NewsScan Daily, 12 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 12 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")
***********************************************************
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization
making significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology. NSD is
written by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, [email protected].
***********************************************************

"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        More People Tuning into the Net for Campaign Info
        NFL Plans Chinese-Language Web Site Kick-Off
        Libraries Fuel E-Book Market
        Anti-Spam Law Enacted -- So What's All This Junk in My In-Box?
        Adobe Acknowledges Anti-Counterfeiting Technology

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Betty Furness
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

MORE PEOPLE TUNING INTO THE NET FOR CAMPAIGN INFO
As the U.S. presidential campaign heats up, more Americans are turning to 
the Internet as a source for political news, with 33% reporting that they 
logged on at least occasionally to find out what's happening, according to 
a study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. A similar 
survey conducted in 2000 found only 9% of Americans logging on for 
political news. Meanwhile, 42% of those surveyed said they sought 
information by watching their local network news -- 6% less than three 
years ago -- and nightly network news programs and newspapers suffered even 
greater declines. Younger Americans favored cable news, the Internet and 
comedy programs such as "Saturday Night Live" for campaign news. Meanwhile, 
Americans overall appeared to know little about the campaign or the 
candidates -- only a third had heard about Al Gore's endorsement of Howard 
Dean for the Democratic presidential slot, and fewer still were aware that 
Wesley Clark had served as an Army general. The worst informed were those 
who relied on comedy shows and late night TV for their news, while those 
who got their information from the Internet tended to be the most 
knowledgeable. (Reuters/CNet News.com 11 Jan 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5139039.html?tag=nefd_top

NFL PLANS CHINESE-LANGUAGE WEB SITE KICK-OFF
The National Football League will launch a Mandarin Chinese-language 
version of its Web site later this month featuring commentary by 
Philadelphia Eagles tight end Chad Lewis, who learned Mandarin during a 
two-year stint as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan. The move reflects the 
American entertainment industry's efforts to expand its products to 
overseas audiences -- the National Basketball Association offers nine 
foreign-language versions of its NBA.com site, and Walt Disney has launched 
nearly two dozen individual-country Web sites and reports that foreign 
audiences now make up 42% of the total visitors to its Web sites. Analysts 
caution that foreign-language sites can take years to pay off, but industry 
execs view China as a potentially lucrative investment. The China Internet 
Network Information Center reports that there were 68 million Internet 
users in mid-2003, when the latest statistics were available, which 
represents a 15% growth in just the first half of last year. (New York 
Times 12 Jan 2004)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/business/12ecom.html

LIBRARIES FUEL E-BOOK MARKET
E-books have suffered a slow start and several setbacks over the past 
couple of years, but industry observers says things are finally turning 
around. "There was a pricing impediment and a quality impediment," says 
Rosetta Books CEO Arthur Klebanoff, who cites a new generation of e-book 
devices that could jumpstart sales. "Today the [digital] reading experience 
is much better and prices have fallen." But the biggest push may come from 
several library consortia that have added e-books to their collections. The 
King County system in the Seattle area offers members about 2,000 titles 
and records show about 3,200 e-books were checked out between Sept. 15 and 
the end of November. "The response has been pretty good," says King County 
Library System associate director Bruce Schauer. "In general, e-books will 
likely be used primarily for quick reference [on subjects] such as medical, 
travel and law. People are also using the search and highlight functions 
for homework." Meanwhile, Steve Potash, CEO of OverDrive, which helps 
manage the Cleveland Public Library system's e-book digital publishing 
rights, says current economic conditions have proven a powerful motivation 
for many libraries to begin experimenting with e-books. "At a time when 
public libraries are under budget pressures, what better way to extend 
services than free e-book downloads?" Among the most popular titles are 
(what else?) CliffsNotes. That observation is echoed by CliffsNotes 
publisher John Wiley & Sons, which says the CliffsNotes series is its No. 1 
e-book seller. "We knew they'd be popular online; what we didn't anticipate 
was that they'd be popular for libraries. People are using the library very 
differently these days: Now you don't have to leave your room. It's about a 
generation comfortable in the electronic media," says Wiley senior VP 
Katherine Showalter. (Wall Street Journal 12 Jan 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10734927754950700,00.html (sub req'd)

