NewsScan Daily, 12 June 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 12 June 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        HP and Dell PCs to Include Java
        Security Software Business Due For a Shake-Up
        'Freebie' Culture Invades Cell Phone Entertainment
        MusicNet Adopts Windows Media Format
        eBay Reaches Out to Customers in China
        3rd-Generation Privacy Problems

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Census (It's Almost Over)
        Worth Thinking About: Technology Diffusion & Horse Sense

HP AND DELL PCs TO INCLUDE JAVA
Hewlett-Packard and Dell will be including Java as a standard component on 
their personal computers. (Java, a creation of Sun Microsystems, makes it 
easy to run a program on many different kinds of computers.) Sun, of 
course, is happy that, as a result of the 1998 Microsoft antitrust trial, 
computer manufacturers can no longer be pressured by Microsoft to run only 
that company's products. Sun executive Richard Green says, "The back and 
forth with Microsoft has limited the success of Java on the personal 
computer desktop. It is remarkable that the two largest computer makers 
have committed to Java for their customers." (New York Times 12 Jun 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/06/12/technology/12JAVA.html

SECURITY SOFTWARE BUSINESS DUE FOR A SHAKE-UP
As the nature of computer viruses changes, the business of selling security 
software is changing, too, says Steve Chang, head of antivirus software 
firm Trend Micro. With viruses morphing into ever-more-complex forms, 
antivirus firms will need to shift from selling software to selling 
security services aimed at minimizing customers' downtime. Chang says the 
security software industry used to compare itself to the pharmaceutical 
business, developing new antidotes for each virus that cropped up. But the 
ubiquity of the Internet and the advent of such virulent viruses as Nimda, 
Slammer and Bugbear have changed all that. Now, the ability of a company to 
avoid infection depends as much on the security measures taken by other 
companies it does business with and employees working in their home 
environments as on its own vigilance. That means companies increasingly are 
seeking an ongoing service which, in addition to protecting them from 
malicious attacks, speeds up the recovery time following a security breach 
so that everyone can get back to work. "You buy a drill because you want a 
hole," says Chang, "not because you want a drill. Customers do not want a 
security product. They just want to improve their productivity without 
downtime." (BBC News 12 Jun 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2981836.stm

'FREEBIE' CULTURE INVADES CELL PHONE ENTERTAINMENT
Wireless carriers are aggressively marketing ringtones, games and other 
entertainment to youthful cell phone users, but the same peer-to-peer 
file-sharing that has plagued the music industry may subvert carriers' 
efforts to generate a new revenue source. IDC predicts that annual ringtone 
sales could grow to more than $400 million by 2005, up from $16.6 million 
last year, as cell phone owners individualize their handsets with 
computerized versions of their favorite songs and sound effects, but that 
growth could be in jeopardy if free Napster-like services take off. For 
instance, a Web site called MyPhoneFiles.com lists dozens of songs and 
images that can be sent to a user's handset. According to the site's owner, 
83,000 people have registered and 2,500 log on each day. And startups like 
Xingtone enable users to create their own cell phone content from their 
personal music collections for a flat rate of $7.50 per month. Users must 
pledge to use only legally obtained material, but company concedes its 
service could be abused by unscrupulous users. Meanwhile, as the next 
generation of Internet-ready cell phones hits the market over the next 12 
to 18 months, a battle similar to that being waged by the music industry 
appears to be shaping up. Shawn Conahan, president of mobile content firm 
Moviso, predicts that any legal fights will focus on content distributors 
-- the wireless carriers -- and "whether it's their responsibility to 
protect the content owners from piracy." (Wall Street Journal 11 Jun 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105526605176634700.djm,00.html (sub req'd)

