NewsScan Daily, 4 May 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 4 May 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       At Least a Half Million Computers Invaded
       Sasser Eyed Over Train Outage
       Microsoft's New Copyright-Protection Software
       Risqué Cell Phone Services
       Growing Up in the Age of Buddy Lists
       Who Will Keep an Eye on E-Voting?
       U.S. Urges Global Crackdown on Copyright Theft

FEATURES        
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Changing Ways

AT LEAST A HALF MILLION COMPUTERS INVADED
     The new computer worm called Sasser has already infected hundreds of
thousands of computers and caused some networks to crash continually. The
worm automatically scans Internet addresses in an infected computer to find
another vulnerable PC it can infect. The Microsoft site has a software patch
that Windows users should download and install. (New York Times 4 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/04/business/04worm.html

SASSER EYED OVER TRAIN OUTAGE
     In Australia, RailCorp has dispatched software engineers to find the
source of the outage that left up to 300,000 commuters stranded yesterday,
saying the new Sasser worm, which has already spawned two variants, is being
evaluated as a possible cause. A RailCorp spokesman confirmed that software
engineers were investigating the problem, which prevented drivers from
talking to signal boxes. A virus attack was one possibility being
investigated. RailCorp was unable to confirm when the investigation would be
complete. RailCorp chief executive Vince Graham raised the possibility of a
virus attack at a press briefing yesterday: "There is no evidence that
hacking is an issue here, the viral infection could have been introduced by
one of our own people not taking sufficient care." (The Australian 3 May
2004)
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9455677%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,
00.html (Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin Univ.

MICROSOFT'S NEW COPYRIGHT-PROTECTION SOFTWARE
     Microsoft is introducing DRM "digital rights management" software
software to allow rented songs or movies to be used on portable players,
cellular phones and other devices. Songs and videos purchased through
subscription services will be given digital expiration dates. The Walt
Disney Co. and other companies are interested in using the new technology
for their content. (Los Angeles Times 3 May 2004) http://tinyurl.com/26553

RISQUÉ CELL PHONE SERVICES
     With third-generation, high-speed networks and video cell phones now
available on the European market, cellular service carriers are using
pornography for a new revenue stream. The Gartner market research company
estimates that risqué content over cellphones will generate $1.5 billion in
Western Europe next year (about 5.1% of the total mobile data market).
Vodafone executive Tina Southall says, "It is a big commercial opportunity,
so it is fair to say that commercial operators will have to exploit this
opportunity in some way." Berth Milton, chief executive of the Private Media
Group, which distributes pornography, explains: "Operators have put billions
of euros into 3G networks, so they need to generate revenues even more than
the content providers."(New York Times 4 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/04/technology/techspecial/04SHEN.html

GROWING UP IN THE AGE OF BUDDY LISTS
     In addition to pornography, parents have to worry now about Instant
Messaging (IM) and buddy lists. One parent comments: "I find it amusing and
somewhat concerning that the parents don't have a clue. Many parents are
very computer-savvy, but they don't know what it's like to communicate as a
kid... For as much as we have a lot of controlling parents, there is a
secret part of their kids' lives that parents are not aware of. They don't
even know to ask the question [about buddy lists]." Another parents says: "I
don't open their laptops, I don't read their IMs. But it was a shock when I
found out how many people she had on her buddy list. I thought maybe she had
a few girlfriends, soccer friends. I was astounded." But there's some good
news. Peter Grunwald of the media research firm Grunwald Associates had done
research showing that "the kids who are most likely to be on buddy lists are
the kids who are the 'influencers.' They are the kids who listen to the
school about technology, and who are much more likely to listen to their
parents and use technology with their parents." (Washington Post 3 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64312-2004May3.html

WHO WILL KEEP AN EYE ON E-VOTING?
     The tiny U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), whose mandate is to
supervise the use of electronic voting machines in the U.S., claims that it
is seriously underfunded and can't be expected to forestall widespread
voting machine problems. EAC director DeForest B. Soaries Jr. says: "We've
found some deeply troubling concerns, and the country wants to know the
solution... If you look at the evolution of voting in America, only in last
four months has there been a federal agency whose exclusive focus is to deal
with voting. It's the foundation of our democratic structure on one hand,
but on the other we've really left it to the states to manage completely."
Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, comments: "I
wish the EAC luck, but oversight of these systems is illusory. As long as
federal voting system standards are voluntary, voters across the country
will not have the peace of mind they need to feel confident in their voting
systems." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 3 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8580743.htm

U.S. URGES GLOBAL CRACKDOWN ON COPYRIGHT THEFT
     In its annual report, the U.S. Trade Representative's office has
elevated five countries -- Egypt, South Korea, Kuwait, Pakistan and Turkey
-- to its "priority watch list" for intellectual property theft, and has
lowered Poland to its regular watch list. The report says, "The economic
damage caused by the counterfeiting to the legitimate companies whose
products are counterfeited is enormous. Losses to U.S. industries alone are
estimated at $200 to $250 billion per year." (Reuters/USA Today 3 Apr 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-05-03-piracy-pitch_x.htm

*****  

FLASH CARD 
     "The greatest book is not the one whose messages engraves itself on the
brain, but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from
writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by various essences, until it
becomes a great conflagration." (Romain Rolland)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: CHANGING WAYS
     In the manner of Plutarch's Lives, Claudia Pierpont has written a book
about pairs of women writers who are typically viewed as polar opposites,
but who may have more in common than is generally understood.
     "Two writers who seemed to embody entirely different concerns -- the
South African 'agnostic' novelist Olive Schreiner and the author of
America's champion best-seller, Margaret Mitchell -- turned out to have a
great deal in common. Born nearly half a century and half a world apart,
both wrote about race and its place in the history of a bitterly divided
country, about a time of difficult change from one era to the next, and
about women who were too strong to fit into established feminine patterns.
And both had an extraordinary effect on readers: in the 1880s, Schreiner's
"The Story of an African Farm" was widely perceived as a spiritual bridge
between Darwinian science and the need for God; in the mid-1930s and for a
long time after, a significant number of Americans viewed the Civil War and
Reconstruction -- with all their implications for the contemporary racial
order -- as Mitchell had portrayed them in "Gone with the Wind." Whatever
the merits of their prose or their arguments, these women told stories that
changed the way people thought and lived."
                                ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679431063/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Claudia Roth Pierpont's "Women Rewriting the World" -- or look for it
in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book
recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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