having fun with video games is just the best," he said. "How can you go wrong?" He may soon find out. Pelletier and fellow members of the Nintendo Street Team gathered Monday for the start of a two-day training session, on everything from the history of Nintendo to how to handle difficult situations with aggressive gamers who won't let you get away. This weekend, work officially begins as the Nintendo Street Team hits malls, concerts and other events in six cities across the country. The mission: To drum up interest in the latest releases from the Redmond-based video game developer. The uniform is part Super Mario, part Teletubbies. Members in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle, will wear either the 30-pound Game Cube set up like Pelletier's, or less cumbersome belts with GameBoy Advance handheld devices. For six hours a day every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through mid-August, they'll solicit shoppers and passers-by to grab a joystick and play a few video games on them - with enough controllers or other devices for as many as 40 people to play at a time. And, a la reality TV, groupies can keep track of the team members on a Web site with diary entries, photos, popularity polls and online chats. Training includes learning the ins and outs of each game, how to fend off persistent game players and how to politely intervene between overly competitive players. The campaign comes as the video game industry has surged and as high-profile companies - including Nintendo neighbor Microsoft Corp. - are dedicating billions of dollars over the next several years to capturing video game players through traditional consoles and online. Worldwide, consumers spent $20.9 billion last year on video game hardware and software with a little less than half coming in North America, said Schelley Olhava, senior analyst with International Data Corp. And companies including Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft spend hundreds of millions a year on marketing alone, she said. The team members, who range in age from 18 to 27 years old, were selected from 700 applicants and will receive $100 a day for their work. But it's the fun-potential - not the dollar-potential - that was the draw for team members, they said. "You get to hang out with a lot of neat people," said Han Tran, a 20-year-old from Seattle, who is spending Mondays through Thursdays working for an engineering company. And members are prepared for the inevitable heckling. "I've dealt with obnoxious people all my life," Pelletier said. "They just don't understand." =~=~=~= A-ONE's Headline News The Latest in Computer Technology News Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson EBay to Buy PayPal in $1.5 Billion Deal EBay Inc. on Monday said it would buy PayPal Inc. in a $1.5 billion stock deal combining the dominant Internet auction house with the leading vendor of online payment services. The long-anticipated merger will extend a close working relationship between eBay and PayPal, two of the most successful dot-com survivors. A growing number of eBay customers use PayPal to pay for their auction purchases and eBay said it would close its rival payment product, BillPoint, which it had purchased in 1999. Separately, eBay said its second-quarter results would be better than earlier forecast because of strong growth in both the United States and its international operations. San Jose, California-based EBay said it would swap 0.39 of a share for each PayPal share, valuing the deal near $1.5 billion, including $18 million in acquisition-related costs. The company's merger with PayPal values PayPal shares at $23.61 based on Friday's closing stock prices, a premium of about 18 percent. Shares in PayPal rose $1.61 a share to close at $21.61, while shares in eBay fell $4.31 a share, or more than 7 percent, to close at $56.24. While most Wall Street analysts were positive on the acquisition, some suggested eBay's stock fell in reaction to its forecast results, which were above the consensus, but not by as wide a margin as in some past quarters. "Investors have historically liked more upside," said Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Baldauf. "It's getting harder and harder for eBay to do that." Baldauf nonetheless said the PayPal acquisition would be good for eBay in a number of ways, giving it an added way to profit from the transactions conducted on its site, and helping it to build a more seamless payment service for consumers. EBay said the addition of PayPal would immediately add to its earnings, and will over time give it a share of PayPal's non-auction business. The closure of BillPoint should also enable PayPal to reach more eBay customers, it said. "We think it will accelerate revenues at both companies," EBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in an interview. "Currently only 40 percent of the payments on eBay are done electronically, so there is a lot of room for growth." PayPal, based in Mountain View, California, earlier this year became the first Internet company in more than a year to successfully complete an initial public offering and in April it posted a small quarterly profit. The company's service enables anyone with an email account to send and receive cash, making it a natural fit for eBay, where many customers are individuals and small businesses not equipped to accept credit card payment. The long-term growth prospects for this business were underscored on Monday when eBay provided a preview of its second-quarter results, indicating it had once again surpassed consensus projections for its growth. EBay said it earned $54.3 million, or 19 cents per share in the quarter, on revenue of $266 million. Previously it had projected earnings per share of 17 cents on revenues of between $260 and $265 million. EBay said the growth reflected a 48 percent increase in its U.S.