W I N D O W S U S E R N E W S February 2001 Volume 11 # 2 Industry News New data encryption standard Quick Reviews * ACS 56 speakers Altec Lansing D Shanes * Coolpix 880 camera Nikon S Marder Internet Service Provider (ISP)-Advantage Network, 258-9940, www.mswin.net, unlimited access $14.95/month * Virtual Server with FrontPage 98 Extensions, database access, CGI& Perl available, $24.95/month * Windows Networking file access * 100% Microsoft technology, NT 4 & IIS 4 *** Industry News *** Super small radar antenna for tracking bees Because of the importance of the honeybee for pollination, a tiny radar antenna is being used to track bees. The antennas, and a radar transponder, are being glued to the bee's fuzzy bodies. The bee's whereabouts can then be tracked because the glued equipment will reflect a radar signal like a mirror. Certain crops such as cranberries are considered dependent on honeybees for pollination and the bee's population is declining. Public health researchers, for tracking tsetse flies in Africa, first developed the technology before this use of it for tracking bees. It is hoped that in the future, as the devices get tinier, they can be use to track crop pests and disease- carrying mosquitoes. Different countries-different Internet usage In a recent survey of Internet use around the world by Media Metrix, www.mediametrix.com, it was found that in the US the average Internet user stays online longer that any other major country's users: country average min per day online 1. US 71 2. Canada 54 3. Australia 52 4. Japan 45 5. Germany 40 6. UK 39 7. France 35 The average number of days a month that Internet users go online is highest in Japan with the US second: Country average days per month online 1. Japan 14 2. US 13 3. Canada 12 4. Australia 11 5. Germany 10 6. UK 9 7. France 8 eBay helping Senior Net In a project aimed at giving seniors a boost getting online, eBay has collaborated with the Digital Opportunity Program to help Senior Net. Senior Net (www.seniornet.com) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching older people to use computers and the Internet. The project will provide money, volunteers and various other assistance to Senior Net which already has 195 learning centers in the US and has already trained over 100,000 people. eBay will be providing a $1 million grant for the project. Online auction self-protection According to the FBI by far the largest number of complaints of fraud on the Internet are concerned with auctions. There are several things that an individual can do to protect themselves when participating in an online auction. Several sites can help. They include: * www.ifccfbi.gov * www.shoppingspot.com * www.pricewatch.com * www.iescrow.com * www.internetclearing.com These sites provide such services as value checking, escrow and seller's comments. Using an online auction without any precautions can be a costly experience. New US government vulnerability index The US government has launched a new service, ICAT, csrc.nist.gov/icat, that offers access to an index of known computer security vulnerabilities. It is a product of the Computer Security Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) www.nist.gov. ICAT is a searchable index of information on known computer security vulnerabilities that provides search capability and links users to detailed information and available patches. ICAT is not a database of IT vulnerability information. It does not offer direct information on security problems, but provides the resources so that you can find the information needed on vulnerabilities and the patches to resolve them. One of the most important features of this service is the possibility to refine searches by means of more than 40 different attributes, which are used in addition to details on the vendor, product name and version number. Visa to put pressure on e-commerce partners Visa, the market leader in credit cards and electronic payments, will shortly begin to force e-businesses to employ security measures in order to ensure user confidence in electronic commerce. With the aim of addressing the fears that consumers have with respect to online transactions, Visa has announced a plan which will force businesses to protect the credit card numbers of clients from virtually any kind of attack. According to Visa, e-businesses will have to meet minimum-security standards including: * use of firewalls * encryption * immediate application of all relevant software patches Companies who do not comply could be fined. Visa also plans to monitor all companies doing e-business with them. Although these plans are not expected to begin until later in 2001, the company has begun a voluntary program in which businesses can self-assess their current security levels and identify their own weaknesses. Intel makes a major advance You will not be seeing the results of the new Intel advance in computers very soon but it should show up in a few years. Intel lab researchers have developed a new transistor that will enable microprocessors ten times more powerful that those in use now. Today's top processor is the Pentium 4 (P4) that contains 42 million transistors, runs at a maximum speed of 1.5 GHz (1.5 billion cycles per second) and consumes 1.7 volts of power. With the newly developed transistor processors will have over 400 million transistors, run at 10 GHz