ANTI-SPAM LAW ENACTED -- SO WHAT'S ALL THIS JUNK IN MY IN-BOX?
The new federal anti-spam law went into effect Jan. 1, but consumers report 
their inboxes are more cluttered than ever -- what's going on? Critics say 
the new law doesn't actually ban spam but rather provides guidelines for 
sending junk e-mail legally. "Now we have a green light for what would come 
to be called 'legal spam,'" says ePrivacy Group CEO Vincent Schiavone. John 
Levine, a board member of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial 
E-Mail, concurs: "Basically, it's a bill of rights for companies that want 
to send junk e-mail." In addition, the federal law supercedes stricter laws 
recently passed in several states, such as California. "Everyone was 
planning for this California law, which was so draconian," says a 
California lawyer who defends accused spammers. "Once the federal 
government passed the federal law, everyone was kind of relieved." And 
while technology firms are eagerly pursuing new ways of blocking spam, 
skeptics say the ultimate solution won't be technological or legal, but 
will depend on developing more savvy users. Mary Youngblood, abuse team 
manager at EarthLink, suggests putting numbers in the middle of your e-mail 
address to make it more difficult to guess and using a separate address for 
online shopping and newsgroup postings. (AP Jan 11 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040111/D800O3P00.html

ADOBE ACKNOWLEDGES ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TECHNOLOGY
Adobe Systems admits that the latest version of its popular Photoshop 
graphics software includes technology that generates a warning message when 
someone tries to make a digital copy of some currencies. The technology was 
added at the request of government regulators and bankers and was designed 
by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, a consortium of 27 banks 
in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. "We sort of knew this would come out 
eventually," says an Adobe spokesman. "We can't really talk about the 
technology itself." Angry consumers have flooded Adobe's message boards 
with complaints over censorship and concerns over future restrictions that 
could include adult-oriented or copyrighted material. "This shocks me," 
says the president of the Photoshop users group in San Diego. "Artists 
don't like to be limited in what they can do with their tools. Let the U.S. 
government or whoever is involved deal with this, but don't take the powers 
of the government and place them into a commercial software package." 
(AP/Washington Post 10 Jan 2004)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4798-2004Jan9.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the 
usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody 
thinks of complaining." (Jef Raskin)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: BETTY FURNESS
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the actress and television personality 
Betty Furness (1916-1994), who spent the later years of her career as a 
consumer advocate working for various governmental agencies. She is 
probably most remembered as TV's spokesperson for Westinghouse products, 
narrating the company's commercials and demonstrating its products on live 
television.
      Furness began her career as a teenage model with the John Powers 
agency, went on to stage acting in summer stock and road companies, along 
with performing in supporting roles in some thirty-five movies, before 
being signed to her twelve-year stint with Westinghouse, where the tag line 
"You can be SURE if it's Westinghouse" became a well-known catch phrase.
      When Furness ended her affiliation with Westinghouse in 1960, she 
spent the next years in occasional radio work and engaged herself with 
Democratic political causes. Then out of the blue President Lyndon Johnson 
made her his Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs. At first consumer 
groups criticized her appointment because of her work for Westinghouse, but 
she turned out to be a surprisingly energetic and effective consumer advocate.
      After the Johnson years, she headed the consumer affairs departments 
of both New York City and New York State. Later she returned to television, 
signed by WNBC in New York to cover consumer affairs, where she became 
known for taking a hard line against consumer fraud and business abuse. Her 
show "Buyline: Betty Furness" won the Peabody award in 1977. During these 
same years she appeared on NBC's "Today Show" as the consumer's affairs expert.
      Furness was born Elizabeth Mary Furness in 1916 in New York City, 
where she lived until 1932 when her good looks and well-modulated speaking 
voice earned her a contract with RKO studios, and she moved with her mother 
to California.
      After working with indifferent success in West Coast stage shows, and 
after her first marriage failed, Furness took her daughter and moved back 
to New York, where she found acting work in television, then in its 
infancy. Her connection with Westinghouse came by way of a role in an 
episode of Studio One, a drama series sponsored by Westinghouse appliances. 
While watching an actor's less than stellar handling of the show's 
Westinghouse commercial, Furness volunteered to replace him. She caught on 
and went on the company payroll at $150 per week, becoming in short order 
Westinghouse's sole TV commercial announcer. It was the beginning of the 
trail-blazing career of the woman who made television history.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0449909336/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for David Haberstam's "The Fifties" -- or look for it in your favorite 
library. (We donate all revenue from our book or other recommendations to 
literacy action programs.)



MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

FATAL ENTERTAINMENT ERROR
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9856
      In your 'That's Entertainment, Microsoft-Style,' Bill Gates indicates 
that Microsoft is to get involved in consumer entertainment and states that 
systems need "a lot of software to make it all work." Does that mean my 
2006 home entertainment complex will need to be switched on two minutes 
before I want to watch something ? And will it be "my fault" if I just 
switch it off rather than shut it down in a "controlled" manner?? And can I 
expect a guarantee that it will never fall over in the middle of a 
program??? Or should I just stick with the old stuff that works.  Hmmm... 
(Scott Pollard)

FIRST DEGREE GETS THIRD DEGREE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9753
      The piece "Distance Education Gets the First Degree" was way off 
base. The "purchasing" of a fake degree referred to in all three sources 
has nothing to do with online learning. Degrees were for sale long before 
the web or online learning. The gentleman at the Mass Dept of Health who 
paid roughly $500 for a degree did so without any kind of online learning 
or without engaging an "online" institution. He heard about the "offer" via 
email, but that doesn't have anything to do with online learning either. If 
anything, the "story" is about accreditation, not online learning. We in 
the field have enough to legitimately worry about--the level of ignorance 
about online learning is high. We don't need another myth perpetuated by 
respected sources such as NewsScan! (Wallace K. Pond, Ph.D.)

AN OPINION ABOUT BLOGS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9819
      "The TV networks and major newspapers now face spirited competition 
from blogs (i.e., Web logs) offered by independent political 
commentators..." Since when is political comment synonymous with 
news?  Most of the blogs listed are no more informative than the guy on the 
next stool at the corner tavern.  In general, blogs are just forums for 
opinion and we all know what opinions are like... (Steve Lamont)

WHAT IS TRUTH, ASKED JESTING PILATE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9811
      The Qur'an vs the Bible vs the Torah vs ???? Religions primary 
function is the answer this question.  The reality is that either A) all 
religions are wrong or B) all religions are wrong but one. The history of 
the world is full of conflict designed by adherents of each religion to 
prove (usually by force) that their path is the right one. After all, 
consider the alternative, that you may have chosen the wrong path - you 
have wasted your life in false worship. To reinforce that your decision is 
correct, you will deal strongly with alternative adherents and any success 
you might gain in this arena, will reinforce the correctness of your own 
decision, that your religious convictions trumps the others and therefore 
must represent the true God. This logic also applies to some non-religious 
ideologies. (Richard Bensinger)

UNTANGLING USAGE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9783
      I notice that commonly used words are in vogue for books of religious 
thought and histories. I read recently that the New and Old testaments 
should be called the "Hebrew Bible" and the "Christian Bible" since words 
written in the Hebrew Bible post date some of those written in the 
Christian Bible and perhaps vice versa. I'm not sure how one would go about 
untangling the usage. (George Myers)

BLAME THE DATABASE OWNER
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9859
      I'm very disappointed by your coverage of the Adrian Lamo 
plea-bargain. This is a long and intriguing story with many other elements 
to it.  He was certainly foolish in doing what he did, but it might be 
interesting to weigh the rather nebulous $5,000 damage claim against the 
potential  damage a malicious hacker could have done if he hadn't provided 
them with a map of all the glaring open holes in their system. We have a 
lessened sympathy for people who have been robbed when they go away and 
leave their doors and windows open, similarly the Times should be roundly 
derided for exposing all of this data with such minimal protection. As I 
said before, he was doing unauthorized things, but I have no sympathy for 
them at all. (Chris Beck)

