NewsScan Daily, 9 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 9 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Time Warner to Offer VoIP
       Security Concerns About Voting Machines
       Branson Sings 'Hallelujah' for Virgin Music
       Bar Codes on Drugs
       Congress Passes Anti-Spam Bill

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Differences
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

TIME WARNER TO OFFER VOIP
The cable unit of Time Warner has developed a plan to send telephone calls
using Internet protocol (VoIP) technology. VoIP sends phone calls as digital
data over the Internet and lets customers plug regular phones into modems
connected to the cable wire in their homes. Still, the chief executive of
Time Warner Cable is not ready to declare victory over traditional phone
companies, because those companies have the overwhelming share of the local
telephone market, and "they're going to be around for a long time." (New
York Times 9 Dec 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/12/09/technology/09PHON.html

SECURITY CONCERNS ABOUT VOTING MACHINES
Diebold and other companies that make electronic voting machines are joining
forces to make the case that electronic voting technology is sufficiently
secure to withstand intrusion by hackers. A number of computer experts have
argued that the new machines have security problems, and that they should be
equipped to provide companion paper records for auditing purposes. Paper
printers could add $500 to the cost of each machine. (Washington Post 8 Dec
2003) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47436-2003Dec8.html

BRANSON SINGS'HALLELUJAH' FOR VIRGIN MUSIC
British billionaire Richard Branson, whose holdings include the Virgin music
conglomerate, promoted his company's records this week by wearing a clerical
robe at a Virgin megastore and shouting "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" to the
shoppers. Although a number of music retail chains -- including Wherehouse,
Tower Records, and Musicland -- are in various forms of crisis management,
Branson's hope is that a redesigned "born again" music retailing stores will
energize Virgin's music operations. Glen Ward, head of the 22 Virgin
Megastores in the U.S., says the redesigned store will expand sales of
non-music merchandise to 50% from 40% currently. (San Jose Mercury News 8
Dec 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7441249.htm

BAR CODES ON DRUGS
Pfizer Inc. is now placing tiny versions of supermarket bar codes on blister
packs of Dilantin, Lipitor and other pills sold to hospitals, and Abbott
Laboratories is putting bar codes on injected drugs. The FDA will soon be
issuing new rules forcing all manufacturers to begin phasing in bar codes on
hospital-sold drugs, although hospitals won't be required to use the codes.
(AP/USA Today 8 Dec 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-08-bar-coded-drugs_x.htm

CONGRESS PASSES ANTI-SPAM BILL
Congress has passed anti-spam legislation that would supplant tougher
anti-spam laws already passed in some states. The bill encourages the
Federal Trade Commission to create a do-not-spam list of e-mail addresses
and includes penalties for spammers of up to five years in prison. The
legislation would prohibit senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from
disguising their identities by using a false return address or misleading
subject line, and would require them to let recipients say they do not want
future mass mailings. (Los Angeles Times 9 Dec 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-spam9dec09,1,1296880.story?coll=la-h
eadlines-technology

*****

FLASH CARD
     "May you live every day of your life." (Jonathan Swift)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: DIFFERENCES
     Anthropologist Helen Fisher thinks that women have a different style of
thinking than men, which she calls 'Web Thinking':
     "Women have begun to enter the paid workforce in record numbers almost
everywhere on earth. As these women penetrate, even saturate, the global
marketplace in coming decades, I think they will introduce remarkably
innovative ideas and practices.
     "Women, on average, take a broader perspective than men do -- on any
issue. Women think contextually, holistically. They also display more mental
flexibility, apply more intuitive and imaginative judgments, and have a
greater tendency to plan long term. As they march into the world of paid
employment women's broad, contextual, holistic way of seeing will pervade
every aspect of twenty-first-century economic and social life.
     "Both men and women absorb large amounts of data and weigh a vast array
of variables almost simultaneously. Psychologists report, however, that
women more regularly think contextually; they take a more 'holistic' view of
the issue at hand. That is, they integrate more details of the world around
them, details ranging from the nuances of body posture to the position of
objects in a room.
     "Women's ability to integrate myriad facts is nowhere more evident than
in the office. Female executives, business analysts note, tend to approach
business issues from a broader perspective than do their male colleagues.
Women tend to gather more data that pertain to a topic and connect these
details faster. As women make decisions, they weigh more variables, consider
more options and outcomes, recall more points of view, and see more ways to
proceed. They integrate, generalize, and synthesize. And women, on average,
tolerate ambiguity better than men do-probably because they visualize more
of the factors involved in any issue.
     "In short, women tend to think in webs of interrelated factors, not
straight lines. I call this female manner of thought 'web thinking.'"
                                              ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0449912604/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for "The First Sex" by Helen Fisher -- 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

