Parents sue school district for Wi-Fi use
Found on: Cnet News
Parents of students take action against an Illinois school district for using Wi-Fi in classrooms, claiming that exposure to the low-level radio waves may damage students' health.

Parents of students who attend an Illinois school district are suing over the use of Wi-Fi technology in classrooms, alleging that exposure to the low-level radio waves may be damaging to students' health.

The plaintiffs, including students and parents, filed their suit Sept. 26 with the circuit court of Cook County, Illinois, against the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and several administrators in the district. The defendants received their summons Wednesday, according to a representative for the district.

Get Up to Speed on... Wi-Fi Get the latest headlines andcompany-specific news in ourexpanded GUTS section. According to the complaint, the district, its board and its superintendent have implemented Wi-Fi wireless networking technology in classrooms, ignoring evidence that electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi networks poses health risks, particularly to growing children.

"We've been trying to raise the issue with the school district for almost two years," said Ron Baiman, whose children are among the plaintiffs. "We aren't seeking any monetary awards; we're seeking a moratorium until use of the technology has been proven to be safe."

The school district has determined that it is following all safety regulations and that there is no hard evidence that suggests wireless technology is dangerous, according to Gail Crantz, director of public relations for District 97. The district has been using Wi-Fi technology since 1999, as have some of the high schools in neighboring districts and some hospitals in the community.

Use of Wi-Fi has increased dramatically as prices for wireless equipment have fallen and as the process of setting up the networks has become easier. Market research company Pyramid Research estimates the number of individuals who use Wi-Fi will grow from 12 million in 2003 to 707 million by 2008. Network operators are also expected to install more than 55,000 new hot spots in the United States over the next five years, adding to the 4,200 locations in place as of the end of 2002, according to researcher IDC.

Radiation has been a concern with other wireless technologies, such as cellular networks, but safety issues haven't gotten to levels where consumers have stopped using devices.

"The safety of our staff and students is our No. 1 priority," Crantz said. "There is no information to the contrary about the safety of the technology; there is a plethora of information--but nothing conclusive."

Baiman added that he wanted the school district to send parents a notice informing them that Wi-Fi technology was being used in the schools and that if they wanted they could have their children removed from classrooms when it was used.

"Most of it is a convenience issue, and it isn't a critical tool for educating kids," Baiman said. "There are alternatives they can use. It's just cheaper to use it."

The technology gives the schools flexibility in terms of administrative tasks and educating students, according to Crantz.

"Could we run a school without electricity or wireless?" Crantz asked. "Yes, but it wouldn't be the most efficient way of running a school district."

Trillian Gets Video Functions
Vibe Phone adds video Messaging to consolidated IM client.
Found on: PC World

Instant messaging consolidation client Trillian is getting a video component: the Vibe Phone video instant messaging service, which is scheduled to be available by year's end for an additional service fee.

Vibe Phone will be integrated as a plug-in into Trillian Pro 2.0, the most current version, and will appear as an option in Trillian's menu. The video IM functions will be available for minutes-per-month fees much like cell phone calling plans. It's the first of several shared development projects between Cerulean Studios, makers of the popular Trillian, and Vibe Phone developer GlobalStreams. Trillian Pro 2.0 costs $25; a free version cannot yet use the video plug-in.

The cheapest of the three Vibe Phone plans buys 100 minutes of video IM for $4.95 monthly, and the high-end option provides 650 minutes for $19.95. As is common in cell phone contracts, users commit to a one-year subscription and pay a fee for early cancellation. No additional fees are charged to access Vibe Phone through the Trillian interface.

Feature Specs
Vibe Phone works with most Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP systems. The service requires a Web cam and a broadband connection operating at a minimum of 128 kbps upstream. GlobalStreams maintains a list of compatible Webcams at its Web site. A Webcam is not required for audio messaging only.

"We've done most of the work already for making it a plug-in for Trillian [Pro] 2.0," says Matt Luckett of Cerulean Studios corporate development. "Any 2.0 user will be able to download the plug-in and subscribe that way."

Vibe Phone is already available as a standalone product. A downloadable free trial of Vibe Phone 1.0 from GlobalStreams includes 100 minutes or 30 days of free service, whichever runs out first.

Video IM often has problems with firewalls--especially network router firewalls--but Vibe Phone can work around that common challenge, says Brad Herrick, GlobalStreams vice president of marketing.