-based transactions since last year, and 148 percent growth from international operations. Although eBay is increasingly working with large merchants and wholesalers, a core component of its business continues to be the individual collectors and the mom-and-pop shops that use eBay to sell low-ticket items, and are more comfortable using PayPal than a credit card. The companies said the merger would enable them to integrate their services more closely and better address customer concerns over the security of their transactions. Because of their close relationship, eBay and PayPal had long been expected to join forces. Merger talks earlier this year had fallen through, but the companies said they went back to the negotiating table over the July 4th holiday weekend and worked out a final agreement. The transaction was expected to close by the end of the year. For all its success avoiding the fate of so many dot-com companies, PayPal's outlook had been somewhat clouded by lingering concerns over the fact that so much of its business came from a single source. Some analysts had warned that the wisest course of action would be to combine with eBay while its business was thriving. PayPal had also faced legal and regulatory concerns in some business areas, such as online gaming transactions. The company said on Monday it would exit the business of providing cash transfers for online gaming, a controversial business facing considerable legal challenges. Shareholders Sue PayPal, eBay The PayPal-eBay merger has hit an early snag: Two shareholder lawsuits have been filed against the companies seeking to block the deal. The lawsuits, each filed in Delaware Chancery Court earlier this week on behalf of PayPal shareholders, charge that the deal represents a breach of the companies' fiduciary duty to those shareholders and that the price eBay is paying for PayPal is unfair and inadequate, the companies said in separate regulatory filings on Thursday. eBay representatives did not return calls seeking comment about the lawsuits. But in its regulatory filing, the company said it would contest them. "eBay believes that the lawsuits are without merit and intends to defend itself vigorously," the company said. PayPal echoed that opinion. "(The lawsuits) are without merit and we will fight them vigorously," said PayPal spokesman Vince Sollitto. "These types of legal filings are common but rarely successful." The shareholders' attorneys did not return calls seeking comment. eBay announced on Monday an agreement to acquire PayPal. The company offered to pay about 0.39 shares of eBay stock for each share of PayPal, valuing the deal at about $1.41 billion at eBay's current share price. PayPal's current market capitalization is about $1.39 billion. The deal came just two weeks after PayPal completed a controversial secondary public offering that saw its investors and executives sell 6 million shares of the online payments company. That offering came on the heels of the company's successful initial public offering in February. PayPal has been no stranger to legal controversies. The company is facing several class-action suits filed on behalf of customers who charged that PayPal illegitimately froze their accounts. PayPal also faces a patent suit filed in May by Tumbleweed Communications. eBay's move to acquire PayPal follows the failure of its rival payment service, Billpoint, to gain ground against PayPal. Sites Bow to Microsoft's Browser King When he co-founded Netscape Communications in 1994, Jim Clark introduced a Web browser that promised computer users a way around the Microsoft juggernaut. Now online photo print shop Shutterfly, another Clark-founded venture, has a succinct warning for visitors who come to the site using the latest versions of Netscape: Beware. Versions 6 and higher of the browser are "unsupported," meaning people who use them cannot take advantage of several site features and may run into glitches not found with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to a browser error message being published on the site as of last Wednesday. Shutterfly's browser preference page is more than ironic; it reflects an ongoing bias among some Web sites to write and test their pages for the browser most people use - Internet Explorer. The trend lives on despite the support Web standards receive from several new browsers, including Netscape's latest, its open-source cousin Mozilla and others such as Opera and iCab. Non-agnostic Web sites "are saying, 'We're only interested in people if they use this browser,'" said Janet Daly, a representative for standards group