NewsScan Daily, 6 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 6 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        VeriSign Agrees to Suspend Site Finder Service
        Singapore Scientists Working on SARS-Detection Chip
        Sensing Technologies Transform Archeology
        Fighting Spam: Raise the Bridge or Lower the Water?
        Ellison Under the Microscope
        Tracking Library Books or Tracking People?

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: George Jean Nathan

VERISIGN AGREES TO SUSPEND SITE FINDER SERVICE
VeriSign and ICANN reached a temporary truce Friday, with VeriSign 
acquiescing to ICANN's demand that it suspend its controversial Site Finder 
service pending further technical review. ICANN could have fined VeriSign 
as much as $100,000 or even revoked its contract to manage the master list 
of .com and .net Internet domain names. Critics have charged VeriSign with 
undermining the collectivist culture of the Internet with the preemptive 
launch of its service, which redirects Web users who mistype a URL to the 
VeriSign Web site. "In the past when you made a dramatic change to the 
network structure that was the least bit potentially damaging, you went out 
through the community and you exposed what you were going to do and got 
reaction," says Carnegie Mellon computer science professor David Farber. 
VeriSign "just broke the whole process." In its defense, VeriSign 
executives say they notified ICANN of their plans ahead of time, but 
admitted that they sidestepped ICANN's lengthy approval process because 
it's too slow. In response, ICANN says it's "sympathetic to concerns" about 
its process and has proposed a more streamlined procedure for reviewing new 
services such as Site Finder. (Wall Street Journal 6 Oct 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106519977252395300,00.html (sub req'd)

SINGAPORE SCIENTISTS WORKING ON SARS-DETECTION CHIP
Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore are developing a microchip 
capable of diagnosing SARS, flu and other respiratory diseases by analyzing 
a drop of nasal fluid dropped onto it. "Patients who have flu, dengue fever 
or SARS all exhibit similar symptoms in the early stages of infection. The 
chip will be able to test for this at once, identify if it's one or the 
other and doctors will have a clear picture from the start," says Ren Ee 
Chee, deputy director of the institute. The chip could be ready as early as 
January, according to a Straits Times report. (AP 5 Oct 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031006/D7U0CIR80.html

SENSING TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFORM ARCHEOLOGY
Archeologists have long struggled with the paradox of their passion: 
discovery necessitates destruction -- once a layer has been stripped away, 
any information not recorded is lost forever. The frustration experienced 
by archeologists who formulate new questions about old sites excavated long 
ago is common, but new sensing techniques are now allowing archeologists to 
find out what lies under the earth with minimal destruction -- or none at 
all. Using thermal imaging technology, trained archeologists can often spot 
tell-tale signs of what lies below the surface based on slight differences 
in temperature-- for instance a stone foundation retains heat differently 
than surrounding earth. Researchers from the University of Arkansas have 
used the technique to map out the site of a Kansas town burned to the 
ground in 1921, and investigate a prehistoric fortified settlement along 
the Missouri River in North Dakota. A researcher at the Ben-Gurion 
University of the Negev, in Israel is taking a more forceful approach, 
pumping the ground full of P-band microwaves and then recording what gets 
reflected back (manmade objects such as pipes or aqueducts are particularly 
good at beaming back). Both of these techniques can be enhanced by 
satellite images available from new commercial satellites that can 
distinguish objects as small as half a meter in diameter. (The Economist 2 
Oct 2003)
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2099826

FIGHTING SPAM: RAISE THE BRIDGE OR LOWER THE WATER?
Many software experts now believe that the best way to fight spam is not by 
targeting it directly but instead by concentrating on the identification of 
legitimate mail. VeriSign executive Nico Popp explains, "People have been 
spending all their time creating filters to find the bad guys. We want to 
turn that on its head and find ways to identify the good guys and let them 
in." The idea would be to develop the Internet equivalent of caller ID, 
with a technology that identifies senders and lets receivers presume that 
un-identified senders are sending junk mail. Richard Reichgut of 
AuthentiDate says, "It's not easy to change something as successful and 
widely used as e-mail. But the only way to fix e-mail is to have a strong 
way to know who is sending you mail." (New York Times 6 Oct 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/technology/06SPAM.html

