NewsScan Daily, 6 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 6 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Yahoo Girds for Google Showdown
        AOL Joins Earthlink in Offering Anti-Spyware Software
        European Consumer Group Sues Over Locked CDs
        'Push' Gets a Nudge
        A Proactive Approach to 'No Phishing'

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Comedy

YAHOO GIRDS FOR GOOGLE SHOWDOWN
Yahoo is plotting its strategy to take over Google's dominant position in 
the search engine arena through a three-pronged assault against its 
archrival. First, it's going to dump Google as the primary search 
technology on its Web site in the next few months -- possibly timed to 
coincide with Google's long-awaited IPO. Second, Yahoo plans to spruce up 
its own product, combining personalization and customization features to 
enhance users' search experience. Finally, it will expand its "paid 
inclusion" advertising, which features search-specific information drawn 
from paying customers' Web sites prominently in the search results, a 
practice that's been criticized because it doesn't label these links as 
"paid." Yahoo has been laying the groundwork for its renunciation of Google 
ever since it bought Overture Services and Inktomi last year to bolster its 
in-house search technology and advertising capabilities. It notes its new 
strategy isn't simply to match what Google does, but to go one step 
further, bundling features that its rival can't easily duplicate. "We're 
not going to beat the competition by being the competition. We're going to 
beat the competition by being Yahoo," says Yahoo senior VP Jeff Weiner. 
(Wall Street Journal 6 Jan 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107334921060956000,00.html (sub req'd)

AOL JOINS EARTHLINK IN OFFERING ANTI-SPYWARE SOFTWARE
America Online will soon start offering its customers anti-spyware 
software, following the lead of EarthLink, which is the only other major 
Internet service provider to provide its subscribers with software that 
automatically flags programs designed to secretly track users' Internet 
habits. Spyware usually finds its way onto a PC when users download 
file-sharing software or stumble onto certain Web sites. "Spyware is an 
electronic stalker that secretly watches the online activities of millions 
of Americans every day," says AOL executive VP David Gang. "Because spyware 
hides in the background and quietly attaches itself to other programs, most 
computer users don't even realize they have it on their machines." One 
EarthLink exec predicts that spyware eventually will outstrip computer 
viruses as an online scourge, because its motivation is rooted in a quest 
for profits rather than random malice. (Washington Post 6 Jan 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57314-2004Jan5.html

EUROPEAN CONSUMER GROUP SUES OVER LOCKED CDs
Test-Achats, a consumer rights group based in Belgium, says it's received 
some 200 complaints from music fans angry over copy-protected CDs whose 
technology prevents them from playing on some CD players. The group has 
filed suit against major record labels, asking EMI, Universal, Sony and BMG 
to stop releasing the locked CDs and to reimburse disgruntled buyers. 
Industry observers say the legal action is the biggest challenge yet to the 
music industry's efforts to thwart piracy through copy-protection 
technology. But a statement by the International Federation of the 
Phonographic Industry says the lawsuit was baseless: "European law is clear 
that record companies and other copyright holders have the right to protect 
their works through technical means." The lawsuit is expected to be heard 
in a Belgium court this week. (BBC News 6 Jan 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3372859.stm

'PUSH' GETS A NUDGE
Remember "push" technology? It was all the rage back in 1997 when Pointcast 
launched its software that turned a PC screensaver into a headline ticker 
for all sorts of real-time information. The problem was, users quickly 
tired of the constant onslaught and network administrators complained the 
massive data downloads overwhelmed their systems. By 1999, the whole thing 
had been largely forgotten, until the recent surge in blogging (Web 
logging) resurrected the concept. Using RSS (really simple syndication) 
software, any Internet user can automatically receive the latest updates 
from thousands of Web sites, and this time the "feeds" are so 
bandwidth-efficient, network managers aren't even likely to take notice. 
The technology caters to ruminators who churn out a running commentary on 
their favorite topics, but many news organizations -- including CNN, the 
New York Times and the BBC -- have also quietly added RSS feeds that 
provide constant updates to their subscribers. To read RSS feeds, you need 
a program called an aggregator. There are a number to choose from, many of 
them free, but one adaptable that works with Windows, Macintosh and Linux 
can be found at www.amphetadesk.com.  (Boston Globe 5 Jan 2004)
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/01/05/push_technology_gets_a_nudge/

A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO 'NO PHISHING'
Netcraft, based in the U.K., has launched an anti-fraud service aimed at 
preventing "phishing" -- the practice of luring unsuspecting users to 
counterfeit banking sites where they're encouraged to divulge their credit 
card or other financial information. The company keeps a database of about 
20 million home pages as well as a record of all registered Web site names. 
It then scours its copies of the Net's DNS records for suspicious entries 
related to or using its customers' name and alerts the legitimate name 
holder when it finds something. "It gives you the opportunity to try to 
pre-empt attacks," says Netcraft director Mike Prettejohn, rather than 
relying on customers to alert banks to online scams. (New Scientist 5 Jan 2004)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994531

*****

FLASH CARD
      "My life needs editing." (Mort Sahl)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: COMEDY
      Veteran newspaper entertainment columnist Gerald Nachman says that 
Mort Sahl cast a long shadow over the last fifty years of stand-up comedy:
      "Nobody saw Mort Sahl coming. Of all the great groundbreaking 
comedians of that era -- which officially began with Sahl's inauspicious 
debut on Christmas Night 1953 before a friend-packed audience at a San 
Francisco folksinger haven called the 'hungry I'  -- nobody could have been 
more different from the standard stand-up comic than Mort Sahl. Other 
comedians labored to find a stage persona, a voice, but Sahl's actual 
persona was eccentric enough, and his voice was loud and clear. He was a 
force of nature, a whirlwind whose ideas defined him; behind each joke 
lurked a sharply etched, cynical worldview.
      "Everything about him was candid and cool, the antithesis of the 
slick comic: his casual campus wardrobe (the signature cardigan sweater, 
slacks, loafers, rumpled hair, open collar, rolled-up shirtsleeves); his 
material (partly political but heavily laced with social commentary on 
fads, trends, and the American mind-set at midcentury); his consistently 
high level of original wit; and, to be sure, his conversational, 
in-your-face delivery. Unlike the comics of the day, he didn't attempt to 
ingratiate himself with the audience, yet he connected with them on his own 
terms. Often he didn't finish sentences -- he spoke in a kind of shorthand 
and didn't worry about building to a finish or making logical segues; he 
didn't sing or dance. He was unlike any comedian who had ever been -- 
except that he was stunningly funny. The mere idea of a stand-up comic 
talking about the real world was in itself revolutionary.
      "Sahl had 'attitude' before it became trendy. Attitude comedy didn't 
stem from Steve Martin, David Letterman, and Dennis Miller. It started with 
Mort Sahl, whose audacious position was that, basically, the fix was in -- 
that life in the 1950s, and politics in particular, was a joke and that he 
was simply reporting what went on in Washington.
      "For a time, when he was riding high in the early 1960s, he was 
almost a fourth branch of government -- 'the nation's only employed 
philosopher.' Pre-Sahl, it was heretical, even career suicide, for a 
comedian to discuss politics, much less to cut up a sitting president 
onstage. Although Sahl clearly loved the attention and later even the 
friendship of politicians, he didn't seek their approval, only their 
attention."
                               ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375410309/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Gerald Nachman's "Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 
1960s" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue 
from our book or other recommendations to literacy action programs.)

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