Modern PC News for the Week Ending Sept 15, 2003

Amazon.com | id's Doom 3 Already For Sale on Amazon

Never let it be said that Amazon isn't aggressive:

This item will be released on March 1, 2004. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives.
 

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• DrDOS 7.x Disk For BIOS Flashing Basic - No Drivers

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Commodore.ca | How to Migrate A Windows 2000 Domain to Windows 2003

Several glossy Microsoft presenters have stated that all you need to do to complete a Windows 2003 Domain upgrade is run ADPREP and then upgrade away.  This may work for very small / simple environments but it is definitely not good advice for most companies. 

Click HERE for the details.

ITWorldCanada.com | Unbelievably Stupid Virus 'Author' Used his Handle as a File Name

A Minnesota teenager will appear in federal court in St. Paul Friday to face charges stemming from the release of a variant of the virulent W32.Blaster Internet worm that ravaged computer systems worldwide earlier this month.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minn., was arrested by federal law enforcement Friday morning, according to U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesperson Bill Murray.

...That variant appeared on August 14, three days after Blaster-A first appeared, and was nearly identical to the original Blaster worm. However, Blaster-B used a different file name, teekids.exe, as opposed to msblast.exe, according to antivirus company Sophos PLC.

Teekid was also an online handle used by Parson, according to the complaint...

..."This clearly shows what happens in the virus world: people take and modify other people's code and try to one up each other. But most of these guys are not too swift and they get caught because of an error," Wraight said.

Parsons will be charged with violating U.S. Title 18, section 1030. If found guilty, he could face between five and 20 years in prison and be asked to pay "thousands of dollars" in damages, Murray said...

Commodore.ca | Want to Turn Your Palm or Pocket PC into a Stereo?

The pocketRADIO is a SD FM Stereo Radio card for your Palm PDA that delivers great sound on the run or in the office. Take your PDA with the pocketRADIO and listen to news or music programs anytime, anywhere!! Program/store 18 favorite FM Stations for instant recall. Auto Scan feature finds new stations

Compatibility: Palm m125, m130, m500, m505, m515, i705, Tungsten-T, Tungsten-T2, Tungsten-W, Handspring Treo 90 (with Handspring SDIO patch installed). iPAQ (2215**, 31xx,36xx,37xx,38xx,39xx,54xx**)*, Toshiba e740, Toshiba Genio e550, HP Jornada 560 Series, Casio Cassiopeia E-125**, E-200, Compaq Aero 1500 series**, Audiovox Maestro, NEC Mobile Pro P300, UR There@migo 600c, Mitac Mio 528, Fujitsu LOOX 600, ASUS A600, Acer n20, Pocket PC using MIPS**, StrongARM or Intel X-Scale processors.

BetaNews.com | Messenger Upgrade to Disconnect Outsiders

Microsoft is planning a security upgrade to its .NET Messenger service that could have far reaching consequences for IM clients not sanctioned by Redmond. Starting October 15, users of older MSN clients must upgrade or they will be unable to connect to the service, says Microsoft. Third-party clients, which Microsoft labels "unauthorized," will also be adversely affected by the change.

CNET.com | SCO to Send Out Linux Invoices

The SCO Group is turning up the heat in its attempt to impose Unix license fees for Linux use: It plans to begin sending invoices to companies before the month is out.

The Lindon, Utah-based company announced in August that it wants corporations to buy Unix licenses for using the similar Linux operating system, asking $699 for a single-processor Linux server. But Tuesday, SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said the company will begin the more active approach of sending invoices requesting payment to commercial Linux users, "probably some time this month."...

Commodore.ca | New Privacy Legislation in Canada

Most companies have a general awareness of new Canadian privacy legislation but lack detailed information they can use to develop a compliance strategy.  The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the key items in the legislation so that companies can start developing that plan.

Federal legislation called Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) becomes applicable to all Canadian corporations on January 1, 2004.  The Provinces are allowed to create overriding legislation as long as the Federal Government approves.  Alberta, like most provinces, has taken advantage of this opportunity.  A draft copy of the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which is expected to become Alberta law in September 2003, has been submitted to the Federal Government for consideration.