NewsScan Daily, 29 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 29 September 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        IBM Regains Lead in Supercomputing Speed
        MovieBeam's Multicast Dreams
        Picture This: Malicious Code Embedded in JPEG Images
        ECOresearch Tracks U.S. Elections Via Web
        Cellphone Add-Ons Over the Top

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: P.T. Barnum

IBM REGAINS LEAD IN SUPERCOMPUTING SPEED
      An IBM supercomputer based on the company's BlueGene/L technology has 
surpassed a NEC Earth Simulator machine in running the Linpack benchmark, a 
test program that solves a complex system of mathematical equations. The 
IBM machine attained a sustained performance of 36.01 teraflops (trillion 
calculations per second), compared with 35.86 teraflops achieved in 2002 by 
the Earth Simulator in Japan. "This is notable because of the fixation 
everyone has had on the Earth Simulator," says IBM VP Dave Turek. The 
achievement is especially notable because the BlueGene/L squeezes its 
computing muscle into a much more compact package than other large-scale 
computing systems. It's one-hundredth the size of the Earth Simulator and 
consumes one twenty-eighth the power, according to IBM. (New York Times 29 
Sep 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/technology/29computer.html>

MOVIEBEAM'S MULTICAST DREAMS
      Internet pioneer Vint Cerf says movies-on-demand via the Internet is 
being overhyped, considering that fact that the speeds most broadband 
providers advertise are rarely available: "Yes, you may experience speeds 
of 1mbps or more -- but most likely only when, one, you request a small 
piece of content like a Web page, not a movie, and two, most of your 
neighbors are not using their Internet connections… If you started using 
the network to download movies -- and your neighbors did, too -- your ISP 
would have one-fiftieth of the bandwidth required." So what's the answer? 
Multicasting, via MovieBeam's proprietary data network that inserts the 
movie bits into unused television broadcast spectrum, can deliver 10 movies 
a week to viewers, which are then stored on the company's receiver in their 
homes. "With this system, popular movies are 'pre-positioned' in the 
MovieBeam receiver… There are no download issues, and the quality is not 
constrained by Internet bandwidth, so all movies are in DVD quality," says 
Cerf. Even better, the system will work equally well for the 
high-definition movies (which require five times the data of current DVDs) 
that Hollywood is expected to introduce in the near future. (CNet News.com 
29 Sep 2004)
<http://news.com.com/2010-1026-5387885.html>

PICTURE THIS: MALICIOUS CODE EMBEDDED IN JPEG IMAGES
      Symantec Security Response senior manager Oliver Friedrichs says a 
flaw in the Microsoft technology used to render JPEG images has been 
exploited by hackers. The flaw was disclosed on September 14 and this week 
security experts discovered images containing malicious code posted on 
adult-oriented Usenet newsgroups. To receive the malicious code, a visitor 
must download the image and view it using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 
software. The problem affects computers running Windows XP (if users have 
not downloaded the Service Pack 2 security update), Windows Server 2003 and 
later versions of Office. The Internet Storm Center at the SANS Institute 
says the current threat is fairly tame -- it only causes infected computers 
to crash -- but "we suspect that a working exploit is very close to 
widespread availability." The fear is that future versions would enable the 
attacker to take over the machine remotely to launch further attacks. (AP 
28 Sep 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040929/D85D0VT01.html>

ECORESEARCH TRACKS U.S. ELECTIONS VIA WEB
      Five weeks prior to the U.S. 2004 election, the ECOresearch Network 
has launched a Web monitoring system to track the candidates' performance 
on the campaign trail. Weekly snapshots of Web coverage reveal regional 
differences and contrast the perceptions of media, companies and 
environmental organizations. The project analyzes the Web sites of the 
Fortune 1000 (the largest U.S. corporations ranked by revenue), 
environmental organizations and international media from the U.S., Canada, 
United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Processing these sites yields 
more than 500,000 documents each week, comprising about 125 million words 
in 11 million sentences. An automated process then identifies attention by 
counting the number of references to a candidate. It measures attitude by 
associating these references with positive and negative terms. Keywords, 
grouped by political party and geographic region, reflect current events 
associated with the candidates. (ECOresearch) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
<http://www.ecoresearch.net/election2004>

