Marvelous Monday

Tech news. Back to work edition... This is an unhappy day in US history. The American Revolution began in 1775. The first blood in the US Civil War was spilt in 1861. The Oklahoma City bombing occurred in 1995. Dick Sargent, Darrin #2, was born in 1933. The ABC television network launched in 1948.

1. Baystar Capital, a VC firm that pumped $50 million into SCO, wants its money back. The bucks bankrolled SCO's anti-Linux lawsuits against IBM, Chrysler, and others. Now it wants SCO to convert its shares in the company into cash. Last month BayStar admitted that it was Microsoft that had introduced it to SCO and encouraged the investment.
2. The recording and movie industries are rolling out the Automated Copyright Notice System (ACNS) to help stop illegal file sharing at colleges. ANCS will automatically notify students when copyright violations occur and can cut off Internet access until the offending file is removed. And the good news is, it's open source!
3. More news from the Pew Internet and American Life Project (could they dribble this stuff out any slower?). According to the survey, 48 million Americans have broadband at home. That's 25% of all adults. Among college educated adults under 35 the penetration soars to 52%. 54% use cable modems, but DSL has been surging since late last year and now makes up 42% of all broadband connections.
4. But don't get too uppity, a survey released today puts the US sixth on the list of most wired nations. Denmark, Britain, Sweden, Norway and Finland all offer a superior "social and cultural environment for the Internet" according to the survey conducted by IBM and The Economist magazine. Australia is 12th, Japan 25th on the list. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are at the bottom of the list.
5. Meanwhile SBC is testing fiber to the home in 15,000 Californian residences. The service costs $26.95 for download speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second to $139.95 for 6 Mbps. The phone company says fiber is easier to maintain than copper, and unlike DSL, they don't have to offer access to competing ISPs. Take that Denmark!
6. The FTC has until June 16 to set up the Do Not Spam registry mandated by the Federal CAN-SPAM Act, but anti-spam advocates say it's not going to be easy. The FTC's public comment period ends this week.
7. Some mighty big security holes have been discovered in Linux kernels 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6. The buffer overflow flaws have been patched, but many Linux users don't know how to reccompile their kernels and there's no easier mechanism to update them.
8. Apple is positioning itself to take over the high-end video business with the release of Motion, a real-time motion graphics design program, for only $299. The company has also updated Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio, Shake, and Logic.
9. Power Paper demonstrated hypoallergenic, non-toxic, microelectronically-enabled patches that create semi-permanent tattoos in just 20 minutes. The tats last four weeks, just about as long as the typical Hollywood marriage.

Listen in tomorrow at 6:45a Pacific for my weekly news commentary on KGO 810 AM in San Francisco.