NewsScan Daily, 11 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 11 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        FCC Paves the Way for Spectrum Reconfiguration
        Short-Range Wireless Standards Will Learn to Work Together
        BT to Shut Down 'Circuit-Switched' Network in Favor of VoIP
        Arrest Made in Videogame Code Theft
        Music Stores' Echo Fades Away

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Quanah Parker

FCC PAVES THE WAY FOR SPECTRUM RECONFIGURATION
      The Federal Communications Commission approved a plan to reconfigure 
a chunk of valuable airwave spectrum in an effort to boost wireless 
broadband use. The current configuration places spectrum intended for 
educational-video use adjacent to spectrum earmarked for commercial uses -- 
a situation that requires the agency to impose rigid rules on commercial 
users to avoid interference. The FCC also decided to maintain its policy of 
allowing educators to lease spectrum to companies such as Nextel and 
Sprint, but ruled against allowing the widespread sale of educational 
licenses. Currently, schools can license 120 megahertz of the 194 MHz band, 
and educators are permitted to lease as much as 95% of their airwaves to 
commercial users and spend the proceeds for educational purposes. Critics 
had charged that some educators had not made good use of their licenses, 
but most educators opposed outright sale of the licenses, comparing the 
idea to the sale of national parks. (Wall Street Journal 11 Jun 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108688250788033800,00.html (sub req'd)

SHORT-RANGE WIRELESS STANDARDS WILL LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER
      Five short-range wireless technologies are currently competing for 
the industry limelight, but experts say it won't be too long until they all 
learn to play together nicely. Big names like Motorola, Honeywell, Samsung, 
ABB, Invensys and Mitsubishi are pushing what they're calling ZigBee 
technology, an ultra-low-power connection that can be built into lamps, 
fire alarms or heating systems to link them together. "We're trying to 
submerge the wireless part of it. Consumers are not supposed to think 
wireless, just functionality," says ZigBee chairman Bob Heile. Meanwhile, 
Wi-Fi is rapidly gaining popularity as a short-range option, with most 
laptops now including Wi-Fi connections already built in. Ultra Wideband is 
good for transferring vast amounts of data between devices, making it the 
technology of choice for streaming video from a DVD player, for instance. 
BlueTooth is an energy-efficient alternative to hardwired hookups between 
devices that transfer moderate amounts of data, such as between cell phones 
and peripherals such as microphones. Finally, Near Field Communications 
(NFC), backed by Sony, Nokia and Philips, promises to provide a simple 
connection between devices at very close range, such as a "smart" credit 
card and its reader. All five should achieve more inter-functionality in 
the next few years, and Philips manager Paul Marino says, "We have to stop 
inventing new technologies, and now innovate with what we have." (Reuters 
11 Jun 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YPXIKFQQOC52MCRBAELCFFA?type=technologyNews&storyID=5402116

BT TO SHUT DOWN 'CIRCUIT-SWITCHED' NETWORK IN FAVOR OF VOIP
     U.K. giant British Telecom will gradually shut down its traditional 
circuit-switched network and migrate over to technologies that route phone 
calls over the Internet. The change "will deliver our vision of a 
converged, multimedia world where our customers can access any 
communications service from any device, anywhere -- at broadband speed," 
says BT Wholesale CEO Paul Reynolds. The new system will enable each 
subscriber to have a single phone number for both mobile and fixed-line 
services, and will make possible such add-on features as family conference 
calls, video streaming and voice-activated phones. BT estimates that by the 
2008-09 fiscal year, the new network could save it about £1 billion 
annually. (AP 10 June 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040611/D834FNTO0.html

ARREST MADE IN VIDEOGAME CODE THEFT
      The FBI-led Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force has made arrests in 
"several countries" as part of its investigation into the theft of Valve 
Corp.'s Half-Life 2 videogame code last year. The task force declined to 
give details on the arrests, but Valve chief executive Gabe Newell credited 
a "core group" of the company's customers for sending and analyzing 
information that helped lead to the arrests. "Gamers were able to unravel 
what are traditionally unsolvable problems for law enforcement related to 
this kind of cyber-crime," says Newell. Following the theft, Valve was 
forced to rewrite parts of its programming, delaying the game's launch by 
almost a year from its original release date. Some industry insiders say 
the delay has caused something of a backlash against hackers. "Gamers 
really want to play Half Life 2, and they really, really resented the 
delay," says the founder of a videogame news site called GameSpot. Fan 
Darrin Schrader agrees: "It hurts the community when people do this. I just 
hate cheaters, and hackers are cheaters." (Washington Post 11 Jun 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33214-2004Jun10.html

