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

NewsScan Daily, 6 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Microsoft Puts a Price on the Heads of Virus Writers
        Novell's Linux Acquisition Gets Thumbs Up From Industry
        Wi-Fi Providers Set to Share Hot Spots
        Young Men Trade the Tube for the PC
        Personal Surfing at Work Can Be a Good Thing

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Joyce Hall

MICROSOFT PUTS A PRICE ON THE HEADS OF VIRUS WRITERS
Microsoft is using an old-fashioned tactic to fight new-fangled viruses -- 
it's created a $5-million Anti-Virus Reward Program and is offering 
$250,000 bounties for information leading to the arrest and conviction of 
the people behind last summer's Blaster worm and Sobig virus. Together, 
those attacks are blamed for $2 billion in losses by businesses and 
consumers, according to consulting firm Computer Economics Inc. Security 
experts are split on whether the new initiative will prove successful, but 
Microsoft senior security strategist Philip Reitinger says, "What we hope 
to accomplish is to give people an incentive to do the right thing." (Los 
Angeles Times 6 Nov 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-bounty6nov06,1,4082881.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

NOVELL'S LINUX ACQUISITION GETS THUMBS UP FROM INDUSTRY
Computer industry heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, IBM and 
even Microsoft enthusiastically endorsed Novell's announced plans to 
acquire SuSE Linux, the No. 2 Linux vendor, saying that the move will 
strengthen Novell's position as a business partner for their own products. 
HP already sells servers equipped with Linux from SuSE and Oracle, which is 
betting heavily on Linux, said the deal "will strengthen SuSE Linux," 
leading to wider adoption of the open source operating system. Computer 
Associates hailed the plan as "excellent for the industry," and Microsoft 
general manager Martin Taylor said, "The Novell and SuSE announcement is 
further evidence of the trends of consolidation and commercialization in 
the Linux industry." In fact, the only groups who raised concerns about the 
merger were No. 1 Linux vendor Red Hat, which is anticipating stiffer 
competition, and Linux enthusiasts, who fear commercial Linux vendors are 
abandoning their grassroots support among hobbyists and home users. (CNet 
News.com 5 Nov 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-7344-5103289.html?tag=nefd_hed

WI-FI PROVIDERS SET TO SHARE HOT SPOTS
Wi-Fi providers think they may have stumbled onto a new formula for making 
a profit in the increasingly cutthroat business -- cooperation. Over the 
next few months, many of the largest U.S. Wi-Fi companies are expected to 
sign "roaming" agreements that would enable their customers to use 
competitors' "hot spots." Over the past couple of years, about 12,000 hot 
spots have sprung up in the U.S. and that number is expected to triple, 
according to research firm Allied Business Intelligence. But many users 
have been forced to subscribe to more than one service -- at $20-40 apiece 
per month -- in order to be sure of finding a connection on the road. Now, 
Sprint, AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and SBC have announced their 
partnership with Wayport Communications, which operates hot spots in about 
800 locations, mostly hotel lobbies. And T-Mobile, which maintains 3,200 
hot spots (mostly in Starbucks) says it expects to sign an roaming 
agreement by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the same thing is happening in 
Europe: Scandinavian telecom TeliaSonera has already inked deals with Wi-Fi 
operators in Italy, Britain and Germany, creating a shared network of 1,700 
hot spots. (Wall Street Journal 6 Nov 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106807596834502700,00.html (sub req'd)

YOUNG MEN TRADE THE TUBE FOR THE PC
After a recent study reported that young men aged 18 to 34 had pretty much 
deserted network television, advertisers fervently hoped that the highly 
desirable demographic cohort would show up online, and two new reports 
released this week indicate that's "where the guys are." comScore Media 
Metrix found that nearly 27 million young men in the desired age group 
spent an average of 32 hours each online in September, 17% more than the 
"average" Internet user. "People who have grown up with the Internet, we 
knew were spending less time watching TV," says comScore president Peter 
Daboll, a distinction that especially pronounced when it came to heavy vs. 
light TV viewers. Confirmed couch potatoes -- those who consume 5 hours or 
more a day of network programming -- surf the Net "lightly," while "chair 
potatoes" logged five times the number of page views as their couch-bound 
brethren. A second study by the Online Publishers Association corroborates 
those results, indicating that young men are frequent visitors to news, 
information and entertainment Web sites, spending an average of 21 hours 
per week online, compared with 15.7 hours watching television. Analysts say 
the OPA numbers may be skewed a bit high, however, because the study looked 
only at self-reported frequent visitors to Web sites. (Internet News 5 Nov 
2003)
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/3104951