the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). "That's a mistake on their part. The browser is a basic utility for people, and it's about having access to information regardless of who made that information or what authoring tool they used." The call for Web authors to comply with standards comes as a new wave of competitors seeks to dislodge Microsoft from its perch as the No. 1 browser maker. IE is used by more than 85 percent of all Web surfers by many counts, and may go even higher. One recent study showed it with 95 percent share. AOL Time Warner, which purchased Netscape in 1999 for some $4.2 billion, is throwing more support behind the company's products after years of neglect. For the first time, the company is testing Netscape as the default browser in its CompuServe and America Online service software, having used IE for years as part of a complex cross-marketing agreement. AOL Time Warner has also filed a civil suit on behalf of Netscape that alleges Microsoft engaged in illegal practices. Mozilla, meanwhile, recently released its first public version, Mozilla 1.0, capping four years of development. Other IE alternatives from companies such as Opera Software are also winning fans and giving Web surfers more choice than ever before. While competition appears to be piling up, would-be IE rivals must overcome industry inertia that runs deep within the fabric of how Web pages are put together. Not least, they rely on the cooperation of skeptical Web authors who see little reward in supporting technology that is used by just a small fraction of their customers. Shutterfly is hardly alone among mainstream Web sites discriminating against browsers. Safeway.com, for example, warns visitors that "the Safeway.com site works best with the Internet Explorer Web browser. Other browsers, such as Netscape, may not function properly." Critics call these browser warning pages reminiscent of the bad old days of the Web, when sites routinely sported the tag "best viewed in Navigator" or "best viewed in IE." Microsoft in November revived those memories and earned widespread wrath when it locked out competing browsers from its MSNBC news site. The incident provoked accusations that Microsoft was taking advantage of its near-total dominance of the browser market to further marginalize competitors. Microsoft declined to comment for this story. The state of affairs with browser-site compatibility highlights a lingering gap between reality and the lofty goals of Web standards. Even as standards advocates acknowledge that the browsers are largely in compliance with W3C recommendations, plenty of sites remain, practically speaking, Internet Explorer-only zones. Now that browsers are mostly standards-compliant, the roles of accused and accuser largely have been reversed. A few years ago, it was Web developers who organized and ranted against the browser makers, specifically Microsoft and Netscape, demanding standards-compliant software. Now, the browser makers and even the Web's premier standards organization are attributing many of the glitches to Web authors who write non-compliant code or tailor their code to work with market-leading browsers, specifically IE. This phenomenon traps smaller browsers in a vicious circle: Because they have a limited following, Web authors don't write or test for them. When, as a result, Web sites don't work with the browser--or explicitly rule it out--surfers have a repeated incentive to give up and use Internet Explorer. The person browsing with the latest Opera, Mozilla or Netscape browser will be able to access just about any site on the Web. But non-IE users are likely to start running into trouble once they start delving into a site's complex features and functionality. And those complex features tend to be crucial when it comes to executing transactions on e-commerce sites. "The Web is a chaotic place, and you will find no browser that can view all sites," said Hakon Lie, chief technology officer for Oslo, Norway-based Opera. "All browsers have this problem to some extent." Some browsers have it more than others. Opera, for example, runs into trouble on several mainstream Web sites, including Salon.com and Apple Computer's Mac.com, that render perfectly in IE or Netscape. Netscape has been taking an aggressive approach to the problem, monitoring sites where its "Gecko" rendering engine is running into trouble and prevailing on site administrators to fix the problem. A joint Netscape-Mozilla team, formed two years ago, examined the 1,700 Web sites with the highest traffic to see how well they worked when viewed by Gecko. When the evangelism effort launched, only 60 percent of these pages worked properly, but Netscape claims to have boosted that number to 98 percent. "Our evangelism efforts have garnished quite a bit of momentum in their outreach to Web developers," a Netscape representative said in an e-mail interview. But the "team continues to work with both corporate and individual sites to ensure Gecko compliance." Opera's Lie estimated that he ran into trouble surfing with Opera on about one in 30 sites. He also claimed that IE has seen its share of sites that it can't view properly. But because of IE's ubiquity, those glitches are likely to be fixed in a matter of days or