NewsScan Daily, 12 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 12 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")
***********************************************************
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization
making significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology. NSD is
written by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, [email protected].
***********************************************************

"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Project Avalanche Could Snowball
        New Intel Chips Offer Hard-Wired Security for Cell Phones, PDAs
        Microsoft Settles InterTrust Patent Lawsuit
        Broadband Takes to the Friendly Skies
        New Photo Feature Is All About Location, Location, Location

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: John Stevens

PROJECT AVALANCHE COULD SNOWBALL
      Project Avalanche is putting a new spin on the coop concept -- rather 
than sharing health foods or vacation condos, members share intellectual 
property. For $30,000 a year, companies may donate any in-house software to 
the Avalanche library and may use, free of charge, any other software in 
the library's collection. While the project's still in its fledgling stage, 
several big names have lined up as sponsors, including Best Buy, Cargill 
and Medtronic. One of the first donations came from Best Buy, which 
contributed its AppTalk software -- a piece of so-called plumbing software 
that enables programs to communicate with each other. Avalanche founders 
Andrew Black and Scott Lien have big plans for their high-tech coop, aimed 
primarily at saving members the aggravation of paying thousands or even 
millions of dollars to companies like Siebel Systems and Microsoft, whose 
bread-and-butter revenue is generated through custom software applications 
and licensing arrangements. Black and Lien reason that by harnessing the 
combined talent pool of member companies, they will be able to come up with 
superior generic products that could benefit all members, allowing them to 
save their real time and energy for software projects that generate a 
concrete competitive advantage. (Wall Street Journal 12 Apr 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108172269419479841,00.html (sub req'd)

NEW INTEL CHIPS OFFER HARD-WIRED SECURITY FOR CELL PHONES, PDAs
      The next generation of Intel microprocessors -- the PXA27x line 
designed for cell phones and handheld computers -- will include 
hardware-based security features aimed at preventing hackers from invading 
wireless networks and intercepting wireless data transmissions. "Carriers 
want to be able to identify the handset on the network. They want to make 
sure nobody is doing anything malicious with that handset," says Intel 
wireless marketing manager Dave Rogers. The same technology can also be 
used to enforce digital rights management systems enforcing copyrights 
related to a CD or DVD. A purchased song, for instance, would not play 
unless it's been authorized and is running on secure hardware. Intel is 
working with major handset and handheld device operating system vendors, 
including Microsoft, Symbian and PalmSource, to ensure their software will 
work with the new chips. (AP 12 Apr 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040412/D81T8V2G0.html

MICROSOFT SETTLES INTERTRUST PATENT LAWSUIT
      Microsoft has settled a lawsuit brought three years ago by InterTrust 
Technologies, which alleged that the software giant infringed on its 
digital rights management patents. Microsoft will pay $440 million to 
InterTrust, which is owned by a joint venture of Sony, Philips Electronics 
and investment banking firm Stephens Inc. The announcement comes on the 
heels of Microsoft's agreement last week to pay Sun Microsystems $1.6 
million to settle an antitrust lawsuit and resolve patent claims. And last 
month, Microsoft settled a patent lawsuit filed by AT&T over 
voice-recognition technology. Terms of that settlement were not disclosed. 
(AP/Washington Post 12 Apr 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4960-2004Apr12.html?nav=headlines

BROADBAND TAKES TO THE FRIENDLY SKIES
      Lufthansa is rolling out in-flight broadband service on flights 
originating in Germany next month, following testing of the Connexion by 
Boeing service last year. "Keeping in touch becomes increasingly important 
for productivity as well as for the traveler's ability to maintain a 
healthy balance between work commitments and obligations to family, friends 
and community," says Connexion president Scott Carson. Users will need to 
supply their own Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or PDA, although some airlines will 
also provide Ethernet connections. "We are targeting business passengers on 
long-haul flights but that doesn't exclude kids who want to play games," 
says a Connexion spokeswoman. "Basically anyone with a wireless connected 
laptop can use it." The service costs about £16 for long-haul flights, with 
lower rates for shorter durations. (BBC News 12 Apr 2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3609043.stm

NEW PHOTO FEATURE IS ALL ABOUT LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
      Researchers Roberto Cipolla and Duncan Robertson at the University of 
Cambridge in the U.K. are developing photo recognition software that one 
day may help provide navigationally challenged travelers information on 
their location and how to get to where they're going. The user simply snaps 
a photo of a nearby building and presses send. A database matches the photo 
to a database of building images, and can accurately identify where the 
caller is standing to within one meter. This is superior technology to GPS 
or cell phone base station tracking systems, which are useless in cities 
with tall buildings interfere with direct line-of-sight transmissions. 
"Telling people 'You are in the vicinity of X' is no good to man nor 
beast," says John Craig of Cambridge Positioning Systems, which develops 
software for locating mobile phones. The Cambridge University software 
would give detailed instructions on how to get from point A to point B, 
such as "turn left and start walking." Cipolla and Robertson are currently 
working on a prototype that will cover all the buildings in Cambridge's 
central downtown area. (New Scientist 10 Apr 2004)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994857

