NewsScan Daily, 19 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 19 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Broadband Gaining Broader Appeal
        Denmark Best in World for E-Commerce, U.S. Ranks Sixth
        Startup Offers Insurance Against Linux Copyright Claims
        WorldCom Reemerges from Ashes of Bankruptcy
        FTC Targets Spyware

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Jules Verne
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

BROADBAND GAINING BROADER APPEAL
      About 40% of U.S. Internet users now have broadband connections at 
home, with cable modems accounting for 54% of those and 42% connecting 
through DSL. Those numbers -- part of a new report by the Pew Internet and 
American Life Project -- represent a sharp surge in broadband penetration, 
which was pegged at only 28% a year ago. And among those opting for 
high-speed connections, DSL has made significant inroads from last May, 
when only a third of broadband subscribers chose the telephony-based 
service. That change is attributable to lower rates now charged by 
telephone companies for DSL service, with SBC dropping its price to $27 a 
month and Verizon to $35, according to Dave Burstein, editor of a DSL 
newsletter. Pew senior research specialist John Horrigan says the increase 
in broadband connections reflects Americans' rising frustration with slower 
connections that they perceive as wasting their time. "People turn to 
broadband over time as they expand the menu of online activities they do," 
says Horrigan. (AP 19 Apr 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040419/D821R9Q00.html

DENMARK BEST IN WORLD FOR E-COMMERCE, U.S. RANKS SIXTH
      Denmark is the most conducive country in the world for e-commerce, 
with the U.K. ranking second, followed by Sweden, Norway and Finland. The 
U.S. ranked sixth -- down from third in 2003, according to a report by the 
Economist Intelligence Unit. The company rated things like demand for 
mobile phones and faster Internet connections, as well as access to cheap 
and easy-to-use products and software. Another vital component in the 
future of e-commerce development is the role of governments, and EIU 
suggests further cooperation between local governments, the information and 
communications industries, and businesses -- something that's already 
happening in the Nordic countries. EIU points out that the role of 
government can be particularly important in so-called developing countries 
where infrastructure is lacking. It points to India, South Africa and 
Bulgaria as examples of countries that have managed to develop "niche" 
industries in software development and services outsourced from the U.S. 
(BBC News 18 Apr 2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3632027.stm

STARTUP OFFERS INSURANCE AGAINST LINUX COPYRIGHT CLAIMS
      Open Source Risk Management is launching insurance-like protection 
aimed at indemnifying Linux users against copyright infringement claims 
like those made by SCO Group. The company says it has completed a six-month 
study comparing Linux with several version of Unix and found no copyright 
problems. "We have come out of the examination process with the strong 
belief that there are no meritorious copyright infringement claims in the 
kernel. With all we have seen to date, I don't believe they have a strong 
case," says OSRM executive director John St. Clair. OSRM's legal protection 
covers only copyright infringement, but it plans to offer patent protection 
as well for an additional charge. It also has launched an Open Source Legal 
Defense Center, which offers companies expert legal advice for $100,000 per 
year, while charging $250 per year for individual programmers. The 
copyright-infringement protection is priced at 3% per year of the total 
coverage -- so for protection against $1 million of legal costs, a company 
would pay $30,000. Meanwhile, an SCO spokesman disputed OSRM's claims: 
"Everything we have looked at and found would run contrary to what they're 
finding." (CNet News.com 18 Apr 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-7344-5193883.html

WORLDCOM REEMERGES FROM ASHES OF BANKRUPTCY
      WorldCom will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy tomorrow, 
reincarnated as MCI Inc. The company, which has been doing business 
informally under the MCI brand for more than a year, plans to focus on its 
business customers, who make up more than 80% of its revenue, with services 
that allow them to "put local, long-distance and Internet all on the same 
network," says CEO Michael Capellas. MCI also plans to push its local phone 
service know as "The Neighborhood," which claims about 3.5 million 
customers. At the same time, it hopes to expand its high-speed Internet 
service to residential customers. However, both plans will depend on how 
aggressively the Federal Communications Commission disputes a federal court 
decision that recently threw out regulations dictating the terms of 
line-leasing arrangements with local telcos in order to reach residential 
customers. "We are going to have to determine which way the regulatory wind 
blows," says Capellas. (Washington Post 19 Apr 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22590-2004Apr18.html

