Numerous eBay Store sellers lit up the Web auctioneer's message boards Thursday, railing against upcoming fee increases and looking for alternative ways to sell their wares online.

Among other things, the cost of a monthly subscription for a basic eBay Store will go up 60 percent to $15.95. The cost of 10-day listings will double to 40 cents, and final value fees that are assessed when a sale closes also will rise.

Sellers complained that the fee increases will take a bigger chunk of their sales take. Some said it may force them to raise their own prices amid a weak economy, and others asked for feedback on other companies, such as Overstock.com (Research), that may be alternatives to eBay.

Microsoft Corp. says it has no plans to change the way its Windows Media Player handles the download of DRM licenses.

Amid reports that malicious hackers are using the anti-piracy mechanism to infect computers with spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses, Microsoft officials stressed that the latest attack scenario does not exploit a vulnerability in the software.

Security experts warn that crackers are rigging .wmv files to use the DRM (digital rights management) features of Windows Media Player to browse sites infested with malware.

Coleman also recommended the use of Microsoft's new anti-spyware software, which is capable of detecting and deleting unwanted programs.

Eight year old computer whiz-kid Ajay Puri has told his local paper that when he grows up he wants to be Bill Gates, "only better". The precocious kid, who lives in Bangkok, is well on the way to at least working for the Vole.

At five, he passed the Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) core level examination, scoring 98 per cent and becoming the youngest person to pass the examination. He went on to achieve the Expert Level, scoring 93 per cent.

Certainly if he did take over there would be a massive change in policy from the Vole.

A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned.

Unnamed in court documents, the informant was an administrator and moderator on the Shadowcrew site who'd been secretly cooperating with the government since August 2003 in exchange for leniency. By all accounts he was a key government asset in Operation Firewall.

On July 28th the informant gave his handlers proof that their own sensitive documents were circulating in the underground marketplace they'd been striving to destroy. He'd obtained a log of an IRC chat session in which a hacker named "Myth" copy-and-pasted excerpts of an internal Secret Service memorandum report, and a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty from the Russian Federation.

The hacker asked the Secret Service informant for a proxy server -- a host that would pass through Web connections, making them harder to trace. The informant was happy to oblige.

A filing on a forum from Phil DeLuca at America's Army game project indicates that the US Army is not at all happy at people s0dding about with its code.

DeLuca said that the US Army is very unhappy with hackers and others breaching its licence agreements, and it knows who these people are.

He said: "We know who you are, and can track down where you play from. We have incontrovertible proof you did something illegal. The Army is angry, and we're coming for you".

Hackers are using the newest DRM technology in Microsoft's Windows Media Player to install spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses on unsuspecting PC users.

According to Panda Software, both Trojans take advantage of the new Windows anti-piracy technology to trick users into downloading spyware and adware applications.

Ben Edelman, a Harvard University student who tracks and comments on the spyware scourge, also spotted the spyware-laden media files. In a research note, Edelman posted a demonstration of the exploits and warned that users with older versions of Windows will receive "confusing and misleading messages" regarding the DRM licenses.

"All told, the infection added 58 folders, 786 files and an incredible 11,915 registry entries to my test computer. Not one of these programs had showed me any license agreement, nor had I consented to their installation on my computer," he added.

Google has fully integrated the past 20 years of Usenet archives into Google Groups, which now offers access to more than 800 million messages dating back to 1981. This is by far the most complete collection of Usenet articles ever assembled and a fascinating first-hand historical account.
We compiled some especially memorable articles and threads in the timeline below. For example, read Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of what became the World Wide Web or Linus Torvalds' post about his "pet project". You can find more in-depth information about the archive here.

Plenty of people have been talking about just how silly it is for so many newspapers to force registration on users, seeing how it cuts down on the market size to which the paper can sell to advertisers, and drives users to other sites instead, since they don't want to go through the hurdle. It looks like at least one newspaper is looking for a much more reasonable middle-ground. They're asking for voluntary registrations. Basically, you can see the article just fine without registering. They just ask for registration info at the top of the page. You can even make that box go away, if you want. This way, they still get those people just passing-by who would never register, and when people do register, it's likely to be good, targeted data, rather than useless, dirty data.

Flexbeta.net compares Microsoft's new spyware fighting tool, Windows AntiSpyware, to Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D; the two leading spyware tools on the market today. The review sets up an infected PC using VMWare Workstation and scans the machine using all three tools to see which tool detects the most spyware. Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot.

While the BSA has mostly sat back and let the RIAA and MPAA take the brunt of the bad publicity for suing customers, you can be pretty sure that they're also freaking out over file sharing and avoiding any and all evidence about how it could help their member companies. Just as the RIAA lost yet another case saying they have to actually file lawsuits before sending subpoenas to ISPs for user info, the BSA is asking Congress to modify the DMCA to force ISPs to cooperate and give up user info without a lawsuit being filed. This is very problematic for plenty of reasons -- not the least of which is that it would turn ISPs into an enforcement arm that will be forced to monitor how people use their network. ISPs just provide the service. If companies have a problem with what an individual is doing, they should file a lawsuit and then request the info from the ISP. Without a lawsuit, it's all just a fishing expedition.