NewsScan Daily, 2 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 2 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Software and the City
       Spy Versus Spy: Unblock That Call-Block
       Maryland Judge Okays Touch-Screen Voting
       Labor Secretary Defends Outsourcing
       Psst: Instant Messaging Use Catching Up on E-Mail Use

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Memory and Mindglow
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

SOFTWARE AND THE CITY
     Philadelphia officials are considering a plan to turn the whole city
into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot, placing thousands of
small Wi-Fi transmitters around the city.  Philadelphia chief information
officer Dianah Neff says, "If you're out on your front porch with a laptop,
you could dial in, register at no charge, and be able to access a high speed
connection. It's a technology whose time is here." The Philadelphia service
wouldn't be the first city to do this, only the largest so far. The
Minneapolis suburb of Chaska began offering citywide wireless Internet
access this year for $16 a month (to an area of about 13 square miles), and
Cleveland has positioned 4,000 wireless transmitters in several areas,
offering free Wi-Fi Internet access for anyone who passes through those
areas. Neff estimates it would cost Philadelphia $1.5 million a year to
maintain the system it's considering. (AP 2 Sep 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040902/D84RG1H00.html>

SPY VERSUS SPY: UNBLOCK THAT CALL-BLOCK
    A new computerized service from a company called Star38 will allow
callers to create false outbound phone numbers and thereby fool call block
software. Customers of the new service will be able to go to the company's
Web site to enter the number they want to call and the number they want to
appear on the caller ID screen of the recipient's phone. Some privacy-rights
advocates are concerned that angry former spouses, stalkers or fraud artists
could use the service for mischief, but Robert Atkinson of the Institute for
Tele-Information at Columbia University, comments: "Some people see caller
ID as an invasion of their privacy, while others see it as a protection of
their privacy. It's spy versus spy." (New York Times 2 Sep 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/technology/02caller.html>

MARYLAND JUDGE OKAYS TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING
     Rejecting a challenge to the state's touch-screen voting machines, a
Circuit Court judge in Maryland suggests that the machines are more accurate
than the paper ballots the plaintiffs are seeking to make optional for the
November elections, and notes that election officials have "taken all
reasonable steps to protect the integrity of the voting process." The lead
plaintiff's response is: "I am very disappointed that Maryland voters will
be forced to vote on machines that we believe are illegal under Maryland law
and that are clearly very insecure." In his ruling the judge wrote: "No
system is infallible. No machine is infallible. All experts agree systems
such as these are much more secure and less vulnerable than the paper
ballot" -- or the optical scan machines used in most Maryland jurisdictions
in the last presidential election. (Washington Post 1 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54409-2004Sep1.html>

LABOR SECRETARY DEFENDS OUTSOURCING
     In defense of outsourcing, which has been under much attack in this
political year, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao says that companies have created
millions of jobs in the United States, far outpacing the amount of work that
American businesses have shifted abroad. "People talk about it a lot, but
the anxiety belies the numbers." Noting that we live and work in a worldwide
economy, Chao warns: "If we isolate ourselves from this worldwide economy,
we will put in jeopardy the 9 million jobs that Americans currently hold" in
foreign-owned companies.(AP/San Jose Mercury News 2 Sep 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9556426.htm>

