NewsScan Daily, 28 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 28 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
significant and sustained contributions to the effective management and
appropriate use of information technology. NSD is written by John Gehl and
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Senate Critical of Peer-to-Peer Networks
       Patent Dispute Puts an End to Anti-Spam Effort
       Swiss Tout Success of Internet-Voting Test
       Schwarzenegger Wants E-Vote Paper Trail
       Japanese Kids Tracked by Radio Chips

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: The Horizontal Society
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

SENATE CRITICAL OF PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKS
     A U.S. Senate bill called The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act
would make peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and LimeWire more vulnerable
to lawsuits when they're used to swap copyrighted music or video files. Gary
Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association says, "This is absolutely
critical, it threatens the survival of our industry"; but Adam Eisgrau of
the trade group P2P United counters: "The stakes here are chilling what
drives America's economy, which is technical innovation, both in the
marketplace of products and the marketplace of ideas." Copyright activists
and technology companies fear that not only P2P network companies but also
makers of iPods and photocopiers could be held liable for misuse of their
products, since the law would target any company that "induces" others to
reproduce copyrighted material.
(Reuters/New York Times 28 Sep 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-copyright.html>

PATENT DISPUTE PUTS AN END TO ANTI-SPAM EFFORT
     Because of patent disagreements among its members, the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) failed to reach consensus on a
Microsoft-backed "Sender ID" proposal to fight spam; however, the apparent
setback to industry anti-spam efforts may actually lead to an acceleration
of work on a different and perhaps stronger spam-control technology from
Yahoo. The Microsoft and Yahoo proposals and one from America Online are all
intended to defeat e-mail "spoofing" -- the practice of sending messages
pretending to be from someone other than the real sender. Internet pioneer
Dave Crocker is sympathetic with the IETF's failure to reach consensus: "The
normal approach is to proceed very cautiously," because major changes to the
Internet architecture "always have unintended consequences and they are
usually bad." (AP/Washington Post 27 Sep 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55147-2004Sep27.html>

SWISS TOUT SUCCESS OF INTERNET-VOTING TEST
     Switzerland has declared Internet voting a success after being used
without problems in a national referendum in which 2,723 people in four
Geneva suburbs visited a special Web site to cast their votes on various
issues. Swiss officials says the test has proven their systems are robust
and secure, but e-voting critic Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University is
unconvinced: "Just because nobody attacked a referendum that involved 2,723
people does not mean that it was secure. When these trials are viewed as
successful and justify more in-depth electronic voting, eventually there
will come a point where it will be worth someone's while to attack the
election." Geneva's e-voting system uses software developed by local
election authorities with the Swiss office of Hewlett-Packard Co. and the
Geneva-based online security firm Wisekey. (AP/USA Today 27 Sep 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-09-27-swiss-evotes_x.htm>

SCHWARZENEGGER WANTS E-VOTE PAPER TRAIL
     California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that will
bar the use of any electronic voting machine that doesn't produce paper
trails to verify votes. Another bill that received his signature will allow
the California secretary of state, local election officials or the attorney
general to file lawsuits against persons or companies suspected of tampering
with voting equipment. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 28 Sep 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9778991.htm>

JAPANESE KIDS TRACKED BY RADIO CHIPS
     Some schools in Japan are testing a system in which tiny antennae are
attached to student backpacks or clothes so the students can be traced by
radio. Public school teacher Ichiro Ishihara says, "More than 70 percent of
parents supported the trials, indicating there is wide appreciation for this
kind of effort. And the kids love it -- they think it's cool." There has
also begun the testing in Japan of a system that will allow messages to be
sent to parents' cell phones so they know what time their children left
school. (Los Angeles Times 28 Sep 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology11sep28,1,7887619.story?
coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "The visual is sorely undervalued in modern scholarship. Art history
has attained only a fraction of the conceptual sophistication of literary
criticism. Drunk with self-love, criticism has hugely overestimated the
centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the
electrifying sign language of images." (Camille Paglia)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE HORIZONTAL SOCIETY
     Law professor Lawrence M. Friedman argues that technology has made
"vertical" leadership obsolete by putting people in touch with their peers:
     "Technology and science have turned the world upside down and inside
out. Technology and science have made and remade social structures --
transformed them totally. After all, an automobile is not just a faster
horse that runs on gasoline instead of hay; a computer is not just a rapid,
foolproof adding machine or typewriter. The medium not only changes the
message; it also reconstructs the context of the message. The television
world, the world of visual images, is profoundly different from the print
culture it replaces, as Neil Postman has argued. Images replace written
language 'as our dominant means for construing, understanding, and testing
reality'; these images undermine 'traditional definitions of information, or
news, and, to a large extent, of reality itself.' Postman points out the way
television structures reality; it emphasizes images rather than ideas.
Television, he feels, creates 'the illusion of knowing something,' while in
fact it leads the viewer 'away from knowing.'
     "Television has completed the process of breaking down the barriers of
time and space that separate people. It is a prime instrument of horizontal
communication. Television can (and does) broadcast in many languages and in
many styles; but there is a deep, subtle, underlying sameness to its
message. It can, of course, be boring, but overall it is vivid, engaging,
full of color. Its universal message stresses fun, image, entertainment,
buying, selling, and consuming. Its powerful beam spreads an ideology of
individual wants, desires, and fulfillments, an ideology of choice-the
ideology of a horizontal world. Electronic mail and the Internet -- new
means of instant communication -- also break down borders. The Internet
makes it possible to send and receive messages across great distances and to
communicate with strangers -- that is, to form and cement horizontal
groups."
                          ***
     [See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465030904/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Lawrence M. Friedman's "The Horizontal Society" -- or look for it in
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

