NewsScan Daily, 19 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 19 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Good News and Bad on the High-Tech Front
        What Happens When Technology Is 'Good Enough'?
        New Cell Phone Offers Secure Conversation
        Spyware in the Crosshairs
        These Maids Do Windows

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: George Vancouver

GOOD NEWS AND BAD ON THE HIGH-TECH FRONT
About 12% of U.S. high-tech jobs have disappeared during the past two 
years, but there's a faint light at the end of the tunnel, according to a 
study by AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association). While 540,000 
jobs were wiped out in 2002, this year that number should decline to about 
234,000, and AeA says the downward trend signals that the worst is over. In 
fact AeA president William Archey predicts that the beleaguered sector 
could even begin adding jobs by next spring. " Companies have gone from 
being clinically depressed to rather upbeat," said Archey during an 
interview, although he cautioned against over-optimism: "There isn't going 
to be a massive infusion of new jobs right away because companies have 
gotten used to operating leaner and meaner." (AP/USA Today 19 Nov 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2003-11-19-tech-jobs-go_x.htm?csp=15

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TECHNOLOGY IS 'GOOD ENOUGH'?
Nicholas Carr raised the blood pressure of every high-tech magnate in 
Silicon Valley last spring when he penned an article on the state of 
information technology investment in the corporate world, titled "IT 
Doesn't Matter." His argument goes like this: whereas corporate America has 
for years bought into the notion that more is always better and that 
technology innovations automatically deliver competitive advantage, that 
mentality is changing. Carr says that the big innovations of the last 
couple of decades won't be repeated, and that "the IT buildout is much 
closer to its end than its beginning." Technology has now been 
commoditized, like furniture and office supplies, and Carr urges companies 
to abandon their first-mover mentality and spend less. That call resonated 
with managers who are struggling with the downside of technology -- 
security and disaster recovery, which are major productivity drains, 
according to a Forrester report. But on the flip side, demand for more 
bells and whistles is soaring on the consumer side, fueled by an increase 
in broadband penetration and new media-delivery systems. And while consumer 
demand won't completely compensate for a downturn in corporate spending, 
there's still hope that innovative thinkers will come up with a compelling 
reason to upgrade. "Is our software so great now that it can't be radically 
improved?" asks Mitch Kapor, founder of the Open Source Applications 
Foundation. Meanwhile, analysts point to the advent of RFID technology and 
the evolution of search technology as two innovations that may succeed in 
kick-starting the tech business. (Newsweek/Washington Post 24 Nov 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53209-2003Nov17.html

NEW CELL PHONE OFFERS SECURE CONVERSATION
German-based Cryptophone has developed a mobile handset that guarantees 
your conversation won't be tapped into by unscrupulous competitors or your 
local law enforcement officials. And while some observers say such phones 
could promote nefarious activities by the criminal crowd, privacy lobbyists 
say the new device is more of a "freedom phone" than a "terror phone." 
"It's a tremendous step forward, because the level of surveillance by 
authorities is breathtaking," says Simon Davies, director of the U.K.'s 
Privacy International. The Microsoft-based XDA handheld computer phone 
sells for about €3,499 (about $4,121) for two handsets, a price point that 
ensures the gadgets will be targeted at the corporate market. "Not many 
average consumers will pay that kind of money. The people who will be using 
it are in business," says Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for 
Information Policy Research in Britain. (Reuters 18 Nov 2003)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ORAZUFPXS4G50CRBAEZSFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=3844530

SPYWARE IN THE CROSSHAIRS
After several years of mounting concern, worries over "spyware," which 
surreptitiously deposits information-stealing software on computers, are 
coming to a head. Last summer, a corporate IT manager's nightmare came true 
when an e-mail sent to a British credit card and finance company carried a 
secret software program capable of recording confidential corporate data 
and sending it over the Net. "The good old days of script kiddies and geeks 
are well gone," says Pete Simpson, manager of the ThreatLab division of 
U.K. security firm Clearswift. "These are criminal gangs, and the motive is 
clearly profit." In response to the growing threat, legislation has been 
introduced in Congress that would outlaw both corporate spyware and the 
annoying kind that comes bundled with free software programs such as Kazaa 
and is used to deliver advertising. But in a report released Tuesday, the 
Center for Democracy and Technology argued against any legislation that 
specifically targets spyware, noting that most of the worst software-spying 
practices are already illegal. Rather, consumers would be better served by 
a broad-ranging privacy bill that would force all software programs to give 
clear notice when they are collecting information and give consumers the 
option to turn them off or easily uninstall them. Meanwhile, the Consortium 
of Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors, led by the creators of the 
spyware-battling Ad-Aware and Pest Patrol software programs, is developing 
standard definitions of "spyware," "adware," and other annoyances in an 
effort to present "best practices" recommendations to companies hoping to 
avoid being blocked by their software. (CNet News.com 19 Nov 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5108965.html?tag=nefd_lede