"In most situations, we will cut through a firewall," he says. A notable exception is a video-blocking proxy firewall, which requires manual intervention.

Competing Services
Video IM is not new to Trillian. The instant message consolidation program has supported Yahoo Messenger's video IM component since version 1.0, Luckett says.

Also, Herrick notes that the two most famous video IM clients (http://www.pcworld.com/resource/browse/0,cat,1369,sortIdx,1,00.asp) , Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger, both started out as text chat.

GlobalStreams took a different tack, building "total video--no text" platform that could be adapted for different communities." In an informal test, PC World editors found Vibe Phone's one-window video interface easier to use than Yahoo Messenger's multiple-window interface.

The companies are sharing other projects. Vibe Phone will be offered as an a la carte item in the free version of Trillian, and Trillian's text messaging technology is being added to Vibe Phone--which now offers video and audio IM, but no text-messaging component.

Trillian Pro and Trillian Free currently allow users to chat with AIM, MSN Messenger, ICQ, IRC, and Yahoo! Messenger. The recently released Trillian Pro 2.0 offers a Jabber plug-in.

Hacker Busted for Identity Theft
Teen tricked surfers into downloading a key-logging tool.
Found on: PC World

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against a young Pennsylvania man for computer hacking and identity theft in a scheme last July to dump worthless options for Cisco Systems stock.

The case against Van T. Dinh, 19, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is the first time computer hacking and identity theft (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111666,00.asp) have both played a part in a fraud prosecution by the commission, the SEC said Thursday.

Dinh was arrested Thursday morning on the campus of Drexel University, where he claimed to be studying business, according to John Reed Stark, chief of the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement.

Stock Options
Dinh was motivated to commit the crime after being stuck with 7200 worthless options contracts for Cisco stock. Exercising the options would have resulted in a loss of approximately $37,000, the SEC said, citing court documents filed in July.

In June the Pennsylvania teenager paid $91,200 to buy more than 9000 put options on Cisco stock, which gave him the right to sell the shares at or below $15 per share before July 19, 2003, according to a statement released by the U.S Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, which is also pursuing Dinh.

In the weeks following his purchase, however, Cisco stock hovered around $19 per share, making Dinh's put options worthless, Stark said.

Elaborate Scheme
Instead, Dinh allegedly set up an elaborate scheme to unload the shares in a bogus transaction. First, the teenager allegedly lured participants in an online stock-discussion group to download a key-logging program (http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,94603,00.asp) that he claimed was a stock-charting tool, the SEC said.

After using the program to monitor the information typed on victims' machines, Dinh allegedly obtained the log-in and password information for a TD Waterhouse Investor Services online brokerage account owned by a Westborough, Massachusetts, man.

With the victim's account information in hand, Dinh used his own online brokerage account to create orders to sell the worthless options, then hacked into the victim's online account and created corresponding buy orders for the options, the SEC said.

The transactions depleted around $46,986 from the victim's brokerage account, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The SEC learned of the crime after being contacted directly by the victim, and launched an investigation that grew to include the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office, Stark said.

Stark would not comment on how the 19-year-old obtained the money to buy the put options, but said that the SEC's investigation into him was ongoing.


Dinh was also charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts with securities fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud resulting from the illegal sale, the SEC said.



Under Investigation

The SEC used the case to trumpet its online investigative technique, noting that the commission identified Dinh as the alleged culprit within days of the crime, despite his attempts to cover his tracks online through the use of multiple e-mail accounts and Web sites that enable Internet users to shield their identity.

A trail of both money and digital communications led from the victim's computer back to Dinh, he said.

Unlike other kinds of transactions, those involving securities leave a detailed paper trail that is easy for investigators to track, Stark said.

In addition, key-logging software that Dinh installed sent out a steady stream of e-mail messages that could be traced back to accounts under Dinh's control. Ultimately, investigators were also able to trace the origin of both the sale and purchase of the options back to an IP address at the Phoenixville home of Dinh's parents, Stark said.

If found guilty, Dinh could face a maximum term of 30 years in jail and a $1 million fine for the securities, mail, and wire fraud charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The agency also said that the case should serve as a warning to investors who use online brokerage services. Users should be suspicious of programs they are asked to download and install, and should use antivirus and firewall software to shield their computers from intrusions, the SEC said.

