...from:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/26itmseu.html
Apple Launches EU iTunes Music Store
Same Innovative Features & Breakthrough Price of €0.99 Per Song
SAN JOSE, California—October 26, 2004—Apple® today launched a European
Union version of its revolutionary iTunes® Music Store, giving music
fans in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Portugal and Spain the same innovative features and
breakthrough price of €0.99 per song that have made iTunes the number
one online music service in the world. With Apple’s legendary ease of
use, pioneering features such as iMix playlist sharing, seamless
integration with iPod® and groundbreaking personal use rights, the
iTunes Music Store is the best way for PC and Mac® users to legally
discover, purchase and download music online. Apple today also
announced it will launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada in November.
[...]
Hack at UC Berkeley Potentially Nets 1.4 Million SSNs
By Lisa Vaas
October 20, 2004
Hackers took advantage of a known vulnerability on an unpatched
computer to potentially gain access to some 1.4 million names, Social
Security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses and dates of birth at
University of California at Berkeley, officials said Tuesday.
The personal data was that of recipients and providers for the state's
In Home Supportive Services program, which provides in-home care for
elderly people. The data was being used by a researcher, who was
studying the impact of wages and benefits paid for by providers and how
it impacts the relationship between providers and recipients of in-home
care, according to Carlos Ramos, assistant secretary at the California
Health and Human Services Agency.
[...]
...complete article at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1680799,00.asp
Leap ahead with Tiger.
Tiger, the next major release of Mac OS X, contains more than 150
breakthrough features, including time-saving APIs and powerful tools to
help you pack Tiger innovations into your applications quickly and
easily.
Get your hands on Tiger now.
Start building competitive solutions for Mac OS X with the Tiger Early
Start Kit for Developers. Bundled with a year-long ADC Select
membership, the Kit provides everything you need to develop for Tiger,
including:
Pre-release versions of Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" and Xcode 2.0.
One-on-one engineering consultation to get your application Tiger-ready.
A special developer discount on the latest Apple hardware.
Order the ADC Select membership and get Tiger Early Start Kit and
Tiger training DVD.
The Tiger Early Start Kit for Developers includes a free DVD-ROM filled
with Tiger session videos from the Apple Worldwide Developers
Conference 2004. This disc contains hours of detailed engineering
instruction, along with presentation slides and sample code, on
essential Tiger development topics.
Order your Tiger Early Start Kit to begin development today at:
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/tiger/tigerkit.html
...original message from:
> Jennifer Hardy
> Manager of Administration & Communications
> Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA)
...article can be found at (FP subscription needed to read complete
article at the URL):
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?
id=db69b6ed-dcec-4029-b3b8-425bbdc194ae
Music giant readies Canadian launch
Market braces for Apple's download division, iTunes
Robert Thompson
Financial Post
October 13, 2004
ITunes, Apple Computer Inc.'s hugely popular online music service, is
gearing up for a Canadian launch that could come as early as next
month, music industry sources say. The launch of a Canadian iTunes
store would dramatically alter the digital music landscape in Canada.
To date, only Puretracks.com, Archambault.ca and Napster.ca have
operated in Canada.
ITunes, the world's most successful legal downloading service, with 125
million paid downloads in the U.S. since launching in April, 2003,
skipped this country earlier this year over copyright issues. In June
this year, Apple launched iTunes in Europe, selling 800,000 downloads
in its first week. Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media in
the U.S., said Apple's iTunes, in conjunction with its iPod MP3
player, now defines legal downloading for many consumers. "ITunes and
the iPod have lived up to the hype," said Mr. Leigh, noting Apple
controls more than 70% of the digital downloading market in the U.S.
An Apple representative has met with Canada's four major recording
labels in order to secure songs for the service, sources say.
The sources added the launch could be delayed until February if Apple
can't get its promotional material prepared in time for next month.
Apple's Canadian officials said yesterday they do not comment on
rumour. Apple skipped Canada earlier because it could not reach an
agreement on royalties with the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights
Agency Ltd., an organization seeking a tariff on digital music sales.
But it is now believed Apple will go ahead with its Canadian plans
despite the uncertainty over the copyright issue.