*****

FLASH CARD
      "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; 
not only plan, but also believe." (Anatole France)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JOHN STEVENS
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the inventive entrepreneur John 
Stevens (1749-1838), who is remembered as the Father of American Railroads. 
Together with two of his sons, Robert Livingston Stevens (1787-1859) and 
Edwin Augustus Stevens (1795-1868) Stevens started an engineering dynasty 
that pioneered the use of steam power in the American nation's 
transportation systems, designing and building first steamboats and later 
railroad engines. The family heritage remains alive today in the Stevens 
Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey, the renowned engineering 
school founded with money and land bequeathed by Edwin Augustus Stevens.
      John Stevens was born in New York City in 1749, and after studying 
law he became a captain in the American Revolutionary army and later was 
promoted to colonel. In the years 1776 and 1777 he served as New Jersey's 
state treasurer, and then turned his attention to the prospects he saw in 
the future of steam navigation. In 1790 he played an important role in 
getting Congress to pass a U.S. patent law, which he then used to protect 
the boiler and engine designs he had begun developing in the late 1780s.
      In 1804 he built the steamboat, Little Juliana. It had twin screw 
propellers and successfully crossed the Hudson River. The next steamboat 
designed by Stevens was the Phoenix, a paddle-wheel steamboat that sailed 
in 1809 from New York City to Philadelphia -- the first ocean voyage ever 
taken by a steamboat. In 1810 Stevens took on rail transportation as a 
further business interest. In 1815 he obtained the first U.S. railroad 
charter, and in 1826 he designed and built the United States' first steam 
locomotive, which he operated on a circular track on his Hoboken, New 
Jersey estate.
      In both his steamboat and railroad projects, Stevens received 
considerable help from his sons. Robert Livingston, his second son, was a 
talented mechanical engineer and inventor, who helped with the design of 
the Phoenix and improved the designs of more than 20 other ferryboats and 
steamboats. Among his other contributions were the ferry slips used for 
linking the ferries with rail lines, the invention of the railroad spike, 
and improved methods for laying out railroad roadbeds. Edwin Augustus, 
Stevens' sixth-born son, was also a multi-talented individual who turned 
his hand to engineering, finance, invention and philanthropy. He managed 
the family finances; invented a plow and a wagon for hauling garbage; built 
at his own expense an ironclad warship; and held down the positions of 
treasurer and then president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1571459715/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for "The Encyclopedia of Trains and Railroads" -- or look for it in your 
favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to 
adult literacy programs.)

SUBSCRIPTION INFO FOR NEWSSCAN DAILY:
       To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions 
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages 
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to 
the addresses shown below:
       Text version: Send message to [email protected]
       HTML version: Send mail to [email protected]
       NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT NEWSSCAN DAILY! Send them our little frog: 
http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html

***********************************************************
Please visit the site of RLG, the great organization that makes NewsScan 
Daily possible. (RLG has no influence over, nor any responsibility for, our 
editorial content.) Created in 1974 as the Research Libraries Group, RLG is 
a not-for-profit membership corporation of more than 160 universities, 
national libraries, archives, museums -- and other institutions with 
remarkable collections for research and learning. Its major initiatives are 
long-term retention of digital materials, resource sharing among member 
institutions, and improvement of researcher access to primary source 
material. RLG supplies online research resources worldwide. Visit RLG at 
http://www.rlg.org.

*********

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the TEXT version of NewsScan Daily, send an 
e-mail message to [email protected] with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' 
in the subject line. To subscribe to our HTML version of NewsScan Daily, 
send mail to [email protected], with the word 'subscribe' as the 
subject. (Subscribing to the HTML version won't automatically unsubscribe 
you from the text version; please unsubscribe yourself as explained above.) 
Please note: To unsubscribe from an account to which you no longer have 
access, send mail to at [email protected].

*********

We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the 
great "broadsheet" newspapers in which editors must decide which news 
stories are of such importance that they should be placed "above the fold" 
on the front page. The NewsScan Credo: Be informative, have fun, and get to 
the point! See http://www.newsscan.com/, and send us mail: John Gehl 
<[email protected]> and Suzanne Douglas <[email protected]>, or call 
770-704-7517.

*********

Get a free 6-week trial subscription to Innovation Weekly, an executive 
summary of trends, strategies and innovations in business and technology. 
Send mail to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' in the 
subject line.

What customized news and information services do you need for your company? 
Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call 770-704-7517 to talk 
over the possibilities.

Copyright 2004. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.
***********************************************************