NewsScan Daily, 9 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 9 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Copyright, Spyware Bills Move Forward
        Supercomputer for Hire
        Spammers Take Advantage of Sender Verification Protocol
        TiVo, ReplayTV Slap Limits on Movie Viewing
        Microsoft Points to Password Solution

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Charles Lyell

COPYRIGHT, SPYWARE BILLS MOVE FORWARD
      The House Judiciary Committee has approved two bills that would 
establish criminal penalties of up to three years in prison for those who 
install spyware on others' computers and for Internet users who copy and 
distribute large quantities of music or movies without permission. "We must 
not let Internet technologies become a haven for criminals," said Rep. 
Lamar Smith (R-Texas). The copyright bill includes provisions for training 
federal agents to investigate intellectual-property crimes and would set up 
a Justice Department program to education the public about copyright rules. 
Both bills now head to the House floor for consideration; the Senate 
approved similar legislation in June. (Reuters/New York Times 8 Sep 2004)
< http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-media-copyright.html>

SUPERCOMPUTER FOR HIRE
      Peter Jackson's special effects shop Weta Digital has teamed up with 
Telecom subsidiary Gen-i to establish a world-class supercomputing facility 
in Wellington which will be rented out to clients worldwide. The New 
Zealand Supercomputing Centre, which launched on Monday, ranks 80th on the 
list of the world's 500 most powerful computers and is the largest 
supercomputing cluster available for commercial hire in the southern 
hemisphere, according to the firms. It has already attracted interest from 
potential clients in New York, says Telecom hosting and storage manager 
Eric Pilon. The supercomputer itself comprises 504 IBM blade servers, each 
of which contains two 2.8 Gigahertz Intel Xeon processors, 6 Gigabytes of 
memory and 40 Gigabytes of storage. Weta originally purchased the blades to 
create the special effects for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and together 
they are capable of performing 2.8 trillion calculations per second. (The 
Age 8 Sep 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/08/1094530666599.html>

SPAMMERS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SENDER VERIFICATION PROTOCOL
      A new study by MX Logic indicates that about 16% of spam mail senders 
are using a protocol known as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which has been 
touted as a spam-blocking tool, thanks to its sender authentication 
capabilities. "Authentication (with SPF) by itself is not a spam cure-all. 
SPF -- as it relates to having an impact on spam -- will hurt only those 
who spoof domains. You are still going to need content filtering to see if 
the message was unsolicited," says MX CTO Scott Chasin. Chasin maintains 
that SPF is only part of the answer to the spam problem: "SPF is great at 
combating fraud such as phishing. Phishing attacks are all about spoofing 
someone's domain name." Chasin says rather than relying on SPF to cut spam, 
ISPs should be looking into services that could provide subscribers with 
some kind of measure of the e-mail sender's reputation by certifying some 
servers as belonging to "good" e-mail senders. "The e-mail filters could 
then let through legitimate e-mail. It would be 'guilty until proven 
innocent,'" says Chasin. (CNet News.com 8 Sep 2004)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1029-5357269.html>

TIVO, REPLAYTV SLAP LIMITS ON MOVIE VIEWING
      Digital video recorder makers TiVo and ReplayTV say they are adding 
new digital rights management technology to their systems that would allow 
broadcasters and Hollywood studios to regulate how often movies purchased 
through pay-per-view can be watched. Digital video recorders that recognize 
the DRM restrictions will begin hitting the shelves in the spring of 2005, 
but it could be years before entertainment companies actually take 
advantage of the software, says ReplayTV president Bernie Sepaniak. 
However, the move met with strong criticism by Electronic Frontier 
Foundation senior counsel Fred von Lohmann: "Consumers are not the ones who 
are asking for this so-called feature. And I hope that the marketplace will 
respond by punishing TiVo and Replay and others that do this." The copy 
protection technology will also start showing up on other consumer 
electronics devices capable of recording TV shows and movies, such as 
personal computer "media centers." (San Jose Mercury News 9 Sep 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9616558.htm

MICROSOFT POINTS TO PASSWORD SOLUTION
      Microsoft has a solution for those who have difficulty keeping track 
of all the passwords and usernames required by many Web sites today. Its 
Fingerprint Reader hooks up to PCs running the XP operating system and 
scans the unique skin patterns of the user's finger. The software then 
stores the image and uses it as a reference to restrict access to secure 
Web sites. Microsoft warns that the Fingerprint Reader is not intended to 
protect sensitive data, such as financial information, but informal testing 
showed it did a pretty good job of keeping non-authorized users out, and 
also withstood attempts to fool it using Silly Putty and Scotch tape. 
However, the company emphasizes that its Fingerprint Reader is all about 
convenience, rather than security. The device will hit the stores in 
mid-November, priced at $54.95, and Microsoft is also incorporating the 
Fingerprint Reader in a new keyboard and wireless mouse. (AP 9 Sep 2004)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040909/D8504SA01.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance." 
(Benjamin Disraeli)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: CHARLES LYELL
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Scottish geologist Sir Charles 
Lyell (1797-1875), who popularized the theories, methods, and principles on 
which the modern science of geology is based.
      Lyell's major contribution was demonstrating that physical, chemical, 
and biological forces operating over long periods of geological time 
produced all features of the Earth's surface. This was intended to 
contradict the prevailing theory that the Earth's properties are the result 
of a short period of catastrophic upheaval and flooding. Lyell's extensive 
investigations of rock formations and the strata of the earth's crust 
convinced him his data were better explained by James Hutton's 
uniformitarian theory of gradual and ongoing change. Hutton's views had 
been known for 40 years, but had little support until Lyell took it up as 
the guiding framework for his popular three-volume work, "The Principles of 
Geology." The other major work of Lyell was his 1863 publication "The 
Antiquity of Man," in which he applied Darwin's evolutionary views to the 
development of man, a position that Darwin himself had not yet proposed.
      Lyell was born at Kinnordy in eastern Scotland. The eldest of 10 
children, Lyell attended a series of private schools, and at age 19 entered 
Oxford University, where he studied the classics, mathematics, and geology. 
In 1819 he earned a B.A. with honors and moved to London to study law (but 
found relief from his legal studies by taking geological excursions to 
examine formations in the Earth's crust and sedimentation in freshwater 
lakes). Admitted to the bar in 1825, he continued his geological 
investigations, with the intention of gathering evidence to support his 
conviction that the ordinary natural processes of today do not differ in 
kind or magnitude from those of the past -- and that the Earth must 
therefore be very ancient because these everyday processes work so slowly.
      Finally, in 1830 he was able to put his findings in order and write 
the first volume of "The Principles of Geology."
      On one geological trip to a volcanic district in Germany, he met his 
future wife, Mary Horner, whom he married in July 1832, combining their 
honeymoon with a geological excursion in Switzerland and Italy. Following 
publication of the "Principles of Geology," Lyell became friends with 
Charles Darwin and other notable scientists. In 1841, he undertook the 
first of three visits to North America, where he visited nearly every part 
of the most of the United States east coast and much of eastern Canada, 
viewing Niagara Falls and other geological formations.
      During his lifetime Lyell received many awards and honorary degrees, 
including the Copley Medal, the highest award of the Royal Society of 
London. He was knighted in 1848 and made a baron in 1864. He died in 1875, 
while revising his "Principles of Geology" for its 12th edition, and he is 
buried in Westminster Abbey.

[See 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/014043528X/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
for Lyell's "Principles of Geology" -- or look for it in your favorite 
library. Note: We donate all revenue from our book and media 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

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