NewsScan Daily, 14 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 14 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Bigger Than a Bread Basket: The New IBM Supercomputer
       FCC Wants to Expand Wireless to Underserved Areas
       Comdex in Flux, as its Rival Hopes for 'Blow-Out'
       Microsoft to Europe: 'We Can Work Things Out'
       JBoss 'Turns Heat Up' With Free Software

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Christopher Isherwood
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

BIGGER THAN A BREAD BASKET: THE NEW IBM SUPERCOMPUTER
IBM has developed a dishwasher-size supercomputer intended to have broad
uses in high-capacity corporate data centers. Called Blue Gene/L, the
air-cooled, energy-efficient system is now ranked as the 73rd-fastest
computer in the world, yet is just one component of a vastly larger system
IBM's designing for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. The prototype
Blue Gene/L has 512 PowerPC 440 microprocessors, which are similar to the
I.B.M. 970 processor being used in Apple's G5 Macintosh systems, but each
processor has a lower clock speed, and overall computing speed is made up in
other areas of the system. (New York Times 14 Nov 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/technology/14super.html

FCC WANTS TO EXPAND WIRELESS TO UNDERSERVED AREAS
The Federal Communications Commission is reserving a new portion of
high-frequency spectrum for wireless Internet users to encourage the spread
of high-speed data access in rural and other underserved areas. Although
WiFi networks are in widespread use in coffee shops and hotel lobbies across
the country, the goal now is to expand high-speed data connections to
sparsely populated communities and entire neighborhoods. (Washington Post 14
Nov 2003) 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38286-2003Nov13.html

COMDEX IN FLUX, AS ITS RIVAL HOPES FOR 'BLOW-OUT'
The Comdex high-tech trade show opening this weekend in Las Vegas will have
sparser crowds than in the past, and show organizers are saying they'll be
pleased to attract just a quarter of the 200,000-plus attendees that came
each year during the Internet boom. But Eric Faurot of Comdex says the
downsizing reflects a deliberate strategy to return the show to its roots,
by changing it back into a businesslike gathering of buyers and sellers of
corporate-focused information technology.  His associate Robert Priest-Heck,
the CEO of parent company MediaLive, adds: "Our goal remains to be a
relevant event, not a large event. Size does not matter." These days Comdex
has a rival: Computer Digital Expo, put on by Jupitermedia just a short
distance away from Comdex. Alan Meckler, chairman of Jupitermedia and
creator of Internet World, hopes to cannibalize Comdex's audience. "We only
need 3,000 to 4,000 people to have a blow-out show." (San Jose Mercury News
14 Nov 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7260506.htm

MICROSOFT TO EUROPE: 'WE CAN WORK THINGS OUT'
After concluding Microsoft's defense in the antitrust case brought against
it by the European Commission, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told
reporters: "I do really want to underscore one thing, which is that we come
to Brussels not only to discuss the issues but to work things out." The
Commission has threatened to fine Microsoft as much as 10% of its global
sales and force the company to remove its Media Player audiovisual software
from Windows. But Microsoft seems to be hoping to work out a deal similar to
the out-of-court settlement it reached with the U.S. Justice Department in
November 2001. (Los Angeles Times 14 Nov 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-micro14nov14,1,2532933.story?coll=la
-headlines-technology

JBOSS 'TURNS HEAT UP' WITH FREE SOFTWARE
The small Atlanta software company Jboss is giving business software away
for free, and CEO Marc Fleury says his company has "turned the heat up" to
compete against IBM and BEA Systems. The company has used a voluntary
network of open source developers to build application server software used
now by such major corporate customers as motel chain Best Western and
telecom company MCI. Industry analyst Trip Chowdhry of FTN Midwest Research
says, "The pricing pressure is very strong. Just like Linux has put pressure
on other vendors." Cheng Lim of Fulcrum Global Partners agrees that JBoss is
"a very credible threat" to BEA but adds: "It shouldn't be a real concern in
the near-term." (Reuters/USA Today 13 Nov 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2003-11-13-jboss
_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Nobody ever died of laughter." (Max Beerbohm)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the British-born American novelist,
biographer, short story writer and playwright Christopher Isherwood
(1904-1986), who first achieved fame in the 1930s as the author of three
plays written in collaboration with the poet W. H. Auden, with whom he had a
lifelong friendship beginning when they were schoolboys in Surrey.
Isherwood's work was largely autobiographical or quasi-autobiographical.
     Born in Cheshire, England, Isherwood was the son of an army captain who
was killed in World War I. In 1928 he began to study medicine but soon left
the University of London to visit Auden in Germany, where he lived off and
on until 1933. He would later describe the social and political climate of
pre-Hitler Germany, in his novels "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" (1935), "Sally
Bowles" (1937), and "Goodbye to Berlin" (1939). These books are detached but
humorous studies of dubious characters leading seedy expatriate lives in the
German capital, and they established his reputation as an important writer.
They also inspired the John Van Druten drama "I Am a Camera" (1951) and the
Broadway musical "Cabaret" (1966).
     With the coming of World War II Isherwood immigrated to the United
States, settling in southern California, where he wrote for Hollywood film
scripts and adapted plays for television. During this time he turned to
pacifism and the study of Indian Hinduism under the influence of Swami
Prabhavananda. His conversion led him to produce several works on Vedanta
scriptures, including a translation of the Bhagavad-Gita.
     In his postwar novels, Isherwood continued to write in his personal
style of fictional autobiography. "A Single Man" (1964) was a brief but
highly regarded novel that described a single day in the life of a lonely,
middle-aged homosexual. From 1953 on, Isherwood lived with a companion, Don
Bachardy, a painter and portraitist, and both later became involved in
homosexual-rights causes. He also made homosexual love a central concern in
some of his writings, such as the 1967 novel "A Meeting by the River. He
became something of a figurehead for the gay liberation movement and
remained remarkably youthful looking into his 80s when prostate cancer
finally ended his life in 1986.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0811200701/newsscancom/ref=nos
im -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from
our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

