NewsScan Daily, 6 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 6 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       States to File-Sharing Companies: Watch Out
       Vietnam Sets Up Force to Police Net
       Approval for Touchscreen Voting System
       Vienna City to Get Choice of Linux Or Windows
       Indictment for Theft-by-Hacking
       Finland Dismissing 'Net-Addicted' Conscripts

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: The Uses of Wealth
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It
       
STATES TO FILE-SHARING COMPANIES: WATCH OUT
     Most of the country's state attorneys general have sent a warning
letter to seven companies that promote online file-sharing software such as
Kazaa and Morpheus, warning them that there could be legal consequences if
they don't adequately inform computer users about the potential risks of
using their software. The letter also urged the companies not to add
encryption features to their software to hide users' identity: "Encryption
only reinforces the perception that P2P technology is being used primarily
for illegal ends. Accordingly, we would ask you to refrain from making
design changes to your software that prevent law enforcement in our states
from investigating and enforcing the law." Adam Eisgrau of P2P United, a
trade group that represents several of the firms, says: "Asking us not to
use encryption is incredibly shortsighted when there are clear legitimate
corporate and public uses for a private network." Fred von Lohmann of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco says of the letter: "I'm not
aware of any state law that file-sharing violates. This letter is clearly an
exercise of political clout on the part of the entertainment industry."
(AP/San Jose Mercury News 5 Aug 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9329960.htm

VIETNAM SETS UP FORCE TO POLICE NET
     A special police taskforce will begin operations next month to fight
cyber-crime in Vietnam. A Ministry of Public Security official said:
"Firstly we will punish those who develop or intentionally transmit viruses
to sabotage the computer network in Vietnam. We will also attempt to prevent
other criminal activities from being conducted over the Internet and will
try to block pornographic Web sites." Only around four million people out of
a population of 81 million people regularly surf the Internet in Vietnam,
mainly through cyber-cafes. (The Age 4 Aug 2004) Rec'd from J Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557884053.html

APPROVAL FOR TOUCHSCREEN VOTING SYSTEM
     Ruling that the state's new touch-screen voting machines meet federal
requirements, the South Carolina attorney general has rejected a request
from the South Carolina Progressive Network (SCPN) to stop the State
Election Commission from buying the machines. The SCPN's objections to the
machines are that they do not provide proof on paper that the vote was cast
the way the voter intended, but the attorney general ruled that the state's
new machines give voters a chance to review and make changes to the ballots
before finalizing their votes. (AP/USA Today 5 Aug 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-08-05-touch-screen_x.htm

VIENNA CITY TO GET CHOICE OF LINUX OR WINDOWS
     Vienna will next year join a growing number of European cities opening
the door to Linux, the open source operating system that is encroaching on
Microsoft's dominant Windows program. The municipality of Vienna will offer
about half of its officials the choice of switching from Windows to Linux in
2005, and the head of the city's information services said about 7500 of the
city's 16,000 municipal officials would be allowed to choose Linux, which is
considered less virus-prone. An evaluation will be made in 2006. (The Age 5
Aug 2004) Rec'd from J Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/05/1091557964160.html

INDICTMENT FOR THEFT-BY-HACKING
     A Romanian and five U.S. citizens have received grand jury indictments
charging them with a $10-million scheme to steal goods by hacking into the
online ordering system of computer equipment distributor Ingram Micro Inc.
The Romanian, who is now in that country and not in custody, is accused of
posing as a customer to place more than 2,000 orders over four years. The
man is well known as a computer hacker who uses the pseudonyms "Dr. Mengele"
and "Metal." After Ingram Micro blocked shipments to Romania, he allegedly
recruited Americans to accept the merchandise. (AP/Los Angelese Times 6 Aug
2004)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-hacker6aug06,1,431196.story?coll=la-
headlines-technology

