NewsScan Daily, 27 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 27 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Spam's Cure Could Be Worse Than the Disease
        70 Playstation 2s + 1 Network Switch + Linux = 1 Supercomputer
        Homeland Security Via Webcam
        The Next Big Thing in Search Engines
        Technology, Truth, and Privacy
        Computer Accessories for Father's Day

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Micro-Mismanagement
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

SPAM'S CURE COULD BE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE
CNet columnist Declan McCullagh worries that the proliferation of 
spam-blocking software incorporating challenge-response technology could 
lead to the death of e-mail. Challenge-response systems require the human 
sending a message to perform a simple task such as clicking on a link or 
typing a special password to get past the barrier. The problem is, says 
McCullagh, that many challenge-response systems are poorly designed, and 
could causes big headaches for administrators of legitimate e-mail 
newsletters (such as NewsScan Daily) that go out to large numbers of 
people. "Big corporations may be able to afford to hire someone to sit in 
front of a computer and spend all day proving they're not a spam bot, but 
nonprofit groups, individuals and smaller companies probably can't," says 
McCullagh. Earthlink has already announced its intentions to make a 
challenge-response system available to subscribers by the end of May, and 
other ISPs may follow suit -- a scenario that has veteran list operators 
concerned. Dave Farber, a computer scientist at the University of 
Pennsylvania who runs the "interesting people" list, says: "If I start 
getting a flood of challenges from Earthlink IPers that require my response 
I will most likely declare them spam and you will stop receiving IP mail. I 
fully expect this to be the case for almost all the legitimate mailing 
lists you are on and count on." Meanwhile, editors at the popular Macintosh 
newsletter TidBits, have told readers: "Be warned that we will not answer 
any challenges generated in response to our mailing list postings. Thus, if 
you're using a challenge-response system and not receiving TidBits, you'll 
need to figure that out on your own." (CNet News.com 27 May 2003)
http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-1009745.html?tag=fd_nc_1

70 PLAYSTATION 2s + 1 NETWORK SWITCH + LINUX = 1 SUPERCOMPUTER
An increasing trend in computing is the development of ever-faster 
computers for the consumer market: Dan Reed of the National Center for 
Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois says, "If 
you look at the economics of game platforms and the power of computing on 
toys, this is a long-term market trend and computing trend. The economics 
are just amazing. This is going to drive the next big wave in 
high-performance computing." The NCSA has used the Linux operating system 
and a Hewlett-Packard network switch to tie together 70 individual game 
machines into a single supercomputing system capable of a half-trillion 
operations a second. Total cost: about $50,000. Most difficult part of the 
project: "It took a lot of time because you have to cut all of these things 
out of the plastic packaging," said NCSA senior research scientist Craig 
Steffen. (New York Times 26 May 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/05/26/technology/26XSUPE.html

HOMELAND SECURITY VIA WEBCAM
Jay Walker, who made his fortune by inventing Priceline.com, is working on 
a new brainstorm that addresses the timely issue of homeland security. The 
premise behind USHomeGuard is simple: use webcams at the 47,000 "critical 
infrastructure facilities" that are at risk, enabling ordinary, online 
Americans to help monitor the sites from their homes. If a person spots a 
potential terrorist -- a hooded man trying to scale a power plant fence, 
for instance, or a panel truck parked next to a reservoir -- on-site 
security could be alerted with the click of a mouse. Walker suggests that 
work-at-home monitors could be reimbursed at up to $10 an hour, paid by the 
government agencies and companies that need the service. "We like to think 
of USHomeGuard as a digital victory garden," says Walker. "It lets people 
be part of the solution." A spokesman for the Department of Homeland 
Security says federal officials have not done any "serious evaluation" of 
the proposal, adding that the agency isn't currently contemplating any 
strategies that rely on Internet surveillance. Meanwhile, law enforcement 
officials worry that such a system would generate too many false alarms. 
"People get suspicious easily, and this could quadruple our call volume," 
says Capt. Joe Carrillo of the San Jose Fire Department. "The idea is 
really good. But the timing is really bad," he added, alluding to 
California's current budget crisis. (AP/CNN.com 27 May 2003)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/05/27/cams.homeland.ap/index.html

