NewsScan Daily, 13 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 13 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        New IBM Mainframes Will Offer On-Demand Computing
        Google Without Borders
        New Weapons Boost Arsenal Against Hacker Attacks
        Kodak to Acquire Film-to-CD Technology
        Actors With Zero-and-One Talents
        Internet Toilet a Hoax

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Annals of Junk Mail
        Honorary Subscriber: Mary Elizabeth Garrett

NEW IBM MAINFRAMES WILL OFFER ON-DEMAND COMPUTING
IBM is introducing a new line of mainframe computers humorously code-named 
T-Rex (getting back at critics who wrote mainframes off as dinosaurs) and 
more formally known as z990 systems. The z990 promises an increase of 40% 
in processing power over previous models, and lets customers turn 
processors on and off as the demand for processing fluctuates (and pay only 
for the processing actually used). It's part of IBM's strategy to offer 
on-demand computing. (New York Times 13 May 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/05/13/technology/13BLUE.html

GOOGLE WITHOUT BORDERS
Google is expanding its popular news service overseas, establishing local 
news search services in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. The new ventures 
will enable users to "track topics of local interest, as well as those from 
around the world," says Google co-founder Larry Page. At the same time, 
Google has begun staffing its New York office, with the goal of hiring 100 
employees for what will become its East Coast headquarters. The timing of 
the announcement highlights Google's ascendance in the search market -- 
last week, rival Overture said it would be cutting 100 jobs (although 
Overture was quick to say its layoffs resulted from the need to integrate 
its recent acquisitions). Meanwhile, Overture CEO Ted Meisel says he 
anticipates strong growth in the coming year, and predicted the Internet 
search and paid listings market would soar to $15 billion a year by 2008. 
(E-Commerce Times 12 May 2003)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/21494.html

NEW WEAPONS BOOST ARSENAL AGAINST HACKER ATTACKS
Two graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University have proposed 
different ideas for defeating the dastardly denial-of-service attacks that 
can overwhelm and disable a vulnerable ISP. One suggestion, from Abraham 
Yaar, takes advantage of the unused bits in the headers of network traffic 
to establish a "data fingerprint" based on the route the information 
traveled through the network. If a server came under attack, network 
administrators could use the digital fingerprint to decide whether to block 
all traffic with the same fingerprint. The second proposal, presented by 
XiaoFeng Wang, suggests that servers use "puzzles" -- problems that occupy 
a certain amount of processing time to solve -- as a way to discourage any 
computer from sending too much mail at any one time. While a similar idea 
has been proposed before, Wang added an auction-like transaction to further 
allow legitimate traffic to win out over attacks. "Our mechanism enables 
each client to 'bid' for resources by tuning out the difficulty of the 
puzzles it solves and to adapt its bidding strategy in response to apparent 
attacks," says Wang. (CNet News.com 13 May 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-1001200.html?tag=fd_top

KODAK TO ACQUIRE FILM-TO-CD TECHNOLOGY
Eastman Kodak is snapping up the assets of Applied Science Fiction, 
including a patented system called Digital Processing and Image Capture, 
which enables a roll of film to be converted into a digital CD in seven 
minutes. Kodak says it will install the new system in its 18,000 U.S. 
kiosks, enabling customers to preview and select their pictures as well as 
crop and zoom and to alter the color, brightness and composition on the 
spot. "Our goal is to give customers greater flexibility, capability and 
access to their pictures taken with photographic film or digital cameras," 
says the president of Kodak's consumer imaging division. "We are putting 
all of that power, including innovative film processing, in the hands of 
consumers. All of our research tells us that's exactly what consumers 
want." (AP/Los Angeles Times 13 May 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-kodak13may13,1,7704423.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology

ACTORS WITH ZERO-AND-ONE TALENTS
In the new movie "The Matrix Reloaded," scenes were created by 
photographing real people and then manipulating them digitally. Producer 
Joel Silver says: "This is going to change the way people make movies. It's 
not 'Shrek' or 'Toy Story.' You're seeing reality-based scenes dealing with 
human characters, and it's designed so you really can't distinguish between 
the real actor and the ones and zeros. And you're talking about shots that 
are close-ups on faces, and emotion coming through. There are some really 
remarkable scenes that the audience will never know were constructed in a 
computer, or that there's nobody actually in it." (San Jose Mercury News 13 
May 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5844940.htm

