NewsScan Daily, 26 October 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 26 October 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Intel Teams With McCaw Startup on WiMax Networks
        '.Net' Up for Grabs
        iRobot Teams With John Deere on R-Gator Vehicle
        AOL Acquiesces to Microsoft Sender ID Authentication Scheme
        Adult Content to Boost Wireless Web Services

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Dr. Mike Has a New Book Out
        Worth Thinking About: Storms of Activity

INTEL TEAMS WITH MCCAW STARTUP ON WIMAX NETWORKS
      Intel is collaborating with Clearwire, a startup founded by cellular 
mogul Craig McCaw, to jumpstart WiMax technology by creating a series of 
new chips designed to support the WiMax standard. WiMax is intended to 
extend the limited reach of WiFi wireless networks by permitting a single 
transceiver to connect hundreds or thousands of customers to the Internet 
over distances of many miles. Clearwire recently began offering wireless 
Internet service in Jacksonville, Fla., for $25 a month and plans to be 
available in as many as 20 U.S. markets by next year. It's also deploying 
the service in Canada and Mexico, as well as in developing countries like 
Bangladesh. "We are tempered by the fact that everyone who has tried this 
has failed," says McCaw, "but w'ere crossing the river on the backs of 
pioneers." (New York Times 26 Oct 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/technology/26intel.html>

'.NET' UP FOR GRABS
      '.Net,' the world's fourth largest Internet domain, is looking for a 
new operator, and experts say the stakes are high. The winner, to be chosen 
by ICANN, could earn as much as $30 million a year, but if the domain were 
to fail, huge e-mail networks like those operated by Comcast and Earthlink, 
would go down with it. "It's the most important decision ICANN has ever had 
to make," says Tom Galvin, VP of government relations for VeriSign, which 
has operated the .net domain up until now. About 30% of all e-commerce 
traffic and more than 150 billion e-mail messages a year travel through 
net. The handover is the culmination of a deal that VeriSign cut back in 
2001, when it agreed to relinquish control over .net in favor of 
near-permanent ownership of the more lucrative .com domain. VeriSign is 
permitted to bid on the new .net contract, but will not be given 
preferential treatment. One likely rival will be Dublin-based Afilias, 
which in 2003 took over technical management of the .org domain. "There's 
no question that .net helps underpin the Internet," says Afilias CTO Ram 
Mohan. "The one [assertion] that strikes me as incongruous is that if you 
touch .net, everything will fall apart." (Washington Post 25 Oct 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60758-2004Oct25.html>

iROBOT TEAMS WITH JOHN DEERE ON R-GATOR VEHICLE
      iRobot, maker of the popular Roomba vacuum cleaner, and tractor 
manufacturer John Deere are teaming up to build a 9-foot-long 
semi-autonomous battlefield vehicle dubbed R-Gator (Military Robot Gator). 
R-Gator will use off-the-shelf technology and feature three basic operating 
modes: autonomous, remote control or manually driven by human operators. It 
will be able to relay real-time video, audio and sensor readings from the 
field in unmanned reconnaissance expeditions. It's based on John Deere's 
M-Gator, which has been extensively used by the U.S. military in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, and iRobot's PackBots, which are widely used in those 
two countries to disarm roadside bombs and search caves and buildings. Full 
production is expected to commence in 2006 at a production cost of about 
$250,000 apiece. (AP 26 Oct 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041026/D85V3LI01.html>

AOL ACQUIESCES TO MICROSOFT SENDER ID AUTHENTICATION SCHEME
      America Online reversed itself and now says it will adopt Microsoft's 
Sender ID e-mail authentication technology. Sender ID is a hybrid of 
earlier Microsoft technology and the technology that AOL initially 
championed, Sender Policy Framework (SPF). Sender ID works by checking 
records in the central domain-name system to check whether the sender's 
computer is authorized to use the domain name on the message, eliminating 
the annoying tactic of "spoofing," or forging, return e-mail addresses. AOL 
says it will begin testing Sender ID on inbound e-mail by year's end, while 
at the same time continuing to test other e-mail authentication 
technologies, including Domain Keys from Yahoo, plus to Cisco Systems 
technologies. (Wall Street Journal 26 Oct 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109874412178555233,00.html> (sub req'd)

