NewsScan Daily, 21 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 21 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        AOL Goes to the Movies…
        ...And TV Ads Come to the Web
        Yahoo Beefs Up Search R&D Efforts
        New Gameboy Sees Double
        Americans Love to Hate Their Cell Phones

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Harriet Tubman
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

AOL GOES TO THE MOVIES…
      For the next five weeks, subscribers to AOL's broadband service will 
be able to download movies from Movielink as part of a promotional campaign 
to boost consumer awareness of the wonders of broadband. The offer will 
feature about 10 big-studio releases from the past year, including "Pirates 
of the Caribbean" and "Terminator 3," priced at less than a dollar apiece. 
Downloading the movies will take about half an hour, although purchasers 
will be able to begin watching after just a few minutes. The terms of the 
deal require buyers to watch the film within 30 days, and to complete 
viewing within a 24-hour period after beginning it. AOL says as of last 
September, about 2.5 million subscribers had signed up for its high-speed 
service, but it's unclear how many will want to download films. According 
to Jupiter Research, only 7% of broadband users said they watch full-length 
online movies regularly. (Wall Street Journal 21 Jan 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107464495402707089,00.html (sub req'd)

..AND TV ADS COME TO THE WEB
      Television commercials -- those blaring interruptions that serve as 
an opportunity to go get another snack -- are moving to the Web as part of 
a six-week trial that some analysts say could usher in a new era in 
Internet advertising. Ads for Pepsi, AT&T, Honda, Vonage and Warner 
Brothers will start showing up on more than a dozen Web sites, including 
MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage, using technology from Unicast that invisibly 
loads the commercial while the unwitting surfer reads a Web page, then 
displays the ad across the entire browser area when the user clicks to move 
on to a new page. The resulting commercial is identical to television, even 
for users with slower dialup connections. Unicast says although the 
technology is immune to pop-up blockers, it does include a box that can be 
clicked to skip the ad. However, it's hoping that some 50 million to 75 
million will choose to view the commercials. Pepsi plans to monitor online 
viewers' reactions through a tracking study conducted by Dynamic Logic, to 
see whether it's an avenue they will pursue further. "Yes, it's intrusive. 
But I think customers will like it, because it will be so far superior to 
anything they've seen online," says Pepsi digital media and marketing 
director John Vail. Forrester Research analyst James Nail predicts that 
users will react well to the ads, because they don't slow Web surfing and 
users can click away if they so choose. (New York Times 19 Jan 2004)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2004/01/19/technology/19ecom.html

YAHOO BEEFS UP SEARCH R&D EFFORTS
      Yahoo has formed its own R&D unit to focus on future technology 
development, including a better search engine and related advertising 
options. "Today, search engines are like the 8-track tapes of the music 
industry," says Gary Flake, principal scientist at Yahoo Research Labs. 
"We're very much at the beginning of an industry here, and the amount of 
innovation in the next 10 years will be mind-boggling." Meanwhile, search 
rival Google already runs its own research lab, which is responsible for 
such innovations as Google News and Froogle. And Microsoft has devoted 
about $500 million to pioneering new search technologies while research 
units at IBM and Amazon also tinker with better Web searching and sponsored 
listings technologies. The Yahoo Research Labs sprang from the company's 
$1.7-billion purchase of Overture Services, which spearheaded much of the 
commercial search technology developed in the past few years. (CNet 
News.com 20 Jan 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5144191.html?tag=nefd_top

NEW GAMEBOY SEES DOUBLE
      Nintendo's newest Gameboy -- the Nintendo DS -- will feature a double 
screen, one above the other, so that players can view their game from two 
different perspectives, or see the game action on one screen while checking 
a map of the game environment on the other. It's scheduled to launch later 
this year and analysts predict the device will be enthusiastically 
received. "Chances are, knowing Nintendo, the new unit will be very price 
competitive and it will be marketed for universal use, so the kids will 
love it as well," says a KBC Securities analyst. (Reuters 21 Jan 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4172978