PSST: INSTANT MESSAGING USE CATCHING UP ON E-MAIL USE
     A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 42%
of online Americans use instant messaging, and 24% of instant messagers say
they use IM more frequently than email. On a typical day, 29% of instant
messengers -- or roughly 15 million American adults -- use IM. Amanda
Lenhart, a co-author of the report, says: "There is no doubt that IM use
will intensify. Younger Americans, in particular, have incorporated IM into
their lives in multiple ways, using it to keep track of their friends,
coordinate work meetings, and share files. IM use at home and in the
workplace will grow as these creative and time-saving uses of the technology
percolate through the generations." (Pew Internet & American Life Project 2
Sep 2004) <http://www.pewinternet.org>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Be happy. Talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in
others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours." (Helen Keller)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: MEMORY AND MINDGLOW
     Scholar and artist Diane Ackerman
     "Without memories we wouldn't know who we are, how we once were, who
we'd like to be in the memorable future. We are the sum of our memories.
They provide a continuous private sense of one's self. Change your memory
and you change your identity. Then shouldn't we try to bank good memories,
ones that will define us as we wish to be? I'm surprised by how many people
do just that. Even tour companies advertise: 'Bring home wonderful
memories.' Here we are, a happy family taking a Disney cruise, documented on
film. But memory isn't like a camcorder, computer, or storage bin. It's more
restless, more creative, and it's not one of anything. Each memory is a
plural event, an ensemble of synchronized neurons, some side by side, others
relatively far apart.
     "A memory is more atmospheric than accurate, more an evolving fiction
than a sacred text. And thank heavens. If rude, shameful, or brutal memories
can't be expunged, they can at least be diluted. So is nothing permanent and
fixed in life? By definition life is a fickle noun, an event in progress.
Still, we cling to philosophical railings, religious icons, pillars of
belief. We forget on purpose that Earth is rolling at 1,000 miles an hour,
and, at the same time, falling elliptically around our sun, while the sun is
swinging through the Milky Way, and the Milky Way migrating along with
countless other galaxies in a universe about 13.7 billion years old. An
event is such a little piece of time and space, leaving only a mindglow
behind like the tail of a shooting star. For lack of a better word, we call
that scintillation memory."
     [See < http://tinyurl.com/3m6u7> for Diane Ackerman's "An Alchemy Of
Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain" -- or look for it in the
multimedia section of your favorite library. Note: We donate all revenue
from our book and media recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

PEASANTS TO THE RESCUE
Re: 
,http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=82
7>
     A wonderful anecdote about Mendeleev tells that he ascended in a hot
air balloon in 1887 above Boblovo to a height of more than 10,000 feet in
order to observe a solar eclipse.  His family was quite concerned, but
despite this Mendeleev did not bother to learn anything about controlling
the balloon, turning to this problem only after successfully completing his
observations.  By the time he figured out how to descend, he had drifted far
away into the next oblast' and had to be rescued by peasants. See:
<http://tinyurl.com/1ww1>; there is a new biography of Mendeleev in English
which I haven't read, but which looks interesting: <
http://tinyurl.com/3o4y4> (Cameron Sawyer)

MISSING FROM GOOGLE
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11272>
     Ah, but Google statistics certainly do not include the 300,000 times
(at least) "Road Not Taken" is quoted in June each year by high school
valedictorians and salutatorians... (Rod Kirby)

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTSW
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11271>
Mr. Lanser makes a serious error in positing the overriding defect in
American morality that gives rise to spam. He argues that the "good of the
majority" is more important than individual liberty, and rationalizes limits
to free speech in defense of this greater good.  This is a very dangerous
way of thinking because it marginalizes individual rights and legitimizes
tyrannical acts of government. I would suggest this way of thinking is
itself a defect in American  morality far more troubling than any that gives
rise to spam, but that  is a subject to be explored perhaps at another time.
    Where Mr. Lanser errs is in assigning injury from spam to the "good of
the whole" rather than to individuals and their private property.  Injury
from spam does not derive from some defect in the right to free speech, but
from the unwelcome use of private property to propagate the message.
Individual liberty is not the problem, as the exercise of liberty is
inherently checked by the responsibility not to infringe upon the rights of
others. Spam is a trespass against the right to own and govern the usage of
private property, nothing more.
     I will agree with Mr. Lanser that spam is but one manifestation of a
greater underlying problem, but that problem would seem to be a lack of
respect for individual rights -- a problem Mr. Lanser ironically
perpetuates. (Rob Leslie)