ADULT CONTENT TO BOOST WIRELESS WEB SERVICES
      Analysts say porn purveyors will do the same thing for the wireless 
sector that they did for the fixed-line Internet, fueling major growth 
while raking in the bucks. In the U.S., consumers will shell out some $90 
million for adult entertainment in four years' time, according to a report 
by Yankee Group, which estimates that excluding portals of U.S.-based 
wireless operators, half of all wireless data traffic consists of 
pornography. Meanwhile, the only thing holding back the U.S. carriers is 
the worry over a backlash if adult content falls into the hands of 
children: "Fear is trumping greed for the moment, but the two can work 
together if carriers can develop a solid mechanism for protecting minors 
and safely profit from the opportunity," says Yankee. (Reuters 25 Oct 2004)
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=TPZD2EKVY5JQSCRBAEOCFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=6600488>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Ability will never catch up with the demand for it." (Confucius)

DR. MIKE HAS A NEW BOOK OUT
      Many of you were touched by obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Mike 
Litrel's columns earlier this year in NewsScan Daily, so it's a great 
pleasure for us to announce the publication of his new book, "The Eyes 
Don't See What the Mind Don't Know."  Go to <http://www.doctor-mike.net/> 
to learn more about it. Some of you might also want to consider getting 
extra copies of the book to give to some of your friends or relatives 
during the holiday season.
      Incidentally, Dr. Mike is donating his proceeds from book sales to a 
women & children's center that is now being built.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: STORMS OF ACTIVITY
      In telling the story of his grandfather's coming to America, Nicholas 
Dawidoff tosses off a few national stereotypes on his way to describing his 
Russian forebears:
      "At its essence, to be typically Russian was to be 'more so.' Though 
Russians, for instance, were not always energetic -- were, in fact, famed 
for their abilities as sleepers -- in his fleeting moments of vigor a 
typical Russian was more vigorous than anybody. In this way, Russians were 
'more so' about everything. As a Russian saw it, a Frenchman might be 
ardent when it came to France -- or a Frenchwoman -- but he never truly 
lost his head about anything except a Frenchwoman. (Usually it was someone 
else's Frenchwoman.) Germans were even worse. They were so rigidly 
organized that they never lost their heads at all. Russians, however, 
believed in losing their heads and aspired to do so. Russians made 
outrageous claims, traveled to absurd lengths, pushed the limit, and 
exceeded expectations. Always they wanted to be more loyal, more devoted, 
more steadfast, more stoic, and -- when circumstances called for it -- more 
long-suffering. That was a lot to live up to, and to meet the perpetual 
challenge typical Russians spent spectacular amounts of time lying around 
dreaming up magnificent feats for themselves to accomplish. In other words, 
it was a nation of show-offs.
      "This behavior was rooted in the populist intelligentsia's 
long-standing tradition of appropriating and preserving rural values. 
Russia was slow to industrialize, and into the early twentieth century many 
social mores still came from the provinces -- from the peasantry. Even 
townspeople were familiar with tales of peasant heroics: the heavy sacks of 
grain this mujik had hoisted; the broad fields of ripe wheat that one had 
cut to the ground by himself in a single day with his scythe. Many of these 
stories featured men who had allowed so much work to accumulate that 
everyone said this time, truly, it was just impossible: no man could finish 
such a job in such a limited time. Whereupon the peasant went out and 
completed the task in a remarkable lather of activity.
      "The reckless approach was prized in Russia, and peasants who 
betrayed too disciplined an attitude toward their work were scorned as 
'acting German.' Even in Soviet times, factory workers were notorious for 
lazing about until the end of a planning period and then compensating with 
the shturmovshchina -- a storm of activity."
                            ***
[From Nicholas Dawidoff's "The Fly Swatter: How My Grandfather Made His Way 
in the World." To find a library copy visit RLG's RedLightGreen.com: 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=11174881&> 
-- or to purchase the book through Amazon visit: 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375400273/newsscancom/ref=nosim>. 
Note: We donate all revenue from our recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]

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