FTC TARGETS SPYWARE
      The Federal Trade Commission, which championed the anti-spam 
legislation recently enacted by Congress, now has another Internet scourge 
in its sights: spyware. The agency is sponsoring a workshop today to study 
technical and regulatory responses to spyware, but officials caution that 
legislation is unlikely to be passed this year. Adware (the most common 
type of spyware) usually piggybacks on other programs -- most notably music 
file-sharing or screen-saver software -- and then tracks users' Web surfing 
habits, relaying that information to ad companies that then bombard the 
user with pop-up ads. More malicious versions of spyware track keystrokes 
in order to steal credit card information or identity. House and Senate 
bills would require users' clear consent before downloads, but FTC bureau 
director Howard Beales says such approaches could prove cumbersome: "The 
question is whether there's a way to draw a workable line. If you download 
a set of (updates) for Windows, it comes with a bunch of different 
programs. You don't want to have to go through this every time." (USA Today 
18 Apr 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-04-18-spyware_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "What is now proved was once imagined." (William Blake)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JULES VERNE
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the French novelist Jules Verne 
(1828-1905), whose hugely popular imaginary tales were prophetic compounds 
of science and adventure that became the early literature of modern science 
fiction. Verne had a masterful talent for popularizing science and pushing 
technology to fantastical limits, creating exciting stories of journeys to 
the moon and the center of the earth. Unrealistic for his own time, much of 
what Verne imagined about space (e.g. weightlessness), powered submarines, 
and air travel was later realized, earning today's respect for the science 
fiction genre.
      Verne was born and grew up in the port city of Nantes, where his 
father was a prosperous lawyer. Verne moved to Paris to study law, but he 
also developed an interest in writing. His uncle had connections in the 
literary world and introduced him to important writers such as Victor Hugo 
and Alexandre Dumas, the son. Under their influence he tried his hand at 
writing plays, one of which, the one-act comedy, "The Broken Straws," was 
performed in Paris when Verne was 22.
      Enthralled by Baudelaire's translation of the Edgar Allan Poe 
stories, Verne wrote his first science fiction tale. Verne was not an 
immediate success as a writer, and he had to support himself with work as a 
stockbroker. Fortunately, his career was helped along by the support and 
guidance of the publisher Pierre Jules Hetzel who brought out Verne's 
successful series, "Voyages Extraordinaires." The popularity of these 
romantic adventures encouraged Verne to continue writing in that vein.
      He avoided pure fantasy, seeking instead to depict imaginary, yet 
technologically plausible scientific endeavors. He expanded his Voyages to 
include "The Journey to the Center of the Earth," "From the Earth to the 
Moon," "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and "The Mysterious Island" 
-- all memorable for his anticipation of scientific devices and 
developments, such as the submarine, the aqualung, television, and space 
travel. Lacking training as a scientist and experience as a traveler, Verne 
acquired the knowledge needed to write his stories by spending many hours 
in Paris libraries studying geology, engineering, and astronomy. His 
imagination, however, often took precedence over the facts and 
probabilities of contemporary scientific knowledge. Still, his scientific 
foresight was impressive. It was honored as recently as 1955 when the first 
nuclear-powered submarine was named Nautilus, after the submarine commanded 
by the infamous Captain Nemo in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."
      Verne's books made him a very rich man. He acquired a large 
provincial house in Amiens and settled down with his wife and stepchildren 
to a complacent bourgeois life. Interested in the sea from his early years, 
he bought a yacht and took up sailing, making a trip around the 
Mediterranean, visiting Gibraltar, North Africa and Rome. In 1867 he 
traveled with his brother to the United States. He died in the city of 
Amiens on March 24, 1905.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812550927/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" -- 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

ASTRONAUTS AND HAM
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=771
      I agree that Dr. Ellen Ochoa is worthy of being an Honorary 
Subscriber, but I wish you'd included in her accomplishments that she (like 
most current astronauts) is a licensed Amateur ("ham") Radio operator. 
(Andy Funk)