YOU PAYS YOUR MONEY AND YOU TAKES YOUR CHOICE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9535
     "Microsoft Puts a Price on the Heads of Virus Writers." Is that more
cost-effective for Microsoft than making the software secure against the
threats? (John Beck)

STRESSED OUT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9532
     "We need something; we have a country under stress. It might be fixed
by finding out what people are thinking about." When I read this quote from
Professor Britton Chance, a chill went through me. I understand the need, in
some special cases, to determine the veracity of statements in an effort to
determine innocence or guilt. But we do NOT need a technology that can be
used to determine "what people are thinking about'. My thoughts, and
everyone elses are private and should remain that way unless, upon action,
they impinge upon someone elses' freedoms or rights. There are some in
power, right now, who would dearly like to know what others are thinking and
I don't trust them to be accountable or show control or restraint. We all
have thoughts that we don't act on or utter but Professor Chance's statement
opened up a view of the realm of McCarthy and thought police where our
thoughts can condemn. He is correct. We have a "country under stress". But
trying to find out what people are thinking, without their direct consent
and explicit participation, is not the way to fix that. It only adds to the
stress. I'm hoping his words were poorly chosen. (Richard England)

SOVIET AGENT
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=721
     Your mini-bio fails to mention that Hopkins was a Soviet agent. See
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/1/5/163140 (Bruce Hamilton)

OBSOLESCENCE AND COMPLEXITY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9568
     Another overlooked problem with adding high-tech complexity is that of
obsolescence of semiconductor devices. It is common for many complex
integrated circuits to go out of production in less than a decade of their
introduction. The result will be many vehicles that are mechanically capable
of being driven by the economically conservative or the poor, but must be
scrapped when they are brain dead and replacement circuit boards are
unavailable. (Terry Conboy)

MCMESSENGER
     A recent item mentioned that McDonalds is unhappy that McJob is now in
the dictionary as a word meaning low-paying, menial work. They're saying
that this unfairly miscasts all their hard working staffers. Someone ought
to tell them that dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. They
report on the way we use language; they do not tell us which words we should
be using. Complaining about it is simply yelling at the messenger. (Steve
Kalman)

SOLUTIONS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9552
 "...whether students are learning with authentic understanding remains to
be seen." Oh, they understand alright! What students, and anyone using IT on
the job (in the real world), are learning is how to obtain solutions to
problems, solutions employers pay them for. I've never found an employer
that will reject the solution to a problem because it was improperly
obtained. (Michael H. Bell)

RUN, BROWSER, RUN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9542
     What is the purpose of the Google Deskbar? "Look ma! I can search the
web without a browser! Whee!" Is it really that hard to start up a web
browser? Every web browser I use (Opera, Mozilla, Firebird and Internet
Explorer) has a Google search built-in. I can't remember the last time my
computer was turned on without a web browser running. (Chris Shaffer)

WHO DELETED THE MUSIC FILES?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9542
     In your piece about Google's toolbar, you didn't mention that it can
also be configured to block pop-ups! I hardly ever type search words
directly in the Google toolbar text window, but I do notice the count of
blocked pop-ups--with smug satisfaction. Heavens! How did NPD do it? Which
one of their superhuman employees interviewed all those millions of American
families to find the 1.4 million that had deleted all their music files? :)
(R. Brian dos Santos)

TRASH TALK
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9517
     If governments are placing new requirements on cell phone makers to
make them less polluting (to eliminate lead, mercury and brominated flame
retardants), perhaps they could also make a change that would result in
fewer trashed phones. Simply require that all cell phones have a changeable
chip or a communications card (like the memory cards used in digital
cameras), that would work only on one company's system. So if one traveled
abroad or switched companies, one could keep the phone and just change the
card, enabling use in that country or by that cell phone company. Then one
would only trash the phone when it no longer worked or when one wanted more
bells and whistles. (Rick Cullen)

EARNING YOUR PAY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9545
     AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! The reason
"...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" is because they obviously have a lot more time on their
hands than I do! In my office, the people who lounge around playing games,
are also the people who constantly carry on interminable personal
conversations on the phone and with every passerby in the vicinity of their
cubicle. These inequities relating to job loading, self- motivation, and
productivity, are major reasons why I am accepting the voluntary management
separation package currently being offered at my place of employment.
Obviously, there are other reasons for my decision as well, but it has
become intolerable for me to WORK next to people who have absolutely NO
compunction about collecting a paycheck when they have done nothing to earn
it... favorable attitudes indeed!! (Joy Putinta)

LIBRARY WORLD IN A TIZZY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9515
The library world is in a tizzy over Amazon's "Search Within the Book." They
are afraid, and rightly so, that it makes all library catalogs look
obsolete. It won't take very long for patrons to ask why they can't search
within the book. (Leslie R. Morris)

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