NewsScan Daily, 22 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 22 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        ICANN Asks VeriSign to Shelve Site Finder Service
        Landline Numbers Can Go Mobile
        Putting a Cap on Broadband Use
        ReplayTV Founder Launches HDTV Digital Media Player
        Intel Improves Its Typing Skills

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Phillis Wheatley

ICANN ASKS VERISIGN TO SHELVE SITE FINDER SERVICE
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has issued a 
statement voicing "widespread expressions of concern" over the technical 
repercussions possible from VeriSign's recently launched Site Finder 
service. Site Finder steers Web users who make typographical errors while 
entering URLs to a site operated by VeriSign. Critics say the technical 
process by which VeriSign "hijacks" users could disrupt e-mail delivery as 
well as impair the ability of ISPs to block "spam" sent from non-existent 
Internet addresses -- a common technique for reducing the volume of junk 
e-mail. In self-defense, some ISPs and software groups have developed 
patches that prevent the Site Finder software from working on their 
networks. (Wall Street Journal 22 Sep 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106418646915190300,00.html (sub req'd)

LANDLINE NUMBERS CAN GO MOBILE
Most of the publicity surrounding the upcoming implementation of new cell 
phone number portability rules has focused on the ability of cell phone 
subscribers to take their numbers with them when they switch carriers. But 
in addition to that provision, the new rules will enable phone customers to 
switch their landline phone number over to a cell phone and vice versa. And 
although it's unclear how many customers will take advantage of the new 
flexibility, research firm Gartner Dataquest recently estimated that nearly 
10% of residential phone customers would convert their home telephones to 
wireless if they could keep their numbers. However, there is one wrinkle 
that still needs to be ironed out. While the Bell companies agree that 
there's no problem if a residential customer wants to move a home phone 
number to a wireless carrier that already has phone numbers in that 
person's "rate center" (the first three digits after the area code that 
correspond to a specific neighborhood), both landline and wireless carriers 
have asked the FCC to clarify whether local phone companies must also hand 
over numbers to a cellular company that doesn't already "own" similar 
numbers from the same rate center. The complexity of the issue may prove 
frustrating for consumers, warns an industry consultant for Cap Gemini 
Ernst & Young. "Customers aren't going to understand the issue of rate 
centers -- they're just going to know they were denied." The FCC says it 
will clarify the rules, but hasn't said whether it will do so before the 
Nov. 24 number portability deadline. (AP 19 Sep 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030919/D7TLKDT00.html

PUTTING A CAP ON BROADBAND USE
Some Internet broadband "heavy users" are receiving notices from their 
providers that they're abusing their contracts. Since late summer, Comcast 
has been quietly asking its highest-volume subscribers to scale back their 
Internet habits, and in some cases even suspending their service after the 
first warning. But the biggest frustration for these subscribers is the 
perception that these warnings are not triggered by any "predetermined 
bandwidth usage threshold," admits a Comcast spokeswoman. The company says 
it's not imposing usage caps per se, but rather is trying to reduce stress 
on its network as it works to provide ever-increasing download speeds for 
all its users. "The industry is leery of explicit caps, because even people 
who don't come anywhere near the caps feel like something is being taken 
away from them," says a Jupiter Research analyst. But as consumers flock to 
broadband services, companies "can't claim their service is unlimited if 
there is some kind of informal limit." Meanwhile, Cox Communications has 
taken a more hardline approach, limiting subscribers to 2 gigabytes of 
downloading per day -- the equivalent of two compressed feature-length 
movies or about 400 MP3 songs. AOL Time Warner's Road Runner service has no 
cap yet, but the idea is being discussed internally. On the DSL side, phone 
companies say they have no limits on their subscribers' usage. "The 
customers buy the lines. We make whatever bandwidth they need available to 
them," says an SBC spokesman. (CNet News.com 22 Sep 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1034_3-5079624.html?tag=fd_lede

REPLAYTV FOUNDER LAUNCHES HDTV DIGITAL MEDIA PLAYER
Digital video recorder pioneer Anthony Wood is launching a new product 
aimed at making high definition television sets the focal point of a home's 
media experience. Dubbed Roku (which means "six" in Japanese), the new 
venture is Wood's sixth startup. His most recent endeavor was the 
introduction of the ReplayTV digital video recorder, which he sold to 
SonicBlue in 2001 for $125 million. His newest inspiration, the Roku HD1000 
digital media player, is the first of its kind to be designed for HDTVs, 
which are gaining in popularity as the price falls. The HD1000 can play 
slide shows, video or music files from its four built-in memory slots or 
play files streamed from a computer via an Ethernet connection. "By trying 
to establish a beachhead in a large but rapidly growing market, we could 
own it, because there's no competition today," says Wood. "It's called 
getting in early on a trend." About 2.5 million digital TV sets -- mostly 
HDTV equipped -- were sold in the U.S. last year, and the Consumer 
Electronics Association estimates that number will double by next year. 
(AP/Los Angeles Times 22 Sep 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-roku22sep22,1,5030161.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

INTEL IMPROVES ITS TYPING SKILLS
Intel boss Paul Ottelini recently showed off a concept universal 
communicator that crammed together many of the technologies that Intel 
thinks consumers will be looking for in future smart phones. Among them is 
the Fastap keypad that ingeniously fits in 26 letters between the numbers 
on a typical handset, eliminating the need to scroll through a series of 
letters associated with each numeral. The letters are on raised buttons 
wedged between the keys. The prototype device also includes onboard 
personal digital assistant functions, a video camera, and can stream audio 
and video to other devices. (BBC News 20 Sep 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3123086.stm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great."(Ray Charles)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: PHILLIS WHEATLEY
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the first black woman poet of note in 
the United States, Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), whose poetry drew critical 
and popular praise both in America and England. Wheatley's poetry, largely 
concerned with morality and piety, was conventional for its time, but its 
evident quality revealed the author to be a well-educated woman possessed 
of literary talent -- no small accomplishment at the time for a woman born 
into slavery. When her poems were reissued in the 1830s, Abolitionists 
eagerly used them to demonstrate the human potential of blacks.
      Wheatley was born in Senegal, West Africa, and sold at eight years of 
age from a slave ship in Boston to work as a companion to the wife of John 
Wheatley, a merchant. The Wheatleys named her Phillis Wheatley, and Mrs. 
Wheatley devoted much of her time to teaching Phillis how to read and 
write. Phillis proved to be an excellent student, and Latin was also added 
to her home school curriculum.
      At the age of 14 she began to write poetry, and her first important 
work, "An Elegiac Poem on the Death of the Celebrated Divine, George 
Whitefield," was published in 1770. The poem attracted much attention, and 
she was encouraged to continue her poetic writing.
      Wheatley greatly admired the poetry of Alexander Pope, and his 
influence as well as her study of Latin is reflected in her own poetic 
style.
      The deaths of the Wheatleys left Phillis Wheatley alone in the world, 
but in April 1778 she married John Peters, a free black Bostonian. 
Unfortunately, her husband's business did not prosper, and the family was 
forced to live in poverty. The couple had two children who died in 
childhood. Sadly in 1784, Phillis herself died in childbirth having her 
third child. Today Phillis Wheatley is celebrated as the founder of the 
African American literary tradition.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/014042430X/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for  a collection of Phillis Wheatley's writings -- or look for it in your 
favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to 
adult literacy programs.)

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