Car computer hobbyists hack XM Radio
source: CNET News.com

A band of car and computer hobbyists has reconnected the XM Radio broadcasts to PCs, after the satellite radio company discontinued hardware that was being used to copy and archive digital music from the service.

The XM satellite radio service is used largely through dedicated hardware, but until last month could be heard on a computer by using hardware that plugged directly into the PC. The company phased that PC link out, in part citing slow demand, after a Canadian programmer wrote software that allowed listeners to record and archive individual songs on a computer as MP3s.

Now a small Florida company that makes in-car computer systems has re-created its own version of the hardware, saying its customers want a way to hook their onboard PCs to an XM system.

The system may also be plugged back into the TimeTrax radio-recording software, again raising the possibility of pristine digital copying from the satellite service. The developers, at a company called Hybrid Mobile Audio, say they're more interested in giving people flexibility in listening to the XM Radio service, however.

"A lot of people in the MP3 car community...wanted XM satellite radio, but don't use normal (radio) units; they use touch-screen computers," said Ben Stahlhood, chief software architect for Hybrid Mobile Solutions. "We decided we could help them work out the problem."

The continued tension over XM's link to personal computers foreshadows what has already become a larger debate over new digital radio technology. Broadcasters are slowly moving to signals that provide pristine, CD-quality signals over the airwaves. Record companies in particular are worried that consumers will record music using TiVo-like devices, putting more downward pressure on music sales.

The Recording Industry Association of America has already asked the Federal Communications Commission to include some kind of copy-protection standard along with rules for digital radio technology.

The new XM Radio equipment also shines a light on a small community of hobbyists who are pioneering onboard car computer systems, however. The community, which hearkens back to the early "home brew" days of do-it-yourself computer builders in Silicon Valley, is creating car radio systems that are more like Media Center PCs than they are old-fashioned FM radio.

Some of those hobbyists had used XM Radio's PCR hardware to plug into their onboard computers. When that hardware disappeared, engineers at Hybrid Mobile took apart the remaining XM Radio receivers, figured out how they worked, and created a new piece of software and a cable that could support the XM technology, aimed at plugging it all back into a PC.

The new kit costs $40, and is available on Hybrid Mobile Solutions' Web site. Customers must be XM Radio subscribers, and purchase official XM Radio hardware in order to use the kit.

The company said it is in talks with TimeTrax, the company that created software for recording using the original PC-based hardware, to make the two companies' products work more closely together.

The satellite radio service recently launched a PC-based service, but the computer has to be connected to the Internet for it to function. A spokesman for XM Radio had no comment on the Hybrid Mobile product.
[print version] Car computer hobbyists hack XM Radio | CNET News.com

Photo ID now required to buy, rent games in Canada
source: Torstar News Service

You already need your photo ID to buy booze or cigarettes and now you’ll need it to rent or buy certain video and computer games.

Canadian retailers and entertainment software makers Thursday were to announce a broad initiative aimed at curbing children’s access to violent and age-restricted games, including asking customers to produce photographic identification in some cases.

Called The Commitment to Parents program, the campaign also aims to help parents make the right choices for their children by providing more information and better staff training in the stores, the Retail Council of Canada said Wednesday.

"The program will allow parents to get more information on the content and age-appropriateness of the games," retail council president Diane Brisebois said in a telephone interview late Wednesday. "It’s a voluntary program based on the ratings you already see on the game boxes."

The retailers’ move, which drew praise from parent and teacher organizations, comes amid growing government scrutiny of the software gaming industry. Earlier this year, the Ontario government took the unusual step of slapping a mandatory "restricted" rating on the game title Manhunt.

"This is a welcome step in the right direction," said Melanie Cishecki, executive director of the advocacy organization Media Watch. "Obviously, it comes under a bit of duress because parents’ groups and educators have been asking retailers for this for some time."

The retailers’ campaign has the support of 90 per cent of the stores that rent or sell video and computer games in Canada, Brisebois said.

It’s also supported by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, which represents the major video and computer game makers. Software association officials couldn’t be reached yesterday.

Jim Watson, Ontario’s minister of consumer and business affairs, was also expected to be on hand to endorse the effort.

Most major Canadian video and computer game retailers already belong to the U.S.-based Entertainment Software Rating Board, which voluntarily rates the games and suggests stores check customers’ ID. The five ratings, which rank the games from "Early Childhood" to "Mature," also provide descriptive comments, such as "Blood" or "Violence."

All major video and computer game stores in Canada belong to the ratings board, including Blockbuster, Rogers, Best Buy and Wal-Mart.

"This program will make it clear we’re going to be doing everything in our power to enforce those ratings," Brisebois said.

The Ontario government plans to introduce a mandatory ratings system, similar to the one that restricts access to movies, along with hefty fines for retailers that fail to check customers’ ID, steps some other provinces have already taken. The fines under the Ontario Theatres Act range from $25,000 for individuals and a year in jail to $100,000 for corporations.

In the meantime, the retailers’ initiative drew instant praise from parents’ and teachers’ organizations concerned about the amount of violence seen in media by young children.

Despite voluntary ratings and store policies, one of the most popular video games among children in Grades 3 to 6 is Grand Theft Auto, a violent action game rated for age 17-plus, according to a survey for the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.

"Too many children are watching films and playing games that aren’t suitable for them," said federation spokesperson Francine Filion. "This will make parents think twice about it."

Anything that helps raises parents’ level of awareness about what’s in the games is a step forward, said Shari Graydon, a media literacy activist and author.

"Most parents don’t watch or play video games with their children and know very little about them," Graydon said, citing studies that show 50 per cent of children have televisions in their rooms and 25 per cent have their own computers.