Mr. Leigh said Apple will likely unleash a marketing blitz to promote
an iTunes launch in Canada. "It makes sense for them to be really
aggressive in promoting iTunes because it also promotes iPod sales,"
he said. Alistair Mitchell, co-chief executive of Puretracks.com, the
first legal downloading service in Canada (it launched last year) said
he has heard rumours of an iTunes launch and has noted an increase in
advertising in Canada for the iPod. However, he believes increased
interest in digital downloading should be beneficial for Puretracks,
which already has partnership arrangements with Bell Canada and Telus
Corp.
"I think they'll have a great impact on the space because of the money
and marketing they bring to the area," Mr. Mitchell said. Mr. Mitchell
would not disclose how many downloads Puretracks has had to date.
Puretracks.com is owned by Moontaxi Media Inc., Records on Wheels, Key
Publishers, Universal Music Canada and EMI Music Canada. Mr. Mitchell
said downloads on Puretracks.com are of a higher quality than what
iTunes is offering in the United States, a factor he expects consumers
will notice. Mr. Mitchell would not say how Puretracks.com plans to
respond to the launch of iTunes. "I'll leave that as an element of
surprise," he said. "But it'll all be about promoting our quality."
Turning IT security on its head
Robert Vamosi
Senior Editor, Reviews
Friday, October 1
For years, corporate IT departments have been told to protect the
perimeter of corporate networks with layered defenses, including
firewalls. But new technologies such as instant messaging and virtual
private networks have poked holes in the perimeter. So, perhaps this
thinking is outmoded; maybe we no longer need perimeter security.
Speaking at this year's Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas, Paul
Simmonds, Global Information Security Director (CISO) for Jericho
Forum/ICI, declared that deperimeterization is the decade's next
security challenge, if not the next security buzzword. I happen to
think he's onto something, though the changes might not work as he
proposes.
Are we protecting the data?
For example, Simmonds talked about the money-hauling industry (think
Brinks armored trucks). What are they trying to secure? Money. How do
they do it? They purchase armored trucks, true, but they also design
security into the containers used for conveying the money: the
containers explode if the money is stolen.
In businesses today, we want to secure the data, yet we're locking
down entire companies instead. Given that the nature of business has
changed in the last few years, this model is outdated. The workforce
now includes more temporary employees. We have more services designed
to work around the traditional hardened perimeter, such as VoIP, IM,
and VPN. And let's not forget that the hard-shell, soft-nugget strategy
of corporate IT security has been successfully violated.
Living in a post-MSBlast world
In recent years, companies have spent millions on their perimeter
security and very little on individual desktop security. Last year's
MSBlast successfully exploited this flaw, requiring just one infected
laptop to cripple entire companies. Yet, companies had to let that one
infected laptop into the network because workers are increasingly
mobile, working on the road or from home. Companies also allow port 25
e-mail traffic, so there's still the risk of e-mail infections through
that chink. And companies have to allow port 80 Internet traffic as
well, laying them open to the threat of infected Web pages.
...complete article at:
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-7297_16-5534252-1.html?tag=nl.e540-2
================================
...from:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5305167.html
Security's disorderly mess
By Jon Oltsik Special to ZDNet August 11, 2004, 5:02 AM PT
[...]
Imagine a security perimeter composed of a Cisco PIX firewall, McAfee
antivirus software, Websense content filtering, a Blue Coat Systems
proxy server and an Internet Security Systems intrusion detection
system--along with the accompanying 5 different servers, associated
costs and sundry operational challenges.
Since failure on any one of these boxes can halt network traffic,
security systems often get purchased and configured in redundant pairs.
The whole security ensemble is often accompanied by load-balancing
switches from Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and F5 Networks that divvy
up the work across all of the security systems to ensure maximum
performance.
See what I mean about complexity? One security professional summed up
his frustration this way: "Our perimeter security is difficult to
manage, expensive to run and impossible to troubleshoot!"
As if security costs and operations weren't bad enough, today's
perimeter mess results in a few other big problems. Ironically,
security complexity actually introduces security issues. With so many
boxes to manage, the chances of a vulnerable or incorrectly configured
system dramatically increase the potential for security holes.
Finally, security complications restrict business flexibility. Firms
want to open up their networks to customers, business partners and
suppliers to increase revenue opportunities and productivity. I'd hate
to be the security guy who has to tell the CEO that the company can't
accommodate the new business initiative because of some security
configuration issue. Security just can't be about boxes; it has to be
regarded as a business service.
