NewsScan Daily, 23 January 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 23  January 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Apple iPod Could Signal a More Open Attitude
        AOL Takes New Antispam Technology for a Test Drive
        Google Eyes E-Newsletters as Advertising Vehicles
        New Technology Speeds Up Boot Time
        Device Quarantines Infected Computers

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Jimmy Doolittle

APPLE IPOD COULD SIGNAL A MORE OPEN ATTITUDE
      Apple Computer appears to be shifting gears, moving away from its 
long-time adherence to proprietary technology and favoring instead a more 
open strategy. This new flexibility is demonstrated in its willingness to 
engineer its iPod music player to work with non-Macintosh PCs and software. 
Like many other computer companies, Apple has identified the digitization 
of home entertainment as the next driving force in the tech world and is 
adjusting its fiercely "go-it-alone" approach to accommodate the relatively 
chaotic consumer electronics market. "The rules of engagement for the iPod 
market are new. They don't necessarily have to follow the same rules as 
with their old PC policies," says IDC analyst Roger Kay. "They may 
relinquish some control in order to gain access or control of a market that 
could be orders of magnitude larger than their old one." So far, that 
strategy seems to be paying off -- the number of iPods that run Windows 
software has quickly caught up to those using Macintosh technology, and now 
account for half of overall iPod sales. (CNet News.com 23 Jan 2004)
http://news.com.com/2009-1041_3-5144714.html?tag=nefd_lede

AOL TAKES NEW ANTISPAM TECHNOLOGY FOR A TEST DRIVE
      America Online is trying a new tactic in its battle against spam, 
testing a new e-mail protocol called Sender Permitted From (SPF) across its 
entire user base of 33 million subscribers. SPF tackles e-mail address 
spoofing -- a common spam technique -- by modifying the Domain Name System 
(DNS) to declare which servers can send e-mal from a particular Internet 
domain. AOL is using SPF to publish the IP addresses of the servers it uses 
to send outgoing mail. Once the system is established, the addresses could 
be referenced by Mail Transfer Agents on the Internet to determine whether 
a message is coming from a legitimate server or is "spoofing." SPF won't 
stop spam on its own, but used with other antispam technologies, it could 
force spammers to move to new domains more frequently, says Eric Raymond, 
president of the Open Soruce Initiative, who compared the combination 
strategy to a "drug cocktail" that could eventually wipe out most spam. 
(IDG News Service 22 Jan 2004)
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/22/HNaolantispam_1.html

GOOGLE EYES E-NEWSLETTERS AS ADVERTISING VEHICLES
      Google is flirting with a new vehicle for its growing advertising 
business -- it plans to ship ads that would piggyback on legitimate e-mail 
dispatches sent by others. The company declined to give many details, but 
the new e-mail product builds on the search engine company's successful 
AdSense advertising program, which is boosting its bottom line. Google 
matches ads for related products to Web publishers' content and advertisers 
pay each time users click on the links; the publishers and Google then 
split the revenue. Now several online publishers, including iVillage, are 
experimenting with sending newsletters containing Google-supplied ads. 
Search engine experts say the move is a natural one for Google, as it tries 
to beef up revenue in anticipation of an IPO later this year, but some 
analysts say the new strategy may backfire with users, who are already 
overwhelmed with spam and other commercial messages. (Wall Street Journal 
22 Jan 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107472074717507985,00.html (sub req'd)

NEW TECHNOLOGY SPEEDS UP BOOT TIME
      A new technology called InstantON is changing expectations among home 
entertainment PC users long accustomed to staring at the all-too-familiar 
Windows hourglass when they boot up to watch a DVD. InstantON enables the 
PC's entertainment functions to click on almost instantaneously -- in less 
than 10 seconds, according to InstantON maker InterVideo -- because they 
run on LinDVD, a slimmed-down version of the Linux operating system. The 
Windows platform coexists with LinDVD and is still launched for tasks like 
word processing, but users can take advantage of the shortcut when all they 
want to is watch a movie or listen to music. (AP 22 Jan 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040122/D807VSPO0.html

DEVICE QUARANTINES INFECTED COMPUTERS
      California-based Check Point has unveiled its InterSpect system, 
which is designed to monitor network traffic for suspicious activity and 
automatically isolate any computer or group of computers before a malicious 
program takes the whole network down. The product supplements other 
security features such as firewalls and anti-virus software, which 
occasionally succumb to infection by new worms and viruses against which 
there is sometimes little protection. InterSpect "does a very detailed 
search of the patterns of the packets coming out of a machine. Once it 
detects that something is unsafe it quarantines a machine and alerts the IT 
department that they need to take action," says a Check Point spokesman, 
who adds that his company's software does its monitoring from a central 
point in the network so that it doesn't have to be installed on every 
connected computer -- an advantage that makes it less prone to false 
alarms. A Gartner analyst says systems such as InterSpect are the next 
weapon in corporate network managers' arsenals against increasingly 
virulent virus assaults: "Combating today's sophisticated attack 
environment requires intelligent, pre-emptive attack solutions that go 
beyond protecting the Internet perimeter." (New Scientist 21 Jan 2004)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994593

******

FLASH CARD
      "There is no one, no matter how wise he is, who has not in his youth 
said things or done things that are so unpleasant to recall in later life 
that he would expunge them entirely from his memory if that were possible." 
(Marcel Proust)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JIMMY DOOLITTLE
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the heroic American airman James 
Harold (Jimmy) Doolittle (1896-1993), who is probably best remembered for 
leading the bombing raid over Tokyo in April 1942 when national morale was 
at a low point following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a few months 
earlier. Launching his squadron of 16 land-based B-25 bombers from the 
flight deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet was itself a feat that 
almost no other pilot would have thought possible at the time. The story of 
the Doolittle raid has been told in the film "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," 
the script for which was taken from the book with the same title written by 
Lt Ted Lawson, one of the 80 members of the bomber squadron. For his part, 
Doolittle was awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor and promoted 
from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general. Later in the war he was made 
a major general, in charge of air operations on the European, North 
African, and Pacific fronts. He ended his World War II service as a 
lieutenant general in command of the 8th Air Force, which flew the 1944-45 
bomber, attacks on Germany.
      Doolittle was born in Alameda, California, and grew up there and in 
Nome, Alaska. He attended Los Angeles Junior College and the University of 
California School of Mines until 1917, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army 
and served in World War I, becoming an expert aviator and flight 
instructor. He stayed in the Army Air Corps after the war, and was promoted 
to first lieutenant in 1920. Later the Army sent him to MIT, where in 1925 
he received a doctorate in aeronautical engineering.
      During the 1920s Doolittle made a name for himself in military 
aviation. In 1921, he flew one of the bombers that sank a former World War 
I German battleship to demonstrate General Billy Mitchell's belief in 
military air power. In 1922 he became the first pilot to fly across North 
America within 24 hours. He also won a number of trophy races, and in 
September 1929 he perfected techniques for instrument-controlled, landings. 
Doolittle left the Army Air Corps in 1930, to take charge of the aviation 
department of the Shell Oil Company. He remained a consultant to the 
government and the military and continued to race aircraft, setting a world 
high-speed record in 1932.
      Following his outstanding service in World War II, Doolittle returned 
to Shell Oil and to advisory positions in both the public and private 
sectors. Before he died in 1993, he received two other important honors, 
promotion to four star general in 1985 and the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom in 1989.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008G3EH/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for the VHS video of "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" -- 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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