NewsScan Daily, 4 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 4 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Homeland Security to Computer Industry: Get a Grip
       HP to Simplify Computer Networks
       Mod Art 
       Streisand Loses Lawsuit Against Conservationist Web Site
       Movie Piracy Continues Despite Industry Efforts

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Prime Typo
       Worth Thinking About: Notions of Awe and Wonder

HOMELAND SECURITY TO COMPUTER INDUSTRY: GET A GRIP
Homeland Security official Robert P. Liscouski has warned the technology
industry that there are there are "a lot of people out there willing to
legislate how you do your work," and so the industry would be well-advised
to deal expeditiously with its security problems. "We are not going to let
anybody who operates in this space dodge their responsibility. We want to
see results."(Washington Post 3 Dec 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33245-2003Dec3.html

HP TO SIMPLIFY COMPUTER NETWORKS
Hewlett-Packard has developed a new device called HP Consolidated Client
that can replicate a Windows desktop personal computer but is simpler for
companies to deploy. Called a "thin client" (thin because it has no disk
drive storage), the system accesses software from a server connected to the
network, and is able to run Windows and Windows software applications.
Workers at a client system can access all their personal e-mail and files
stored on a specific server "blade" (a small data center computer dedicated
to individual employees); in consequence, system administrators have no need
to worry about users damaging their machines by loading unauthorized
software on them. (San Jose Mercury News 4 Dec 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7411037.htm

MOD ART 
Computer game developers are increasingly willing to give away the software
tools used to construct the games, including them on the disc with the game
itself and thereby allowing users to modify the graphics, sound effects, and
even the way the game is played. One young mod maker explains what this
development means: "People are taking the tools that someone else made and
using them as sort of a paintbrush to define their own canvas. They are
really, really expressing their own creativity and defining the ideal
environment for their own game play. I would go as far to say that it is an
art." Some game industry observers say that game makers can inspire loyalty
and sales by creating games that remain fresh and sometimes serve as the
basis for entirely different games. (New York Times 4 Dec 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/12/04/technology/circuits/04modd.html

STREISAND LOSES LAWSUIT AGAINST CONSERVATIONIST WEB SITE
A judge in Los Angeles has ruled against singer Barbra Streisand in her $10
million law suit alleging an invasion of privacy by two photographs of her
Malibu estate posted on a conservation Web site. The defendant said he has
posted more than 12,000 photos taken by helicopter for scientific research
on the coastline. The judge ruled: "Occasional overflights are among those
ordinary incidents of community life of which plaintiff is part. The taking
of photographs in picturesque, coastal areas is a similarly routine
activity." The site is located at www.californiacoastline.org. (AP/USA Today
4 Dec 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-12-04-streisand-suit_x.htm

MOVIE PIRACY CONTINUES DESPITE INDUSTRY EFFORTS
Although film industry efforts to make illegal copying more difficult,
piracy appears to have increased from previous years. The Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA) estimates that there are now 200,000 Web sites
offering movies pirated by "ripping crews" (who recruit members around the
world to obtain, edit, transfer and store films); these ripping crews are
frequently assisted by people connected to the movie industry itself, such
as cinema employees, workers at post-production houses and friends of
Academy members. The MPAA and California law enforcement officials are
planning how to enforce a new state law barring the illegal recording of
motion pictures in movie theaters. (Los Angeles Times 4 Dec 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-et-piracy4dec04,1,6779001.story?coll=la
-headlines-technology

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." (John
Wooden)

PRIME TYPO
Responding to yesterday's NewsScan Daily story "This Number's Ready for
Prime Time," Roger Haglund wrote us: "Your story on the largest prime
contains a typo.  It should read 2-to-the-power-of-P minus 1.  Thanks for a
great newsletter. I look forward to its arrival every day." The number of
letters we received similar to Roger's was too large to count.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: NOTIONS OF AWE AND WONDER
     In his new book "Life's Solution," Cambridge University scientist Simon
Conway Morris writes:
     "It is obvious that the entire fabric of evolution is imprinted on and
through our bodies, from the architecture of our bony skeleton, to the
proteins carrying the oxygen surging through our arteries, and our eyes that
even unaided can see at least two million years into the past - the amount
of time it has taken for the light to travel from the Andromeda Galaxy. In
every case - whether for hand or brain - we can trace an ancestry that
extends backwards for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of years. Yet,
for all that, both the processes and the implications of organic evolution
remain controversial.
     "Despite the reality that, as it happens, we humans evolved from apes
rather than, say, lizards, let alone tulips, the interpretations surrounding
the brute fact of evolution remain contentious, controversial, fractious,
and acrimonious. Why should this be so? The heart of the problem, I believe,
is to explain how it might be that we, a product of evolution, possess an
overwhelming sense of purpose and moral identity yet arose by processes that
were seemingly without meaning. If, however, we can begin to demonstrate
that organic evolution contains deeper structures and potentialities, if not
inevitabilities, then perhaps we can begin to move away from the dreary
materialism of much current thinking with its agenda of a world now open to
limitless manipulation. Nor need this counter-attack be anti-scientific: far
from it. First, evolution may simply be a fact, yet it is in need of
continuous interpretation. The study of evolution surely retains its
fascination, not because it offers a universal explanation, even though this
may appeal to fundamentalists (of all persuasions), but because evolution is
both riven with ambiguities and, paradoxically, is also rich in
implications. In my opinion the sure sign of the right road is a limitless
prospect of deeper knowledge.
     "Evolution is manifestly true, but that does not necessarily mean we
should take it for granted: the end results, be it the immense complexity of
a biochemical system or the fluid grace of a living organism, are genuinely
awe-inspiring. Could it be that attempts to reinstall or reinject notions of
awe and wonder are not simply delusions of some deracinated super-ape, but
rather reopen the portals to our finding a metaphysic for evolution? And
this in turn might at last allow a conversation with religious sensibilities
rather than the more characteristic response of either howling abuse or
lofty condescension."
                                              ***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521827043/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Simon Conway Morris's "Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely
Universe" 
-- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our
book suggestions to adult literacy programs.)

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