Dell introduces a new PDA, the X50v

The Dell AximTM X50v is the ultimate handheld device that delivers performance, connectivity and a brilliant VGA display at an affordable price.
* Microsoft Windows MobileTM 2003 Second Edition operating system with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile
* Powered by the Intel XScaleTM PXA270 Processor at 624MHz
* Brilliant 3.7' color TFT VGA display with 640x480 resolution
* Integrated Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator with 16MB video memory
* Integrated 802.11b and BluetoothTM Wireless Technologies
* Packed with 64MB SDRAM and 128MB Intel StrataFlash ROM
* Integrated CompactFlash Type II and Secure Digital / SDIO Now! / MMC card slots provide flexible expansion
* VGA-Out Support with optional VGA Presentation Bundle
* Removable Primary Battery with optional High Capacity Battery
* 3.5mm Headphone / Headset Jack for Headsets to support VoIP and voice recognition applications
* Built-in microphone and speaker for easy recording on the go
* USB Cradle including Battery Charging Slot"
Dell Home Systems Axim X50v

Patent case challenges Microsoft's 'AutoPlay'
A federal judge ruled against Microsoft on Wednesday in a patent suit challenging 'AutoPlay' technology included in recent versions of Microsoft Windows.

Judge Jeffrey White of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied three Microsoft motions for summary judgment in a suit filed by TV Interactive Data (TVI), a small Monte Sereno, Calif., company specializing in interactive television technology.

Each motion sought to invalidate TVI patents cited in the case, on grounds of prior art and other causes. White ruled Microsoft offered insufficient against the patents, and the case should go to trial as scheduled.

TVI filed the suit in 2002, alleging that AutoPlay technology included in every PC version of Microsoft's operating system since Windows 95 infringes on its U.S. patents 5,795,156 and 6,249,863.

AutoPlay examines the contents of a CD-ROM or other type of optical disc that is inserted into a Windows PC and automatically executes the most appropriate task, such as launching the installation program for a new software application.

Both TVI patents cover a 'host device equipped with means for starting a process in response to detecting insertion of a storage media' and describe an 'autostart driver in the host device (that) detects insertion of a storage media into a peripheral and automatically starts an application.'

Still pending is a Microsoft motion to dismiss key claims in the suit, based partly on the theory that the TVI patents are hardware-dependent and that Windows, as a purely software product, therefore cannot directly infringe on them. The motion also seeks a ruling that any Microsoft infringement of TVI's patents is not willful, because there is no evidence Microsoft knew of the TVI patents before the suit. As evidence to the contrary, TVI notes that its first patent is cited as a reference in the Microsoft patent. A hearing on that motion is set for Dec. 17.

'We're confident in our case and await the judge's decisions,' Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said. A TVI executive did not respond to a request for comment.

TVI is being represented by Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, the Minneapolis law firm that won a $521 million judgment against Microsoft earlier this year in the Eolas patent dispute surrounding Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. The TVI case is one of a handful of patent suits cited in Microsoft's most recent quarterly financial statement. The software giant recently won a case challenging its SmartTags technology."
[print version] Patent case challenges Microsoft's 'AutoPlay' | CNET News.com

Weird shit from CNET
Segway tests an off-road four-wheeler. In other gadget news: Is Dell aiming for the iPod Mini?
Taking aim at iPods, cell phones | CNET News.com

PayPal hit by glitches in online payments
source: Reuters

The eBay unit says the problem appears to be related to a coding update.

PayPal, eBay's online payment service, has suffered intermittent glitches since late last week, locking some users out of their accounts for long stretches and making it difficult for some online sellers to complete deals, the company and users said on Monday.

The online payment problem came at the start of eBay's seasonally biggest quarter for revenue and roughly four months after the company apologized for a run of billing and search snafus that disrupted some of the auction site's most dedicated sellers.
EBay said it was working to fix the recent PayPal problems, which have affected payments, log-ins and account creation. "We are working furiously...We have all resources dedicated to getting it fixed as soon as possible," said PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires. Pires said the problem appeared to be related to a coding update late Thursday.

"We haven't found the ultimate cause," she added. It was not immediately clear how widespread the problems were, although eBay's message boards were filled with postings about the glitches. Michael Bokan, of West Charlton, N.Y., said PayPal usually processes five to 10 payments a day on orders from his fly-fishing equipment Web site FlyShack.com. Bokan, who said he can see payment requests being sent to PayPal, said no payments came through on Friday, less than half than normal were processed over the weekend, and just one was done on Monday. "It's messing things up," said one San Francisco-based PayPal user who spoke on condition he not be named. He said payments were "trickling in" to his account, although confirmation e-mails from PayPal were not. Users also complained they were unable to withdraw money from their PayPal accounts or to use their PayPal debit cards. "I can't get paid, can't ship and can't get to my own money," a PayPal user wrote in a posting on eBay's message boards. EBay has been integrating PayPal tightly into its site since it purchased the company in 2002. For example, the company added a feature to its popular "Buy It Now" function that allows sellers to accept immediate payment only through PayPal. PayPal boasted 50.4 million accounts at the end of the second quarter, during which it processed $4.4 billion in payments.

911 calls made over Internet often get lower priority

ST. PAUL (AP) â?? Emergency calls made using new Internet telephone services ring in through a nonemergency line and often aren't answered immediately, according to an official who runs Ramsey County's largest 911 emergency call center.

Fred Fischer, a St. Paul police officer, added that the Internet emergency calls usually are more difficult to handle because the 911 operator must ask the identity and location of the caller. In a normal 911 call, that information automatically pops up when the operator answers the call.

"The benefit of the 911 system is that we know your location in the event that you can't speak to us," Fischer said. "We don't get that with the Internet calls."

Conventional wired phones are being displaced by a new technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. VOIP uses a high-speed Internet connection to provide phone service instead of a conventional telephone line. But the technology is creating some problems for 911 operators.

VOIP service, which provides extensive or unlimited local and long-distance calling at discounted prices, converts the voice into digital bits that are transmitted over the public Internet or a private data network. The bits are converted back into a traditional phone signal just before the call reaches its destination.

Emergency officials say Vonage and AT&T's CallVantage service have the difficulties Fischer describes, while Time Warner Cable's new Internet phone service doesn't.
Vonage didn't return a phone call to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. AT&T said it's working on the problem.

"We recognize there are concerns out there, and we will resolve them," said Kerry Hibbs, an AT&T spokesman in Dallas. "We make very clear to our customers that our CallVantage Internet phone service does not work the same as traditional landline 911."
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to rule in the next few months on whether Internet phone service should be regulated. If the FCC decides VOIP should be regulated, it must set up requirements for services such as 911, said Steve Seitz, spokesman for the National Emergency Number Association, a Washington professional organization for 911 operators.

