NewsScan Daily, 5 February 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 5 February 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Congress Targets Online Fraud
        Congressman Warns Against Overhasty VoIP Classification
        Corning Bets Big on Flat Panels
        Double-Agent Spyware
        What's in a Name?

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Talking Animals
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

CONGRESS TARGETS ONLINE FRAUD
      The Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act, sponsored by U.S. Reps. 
Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), would tack as much as 
seven years on to prison sentences handed down to fraudsters using the 
Internet to bilk unsuspecting users through a Web site registered under a 
false name or contact information, and would also allow copyright owners to 
seek larger monetary damages from fraudulently registered sites that 
distribute copyrighted material without permission. "The Government must 
play a greater role in punishing those who conceal their identities online, 
particularly when they do so in furtherance of a serious federal criminal 
offense or in violation of a federally protected intellectual property 
right," says Smith. The proposal could hit a snag if privacy advocates 
lobby against it, maintaining that private information such as home 
addresses and phone numbers should not be made available on the public 
"whois" domain name databases against the registrant's wishes. "Because of 
the way whois is currently structured, there are a lot of reasons why users 
might submit false information that have nothing to do with copyright 
infringement," notes Michael Steffen, a policy analyst at the Center for 
Democracy and Technology. (Washington Post 4 Feb 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13538-2004Feb4.html

CONGRESSMAN WARNS AGAINST OVERHASTY VOIP CLASSIFICATION
      U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) says that the Federal Communications 
Commission should "step back from its apparent rush" to classify Voice over 
Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications as an information service rather 
than a telecommunications service. If VoIP is classified as an information 
service, it would be free of the abundant rules and regulations that govern 
the traditional telephone business, including requirements to supply 911 
services, pay into the Universal Service Fund, and comply with the 
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which mandates 
wiretap-friendly technology. Dingell testified at a House subcommittee 
meeting that, "Based on recent news reports, I am concerned that the FCC 
chairman is not sufficiently aware of these issues." Meanwhile, a Merrill 
Lynch telecom analyst says forcing VoIP services to comply with 911 and 
CALEA requirements "could actually accelerate the growth of VoIP, making 
the service comparable to traditional telephone services." The FCC is 
slated to issue its first VoIP regulations next week. (InternetNews.com 5 
Feb 2004)
http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3308761

CORNING BETS BIG ON FLAT PANELS
      Corning is making a $600 million investment in production of the 
super-smooth, extremely thin glass that sandwiches liquid crystals and 
transistors in an LCD display. Despite a glut of companies that make 
flat-panel computer monitors and television sets, there are only a few 
companies that manufacture the glass and Corning holds a 50% share of that 
market. The investment will enable Corning to boost production and make 
bigger sheets of glass, driving prices on the costly displays down. The 
150-year-old company, which lost big when its fiber optic business dried up 
in 2002, is banking on pent-up consumer demand for LCD high-definition TVs, 
as well as laptops and flat-panel desktop PCs. The TVs are especially 
profitable for Corning because they use far more glass than the smaller 
computer displays. (Wall Street Journal 5 Feb 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107593218444720878,00.html (sub req'd)

DOUBLE-AGENT SPYWARE
     It turns out that at least one spyware program purporting to identify 
and delete unwanted advertising software actually installs its own spyware 
software on the unsuspecting user's computer. SpyBan has been singled out 
for such nefarious behavior by several competing anti-spyware companies: "I 
classified SpyBan as a Trojan Horse, since it gives the impression that it 
will protect your privacy, but does the opposite -- it installs spyware," 
says a spokesman for Sweden-based Kephyr.com. The software allegedly leaves 
behind a program called Look2Me, which has been identified by Symantec as a 
spyware application: "Look2Me is a spyware program that monitors visited 
Web sites and submits the logged information to a server." The SpyBan Web 
site was shut down after reporters started snooping into its activities, 
but a trace of the company's domain name indicated the site was hosted at 
the same address as NicTech Networks. Experts say spyware and adware 
software can be difficult to track down because it's designed to "hide" on 
the user's PC. "I doubt anyone knows precisely what these things do, apart 
from the authors," says a researcher for PestPatrol, a legitimate 
anti-spyware outfit. "They are really complex. Viruses are easy compared to 
these things." (CNet News.com 4 Feb 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5153485.html?tag=nefd_lede