OFF LIMITS
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11271>
     The old saw that too much liberty is the cause of the world's evils
just won't die. Perhaps Rick Lanser can explain why the Patriot Act, the
denial of due process to "enemy combatants," the restriction of First
Amendment rights to "free speech zones" and the like have been accompanied
by a tremendous _increase_ in spam? If "cracking down" on liberties is the
way to fight spam, spam should be on the verge of vanishing.While the United
States is apparently the largest home to spammers, China is probably the
largest home to spam servers.  Yet China certainly isn't plagued by any
notion that free speech is a good idea.
     Lanser is exercising the very free speech rights which he denounces.
He should think more carefully about the consequences of their loss. (Gary
McGath)

MCPAKISTANT
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11250>
     It was interesting to read about the idea of McDonalds and how all
countries that had McDonalds hadn't gone to war. The one mistake that you
made was over the issue of Pakistan, Pakistan has had a McDonalds for years
now. (Saad Khan)

NO THERE THERE
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11276>
I followed the link only to discover there was no real "story." I was
expecting some details, but it seems there was little more than an
overly-long headline. It would have been interesting to know something about
the police's policy regarding the exchange of questionable messages (and
whether or not this applied to other communications), the nature of the
messages (dirty jokes, racial slurs?) details about the people involved
(were they flatfoots or supervisors, all male or a mix of male and female?)
and for how long all this was taking place. It's a shame that The Age wasted
a perfectly good web page for two paragraphs. Of course, it was a slow news
week last week, so I won't hold it against them. :-)  (Louis Jezsik)

INDIA'S FASCINATION WITH "SIMPLE" COMPUTERS
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11173>
     The fascination of Indians for ³simple computers² is like falling in
love with closed eyes. As the great Farsi poet, Hafiz Sheerazi, wrote, love
seems such a wonderful thing in the beginning but later on its troubles make
life miserable.
     Some years ago, there was a lot of talk about ³Simputer,² a hand-held
³simple computer² that was supposed to work wonders even for the
unsophisticated users of India. As a result of huge cost overruns and the
limited features, the device never took off. A few thousand units were
dumped on a government organization and that was all.
     The new attempt will not have a different fate. A PC is essentially an
assembling of parts that are manufactured in millions upon millions. The
economies of scale give ever-more-powerful computers at ever-lower price.
Add only a few custom-made components and the costs will skyrocket.
Secondly, a computer does not remain simple when you expect it to perform
too many functions. Not everybody needs all those bells and whistles. And if
you have a remote control instead of a keyboard, sending even a one-page
email message will take ages (if you don¹t go mad in the process).
     If ³entertainment is the killer app,² the people in my country know how
to have it at the lowest cost, without buying a computer at all. They
purchase used CRT monitors that are imported in large container loads, hook
up a small device costing about $25 and get a color television at a fraction
of the cost! (Even a new monitor makes it a bargain, as I found it myself
recently.)
The project will make headlines for some time and provide funds to some
people to play with. The end will be quite a complicated product with quite
a high price.  (Muhammad Abd al-Hameed, Lahore, Pakistan, [email protected],
Web site: http://mahameed.4mg.com)

SATCHMO AND ELVIS
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11281>
     I doubt Louis Armstrong would appreciate using his words to dignify a
back-handed slap at Elvis.  Every year, tens of thousands make the
pilgrimage to Graceland -- even from Queens!  Presley needed big walls and a
big yard to protect himself from those who might do him harm. In the end,
John Lennon couldn't find anonymity in Terry Teachout's Manhattan. May, 2004
was the fiftieth anniversary of Elvis' first recording, "That's Alright,
Mama" which began the assimilation of what was called "race music" into the
white American teen culture.  Quintessential New Yorker Paul Simon found
much to comtemplate and emulate on his album "Graceland" and its title song.
     On a practical note, anyone with an Internet connection need not look
for Teachout's "After Midnight" in their local library -- it's a blog.
While waiting for his next published work, why not try out a biography based
on extensive research? See "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis
Presley" <http://tinyurl.com/5zhgc> (Jim McGee)

BETTER THAN IT SOUNDS
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11280>
     Your Igor Stravinsky Flash Card ("Too many pieces of music finish too
long after the end.") reminds me of the Mark Twain quote:
"Richard Wagner was a musician who wrote music which is better than it
sounds."  (John Beck)

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