At the same time, the FCC is expected to tell regional Bell telephone companies such as Qwest how much access to their 911 call-handling networks they must provide to VOIP companies. Qwest has told the FCC it would rather have the telephone and VOIP companies work out their own 911 policy, said Mary LaFave, director of public policy for advanced services, based in Denver.
Technical improvements for VOIP companies are being developed by Intrado Inc. of Longmont, Colo., which helps Vonage and AT&T connect their VOIP 911 calls to emergency call centers in the nontraditional way. Intrado, one of about a half-dozen such 911 intermediary firms nationwide, said it hopes to introduce a new service next year that will help VOIP providers connect to the traditional 911 calling network.

Such changes can't come soon enough for Nancy Pollock, executive director of the Metropolitan 911 Board, a St. Paul organization that oversees 911 service for the seven-country metropolitan area.
She's been upset by occasional 911 lapses, such as the routing of 911 Internet telephone calls to the wrong answering location.
"It's fairly misleading, in our opinion, to say that all Internet telephone service is 911 compatible," she said.

But some Internet calling is 911-compatible. Time Warner Cable's new Internet phone service, which is being tested and should be available within 90 days, routes 911 calls via Qwest's conventional 911 network to the nearest call center. As a result, the caller's name, address and phone number automatically appear on the 911 operator's computer screen.

That's mostly because Time Warner has agreed, for now, to be regulated by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and has been certified by the commission as a company authorized to compete with Qwest for local telephone customers. That designation gives Time Warner access to a special Qwest call routing network for 911 calls.

For now, emergency officials want consumers to understand that VOIP 911 calls may not be as good as they think.

"VOIP is a wonderful thing, and it allows you to make long-distance calls dirt cheap," Fischer said. "But I don't think the sellers of those services always make their customers aware that they are not getting true 911 service."

From the "those wacky japanese" file: Seven Die in Japan 'Internet Suicide' Pact

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police said on Tuesday they were investigating a suspected group suicide involving seven people who met through the Internet, the latest in a rash of suicides linked to the Web.

The four men and three women, mostly in their 20s, were found dead on Tuesday in a car parked on a mountain road in Minano in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, officers said.

Police said they found four charcoal stoves in the car, which was wrapped in blue plastic sheets and had its windows sealed from the inside.

"We believe they all died after inhaling carbon monoxide from the charcoal," a police spokesman said. "We believe they got acquainted through the Internet."

One of the seven had sent an e-mail to a friend on Monday saying he would commit suicide, the spokesman said.

"We found no traces of violence that could have otherwise led to their deaths," he said.

Empty cans of liquor were found inside the car and a box of sleeping pills near the silver vehicle, Kyodo news agency said.

No religious prohibitions exist in Japan against suicide and it has long been seen as a way to escape failure or of saving loved ones from embarrassment for financial loss. However, it has also been stigmatized as a shameful, taboo subject.

In Kanagawa prefecture, just west of Tokyo, police said two women in their 20s had killed themselves in a car in what was believed to be another case of Internet suicide.

Cases dubbed by the Japanese media as "Internet suicide" pacts started to come to the fore in 2003. A total of 34 people killed themselves in such pacts last year, according to police data.

Police have asked Internet service providers to disclose information about those who post plans about suicides on the Web.

However, experts say it is pointless to blame the Internet and that a closer look should be taken at the society in which they occur.

Suicide rates have always been high in Japan, where there are about the same number each year as in the United States, which has more than double the population.

Last year, Japan reported a record 34,427 recorded cases of suicide. (Additional reporting by George Nishiyama)

Microsoft to Announce Media Center OS Update
source: PC World
 
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 supports DVD burning, HDTV, and improved support for mobile devices.

Microsoft will unveil the latest version of its media-oriented operating system tomorrow, positioning Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 as its best operating system for consumers.

"Media Center 2005 is going to catapult the operating system much more to a mainstream status," says Dave Fester, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Consumer group. "If you look at the massive interest and demand by consumers for digital entertainment in music, photos, TV--this is the version of Windows you want."

Not all outsiders agree. Microsoft is aiming high with its Media Center OS projections, says Rob Enderle, principal analyst with The Enderle Group in San Jose, California. "They are basically saying that a third of consumer machines will be a Media Center over the next few years. I think that is probably aggressive," he says.

The update to Windows XP Media Center Edition, code-named Symphony, has been in beta testing since early this year. XP Media Center Edition 2005 includes a host of new features, including support for two TV tuners, DVD burning, and over-the-air high-definition television and satellite in addition to cable TV. The software also offers improved support for mobile devices and a refreshed user interface.

Send Digital Content Around the House
Windows XP Media Center Edition is a premium version of Windows XP, designed to make the PC the media and entertainment hub for the home. In addition to traditional PC tasks, the system can serve music, pictures, video, and live television to portable devices, stereos, and TVs, while also enforcing digital rights set by content owners. Users can access the Media Center PC with a remote control through a special user interface on their TV.

A key new feature is support for wireless technology, and in particular Media Center Extender, a new technology that lets users wirelessly connect up to five TVs to the Media Center PC.

Users also will be able to exchange MSN instant messages through their TV, and remotely program their Media Center 2005 system through a service offered by MSN.
With the 2005 version, Windows XP Media Center is finally a finished product, says Enderle. "This is a significant step. Last year's product was interesting, but this year's product feels mature, and where we go from here will be minor enhancements."

Microsoft and hardware makers are also expected to announce devices that use Media Center Extender technology, as well as new Media Center PCs and new digital audio receivers for an audio-only experience.

More Portability
Microsoft also is expected to announce Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Windows-based cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The software turns these devices into portable media players that will work with Media Center PCs, allowing users to take content with them.

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile includes support for Microsoft's new DRM (digital rights management) technology, code-named Janus, which allows subscribers to online music services--services that support the technology--to download music collections to mobile devices. Currently, you may download music only to PCs. The software will ship on many new devices, including some cell phones, some PDAs, and a goodly clutch of popular MP3 players. Existing devices can be upgraded, but users will have to get an upgrade from the device maker, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft also is introducing a new logo program called "Plays for Sure." The logo will appear on portable media players and online music and video services to indicate interoperability. "When consumers see a device that has the Plays for Sure logo or a music or video service that has the logo, you can guarantee interoperability between those devices and services," Microsoft's Fester says.