INTERNET TOILET A HOAX
The iLoo, described in a press release last week as a portable toilet with 
wireless keyboard and an extending height-adjustable plasma screen in front 
of the seat, doesn't exist: it was just a joke. Microsoft says the hoax 
press release came from the company's MSN division in the U.K. and was not 
a "Microsoft-sanctioned communication." It all just goes to show that you 
can't believe what you read anymore, not even the toilet jokes. (CBS News 
13 May 2003)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/13/tech/main553567.shtml

*****

FLASH CARD
      "An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous." 
(Henry Ford)

ANNALS OF JUNK MAIL
      Junk mail has uses that are not widely appreciated. For example, if 
late-night comedians would just go ahead and read the stuff out loud, they 
could fire their joke writers and save a lot of money. Here's a message 
representing the latest trend in junk silliness, the African scam turned 
into the Middle Eastern scam:
      "Dear sir, Let me introduce myself, I am brother to Tariq Aziz, the 
deputy prime minister of Iraq, before the us led coalition war against my 
country. I have been working for my brother for past 15 years. My brother 
have the sum of [46 million Dollars] with me, which to be send to Europe 
which has been done already. I have decided to find somebody who can help 
me to secure the money or establish the money in Europe. Actually my 
brother has more than that with me. I don't want my identity to be exposed 
to outside the world, I am now hiding in Kuwait. Please if you are 
interested in this deal or to be my partner please contact my lawyer 
through his E-mail. I know nothing goes for nothing we will be negotiating 
after you contact my lawyer. This is my lawyer E-mail address..." Sure it is.

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: MARY ELIZABETH GARRETT
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Baltimore heiress Mary Elizabeth 
Garrett (1854-1915), whose philanthropy brought about significant changes 
in educational opportunities for women. Perhaps her most memorable 
charitable contribution was a $306,977 gift that enabled The Johns Hopkins 
University School of Medicine to reach a $500,000 goal needed for enrolling 
its first class in October 1893.
      Garrett used her money to leverage the medical school administration 
to admit only scientifically qualified undergraduates and treat women 
candidates on the same terms as men. She also insisted that the program be 
a four-year graduate course, leading to the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
(Prior to this, women physicians were educated exclusively in all-female 
settings, and medical education for both men and women was generally an 
apprenticeship program with uneven standards for admission and graduation.) 
By attaching strict conditions to her charitable gift, she became an 
effective agent for social change, employing what historian Margaret 
Rossiter calls "coercive philanthropy."
      Garrett was the daughter of John Work Garret, president of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, which had made him a wealthy man 
during the 26 years it had taken him to transform the railroad from a 
small, impoverished line to a powerful system extending from Baltimore to 
the Mississippi River. From assisting her father in the management of the 
B&O railroad, she learned much about business dealings, unusual for a woman 
in her time. That experience is what probably accounts for the binding 
clauses she generally included in the terms of her charitable contributions.
      Another major influence in her life was her close friendship with 
Martha Carey Thomas, who was president of Bryn Mawr College in Baltimore 
and was largely responsible for interesting Garrett in supporting women's 
education, first at Bryn Mawr, and then in the proposed Johns Hopkins 
Medical School. Over the years Garrett's contributions to Bryn Mawr totaled 
nearly $350,000. Garrett and Thomas became interested in the Women's 
Suffrage movement, providing funds for the 1906 convention held in Baltimore.
      During the remainder of her life, Garrett stayed involved in the 
suffragist movement and used her fortune to provide business and 
educational opportunities for women in all walks of life. Desirous to see 
women to become self-sufficient and financially independent, she helped 
found the Woman's Industrial Exchange in Baltimore.
      In 1904, in recognition of Garrett's generosity, the Johns Hopkins 
University administration commissioned John Singer Sargent to paint her 
portrait. With characteristic liberality in turn, Garrett commissioned John 
Singer Sargent to paint a group portrait of "The Four Doctors," a painting 
of the Johns Hopkins core medical faculty: William H. Welch, William Osler, 
William S. Halsted, and Howard A. Kelly.
      Garrett, whose fragile health was never robust, died of leukemia at 
the age of 62 in 1915.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0405106017/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
-- or look for it in your favorite library. [We donate all revenues from 
our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

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