CELLPHONE ADD-ONS OVER THE TOP
      Wireless carriers are getting carried away with loading up their 
cellphones with new features -- from instant messaging to music players -- 
and some consumers are crying "enough already!" A recent survey by 
Forrester Research indicates that only 8% of respondents ranked video and 
camera features as "important" when choosing their handset model, but 
cameras are now built-in on more than 80% of Motorola's new handsets. 
"There is a big gap between what operators think adds value and what 
customers really value," says a Capgemini analyst. A six-month study 
conducted by Capgemini and INSEAD, a French business school, revealed the 
disconnect: 77% of respondents from 27 European wireless carriers believed 
that advanced data services were a "key factor" in remaining competitive, 
but 73% of cellphone users felt just the opposite, labeling them 
"unimportant." Instead, users singled out price, network coverage, 
simplicity of offers and ease of paying as the critical factors in choosing 
a wireless service. (Wall Street Journal 29 Sep 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109640898421430540,00.html> (sub req'd)

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.  (George 
Santayana)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: P.T. BARNUM
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the flamboyant American showman 
Phineas Taylor ("P.T.") Barnum (1810-1891), who used sensational publicity 
to popularize such spectacles as freak shows, musical concerts, and most 
famously the three-ring circus. In partnership with James A. Bailey, he 
made the Barnum & Bailey known the world over as "The Greatest Show on Earth."
      Barnum did not actually become a circus showman until he was past 60. 
Nor was the modern circus his invention. What he did was join with his 
rival circus manager Bailey to boost circus attractions into eye-catching 
extravaganzas, gigantic in size, designed to amaze and excite patrons who 
gathered under the "big top." Typical of Barnum's flair for the spectacular 
was his career-ending acquisition of the huge six-and-a-half-ton performing 
elephant he named Jumbo.
      At the height of his fame, Barnum was a familiar sight to the public, 
almost circus-like in his own appearance. Six foot two, blue eyed, 
potbellied and with a clown-sized bulbous nose, he easily matched the image 
suggested by the self-deprecating name he gave himself, "Prince of Humbugs."
      Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut. He was 15 when his father 
died and he became responsible for the support of his mother and his five 
sisters and brothers. He found work as publisher of a Danbury weekly 
newspaper, Herald of Freedom, which earned him the notoriety of being 
arrested for libel on three occasions. In 1834 he moved to New York City, 
where he turned showman, exhibiting Joice Heth, who pretended to be George 
Washington's 161-year-old nurse.
      In 1842 he acquired John Scudder's American Museum, a five-story 
marble structure filled with stuffed animals, waxwork figures, and similar 
natural history exhibits. Barnum quickly transformed the museum into a 
carnival of live freaks, dramatic theatricals, beauty contests, and other 
sensational attractions. He fed the public's interest in the unusual and 
bizarre, collecting curiosities of every description that he promoted by 
constant advertising and exaggerated publicity. By the time he closed the 
museum, Barnum's gaudy showmanship had brought in over 82 million visitors, 
many of them prominent persons. President Lincoln once received Barnum and 
his star exhibit, the 25-inch tall General Tom Thumb, and Barnum also 
transported his exhibits to England for a command performance before the Queen.
      In an intermediary phase of his career Barnum abandoned freak 
exhibitions to become an artistic impresario. He scored an astounding 
success when he sponsored the American tour of Jenny Lind, the Swedish 
soprano he dubbed "The Swedish Nightingale." Barnum was also interested in 
politics. He served two terms in the Connecticut legislature, and was 
elected mayor of Bridgeport. He wrote several books, and in 1855 he 
published his autobiography, which he later revised several times to 
counter criticism caused by his overly candid revelations. There is no 
evidence, however, that he ever made the cynical remark about a sucker 
being born every minute.

[See 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0252069021/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
for P.T. Barnum's autobiography -- 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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