[...]
...from:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1666237,00.asp
Jury Rules for Kodak in Java Patent Dispute
By Darryl K. Taft
October 4, 2004
Eastman Kodak Co. won the first round of a Java lawsuit against Sun
Microsystems Inc. that could impact Sun's bottom line and possibly
threaten Microsoft's .Net platform.
A Rochester, N.Y., jury found Friday that Sun infringed on Kodak's
patents when it created Java and released the technology in 1995. Kodak
is based in Rochester and is the city's largest employer.
At issue are three patents that Kodak inherited when it acquired Wang
Laboratories Inc. in 1997. Kodak claims that Java infringes on parts of
the three patents.
"Kodak has made and continues to make substantial technology
investments to ensure high-quality products," said James Blamphin, a
spokesman for the company. "We are pleased that the court has validated
our intellectual property rights protecting these valuable innovations
for the benefit of our customers and shareholders."
One of the patents at issue indicates a means by which "two processes
that are to cooperate in a data-interchange operation identify each
other, and to identify data formats they have in common." And some
observers say that, taken broadly, the same patents might be used to
claim infringement by Microsoft's .Net platform.
Sun denied that it infringed on the Kodak patents during a three-week
trial, and it will likely appeal the judgment. But this week, the trial
will enter the penalties phase, where both sides will argue over what
penalty should be imposed on Sun. Kodak is seeking more than $1 billion
in damages.
Sun intends to vigorously defend its intellectual property, company
spokeswoman May Petry said in a statement. "We are disappointed with
the federal jury's decision and are examining our options as we prepare
for the liability phase of a two-phase jury trial," the statement said.
"We intend to put on a vigorous defense and hope to reach a decision
that will be in the best interest of shareholders, customers and Sun.
We will also continue to vigorously protect and defend our IP when
appropriate."
Rick Ross, president of Javalobby.org, said the case is far from over.
"I was surprised that it was litigated so quickly, but maybe the real
battle will happen in the court of appeals," said Ross, who testified
for Sun in its antitrust suit against Microsoft that was settled
earlier this year.
"And if Kodak prevails, then Kodak could possibly become the new
Unisys, who held the entire Internet potentially liable for its patents
on the LZW [Lempel-Ziv-Welch] compression that was used in the GIF
image format."
Added Ross: "This could also get a public response similar to the Eolas
patent case against Microsoft, because now the public has tuned in to
the ominously broad scope of the Kodak claims, and we may see a general
effort to demonstrate prior art and attack the validity of the Kodak
patents in question."
Sources said both sides of the suit have been meeting with the judge
to determine how the next phase will play out.
Kodak said it placed the value of its damages at more than $1 billion
because that represents half of Sun's operating profit from systems
sold between 1998 and 2001. The company is not seeking any kind of
ownership claims regarding Java.
"We use Java and we will continue to use Java," Blamphin said.
===================================
...from the FAQ at:
http://www.apple.com/support/powerbook/displayprogram/
September 24, 2004
What is the 15-inch PowerBook G4 Display Repair Extension Program?
A limited number of 15-inch PowerBook G4 computers exhibit a display
issue which may cause faint white spots to appear on the screen over
time. The 15-inch PowerBook G4 Repair Extension Program is a worldwide
program covering replacement of LCDs that exhibit these white spots.
Your PowerBook G4 serial number must fall between one of two serial
number ranges:
▪ V7334xxxxxx to V7345xxxxxx
▪ QT331xxxxxx to QT339xxxxxx
NOTE: this repair may apply to factory refurbished machines whose
serial numbers do not fall into the above range but if you call Apple's
support number (as listed on the above web page) and have the white
spots issue they should be able to correlate the refurbished serial
number to the original serial number. Factory-refurbished PowerBooks
are eligible for this program.
These computers were manufactured from July 2003 through November
2003. PowerBooks with the serial numbers listed above may be referred
to as:
▪ PowerBook G4 15-inch Aluminum (1GHz G4 or 1.25GHz G4)
▪ PowerBook G4 Titanium (867MHz G4 or 1GHz G4)
How can I tell if my computer exhibits “white spots”?
To determine whether your 15-inch PowerBook G4 exhibits “white spots”,
follow the instructions on the above web page.