MUSICNET ADOPTS WINDOWS MEDIA FORMAT
MusicNet, the industry-backed online music service, is converting its 
350,000 music offerings into Windows Media format, in an effort to broaden 
its subscriber base, which is currently somewhere around 100,000. The 
company's current distribution is through AOL. Last month, AOL and 
Microsoft settled a long-running legal dispute with pledges to cooperate on 
future development of online digital media. (Reuters/CNet News.com 11 Jun 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-12_3-1016154.html?tag=fd_top

EBAY REACHES OUT TO CUSTOMERS IN CHINA
eBay has concluded a deal to purchase EachNet (founded in Delaware in 1999 
by Bo Shao and Halyin Tanone), which has become one of China's largest 
e-commerce companies. Meg Whitman, eBay's chief executive, says her company 
is now in "a fantastic position to take advantage of the long-term growth 
prospects in China." China already has 59 million online shoppers (a number 
surpassed only by the U.S.), and the China Internet Network Information 
Center predicts the Chinese market will grow to 86 million online shoppers 
by the end of 2003. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 12 Jun 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6071087.htm

3RD-GENERATION PRIVACY PROBLEMS
In Australia, that country's Royal Life Saving Society (a lifesaving and 
lifeguarding organization) intends to ban 3rd-generation image-capable cell 
phones from swimming pool changing rooms: "We, as operators and as 
providers of guidelines to the industry in this particular case, we just 
want to make sure that people are aware. We make every reasonable step to 
make sure that the privacy of individuals and, as I say, the private parts 
of individuals are not exposed where they don't want them to be exposed," 
says a spokesman for the Society. The potential for mischief with the new 
technology is apparent from the remarks of a student who reported: "One of 
my mates who's got one actually, as a joke, said that you could stand on 
the elevators and take photos up girls' skirts, which I thought was a bit 
much. He was only joking, he wasn't being serious, but, sure enough, the 
potential is there." Australia's privacy commissioner, Malcolm Crompton, 
says: "We need the social debate to make sure we use these technologies the 
way we want them to be used, we need to demand that technologies are 
developed the right way, we need laws in place, as appropriate, to back up 
those social norms." (ABC News Australia 12 Jun 2003)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s877930.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into 
account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be." (Isaac 
Asimov)

CENSUS (IT'S ALMOST OVER)
      Some people procrastinate, so we're continuing the NewsScan census 
for two more days. Please send us a sentence or two (or three or four or 
more) about yourself, so we know who you are. Send to [email protected].
      We've been reading your messages with interest, and will eventually 
read them all and give you some sort of general summary.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION & HORSE SENSE
      In her book on triple-crown winner Seabiscuit, racing journalist 
Laura Hillenbrand wrote:
      "The horseless carriage was just arriving in San Francisco, and its 
debut was turning into one of those colorfully unmitigated disasters that 
bring misery to everyone but historians. Consumers were staying away from 
the 'devilish contraptions' in droves. The men who had invested in them 
were the subjects of cautionary tales, derision, and a fair measure of 
public loathing. In San Francisco in 1903, the horse and buggy was not 
going the way of the horse and buggy.
      "For good reason. The automobile, so sleekly efficient on paper, was 
in practice a civic menace, belching out exhaust, kicking up storms of 
dust, becoming hopelessly mired in the most innocuous-looking puddles, 
tying up horse traffic, and raising an earsplitting cacophony that sent 
buggy horses fleeing. Incensed local lawmakers responded with monuments to 
legislative creativity. The laws of at least one town required automobile 
drivers to stop, get out, and fire off Roman candles every time horse-drawn 
vehicles came into view. Massachusetts tried and, fortunately, failed to 
mandate that cars be equipped with bells that would ring with each 
revolution of the wheels. In some towns police were authorized to disable 
passing cars with ropes, chains, wires, and even bullets, so long as they 
took reasonable care to avoid gunning down the drivers. San Francisco 
didn't escape the legislative wave. Bitter local officials pushed through 
an ordinance banning automobiles from the Stanford campus and all tourist 
areas, effectively exiling them from the city."
                                ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375502912/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" -- or look for it 
in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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