THE NEXT BIG THING IN SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines have been undergoing incremental improvements for years, but 
they still look and function pretty much the same as when they came out. 
However, that could change soon, with a raft of new search products on the 
horizon. Researchers at NEC have developed the Review Seer -- a tool that 
enables consumers to automatically sift through product reviews culled from 
newsgroup and Web site postings. Users could personalize the Review Seer's 
results by specifying what features and price ranges they're interested in. 
Ben Shneiderman, a professor of computer science at the University of 
Maryland, says that most people are better at communicating with their 
computers when they can see data, rather than reading it. His TimeSearcher 
tool turns search result data into a graphic representation, enabling users 
to modify the graphed results by specifying a "date created," for example. 
Shneiderman's PhotoMesa and PhotoFinder are a browser and a search tool 
geared toward finding digital images. Eventually, search engines will be 
able to interact with cookies left on the users' computers to "learn" from 
past searches what the user most likely is looking for. The cookies could 
tell a search engine to return only new information or only results 
targeted to the user's location. (Wired.com 27 May 2003)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58971,00.html

TECHNOLOGY, TRUTH, AND PRIVACY
Various ongoing scientific projects are working to find replacements for 
the still-controversial polygraph test as a way of deciding whether someone 
is lying or telling the truth. One of those projects: a University of 
Pennsylvania biophysicist is testing a headband that uses near-infrared 
light emitters and detectors to monitor blood-flow changes in the brain. 
Another: a psychologist is using MRI technology to scan the brains of 
volunteers told to give false answers to questions they are asked. See 
www.nap.edu/books/0309084369/html for a report by the National Academy of 
Sciences on lie detectors. The new approaches are being met with the same 
kind of criticism aimed at polygraph tests, plus a new twist. University of 
Maryland physicist Robert Park, a long-time critic of polygraphs, says: 
"There's only one thing worse than a lie detector that doesn't work, and 
that's a lie detector that does work. It's the last invasion of privacy 
that you can imagine, and it frightens me that we seem to be almost able to 
do it." (AP/USA Today 23 May 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-05-23-liar-liar_x.htm

COMPUTER ACCESSORIES FOR FATHER'S DAY
Larry Blasko of the Associated Press is suggesting that instead of giving 
ol' dad a tie for Father's Day you should consider such computer 
accessories as an optical, wireless, rechargeable mouse ($30-50); a new 
keyboard (<$50); more memory (~$35); or a book on computers; or some new 
software. Our own suggestion: a subscription to NewsScan Daily (free and 
priceless) -- or Innovation Weekly ($18 and equally priceless; see 
http://www.newsscan.com/subscribe_us.html).  (AP/San Jose Mercury News 26 
May 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5947565.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Money teaches us to count, but science, inasmuch as it is not 
governed by money, might yet teach us to think." (Christopher M. Kelty)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: MICRO-MISMANAGEMENT
      Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, has always hated the 
idea of price controls, and preached against them. In the early '70s the 
government made an attempt to extricate itself from the price control 
system it had put in place, but instead of abandoning the whole system it 
tried to dismantle the system piece-meal, and thereby ran into some curious 
and bizarre problems:
      "In June 1973, employees at a hatchery in Joaquin, Texas, drowned 
43,000 baby chicks in barrels filled with water. Why? Because decontrolled 
grain feed prices were rising, while the price of chicken was still frozen. 
'It's cheaper to drown 'em than to put 'em down and raise 'em,' explained 
the manager of the hatchery. The whole episode was captured on film and was 
covered on the evening news by stations across America. It served for many 
as a grotesque illustration of the folly of wage and price controls."
                                       ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0738205249/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Justin Martin's "Greenspan: The Man Behind Money" -- or look for it in 
your favorite library. [We donate all revenues from our book 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