hours, while problems with Opera or Mozilla languish on bug fix to-do lists. The situation is reflected in the policies at Shutterfly, which makes no bones about its market-oriented approach to browser support. "From the beginning, the situation has been that we listen to our customers and deliver what they ask for," said Whitney Brown, a representative for Shutterfly. "We have had very few requests for Opera - most of our users are on a PC using IE, and the next largest group is on a PC using Netscape. We have a pretty mainstream user base, which has moved away from the early adopters who may be aware of other browsers out there." The site's browser preference page, which launched Wednesday during a visit using Netscape 6.2, notes that the company supports older versions of Netscape, including Netscape Navigator 4.7. Brown on Tuesday said the site's browser warning is out of date and that the site supports newer versions of Netscape - although it still does not support Opera and other less popular browsers. Standards proponents point to several stumbling blocks beyond Web authors, including nonstandard extras included as part of IE and widespread use of nonstandard automated authoring tools from companies such as Adobe Systems. Even though all the major browsers are considered to be up to snuff on standards compliance, some Web authors still find it easier to code directly to IE - and test only with IE - rather than to open standards. In many cases, that means using nonstandard extras that Microsoft offers. Mozilla.org, the open-source group that Netscape formed in 1998 to develop its browser, called those proprietary extras the legacy of Microsoft's maneuvers to become the leader in the browser market. "The market power of IE, gained through illegal use of Microsoft's monopoly, means that Web developers find it convenient to use IE's proprietary extensions," said Mitchell Baker, who carries the whimsical title of chief lizard wrangler at Mozilla.org. "We do encourage Web developers to look to Web standards and to move away from proprietary extensions." Opera took a similar tack, laying blame at the feet of both Microsoft and Web developers. "I'm not going to put all the blame on Microsoft, though they do deserve some," Lie said. "The focus should really be on authors. They really need to test their pages. And maybe some of them have to adjust their ambitions slightly. If you try to do the very advanced, flashy stuff, you typically will get a page that will not operate with all browsers." Now that so many of the Web's pages are coded by automated authoring tools, rather than by hand, much of the onus of standards-compliance has fallen to the vendors of authoring tools: Macromedia, Adobe and Microsoft. The push to make authoring tools produce standards-compliant code runs up against the formidable obstacle that many Web surfers are using outdated, non-compliant browsers. If the authoring tool codes strictly to standards, it will lock out those legacy browsers. And while Web authors may be more defensive than they used to be, some Web sites are still claiming that buggy browsers - even new ones - are preventing them from welcoming all comers. "What we want to do is write once and have it work with everything," said Russ Sanon, senior manager forqu ality-assurance engineering at Shutterfly. "But it falls onto the lap ofth e individual browser manufacturer. There's nothing that we do that's proripetary. Everything that we write should work with W3C-complaint specs." Some warn that while coding to IE may pay off in the short term, it could cost sites if the long-predicted shift to non-PC Web borwsers transpires. New W3C recommendations, particularly the HTML successor XHTML, are written to help Web authors accommodate the limited rendering capabilities of cell phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants). In many cases, this involves creating relatively automated ways of serving slimmed-down pages to small devices while showing full-featured pages in desktop browsers. "If things are not built accordin tgo standards, you run the risk of having to do that content engineerig nall over again if you move to other devices," said W3C's Daly. "If ouy use a black-box proprietary format that doesn't port over to a handheld, then what? That's a strong business case for standards compliance." But others continue to ousnd a more community-minded alarm, calling the persistent gap between tasndards and practice a threat to the Web's open character. "What were' seeing with Web sites that are viewable only with IE is the privatization of the Web," aisd Mozilla's Baker. "And that's a dangerous setting. We're moving toarwd a world where all the capabilities of the Internet are reprocesed sthrough a single filter, with Microsoft's business plan behind it." Tech Pioneer's Death Called Suicide A pioneer of the technology that took Internet file-sharing far beyond Napster, Gene Kan became something of an unofficial spokesman for one of the hottest software developments to survive the Internet boom. On Tuesday, the 25-year-old Kan was mourned by colleagues after being found dead of what authorities said was an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sue Turner of the San Mateo County medical