THESE MAIDS DO WINDOWS
Domestic servants in Hong Kong are doing more than just cleaning house for 
their employers. They're venturing into high-tech maintenance, performing 
such helpful functions as removing software viruses and cleaning out spam. 
It's "more fun than washing dishes," says one maid, who got her training at 
a Hong Kong computer school whose student body is largely made up of other 
maids in a city where most middle-class families have full-time domestic 
help. In fact, a maids-only computer course offered by the Hong Kong YMCA 
has proven so popular that the number of classes has ballooned to 11 from 
one since the program was first introduced in 1994. Many of the students 
report being called on to do spreadsheets for household budgets, design and 
maintain family Web sites, and perform Web searches to help the children 
with their homework. Meanwhile, the expansion of duties has been a boon for 
busy execs. One high-tech entrepreneur whose maid takes care of all his 
home computer maintenance says, "the last thing I want to do is look at [a 
computer] some more when I get home." (Wall Street Journal 19 Nov 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106919524545380300,00.html (sub req'd)

*****

FLASH CARD
      "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the 
illusion of knowledge." (Daniel J. Boorstin)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: GEORGE VANCOUVER
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the English navigator and explorer 
George Vancouver (1757-1798), who in the 1790s led the British naval 
expedition to the Pacific Ocean and the Northwest coast of North America, 
which disproved, once and for all, the existence of a Northwest Passage 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. With great precision, he 
completed a most difficult survey of the Pacific coast of North America, 
from the San Francisco Bay area northward to present-day British Columbia. 
His charts of the Northwest coast are among the most comprehensive and 
brilliant pieces of charting ever undertaken. He was the first to 
circumnavigate Vancouver Island, and he is remembered by the island and 
city in British Columbia that bear his name.
      Vancouver entered the Royal Navy at age 13 and accompanied Captain 
James Cook on his second and third voyages (1772-75 and 1776-80). After 
nine years' service with Cook in the West Indies, he took command of the 
expedition to the northwest coast of North America for which he is noted. 
Departing from England on April 1, 1791, he sailed his two ships, the 
Discovery and the Chatham, by way of the Cape of Good Hope to Australia, 
where he surveyed part of the southwest coast. After stops at Tahiti and 
the Hawaiian Islands, he sighted the west coast of North America at 39 27' 
N on April 17, 1792. He examined the coast with minute care, surveying not 
only the intricate inlets and channels in the region of Vancouver Island 
but the coastal areas he would name Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia. 
During the winter months, Vancouver repaired to the warmer Hawaii climate, 
where he befriended Kamehameha, the future King of all the Hawaiian 
Islands, thereby fostering future good relations between Britain and 
Hawaii. In 1794 he sailed to Cook's Inlet, off southern Alaska, and, after 
a fresh survey of much of the coast north of San Francisco, he sailed home 
to England via Cape Horn.
      Though only 38 years old, Vancouver was already an ill man when he 
returned to Britain. He began writing the narrative of his voyage but died 
at age 40, leaving the manuscript to be published posthumously in 1798 as 
"The Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World 
1790-95," in three volumes with an atlas of maps and plates.
      In his own lifetime, Vancouver was not given the credit he deserved. 
He suffered unjustified criticism at the hands of some members of the crew, 
who complained to powerful friends that they had been unfairly disciplined. 
His exploits may also have been overshadowed by the popular accounts of 
Captain of Cook's voyages. Gradually, however, the true value of his 
explorations was recognized, and his memory given its well deserved respect.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0770510612/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for more on Vancouver -- or look in your favorite library. (We donate all 
revenue from our book suggestions to adult literacy programs.)

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