Microsoft steps up fight against hackers
Found on: USA Today

In its most significant security announcement in nearly two years, Microsoft on Thursday said that it would dramatically accelerate efforts to protect users of its software products from cyberattacks.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said work is underway to reduce the ways hackers can spread viruses or implant malicious code on desktop PCs using Windows XP, the operating system that comes with most new PCs sold in the past two years.

Microsoft expects to make the fixes, dubbed Service Pack 2, available by summer.

"Our whole industry is, in some sense, threatened by people's fear to do new things because of these security issues," Ballmer told hundreds of software developers at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, adding that Microsoft's goal is to "get our customers secure and keep them secure."

Ballmer's pledge comes as hackers barrage Microsoft software with an increasingly sophisticated array of viruses and worms, and security experts and customers are ratcheting up their complaints. Since late summer, the MSBlast worm and the SoBig e-mail virus have spread to more than 1 million Windows PCs.

On Sept. 24, seven tech researchers released a report blaming the frequency of cyberattacks on the pervasive use of Microsoft software, which has security weaknesses. And last week, a Los Angeles film editor sued Microsoft for selling unsafe products after her identity was stolen by online thieves.

It was in January 2002 that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates halted all work on Windows for several weeks to launch a security initiative called Trustworthy Computing. But flaws continue to turn up. The company asked customers to patch 70 security holes last year, and 40 so far this year.

Ballmer said Microsoft will now focus on three areas: streamlining its system for issuing patches, adding security features to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and educating customers. "I'd love to tell you there's a silver bullet. There is no silver bullet," he told developers.

Some securities experts applauded Microsoft's initiatives but reserved judgment on how effective they will be.

"All this looks good, and will be welcome, but for now it looks like there is little ready to change the situation today," says Michael Cherry, security analyst for research firm Directions on Microsoft.

Product Liability Lawsuits against microsoft
Found on New York Times

Trial lawyers have watched with increasing interest in recent months as malicious computer viruses and worms all exploiting security flaws in Microsoft software have crashed computers and networks around the world. It is only a matter of time, they said, before the class-action suits against Microsoft start dropping.

The first came last week, filed in State Superior Court in Los Angeles, asserting that Microsoft engaged in unfair business practices and violated California consumer protection laws by selling software riddled with security flaws. The suit seeks class-action status. More such suits are anticipated.


The litigation, legal experts said, is an effort to use the courts to make software subject to product liability law a burden the industry has so far avoided and strenuously resisted.

"For a software company to be held liable would be a real extension of liability as it now stands," said Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a technology lawyer at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner.

To date, software companies have sidestepped liability suits partly by selling customers a license to use their programs not actual ownership with a lengthy list of caveats and disclaimers. So the warranty programs offered by PC makers, for example, cover hardware but not software.

The industry has argued that software is a highly complex product, often misused or modified by consumers. Assigning responsibility for a failure, the argument goes, would be unfair to any single company.

Besides, software executives say, the industry is a fast-changing global business that is largely led by United States companies. Opening the industry up to product liability lawsuits, they say, would chill innovation and undermine the competitiveness of American companies.

Yet whether the software industry can remain beyond the reach of product liability is still not certain. The modern economy from office work to financial markets to power grids depends increasingly on software. And the trial lawyers are not the only ones who think software makers should face stronger incentives to create products that are more reliable and secure.


Outside of the courthouse, regulations and legislation may also be deployed to prod the industry toward more secure software. A report last year by a National Academy of Sciences panel, made up largely of computer scientists from universities and companies, included the recommendation that "policy makers should consider legislative responses to the failure of existing incentives to cause the market to respond adequately to the security challenge."

The debate over software liability seems certain to become more intense, computer security experts say, and some shift toward holding software makers responsible for defects may be inevitable.

"The broad issue is, as a matter of policy, do we want suppliers of products and systems that are critical to our economy to be able to absolve themselves of all liability," said Mark D. Rasch, a former federal prosecutor who is a senior vice president of Solutionary Inc., a computer security firm.


But class-action suits against Microsoft over security matters, legal experts say, will be hard-fought and difficult to win. Such cases are trying to break new ground in a way that recent class-action antitrust suits against Microsoft, for example, did not.