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
     Ever wonder how spammers come up with all those weird aliases they use 
to pepper your inbox with unwanted messages? Names like Elfrieda Billman 
and Beiderbecke P. Sawhorse? One possible source is a Web site run by 
August Kleimo, who built a random name-generator 
(www.kleimo.com/rand/name.cfm) using all the surnames from the 1990 U.S. 
census (free on the Census Bureau's Web site). Kleimo says he gets about 
3,000 visitors a day, many of them hunting for unusual names to use for 
fantasy gaming characters, but admits it's possible that spammers are 
picking up some ideas from his site also. Other name-generator sites 
include one by Mike Campbell, a software developer and amateur etymologist. 
Behind the Name (www.behindthename.com/random.html) allows visitors to 
generate names in various languages, from Icelandic to classical Greek. 
Chris Pound, who works in the IT department at Rice University, has written 
more than 40 name generators, one of which merges names from the worlds of 
Harry Potter and Dickens (www.ruf.rice.edu/~pound). Security experts say 
it's difficult to outsmart spammers who use randomly generated names that 
can slip under the radar of so-called Bayesian filters, which target common 
words used in spam, like Viagra. A human might detect an obviously fake 
name, but "a filter can't really see the irony of Tupperware J. 
Smithington," says ePrivacy Group's chief privacy officer. (New York Times 
5 Feb 2004)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/technology/circuits/05name.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves 
you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." (D.H. Lawrence)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TALKING ANIMALS
      World famous paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey places language over 
tool-making in describing the course of human evolution:
      "What can we say of the mental machinery of humans, three times 
greater than that in the large primates? Once again, there seems to be an 
obvious explanation: technology. 'Technology has long been regarded as the 
driving force behind human brain expansion,' says UCLA professor Harry 
Jerison. Indeed, one of the most influential concepts of human origins 
during this century was encapsulated in a little book that Kenneth Oakley 
wrote in 1949: 'Man the Tool-Maker'. Oakley, a major figure at the British 
Museum for many years, and the uncoverer of the Piltdown hoax, argued that 
not only did man make tools, but, effectively, tools made man. In other 
words, as natural selection honed the manipulative skills required for tool 
making, a bigger brain evolved, making us more human. The image is of a 
positive evolutionary loop, in which greater manipulative skills required 
greater brain power, which in turn permitted a more developed technology, 
and so on. This seemed a reasonable argument, not least because in many 
ways we see ourselves as highly skilled technological creatures.
      "Jerison makes a very astute observation concerning the hypothesis of 
man the tool-maker. 'It seems to me to be an inadequate explanation, not 
least because tool making can be accomplished with very little brain 
tissue,' he says. 'The production of simple, useful speech, on the other 
hand, requires a substantial amount of brain tissue.' Language, that's what 
we need big brains for, implies Jerison. There is no doubt that through 
human history the neurological basis of technological skills improved 
through natural selection. But language shouts to be recognized as the 
skill that makes us different from our primate cousins.
      "Equipped with language, or, more specifically, the facility of 
reflective thought, our minds create a mental model of the world that is 
uniquely human, capable of coping with complex practical and social 
challenges. That mental model was the product of an emerging 
hunter-gatherer way of life. It involved a balanced relation with the 
resources of the environment and a complex, tightly constructed social and 
economic contract within human groups. It was recognizably primate in 
origin, but unprecedented in its degree of development. Its primary product 
was human culture, a mix of things material and things mythological, things 
practical and things spiritual: a uniquely human mental model of the world, 
woven on the loom of language."
                                ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385467923/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin's "Origins Reconsidered: In Search of 
What Makes Us Human" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate 
all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

DOOLITTLE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING?
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=743
      The piece about Jimmy Doolittle was delightful. It reminded me of 
something my dad, Bill Green, suggested some years ago. He was an Air Force 
officer teaching aeronautical engineering at the Air Force Institute of 
Technology (AFIT) at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton in the late 
1960s. Since AFIT's name was not very exciting, he suggested to the 
administration that it be re-named the Jimmy Doolittle School of 
Engineering. Very appropriate with regard to Gen. Doolittle, but, as with 
many things Dad came up with, charmingly twisted. Doolittle School of 
Engineering? Needless to say, it didn't happen, but it was fun. (Barbara G. 
Smith, Institute of Museum & Library Services, Washington DC)

JUST THE FACTS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9988
      Boy, Lakoff and Johnson sure said a mouthful there! Aside from the 
"evolutionary" hot button, it's interesting to see someone recognize that 
ALL decisions are, in the end, subjective. We pride ourselves on knowing 
"facts," but we never really have enough to absolutely tie something down, 
and so we decide things "based on the preponderance of evidence." It sounds 
sort of scary put in those words, but that really is how we learn and 
decide things. Thanks for helping us "Learn every day!" (Gerry Visel)