and consume less than 1 volt. The new transistor is so small that a pile of 100,000 of them would equal the thickness of a sheet of paper. Intel expects the new transistor to enable devices that are now only seen in sci-fi shows such as instantaneous voice translation. Credit card numbers posted on the Internet Some 55,000 credit card numbers were stolen and then posted on the Internet in a failed extortion attempt. The numbers were stolen from Creditcards.com, a LA-based processor of credit card transactions for online companies. The FBI is investigating the alleged extortion attempt, which is believed to have been launched from Russia. Creditcard.com was contacted via email stating that unless they paid a fee the card numbers would be posted to the Internet. They declined to pay the extortion fee and contacted the authorities instead. The site with the numbers was removed shortly after they were posted. This is not the first time that extortion was tried after stealing credit card numbers. Studios plan home delivery of movies Several major Hollywood studios are planning to deliver full motion pictures to homes via broadband Internet connections. The studios include: * 20th Century Fox * Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer * Paramount Pictures * Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment * Walt Disney * Warner Brothers Most are working on similar systems that will be able to deliver a full-length motion picture to a home user in under an hour via a broadband connection. The user would then have a set period in which to view the movie. The movie industry is trying to take a proactive stance toward digital distribution unlike the music industry, which was caught by Napster. In attempting to work together, Hollywood may run aground of anti-trust issues as they have before. In 1980, the DOJ blocked a joint venture planned by four studios to create a pay-TV channel to compete with HBO. The new services are being planned to avoid the same pitfalls found in the anti-trust laws. College info readily available online Researching for the best college can be a very daunting job. The Internet can be a valuable tool in doing that search. When looking for a school in one of the major fields the top choices are usually very well known. Nevertheless, almost everybody else is trying for the same schools so often a smaller; lesser-known school could be the answer. Also when looking for a school with a good program in some of the lesser-known disciplines. In each of these cases, the Internet can help find what you are looking for. There are sites that allow you to enter several criteria and should be able to provide a list of colleges that meet those criteria. The criteria that can be searched include: * Location * Type of school * Major * Selectivity Some sites also enable you to talk to people on the campus that you may be interested in attending. Many schools now allow applying online for both admission and financial aid. Some of the sites that aid in the college search include: * nces.ed.gov (US Dept of Education) * www.collegeboard.com * www.collegequest.com (Peterson) * www.collegeview.com * www.embark.com * www.review.com (Princeton Review) * www.usnews.com (US News & World Report) Overall, the Internet has become an important tool in gathering info on the college selection and admissions process. Supercomputer for disease research IBM, at www-4.ibm.com/software/webservers/lifesciences, plans to build the world's largest commercial supercomputer for the genetic research company NuTec Sciences, www.nutecsciences.com. The machine will consist of a cluster of more than a thousand servers and will help scientists find the cause of diseases and identify the best ways to treat them. The system will be the fifth or sixth most powerful computer in the world and the most powerful computer outside of government use. It will be about 19,000 times faster than a standard PC, performing 7.5 trillion calculations per second. The supercomputing cluster will consist of 1,250 IBM servers running the company's AIX (UNIX) operating system. It will have 2.5 terabytes of main memory, 50 terabytes of disk storage and a high-bandwidth networking infrastructure. NuTec is working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to look at very complex diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. One of the uses of the supercomputer will be to search patient data and identify disease-causing gene combinations. IBM will work with NuTec Sciences to develop applications that give medical researchers access to the NIH algorithms from their desktop computers. There are an estimated 35,000 different genes in the human genome and sifting through them to find various four or five gene combinations is an enormous math intensive problem. This powerful tool will allow researchers to discover essential relationships among subsets of genes. The NuTec Sciences Life Sciences Division is located in Atlanta GA. The price of the machine was not disclosed but is estimated to be in the tens of millions. Most broadband connections need a firewall The two most common forms of broadband connection for the home are DSL and cable. Both of these will provide an always on connection so there is no need to dial in each time you are going online. The speed and convenience of the always-live connection can be a