AMERICANS LOVE TO HATE THEIR CELL PHONES
      This year's Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, an annual survey conducted 
by MIT to gauge public attitudes toward inventions and technology, 
indicates that 30% of Americans hate the way cell phones intrude on their 
privacy, but admit they can't live without them. Alarm clocks came in a 
close second on the love-hate scale, with 25%, followed by television (23%) 
and razors (14%). Other inventions mentioned include microwave ovens, 
computers and answering machines. The conclusions are based on a random 
telephone survey of 1,023 adults and 500 teenagers. (AP 21 Jan 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040121/D8077TKO0.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Try to be one of the people on whom nothing gets lost." (Henry James)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: HARRIET TUBMAN
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is Harriet Ross Tubman (1820-1913), who 
is remembered as the "black Moses of her people" for her leadership in 
helping Southern slaves find freedom in the North by way of the 
"Underground Railroad" -- the circuitous secret route of locations set up 
for the safe transport of escaping slaves.
      Tubman was an escaped slave herself, who fled from a Maryland 
plantation and went to Philadelphia, where she found work as a maid. 
Wanting to free the other members of her family, she joined the 
abolitionist movement, and with her hard-earned savings returned covertly 
to Baltimore and rescued her sister and two children. She then became one 
of the Underground Railroad's most active "conductors," making frequent 
trips into the South to bring out escaping slaves, including her own 
parents. Rewards were offered for her capture, but she successfully eluded 
all potential captors and succeeded in making some 15 trips south to help 
bring out more than 300 slaves. She took to carrying a loaded pistol, not 
to use against her enemies but to deter escaping slaves from betraying the 
railroad when, as sometimes happened, they grew weary of the difficulties 
of the trip north.
      Tubman was born to Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross, both slaves in 
Dorchester County, Maryland. She was named Araminta, but later (in defiance 
of rules against slaves showing family connections) she renamed herself 
Harriet Ross. She grew up without any education, and as a teen worked first 
as a house servant and then as a field worker. In 1844 she married John 
Tubman, a free black man. In 1849, her owner died; fearing that she was to 
be sold, along with the rest of her family, into harsh servitude, she 
decided to flee to the neighboring free state of Pennsylvania. She went 
alone, because her husband refused to join her.
      Tubman's Underground Railroad activities took place during the 1850s, 
during which period she enjoyed friendships with leading Quakers and other 
abolitionists, the most memorable being John Brown, who called her "General 
Tubman" and described her as "one of the best and bravest persons on this 
continent." Only a sudden onset of illness prevented her from joining Brown 
in the 1859 Harper's Ferry raid.
      When the Civil War began she served as an army cook, nurse, scout and 
spy for Union forces in Maryland and Virginia. After the war, she settled 
in Auburn, New York, where she acquired land through the help of an 
admirer, William Seward, the New York senator and President Lincoln's 
Secretary of State. In 1869 she married Nelson Davis, a former slave and 
Union army veteran. For the remainder of her life, she devoted herself to 
raising funds for the education of black children, and for blacks too old 
to work. She actually converted her own house into a home for the homeless 
poor. She died in 1912 and was buried with full military honors.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0590436287/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for "Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman" -- 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

KICKING MICROSOFT AROUND
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9856
      Regarding the subscriber quote and comment with the same old tired 
rant against Microsoft/computers in general, they really are not comparing 
apples with apples! If my shoes were constructed in such a way that they 
could be reconfigured by a multitude of other completely independent 
manufacturers into different colours and materials, be programmed (by 
myself even) to react to the weather, switch from lace-up to buckle to 
velcro, automatically change from trainers (sneakers) to shiny black 
oxfords at the press of a button -- oh and play all the latest video games 
-- then I would be quite happy for them to need the occasional re-boot. 
Though I have to admit there are occasions (much rarer these days) when I 
would like to see my PC explode -- what keys should I press? If the Xbox 
games console is an example of how Microsoft is to proceed I think they 
will probably succeed in "taking over the world." By sticking to a "limited 
function PC" type system with its controlled range of games software, it 
seems to be pretty stable, switches on nearly as quickly as a VCR, has 
built in DVD player with Surround Sound capability and connects painlessly 
via the net to other Xboxes around the world allowing interaction with 
other participants. In addition, its product support (in the UK at least) 
seems to be infinitely better than that experienced by this reader for the 
Windows/Office software. I'm not a particular fan of MS per se or any large 
monolithic corporation, but comments made (and re-broadcast by yourselves) 
should at least be fair. (Mike Warham, UK)