WE WERE THINKING M BUT TYPING C
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=746
      Laura Ingalls Wilder's blind sister was Mary, not Cary as written in 
your Honorary Subscriber feature of January 29. She did also have a younger 
sister, Carrie, who was not blind. And why does everyone skip her time in 
Burr Oak, Iowa just because she chose not to write about that time? Her 
youngest sister, Grace, was born there in 1877. (TyAnn Morehead)

DAMN SPAM
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9961
      "Homework question for the advanced student: What information worthy 
of interrupting him should be brought to the attention of Mr. Gates?" ... 
Spam! :-) (Trevis Rothwell)

CALLING BILL GATES, CALLING BILL GATES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9961
      How about telling him every time an infected Windows computer 
mass-mails a virus or launches a DDOS attack on somebody's Web site? Maybe 
that's what it will take before Mr. Gates *really* puts the priority on 
security. I guess I'm not the only one who'll be making that suggestion... 
(Judyth Memestein, Montreal)

MORE, MORE, MORE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9961
      Microsoft cofounder and chief executive Bill Gates predicts, "I'll 
make more money and more money and more and more and more and take over the 
whole world! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!" (evil laugh). (Larry Talltree)

ADULTS ARE OBSOLETE CHILDREN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9968
      Regarding your Flash Card "Adults are obsolete children" (Dr. Seuss) 
-- You folks are great, and the Flash Card is always a highlight.
      I liked this one so much that I searched for it on the web and 
discovered 2 places http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/670 
http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Author=Dr.+Seuss&file=all2 which 
offer a longer version: "...adults are just obsolete children, and the hell 
with them." (Stephen D. Franklin)

HEIGH-HO FOR LINUX
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9921
      Regarding Mike Warham's comment about a "tired old rant" I think his 
conclusion makes my point precisely. I don't understand the relevance of 
self-configuring shoes especially if he indicates it's OK for them to fall 
apart in the rain -- like so many modern shoes do anyway. But I do 
understand when he talks of the Xbox and its [peer only??] connectivity and 
then goes on to praise its support as being in his words "infinitely better 
than that experienced by this reader for the Windows/Office software". That 
is my whole point. There are literally MILLIONS out there who invested in 
Microsoft software many moons ago, and subsequently downloaded hundreds of 
megs of "service packs" and paid and paid again for new versions under 
various guises, NOT for function, but just to get something more reliable 
and stable. Is Mr. Gates now indicating all those old fashioned desktop 
cash cows are to be ignored so shiny new toys can be polished even more? If 
he really wants to clear up the past and focus on the future, then how 
about a free "bonus issue" from Microsoft -- bring in your old system CD 
and get a special version containing 99 percent of all the absolutely 
latest blazing reliable singing and dancing desktop functions for free. Now 
THERE would be a marketing coup. Especially if it's smaller, faster and 
more reliable than what one might trade in. By all means still charge for 
the servers -- that's where the value is nowadays anyway. As an ultra-coup, 
desktop upgrade could even be extended to a "piracy amnesty" -- bring in 
your forged disks and still get a proper version for free. But as Mr. 
Warham alludes: big corporates don't work that way. Oh well. Heigh ho for 
Linux and all the look-a-likes I expect. Good luck with the DVD 
replacement. (Scott Pollard)

DON'T TURN ON THE PC, MARTHA, IT'S THE ADVERTISING HOUR
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9916
      "And TV Ads Come to the Web" ... This idea will be as popular as 
telephone solicitors at dinner time. Thanks for the warning. (Roy Gregory, OK)

OH NO, NOT THAT PEPSI AD AGAIN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9916
      "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. Who are they trying to kid? It might be novel 
at first, but this approach will get old quickly. His argument is like 
saying ads will be more acceptable when viewed on HDTV. In the real world, 
as soon as viewers have a choice many/most 'opt out' of advertising (think 
digital recorders that skip over commercials). I personally would not 
return to a Web site with such invasive advertising. (Richard Rathe, M.D.)