LOVEY DOVEY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8395
      "A survey by the Mobile Data Association found that a full 74% of 
female respondents said they'd used text messaging in the last two minutes, 
compared with 26% of males, and about half the women said they'd prefer 
receiving a sentimental text message to a card on special occasions." This 
has to be wrong, but the original has this too ... Nah ... Even the women 
who text ME with lovey dovey messages all the time don't manage one every 
two minutes! (Peter Neville, Wales)

THE SPHINX'S NOSE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8404
      As I have worked in archaeology in the U.S. (mostly historical, that 
is for impacts proposed and actual), I found the article on the Sphinx very 
interesting. However, in the public record, i.e. the media, it has been 
reported that the Sphinx's nose pieces are in the basement of the British 
Museum, and that another story of the resulting "broken nose" was from 
artillery practice gone awry, particularly by the British Army. Perhaps it 
is just a story. I also would recommend the recent journey by camera into a 
passageway into the Sphinx by noted Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, which was 
extremely interesting and timely, as the company who 3D mapped the Sphinx 
and software I was using on the "origin of American artillery" site, in 
Cold Spring, NY, occurred about the same time, and appeared in the U.S. 
"National Geographic". (George Myers)

HERE'S A CLUE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8394
      The MIT administrator who said this needs to get a clue. College 
students aren't stupid. They have seen you can spend a fortune on a CS 
degree and IT companies can (and will) lay you off before the student loans 
are paid off. Then they're stuck with a debt that they have limited means 
to pay back. When they pick a major, they'll pick one for a profession they 
can stay employed in -- unless it's a major they have a passion for. 
(Daniel L. Evans)

WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8391
      The president of Brightmail says that spam costs U.S. businesses $10 
billion a year in lost productivity. The Direct Marketing Association has 
just released figures showing that commercial e-mail advertisements 
generated more than $7 billion in sales last year. I conclude: What's good 
for spammers is not good for the country. (Don Baxter)

THE RELATIVITY OF TIME
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8385
      Full of enthusiasm, I decided to access the site, only to be told 
"Einstein Archives Online will open soon at this location. Please check 
back on Monday, May 19, after 3 PM EDT." Mmm, seeing as your notice was 
sent out on May 21, and I was checking on May 22, maybe they're running 
their website in a different co-ordinate system, and the general relativity 
compensator hasn't synchronised yet :-) (Ken Masters, South Africa)

PLUTOCRATS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8381
      "Capitalism and democracy do not necessarily go hand in hand." Soros 
can say that again; we do not live in democracies: we live in plutocracies 
in the West. Self-serving, self-perpetuating plutocracies. Capitalism taken 
to its logical extreme. Thank you, America -- and in the case of this 
country: Margaret Thatcher. (John Law, UK)

GOOGLING AROUND THE WORLD
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8336
      We also have "our own" now. http://news.google.co.nz/ Gosh, how 
highly must lowly NZ rate with Google! (Wieland Hartwig, New Zealand)

IF THE GLOVES DON'T FIT YOU MUST ACQUIT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8366
      With regard to "Microsoft Scoops Up Unix License From SCO," I can't 
believe how outrageous SCO's claims are getting. The "fingerprints" on the 
Linux "gun" are just as open source as Linux itself is, there for all the 
world to examine under a microscope. If SCO says what parts of Linux it 
thinks infringe, Linux developers might (horror of horrors) be able to 
resolve any genuine infringement in future Linux releases, but the idea 
that infringement in existing and past versions could possibly be covered 
up defies all rationality. Further, SCO are themselves a significant Linux 
distributor (or were until they started realizing the hole they were 
digging for themselves if they continued distributing Linux in spite of 
their intellectual property claims). If SCO has been distributing Linux 
without realizing that it contained SCO intellectual property, it would be 
the height of hypocrisy for them to claim that other Linux distributors 
should have known. And if SCO did know that the Linux they were 
distributing contained SCO intellectual property, under the terms of the 
GNU General Public License, their including the code in their Linux 
distribution grants a clear right for all Linux versions to use the code. 
Either way, SCO's tactics in making broad claims without providing hard 
evidence, claims against software they themselves have been a significant 
distributor of, have a stink that could make a dead skunk smell good by 
comparison. (Nathan Barclay)