CLOSING THE SALE WITH POP-UPS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10416
      With regard to "Pop-Up Clerks Try to Close the Sale," I have to say, 
that has the potential to be horrendous. I currently visit several sites 
that use layers to put adverts over the top of the content, and it's 
exceptionally annoying, if only because it obscures the content I actually 
want to read.  Companies proposing to follow this route need to be careful: 
if their "helpful avatar" obscures the store, it's going to be 
counterproductive and highly irritating. (Giles Guthrie)

WHAT'S THE PRICE OF THIS THING I'M PRETENDING TO BUY?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10416
      Does this include shopping sites that don't list the price until the 
item is in your shopping cart? Software vendors are particularly bad about 
that; sometimes the only way to find the price of a piece of software via 
the web is to pretend to want to buy it. I'm guilty of adding to this 
misleading statistic. (Marty Billingsley)

FOOLING LAPTOP THIEVES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10429
      Many years ago I learned that if it is ever necessary to hide 
anything valuable in the trunk of a car, put it there *before* you drive to 
the location where the car will be unattended. Not many thieves will bother 
to follow you because you might be going a long distance and you might take 
the object out of the trunk when you do stop. (Joe Callahan)

ONLINE PUBS: NOT AT ANY PRICE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10410
      Most publishers have found that subscribers are not willing to pay 
any price for online subs. Plus you must send subscribers an E-mail 
notifying them that the sub is available or "Push" the issue to them. 
Online subs seems to be a wonderful model, but it has yet to receive 
customer acceptance. (Les Morris) [Our own Innovation Weekly excepted, of 
course. J&S]

ANOTHER TOOL IN THE WAR AGAINST SPAM
      I have just received another bunch of useless mail [aka spam] but I 
happened to notice a tag at the end of one of the "valuable opportunities" 
presented. This was from something called "msgtag" [ www.msgtag.com ] who 
provide a sly way for spammers to check that a message has been received, 
even though your post receipt rules may then delete it.  Their web site 
shows some sort of journalistic "praise" for their supposedly valuable 
service -- which shows something about journalists perhaps.  My spam 
intercept rules now include "if message contains 'msgtag' then delete." 
Others of your subscribers may care to implement something similar. (Scott 
Pollard)

FLYING HIGH WITH HOPE OF CELLPHONE PROFITS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10408
      There's a basic misunderstanding here -- when a cell phone transmits 
a radio signal, that signal pervades the space it is in which, in the case 
of an aircraft cabin includes the space of the avionics, and having a base 
station in that same space wouldn't somehow "funnel" the cell phone signal 
away from the avionics. Indeed, having a base station in the cabin would 
add to the problem as the base station generates signals of its own. Now, 
instead of one radio generating source we have two! The fact is that 
hardening is not an option in the aviation world as avionics have to work 
under all sorts of conditions -- and if they can stand the radio 
interference generated by thunderstorms I suspect that cell phone 
interference is trivial by comparison.
      What I was getting at in my original letter was that the Economist 
article was logically sloppy. This kind of clumsy reporting is all too 
common where technology is concerned and is just the kind of thing that 
politicians grab hold of as foundations of public policy. I suspect that 
the original reason for the no cell phones in airplanes rule was a 
justifiable overcautiousness on the part of the airlines. In fact there are 
a few "official" reports on cell phone problems in aircraft (for example, 
see http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/capap2003_03.pdf). But if cell phones are 
a real risk why have the airlines never used cell phone detectors in cabins 
(these are cheap devices)?
      The other reason suggested -- that cell phones overflying base 
stations causes some kind of problem for the cellular network seems 
unlikely -- it is hard to believe that a handful of high flying phones 
would be a serious load on or service problem for the cellular systems. And 
if this were actually the case there would be an FCC mandate that cell 
phones were verboten in aircraft and the airlines would announce it that way.
      I suspect that the real reasons for the "we're going to trust you to 
turn off your cell phones when we ask because they are really dangerous but 
we'll never bother to check they really are off" practice of the airlines 
will never be known.
      But now it appears that a buck can be made out of allowing cell phone 
service in aircraft cabins and, by golly, we have the technology so we'll 
do it! (Mark Gibbs)

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