In the antitrust cases, the class-action plaintiffs filed in the wake of the landmark federal case that found the company was a monopoly that had repeatedly abused its market power. Microsoft has tried to settle its antitrust class actions, including agreeing to pay a $1.1 billion settlement in California earlier this year.

Microsoft, by contrast, has suffered no reverses in court that would establish any liability for flawed software. In the current case, it is conceding nothing. Microsoft issued a statement saying that developing the most secure software possible was a top priority for the company.

"This complaint misses the point," the Microsoft statement added. "The problems caused by viruses and other security attacks are the result of criminal acts by the people who write viruses."

The suit was filed by an experienced product liability lawyer, Dana B. Taschner, on behalf of Marcy Levitas Hamilton, a Los Angeles film editor, and other members of the proposed class.

The 19-page complaint is a broad-brush document arguing that Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs 90 percent of all personal computers in the world, is poorly designed, flaw-ridden, and that the company ships software it knows is riddled with security flaws. The complaint adds that Microsoft's system for warning the public of security problems is so confusing and technically complex that it is of little use to the ordinary computer user.

Because of Microsoft's insecure software, the complaint asserts, Ms. Hamilton suffered identity theft someone obtained unauthorized access to her Social Security number and bank account information, which was stored on her computer.

Still, a big hurdle for class-action plaintiffs, legal experts say, will be the standard software license. It is what all computer users see and click to agree to even if they seldom read it when they start a new machine or load a new software program. For the plaintiffs to prevail, a judge will have to rule, in effect, that the software license is unenforceable or is overridden by another standard, like the "fit for intended use" rule that applies to most consumer products.

Class-action lawyers say they are confident that this standard will eventually be applied. "As a matter of policy, I think the courts will find that software companies have basic obligations to provide a product that does what it is supposed to do," said Terry Gross, a partner of Gross & Belsky, a firm in San Francisco. "And that the companies cannot avoid those obligations just because of the language in the license."

Sales influenced Intuit to ditch activation
In an open letter to customers to be published Thursday, the company plans to apologize for its product activation experiment, saying the antipiracy measure was a mistake.

Financial software and services company Intuit has apologized for its recent experiments with antipiracy technology and is vowing not to repeat the experience.

In an open letter to customers, set to run as an ad Thursday in several major publications, the software maker acknowledges that its decision to add product activation last year to its TurboTax tax preparation software went awry.

"I want to personally apologize for any frustration you may have experienced due to the restrictions that came with our use of antipiracy technology," Tom Allanson, Intuit's general manager for TurboTax, said in the letter. "I've talked one-on-one with quite a few customers, so I know this caused some of you considerable hassle and inconvenience."


Product activation is a controversial but increasingly common antipiracy technique that ties a piece of software to a specific PC. TurboTax was one of the first widespread consumer products to use the methods. Its move attracted loud protests from customers, who complained that the technology made the software difficult to install and run, and made changes to their PC hard drive that were difficult to undo.

While Intuit argued that many of the complaints were groundless, it acknowledged problems with the process and promised that once the tax season was over, it would skip activation in the next versions of TurboTax.

Allanson said in the letter that besides ditching activation, the version of TurboTax for the 2003 tax season will include changes in licensing provisions that allow a single user to install a piece of software on multiple PCs. The update is scheduled to go on sale in January.

"You told us that you want the flexibility to install and use TurboTax on multiple computers, and we heard you, loud and clear," he wrote.

Gateway Unveils Truly Tiny Camcorder
Found on: PC World.
Device can also capture and store more than 700 digital still images.

Gateway announced another new product Monday for the U.S. consumer electronics market, this time providing details about a compact digital video camera that also takes digital still images.

The Gateway DV-S20 Pocket Multi-Cam takes 2-megapixel digital still photos. It can store up to 730 still images or 18 minutes of MPEG4 video on the 64MB of internal memory. Users can also add a Secure Digital card that allows the camera to store up to 144 minutes of video, Gateway said.

At only 4.3 ounces, the camera is one of the smallest on the market. It measures 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches by 1.2 inches.

Sony is about to release a digital camcorder in Japan that weighs 8 ounces, and Matsushita Electronics, better known as Panasonic, is also set to unveil a 5.46-ounce camcorder in Europe.

The camera will be available Thursday through Gateway stores, and will cost $199.99.

Product Plans
Gateway released its lineup of four digital still cameras in August, with separate models designed for enthusiast photographers as well as novices.