HE CAN BREATHE AGAIN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8366
      Maybe I don't comprehend what I read very well, but my first 
impression of this was that Microsoft had bought SCO's ownership rights in 
Unix ("scoops up"; "the rights") and would therefore be in a position to 
step in as plaintiff in SCO Group's litigation and threatened litigation 
against the many users and purveyors of Linux. A very scary thought. Upon 
checking the full Wall Street Journal article, I learned that Microsoft has 
entered only a licensing agreement with SCO to incorporate SCO Unix into 
Microsoft products. This is a very different story. (Of course, SCO Group 
will now be able to point to Microsoft's acquisition of licensed rights as 
implicit evidence of the legitimacy of SCO Group's ownership of code 
claimed to be incorporated into open source Linux.) Meanwhile, my heart 
rate and respiration have returned to near normal. (Will Roberts)

ANOTHER LOAN LOST TO DITECH!!!
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8360
      I must strenuously object to the way this article is presented! The 
Justice department may think that selling pharmaceutical drugs without 
requiring a prescription or physician involvement is a "scam" and that all 
voluntary purchasers are "victims", but any rational thinking person knows 
that this is nonsense. For the editors of NewsScan to allow this totally 
voluntary action about which there is no indication that the product was 
not delivered to the satisfaction of the buyers, to be lumped together with 
ponzi schemes, and fraudulent sale of investment property and dealings for 
Russian brides, is not only regrettable, but unforgivable! (Paul Wakfer)

OFF-THE-SHELF WARFARE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8363
      You say "Videogames Go From War Room To Living Room" -- but actually 
it went from living room to war room! The military has been using combat 
simulation to train squads for more than six years. While this may come as 
no surprise for some folks (after all, they've been using computer 
simulation to train pilots, naval commanders and tank operators for a lot 
longer), what is interesting is that they first used an off-the-shelf game 
to do it. The Marine Corps used a modified version of Doom II to teach 
squad level tactics back in early 1997. (Louis Jezsik, Montreal)

DOING THE WORK
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8356
      "If everybody does that, the company goes bankrupt," says Stuart 
Gilman. The one question not asked or answered here is, "Is this person 
getting their work done?" If the answer is no, then there's a problem 
whether the person is techno-slacking or not. Deal with it appropriately, 
and move on. If the answer is yes, then the question becomes, "Is 
techno-slacking the problem, or just a symptom of a deeper problem?" Does 
the company mandate a 9-5 workday even though this person's work could be 
done any time of day? If so, perhaps more flexible work schedules are in 
order, so that employees can make it to their kids' soccer games without 
having to sneak out to do it. Is this person faking late nights in the 
office because they believe it is expected of them but have to be home 
looking after their kids in the evenings? If so, perhaps telecommuting 
would make them a happier and more productive employee. Solving the right 
problem will get you a better productivity and happier employees in the 
long run. (Mike Fisher)

TAX AVOIDANCE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8275
      Even the Wall Street Journal chided the RIAA for alienating its 
future (paying) customers, and not embracing new technology and business 
models. Really now: Even Microsoft saw that the Internet was inevitable and 
adjusted magnificently. I believe people should be compensated for their 
work and ownership, and I just choose not to buy the product if the asking 
price is too dear. But then to let corporations avoid taxes on my purchases 
because they're not incorporated in the US -- outrageous! (Jim McGee)

'ACTORS WITH ZERO-AND-ONE TALENTS'
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8339
      And I guess, producers too. So "There are some really remarkable 
scenes that the audience will never know were constructed in a computer, or 
that there's nobody actually in it." Yeah sure, and please tell me about 
these movies, so I can avoid them like the plague. (Andrew Rafalski)

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