NewsScan Daily, 7 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 7 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        FTC Takes Aim at Messenger Pop-Ups
        New Google Feature Offers Search Alternative
        U.S. Households Hit the Delete Key
        Penn State Students Blast Napster Deal
        Playing Games on the Job Could Boost Productivity
        Oops! Microsoft Drops the Ball on U.K. Hotmail Domain

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Terra Incognita

FTC TAKES AIM AT MESSENGER POP-UPS
The Federal Trade Commission has obtained a temporary restraining order 
against D Squared Solutions, accusing it of "high-tech extortion" for its 
annoying marketing campaign, which bombards Microsoft Windows users with 
pop-up ads touting its $29.95 pop-up blocker software designed to prevent 
such intrusions. The company set out "to create a problem for consumers and 
then try to charge them for a solution," said Howard Beales, head of the 
FTC's consumer protection unit. The FTC is seeking to recoup "hundreds of 
thousands" of dollars that beleaguered consumers paid to D Squared 
Solutions for the ad-blocking software. The ads take advantage of a 
security feature in Microsoft's Windows Messenger service that was 
originally designed to enable corporate network administrators to send 
internal messages. These messages are different from the ones imposed on 
users who visit a Web site, said Beales. "What we are challenging is this 
'backdoor' kind of advertising, particularly when it is done in a way and 
with a frequency that threatens to impair consumers' ability to use their 
computers." (Los Angeles Times 7 Nov 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-popup7nov07,1,2914685.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

NEW GOOGLE FEATURE OFFERS SEARCH ALTERNATIVE
Google unveiled its Google Deskbar (toolbar.google.com/deskbar), which 
enables users to search the Web quickly without ever launching a Web 
browser. The Deskbar appears as a search box in the Windows toolbar. Users 
type in their keywords and results appear in a resizable miniviewer screen, 
which can transport the user directly to the desired Web site. The box can 
be tailored to search Google non-U.S. sites, Google News, Google Images and 
custom sites as well. The Deskbar is designed for computers running Windows 
2000 or XP, and is not compatible with Macintosh or Linux systems. (AP/Wall 
Street Journal 6 Nov 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106817236275821700,00.html (sub req'd)

U.S. HOUSEHOLDS HIT THE DELETE KEY
The aggressive campaign waged by the Recording Industry Association of 
America against illegal music downloads is showing results: 1.4 million 
U.S. households deleted all the digital music files residing on their 
computers in August, according to a report by the NPD Group. NPD said 
recent publicity over the RIAA's hardball tactics prompted the massive 
cleanup, but added that consumers' overall opinion of the recording 
industry is suffering because of it. (Reuters/CNN.com 6 Nov 2003)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/11/06/music.piracy.reut/index.html

PENN STATE STUDENTS BLAST NAPSTER DEAL
Pennsylvania State University is catching flak for yesterday's announced 
deal to provide all students with access to Napster's revamped 
music-subscription service, paid for by the university's existing 
information technology fees. The school had viewed the university-wide 
arrangement as a way to circumvent the music download controversy and 
provide students with a legal alternative, but some students say they 
resent this use of their funds. "The money I pay could go to much better 
things such as rebuilding the network or better lab equipment," says one 
disgruntled student. "Almost every single student I have talked to is 
outraged that their money is going to a program that they don't even want… 
(and that) their money is being sent to the music industry without their 
consent." Penn State president Graham Spanier said he had not personally 
received any complaints about the new deal and that students didn't protest 
over cable TV service and newspaper subscriptions, which were also covered 
by mandatory student fees. (CNet News.com 6 Nov 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5103918.html?tag=nefd_top

