internet news - 3/5

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Hi all

Just a note to say don't expect a 'news' on Monday as it's public
holiday here...

Cheers
David

Domain Name news
Domain authority seeks help (Canberra Times)
auDA, Australia's Internet domain authority, is calling for proposals
for new ".au" second-level domains to operate alongside existing 2LDs
such as .com.au, .org.au, .edu.au, and the languishing info.au.

http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=features&subclass=techno&category=industry%20news&story_id=144660&y=2002&m=4

Don't be confused by domain name 'renewal' demand (Nominet news
release)
Nominet UK is warning people not to be confused by what appears to be
a domain name (web address) registration renewal invoice but is
actually the offer of an entry in a web directory. 
 http://www.nic.uk/news/renewal-confusion.html

Commerce Secretary Vows Scrutiny Of ICANN Reforms (BizReport)
The U.S. Commerce Department is keeping close tabs on efforts to
reform the body that manages the Internet's addressing system and
will strive to make sure that those reforms reflect the needs of
Internet users, U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans told lawmakers last
week.

http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=3368&PHPSESSID=78edb7ba28396d8b969c271c40f85b8e
 
Tucows Says Domain Name Market to Grow (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW)
Domain name registrar Tucows Inc. (Tucows.com) said today it expected
to see a strengthening domain name market based on industry data from
the first quarter of 2002.
 http://thewhir.com/marketwatch/tuc050102.cfm

Internet news
The telecoms slump - No end in sight (Economist)
ANOTHER week, another crop of bad news from the telecoms industry.
Bernie Ebbers, the chief executive of WorldCom, was forced out (see
article). The share price of Qwest, another heavily indebted American
telecoms company, fell to an all-time low, after it had announced a
first-quarter loss of $698m. Siemens, a German company, said it would
cut 6,500 jobs in its telecoms-infrastructure division, on top of
10,000 layoffs already announced. Marconi and JDS Uniphase, two other
network-equipment vendors, announced or gave warning of gloomy
results.
 http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1113841

Online vote boost for disabled constituents (Guardian)
When the government invited local councils to run pilots of internet
and mobile phone text message voting, it hoped that the experiments
would boost turnout. It has done a good deal more than that for
wheelchair-bound Dr Christine Barton, who can now vote unaided for
the first time in more than five years.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,708713,00.html

Electronic polling vulnerable to abuse, says expert (Independent)
Britain's first "electronic elections" could be vulnerable to abuse,
internet security specialists said yesterday.
In an effort to reverse the downwards trend of turn-out in local
government elections, 30 councils held trials of alternative voting
methods.
 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=291381


Los ingleses votan en las municipales por primera vez por Internet y
por teléfono móvil (delitosinformaticos.com)
Los electores ingleses pudieron expresar su voto en algunas zonas a
través de Internet o mediante mensajes de texto con sus móviles (SMS)
en las elecciones municipales que se celebraron en 174 localidades de
Inglaterra.
 http://www.delitosinformaticos.com/noticias/102041853846946.shtml

Hacker exposes holes in .Net (ZDNet)
The much-vaunted security of Microsoft's next-generation Web-services
platform is good, but the company still has to iron out some kinks,
one security consultant said Thursday.
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-898302.html

Wireless security undermined (Australian IT)
AS wireless laptops, scanners and other gadgets become more popular
in businesses and homes, threats to privacy are growing as well.
Just this week, Best Buy suspended use of wireless cash registers
over concerns that eavesdroppers could obtain credit card numbers and
other customer data by sitting in the parking lot with the right
equipment.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,4247886%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

Wireless feature (ZDNet)
Like a new pop star, wireless networking has seemingly come from
nowhere to everywhere overnight. It's the future of communication,
say pundits: it'll be built into every chip we make, predicts Intel.
But like that new face on MTV, wireless networking has been playing
the pubs and clubs of computing for more than a decade.
 http://www.zdnet.co.uk/specials/2002/wireless/

Ashcroft Seeks Tougher Law To Punish Identity Thieves (Washington
Post)
The Bush administration said yesterday that it will seek speedier
trials and tougher penalties for crimes involving identity theft.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24368-2002May2.html

States: Microsoft planned to crush Real (Reuters)
A Microsoft executive presented a plan in 1999 to conquer the market
for audio and video delivery over the Internet using a tactic already
employed to fend off a rival Internet browser, a federal judge was
told on Thursday.

http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=technologynews&StoryID=914058
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-898297.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-898115.html
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/389292p-3094234c.html