EFFICIENCY?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9633
     Michael Dell's idea of being efficient is customer service reps working
from scripted debug manuals with little or no skill in the machines they are
working with. At least they can read. This is according to some of the Dell
forums I've looked at while deciding what new PC to buy. They will
ultimately hurt themselves, if they continue the practice. I'm afraid to buy
a Dell because of it. (Daniel L. Evans)

BEWARE THE YAHOO SPAM BOX
Thank you for your help in re-subscribing me to the "Above The Fold"
newsletter. What I realized just today is that Yahoo Email Service has
started placing your newsletter in my Spam Box, which I automatically delete
without looking at the individual emails... I'll deal with it on my end, and
contact Yahoo to get it back in my regular email box.
Thanks again. (Allen Berg)

REMEMBERING
     One of your reader's comments reminded me of those amusing Saturday
Evening Post stories in the 50's.  A big part of the fun were the fantastic
drawings of Botts and his tractor (we would call it a bulldozer today).
You'd have to read the story to find out how he got out of that predicament.
(Aside:Wonder if that influenced the Doolittle Lynn Jeep episode in "Coal
Miner's Daughter." There was a 1936 movie with Joe E. Brown that Lynn could
have seen in the Army during WWII.)  Anyway, some of the stories have been
compiled recently in "The Fabulous Saga of Alexander Botts and the Earthworm
Tractor."  Can't tell from the sample pages if the illustrations are
included.  Wondering if the fictitious Stonewall Jackson Hotel is based on a
real hotel here in Memphis, since the stories are semi-autobiographical.
(Jim McGee)

THANKS FOR NEWSSCAN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9661
     I am very thankful for the work you folks do in creating NewsScan
Daily. The information you use is interesting, useful, and very often causes
me to stop and be thankful for the other people in the world, living and
dead, who have made my life so much richer because of the work they do. (Sue
DeVries)

REFRAIN FROM PROMOTING THE LIE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9657
     Despite the confusing proclamations of the media moguls and the courts,
DeCSS only prevents playing a DVD in a different region. Any fool can copy a
DVD bit for bit to her heart's content without regard to DeCSS. But calling
it copyright protection brings it under the purview of the DMCA, may it rest
in hell, and makes it apparently less offensive to those consumers who are
fooled by the big lie. Please refrain from promoting the lie. (Dick
Karpinski)

KILL THE UMPIRE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9675
     Regarding "Worth Thinking About: Disputes": The author of the piece
writes "... it may be readily seen that the bull has a marked advantage over
the umpire." What a ridiculous statement! The bull's advantage may be no
rules but its disadvantage is certain death. Now, if umpires could be really
killed ... (Mark Gibbs)
 
POETRY IN MOTION
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9667
     I wanted to thank you for today's Flash Card ("  !  " (Marcel Marceau))
It's so witty, it made me smile, and now, it's the message on my screen
saver.  I don't know what I would do without my NewsScan...keep up the good
work. (Nathalie Ebacher)

SPEECHLESS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9667
     Many of the Flash Cards you include with every issue of NewsScan are
truly memorable, but with today's you have outdone yourselves. I am
speechless! (John McNulty)

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