NewsScan Daily, 31 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 31 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Japan, China, S. Korea Team Up on Next-Generation Net
        Israeli Gov't Suspends Purchases of Microsoft Software
        AOL Launches Low-Cost Alternative
        Get Ready for Spim

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: After the Bang
        Happy New Year from NewsScan!

JAPAN, CHINA, S. KOREA TEAM UP ON NEXT-GENERATION NET
According to a report in a Japanese business daily, Japan, China and South 
Korea are planning to jumpstart development of Internet Protocol version 6 
(IPv6) in a move that will directly challenge the U.S. dominated market in 
IPv4-based Internet technology. Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Matsushita, Nippon 
Telegraph, Mitsubishi and Internet Initiative Japan have been identified as 
collaborators in the new venture, as well as Samsung, Korea Telecom and 
China Telecommunications. The initiative will receive $18.6 million in 
annual funding from Japan's Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, 
Posts and Telecommunications to build and operate an IPv6 network that will 
link about 100 Japanese local governments, corporations and households. 
Similar networks are slated for Korea and China, with future plans to 
connect the three networks to create an international IPv6 network with 
shared standards. The widespread adoption of IPv6 is viewed as the answer 
to an upcoming shortage of IP addresses under the current protocol, and a 
number of U.S. technology companies, including 3Com, Cisco Systems, AT&T 
and BellSouth have vowed to embrace the new standard. In addition, the U.S. 
Defense Department plans to switch over completely by 2008. (CNet News.com 
30 Dec 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5134110.html?tag=nefd_top

ISRAELI GOV'T SUSPENDS PURCHASES OF MICROSOFT SOFTWARE
The Israeli government has become the latest national government to seek 
open-source alternatives to Microsoft's productivity software, citing cost 
as a major motivating factor. "The move with Microsoft was a purely 
economic decision," says a Finance Ministry spokeswoman. "The Israeli 
government will not be purchasing new products from Microsoft, but will 
implement its contract to secure existing systems. On a policy level, the 
government is committed to expanding computer use. We want open source 
technology to spread, so more people will be able to afford computers." The 
Finance Ministry has been working with Sun Microsystems and IBM to create a 
Hebrew language version of OpenOffice software, an open-source alternative 
to Microsoft Office. Some federal agencies in France, China and Germany, as 
well as the city government in Munich, have switched over to Linux-based 
servers and individual workstations. Other governments exploring open 
source alternatives include those in Britain, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, 
China and Russia. Governments account for about 10% of global information 
technology spending, according to IDC. (AP/USA Today 31 Dec 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/2003-12-30-israel-vs-microsoft_x.htm

AOL LAUNCHES LOW-COST ALTERNATIVE
America Online has unveiled a preliminary version of a dialup Internet 
access service that it can pitch to subscribers who call to cancel their 
subscription to AOL's $23.95-a-month flagship service. The new alternative 
is a stripped-down version, minus extras such as original programming and 
high-speed Internet music videos, designed to appeal to subscribers poised 
to switch to lower-cost rivals such as Juno and NetZero. It's being 
operated under AOL's Netscape brand and will cost $1 per month until the 
end of February, when it jumps to $9.95 a month. (Reuters/Los Angeles Times 
31 Dec 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup31.3dec31,1,6632834.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

GET READY FOR SPIM
Instant messenger spam, dubbed "spim," is increasingly clogging users' 
computers, popping up with the real-time regularity of instant messages and 
annoying users who complain they're now receiving several messages a day. 
Users can either accept or decline the spim, which often contains a link to 
-- what else? -- a pornography site. Ferris Research estimates about 500 
million spim messages were sent in 2003, double the number sent in the 
previous year. And while instant-messenger spam "isn't nearly the industry 
that e-mail spam is,… it's starting to increase," says the CEO of an 
antispam consulting firm. Experts warn that the recent crackdown on 
conventional spam may push illicit marketers to explore new avenues, 
including instant messaging. "The irony is that focusing like a laser on 
our No. 1 concern -- spam -- has painted e-mail spammers into a corner like 
never before and incited them to find other ways to try and reach our 
membership online," says an AOL spokesman. (Wall Street Journal 31 Dec 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107228175621944800,00.html (sub req'd)

