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

NewsScan Daily, 5 March 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Shielding Against Liability for Hacked Data
       California Imposes 'Hazardous-Waste Fee'
       Will RFID Tags Tag Books or Readers?
       Robot Servants
       Microsoft Around Your Neck

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: The Reality of Hope

SHIELDING AGAINST LIABILITY FOR HACKED DATA
     Companies that handle consumer transactions typically require customers
to agree to lengthy "terms-of-use" agreements in they waive any right to sue
the company if its computers have been broken into by vandals. Consumer
advocates say companies should be held accountable, and Chris Jay Hoofnagle
of the Electronic Privacy Information Center argues that if companies are
willing to derive the benefit of information collection they should accept
the responsibility to secure it. But Verizon Wireless general counsel offers
the corporate view that terms-of-use clauses are nothing more than good
business practice and are not attempts to avoid corporate responsibility:
"Verizon Wireless is very concerned with customer security and privacy. But
we are trying to be fiscally responsible to protect the company from
lawsuits." (Washington Post 4 Mar 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31874-2004Mar4.html

CALIFORNIA IMPOSES 'HAZARDOUS-WASTE FEE'
     In California, and "e-waste" law written last year by state Sen. Byron
Sher (D, San Jose) has resulted in the creation of new state-operated
computer-recycling programs that will be funded by making consumers pay up
to $10 more for a laptop computer or LCD monitor purchased. The new law,
which classifies those devices as hazardous waste, requires the eventual
elimination of hazardous substances from electronic equipment, and also
prohibits the practice of getting rid of old TVs and computers by sending
them to countries that don't follow U.S. environmental standards. (San Jose
Mercury News 5 Mar 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8106312.htm

WILL RFID TAGS TAG BOOKS OR READERS?
     Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags -- tiny devices that
broadcast data about any object in which they're embedded -- have been
proposed as a way of improving inventory control in San Francisco's library
system; however, some critics of RFID technology fear that it will be used
as an invasion of the personal privacy of library patrons. Ann Brick of the
ACLU says, "Privacy is really the handmaiden of the First Amendment," and
Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns: "Now is the time to
seriously worry about the government using RFIDs to track people." But Kathy
Lawhun, chief of the city's main library and a proponent of the RFID
proposal, suggests that the critics are getting way ahead of themselves:
"RFID is simply a chip with an antenna. You can have as little or as much as
you want on that chip." (AP/USA Today 5 Mar 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-03-05-library-rfid-hearing
_x.htm

ROBOT SERVANTS
     Japan is ahead of other countries in coming to grips with an expanding
percentage of elderly citizens (estimated to be 36% of the total population
by 2050). Its solution: robots. One example: a motorized, battery-operated
pair of pants designed to help the aged and infirm move around on their own.
Another: a mobile, three-foot-high speaking robot equipped with two camera
eyes so that working people can monitor their elderly parents at home. A
third: an automated bath tub in which the elderly person sits in a chair
inside a machine that closes like a clamshell to form an instant tub with
the person's head sticking out the top. (New York Times 5 Mar 2004)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/international/asia/05JAPA.html

MICROSOFT AROUND YOUR NECK
     Microsoft's new SenseCam device is meant to be worn around your neck
and will take up to 2,000 photos a day automatically  -- providing you with
a visual diary of just what you've been up to. So now you'll have a ready
answer when the police ask you: "Where exactly were you at 11:33 p.m. on the
night of the murder?" We hope your ready answer is also the right answer,
because Microsoft will not provide you with moral guidance -- at least not
yet. (AP/USA Today 5 Mar 2004)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology12mar05,1,5200631.story?c
oll=sns-ap-toptechnology

*****

FLASH CARD
     "What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible."
(Theodore Roethke)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE REALITY OF HOPE
     In reviewing his 30-year practice as an oncologist, Dr. Jerome Groopman
writes about the role he believes hope plays in the life of cancer patients;
     "Why do some people find hope despite facing severe illness, while
others do not? And can hope actually change the course of a malady, helping
patients to prevail?
     "I looked for the answers in the lives of several extraordinary
patients I cared for over the past thirty years. They led me on a journey of
discovery from a point where hope was absent to a place where it could not
be lost. Along the way, I learned the difference between true hope and false
hope, and describe times when I foolishly thought the latter was justified.
There were also instances when patients asserted their right to hope and I
wrongly believed they had no reason to do so. Because they held on to hope
even when I could not, they survived. And one woman of deep faith showed me
that even when there is no longer hope for the body, there is always hope
for the soul. Each person helped me see another dimension of the anatomy of
hope. 
     "Hope is one of our central emotions, but we are often at a loss when
asked to define it. Many of us confuse hope with optimism, a prevailing
attitude that 'things turn out for the best.' But hope differs from
optimism. Hope does not arise from being told to 'think positively,' or from
hearing an overly rosy forecast. Hope, unlike optimism, is rooted in
unalloyed reality. Although there is no uniform definition of hope, I found
one that seemed to capture what my patients had taught me. Hope is the
elevating feeling we experience when we see -- in the mind's eye -- a path
to a better future. Hope acknowledges the significant obstacles and deep
pitfalls along that path. True hope has no room for delusion."
                                         ***
See Jerome Groopman's "The Anatomy Of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face
of Illness" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all
revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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