The Poway, California, company has released a slew of new products this year, as it attempts to shift its image from a struggling PC vendor to a hybrid consumer electronics and IT hardware supplier in the line of Dell.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard have also introduced consumer electronics products this year to capitalize on the higher growth rate of that market compared to the PC market.

Product Liability Lawsuits against microsoft
Found on New York Times

Trial lawyers have watched with increasing interest in recent months as malicious computer viruses and worms all exploiting security flaws in Microsoft software have crashed computers and networks around the world. It is only a matter of time, they said, before the class-action suits against Microsoft start dropping.

The first came last week, filed in State Superior Court in Los Angeles, asserting that Microsoft engaged in unfair business practices and violated California consumer protection laws by selling software riddled with security flaws. The suit seeks class-action status. More such suits are anticipated.


The litigation, legal experts said, is an effort to use the courts to make software subject to product liability law a burden the industry has so far avoided and strenuously resisted.

"For a software company to be held liable would be a real extension of liability as it now stands," said Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a technology lawyer at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner.

To date, software companies have sidestepped liability suits partly by selling customers a license to use their programs not actual ownership with a lengthy list of caveats and disclaimers. So the warranty programs offered by PC makers, for example, cover hardware but not software.

The industry has argued that software is a highly complex product, often misused or modified by consumers. Assigning responsibility for a failure, the argument goes, would be unfair to any single company.

Besides, software executives say, the industry is a fast-changing global business that is largely led by United States companies. Opening the industry up to product liability lawsuits, they say, would chill innovation and undermine the competitiveness of American companies.

Yet whether the software industry can remain beyond the reach of product liability is still not certain. The modern economy from office work to financial markets to power grids depends increasingly on software. And the trial lawyers are not the only ones who think software makers should face stronger incentives to create products that are more reliable and secure.


Outside of the courthouse, regulations and legislation may also be deployed to prod the industry toward more secure software. A report last year by a National Academy of Sciences panel, made up largely of computer scientists from universities and companies, included the recommendation that "policy makers should consider legislative responses to the failure of existing incentives to cause the market to respond adequately to the security challenge."

The debate over software liability seems certain to become more intense, computer security experts say, and some shift toward holding software makers responsible for defects may be inevitable.

"The broad issue is, as a matter of policy, do we want suppliers of products and systems that are critical to our economy to be able to absolve themselves of all liability," said Mark D. Rasch, a former federal prosecutor who is a senior vice president of Solutionary Inc., a computer security firm.


But class-action suits against Microsoft over security matters, legal experts say, will be hard-fought and difficult to win. Such cases are trying to break new ground in a way that recent class-action antitrust suits against Microsoft, for example, did not.

In the antitrust cases, the class-action plaintiffs filed in the wake of the landmark federal case that found the company was a monopoly that had repeatedly abused its market power. Microsoft has tried to settle its antitrust class actions, including agreeing to pay a $1.1 billion settlement in California earlier this year.

Microsoft, by contrast, has suffered no reverses in court that would establish any liability for flawed software. In the current case, it is conceding nothing. Microsoft issued a statement saying that developing the most secure software possible was a top priority for the company.

"This complaint misses the point," the Microsoft statement added. "The problems caused by viruses and other security attacks are the result of criminal acts by the people who write viruses."

The suit was filed by an experienced product liability lawyer, Dana B. Taschner, on behalf of Marcy Levitas Hamilton, a Los Angeles film editor, and other members of the proposed class.

The 19-page complaint is a broad-brush document arguing that Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs 90 percent of all personal computers in the world, is poorly designed, flaw-ridden, and that the company ships software it knows is riddled with security flaws. The complaint adds that Microsoft's system for warning the public of security problems is so confusing and technically complex that it is of little use to the ordinary computer user.

Because of Microsoft's insecure software, the complaint asserts, Ms. Hamilton suffered identity theft someone obtained unauthorized access to her Social Security number and bank account information, which was stored on her computer.

Still, a big hurdle for class-action plaintiffs, legal experts say, will be the standard software license. It is what all computer users see and click to agree to even if they seldom read it when they start a new machine or load a new software program. For the plaintiffs to prevail, a judge will have to rule, in effect, that the software license is unenforceable or is overridden by another standard, like the "fit for intended use" rule that applies to most consumer products.

