NewsScan Daily, 20 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 20 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Microsoft Touts Self-Destructing E-Mail
        Intercepting E-Mail is a Crime
        New Technique Relies on Water Power
        Memory Research
        Cybercrime Hotspot: Bucharest
        Info Technology Helps Women Entrepreneurs

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: The Divide Between the Sexes

MICROSOFT TOUTS SELF-DESTRUCTING E-MAIL
Microsoft's new Office 2003 software, set to debut on Tuesday, will include 
an e-mail feature that can be used to time-stamp messages, directing them 
to delete themselves on a certain date. In addition, senders will be able 
to restrict forwarding and printing of messages by the recipient. The new 
Information Rights Management software could run into opposition from U.S. 
regulators, who view destroying e-mail as on a par with shredding 
documents. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley was fined $1.65 million for 
failing to keep e-mail records, despite the company's claim that it due to 
oversight rather than a deliberate attempt to evade financial 
investigation. (BBC News 19 Oct 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3205080.stm

 INTERCEPTING E-MAIL IS A CRIME
An Arizona woman was sentenced to 60 days of home detention for 
intercepting at least 215 e-mail messages directed to her husband's 
ex-wife. Law enforcement officials said Angel Lee fraudulently obtained the 
ex-wife's user name and password, allowing her to log in and read mail. 
Ex-wife Duongladde Ramsey said Lee's actions were comparable to breaking 
into her house and reading her diary, and the judge agreed, saying Lee's 
penalty is a warning to others who might be tempted to spy on others' 
e-mail accounts. "Privacy is still a cherished value," said U.S. District 
Judge Richard P. Matsch. (AP 19 Oct 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031019/D7U97UCG0.html

NEW TECHNIQUE RELIES ON WATER POWER
Scientists at the University of Alberta have developed a method of 
generating electricity from water that one day could be used to power small 
devices such as calculators and mobile phones. The technology forces water 
through very tiny channels, resulting in a movement of net charges 
downstream. The surface of the channel holds a charge that either attracts 
or repels the flowing ions, and as the repelled ions move faster than those 
attracted to the surface, an electrical current is generated, albeit a very 
small one: one 30cm column of water produces one to two microamps (one 
millionth of an amp), but researchers envision using millions of parallel 
channels to increase power output. "The applications in electronics and 
microelectronic devices are very exciting," says Alberta professor Larry 
Kostiuk. "This technology could provide a new power source for devices such 
as mobile phones or calculators which could be charged up by pumping water 
to high pressure. What we have achieved so far is to show that electrical 
power can be directly generated from flowing liquids in microchannels. 
(CNet News.com 20 Oct 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5093617.html?tag=nefd_top

MEMORY RESEARCH
In a field known as molecular electronics, scientists have succeeded in 
creating tiny switches from molecules and atoms and are now hoping to 
develop techniques for assembling vast arrays of switches to serve both as 
memory and computing devices. So far, researchers have created circuits 
that are about 10 times as dense as silicon chips, though they switch on 
and off far more slowly. The researchers say their self-assembling circuits 
perform somewhat similarly to the neural circuits in the human brain, where 
circuits tend to persist even if they are not used frequently. (New York 
Times 20 Oct 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/10/20/technology/20atom.html

CYBERCRIME HOTSPOT: BUCHAREST
There now exists a loosely organized network of young Romanians conspiring 
with other accomplices in Europe and the U.S. to defraud consumers through 
bogus Internet purchases, extort cash from companies after hacking into 
their systems, and release worms and viruses.  Romanian lawmaker and former 
programmer Varujan Pambuccian says: "We want a good name for our country. 
I'm very angry that Romania is so well-known for ugly things -- for street 
dogs, street children and hackers." Mihai Radu, a computer security expert 
in Bucharest, believes that Romania's law enforcement officials are not up 
to the job of defeating the vandals: "The Romanian police aren't qualified. 
They don't have the tools, the skills, the software." (AP/San Jose Mercury 
News 19 Oct 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7053236.htm

INFO TECHNOLOGY HELPS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
The overall number of microbusinesses (companies with no paid employees) 
increased by 9% between 1997 and 2001, and the number of those owned by 
women increased by 14% over the same few years. By exploiting such 
technology as PCs, fax machines, and color printers to start 
information-based companies, women are changing the face of traditional 
mom-and-pop ventures. "This is definitely not your father's small 
business," says consultant Terri Lonier. Information technology has 
liberated many women who want to leave corporate jobs for self-employment 
in the same field. One example of the trend: Jennifer Lawson, who started a 
TV production consulting firm in her Washington home, equipped with 
video-screening equipment. Another: Jaime Caris of Las Vegas, who has 
become a virtual administrative assistant, offering clients across the U.S. 
assistance with word processing, accounting and other services from her 
home office. (AP/USA Today 19 Oct 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2003-10-19-momndad_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "You say eether and I say eyether. you say neether and I say nyther. 
Eether, eyether, neether,  nyther:  let's call the whole thing off! You 
like potato and I like potahto, you like tomato and I like 
tomahto.  Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto: let's call the whole thing off! 
. But oh! If we call the whole thing off, then we must part. And oh! If 
we ever part, then that might break my heart!" (Ira Gershwin)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE DIVIDE BETWEEN THE SEXES
      Political Science professor Andrew Hacker holds the controversial 
view that a growing number of weddings today are less matches made in 
heaven than mismatches made in hell:
      "We know that women in earlier eras desired more equality and 
reciprocity at home and in the wider world. But few of them said so aloud, 
in part because there was little prospect that the other sex would alter 
its ways. Society offered few opportunities for women to fulfill themselves 
on their own, and in fact erected many barriers. So the woman contributed 
most to this arrangement, while the man received its benefits. To be sure, 
he had an excuse. He had man's work to do: protecting the household and 
providing its sustenance. He would arrive home pleading exhaustion. 'It's a 
jungle out there,' he might groan, echoing his primal antecedents, as if to 
say that enduring this ordeal warranted his receiving the lion's share of 
attention. Though brief, this is not a wholly exaggerated depiction of the 
past.
      "What has changed, today, is the readiness of women to subsume 
themselves or limit their ambitions to make life more congenial for men. 
Few are willing to sustain the former complementarity that required them to 
play a subordinate role. More broadly, they expect full equality, not just 
legally and in the economic arena, but in the holistic sense of being 
perceived as an integral human being. As hardly needs recounting, women are 
now entering spheres that were once dominated by men. And as more of them 
are revealing their talents, they are competing against men, a circumstance 
that was never contemplated in the past. Concurrently, today's high rate of 
divorce may be evidence of a growing estrangement, which transcends the 
difficulties of individual couples. Developments like these have begun to 
undermine what was once accepted as the affinity of the sexes. As a result, 
it is becoming increasingly difficult to describe today's women and men as 
a natural match.
      "As women are becoming more assertive, and taking critical stances 
toward the men in their lives, they are finding that all too many men lack 
the qualities they desire in dates and mates. And despite bursts of 
progressive rhetoric, only rarely do men show themselves disposed to change 
in more than marginal ways. Thus there is a greater divide between the 
sexes than at any time in living memory. The result will be a greater 
separation of women and men, with tensions and recriminations afflicting 
beings once thought to be naturally companionable."
                                                ***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684862522/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Andrew Hacker's "Mismatch: The Growing Gulf Between Women and Men" -- 
or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our 
book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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