MSN Music Store Launch
As part of the consumer-focused announcements, Microsoft on Tuesday will officially launch its U.S. MSN Music Store and a similar service in eight other countries through a partnership with Loudeye. The download service also will be available in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland.
The MSN Music Store, Microsoft's response to Apple Computer's ITunes, is also available through Windows XP Media Center's TV interface, along with dozens of other online services that provide music, movies, radio, and other content.

PC Sales Stimulator?
Windows XP Media Center 2005 is the centerpiece of a Microsoft marketing effort to revive interest in the three-year-old Windows XP operating system. With a brand new version of Windows not scheduled until 2006, Microsoft is betting XP Media Center 2005 will move consumers to buy new PCs.

Media Center PCs cost more than plain Windows XP Home machines, with price tags ranging from around $900 to over $1999 for the more expensive systems. In an effort to make these Media Center PCs more affordable, Microsoft has relaxed the hardware requirements for the systems: a TV tuner card and remote control are no longer required.

However, buyers of a dressed-down system without a TV tuner or a remote will likely want to upgrade their systems to be able to get the full Media Center experience, analyst Enderle says.

New Jurors To Decide If WTC Was Attacked Once Or Twice
another reason to hate lawyers
source: NY1 News

The leaseholder of the World Trade Center lost his bid for a double payout, but in the second round of his insurance battle, which begins Tuesday, he stands to collect an additional $1.1 billion if he convinces jurors that the twin towers fell after two separate attacks.

Airline ID requirement faces legal challenge
source: USA TODAY
At a time when Americans have come to expect tight security for air travel, it might seem to be an odd question: Does requiring airline passengers to show identification before they board domestic flights amount to an "unreasonable search" under the Constitution?

Yes, says John Gilmore, a computer whiz who made a fortune as an early employee of Sun Microsystems. His challenge of the federal ID requirement, which soon could get a hearing before a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco, is one of the latest court battles to test the balance between security concerns and civil liberties.
At issue is Gilmore's claim that checking the IDs of passengers on domestic flights violates his right to travel throughout the USA anonymously, without the government monitoring him.

Lawyers involved in the case say it apparently is the first such challenge to the federal rules that require airline passengers to provide identification. In a similar case, two peace activists are suing the U.S. government to determine how their names came to be placed on a federal "no-fly list." Rebecca Gordon and Janet Adams were not allowed to board a San Francisco to Boston flight in August 2002 after they were told that their names were on a "secret FBI" list of potential security threats, their court filing says.

"I believe I have a right to travel in my own country without presenting what amounts to an internal passport," Gilmore, 49, said in an interview. "I have a right to be anonymous, (to not) be tracked by my government for no good reason."

Gilmore said he has no problem with security checks that focus on passengers' luggage. He says he also does not object to having to present a passport to board flights to other countries.

Some privacy groups say Gilmore has a point. But others who support the ID requirement have cast the San Francisco resident as being out of touch with the realities of air travel since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Kent Scheidegger, counsel for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a conservative group in Sacramento, says the ID requirement is good policy and "eminently constitutional."

"The Fourth Amendment forbids not searches that you don't like, it forbids unreasonable searches," he says. "Nothing could be more reasonable at this time than to know who you're flying with."

The Justice Department is fighting Gilmore's claim. Acting on the department's motion, a U.S. district court judge in San Francisco dismissed the suit last March. Gilmore has appealed; a hearing before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to be scheduled after briefs are filed next month.
In court papers, the Justice Department has not defended the ID policy, or even acknowledged it exists. It has said national security law requires that this aspect of the case be argued in a courtroom closed to the public, including Gilmore. The appeals court denied the government's secrecy request Sept. 20, and the government has asked the court to reconsider.

Rules on the Transportation Security Administration's Web site say passengers 18 and older need one form of government-issued photo identification or two forms of non-photo identification to board domestic flights.

Airlines adopted such a policy on their own after terrorists bombed an international flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. The bomb that killed all 270 passengers on the jet was said to have been placed in a passenger's luggage by a terrorist who got into a restricted area. The airlines say checking IDs against luggage and passenger information is a way to deny terrorists access to flights.

The TSA, formed two years ago in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, checks IDs to verify passenger identities and to check them against "watch lists" of known or suspected terrorists.

Gilmore's suit says the requirement amounts to an unreasonable search, a "burden" on the right to travel and a form of self-incrimination because it singles out "anonymous travelers" for searching.

Gilmore said the ID requirement does little to ensure security. "Ordinary citizens may show correct identification, but do we really think that someone who is willing to commit a terrorist act won't also be willing to present false identification?"

Gilmore's suit was filed in 2002, after he was denied seats on two flights at the airport in Oakland. It was his first domestic flight since the 9/11 attacks. Before then, Gilmore said, he was permitted to board flights after presenting a Federal Aviation Administration document that said showing IDs was optional.
In 1982, Gilmore, a computer programmer, was the first person hired by the founders of what became Sun Microsystems. He retired eight years ago with what his publicist, Bill Scannell, calls "multiples" of millions of dollars.
Since then, Gilmore said, he has worked to promote "individual rights," in part by sponsoring a foundation that is critical of travel restrictions and what he considers violations of speech and privacy rights.
Last year, before taking off on a British Airways flight from San Francisco to London, Gilmore angered fellow travelers by refusing to remove a blue button on his lapel that had the words "suspected terrorist" imposed over the picture of an airliner. After a delay, the pilot went back to the gate and ordered Gilmore off the jet.

While his case moves through court, Gilmore has remained grounded when it comes to domestic travel.

He hired friends to drive him to San Diego and across the country to attend board meetings of corporate and non-profit groups. He took a driving vacation to Oregon. Invited to a family reunion in Massachusetts, he thought of chartering a private plane but balked at the $33,000 price.

"Yes, it can be inconvenient at times," Gilmore said of his fight against the ID requirement. "But I believe I'm right."