significant advantage but it creates a major hazard. It opens you to an intruder breaking into the system through the always-live connection. If the hacked computer is on another network, in addition to the Internet, every machine on that network is exposed as well. The answer is the installation and use of a firewall. Although we normally think of firewalls as a corporate computing function, they are quite necessary for anybody with an always- live Internet connection. All communications to and from the Internet must go through the firewall filter, which will provide the needed degree of security. The firewall can also perform other functions such as gathering statistics about Internet use. Often the firewall will be provided by the ISP who is providing the broadband connection eliminating the need for the consumer to purchase one. There are some free ones available as well. One of these is Zone Alarm from Zone Labs, www.zonelabs.com. Symantec, www.symantec.com, sells one in their Norton Internet Security 2001 which also includes virus protection in addition to a firewall. Where online shoppers are located Marketers want to know where most shoppers live in order to target their advertising accordingly. It is not quite as critical when dealing with online shoppers but can still can be useful as many Internet firms use regular print advertising. It had been thought that online shoppers lived in the largest US metro areas. New data compiled by Big Research shows that this is not the case. San Jose, which was found the largest of the e-commerce markets, was only the 31st largest brick and mortar market. The top 10 Internet markets, with their brick and mortar ranking in parenthesis, according to the Big Research study: 1. San Jose (31) 2. Riverside/San Bernardino CA (10) 3. San Francisco (29) 4. Seattle (20) 5. Oakland CA (21) 6. Boston (9) 7. Washington DC (5) 8. Baltimore (18) 9. Hartford CT (47) 10. Dallas (11) Intel moves into consumer electronics area The 800-pound gorilla of the microprocessor industry has moved into the consumer end of the electronics industry with a product that is a PC add-on. In the last few years they have marketed various products such as a PC camera, wireless keyboard, mouse and home networking products. These were all PC add-ons. The new Intel product is a portable MP3 player. Their entry into the portable MP3 player market is called the Pocket Concert and holds four hours of MP3 music. The new product enters a crowded field in which Intel will just be another of many players. With slowing PC sales, Intel needs products that can increase their sales beyond computers. This strategy places Intel into a market where they are just another player. The question is whether their name will give them the jump-start they will need in the crowded field. Faster Celeron and Slower Pentium 4 Intel has released a new top of the Celeron line microprocessor. It runs at 800MHz and has 100MHz front side bus. The former top of the Celeron line ran at 766MHz with only a 66MHz bus. The new processor is nearly 20% faster than the old 766MHz processor largely based on the faster bus. It is designed to create increased competition in the under $1,000 computer market. The cost is $170 each in quantities of 1,000. At the same time, they released a slower version of the high-end Pentium 4. The new Pentium 4 runs at 1.3GHz. The former low end of the recently introduced Pentium 4 microprocessor line runs at 1.4GHz. Software developers to receive Oscars Three computer programmers, who work for Pixar, will be presented with the Award of Merit at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences scientific and technical awards ceremony on 3 March in Los Angles. There will be 17 awards presented at the ceremony. The programmers developed software used to render scenes in such films as: * Gladiator * The Matrix * Titanic The special Oscars are being awarded for influencing the advancement of the movie industry. FBI & industry cooperate vs. computer crime All 56 FBI field offices have established liaison with private companies to share info about computer crime in a new effort to combat it. The program, which is called Infra Gard and has been established by the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. The program now has 518 private companies in it. They range from small start-ups to industry giants such as IBM. Some are foreign firms that do business in the US. The FBI, in Cleveland, started the Infra Gard program four years ago. It has been difficult to enroll private companies largely because they fear that disclosing computer intrusions could undermine the confidence of their customers and investors. The FBI stated that the government could not go it alone as most crucial computerized info networks are privately owned and operated. The number of computer intrusions that the FBI has investigated has gone from 450 a year to 1,200 during the last three years. The names of companies who report intrusions will not be disclosed to preserve their anonymity. The program has already allowed the FBI to notify companies of possible problems many times. Christmas online sales strong A Goldman Sachs/PC Data, www.pcdataonline.com, study disclosed that online Christmas sales reached $10.7billion in 2000 more than double the $5.2billion in 1999. The increases varied significantly from category to