examiner's office said Kan's body was found July 2 at his home in Belmont, about 20 miles south of San Francisco. Turner said that the death would likely be ruled a suicide. A peer-to-peer network is one where each computer can share files and often peripheral devices with other computers. There is no central server that can interrupt communications between all of the peer computers on the network. The Gnutella protocol - a set of computer instructions for a peered network - was first posted on the Internet by Nullsoft, a software company owned by AOL Time Warner. Kan got his hands on a downloaded version of Gnutella and began, along with other developers, to fashion it into a user-friendly interface with various improvements on the performance of the software. Kan quickly became the outspoken, lead proponent for the further development of Gnutella-based applications. Gnutella came along as Shawn Fanning's Napster program became mired in lawsuits by the recording industry. Kan and a small clutch of developers honed the Gnutella protocol so that programmers around the world could make their own home-brewed computer applications - each speaking the same language and capable of pointing users to shared music, video and software files. The main difference between the Gnutella network and other file-sharing programs was a crucial one. Gnutella has no company to sue or central servers to shut down with a court injunction. "There is no head to the Gnutella dragon," Kan told The Associated Press in 2000. After that interview, Kan quickly became the ad hoc spokesman for Gnutella's development during file-swapping debates surrounding Napster. Kan acknowledged that some unauthorized files were being traded via the Gnutella network. "How users make use of it, I hate to say it's not our problem, but it really isn't," Kan said. The simple Gnutella protocol spawned a legion of file-sharing programs that remain popular today. The programs LimeWire, BearShare and Phex all make use of the Gnutella engine. "Gene was really good at communicating the technical merits of the peer-to-peer approach," said author and entrepreneur Cory Doctorow, who took part in many panel discussions with Kan. Doctorow said Kan's personality recently began to take on a tone of depression and described his colleague as "dour." In June 2000, Kan co-founded Burlingame-based InfraSearch Inc., a peer-to-peer search engine technology company. A statement released Monday by his employer, Sun Microsystems Inc., said Kan died as the result of an accident and that no further details of his death were being released at the request of his family. Sun spokeswoman Carrie Motamedi said Kan had been working on advanced computing projects for Sun. "Clearly everyone feels that we've lost a valued employee and trusted friend and colleague that we'll miss greatly," Motamedi said. Judge OKs Suit Against Kazaa Parent A federal judge said Monday that record labels and film studios could expand an ongoing copyright lawsuit to include Sharman Networks, which distributes the popular Kazaa software. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) sued three prominent file-swapping companies in October in Los Angeles federal court. The suit named Morpheus parent StreamCast Networks, Grokster and Kazaa BV, the Netherlands-based company that originally created the Kazaa software. But in February, Kazaa BV sold the Kazaa file-swapping software to Sharman, a company later revealed to be based for tax reasons in Vanuatu, a small island in the South Pacific. The recording and movie industry trade groups asked permission to add that company to the lawsuit in June. In court Monday, Judge Stephen Wilson said he would allow Sharman to be added to the lawsuit. A written version of the ruling, required before the MPAA or RIAA can take any action, was not immediately available. Sharman said the company had not yet seen a written order but that it was confident its technology would survive any court challenge. "Sharman's fundamental belief is that the distribution of the Kazaa Media Desktop is not only legal but also one of the most important drivers of the future of peer-to-peer technology," the company said in a statement. "We are confident that our legal position will be vindicated by the court." The case against StreamCast, Grokster and now Sharman is viewed by many in the legal community as the best chance to establish a legal defense for peer-to-peer technology. Unlike Napster, those companies do not maintain central servers that help link file swappers. The companies themselves simply distribute the software used by file traders and contend that this should shield them from legal liability. A long case could drain the small companies' resources, however. Already the Netherlands-based Kazaa BV has indicated it does not have the resources to continue the legal fight, and StreamCast's original attorney withdrew from the case after the company indicated it couldn't afford to pay him. Judge: See Ya Later, Gator A federal judge on Friday ordered software company Gator to temporarily stop displaying pop-up advertising over Web publishers' pages without their permission. The order was issued in a lawsuit filed against Gator in June by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dow