A BIT OF TRUTH EVERYWHERE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9870
      One of your subscribers wrote, "The reality is that either A) all 
religions are wrong or B) all religions are wrong but one." He fails to 
consider the third possibility: C) all religions are somewhat right. It's 
an interesting possibility worth considering. (Dick Hatch)

SLIGHT PROBLEM IN THE SECOND ACT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9895
      Shouldn't your homage to American musical theater have preceded 
rather than followed your news story "Oh, The Robots and the Humans Can Be 
Friends"? (Pete Kaiser, Switzerland -- who grew up with "Oklahoma" and its 
ilk).

WHERE WAS "THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT" FOUND?
      I'm curious about the subtitle of your mailbag: "The World As We Find 
It." Interesting phrase. (Michael Dover) [It was a favorite theme, and 
frequently used expression of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.]

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9895
      Love this publication, but just have to say ... no fair putting in 
all those Oscar Hammerstein lyrics and not giving us the answers! (Marike 
Estepp)

GOOD LUCK TO POWELL
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9889
      Michael Powell's quote is wonderful -- that's the best piece of 
commonsense I've read in a long time! I was a '70s liberal humanist (and 
still am!) but I agree wholeheartedly with what's quoted above. Never mind 
"protecting our kids" -- what about protecting the sense of decency of 
civilized human beings? I wish our UK politicians would have the courage to 
say the same, and I wish our programmers would not insult their own, 
privileged, educational upbringing by subscribing to, and sponsoring, and 
producing, the tabloid trash which floods our media. An insult to civilized 
mankind! Good luck to Powell, and best wishes to NewsScan, and P.S., 
*thanks* for the lyrics from Hammerstein -- someone who looked to the best 
in human nature, as opposed to cashing in what is most base. (John Law, 
Hexham Northumberland, UK)

EMOTIONS ARE LIKE FINE WINE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9882
      What Donald Norman (in the book "Emotional Design") failed to 
recognize is that emotions are highly "unreliable" as a tool in our lives. 
Its unpredictable nature (when something, someone or some comment can 
trigger an inappropriate emotion uncontrollably) is more of a handicap than 
benefit in our daily activities. Emotions can turn people into alcoholics 
or drug addicts (because they feel good doing it). People around the world 
have put too much weight in their emotion, and is partly the reason why our 
world is going insane. (The other part is irresponsibility.) If only we can 
focus our attention on the results intended and not on how we feel at the 
moment, our ability to create a better world would be much enhanced. 
Emotions are like fine wine: enjoy in moderation, but don't build your life 
around it. (Jim Chu)

I HAVE LOOKED AT BEAUTY BARE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9882
      As a quote from R. Buckminster Fuller states: "When I am working on a 
problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the 
problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know 
it is wrong." (Gloria Bryant, NY)

SENSITIVE SOULS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9913
      I just wanted to congratulate you on your choice for Jan 20th's Flash 
Card. Charles Murray has captured my sentiments perfectly, and I certainly 
intend to look up some of his work, rather than the books of "sensitive 
souls" I have been reading lately. (Eric Schultz)  [The Flash Card was 
taken from his new book, "Human Achievement."]

THE BIGGAR STORY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9906
      You didn't mention the funniest part of this story: the legal firm 
that Microsoft hired to pursue Mr. Rowe is "Smart & Biggar" 
(www.smart-biggar.ca). When I heard this, I first assumed the whole story 
was just an early April Fool's joke... (Nick Kushmerick, Ireland)

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