FINLAND DISMISSING 'NET-ADDICTED' CONSCRIPTS
     A growing number of conscripts have to be dismissed from Finland's
armed forces every year due to an Internet addiction that makes them
unsuited for service. A Finnish official says: "It's an increasing problem.
More and more young people are always on the Internet day and night. They
get up around noon and have neither friends nor hobbies. When they get into
the army, it's a shock to them." There are no specific figures and the
military has yet to give the condition a proper dismissal code in its health
records. (The Age, 4 Aug 2004) Rec'd from J Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557883381.html

*****

FLASH CARD
     "One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the
need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with
giving money; we also feel we need to work." (Peter Drucker)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE USES OF WEALTH
     David Bain ends his book on the Empire Express, the transcontinental
railroad venture that made the Huntington fortune, with this comment on how
Huntington's nephew Henry used his inheritance to convert the Huntington
ranch in San Marino into what would become one of the country's greatest
private libraries and art collections:
     "Perhaps, as was the case with so many other moguls of the Gilded Age
-- those once-ragtag peddlers and shopkeepers and apprentices with names
like Vanderbilt, Morgan, Carnegie, Frick, and Rockefeller, who came to be
the heedless royalty of the developing republic, crushing enemies,
exploiting the powerless, building empires--the solid new walls of culture
at San Marino began to polish off the taint from the millions hauled in by
the Empire Express, just as would the university in Polo Alto and the art
gallery in Sacramento, and more modest library counterparts in places like
North Easton, Massachusetts, Des Moines, and elsewhere. The mansions, or at
least many of them across the nation, would burn or be pulled down, the
yachts would founder and sink, most of the palace cars would be scrapped,
the edifices and monuments would erode-even, in generations, many of the
rails would, sadly, be pried up. The libraries, lecture halls, and galleries
would remain, perhaps even lowering the temperature being applied to the
souls of the departed empire-builders. Indelibly, though, they left their
footprints and the paths and networks they set out, creating -- like them or
not, like it or not, the American nation we know today."
     [See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140084991/newsscancom/ref=nosim for
David Howard Bain's "Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental
Railroad" -- or look for it in your favorite library. Note: We donate all
revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

SONY CONVERSION
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11114
     Since I'm interested in another forthcoming Sony product, the mini-disc
recorder/player NZ-NH900, which is capable of uploading its files to a PC
only in the ATRAC format. I was interested to read on the Web site of a
retailer of this product that Sony plans to release sometime this fall a
free software which will convert ATRAC files to .WAV. This is a big deal
since it would enable material recorded on a Sony mini-disc to be used in
any computer sound application. Likewise, it would relieve a purchaser of a
Sony product of "phase out" concerns. (William Smithers)

A QUESTIONABLE CAUSE-AND-EFFECT
     You wrote of Schrödinger: "He remained at the university until 1933,
when the Nazi persecution of Jews drove him for the next seven years to
occupy positions..." This seems to me to be a rather odd characterization of
cause and effect. Nazi persecution evidently drove him out of Germany, and
possibly out of Austria after the Anschluss, and he may well have fled the
same in leaving Belgium and Italy; nonetheless, attribution to those
activities of his choice of destination countries, let alone of any other
aspect of his career decisions, seems to me to be best avoided. Otherwise,
your 5 August 2004 issue of "Above The Fold" was another fine one. Keep up
the good work, and thanks! (Chuck Brandstater)

THE CAT'S MEOW
     How can you write of Schrödinger and not mention the cat? The idea was
always alluded to when I was at college, but it took a very long time to
obtain an explanation. I wonder if there are [m]any other subscribers out
there who would welcome an instant and brief summary? (Scott Pollard)

VARIETIES OF NON-HIP EXPERIENCE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11115
     I guess I'm non-hip. I thought that the Japanese graphic novel were
manga and that anime was Japanese animation [what non-hip viewers would call
cartoons]. (John M. Astell) [No, you're hip. Our hurried and animated
editing was what was so unhip. --J&S]

ENOUGH ALREADY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11118
     With regard to the "Kids & Computers" mailbag pieces: Hey, can't you
guys run a piece about how Macs are superior to PCs (or vice versa) to give
these guys something else to write about? (Tom Frerichs)

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