NewsScan Daily, 12 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 12 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
***********************************************************
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization
making significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology. NSD is
written by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, [email protected].
***********************************************************

"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       IBM's Linux Strategy
       Turner, Barksdale Unload Time Warner Shares
       Barriers to Women in Technology
       Study of Interdisciplinary Research Networks
       Will the U.N. Take Over the Internet?
       Computers in Cars: 'When You Add Complexity You Add Risks'

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Harry Hopkins

IBM'S LINUX STRATEGY
IBM vice president Scott Handy says, "There is a lot of interest in Linux on
the desktop from customers; this is definitely a trend with traction." IBM
is now using Linux as the desktop operating system in a simplified computing
environment that delivers, updates and maintains desktop applications over
high-speed corporate networks. "The discussion with customers usually starts
with Linux. But the huge gains come from using this server-based
architecture, which is made possible by these Internet technologies. And
Linux is one of them." Handy says IBM's Linux solutions could be easily
adopted by bank branch offices, sales people, insurance agents, auto dealers
and others. (New York Times 12 Nov 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/technology/11blue.html

TURNER, BARKSDALE UNLOAD TIME WARNER SHARES
Ted Turner, James Barksdale, and two other directors of Time Warner's board
of directors have been heavy sellers of the company's stock this year,
unloading a total of more than 68 million shares. There have been 52
reported sales and 4 purchases of Time Warner stock by corporate officers
and directors since the beginning of 2003. Time Warner spokesperson Tricia
Primrose said that the four directors "all continue to have significant
holdings in Time Warner," and that each of them is "pursuing some form of
diversification, philanthropic giving or estate planning, resulting in the
sale of shares or the exercising of options, which is in keeping with sound
financial practices." (Washington Post 11 Nov 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28161-2003Nov11.html

BARRIERS TO WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY
Ilene H. Lang says that "the barriers and demands of the high-tech industry
are very similar to those of traditional industries. What is surprising is
that in an industry that thinks of itself as a meritocracy, women and men
both perceive a lack of acceptance of women. " Lang is president of
Catalyst, a non-profit organization aimed at the advancement of women in
business. A new report by that organizations urges companies to address the
barriers to advancement by including women in career development programs,
providing opportunities for interacting with other successful women, and
fostering more flexibility. (San Jose Mercury News 12 Nov 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7241970.htm

STUDY OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH NETWORKS
Researcher Diana Rhoten's National Science Foundation-funded study of
interdisciplinary research networks is now available on the Hybrid Vigor
Institute's site at http://www.hybridvigor.net/publications.pl?s=interdis/.
Rhoten is a Research Fellow at the Hybrid Vigor Research Institute, a
nonprofit organization dedicated to the study and practice of
interdisciplinary, boundary-crossing research; the Institute's founder and
chief executive is Denise Caruso, a long-time friend of NewsScan. See
http://www.hybridvigor.org/participate.html.

WILL THE U.N. TAKE OVER THE INTERNET?
Some of the developing countries want to put management of the Internet
under United Nations control. U.N. officials expect governments to continue
talks on Internet governance with the aim of reaching accord by 2005.
Brazil, India, South Africa, China and Saudi Arabia are dissatisfied with
the current Internet regulator, the semi-private California-based ICANN (the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and argue that the
Internet is a public resource that should be managed by national governments
and by intergovernmental organizations. But both the United States and the
European Commission are standing behind the ICANN model, in the belief that
to turn Internet regulation over to governments could threaten the existence
of the borderless Internet. (Financial Times 11 Nov 2003)
http://news.ft.com/s01/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullSto
ry&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565743698&p=1012571727102

