NewsScan Daily, 14 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 14 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        New Study Refutes Net 'Geek' Stereotype
        Ring Tones Ringing Up Sales
        Level 3 Offers 'VoIP Toll Free' Service
        Yahoo Takes Online Auctions to China
        Nokia Dispenses Lifestyle Advice in Fine Print

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Dorothy Hodgkin

NEW STUDY REFUTES NET 'GEEK' STEREOTYPE
The typical Internet user has plenty of friends, an active social life and 
would rather read a good book or log on than watch TV, according to a 
report by UCLA's World Internet Project, which surveyed Net users and 
non-users in 14 countries to come up with its results. The image of Net 
users as socializers contradicts the stereotype of propeller-head "geeks" 
who spend their days (and nights) hunched over their keyboards, shunning 
human contact. The study did, however, reinforce some other demographic 
trends, including the fact that wealthier people tend to be more avid 
users, and that men outnumber women on the Net, although those figures vary 
by country, with Italy exhibiting the largest gender gap and Taiwan the 
smallest. Meanwhile, the digital divide -- the phrase widely used to 
describe the disparity in Internet usage between rich and poor -- appears 
to be narrowing around the world. Sweden, Korea and the U.S. had the 
largest number of low-income users. (Reuters/CNet News.com 14 Jan 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-5140698.html?tag=nefd_top

RING TONES RINGING UP SALES
Sales of mobile phone ring tones jumped 40% in the last year to $3.5 
billion, according to a study by London-based Arc Group. The market niche, 
which started out as a promotional gimmick for music labels and wireless 
carriers, is now roughly equivalent in value to 10% of the $32.2 billion 
global music market. Revenue from ring tone sales is divided between 
artists, music labels and cell phone companies, with the average price per 
tone being 60 cents. Arc Group analyst Richard Jesty predicts sales will 
remain brisk through 2008 when revenues are expected to top $5.2 billion. 
At that point, more powerful phones will offer users additional 
opportunities to download games, sport highlights and short video clips. 
(Reuters/Wired.com 13 Jan 2004)
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61903,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6

LEVEL 3 OFFERS 'VoIP TOLL FREE' SERVICE
Level 3 launched a new service aimed at corporate customers that uses 
Voice-over-IP technology to handle calls to toll-free business lines. The 
company says switching over to Internet telephony will enable 
teleconferencing service providers, call center operators and voice portals 
to cut costs and take advantage of converged voice and data networks that 
are easier to manage. (Internet News 14 Jan 2004)
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3299021

YAHOO TAKES ONLINE AUCTIONS TO CHINA
Yahoo is teaming up with Chinese Internet portal leader SINA to launch an 
online auction service for Chinese consumers. The deal capitalizes on 
SINA's familiar brand and Yahoo's e-commerce expertise: "With the rapid 
growth of the Chinese Internet market, we see that all indicators point to 
a strong surge in Chinese e-commerce," says SINA CEO Yan Wang. "With SINA's 
brand and traffic in China coupled with Yahoo's technology, know-how and 
worldwide brand, we are creating an e-commerce platform that will be 
trusted and widely available to Internet users in China." According to the 
China Internet Network Information Center, there were 78 million Chinese 
Internet users as of last month. (AP/New York Times 13 Jan 2004)
http://partners.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Yahoo-Chinese-Auctions.html

NOKIA DISPENSES LIFESTYLE ADVICE IN FINE PRINT
Along with the usual information about its cell phone handsets, a Nokia 
marketing pamphlet offers tips on improving your lifestyle, health and 
safety: "Don't use your mobile phone when you're driving. Signal when you 
change lanes, stop when the light turns red and watch out for that kid on 
the bicycle… And it wouldn't kill you if you called your mother every once 
in awhile." In addition, work on your social skills: "No one will call you 
if you don't have any friends," it warns. Toward that end, the pamphlet 
offers this etiquette and lifestyle advice: "If you use your mobile phone 
in a fast-food restaurant, keep your voice down so you won't annoy people. 
And order a salad… Quit smoking. Drink less." The final tip? Don't forget 
to turn your phone off and just forget about work over the weekend. A 
company spokesman says the chatty brochure is aimed at luring "young, urban 
professionals with a good sense of humor," but he notes that "the reality 
is that a majority of people miss it. Normally, no one reads (the small 
print)." (Reuters 13 Jan 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=PXTVXN2CR1X12CRBAE0CFFA?type=technologyNews&storyID=4118500

*****

FLASH CARD
      "If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either." 
(Dick Cavett)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: DOROTHY HODGKIN
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the British chemist Dorothy Mary 
Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994) who won the 1964 Nobel Prize for chemistry for 
determining the structure of vitamin B12, the most complex of the vitamins.
      Hodgkin was born Dorothy Crowfoot in, Cairo, Egypt, during a period 
when her archaeologist father and her mother were traveling abroad on 
professional assignment. She was educated in England at Somerville College, 
Oxford, going on to Cambridge University to earn a doctorate degree in 
1937. At Cambridge she continued the crystallographic studies that she had 
first engaged in at Somerville. In the mid-1930s, she and a Cambridge 
University coworker took the first X-ray diffraction photograph of the 
pepsin protein. In 1935 she returned to Oxford as a tutor, and in 1937 she 
married the writer and lecturer Thomas L. Hodgkin. She continued to teach 
at Oxford, eventually becoming emeritus professor.
      During World War II she undertook the challenge of determining the 
structure of penicillin, which would be critical in synthesizing the drug. 
In working through the related X-ray data, Hodgkin make use of an 
electronic computer, which helped greatly in determining the final 
structure. That marked the first time an electronic computer had been 
directly employed in tackling a biochemical problem. Then, in the 1950s 
Hodgkin went to work on determining the molecular structure of vitamin B12, 
whose molecules were four times as large as those of penicillin. A 
breakthrough came in 1955, and in 1964 Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel prize 
for chemistry.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879695943/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for a biography of Dorothy Hodgkin by Georgina Ferry -- 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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