category. Consumer Electronics grow 118%. Books/music/video grew at 68% and toys grew only 37%. Customer satisfaction was strong, with over 80% of online consumers reporting they would be likely or extremely likely to shop online again, and 58% of the consumers stating that the online shopping experience was better than last year during the Holidays. Goldman Sachs is global investment banking and securities firm & PC Data is a provider of high tech sales intelligence in: * Australia * Canada * China * Hong Kong * Italy * Taiwan * US Its PC Data Online division has a panel of over 120,000 US home Internet users. They listed the following online retailers as the busiest during Dec 2000: Site buyers buy rate 1. Amazon 3,962 14% 2. Barnes & Noble 951 11 3. CD Now 942 11 4. JC Penney 885 16 5. Wal-Mart 739 7 6. Sears 658 10 7. Half .com 629 5 8. Etoys 566 9 9. Ticketmaster 561 11 10. Drugstore.com 524 16 11. Buy.com 400 5 12. Best Buy 346 5 13. Gap 289 9 14. Outpost 259 13 15. Old Navy 245 10 16. 1800flowers 231 9 17. Target 220 4 18. Lands End 219 12 19. Spiegel 184 10 20. Jcrew 175 12 Buyers = 000 Buy rate = buyers/unique visitors *** New data encryption standard *** For 23 years, DES (Data Encryption Standard) has been the US standard. It now looks like it is about to bow out. After long deliberation, the US government has chosen the Rijndael algorithm to replace it. This decision follows public demonstrations of the weakness of DES. The US government decided on replacing it with what will probably become the new data encryption standard. Until now, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), as the new system has become known amongst cryptographers, had a name but not an associated formula. Finally, the algorithm chosen is Rijndael, created by two Belgian cryptographers. The director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) explained that this algorithm has been chosen for its low memory consumption, its high degree of parallelism, its rapid key configuration and easy implementation. The open nature of the selection procedure provides a strong guarantee of its quality. The 15 formulas that were put forward were all analyzed by the other cryptographers who had presented products. Since 1997 when the project was announced by the NIST, there have been a number of experts studying the algorithms that were put forward. Officially, the algorithm will become the new encryption standard for all US federal agencies. However, it is likely that, as happened with DES, the new algorithm will be taken up by the private sector for use in numerous applications, such as for credit cards or other financial operations. In 1972, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), later known as NIST, began a project with the aim of establishing methods of protecting computer and communication data. One of the cornerstones of this project was the development of a cryptographic algorithm destined to become the standard. The NBS launched a public search for algorithms that should meet certain conditions--high security, simplicity (to understand and implement), efficiency and easily exportable. On top of this, as with all cryptographic protocol, the security of the method had to lie in the key. As the first public solicitation for algorithms failed to produce a candidate that met all the necessary requirements, a second request was issued in 1974. This time, IBM presented an algorithm, known as Lucifer, which was considered the most powerful cryptographic method of that time. The key that Lucifer used was reduced to a size of 56 bits (approximately 100,000,000,000,000,000 keys) and was adopted in 1976 as what became known as DES. Since then, DES has been the official U.S. standard (and used virtually worldwide) for data encryption and has been used in a vast number of operations and transactions. Over the years, the strength of DES has been based on the limitations of computers to scan the thousands of millions of necessary keys. However, the development of faster computers and processors, capable of carrying out more and more operations per second, started to make users worry about the use of this fundamentally weak encryption standard. In the last few years, contests have been held to test DES. One such contest (www.distributed.net/des/index.html.en) was held, in which its complete vulnerability was made apparent when the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) managed to crack the security key of DES in just 22 hours. (The major source of data for this article was Panda Software.) *** Quick Reviews *** Great speakers--moderate price If you are looking for an outstanding speaker system at a great value, look no further. Combine a company known for excellence in speaker design with multimedia digital audio and you get quality, clarity and performance on your PC. The best speakers in my house or no longer connected to my stereo, they are connected to my computer. Frequency response is 30Hz-18kHz. The satellite speakers are 35 watts and the subwoofer is 35 watts The Altec Lansing ACS 56 Power Play Plus Digital Audio system is a five-piece four-channel system designed for gamers. Installation is a breeze with the included color-coded cables and easy reference manual. All of the connections from your computer go into the subwoofer right beside the four connectors for the satellite