NewsScan Daily, 24 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 24 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Microsoft Bugs Out of U.N. Standards Group
       'The Game is Almost Secondary'
       King Carl's 'Murder' an Online Hoax
       Wiffing Under the Roof
       Cisco Serious About Internet Phone Service

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Why Not Throw Out Those Evaluation Forms?

MICROSOFT BUGS OUT OF U.N. STANDARDS GROUP
    Microsoft has withdrawn from a U.N. software standards group focused on
automating buying and selling through networks of computers. The diverse
membership of the group -- known as the United Nations Center for Trade
Facilitation and Electronic Business (U.N./Cefact) -- includes advocates of
both proprietary and open-source approaches to software technology
standards; however, Microsoft-watchers believe that the company's decision
to withdraw from the group can be traced not to the open-source vs.
proprietary standards debate but rather to issues concerning control of the
intellectual property being contributed to the standards-setting effort.
(New York Times 24 Aug 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/technology/24soft.html>

'THE GAME IS ALMOST SECONDARY'
     The release of new blockbuster game titles such as Doom 3 and Half-Life
2 is ushering in the year of the PC upgrade, as many gamers find that their
current systems just aren't up to the task of displaying a new level of game
realism. Todd Hollenshead, the CEO of Id Software (the company behind Doom)
says, "We don't mind pushing people a little bit to upgrade. If you've got
the content or the 'killer app,' then you're in the best position to push
the envelope." David Kushner, author of a book about the Doom series, jokes
that there should be a statue of its lead programmer, John Carmack, "outside
every graphics card company on the planet." And Vince Broady, co-founder of
gamer Web site GameSpot, notes: "Doom 3 has reinvigorated the PC games
market. You haven't seen the same rabid enthusiasm for a game on PC in a
long time. The fact is that the technology is the driving reason for
interest in the game; the game is almost secondary." (Washington Post 23 Aug
2004) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27022-2004Aug23.html>

KING CARL'S 'MURDER' AN ONLINE HOAX
     Hoaxers have faked an announcement of the murder of the King of Sweden
on a counterfeit BBC news website carrying a headline "Sweden's King
Murdered" over a story saying that "Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf was shot
in Athens this evening when he was on his way back to his hotel after
watching the Swedish table tennis star Jan-Ove Waldner beat Timo Boll,
Germany, in the Olympic games." Swedish newspaper Expressen said the page
had been sent by email to an unknown number of Hotmail e-mail addresses.
"It's really very bad taste," the newspaper quoted a Royal Palace
spokeswoman as saying: "It goes beyond the limit." Apart from the
authentic-looking layout closely imitating the BBC, the news page also
included genuine items such as the latest from Najaf in Iraq and the
Olympics in order to enhance its appearance of credibility. (The Australian
23 Aug 2004) Rec'd fr J Lamp
<http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10538364%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5
E,00.html>

WIFFING UNDER THE ROOF
     T-Mobile USA will be installing wireless Internet access throughout all
of its Red Roof Inns over the next year, with Wi-Fi hotspots available in
guest rooms, lobbies and conference rooms. Customers who are not subscribers
to wireless-fidelity service from T-Mobile or one of its partners will be
charged $6 for the first hour or $9.99 a day. T-Mobile operates more than
7,300 hotspots worldwide, including many in airports and at Hyatt hotels,
Starbucks coffee shops and Borders book stores. (AP/USA Today 24 Aug 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9480138.htm>

CISCO SERIOUS ABOUT INTERNET PHONE SERVICE
     Computer-networking giant Cisco Systems is acquiring P-Cube, a
privately held maker of software for monitoring Internet-protocol network
activity, to help Cisco offer service-providers additional products to
manage such IP services as voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), interactive
gaming, and video-on-demand. (AP/USA Today 24 Aug 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2004-08-24-cisco-pcube_x
htm>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know
what you're doing." (W. Edwards Deming)
     
WORTH THINKING ABOUT: WHY NOT THROW OUT THOSE EVALUATION FORMS?
     Noted management consultant W. Edwards Deming has written:
     "Western management in industry, education, government, is due for
sweeping changes. The prevailing system of management has smothered the
individual, and has consequently dampened innovation, applied science, joy
in learning, joy in work. It will be necessary to restore dignity and
self-esteem to the individual. This can be done, but only by transformation
of the style of management now practiced.
     "The prevailing forces of destruction start early in life-grades in
school from toddler on up through the university, gold stars for school
athletics, merit system or annual appraisal on the job, incentive pay, work
standards, MBO (rather, MBIR: Management by Imposition of Results), MBR
(Management by Results). These forces of destruction must be replaced by
leadership...
     "The change required is transformation, change of state, metamorphosis.
The transformation will restore the individual; will abolish grades in
school on up through the university; will abolish the annual appraisal of
people on the job, MBO, quotas for production, specified requirements that
people work 57 minutes out of every hour, incentive pay, monthly or
quarterly reports on business targets, competition between people,
competition between divisions, and other forms of suboptimisation.
Leadership will replace these bad practices, and will restore the
individual."
     [See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399550003/newsscancom/ref=nosim for
Mary Walton's "The Deming Management Method" -- or look for it in your
favorite library. [Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations
to adult literacy programs.]

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