NewsScan Daily, 18 June 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 18 June 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Microsoft Sues 15 Spammers
       Machines of Copyright Violators May Need to be Zapped
       New Hybrid Phones: Both Cordless and Cellular
       United to Offer E-Mail on Domestic Flights
       One-Tenth of India's Infotech Spending is From Gov't
       Bike Has GPS to Prevent Theft

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Regulating Science

MICROSOFT SUES 15 SPAMMERS
Estimating that more than 80% of the 2.5 billion e-mail messages sent each
day to customers of its free Hotmail service are the work of spammers,
Microsoft has filed lawsuits against 15 groups of individuals and
corporations it claims are major spammers. Like many Internet companies,
Microsoft is also looking for technological solutions to the problem of
spam. It has already introduced anti-spam software filters on its MSN
Internet access service, and plans to include similar software at the next
release of its Outlook e-mail software. (New York Times 18 Jun 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/06/18/technology/18SPAM.html

MACHINES OF COPYRIGHT VIOLATORS MAY NEED TO BE ZAPPED
Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT) -- who, besides being Chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, is a composer whose royalties were $18,000 last year
from songs he's written -- says that maybe people who keep abusing copyright
laws should get their computers destroyed. That kind of action "may be the
only way you can teach somebody about copyrights. If we can find some way to
do this without destroying their machines, we'd be interested in hearing
about that. If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their
machines... There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws." (AP/San
Jose Mercury News 18 Jun 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6113673.htm

NEW HYBRID PHONES: BOTH CORDLESS AND CELLULAR
New hybrid phones will allow subscribers to combine the features of
fixed-line and wireless technologies. Verizon, the largest U.S. phone
company, will offer a new cordless cell phone that operates both on regular
fixed lines and on mobile networks. Ericsson, the world's largest maker of
wireless equipment, will let its customers user their cell phones to make
calls from home via the Internet instead of using up their wireless minutes.
(Reuters/USA Today 18 Jun 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-06-17-hybrid-phones_x.htm

UNITED TO OFFER E-MAIL ON DOMESTIC FLIGHTS
By the end of the year, United Airlines will become the first domestic
airline to offer e-mail on all of its domestic flights. Industry analyst
Jonathan Gaw of IDC says the service will be a good attraction for business
users, who both need their e-mail and who can expense it." For $15.98 a
flight, a passenger will be able to send and receive e-mail and attachments,
by connecting a laptop computer to a jack on the Verizon Airfone handset
available throughout the plane. (Baltimore Sun 18 Jun 2003)
http://www.sunspot.net/technology/bal-bz.email18jun18,0,7414783.story?coll=b
al-technology-headlines

ONE-TENTH OF INDIA'S INFOTECH SPENDING COMES FROM GOV'T.
The Gartner research organization reports that spending by India's federal
and state governments accounts for 9% of all information technology spending
in the country. Gartner executive Bob Haywood says, "The government's
directive of keeping aside 2% of each state department's budget for
information technology has become instrumental in driving information
technology penetration in government offices." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 18
Jun 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6115216.htm

BIKE HAS GPS TO PREVENT THEFT
An electric bicycle produced by National Bicycle, a Matsushita company, will
have a Secom global positioning system (GPS) designed to guard against
theft. The battery will simultaneously supply electricity to the bicycle and
recharge the portable GPS unit. (Japan Today 17 Jun 2003)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=4&id=263412

*****

FLASH CARD
     "It is easy to spot an informed man -- his opinions are just like your
own." (Miguel de Unamuno)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: REGULATING SCIENCE
     The futurist Francis Fukuyama writes in his latest book:
     "What should we do in response to biotechnology that in the future will
mix great potential benefits with threats that are either physical and
obvious or spiritual and subtle? The answer is obvious: We should use the
power of the state to regulate it. And if this proves to be beyond the power
of any individual nation-state to regulate, it needs to be regulated on an
international basis. We need to start thinking concretely now about how to
build institutions that can discriminate between good and bad uses of
biotechnology, and effectively enforce these rules both nationally and
internationally. 
     "The creation of new regulatory institutions is not something that
should be undertaken lightly, given the inefficiencies that surround all
efforts at regulation. One of the biggest problems in making the case for
regulating human biotechnology is the common view that even if it were
desirable to stop technological advance, it is impossible to do so. If the
United States or any other single country tries to ban human cloning or
germline genetic engineering or any other procedure, people who wanted to do
these things would simply move to a more favorable jurisdiction where they
were permitted.
     "The idea that it is impossible to stop or control the advance of
technology is simply wrong. We in fact control all sorts of technologies and
many types of scientific research: people are no more free to experiment in
the development of new biological warfare agents than they are to experiment
on human subjects without the latter's informed consent. The fact that there
are some individuals or organizations that violate these rules, or that
there are countries where the rules are either nonexistent or poorly
enforced, is no excuse for not making the rules in the first place. We need
at all costs to avoid a defeatist attitude with regard to technology that
says that since we can't do anything to stop or shape developments we don't
like, we shouldn't bother trying in the first place. Putting in place a
regulatory system that would permit societies to control human biotechnology
will not be easy: it will require legislators in countries around the world
to step up to the plate and make difficult decisions on complex scientific
issues. But political tasks of comparable complexity have been successfully
undertaken in the past."
                                                                    ***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374236437/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Francis Fukuyama's "Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the
Biotechnology Revolution" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We
donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.)

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