*****

FLASH CARD
      "The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 
minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is." (C.S. Lewis)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: AFTER THE BANG
      Travel writer Bill Bryson offers these reflections on the ground we 
stand on:
      "The Big Bang theory isn't about the bang itself but about what 
happened after the bang. Not long after, mind you. By doing a lot of math 
and watching carefully what goes on in particle accelerators, scientists 
believe they can look back to 10-43 seconds after the moment of creation, 
when the universe was still so small that you would have needed a 
microscope to find it. Most of what we know, or believe we know, about the 
early moments of the universe is thanks to an idea called inflation theory 
first propounded in 1979, which holds that a fraction of a moment after the 
dawn of creation, the universe underwent a sudden dramatic expansion. It 
inflated -- in effect ran away with itself, doubling in size every 10-34 
seconds. The whole episode may have lasted no more than 10-30 seconds -- 
that's one million million million million millionths of a second -- but it 
changed the universe from something you could hold in your hand to 
something at least 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times bigger.
      "Such quantities are of course ungraspable. It is enough to know that 
in a single cracking instant we were endowed with a universe that was vast 
-- at least a hundred billion light-years across, according to the theory, 
but possibly any size up to infinite -- and perfectly arrayed for the 
creation of stars, galaxies, and other complex systems. What is 
extraordinary from our point of view is how well it turned out for us. If 
the universe had formed just a tiny bit differently -- if gravity were 
fractionally stronger or weaker, if the expansion had proceeded just a 
little more slowly or swiftly -- then there might never have been stable 
elements to make you and me and the ground we stand on. Had gravity been a 
trifle stronger, the universe itself might have collapsed like a badly 
erected tent, without precisely the right values to give it the right 
dimensions and density and component parts. Had it been weaker, however, 
nothing would have coalesced. The universe would have remained forever a 
dull, scattered void."
                                             ***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767908171/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Bill Bryson's "A Short History Of Nearly Everything"  -- or look for it 
in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book or other 
recommendations to literacy action programs.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM NEWSSCAN!
      We would like to take this occasion to wish everyone in the NewsScan 
community the happiest new year!
      We also want at this time to give special thanks at this time to our 
terrific colleagues Lisa Currin, Jim Doyle, Igor Grebert, Ellen Hogan, 
Jivko Koltchev, Vlad Kussakov, Tom McKay, Laura Murnane-Gordon, and Robin 
Perry. Igor, Jivko and Vlad in Santa Clara, California, provide us with 
their technical wizardry; the others work with us mainly on NewsScan 
projects other than NewsScan Daily. Lisa is in Long Island; Jim in Atlanta; 
Ellen in Tampa; Tom in Kennebunk, Maine; Laura in College Park, Maryland; 
and Robin in Austin. As you can see, we are a virtual company.
      Finally, we'd like to take this occasion to express our appreciation 
to a few other special supporters and friends of NewsScan:  Jim Michalko, 
Linda West, Jennifer Hartzell, and Kevin Opstedal of RLG; Mark Mandelbaum 
and John White of ACM; Pete Burke of BurkeFirm; Drew Thoeni and Kathy 
Shearin of Navigy; Peter Denning of the Naval Postgraduate School; our 
indefatigable security consultants Chey and Stephen Cobb; and Brian C. 
Williams (formerly of Andersen) and T. Michael Elliott (formerly of IEEE 
Computer Society) who stepped in as the original sponsors of NewsScan Daily 
when we first launched in May 1999.
      A joyous new year to all! We'll resume publication 5 Jan 2004.
                                                John and Suzanne

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