ELLISON UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
A reviewer of two new books about Oracle's Larry Ellison ("Softwar" and 
"Everyone Else Must Fail") says that their  most surprising revelation 
"isn't how Oracle got to be one of the largest software companies in the 
world. It's that the company is still in business at all... They chronicle 
so many mistakes that it seems improbable Oracle has become such a dominant 
force: faulty products, strategy errors, marketing mishaps, frustrated 
customers, embittered executives. Amid all this disarray are occasional 
flashes of visionary brilliance by founder Ellison that rescue the company 
from disaster and catapult it to new heights. And yet, the books create a 
lingering sense that even with all its success, Oracle is a company that 
hasn't fulfilled its potential." (San Jose Mercury News 5 Oct 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6938063.htm

TRACKING LIBRARY BOOKS OR TRACKING PEOPLE?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which concerns itself with civil 
liberties issues in cyberspace,  is expressing dismay over a plan by the 
the San Francisco Public Library use RFID technology to track books. A RFID 
(radio frequency identification) chip would be inserted into each library 
book, and would send out electromagnetic waves that would allow tracking of 
the book's location. San Francisco's city librarian Susan Hildreth says the 
RFID devices will help streamline inventory and prevent loss, and explains 
that tracking people is not the goal; "It will not allow us to track people 
to their home or any location." Hildreth's response has failed to satisfy 
Electronic Frontier Foundation Lee Tien, who worries: "We're talking about 
the imbedding of location trafficking devices into the social fabric." 
(AP/USA Today 3 Oct 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2003-10-03-sf-library-rfid 
_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Love demands infinitely less than friendship." (George Jean Nathan)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER:  GEORGE JEAN NATHAN
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the twentieth-century American drama 
critic, author and editor George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), who edited more 
than 30 publications and authored an equal number of books and annuals.
      As a drama critic Nathan championed the plays of Ibsen, Strindberg 
and Shaw, and was an early supporter of such playwrights as Eugene O'Neill 
and Sean O'Casey. He is also credited with having raised the standards of 
play producers and playgoers alike. From 1943 through 1951 he published an 
annual Theatre Book of the Year as well as well as writing more than 30 
volumes of lively essays on theatrical and other subjects.
      Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and as a child he traveled 
widely, studying in Germany, France and Italy as a teenager. After 
graduation from Cornell University in 1904 he joined the staff of the New 
York Herald, first as a cub reporter and then as theater critic. Beginning 
in 1906, he was at various times drama critic for numerous magazines and 
newspapers, but his name is particularly associated with The Smart Set, of 
which he was co-editor (1914-23) with H.L. Mencken. Together they made the 
magazine into a guide for the young American intellectual. Later in 1924, 
also with Mencken, he helped found the American Mercury, a magazine that 
fostered the most rebellious and lively literature and drama, and for a 
decade stood forth as the arbiter of American literary taste. It was not 
long, however, before he broke with Mencken over the direction the magazine 
was taking and left to work as a freelance writer, except for the three 
years, 1932-35 when he edited the American Spectator, which he cofounded 
with Eugene O'Neill. Beginning in 1943 he became a syndicated columnist for 
the New York Journal-American.
      Nathan was himself primarily a drama critic, famous for the erudition 
and cynicism of his reviews. His criticism appeared in many volumes, 
including "Mr. George Jean Nathan Presents"; "The Critic and the Drama"; 
and "The Testament of a Critic."
      Three years before his death in 1958 Nathan married the actress Julie 
Haydon. In his will he established an award to be presented annually by 
Cornell University to a drama critic who uses his position to "stimulate 
intelligent playgoing."

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1557833133/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Nathan's "The World of George Jean Nathan: Essays, Reviews & 
Commentary" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all 
revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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