Jones and seven other publishers, which allege the company's ads violate their copyrights and steal revenue. On Friday, Judge Claude Hilton granted the motion, according to the clerk's office at the federal court in Alexandria, Va., where the suit was filed. The companies had sought a temporary injunction against Gator preventing it from delivering ads keyed to their sites pending the resolution of the suit, in which they are seeking a permanent injunction against the company and monetary damages for any advertising dollars made from their Web pages. Terence Ross, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the judge quickly granted the motion, prohibiting Gator "from tampering with the 16 Web sites involved in the litigation during the pendency of the case. "This really is a clear-cut case in my opinion; Gator is infringing our copyrights and trademarks. The judge came to that conclusion, and a jury will make the same decision in a trial." By delivering unauthorized pop-up ads, Gator is altering the intended display of the publishers' works, a right that has been recognized by the Supreme Court, Ross has argued. In early August the judge will set a court schedule, and the case will go to trial before the end of the year, Ross said. In statement issued Friday, Redwood City, Calif.-based Gator said that it would honor the judge's request but asked for an expedited trial. "We are highly confident that once all the facts are presented in the upcoming trial - no court will issue a ruling eliminating a consumers' right to decide for themselves what is displayed on their own computer screens," Gator CEO Jeff McFadden said in the statement. "Such a ruling would attack a consumer's right to use hundreds of popular software applications that automatically display separate windows while the consumer is surfing the Internet." Gator develops software that manages passwords and fills out forms for about 10 million Web surfers who often download the application unwittingly through other popular file-sharing programs. Also bundled in Gator's software is a program called OfferCompanion, which monitors Web surfing behavior and delivers targeted pop-up ads to viewers. For example, a Web surfer may see an advertisement for Ford Motor - delivered by Gator - while visiting Toyota.com. Gator has been selling such advertising for more than a year and has accumulated several top-tier advertisers including Target.com. According to Ross, the plaintiffs were stirred to action after the company published marketing material in April essentially promising ad buyers placement on the Web sites of specific publications, including The New York Times. According to the suit, Gator is "essentially a parasite on the Web that free rides on the hard work and the investments of plaintiffs and other Web site owners. In short, Gator sells advertising space on the plaintiffs' Web sites without (their) authorization and pockets the profits from such sales." The decision does not bar Gator from delivering pop-up ads over other sites. But it could establish a precedent that prohibits third-party software operators from delivering ads that alter another Web page. It also highlights mounting tension over tactics used by Gator and others. Earlier this year, WeightWatchers.com sued rival DietWatch.com for using Gator to deliver ads to visitors of its site. On June 11, a court granted WeightWatchers a permanent injunction barring DietWatch from serving ads on its site. Last year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) criticized Gator for selling banner ads that obscure those sold by online publishers. Gator sued the IAB, alleging "malicious disparagement" over its statements, but the two parties found common ground when Gator agreed to stop selling banner overlays. New Worm Eats Into Kazaa The Kazaa file-swapping network has been hit by another worm, just months after the first such attack, according to antivirus vendors. Antivirus company Sophos said it had received several reports of the KWBot worm in the wild. KWBot appears to be the second worm to hit the Kazaa network, which fell prey to the Benjamin worm in May. KWBot spreads in a similar way to Benjamin in that it alters Windows registry keys and then disguises itself as files that are likely to prove popular with file-swappers. It makes particular use of the names of movies and applications. When first executed, the worm copies itself to the Windows system folder as xplorer32.exe, said Sophos. It will then create two registry entries so that the copy is run each time Windows is started. The worm may also allow attackers to gain control of an infected computer using commands transmitted over Internet Relay Chat, said Sophos. Kazaa is not the only file-swapping network to have been targeted by virus writers. The Gnutella file-swapping network was hit by a proof-of-concept worm in February. There have also been threats from other quarters. In April, a bug was found in the popular Winamp software for playing digital music files. The bug could allow an attacker to embed malicious code into an MP3 file, potentially damaging the user's PC and infecting other MP3s. In addition, the music industry recently began planting "decoys" on free