WORD UP, PEOPLE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9818
      With regard to "FCC Chair Powell Wants More Platforms" -- my local 
dictionary tells me that "to incite" is the verb, and "incentive" is the 
noun/adjective... as for "incent", this word (?) does not appear.  Can the 
U.S. trust a regulator who apparently ignores one of the golden rules of 
communication -- "Thou shalt not make up your own words, and expect to be 
understood".  Or perhaps the two are not related? Thanks, as always, for 
the excellence of NewsScan's communicating!  (G.K.Dahl, Ottawa)

SCOTCH THAT PHRASEOLOGOY
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=737
      I'll excuse your ignorance on the grounds of distance, but Watt was 
Scottish, not Scotch (and so am I). One of my favourite web sites, World 
Wide Words, has this to say on the subject: Never Scotch, if you value your 
linguistic credibility: Scotch is a type of strong liquor, and the word has 
one or two other fixed uses, such as in Scotch egg or Scotch mist, but it 
is never now used in any other context; the general adjective is Scottish, 
and it is correct to say that a person is Scottish or that he or she is a 
Scot. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/gb.htm). But apart from that, 
keep up the good work!! (Allan Todd, UK)

MORE OF THE SAME OLD REVOLUTION
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9841
      I enjoy reading your thought-provoking and informative newsletter, 
but I think that the excerpt from Nachman's book "Seriously Funny" 
contained some misinformation. Nachman writes that "Pre-Sahl, it was 
heretical, even career suicide, for a comedian to discuss politics, much 
less to cut up a sitting president onstage." I read a book of Will Rogers' 
quips this summer, and a great deal of his material was political. I seem 
to remember that he wasn't afraid to bring up the president, either. I was 
born in 1969 and have never before heard of Sahl, but from the description 
provided in this excerpt, I can't figure out what made his brand of humor 
so revolutionary, since he arrived on the scene over 20 years after Rogers. 
(Kate Norlander)

SUBSCRIPTION INFO FOR NEWSSCAN DAILY:
      To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions 
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages 
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to 
the addresses shown below:
      Text version: Send message to [email protected]
      HTML version: Send mail to [email protected]
      NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT NEWSSCAN DAILY! Send them our little frog: 
http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html

***********************************************************
Please visit the site of RLG, the great organization that makes NewsScan 
Daily possible. (RLG has no influence over, nor any responsibility for, our 
editorial content.) Created in 1974 as the Research Libraries Group, RLG is 
a not-for-profit membership corporation of more than 160 universities, 
national libraries, archives, museums -- and other institutions with 
remarkable collections for research and learning. Its major initiatives are 
long-term retention of digital materials, resource sharing among member 
institutions, and improvement of researcher access to primary source 
material. RLG supplies online research resources worldwide. Visit RLG at 
http://www.rlg.org.

*********

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the TEXT version of NewsScan Daily, send an 
e-mail message to [email protected] with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' 
in the subject line. To subscribe to our HTML version of NewsScan Daily, 
send mail to [email protected], with the word 'subscribe' as the 
subject. (Subscribing to the HTML version won't automatically unsubscribe 
you from the text version; please unsubscribe yourself as explained above.) 
Please note: To unsubscribe from an account to which you no longer have 
access, send mail to at [email protected].

*********

We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the 
great "broadsheet" newspapers in which editors must decide which news 
stories are of such importance that they should be placed "above the fold" 
on the front page. The NewsScan Credo: Be informative, have fun, and get to 
the point! See http://www.newsscan.com/, and send us mail: John Gehl 
<[email protected]> and Suzanne Douglas <[email protected]>, or call 
770-704-7517.

*********

Get a free 6-week trial subscription to Innovation Weekly, an executive 
summary of trends, strategies and innovations in business and technology. 
Send mail to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' in the 
subject line.

What customized news and information services do you need for your company? 
Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call 770-704-7517 to talk 
over the possibilities.

Copyright 2004. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.
***********************************************************