NewsScan Daily, 10 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 10 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Hacker Charged With Securities Fraud
        Microsoft Vows to Fix Windows Security Problems
        Intel's Andy Grove Worried About U.S. Lead in High Tech
        Software Protection Scheme Ends Up Boosting New Game Sales
        Napster Back, With Blessing of Recording Industry
        Neil Postman Dies

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Playback

HACKER CHARGED WITH SECURITIES FRAUD
A 19-year-old student at Drexel University in Pennsylvania is being charged 
by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) of fraud and identity theft 
for hacking into someone's investment account and making a complex and 
illegal trade. The student is accused of using a program called the Beast 
to monitor every keystroke typed on the target machine, and by doing so was 
able to obtain the log-in and password for the investor's online brokerage 
account with TD Waterhouse. (New York Times 10 Oct 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/business/10HACK.html

MICROSOFT VOWS TO FIX WINDOWS SECURITY PROBLEMS
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted the inadequacy the company's 
current collection of security software patches for the Windows operating 
system and says the company will modify them in the coming year. Customers 
have complained that the company's system of frequently issuing new patches 
is too time-consuming and difficult, so Microsoft is now designing 
technology to shield Windows from malicious e-mail messages, viruses and 
worms. The changes will include shipping Windows with an Internet firewall 
turned on by default, which would have blocked the recent "Blaster" virus, 
and will prevent attachments from executing commands -- a common method 
network vandals use to hijack computers. (San Jose Mercury News 10 Oct 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/6980382.htm

INTEL'S ANDY GROVE WORRIED ABOUT U.S. LEAD IN HIGH TECH
Telling the attendees at a global technology summit "I'm here to be the 
skunk at your garden party," Andrew S. Grove, Intel co-founder and current 
chairman, said that U.S. dominance in the software and technology service 
businesses is under siege by countries like China and India that offer 
cheap labor costs and strong incentives for new financial investment. Grove 
noted that India's thriving software industry, which does a steadily 
increasing proportion of the software and services work for U.S. companies, 
could surpass the United States in software and tech-service jobs by 2010. 
Grove said that the U.S. had no public policy to deal with this situation, 
nor had he found that any of the presidential candidates had recognized the 
problem. He also said the U.S. lags dangerously behind in popular use of 
high-speed Internet connections, as well as funding for science and 
technology research and education. (Washington Post 9 Oct 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6042-2003Oct9.html

SOFTWARE PROTECTION SCHEME ENDS UP BOOSTING NEW GAME SALES
Companies are using a new software protection system, called Fade, to 
protect their intellectual property from software thieves. Fade is being 
introduced by Macrovision, which specializes in digital rights management, 
and the British games developer Codemasters. What the program does is make 
unauthorized copies of games slowly degrade, by exploiting the systems for 
error correction that computers use to cope with CD-ROMs or DVDs that have 
become scratched. Software protected by Fade contains fragments of 
"subversive" code designed to seem like scratches, which are then arranged 
on the disc in a pattern that will be used to prevent copying. Bruce 
Everiss of Codemasters says, "The beauty of this is that the degrading copy 
becomes a sales promotion tool. People go out and buy an original version." 
(New Scientist 10 Oct 2003)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248

NAPSTER BACK, WITH BLESSING OF RECORDING INDUSTRY
The rapper Ludacris is hailing the return of Napster, which had been forced 
out of business by lawsuits brought against the once-free music 
file-swapping service by the recording industry: "To see them come back and 
do it right, it means the world to the music business. It's a legitimate, 
cool, fair service that can and will bring artists and fans back together." 
The new service is being formally released Oct. 29th by Roxio, whose chief 
executive, Chris Gorog, says: "We have been deeply focused on the 
liberation of online music from the PC." Napster 2.0 allows subscribers to 
tune in to the songs that other users are listening to, look at what others 
have downloaded, and send songs and playlists to other subscribers. (Los 
Angeles Times 10 Oct 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-napster10oct10224421,1,5169254.story 
?coll=la-headlines-technology

NEIL POSTMAN DIES
Neil Postman, the New York University communications and media expert, has 
died at the age of 72. A critic of mass media and "technopoly," he was 
provocative, wise, witty and kind. In the judgment of NewsScan, one of his 
best books is the collection of essays, "Conscientious Objections: Stirring 
Up Trouble About Language, Technology and Education." (New York Times 9
Oct 2003)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/09/obituaries/09POST.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "A good composer does not imitate; he steals." (Igor Stravinksy

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: PLAYBACK
In a collection of his essays, TV broadcaster and host Hugh Downs writes:
      "On the matter of listening to music, technology may have tapped into 
a sort of 'fountain of youth.' In contouring the playback of a recording it 
is possible to get an effect more pleasing than hearing the real 
performance. Years ago an audio engineer I worked with referred to a 
recorded sound as 'better than real.' 'Wait a minute,' I said. 'If reality 
is the criterion, nothing can be better than real.' He then explained to me 
what he meant. As we get older, certain frequencies (pitches) begin to fade 
as our eardrums become less responsive-notably, higher frequencies drop. 
Now, if in the playback of a good recording you can boost the gain on those 
frequencies that are beginning to sag, you aid hearing in a peculiarly 
satisfying way. You hear the music as you had once heard it with younger 
ears. This is what he meant when he asserted that the music was better than 
real.
      "Perhaps the new computer technology called 'interactive' could be 
tailored by each user to 'boost the gain' in needed areas and allow 
individuals to enjoy the sound in ways they did when they were younger. My 
only advice for this experience is to put on some Mahler, or maybe some 
UB-40 and let the spirit leaven. Listen to the moving timbre as it flows 
down the great river of life."
                                         ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1570362211/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for "Perspectives" by Hugh Downs -- or look for it in your favorite 
library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult 
literacy programs.)

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