E-Mails Show Microsoft Sought to Weaken Rival (Washington Post)
Microsoft Corp. bolted software for playing digital music and video
into its Windows operating system to mount an assault on rival Real
Networks Inc., according to internal documents shown yesterday at the
software giant's antitrust hearings.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24319-2002May2.html
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176346.html
 http://www.iht.com/articles/56543.html

Shock Rock Fans Needle British Knitting Circle (Reuters)
A ladies' knitting club in Britain is reeling after fans of shock
rock group Slipknot bombarded its Web site with threatening e-mails.

http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=915627

Broadband Internet Penetration Jumps In The UK - Report (Newsbytes)
During the past year broadband's share of U.K. home and work Internet
connections has come from nowhere to account for almost 5 percent of
all Net links, national telecommunications regulator Oftel reported.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176344.html

MPs press for BT break-up to boost broadband (Independent)
A Commons committee has urged the telecoms regulator Oftel to
consider whether the telecoms giant BT should be broken up in order
to encourage the take-up of broadband internet access among
consumers.
 http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/news/story.jsp?story=291365

FTC Settles Net Auction Fraud Case (Newsbytes)
Operators of Web auctions who sold computer gear but failed to
deliver the goods have agreed to pay $10,000 to consumers who lost
money, and to stop engaging in such activity, federal regulators
said.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176326.html

Privacy Groups Blast Info-Sharing By Financial Institutions
(Newsbytes)
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and other privacy
groups have decried "disturbing" and "abhorrent" practices at
financial institutions in submissions to a U.S. Department of the
Treasury study of the industry's information-sharing practices.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176335.html

Nueve de cada diez autónomos creen que la Red es útil a su negocio
(5Dias.com)
El 90% de los autónomos considera que la sociedad de la información
resulta útil para su negocio. Así se concluye de una encuesta
realizada por el Consejo Superior de Cámaras de Comercio entre un
total de 1.000 pequeños empresarios.

http://www.5dias.com/articulo.html?xref=20020503cdscdiges_2&type=Tes&anchor=cdssec
 
Zim Bridges Digital Divide (Financial Gazette)
ZIMBABWE has witnessed a telecommunications boom in the past few
years, but lack of infrastructure and the cost of installing it
continue to hamper the country's efforts to make the means of
communication available to the majority of its citizens.
 http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2002/May/May3/1234.shtml
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200205030172.html

Cyber crime crisis looms in Zimbabwe (Financial Gazette)
IMAGINE your bank statement being transmitted spontaneously via
electronic mail to millions of individuals and companies across the
world because a virus has attacked the bank’s computer system. 
 http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2002/May/May3/1235.shtml

Zim e-commerce outlook not rosy (Financial Gazette)
AT Cyberplex Africa we get numerous inquiries and requests to
implement an e-commerce solution, and the truth is that given current
conditions there are numerous barriers restricting companies and
organisations from accepting payment online for products and
services.
 http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2002/May/May3/1178.shtml

Interoperability (Oz National Office for the Information Economy)
Interoperability is central to establishing the business case for
e-commerce. It reduces uncertainty, risk and cost. It is also central
to public policy objectives, namely maximising economic efficiencies
through the broad uptake of technology and innovation.
NOIE has a number of projects underway to improve interoperability
across systems in the private sector and also within Government.
Preliminary work in this area has involved a number of measures, such
as the Interoperability Workshop held on 11-12 April 2002, to consult
broadly with industry and the community on the development of an
action agenda for interoperability.
 http://www.noie.gov.au/Projects/ecommerce/interop/index.htm

Australia's Information Economy: The Big Picture (Oz National Office
for the Information Economy - report)
What difference will the Information Economy make to the big picture?
What will it do to GDP, employment and trade? What are the risks to
the outlook? How significant are they?

http://www.noie.gov.au/Projects/information_economy/research&analysis/IE_Aust/index.htm

Government clamps down on mobile phone theft (ZDNet)
Legislation to deal with increasing levels of street crime in the UK
will include measures to punish mobile phone thieves.
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2109630,00.html
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1966000/1966247.stm

How to hack your mobile phone (BBC)
Changing the ID number of your phone is as easy as swapping the font
in a word processing document.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1966000/1966381.stm

Stargazers watch via the web (BBC) 
Astronomers, schoolchildren and interested amateurs could soon be
watching the sky with the help of a network of telescopes controlled
via the internet. 
The eStar project eventually hopes to use at least six telescopes,
three in each hemisphere, to form the remote controlled network. 
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1961000/1961765.stm

Eminem CD could be 'pirate proof' (BBC)
Eminem's eagerly awaited album is set to be embedded with technology
to prevent it being copied and distributed on the internet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_1962000/1962093.stm
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=====
David Goldstein
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email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
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