Class-action lawyers say they are confident that this standard will eventually be applied. "As a matter of policy, I think the courts will find that software companies have basic obligations to provide a product that does what it is supposed to do," said Terry Gross, a partner of Gross & Belsky, a firm in San Francisco. "And that the companies cannot avoid those obligations just because of the language in the license."

Sales influenced Intuit to ditch activation
In an open letter to customers to be published Thursday, the company plans to apologize for its product activation experiment, saying the antipiracy measure was a mistake.

Financial software and services company Intuit has apologized for its recent experiments with antipiracy technology and is vowing not to repeat the experience.

In an open letter to customers, set to run as an ad Thursday in several major publications, the software maker acknowledges that its decision to add product activation last year to its TurboTax tax preparation software went awry.

"I want to personally apologize for any frustration you may have experienced due to the restrictions that came with our use of antipiracy technology," Tom Allanson, Intuit's general manager for TurboTax, said in the letter. "I've talked one-on-one with quite a few customers, so I know this caused some of you considerable hassle and inconvenience."


Product activation is a controversial but increasingly common antipiracy technique that ties a piece of software to a specific PC. TurboTax was one of the first widespread consumer products to use the methods. Its move attracted loud protests from customers, who complained that the technology made the software difficult to install and run, and made changes to their PC hard drive that were difficult to undo.

While Intuit argued that many of the complaints were groundless, it acknowledged problems with the process and promised that once the tax season was over, it would skip activation in the next versions of TurboTax.

Allanson said in the letter that besides ditching activation, the version of TurboTax for the 2003 tax season will include changes in licensing provisions that allow a single user to install a piece of software on multiple PCs. The update is scheduled to go on sale in January.

"You told us that you want the flexibility to install and use TurboTax on multiple computers, and we heard you, loud and clear," he wrote.

Gateway Unveils Truly Tiny Camcorder
Found on: PC World.
Device can also capture and store more than 700 digital still images.

Gateway announced another new product Monday for the U.S. consumer electronics market, this time providing details about a compact digital video camera that also takes digital still images.

The Gateway DV-S20 Pocket Multi-Cam takes 2-megapixel digital still photos. It can store up to 730 still images or 18 minutes of MPEG4 video on the 64MB of internal memory. Users can also add a Secure Digital card that allows the camera to store up to 144 minutes of video, Gateway said.

At only 4.3 ounces, the camera is one of the smallest on the market. It measures 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches by 1.2 inches.

Sony is about to release a digital camcorder in Japan that weighs 8 ounces, and Matsushita Electronics, better known as Panasonic, is also set to unveil a 5.46-ounce camcorder in Europe.

The camera will be available Thursday through Gateway stores, and will cost $199.99.

Product Plans
Gateway released its lineup of four digital still cameras in August, with separate models designed for enthusiast photographers as well as novices.

The Poway, California, company has released a slew of new products this year, as it attempts to shift its image from a struggling PC vendor to a hybrid consumer electronics and IT hardware supplier in the line of Dell.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard have also introduced consumer electronics products this year to capitalize on the higher growth rate of that market compared to the PC market.

Product Liability Lawsuits against microsoft
Found on New York Times

Trial lawyers have watched with increasing interest in recent months as malicious computer viruses and worms all exploiting security flaws in Microsoft software have crashed computers and networks around the world. It is only a matter of time, they said, before the class-action suits against Microsoft start dropping.

The first came last week, filed in State Superior Court in Los Angeles, asserting that Microsoft engaged in unfair business practices and violated California consumer protection laws by selling software riddled with security flaws. The suit seeks class-action status. More such suits are anticipated.


The litigation, legal experts said, is an effort to use the courts to make software subject to product liability law a burden the industry has so far avoided and strenuously resisted.

"For a software company to be held liable would be a real extension of liability as it now stands," said Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a technology lawyer at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner.

To date, software companies have sidestepped liability suits partly by selling customers a license to use their programs not actual ownership with a lengthy list of caveats and disclaimers. So the warranty programs offered by PC makers, for example, cover hardware but not software.

The industry has argued that software is a highly complex product, often misused or modified by consumers. Assigning responsibility for a failure, the argument goes, would be unfair to any single company.

Besides, software executives say, the industry is a fast-changing global business that is largely led by United States companies. Opening the industry up to product liability lawsuits, they say, would chill innovation and undermine the competitiveness of American companies.