PLAYING GAMES ON THE JOB COULD BOOST PRODUCTIVITY
Yesterday we reported that personal Web surfing on company time can be 
benficial, and now a report from the University of Utrecht in the 
Netherlands indicates that workers who were allowed to indulge in an 
occasional game of Solitaire or Minesweeper had more favorable attitudes 
toward their jobs and toward work in general. "We told them from now on for 
the next month you are allowed to play games for up to one hour a day, and 
you can choose when you want to play," said Utrecht professor Jeffrey 
Goldstein, who emphasized that his research was a very early stage and the 
findings preliminary. Goldstein plans to do a much larger-scale study, 
using more complicated games that involve strategy decisions or role 
playing, but he noted that simple games like Solitaire can be used as a 
strategy to break up the work day and give people's brains a rest from 
complex tasks. "I compare games with a coffee break. If you are like me, 
you use them in a strategic, functional, useful way." Being allowed to 
choose how one uses one's time also contributes to job satisfaction, which 
can lead to higher productivity and less absenteeism. (BBC News 7 Nov 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3247595.stm

OOPS! MICROSOFT DROPS THE BALL ON U.K. HOTMAIL DOMAIN
Microsoft apparently forgot to renew its registration for hotmail.co.uk, 
sending the domain name back into the pool of available names. It was 
snapped up immediately by a do-gooder, who then contacted Microsoft to 
alert it to its oversight and arrange a transfer of ownership back to the 
software giant. However, these efforts to do the right thing were rebuffed 
and it was only when The Register contacted the company to inquire about 
the snafu that the matter was "escalated" to upper-level officials who then 
sought to work out a deal. By all accounts, hotmail.co.uk will be restored 
to the Microsoft fold within the next few days. (The Register 6 Nov 2003)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33814.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it." (Cicero)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TERRA INCOGNITA
      Travel writer Paul Theroux thinks there's too much "connectedness" 
these days:
      "'Connected' is the triumphant cry these days. Connection has made 
people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous. I am old enough to 
have witnessed the rise of the telephone, the apotheosis of TV and the 
videocassette, the cellular phone, the pager, the fax machine, and e-mail. 
I don't doubt that instant communication has been good for business, even 
for the publishing business, but it has done nothing for literature, and 
might even have harmed it. In many ways connection has been disastrous. We 
have confused information (of which there is too much) with ideas (of which 
there are too few). I found out much more about the world and myself by 
being unconnected.
      "And what does connection really mean? What can the archivist -- 
relishing detail, boasting of the information age -- possibly do about all 
those private phone calls, e-mails, and electronic messages. Lost! A 
president is impeached, and in spite of all the phone calls and all the 
investigations, almost the only evidence that exists of his assignations 
are a few cheap gifts, a signed photograph, and obscure stains. So much for 
the age of information. My detractors may say, 'You can print e-mails,' but 
who commits that yackety-yak to paper?
      "The most aberrant aspect of the delusional concept of globalization 
is the smug belief that the world is connected and that everyone and every 
place is instantly accessible. This is merely a harmful conceit. The 
colorful advertisement for cellular phones or computers showing Chinese 
speaking to Zulus, and Italians speaking to Tongans, is inaccurate, not to 
say mendacious. There are still places on earth that are inaccessible, 
because of their geography or their politics or their religion. Parts of 
China are off the map, and for that matter parts of Italy are too -- there 
are villages in the hinterland of Basilicata, in southern Italy, that are 
as isolated as they have ever been.
      "For the past ten years, since the disputed and disallowed election 
of 1991, the entire Republic of Algeria has been a no-go area where between 
eighty and one hundred thousand people have been massacred. Algeria -- a 
sunny Mediterranean country, the most dangerous place in the world, with 
the worst human rights record on earth -- is right next to jolly Morocco 
and colorful Tunisia, the haunts of package tourists and rug collectors. 
This bizarre proximity highlights the paradox, which is an old one, that 
close by there are areas of the world that are still forbidden, or terra 
incognita, where no outsider dares to venture. In spite of all our 
connectedness we have little idea of what passes for daily life in Algeria."
                                          ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618126937/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Theroux's "Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings" -- or look for it in your 
favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to 
adult literacy programs.)

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