COMPUTERS IN CARS: 'WHEN YOU ADD COMPLEXITY YOU ADD RISKS'
The computer systems in today's luxury cars are wonderful when they work
right, but not so wonderful when something goes wrong. Donald Buffamanti of
AutoSpies.com (self-described as "the ultimate insider guide to the world's
best automobiles") says of one automaker's cars: "People have reported total
electronic shutdowns to us attributed to the network in the 7-series." One
luxury car owner, whose onboard computer gave monitoring information that
sent him off to the service station every few days to check his tire
pressure, complains: "Why does it have a computer that reads the problems if
they can't fix them?" Responding to complaints such as these, a BMW
executive says: "There is a not-uncommon shakedown period of one to two
years with technology this new," and a Honda executive admits: "When you're
adding complexity, you are adding risks." The BMW exec adds: "The good news
is that if it's working right after four years, it will continue to work for
a long time after that. Electronics have a much longer life than mechanical
parts."(USA Today 11 Nov 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-11-carrepairs_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all-time thing. You don't win
once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them
right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." (Vince
Lombardi)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: HARRY HOPKINS
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the American social reformer and
political insider Harry Hopkins (1890-1946), who was head of successive New
Deal relief agencies and wartime advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt.
     In 1931, Roosevelt, then governor of New York, appointed Hopkins deputy
chairman of the New York State Temporary Emergency Relief Administration.
After Roosevelt became president, he chose Hopkins as chairman of the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Hopkins subsequently headed the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) and was Secretary of Commerce. With the
coming of World War II, Roosevelt recruited Hopkins as a diplomatic emissary
to Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Hopkins's assessment of Britain's
and the USSR's military requirements on a special mission in 1941 shaped the
Lend-Lease program. Later Hopkins attended the principal wartime conferences
as Roosevelt's confidant. In 1945, near death, he made a special trip for
Harry S. Truman to overcome Stalin's objections to the United Nations
charter.
     In rising to the challenges and opportunities offered him by his
association with the Depression and the World War II presidency of Franklin
Roosevelt, Hopkins became a pivotal and polarizing figure. His welfare and
relief policies stressed the need for the maintenance of self-respect and
self-reliance as well as the physical preservation of the human person.
Rather than the direct-cash "dole" he emphasized work relief and the
creation of projects, such as the controversial artists' and writers'
programs that utilized persons' special skills. During the Depression years
Hopkins's agencies spent a massive $9 billion and supplied jobs to 8 million
people. 
     Combining a crusading moral fervor with executive ability, Hopkins was
indefatigable in his work habits, even to the point of living in the White
House during the war years so as to  be on call to the president at a
moment's notice. His final service to the government after Roosevelt's death
in April 1945 was to visit Moscow to help arrange the Potsdam Conference.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1929631049/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Robert Shewood's "Roosevelt and Hopkins".-- or look for it in your
favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to
adult literacy programs.)

SUBSCRIPTION INFO FOR NEWSSCAN DAILY:
     To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions of
NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to
the addresses shown below:
     Text version: Send message to [email protected]
     HTML version: Send mail to [email protected]
     NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT NEWSSCAN DAILY! Send them our little frog:
http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html

***********************************************************
Please visit the site of RLG, the great organization that makes NewsScan
Daily possible. (RLG has no influence over, nor any responsibility for, our
editorial content.) Created in 1974 as the Research Libraries Group, RLG is
a not-for-profit membership corporation of more than 160 universities,
national libraries, archives, museums -- and other institutions with
remarkable collections for research and learning. Its major initiatives are
long-term retention of digital materials, resource sharing among member
institutions, and improvement of researcher access to primary source
material. RLG supplies online research resources worldwide. Visit RLG at
http://www.rlg.org.

*********

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the TEXT version of NewsScan Daily, send an
e-mail message to [email protected] with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in
the subject line. To subscribe to our HTML version of NewsScan Daily, send
mail to [email protected], with the word 'subscribe' as the
subject. (Subscribing to the HTML version won't automatically unsubscribe
you from the text version; please unsubscribe yourself as explained above.)
Please note: To unsubscribe from an account to which you no longer have
access, send mail to at [email protected].

*********

We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the
great "broadsheet" newspapers in which editors must decide which news
stories are of such importance that they should be placed "above the fold"
on the front page. The NewsScan Credo: Be informative, have fun, and get to
the point! See http://www.newsscan.com/, and send us mail: John Gehl
<[email protected]> and Suzanne Douglas <[email protected]>, or call
770-704-7517.

*********

Get a free 6-week trial subscription to Innovation Weekly, an executive
summary of trends, strategies and innovations in business and technology.
Send mail to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' in the
subject line.

What customized news and information services do you need for your company?
Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call 770-704-7517 to talk
over the possibilities.

Copyright 2003. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.
***********************************************************