Peter Jackson to Produce 'Halo' Movie
Microsoft has tapped the team behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to help bring its popular "Halo" Xbox game to the big screen. LOTR Peter Jackson will join his wife Fran Walsh as executive producers of the film, which will utilize Jackson's production facilities in New Zealand.
Universal Studios, Fox and Microsoft's Bungie game subsidiary that created Halo will aid Jackson in the process. The Halo screenplay -- about futuristic soldier "Master Chief" battling aliens -- was written by novelist Alex Garland. A director is expected to be named in the coming weeks, although the cast has yet to be announced.
Google, Sun Ink Software Partnership
Google and Sun kicked off a multi-year partnership at a special event on Tuesday, inking a deal to distribute each other's software. The two companies will collaborate on ways to make it easier for consumers to obtain Sun's Java runtime, the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and the Google Toolbar.
By working with Google, Sun could better compete with Microsoft through increased online promotion. "Working with Google will make our technologies available more broadly, increase options for user, lower barriers, and expand participation worldwide," said Sun CEO Scott McNealy.
Intel Wants Unified Hi-Def DVD Format
In a press conference following a speech at the Ceatec Japan 2005 conference, Intel Digital Home vice president Donald MacDonald said Intel planned to push the industry to create a unified standard for high-definition DVDs that would join Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD camps.
"If we don't, who will?" asked MacDonald. "We have to avoid the format war. We certainly need to have one format." The statement comes one week after Intel joined Microsoft in publicly backing HD DVD. Even with pressure from Intel, however, it's not clear if a compromise is possible. Talks between Blu-ray and HD DVD representatives have taken place throughout the year with no resolution in sight.
Firefox Community Site Hacked Again
For a second time, the Web site used to promote the adoption of Mozilla's Firefox Web browser has been compromised by hackers. The remote attackers potentially accessed SpreadFirefox.com by exploiting a security flaw in the TWiki software installed on the server.
The problem was limited to SpreadFirefox.com and did not affect mozilla.org or any Mozilla software. TWiki was disabled as soon as the intrusion was discovered.
Netscape to Ship on New HP Computers
AOL subsidiary Netscape has signed the first non-IE browser distribution deal with a major PC manufacturer since the late 90s. Starting early next year, Hewlett-Packard will ship Netscape 8 on all new PCs and laptops, with customized tabs leading to HP and Compaq Web destinations.
However, Internet Explorer will remain an option for HP customers. During initial setup, an option will be presented to select Netscape as the system's default browser. Icons to launch Netscape will be placed on the Windows desktop and Start Menu.
Symantec to Purchase Bindview
Symantec on Monday said it had agreed to purchase Bindview, a maker of security software for businesses that focuses on compliance of regulations. Symantec will pay $209 million in the all cash deal, which is expected to close early next year. The acquisition follows Symantec's purchase of Sygate and anti-phishing firm WholeSecurity.
""We are excited to be able to offer customers BindView's leading agent-less policy compliance solution. Not only will we be able to meet customers' IT security and policy compliance needs with a complete range of product capabilities, but we will also be able to help reduce the cost and complexity associated with compliance," said Ajei Gopal, senior vice president of Solutions, Alliances and Operations at Symantec.
Google and Sun to Collaborate
Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt will sit down with Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy on Tuesday morning to outline a collaborative effort between the two companies. It's not clear what the partnership will entail, but Sun has already begun to hype the event.
The news conference will take place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California and webcast live at 10:30am PST. The announcement will mark the second high-profile joint venture for Google in as many weeks - the search giant recently forged a partnership with NASA to collaborate on technology and space research.
California Law Targets Phishing Scams
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law on Friday a bill that makes "phishing," or identity theft, scams a civil offense. The law allows for victims to seek damages of up to $500,000 per violation. However, it's not clear how easy it would be to track down such scammers, which often operate overseas.
The bill was pushed through by California Senator Kevin Murray in order to help stem the growing tide of phishing scams taking advantage of novice Internet users. It will be the first attempt to legislate against phishing attacks, which may prove a difficult task. Like spam, phishers often forge e-mail headers and use other methods to hide a message's origin.
RIAA Sues More University Students
Just weeks after announcing that it would join the Internet2 consortium as a corporate member, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed another set of lawsuits against students using the next-generation research network for illicit file trading.
64 people were named in the suits across 17 universities, the RIAA said. The new filings bring the total number sued to 560 people on 39 campuses, all for running the i2hub P2P application on Internet2. In addition, the RIAA filed another 693 John Doe lawsuits against users of other online file sharing networks including eDonkey and LimeWire.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 Nears Final Release
The first release candidate of OpenOffice.org 2.0 is now available for download, signifying a final release may not be far off. The free open source office suite has been hailed by users as an impressive alternative to Microsoft Office, and forms the code upon which Sun's StarOffice 8 is based.
"Now is the time to test the RC, and we urge all to download it, test it, and file issues with the QA project on what you discover," reads a notice on the OpenOffice.org Web site. Windows users will need to remove older betas of version 2.0, due to a problem with the Windows Installer.
Microsoft Investigating New IE Flaw
Microsoft says it is investigating a report of a new vulnerability discovered in Internet Explorer that stems from XmlHttpRequest, a JavaScript object used in AJAX Web applications such as Google Maps. In an advisory, security firm Secunia says the flaw affects IE6 on a fully patched Windows XP SP2 system.
According to the initial paper detailing the problem written by Amit Klein, Internet Explorer can be fooled into running arbitrary HTTP requests. "IE doesn't validate some critical fields that are provided by the user," Klein said.
U. of GA Leaks Social Security Numbers
The University of Georgia acknowledged Wednesday that a hacker had breached the school's network and potentially accessed up to 2,429 Social Security numbers belonging to current and past faculty. Because of duplicate records, however, university officials believe the number of employees affected is smaller.
The intrusion took place on September 19 from a source outside the United States, which queried the exposed server for personal data. The university has launched an investigation and said no credit card information was contained in the database.
DivX Offers Video Software for Free
DivX is taking a page from Opera's playbook, celebrating its fifth anniversary by giving away its $19.99 DivX Create Bundle at no cost. The package features tools for the creation of DivX video files, including encoders and the ability to make interactive menus with the DivX Media Format.
The free Create Bundle offer is valid only for one day, and requires an e-mail address that will be sent the DivX registration code. The code is not a trial and will never expire, the company says. As DivX 6 is not yet available for Mac, only Windows 2000 and XP users can take advantage of the deal.
MVP Summit Begins at Microsoft
Microsoft's yearly confab for its Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) has begun at the company's Redmond campus. The event will connect 1,500 MVPs with over 1,000 Microsoft employees representing 90 technologies and provide insight into the future directions of the company.
Among the topics of discussion this week will be Smart Personal Objects Technology, otherwise known as SPOT, which has struggled to take off in the marketplace. Microsoft executives will also sit down with MVPs today to discuss the company's reorganization and the next wave of products slated to arrive with Windows Vista.
P2P Future Darkens as eDonkey Closes
eDonkey has become the latest victim of the recording industry's wrath following the Supreme Court's ruling against Grokster. In testimony at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Hearing on the future of P2P Wednesday, MetaMachine president Sam Yagan said his company was throwing in the towel.
The announcement follows news of the shut down of WinMX and the disappearance its Web site. On September 15, the RIAA sent out sent out letters to seven popular file sharing networks demanding they block copyrighted content or face legal action. eDonkey -- owned by MetaMachine -- was one of those recipients.
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