PERSONAL SURFING AT WORK CAN BE A GOOD THING
Here's a new book that turns conventional wisdom about personal surfing on 
company time on its head. Claire Simmers and Murugan Anadarajan have 
co-authored a human resources guide to worker Web use that indicates a 
looser attitude toward personal surfing can yield some beneficial side 
effects. "Personal Web usage in the workplace has a negative perception, 
especially among administrators who often see it as inefficient and 
creating a decrease in work productivity," says Simmers. But according to 
the authors' research, personal surfing at work can result in better time 
management, lower stress levels, improved skill sets and a happier balance 
between work and personal life. (AP 5 Nov 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031105/D7UKH7E81.html

*****

FLASH CARD
"When I look back on all the worries I remember the story of the old man 
who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of 
which never happened." (Winston Churchill)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JOYCE HALL
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the American mid-western businessman 
Joyce C. Hall (1891-1982) who started out in life as a picture-postcard 
peddler and ended up as the highly prosperous owner and founder of the 
giant Hallmark greeting card company.
      Hall was an old-fashioned up-by-the-bootstraps success story. When he 
died, his 72-year-old, billion-dollar company was famous for "caring enough 
to send the very best" in greeting cards, and for sponsoring quality 
television programs in the popular "Hallmark Hall of Fame" series. When 
people in the Kansas City area are asked what is special about their city, 
one of the things they will probably mention is Hallmark Cards, and point 
with pride to Hall's lavish Crown Center real estate venture. Today the 
company Hall created is proud to be known as one of the best 100 companies 
to work for in America.
      Hall was born in David City, Nebraska, where his family owned a small 
gift store. When he was nine his father abandoned the family, leaving the 
children to be raised by their mother. At age 18, as a lanky six-footer, 
Hall took off for Kansas City with two shoeboxes filled with scenic postal 
cards that he hoped to sell to dealers throughout the Midwest. Within a few 
years, his postcard business prospered well enough for him to send for his 
brothers Rollie and William to join him in opening a specialty store for 
postcards and stationery. The business was named Hall Brothers, Inc.
      Hall soon decided that selling Christmas cards with envelopes might 
be a profitable way to expand business. Greeting cards had been around 
since 1840 when the Penny Postage Act put mailing letters within the reach 
of almost everyone. Hall decided to get into the greeting card business in 
a serious way, not only selling but manufacturing his own line of cards. He 
named the card line "Hallmark," an obvious play on his name, but also a 
word that designated quality. The word hallmark dates back to the year 
1300, when gold and silver were marked for quality at Goldsmith's Hall in 
London. Coins of quality received a "Hall mark."
      Hall Brothers, which became Hallmark in 1954, today has the largest 
art department in the world. Its creative staff of over 600 people produces 
more than 10 million greeting cards a year. Hall was a quiet, 
serious-minded person, who preferred to be called simply Mr. J. C. in 
deference to his lifelong dislike of his given name "Joyce." He never 
seriously considered using his middle name instead. "Clyde," as he 
humorously pointed out, "wasn't any great shakes of a name either."
      Hall led the company until 1966, when his son Donald became 
president. When Hall died in 1982 at age 91 the company he had founded was 
worth $1.5 billion. In his quiet way he once commented on his success by 
saying: "All I was trying to do was make a living. In those days, if you 
didn't work, you didn't eat. And I like to eat."

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0071364145/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for "Emotion Marketing: The Hallmark Way of Winning Customers for Life" -- 
or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our 
book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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