FLANNERY, FLANNERY, FLANNERY
Re: 
<http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=83
7>
     I am sure I will not be the first nor last to bring this to your
attention. Flannery O'Connor attended the Writer's Workshop at the
University of Iowa (under the directorship of Paul Engle) not at Iowa State
University. (TyAnn Morehead, Wartburg College) ...  I love NewsScan and read
it religiously. I also recommend it to all of my staff. I loved your article
about Flannery O¹Connor, one of my all time favorite short story writers.
However, even though I am a loyal Iowa State University alumna (Ph.D. 1988),
I think that the Writer¹s Workshop is affiliated with the University of
Iowa. Perhaps I am in error and the Writer¹s Workshop moved sometime between
the 1950s and when I was there, but perhaps not. Please note the following
site that I found which supports my hypothesis, although I don¹t know that
it is authoritative either: <http://kirjasto.sci.fi/flannery.htm>. Keep up
the great work. (Peg Schultz Pomona College) ... Just as an FYI, Flannery
O'Conner studied at the University of Iowa's Writer Workshop as opposed to
any such workshop held at Iowa State University. Being loyal Hawkeyes, our
Writers Workshop is a tremendous source of pride for us! (Gordon Tribbey,
University of Iowa)

STEAL THIS MUSIC (AGAIN)
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11378>
     FYI, there is a non-subs version of this article at:
<http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/
0,,SB109563044896921709,00.html> (Richard Rathe M.D.)

TAG TEAM CONFUSION
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11412>
     Your article entitled IBM TAG TEAM starts off with "Microsoft will be
hiring 1,000 new employees..." Perhaps you meant IBM? (Gordon McFaull)
[Yikes! Indeed we did. -- J&S]

HONORING JULIA
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=222
     The surname of today's Honorary Subscriber, Child, reminds me that
Julia Childs has died recently. If you're a similar age to myself, you'll be
aware of her influence on home cookery via book(s) and TV. No better choice.
(Len Cohen) [Note: We've already made Julia Child an Honorary Subscriber;
see 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=222
-- J&S]

HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS
Re: 
<http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=83
6>
     It would be interesting to read how Mr. Perry's mission to Japan is
recorded in Japanese history. Written by the winners, indeed! (Barbara
Kobritz)

CELL PHONES 'HARMLESS'?
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11399>
     Regarding "Tests Show Cell Phones Don't Disrupt Navigation Systems":
Hmm -- I read a British report earlier this year which stated that the main
thing that cell phones interfere with is more minor equipment like warning
lights. Reports like the one you reference encourage the trivialisation of
matters like this by members of the public who feel themselves above rules
that they don't like. Personally, I'd like to see a lot more rock-hard
evidence that cell phones are "harmless" in planes: the thought of 3-hour
tarmac delays, or even turn-backs, because a baggage-door warning like has
come on, is a dire prospect! (John Law,UK)

NEEDED: MORE THOUGHTUL EPISTEMICS
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11402>
     I continue to enjoy NewsScan & wanted to comment on "Kozoru: In Search
Of Better Results" because the reporting seems to miss some of the
implications. That Kozoru will apply a test of authoritativeness to
information content is not in itself newsworthy, because there are plentiful
information gatekeepers out there already, applying sometimes-explicit
filters to the marketplace of (often admittedly lousy) ideas. Locating "true
authority" is another matter altogether. So long as Kozoru makes its
interpretive criteria clear to its users -- explicitly, without spin -- it
might be a truly newsworthy service. One person's authoritative source is
another's establishment propagandist or conspiracy theorist; what we
desperately need today is more thoughtful epistemics, and less argumentum ab
auctoritate (proof by authority). Maybe they'll have a dropdown list where
you can pick your definition of authoritative: Charlton Heston, Sally
Struthers, Michael Moore, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Nader... (Joe Clark)

MUSIC MONEY MYSTERY
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11377
I agree with Stephen Levy¹s argument about the economics of music
distribution, but I could never figure out how the music industry justified
selling downloads for $.99 in the first place. With most CD¹s having 12 to
20 songs, the download price is about the same or more than buying a CD. The
reason I¹ve never downloaded music is that I have a fundamental objection to
paying the same price when the company is shifting their costs of printing,
pressing, packing, shipping, and tracking inventory on to me. If I¹m going
to pay the same amount, I¹ll take a physical copy. (Andrew W. Horner)


Newscan Daily is a very nice publication which is of great use, and it is
good that RLG supports it. But how can you mention Robert Musil without also
noting Chapter 100 of "The man without qualities": 'General Stumm invades
the state library and learns about the world of books, the librarians
guarding it, and intellectual order':
     "My eyes must have been blazing with such a thirst for knowledge that
the fellow suddenly took fright, as if I was about to suck him dry
altogether. I went on a little longer about needing a kind of timetable that
would enable me to make connections among all kinds of ideas in every
direction -- at which point he turns so polite it's almost unholy, and
offers to take me into the catalog room and let me do my own searching, even
though it's against the rules, because it's only for the use of the
librarians. So I actually found myself inside the holy of holies."
     "The secret of a good librarian is that he never reads anything more of
the literature in his care than the titles and the table of contents.
'Anyone who lets himself go and starts reading a book is lost as a
librarian,' he explained. 'He's bound to lose perspective'" ;-)
     A URL which will take you to some libraries:
<http://labs.oclc.org/xisbn/liblook?baseURL=http://www.google.com&opacID=ope
n
worldcat&isbn=0679767878>
(Lorcan Dempsey)

THE NEWSSCAN ARCHIVES ARE GOOD FOR YOU
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11418>
     Thanks for reminding us of the NewsScan archives! I often want to refer
someone to one or another of the Honoraries or Thinking Abouts, and this
arrangement makes it so simple to find the item in question. (Rita Seplowitz
Saltz)

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