WE ARE THE WORLD, NOT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9966
      "India: The New Face of the Silicon Age" ... I was surprised *not* to 
hear another take on the hypocrisy of American resentment of 3rd world tech 
emergence: The folk belief fostered from my childhood that the reason 
America had it so good and these other countries limped along was that they 
didn't accept the (read: our) values that would allow them to prosper, 
Western-style. There was nothing stopping them from achieving the cozy 
middle-class life, but their own pigheaded adherence to old-world values. 
But I'm also reminded of another statistic that floated about: That the 
U.S. comprised 10% of the population, while consuming 40% of the world's 
resources. To the extent that these folk beliefs had any validity, why then 
didn't more people put two and two together and see that the whole world 
can't be like "us" without something giving somewhere? (Ron A. Zajac, Taipei)

BILL GATES, KNIGHT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9951
      "EC Favors Tough Stance In Microsoft Case"... "Microsoft has 
protested against the unbundling requirement, arguing that the media player 
is so deeply integrated into Windows that removing would damage the 
operating system..." Didn't they try that line before? Don't they think 
"Europeans" follow news outside their countries?? Give me a break, 
Microsoft. And to think that Bill Gates made the honors list. William Gates 
KCBE, indeed! (Richard England)

YOU CAN GO UP, YOU CAN GO DOWN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9922
      I am somewhat of a Bible student, and I have read many writings on 
Zen, the Tao, and other major and minor religions, here is my conception of 
the Truth. If the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment can be compared to 
coming a mountain, then what we see is that all approaches that ascend will 
in fact get you to the summit eventually. Some routes are broad, 
well-traveled thoroughfares, some are mountain paths, and some quite 
frankly traverse the dense woods, boulder fields and cliffs without a mark 
to lead the way. The choice of the route we take is personal. The reality 
is if the going is difficult, you are probably heading the right way. If 
the going is easy, you may be headed the wrong direction -- down. The 
important thing is to pick a route -- and get busy! Of course many people 
prefer the comfort of watching from the chalet below. (Bob Weiss)

THE WAR ON SPAM: WHEW, I FINALLY CAUGHT THE COCKROACH!
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9980
      "Finally! The Nigerian E-Mail Scammers Caught"... I sure hope this 
line was meant in jest. Taken seriously, it would be like saying "Whew, I 
finally caught the cockroach!" I'm thinking of my former, antediluvian, New 
York City apartment. The neighborhood has been gentrified, or so I hear; I 
wonder if it's acquired a better class of cockroach. (Pete Kaiser)

TODAY'S LESSON IS ON FILLING OUT THE 'SUBJECT' LINE Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9954
      "The Culture Of Spam"... Well, at least spammers have figured how to 
use the "Subject:" field better than most legitimate email users. Ever got 
from a friend or colleague a message with an empty subject field, or 
enlightening subjects such as "question", "info", "HEEELP!" or something 
like that? (Paolo Amoroso)

MARSHALL MCLUHAN AND HOMER SIMPSON
      Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9949
In your Flash Card Marshall McLuhan says: "One thing about which fish know 
exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would 
enable them to perceive the element they live in." -- Funny- when I read 
this, I immediately though of Homer Simpson's remark that he loved 
cartoons, but that he couldn't imagine what the alternative would be. (Mark 
Mallett)

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9947
      I agree with Jakob Nielsen's concerns about the large manuals and 
small buttons. The only criterion I had for a recent DVD player purchase 
was that the remote was easy to use. (Jim Shurts)

PREFER NOT TO DISCLOSE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9985
      With regards to the item indicating that shoppers are spooked by 
spam. I have purchased a number of things over the internet, and it 
frustrates me to no end that companies (even brick and mortar ones) require 
me to fill in my email to complete my order. They already have my street 
address and telephone number, plus my Visa card for the purchase and 
delivery. In previous purchases I dutifully filled in this information and 
was deluged with emails for sales and offers even from reputable brick and 
mortar stores. Now I resort to either giving the online order form a bogus 
email addresses like [email protected] or submit a trash account 
on hotmail, yahoo or the like. These Internet email accounts are 
dispensable and I often abandon them within a couple of months when they 
get overloaded with spam directly related to my online purchases. 
Unfortunately, the free Internet email accounts bear the brunt of the 
resulting spam, which consequently causes the email providers to 
re-evaluate the viability and cost of maintaining free email accounts. I 
think even the reputable Internet/brick-&-mortar businesses need to 
carefully evaluate how they use emails for their business and provide a 
means for consumers to opt-out of (or more preferably opt-in to) email 
solicitations. (Gregory Chapelle, Nokia Mobile Phones, Inc.)

SPAM PARADOX
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9971
      Let me see if I understand the story "FTC Warning Puts Onus On 
Computer Users": The FTC, in an attempt to reduce the amount of spam on the 
Internet, sent spam to hundreds of thousands of people. (Chris Shaffer)

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