speakers. From your computer you can provide a digital input as well as the front and surround channel inputs. The color scheme used by Altec Lansing was even the same coloring used on the back of my SoundBlaster Live digital audio card. The two front satellites are mounted on attractive stands and the rear satellites can either be set on their rubber feet or mounted on the wall. Generous cable lengths allow for excellent placement. Convenient controls on the right front satellite speaker allow you to turn the speakers on and off as well as adjust the front and rear speaker volume, bass and treble levels. All four of these settings adjust using a convenient rotary dial with a digital level indicator to indicate the setting of that feature. A switch is also conveniently located to switch between the two possible modes: gaming and stereo. The one thing that I found lacking was a headphone jack in the speaker similar to those in many other speaker systems. I usually only play only two games, MechWarrior 3 and Flight Simulator 2000. The audio from these two games is simply amazing with these speakers. I listen to a lot of MP3 and audio CD music and these speakers produce amazingly crisp sound. I found that although the powered 6" subwoofer has no separate control, the bass produced from the wood grain cabinet was thundering, yet not overpowering. Altec Lansing produces high quality audio products. These speakers are no exception. They can be purchased at retail for just over $100. ACS56 Gaming Speaker System, Altec Lansing, 800-258-3288, www.alteclansing.com, csupport@altecmm.com, MSRP $149.95. D Shanes A camera for the new and experienced user As the digital revolution continues one of the frontlines are digital cameras. Once they reached the 2-3mega pixel range their picture quality was close to film cameras. Kodak has made a significant improvement in their APS cameras by providing a feature that allows the user to preview the last taken picture. This means that a sub-par picture can be retaken and the poor one not printed. The problem with these cameras is that they are priced close to the digital models and still lack many of the digital advantages. The last few months I have been testing one of the 3mega- pixel digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix 880. It is one of the newer 3mega-pixel cameras that have made truly high- resolution digital photography practical. Among the main features of this camera are: * 3.34mega pixels (2048x1536) * Built-in flash * 2.5x optical zoom: 38-95mm (35mm equivalent) * 4x digital zoom * Accepts optional lenses * Accepts flash cards up to 192MB * Standard viewfinder * LCD monitor w/quick review * Macro mode to 1.6" * Up to 40 seconds movie capture I found the camera was easy to use and provided very high quality pictures. It weighed a little under 10ozs without the battery. The battery I used was not rechargeable although rechargeable batteries are available. With the name of Nikon, you would expect a highly versatile product with many quality features, and this delivers. One of the better features of the camera is that with the purchase of a step-down ring adapter it is able to accept optional lenses. These lenses include: * Fisheye (183 degrees coverage) * Wide-angle converter (24-60mm coverage) * 2x Tele converter * 3x Tele converter For the user who wants to achieve very good results under unusual conditions, the camera comes with various scene modes. You may chose any of eleven scenes and the camera will automatically adjust the settings for that shot. The eleven scene modes are: * Back light * Beach/snow * Close-up * Copy * Fireworks * Landscape * Nighttime landscape * Nighttime portrait * Party/indoor * Portrait * Sunset An example of the use of the scene mode is that in the party/indoor position the shutter speed is slowed, as is the flash synchronization and redeye reduction. This provides better illumination of the background and more color and detail in both the subject and background. Another noteworthy feature is the five-area multi-auto- focus system in addition to a manual focus capability. This provides sharp focus under almost all conditions. The camera is designed to make it easy for the inexperienced photographer to take very good pictures and many features to keep the more advanced picture taker happy. There are numerous accessories available including a slide/film copier. The standard compact flash card that comes with the camera is only 8MB and is too small to provide a goodly number of pictures. They are available holding up to 192MB. The camera comes bundled with an impressive array of software for photo manipulation. Coolpix 880, Nikon, www.nikonusa.com, 800-645-6689, MSP $799.95. S Marder W I N D O W S U S E R N E W S Editor in Chief: Stan Marder smarder@iname.com Editor & Webmaster: David Shanes dshanes@mswin.net Online Editor: Stuart Smiler smiler@san.rr.com Associate Editors: S Buffington, G Crofts, T Kreckman, M Marder, M Shanes Copy Editor: Jefferson Swycaffer Event Coordinator: Ed Mullins Copyright 2001, Windows User News, all rights reserved This publication may be copied & distributed but only in its entirety, without modification (including this masthead), & not for a fee All trademarks owned by their respective companies 3765 Mario Place, San Diego CA 92111-4125 (603)388-0179 fax To subscribe: http://wun.mswin.net