MUSIC STORES' ECHO FADES AWAY
      A group of large music retailers has scrapped plans to launch a joint 
venture music download service that would rival existing services such as 
Apple's iTunes. "The reality is that compared to all the retailers' bottom 
lines, even Apple's music sales are insignificant," says Alex Bernstein, a 
co-founder and investor in the ill-fated Echo project. Analysts say the 
nascent digital music market is still in its early stages, giving 
bricks-and-mortar retailers time to experiment with more profitable 
alternatives. "Right now, we're not forecasting the death of the CD anytime 
soon," says Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. "I don't see (the 
retailers) as being overly concerned at this point that they're missing 
out." According to figures from the Recording Industry Association of 
America, revenues from an entire year of digital downloads at today's peak 
rates would equal about a week's worth of CD sales. (CNet News.com 11 Jun 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5231175.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Responsibility educates." (Wendell Phillips)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: QUANAH PARKER
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Comanche Indian leader Quanah 
Parker (1845-1911), who resisted the invasion of tribal lands by white 
buffalo hunters and settlers in southeast Texas.
      Although never fully defeated by opposing forces of the U. S. Army, 
Parker ultimately recognized the futility of continuing his resistance and 
accepted settlement on the reservation at Fort Sill in 1875. Once on the 
reservation, he counseled his people to adapt to the white man's control 
without surrendering their Comanche customs and heritage. He spent the next 
three decades encouraging his people to acquire education and to farm the 
land. He also urged them to increase their income by leasing pastureland to 
white ranchers. Long before the idea was popular, he saw that each of them 
obtained full U.S. citizenship. As for himself, he became a successful 
businessman and celebrated spokesman for Indian rights. From 1886 to 1898, 
he served as an appointive judge on the Court of Indian Affairs. When 
Theodore Roosevelt was elected president, he invited Parker to ride in his 
inauguration parade. Quanah, Texas, was named for him.
      Quanah Parker was born near what is now Lubbock, Texas. He was the 
son of Peta Nocona, chief of the fierce Kwahadi band in Texas, and Cynthia 
Ann Parker, a white woman captured by the Comanches as a child. Quanah 
added his mother's surname to his own. The name Quanah comes from the 
Comanche kwaina, meaning fragrant. The Kwahadis were bitter enemies of the 
buffalo hunters who had appropriated their best land on the Texas frontier. 
In 1867, to stop Comanche attacks on settlers and travelers, the U.S. 
government assigned the Indians to reservations. Parker and his Kwahadi 
band refused to cooperate and continued their raids until a costly 
encounter at Adobe Walls, Texas, in 1874. The following year Parker finally 
recognized the futility of continued resistance and accepted life on the 
reservation.
      Unlike many other Indians living on the reservation, Parker had 
little trouble making the transition. Pleased with his cooperative 
attitude, federal agents appointed him chief of all the Comanche bands, a 
move that was not universally popular, but accepted by the essentially 
leaderless Indian bands. As chief, Parker worked hard to do right by both 
his tribesmen and their "pale-faced friends." He supported assimilation 
into the white man's culture, but he did not reject his Indian heritage. To 
the dismay of federal agents, he refused to give up polygamy and continued 
his religious use of peyote. At the same time, he promoted the construction 
of homesites, the planting of crops, and the establishment of a Comanche 
police force.
      Parker died in 1911 and today lies buried beside his mother at Fort 
Sill, Oklahoma. Bill Neeley, one of his biographers, has written: "Not only 
did Quanah pass within the span of a single lifetime from a Stone Age 
warrior to a statesman in the age of the Industrial Revolution, but he 
accepted the challenge and responsibility of leading the whole Comanche 
tribe on the difficult road toward their new existence."

[See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471160768 
/newsscancom/ref=nosim for Bill Neely's biography of Quanah Parker -- or 
look for it in your favorite library. We donate all revenue from our book 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

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