Yet whether the software industry can remain beyond the reach of product liability is still not certain. The modern economy from office work to financial markets to power grids depends increasingly on software. And the trial lawyers are not the only ones who think software makers should face stronger incentives to create products that are more reliable and secure.


Outside of the courthouse, regulations and legislation may also be deployed to prod the industry toward more secure software. A report last year by a National Academy of Sciences panel, made up largely of computer scientists from universities and companies, included the recommendation that "policy makers should consider legislative responses to the failure of existing incentives to cause the market to respond adequately to the security challenge."

The debate over software liability seems certain to become more intense, computer security experts say, and some shift toward holding software makers responsible for defects may be inevitable.

"The broad issue is, as a matter of policy, do we want suppliers of products and systems that are critical to our economy to be able to absolve themselves of all liability," said Mark D. Rasch, a former federal prosecutor who is a senior vice president of Solutionary Inc., a computer security firm.


But class-action suits against Microsoft over security matters, legal experts say, will be hard-fought and difficult to win. Such cases are trying to break new ground in a way that recent class-action antitrust suits against Microsoft, for example, did not.

In the antitrust cases, the class-action plaintiffs filed in the wake of the landmark federal case that found the company was a monopoly that had repeatedly abused its market power. Microsoft has tried to settle its antitrust class actions, including agreeing to pay a $1.1 billion settlement in California earlier this year.

Microsoft, by contrast, has suffered no reverses in court that would establish any liability for flawed software. In the current case, it is conceding nothing. Microsoft issued a statement saying that developing the most secure software possible was a top priority for the company.

"This complaint misses the point," the Microsoft statement added. "The problems caused by viruses and other security attacks are the result of criminal acts by the people who write viruses."

The suit was filed by an experienced product liability lawyer, Dana B. Taschner, on behalf of Marcy Levitas Hamilton, a Los Angeles film editor, and other members of the proposed class.

The 19-page complaint is a broad-brush document arguing that Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs 90 percent of all personal computers in the world, is poorly designed, flaw-ridden, and that the company ships software it knows is riddled with security flaws. The complaint adds that Microsoft's system for warning the public of security problems is so confusing and technically complex that it is of little use to the ordinary computer user.

Because of Microsoft's insecure software, the complaint asserts, Ms. Hamilton suffered identity theft someone obtained unauthorized access to her Social Security number and bank account information, which was stored on her computer.

Still, a big hurdle for class-action plaintiffs, legal experts say, will be the standard software license. It is what all computer users see and click to agree to even if they seldom read it when they start a new machine or load a new software program. For the plaintiffs to prevail, a judge will have to rule, in effect, that the software license is unenforceable or is overridden by another standard, like the "fit for intended use" rule that applies to most consumer products.

Class-action lawyers say they are confident that this standard will eventually be applied. "As a matter of policy, I think the courts will find that software companies have basic obligations to provide a product that does what it is supposed to do," said Terry Gross, a partner of Gross & Belsky, a firm in San Francisco. "And that the companies cannot avoid those obligations just because of the language in the license."

Sales influenced Intuit to ditch activation
In an open letter to customers to be published Thursday, the company plans to apologize for its product activation experiment, saying the antipiracy measure was a mistake.

Financial software and services company Intuit has apologized for its recent experiments with antipiracy technology and is vowing not to repeat the experience.

In an open letter to customers, set to run as an ad Thursday in several major publications, the software maker acknowledges that its decision to add product activation last year to its TurboTax tax preparation software went awry.

"I want to personally apologize for any frustration you may have experienced due to the restrictions that came with our use of antipiracy technology," Tom Allanson, Intuit's general manager for TurboTax, said in the letter. "I've talked one-on-one with quite a few customers, so I know this caused some of you considerable hassle and inconvenience."


Product activation is a controversial but increasingly common antipiracy technique that ties a piece of software to a specific PC. TurboTax was one of the first widespread consumer products to use the methods. Its move attracted loud protests from customers, who complained that the technology made the software difficult to install and run, and made changes to their PC hard drive that were difficult to undo.

While Intuit argued that many of the complaints were groundless, it acknowledged problems with the process and promised that once the tax season was over, it would skip activation in the next versions of TurboTax.

Allanson said in the letter that besides ditching activation, the version of TurboTax for the 2003 tax season will include changes in licensing provisions that allow a single user to install a piece of software on multiple PCs. The update is scheduled to go on sale in January.

