NewsScan Daily, 26 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 26 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Anti-Spam Bill Passes In House, Senate
        New Study Targets IT Monoculture
        Easy Shoppers
        New Software Derails Apple iTunes Protection
        DoE Funds New Science UltraNet
        Talking Newspapers Sound Almost Human

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Thanksgiving
        Honorary Subscriber: Honoré de Balzac

ANTI-SPAM BILL PASSES IN HOUSE, SENATE
The Senate passed a bill to curb junk commercial e-mail by voice vote on 
Tuesday, and the House passed a similar measure on Saturday by a vote of 
392 to 5. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation (known as the 
"Can Spam" Act) once the two bills are reconciled. Many are skeptical. 
California state Democrat senator Debra Bowen says, "The bill doesn't can 
spam, it legalizes it. It's full of loopholes. It's difficult to enforce. 
It's weaker than many state laws." And telecom attorney Charlie Kennedy 
advised: "The best line of defense for consumers are the antispam filters 
which are available commercially." (New York Times 26 Nov 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/11/26/technology/26spam.html

NEW STUDY TARGETS IT MONOCULTURE
The National Science Foundation is funding two universities -- Carnegie 
Mellon and the University of New Mexico -- to investigate ways to diversify 
software and information systems in an effort to fend off cyberattacks. "We 
are looking at computers the way a physician would look at genetically 
related patients, each susceptible to the same disorder," says Carnegie 
Mellon engineering professor Mike Reiter. "In a more diverse population, 
one member may fall victim to a pathogen or disorder while another might 
not have the same vulnerability." The $750,000 grant comes in response to 
massive digital epidemics caused by the Code Red, Slammer and MSBlast 
worms, which disabled hundreds of thousands of computers over the past 
year. The researchers hope to create an application that could generate 
diversity in key aspects of software programs without hampering their 
utility. The result could prove a boon for Microsoft by helping it to break 
up its monoculture without losing market share. (CNet News.com 25 Nov 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5111905.html?tag=nefd_hed

EASY SHOPPERS
Market researcher C. Britt Beemer notes, "This is the first time in my 
research where consumers do not seem to care whether it's e-based or 
brick-and-mortar based. Whoever makes the shopping experience the cheapest 
or the easiest wins." According to the Jupiter Research group, 40% of 
people who use the Internet will do some of their holiday shopping online 
this year, up 18% over last year, and Jupiter predicts that Internet 
holiday sales will be up 21% this year, to $16.8 billion. (Washington Post 
25 Nov 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14541-2003Nov25.html

NEW SOFTWARE DERAILS APPLE ITUNES PROTECTION
Norwegian computer whiz Jon Johansen is at it again -- the teenager best 
known for writing the DeCSS code that bypasses the copyright protection on 
DVDs has come up with a new program that does the same thing on Apple's 
iTunes songs. Johansen's QTFairUse software does not unlock the actual 
digital rights management (DRM) encryption, but rather intercepts the file 
while it is streaming, before the DRM gets locked on. The program, 
categorized as a "memory dumper," works only on Windows-based PCs and 
requires significant technical expertise to use. For the curious, it can be 
found on Johansen's Web page at www.nanocrew.net. (Hollywood 
Reporter/Reuters 26 Nov 2003)
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3893558&section=news

DOE FUNDS NEW SCIENCE ULTRANET
The U.S. Department of Energy is giving $4.5 million to Oak Ridge National 
Laboratory so the Lab can develop the prototype of a computer network 
system capable of transmitting massive amounts of science data. Called 
Science UltraNet, the network will operate at a range of 10-40 gigabits per 
second. Nageswara Rao, one of the project directors, explains: "We're not 
trying to develop a new Internet. We're developing a high-speed network 
that uses routers and switches somewhat akin to phone companies to provide 
dedicated connections to accelerate scientific discoveries. In this case, 
however, the people using the network will be scientists who generate or 
use data or guide calculations remotely." (AP/USA Today 25 Nov 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-25-high-speed-research_x.htm

