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 September 2000
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 Compiled and edited by Charles Anthony Australia: Olympics
By John Stackhouse Computer Daily News - Australian telecommunications carrier Telstra has switched on the telecommunications network for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the completion of a nine-year project. The Games open in Sydney in September. The network is bigger than in any previous Olympic Games including Atlanta where five companies provided telecommunications, Telstra claims. 
The so-called Millennium Network comprises 4800 kilometers of
optical fiber and 30,000 new phone and fax lines as well as more
than 15,000 mobile phones .
Millennium Network will provide all voice, data, video, mobile and trunk mobile radio services. It will service more than 35 competition venues, three Olympic Villages, the International Broadcast Centre, the main press center and more than 50 non-competition venues. Napster Supporters Deface Web Sites, Blast Metallica By Adam Creed Newsbytes - A hacker or hackers have defaced Web sites around the world to highlight their anger at attempts by the powerful music industry to close down music file-swapping services such as Napster. Infiltrating Web servers and replacing the front pages with pro-Napster messages, the latest attacks have been billed as the "Save Napster Hack Attack!" Sites allegedly defaced include: the National Library of France, The Norway Post, Bank Internasional Indonesia, Models Network International, Thai Students Online, TDK USA Corp. and Nike Taiwan. Many sites remain defaced at the time of this article, while some claimed scalps have returned to normal operations. At the National Library of France Web site, at http://www.bnf.fr , a message blasts the lawsuit brought against Napster Inc. by the RIAA and Metallica. Claiming not to be a Napster user, but an Internet user speaking out against perceived injustice, the hacker's message reads: "To Metallica: Filing a law suit against Napster has probably made you lose your image, fans, and sales. All because you either wanted more money ... If you haven't realized you have also caused a chain reaction of other problems. Software developers looking for the same fame Napster got ... making your so called "problems" even worse." The message goes on to criticize the profit-driven motives of the music labels, list other sites defaced and provides a message for the administrator of the defaced Web site: "To the System Admins of this Server: This server has not been harmed in any way. If you would like to know how to patch the vulnerability in this server then mail me at ..." Music-swapping site Napster last month won a last-minute stay of a court order that could have shut the outfit down after a long, drawn-out legal battle with the music industry. The company still faces an uphill battle to stay online. NBC Internet Cuts 170 Jobs By Martin Stone, Newsbytes - Following a series of recent operating difficulties, including an erosion of its advertising base that resulted in lower-than-expected second quarter results, NBC Internet Inc. [NASDAQ:NBCI] said Tuesday it will lay off 170 employees, about 20 percent of its work force, to cut costs. A Reuters report said the company, an online portal 47 percent-owned by the General Electric Co.'s NBC television network, announced that it does not expect the job cuts to affect operations, and remains confident it can become profitable in 2002. NBCi revealed plans in June to restructure its business to consolidate its multiple brands, and Reuters reported that a company spokesman said the layoffs grew partly out of the restructuring process. The job cuts are the first announced by NBCi, but this measure has recently been taken by a number of prominent dot-com companies that have found it necessary to tighten belts due to lower-than-anticipated financial returns. Napster Decision Diverts Music Swap Traffic ByAdam Creed Newsbytes - As the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) celebrates the Napster decision, Internet users continue to swap their MP3-format music via the Internet, with the quasi-Napster diaspora pushing unauthorized music downloads and swaps into a number of other venues. Napster is just one way to swap digital music files online, with other free software, portal or more low-tech methods unaffected by the court decision. One of the better-known sites offering file-sharing tools is Gnutella. Gnutella is a real-time search, peer-based file-sharing client that allows any Internet user running the client to search for and download files - and these can be movie or other media files, not just music - from other Gnutella users. Gnutella's Web site is hosted by California-based Wego. The company said late on Thursday that the site drew in 30,000 unique visitors within an hour of US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel's injunction against Napster. "Site numbers have jumped to 1.2 million hits in the last 24 hours and is peaking at 75,000 hits per hour making the Gnutella portal one of the most trafficked sites today," the company added. The site even went down for several hours under the burden of the extra traffic. Internet users seem to be checking out the alternatives post-Napster. According to a survey of 1,560 home Internet users on Wednesday by PC Data, only 16 percent agreed with the RIAA's arguments and agreed that services like Napster should be closed down. Even if all sites like Napster and Gnutella are wiped off the Internet quicker than replacements can be put up, low-tech swapping will go on. News groups on Usenet are a huge source of MP3 files - they would be impossible to block effectively without making ISPs block all MP3 files in the news feed. Then there's Internet Relay Chat rooms, ICQ connections, FTP sites and e-mail, or a tape cassette in the post, all making for a potentially uphill enforcement struggle for the RIAA. MP3.com To Go Brick-And-Mortar By Martin Stone Newsbytes - In a rare instance of a dot-com going brick-and-mortar, MP3.com [NASDAQ:MPPP], the embattled online music retailer that has been under fire from the recording industry, reportedly plans to participate in a chain of storefront entertainment complexes. The company said Monday it has inked an agreement with The Outernet Inc., a chain of retail outlets, that will enable consumers to go to the stores to create their own custom-made CDs, according to a report in the Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper, which noted that the CDs will feature artists and groups posting their music on MP3.com. MP3 execs said the arrangement creates an offline opportunity for digital artists to potentially increase their earnings through CD sales at a retail outlet, and that Outernet will use the MP3 technology and material to deliver the custom-made CDs to consumers. The discs will be created when buyers use interactive touch screen monitors to search the MP3.com database for songs they wish to purchase, which will then be "outloaded" to a CD burning system in each store, the newspaper said, adding that the Outernet's first location is slated to open in Apple Valley, Minn., this fall. Twenty more locations are scheduled to open by mid-2001. Microsoft Still Plans Set-Top Box Shipments In Sept By Steve Gold Newsbytes - Just because Reuters http://www.reuters.com says that Microsoft's [NASDAQ:MSFT] much publicized cable Internet set-top boxes (STBs) won't be finished in time for the promised September shipment, doesn't mean the boxes won't actually ship to installers, sources close to the software giant said today. Reuters reported this morning that the software delays for the cable Internet STBs could mean that United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) in the Netherlands, the first customer for the units, may have problems with its STB-based PlusTV system. Microsoft refused comment on the reports this afternoon, but other sources say that the hardware for the STBs is finished, and the software can simply be downloaded across the network. The situation mirrors that of BSkyB's early digital satellite STBs just under two years ago, when some STBs ended up being shipped with only basic software to early customers. This was irrelevant to customers or installers, however, because, as soon as the satellite STB was booted up, it automatically downloaded the latest software across the network. A few minutes later, the box was fully installed, complete with the latest software revision. Reuters, however, says that Microsoft and UPC could be embarrassed by a shortage of STBs in the all-important pre-Christmas runup period, a time when a sizable proportion of high-tech gizmos are normally sold. Microsoft appears unworried by such assertions. Newsbytes sources suggest that the software giant's programmers are working around the clock on developing the STB software, which will be ready for UPC to download across its cable network when the PlusTV boxes are installed. Previously, the company has stated plans to ship around 30,000 STBs by the end of the year. Sources suggest the firm will reach this target, even if the software has to be downloaded across the network. Microsoft's Web site is at http://www.microsoft.com/ Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com © Post-Newsweek Business Information, 2000. All rights reserved. |
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