"You told us that you want the flexibility to install and use TurboTax on multiple computers, and we heard you, loud and clear," he wrote.

Pocket PC Cluster Consisting Of 12 Linked Devices
Found on: Pocketpcthoughts.com

"As a part of our continuing research at Spb Software House, we have assembled and tested a computing cluster based on Pocket PC devices. Twelve Pocket PC devices have been joined in a cluster to perform distributed calculations - the devices share the load of a complex calculation. The concept was to compare the performance of several Pocket PC devices linked into a cluster with the performance of a typical Pentium II-class desktop computer."

They used IR because all Pocket PCs had that and the tests being performed were processor intensive, not network intenstive. They could have used TCP/IP but that would have meant additional hardware and expense. Pretty cool, but why would anyone do this? W?BIC!

You might not know this man but if you lived in Socal, you were touched
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California (AP) -- Conservative talk show host Wally George, who sparred with liberal guests for two decades on "Hot Seat," died Sunday of pneumonia. He was 71.

George, the father of actress Rebecca De Mornay, had been at the hospital for three months due to complications from cancer.

George's combative television show, broadcast on KDOC-TV in Anaheim, rose to popularity in the 1980s. He called his approach "combat TV" and was known for interrupting guests by shouting insults at them.

George told the Los Angeles Times in 1984 that fans saw him as a "down-to-earth guy who's speaking not so much from a highly intelligent brain but who's speaking from his heart and gut."

Born George Walter Pearch in Oakland to a former vaudeville actress and the owner of a shipping company, George moved to Hollywood with his mother and at age 14 became a disc jockey with KIEV-AM in Glendale.

He hosted "The Wally George Show" on Inglewood radio and was a producer and co-host of "The Sam Yorty Show" before "Hot Seat" premiered in 1983.

KDOC has been airing reruns of the show since George underwent surgery in June to remove a bone near his spine that had disintegrated because of cancer. He said at the time the problem was discovered by doctors after a fall in his Garden Grove home. Found on CNN:CNN.com - Angry TV host, De Mornay father dead - Oct. 7, 2003

I am waiting patiently to leave Sprint PCS
Found on: Comweb.com
The wireless number portability (WNP) regulation that goes into effect beginning November 24, 2003 may well be an early Christmas present for call centers and suppliers, especially outsourcers. The gains may well offset any job losses from the new federal Do Not Call registry that goes into effect October 1. WNP, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, enables customers to keep their cellphone numbers if they switch carriers. Customers who live in the major markets will have WNP first; rural customers will not have that until May 24, 2004. But WNP strips wireless carriers of a leashed customer base. Not surprisingly the carriers have delayed implementation many times. On the other hand WNP will lead to customer churn, and prompt additional customer acquisition and retention programs, plus inbound customer service and support. A new study by Convergys (Cincinnati, OH) reveals that one-third of U.S. cell phone users are likely to switch carriers once they can take their phone numbers with them. Within the first four months of number portability, carriers can expect an additional 100 million calls to their contact centers from customers requesting information.

To switch wireless providers customers will need to have their new carriers "port" their phones from the old carriers to avoid service fallout. Carriers will also have to work out the porting between them. To avoid such problems Martha Lanaghen, vice president marketing of outsourcer Center Partners (Fort Collins, CO) says the customer-acquiring carriers must educate new customers about porting to prevent them from accidentally deactivating their phones. Unlike wireline long distance, acquiring wireless carriers are not mandated under WNP to make outbound verification calls. But customers must sign letters of authorization before porting. Outsourcing avoids carriers from hiring and then laying off staff in the WNP runup and implementation. Convergys's WNP comprehensive care program offering alternately designed to convince customers not to switch providers or to ensure the change goes smoothly.

Center Partners launched its WNP offering earlier this year. It is working with clients to write up the process, test systems and verify retention programs to meet the November deadline. "WNP is a perfect fit for outsourcing," Lanaghen says. "The volumes are unpredictable. Also, all carriers anticipate they will eliminate most porting fallout and the need for staff over the next year as they improve the processes."

This was just a weird google result
I was just looking for when my garbage gets picked up and I found this page. International Dumpster Diving Meetup Day -- Join other Dumpster Divers near Torrance-Manhattan Beach