peer-to-peer services in its fight against online piracy, according to sources. This practice, known as "spoofing," entails the hiring of companies to distribute "decoy" files that are empty or do not work in order to frustrate would-be downloaders of movies and music. Overpeer, a New York-based software firm funded by South Korea's SK Group, is understood to be one of the firms helping the industry disguise online files to thwart unauthorized swapping. Examples of filenames used by the KWBot worm are: * Star Wars Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones VCD CD1.exe * Spiderman The Movie - The Game.exe * Grand Theft Auto 3 CD1 ISO.exe * ZoneAlarm Firewall Pro.exe * Windows XP ( news - web sites) Professional iso.exe * Unreal Tournament cracked (works on all servers).exe * University Study Guide (cheat sheet).exe * Quicken ( news - web sites) Pro 2002 iso.exe * Perl Ultimate Study Guide.exe * Office XP Corporate Ed. iso.exe * Norton Utilities 2002.exe * Microsoft Visual C++ 7.0 iso.exe * MCSE Ultimate Study Guide.exe * Max Payne full iso.exe * Macromedia Flash 5.exe * Kazaa Advertisement Ad remover.exe * DSL Anonymizer.exe * DoS Attacker.exe * DivX Codec 6.0 beta (codec only).exe * Credit Card number generator VERIFIER (cc cc#).exe * cows gone wild.exe * 100 XXX Passwords (verified 3-24-02).exe Sophos has a virus identity file that includes a fix for the KWBot virus here. New Web ID Standards to Be Unveiled An industry coalition is set to unveil standards for identity authentication on the Internet, the first step toward making the task of remembering long lists of Web site passwords a thing of the past. The Liberty Alliance, which includes companies like Sun Microsystems, Sony, American Express, Mastercard and Bank of America, plans to release the details Monday. The standard is designed to make it easy to log into different systems - from making online purchases to checking bank or credit card accounts - while making different authentication systems speak the same language. That realm is currently dominated by Microsoft, whose Passport system runs on about 200 Web sites. "The promise of electronic commerce has not been delivered on," said United Airlines chief information officer Eric Dean, who also serves as the head of the group's management board. "There are huge possibilities." Privacy advocates, however, say the creation of a single identification standard will make it easier for businesses to profile Internet users for marketing purposes. "They want identification data to find new marketing avenues," said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "What it means for the individual is more spam, more direct mail, more telemarketing." Hoofnagle said a single Internet ID also will place individual financial data at greater risk for disclosure over the Internet. "It's like using the same key for your house and your car and your safe deposit box," he said. "Compromise that one key and all the golden eggs are compromised." Dean said Liberty Alliance is starting small. Users will be able to choose to "link" different accounts, so Mastercard.com will be able to identify the same user that visits United.com, without having to type in another password. More robust features, like a detailed profile that contains the user's address and phone number to be shared with all the Liberty-enabled sites, will come later. Dean said the slow ramp-up is designed so Web site developers can start using it within months. "We can extend United.com to do this without having to launch a rocket to the moon," Dean said. It has been almost a year since Liberty Alliance was announced. Without any real product or service to speak of, most of the attention has focused on friction between Liberty members and Microsoft. During Microsoft's antitrust penalty hearings in April, Microsoft lawyers derided Liberty's name as an attack on Microsoft. They said it means "liberty from Microsoft hegemony." While testifying against Microsoft, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems's top Liberty representative, called that interpretation of the name "paranoid." Microsoft and Liberty members have discussed Microsoft joining the alliance, but no deal has been struck. Microsoft has not yet seen the Liberty standard. While Microsoft said it agrees a single Internet ID standard is a good idea, it wants Liberty to use Microsoft's Passport system. "We are not distracted by Liberty versus Passport battles," Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said in a statement. "We are instead focused on answering broader customer demand for security in the Web services environment." Dean downplayed Liberty's disagreements with Microsoft, including the idea that Microsoft may join Liberty only to co-opt and change the standards for its own purposes. Several critics, including Liberty members Sun and AOL Time Warner, have said Microsoft has done that to other technology standards, essentially "breaking" them so competing products don't work as well as Microsoft's. "There were some concerns about that at the beginning," Dean said. "We have not talked about that much in the past six months." =~=~=~= 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. 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