TALKING NEWSPAPERS SOUND ALMOST HUMAN
The British Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) is teaming up with 
Rhetorical Systems to provide partially sighted and blind people with 
timely access to newspapers and magazines, using technology that "reads" 
the stories in a very human-sounding voice. Rhetorical's rVoice 
text-to-speech software is based on the voice files of real people and 
sounds, and produces much more natural speech than traditional speech 
synthesizers. Subscribers to the new service will receive a portable 
AudioRead device that they can use to retrieve information from wherever 
they happen to be. Unlike audiotapes used to deliver newspapers to the 
visually impaired, AudioRead users can navigate the sections, skipping 
between articles and sections as they choose. "We'll be able to produce 400 
hours of audio in one hour," says RNIB technology expert Steve Tyler. "…The 
mainstay of our users who listen to books have never liked the idea of 
synthetic speech, they've always wanted a real reader." (BBC News 25 Nov 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3233340.stm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with 
gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so 
much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the 
growing plant and for the soul of the child." (Carl Jung)

THANKSGIVING
      On this Thanksgiving weekend we have much to be thankful for -- not 
the least of which being the affection of so many of our readers. Thank you 
very much.
      Today's issue will be the last until Monday 1 December 2003, when 
NewsScan Daily will resume.

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: HONORÉ DE BALZAC (1799-1850)
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the French novelist Honoré de Balzac 
(1799-1850), who is renowned for his fictional work concerning French 
middle-class society.
      The major portion of Balzac's best work was published under the 
general title "La Comedie humaine," a vast series of more than 90 novels 
and shorter fiction written between 1829 and 1847. In these works 
containing 2,000 recurring characters and spanning five decades, Balzac 
examined French society from the Revolution of 1789 to the eve of the 1848 
Revolution, linking realistic observation with visionary intuition to probe 
the vital undercurrents directing that fast-moving period of history. He 
ranged back and forth, often within the same novel, from the philosophical 
to the social, the economic, and the legal; from Paris to the provinces; 
and from the summit of society to the petit-bourgeois, studying the 
destructive power of what he called thought or passion or vital energy.
      Born in Tours to a newly prosperous middle class family, Balzac was 
particularly devoted to his mother, who dominated him all his life and 
outlived him. In 1814, the family moved to Paris where he reluctantly 
agreed to study law and was apprenticed to a law firm. Not too long after 
that he persuaded his family to subsidize his real ambition, which was to 
be a writer. With a meager stipend he took up residence in a miserable 
Paris garret and began what was to be his lifelong daily routine of a 
workday that began before dawn and typically lasted 16 hours punctuated by 
the consumption of innumerable cups of coffee. By 1822 Balzac had produced 
several plays and novels under pseudonyms, but he was ignored as a writer, 
and advised by family and friends to give up writing. However, Balzac was 
not to be deterred, believing that writing was still his simplest road to 
success. Unfortunately, he also tried his skills in business. He ran a 
publishing company and bought a printing house, both of which proved to be 
commercial failures, leaving him with a heavy burden of debt that plagued 
him to the end of his career.
      Driven by a hunger for renown, Balzac's capacity for work was 
titanic: three or four novels a year, scores of articles and reviews, 
historical dramas, a correspondence that now fills numerous volumes. His 
expenses, however, always exceeded his income. Between daily sessions of 
composing and correcting, he led the life of a celebrity, courting ladies 
whose beauty and position were no longer out of his reach. He bought 
properties, objets d'art, entertained lavishly, and traveled in style. 
Barely a step ahead of the process servers, he managed to stay out of 
prison by ruses and speculations worthy of scenes in his novels.
      On March 2, 1850, after an 18-year courtship, Balzac married the 
Polish countess Mme. Hanska, whose love had been an inspiration, and whose 
wealth would now protect him from bill collectors. But on August 18, five 
months after the wedding, he was dead. Stress had finally taken its toll, 
or as Balzac himself put it: "worn out by having been a galley slave of the 
pen."

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0766170241/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for the works of Balzac -- or look for them in your favorite library. (We 
donate all revenue from our book suggestions to adult literacy programs.)

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