Windows XP SP2 Hits Retail
source: Microsoft Watch
wonder how you will know if you have bought a patched operating system

Starting this week, major retail chains began selling Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the latest version of Microsofts desktop operating system. "Microsoft began shipping retail boxes to retailers last week, so they will start showing up on store shelves worldwide throughout the month," said a spokesman with Microsofts Windows client division.

Among the U.S. retailers offering the Home and/or Professional versions of the product , according to Microsoft, are Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Frys, J&R Computer World, Micro Center, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Target and Wal Mart. Some of Microsofts PC partners are just starting now to preload new machines with Windows XP SP2, as opposed to plain-vanilla XP â?? an expected move which is meeting with mixed reactions from resellers.

Microsoft officials said they had no information to share regarding when leading PC makers will begin bundling the product. As of September 30, about 40 million copies of Windows XP SP2 had been downloaded by users, according to Microsoft. The vast majority of these copies have been pushed to users via Microsoft's Windows Update/Automatic Update patching systems. Microsoft also has made available to users with slower networking connections a CD version of SP2.

Service to give remote access to digital media anywhere
source: USA Today

SAN JOSE, Calif. â?? In a move sure to raise the eyebrows of Hollywood and its partners, a California startup will unveil a service Monday that allows subscribers to remotely access their digital media files â?? even watch live television â?? from any gadget with an Internet connection.

Want to watch your HBO while waiting at the doctor's office, or use your cell phone instead of a portable music player to listen to songs from your home's digital jukebox?

The technology from Orb Networks, based in Union City, grabs a user's music, video, or photo files stored on their home PCs and streams them to Web-enabled devices such as cell phones, laptops, or personal digital assistants. A user's cable or satellite TV can also be accessed as long as the video output is somehow hooked up to a home computer network.

"We think of this as a personal media portal," said Orb's chief executive, Jim Behrens. "Your media is always with you."

Orb contends any files on a user's PC â?? including copy-protected ones, such as songs downloaded from Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store, or films from online movie service MovieLink â?? will be playable on-the-go through their service.

Orb's streaming technology essentially keeps the same copy protections, including the usual restrictions against making digital copies and sharing them freely over the Internet, but lets users access their media however they choose, Behrens said.

"We want content creators to get paid for their content, but once users have paid for it, they should be able to play it on whatever device they want and wherever they want," he said.

It's a notion Hollywood has challenged in the past, battling the pioneers of VCRs, such as Sony, to the makers of digital video recorders, such as TiVo.

So far, TiVo, which will soon let its subscribers access their recorded TV shows on other devices outside the home, has prevailed over Hollywood's piracy and broadcast rights concerns. But that won't stop the powerful studios, analysts say.

"Media companies are terrified about their content going on the Internet, and they'll fight until they're sure that the content is being sent to you and only you," said Josh Bernoff, a digital media analyst at Forrester Research. "It's not even a question of whether it's legal, it's whether or not they'll get sued, and there's a significant possibility of that here."

A startup faces tremendous hurdles in fighting deep-pocketed opponents. Just consider how former small companies with controversial video-related technologies, such as SonicBlue and 321 Studios, went bankrupt, crushed by the costs of fighting Hollywood.

Neither will companies like Apple or Sony, which have designed the tunes downloaded from their music stores to be transferrable only to their respectively branded portable players, necessarily appreciate how the Orb service eludes their restrictions.

Orb executives expect opposition but said they have worked closely with lawyers and are confident Orb would prevail if confronted in court.

The Orb service will be available in mid-November starting at $9.99 a month or $79.99 per year. Additional users off the same home-based account would have to pay $3.99 per month or $29.99 per year.
Users must download Orb software onto their home computers and set up a password-protected Orb account. To access their home media files over the Internet, users need to be able to launch a Web browser and have a media player â?? either Microsoft's Windows, RealNetworks's RealPlayer, or one provided by Orb â?? on their portable devices.

The service is targeted at households with high-speed broadband connections, though during the streaming process, the quality of the videos or photos would be limited to the connection speeds and screen resolutions of the devices.
Orb claims it can access any digital media file off of a user's PC, but its reach into a set-top-box connected to a home computer network, such as a TiVo or a cable DVR set-top-box, is blocked until Orb gets permission from those companies to place its software in those boxes â?? a business strategy Orb is pursuing.

"If Orb could get its technology working properly, it's a promising idea," Bernoff said. "But anything with a subscription fee is also going to have to be incredibly useful to get people to pay."

Phone Line Alchemy: Copper Into Fiber
source: NY Times

KELLER, Tex. - Rick Montey and his two-worker crew want to present a new image of the local phone company: prompt, friendly and hands-on helpful.

At the home of T. J. Smith here in this Fort Worth suburb, Mr. Montey helped choose an inconspicuous spot to bore a small hole through the side of the house for the fiber optic line that would enable Mr. Smith's son to download big computer files quickly for his graphic-design work and let his granddaughter pull video clips off the Internet.

Three hours later, only after the Smiths knew how to use the new system, Mr. Montey and his crew pulled away in their Verizon Communications truck. The family paid nothing for the installation, beyond the $34.95 monthly fee for the high-speed fiber optic service - which they can drop at any time.

The new offering is part of a multibillion-dollar bet by Verizon and the other Bell companies. They are gambling that by going door to door to replace century-old copper wire technology with high-speed fiber optic lines, they can hang onto their most valuable asset: a direct line into the home of each customer.

Verizon and the other regional Bell companies are losing customers by the millions as people drop their old phone lines in favor of cellphones, e-mail and ever cheaper phone services from cable companies.

To battle back, the phone companies are trying to outdo their archrivals, the cable companies, by installing a network of fiber optic lines to reach tens of millions of American homes - lines able to carry not only phone calls but television programming and Internet connections at six times the speed of cable company lines.

In the process, the Bells hope to become a counterweight to cable companies that often operate as monopolies in their specific regions.

"Without fiber, their customer base will evaporate," said Michael Render, president of Render, Vanderslice & Associates, a market research firm in Tulsa, Okla., that tracks fiber optic networks. "The world is changing too rapidly. Building fiber networks is a must-do."
Though the service is available now only in this small town and a few other cities nationally, Verizon expects to make its fiber connections available to a million homes in parts of nine states by the end of the year.
For all the billions of dollars Verizon and the other Bells plan to spend, success is far from assured and failure could be catastrophically expensive. Cable providers, with lines into 73 million homes, are a formidable opponent, particularly with their new Internet phone services. And it is not certain either that the Bells will be able to offer fiber-based services compelling enough to get customers to sign up, or whether future technologies will render all that expensive fiber obsolete.

Still, if the Bells need any reminder of why they need to act now, they have only to look at AT&T. The old Ma Bell spun off the regional Bell companies more than 20 years ago to pursue a seemingly unfettered communications future, but it has fallen on such hard times that this summer AT&T decided to retreat almost entirely from the residential phone market.

Despite the urgency, it will take years, if not decades, to wire every home with fiber. The Bells are starting first in suburbs and new communities, where access is easier. In cities like New York, the Bells are likely to bring fiber only to the basements of multi-story buildings, not all the way to each individual apartment, and then use existing copper lines to bridge the gap.

As the telephone companies embark on this most ambitious rewiring of America since the old Bell System strung copper lines from telephone poles early last century, they know that today's competitive market will not let them approach their job as the regulated monopolists of yore.

They have to keep appointments, rather than expecting consumers to wait home all day for the phone truck to drive up. They no longer mail customers Internet-access gear and expect them to figure out how to install it, as the Bells have often done in recent years with their high-speed D.S.L. service. And in this hotly competitive era, they are not charging an installation fee - even though the job, in equipment and labor, can easily cost $1,000 or more a home.

"I've never thought of myself as a salesman," said Mr. Montey, a 25-year Verizon veteran, "It's the biggest challenge in my career."
Within weeks of AT&T's decision to back away from the household market, Verizon, the biggest Bell company, began offering its first residential fiber service to customers here in Keller, a town of 30,000 people 15 miles north of Fort Worth. From April to August, Verizon contractors dug up Keller's neatly laid streets and buried fiber optic cables that connect to the Verizon central switching station in town.
Customers like Jim and Margaret Archer are the types of Keller residents that give Verizon hope. The Archers struggled for years to send e-mail and search the Web with their pokey Internet connection through a dial-up modem and a regular phone line. Their house was too far from Verizon's central switching office to get a faster digital subscriber line.

So when Verizon began burying fiber cable in their neighborhood, the Archers jumped to order the service. "Now we've got the good stuff," said Mrs. Archer, 61, a part-time paralegal. Next year, they hope to dump their satellite dish when Verizon begins selling TV programming via the fiber network to compete with the local cable TV provider.

Fiber, which carries digital information as pulses of light rather than electric current, is not new. For years, phone carriers have been laying fiber between their municipal switching stations, on long-distance routes and across oceans. But only now are the regional Bell companies, having lost 16.3 percent of their local-line customers in just the last four years, laying fiber to residences.
Nationwide, only 146,500 homes have been connected to fiber, said Mr. Render, the market researcher. That number is up from 64,700 homes in September 2003, Mr. Render said.

The numbers should continue growing. Verizon plans to spend $3 billion to offer fiber service to three million homes nationally by the end of 2005. SBC, dominant in the Southwest and the Midwest, and BellSouth, big in the Southeast, have also been installing fiber to homes in newly built neighborhoods in their regions. In older areas, they are taking fiber to switching stations or to the curb, and relying on old copper lines to reach the house, a strategy that may reduce connection speeds.

To build a nationwide fiber network comparable to the cable industry's, the Bells would have to spend at least $100 billion, or $1,000 a home, experts say. But so far, the companies have committed themselves to spending only about $10 billion, before determining whether further outlays make sense. And even that amount has raised alarm bells on Wall Street, where investors remain wary of costly projects.

Still, the experience of running fiber cable past every home in Keller and selling services to consumers has given Verizon a taste of what may follow. Early indications are that customers like the price: as little as $34.95 for one of the fastest Internet lines, a price comparable to what cable companies charge for considerably slower connections.
Getting the service to consumers is another matter. In Texas and other states with flat expanses, workers typically bury the fiber using boring machines that often lay the lines near the older copper cables. In places where the terrain is hilly or rocky, lines are strung from poles, a faster, cheaper process, although one that leaves the fiber line susceptible to storms.

After a customer puts in an order, Verizon sends a crew to connect the main fiber line to the side of the customer's home. Then another installation crew, like the one led by Mr. Montey, connects the fiber to equipment inside and outside the house.

This is a new kind of work for Mr. Montey. For decades, phone companies have operated as stodgy utilities, with little need to improve customer service. With fiber, they have to turn themselves into retailers. Phone workers, accustomed to splicing lines and hanging from phone poles, are now spending hours teaching customers about their broadband connections, even becoming PC advisers because so many home computers are riddled with viruses.

The company said it was too early to say how many homes in Keller had subscribed to the service, although it said it had received up to 80 orders a day.

Verizon is now laying fiber in Dallas County, Tex.; Huntington Beach, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; and in parts of six other states. The company has not announced the additional six states, but said most are in the Northeast. Analysts have said the list includes New York and New Jersey.

Because it has been swallowing the installation costs, Verizon is eager to use the fiber to start selling television programming, which analysts say will be comparable in price to many basic cable packages. To do so, Verizon and the other phone companies are having to negotiate contracts with networks, buy the equivalent of cable TV franchises from municipalities and sell advertising to fill their air time.

Despite its high installation costs, fiber could be a money-saver in the long run. Unlike copper cables, glass fibers do not rust, and require less electricity and maintenance. By 2008, Verizon's fiber network could save the company about $1 billion annually in operating costs, according to analysts.

SBC, which is running fiber cable only to newly built homes and neighborhood switching stops in older areas, will get only 70 percent of the savings that Verizon's network is expected to achieve, but it will spend only half as much time and money on the project, according to Ernie Carey, the chief of SBC's $6 billion fiber installation project.

The continued reliance on copper for the final link to the homes of consumers makes sense to some experts, who say improvements in software compression and Internet connection technology make to-the-home fiber unnecessary. They point to companies in Japan and South Korea that are already selling high-speed Internet connections and video over copper networks.

No matter how much fiber they bury, the Bells cannot be complacent because the cable companies will continue to market their own services.

"The cable guys are not going to wait three or four years" for the Bell companies to catch up, said Jeffrey Halpern, an industry analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. "The Bells need a revolutionary change, not an evolutionary change."

Microsofts Latest Plan for TV
source:NY Times
TELEVISION has been something of a great white whale for the Microsoft Corporation. The company has tried to sell WebTV and build software for TV's and cable boxes. It has even invested billions in cable systems. So far, these efforts have been expensive and have not yet put Microsoft into the position it covets: the maker of the software behind every glowing screen.

Tomorrow, Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, ventures into Hollywood to announce a renewed assault on a different front in his war of the tube, one that builds on Microsoft's greatest strength: Windows.

Mr. Gates will unveil a new version of the Windows XP Media Center, software that combined with specially configured personal computers from dozens of manufacturers, turns the PC into a photo album, jukebox, DVD player and, most important, a TV set with a built-in recorder.

The first two editions of the software have been slow to gain acceptance in the market, representing about 3 percent of home computers sold. But, Microsoft hopes to turn that around with the latest version, which will add a few features and improve the technical quality of the television picture and the video recorder; both at times have been spotty.
More importantly, say industry executives, demand will be spurred by a series of new hardware devices using the Windows software that will be introduced tomorrow.

Several manufacturers, including Linksys, a unit of Cisco Systems, and Hewlett-Packard, are expected to introduce versions of a product Microsoft announced last January called the Media Center Extender, a device that allows a television signal to be sent from a Media Center computer to a television in another room, by way of a wireless network .
And perhaps most significant, some of the new Media Center computers will have prices below $1,000, about half that of the first models.

Still, it is an open question whether people want to watch television on their computers. "Convergence solves a problem consumers don't have," said Sean Baenen, a managing director of Odyssey, a consumer research firm. He said that simpler, single-purpose machines are easier to use.

So far, the record of Media Center PC's is mixed. Since they were introduced in 2002, computers using the first two versions of this software have been slow sellers. IDC, which had forecast sales of 1.5 million of them this year, now sees sales at 550,000 units for all of 2004.

Roger Kay, a vice president of IDC, says sales of Media Center PC's have lagged because they are buggy, too hard to use, and often too noisy to put in a living room. And even among the small group of users, they haven't developed the fanatical following of TiVo, the stand-alone video recorder.

"I haven't been in some placid home where the people who use Media Center PC's think it is great and a part of their life," Mr. Kay said.
Brad Brooks, the marketing manger for Windows, said that Mr. Kay had undercounted the software's sales and had overstated its flaws.

"We're pretty happy where we are after only 22 months in the market," he said. "We have grown past 3 percent of the market." He said that over the next few years, Media Center machines would represent 10 percent to 20 percent of the market.

Mr. Brooks said this growth would be driven by the new software to be introduced tomorrow - along with a series of related new products by hardware makers. He declined to say what specific changes would be in the new version, but press accounts and industry executives say they include a modest set of new features and improvements to the user interface.

"We are going into Version 3 of the Media Center edition, and everyone says that Version 3 is Microsoft's sweet spot."

Stephen Baker, the director of industry analysis at the NPD Group, a research firm, is skeptical even of the existing sales of Media Center PC's. "A lot of their sales have been accidental," he said. "Someone wants to buy the best PC out there, and this is the one with all the bells and whistles"

That isn't such a bad thing, Mr. Brooks said. "Our partners say that the media center is their highest-margin PC."

Microsoft, too, gets higher margins. Industry analysts say that PC makers pay a premium of $20 to $40 over the roughly $50 a computer that Microsoft gets for the basic edition of Windows.

Regardless of how they get Media Center computers, Mr. Brooks said people like them when they get them home. Microsoft's surveys, he said, found that more than 90 percent of the owners of the Media Center computers are satisfied with them, far more than the percentage of basic PC owners. Eight out of nine, he said, would recommend the product to a friend.

But research by both Microsoft and computer makers found that most of the initial users of the machines were using them on their computer monitors, presumably on their desks. Only a small minority use the highly promoted ability of the computers to link to TV sets and sound systems for use in family rooms. (The machines come with remote controls and software with very large type so that they can be used by people sitting on the couch across the room from a big TV set.)

One reason, perhaps, is that video-recording functions and picture quality have not been as good as on a device like TiVo. A survey by Forrester Research found that people who recorded video on their computers were less satisfied than users of specialized recorders. Microsoft says new hardware and software will help fix these problems.

Microsoft and other researchers have been surprised that many initial Media Center users use it more for managing digital photographs than for watching television.

The media extender device may give Microsoft its desired beachhead in the living room. But those devices are emerging technology and have an initial price tag of about $250. A recorder from TiVo, by contrast, can be bought for less than $100 after rebates, although it has a fee of $12.95 a month, which the Windows system does not.

Sony has sold a similar system for several years to link its Vaio PC to a computer in another room, but sales were modest. More than half the Vaio desktops have TV tuners, but most do not use the Windows Media Center software. Todd Titera, the product manager for Vaio, said Sony's customers liked to watch television and especially to edit their home movies on their computers. But rather than using its product to send the pictures to their family room TV's, they used a simpler method. They burned DVD's of movies and then walked them to their DVD player.
Hewlett-Packard is also trying another approach to sneak into the living room: building a computer that is the size and appearance of a large DVD player that can be stacked alongside other home theater devices. Like a fancy receiver, it has all sorts of jacks for sound and video coming in and out on the back. The front has a drive for DVD's and CD's, a jack to hook up a video camera, and a slot for an extra hard drive. The device is a full Windows computer, but it is meant to be used with a television rather a monitor.

It also has a price tag close to $2,000. John Romano, Hewlett's senior vice president for consumer products, says this version is "not already for the mainstream market yet." But as with all technology, he said, prices will fall. And Hewlett has high hopes for new versions of its regular Media Center PC's that will sell for less than $1,000.

But even as prices fall, many researchers wonder whether people want a single machine to handle their television, music and photos.

"Consumers don't want or need the ultimate device," said Mr. Baenen from Odyssey. "They don't want to pay for the ultimate device; they don't trust the ultimate device; and, they don't want to deal with the complexity of the ultimate device."

Hollywood takes P2P case to Supreme Court
source: CNET

Studios, record labels ask top judges to overturn case protecting file-swapping companies.

Hollywood studios and record companies on Friday asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a controversial series of recent court decisions that have kept file-swapping software legal.

The decisions have been among the biggest setbacks for the entertainment industry in the past several years, as they have tried to quell the rampant exchange of copyrighted materials over peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus.

In a joint petition to the Supreme Court, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said that letting the lower court rulings stand would badly undermine the value of copyrighted work.

"This is one of the most important copyright cases ever to reach this court," the groups said in papers filed with the court. "Resolution of the question presented here will largely determine the value, indeed the very significance, of copyright in the digital era."

The ongoing case has helped define the limits of what is legal for software companies, as the entertainment companies have tried to hold peer-to-peer developers responsible for the widespread copyright infringement of people using their products.

Record labels had made this claim successfully against Napster, which ultimately shut down under the pressure of court-ordered network filters. But a Los Angeles federal judge said Grokster and StreamCast Networks, which distribute software allowing people to trade files without any further intervention by the companies, should not share the same fate.

"Defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose to employ it for both lawful and unlawful ends," federal Judge Stephen Wilson wrote in his 2003 decision. "Grokster and StreamCast are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."

Wilson's ruling was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in August.

In their legal briefs, the entertainment industry attorneys said the lower courts' rulings conflict with rulings in the Seventh Circuit against Aimster, another file-swapping company. That court ruled that Aimster was liable for the actions of its users, and ordered the network to be shut down.

The file-swapping companies should have a responsibility to design their products to help counter massive illegal activity, the entertainment companies argued in their legal papers.

"These companies have expressly designed their businesses to avoid all legal liability, with the full knowledge that over 90 percent of the material traversing their applications belongs to someone else," MPAA Chief Executive Dan Glickman said in a statement. "Now is the time for the courts to review these businesses that depend upon violation of copyright."

Technology consumer groups said the lower court's ruling had been right and that the Supreme Court should not accept the case.

"There is no reason the Supreme Court should review the (lower court's) decision," Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. "That case was based on the principles established in the 1984 Betamax case, which has led to the largest and most profitable period of technological innovation in this country's history. Consumers, industry and our country have all benefited as a result."

Woman ticketed for appearing naked on Net fined $150
What's next, Mardi Grar?

A Lincoln woman ticketed for posting nude pictures of herself on the Web that were taken in a downtown bar was fined $150 Thursday.

Melissa J. Harrington, 21, was ticketed in December for violating Lincoln's public nudity ordinance by posting pictures on her former Web site "showing her naked at one of our downtown bars and in several other locations around the city," said Police Chief Tom Casady.
Harrington, who works as a Web designer at a local bank, says on her Web site that she likes "being naked in public ... even more when there's a lot of people there to watch."
Her old Web site was linked to another that shows explicit pictures of women who purportedly are college students in Nebraska.
Casady said it was obvious that the photos she was ticketed for were taken inside the Marz Intergalactic Shrimp and Martini Bar in downtown Lincoln.

Casady said no one has been ticketed in connection with other pictures on the Web site because it is not apparent where they were taken.

Harrington, who pleaded no contest to the public nudity charge, faced a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine.
She said she will continue to pose nude on the Web, but has shut down her old Web site and started a new one.

So how does she plan to avoid any more tickets if she doesn't change her ways?
"I guess I'll just have to be more cautious and watch what I'm doing," she said.

Find the Web's Worst Security Flaws
The SANS Institute identifies the top 20 Internet vulnerabilities of the year.

IT security and research organization The SANS Institute is releasing its annual Top 20 list of Internet security vulnerabilities this week, with the intention of offering organizations at least a starting point for addressing critical issues.

"When you tell your systems people to test for thousands of vulnerabilities, your enterprise comes to a stop. What the Top 20 does is give you a place to start your remediation each year," says SANS Director Alan Paller.

The SANS list (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112856,00.asp) is compiled from recommendations by leading security researchers and companies around the world, from institutes such as the National Infrastructure Protection Center and the U.K.'s National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre.

The Top 20 is actually two lists of 10: the 10 most commonly exploited vulnerabilities in Windows and the 10 most commonly exploited vulnerabilities in Unix and Linux.

Topping the Windows list is Web servers and services, while the Unix list leads with BIND domain name systems. While each entry represents a sometimes broad category, the more than 100 page SANS document then drills down into specific security holes in the categories, and instructions for correcting them.

New Arrivals
Many of the vulnerabilities have made the list before, but there were some surprises this year, according Ross Patel, director of the Top 20 list.

Vulnerabilities in file sharing applications and instant messaging (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118039,00.asp) (IM), which ranked 7 and 10 on the Windows list, respectively, represent fairly new categories of risk, Patel says.
"There was almost unanimous concern among experts around file sharing and peer-to-peer," Patel says. Like with IM, file sharing applications are simple and operational in nature and security concerns are often overlooked, Patel says.
Web browsers, at number 6 on the Windows list, were another hot topic.

"Hands down Web browsers for Windows were the topic that caused most of the harm, pain, and passionate debate for experts from every continent," Patel says. With the number of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser prompting some security experts to suggest earlier this year that users switch to other browsers (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117550,00.asp) , list contributors were left wondering if they should recommend the same, Patel says.

Fixing the Flaws
However, they finally decided that the move was too much to ask, and that they should endorse securing whatever platform a user chooses.

In fact, this year for the first time this list gives instructions on how to deal with flaws on various software platforms.
"We tried to make the list as relevant as possible this year," Patel says.

According to Gerhard Eschelbeck, chief technology officer at network security firm Qualys, and list contributor, the Top 20 is widely used by organizations as a security benchmark.

"There is a consensus among people from the industry and academia that this is the list of the most critical vulnerabilities," Eschelbeck says. "With 50 new vulnerabilities announced a week, or about 2500 a year, the challenge is for companies to decide which ones they should be looking at. It helps them prioritize," he says.

The list will be available on the SANS Web site.

"Because there are a relatively small set of issues, you can give them to the systems administrators and give them a few months to get them done so they can be heroes," the SANS' Paller says. "It makes sorting out the mess more reasonable."