NewsScan Daily, 5 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 5 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Hollywood Threatens Lawsuits Against Online Pirates
        Spammers Guilty, May Draw Jail Time
        Ireland to Silence Mobiles in Cinemas, Theaters
        E-Governance Faces Challenges Abroad
        Game Makers Threatened by Patent Lawsuit

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Ted Williams
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

HOLLYWOOD THREATENS LAWSUITS AGAINST ONLINE PIRATES
      The Motion Picture Association of America says its members are poised 
to file copyright-infringement lawsuits against digital movie downloaders, 
following the lead of the music industry, which has filed thousands of such 
lawsuits over the past year. But while the music industry has demonstrated 
decidedly mixed results, the movie industry may be more successful, in part 
because the campaign is getting underway while movie downloading is still 
relatively rare, representing only 2% of all online file sharing. "The 
studios have a little bit of a head start. By taking action now, [they] 
have a better chance in making a real dent in the problem," says one 
copyright attorney. One reason for the small number of film downloads is 
the size of the files -- users could download hundreds of songs in the same 
time it takes to download one movie. In addition, movie fans are not as 
disaffected with that industry, unlike music enthusiasts who resent paying 
$15 for a CD with only one or two songs that they really want. "The deal 
between you and Hollywood is pretty good. The deal between you and the 
music industry has been pretty lousy for a long time," notes Eric Garland, 
CEO of BigChampagne. (Wall Street Journal 5 Nov 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109960743486965303,00.html> (sub req'd)

SPAMMERS GUILTY, MAY DRAW JAIL TIME
      A brother-sister duo accused in Virginia of sending junk e-mail to 
millions of AOL customers were convicted yesterday in the first felony 
prosecution of Internet spam in the U.S. Jurors recommended that Jeremy 
Jaynes, 30, be sentenced to nine years in prison and his sister, Jessica 
DeGroot, 28, be fined $7,500 after convicting them of three counts each of 
sending e-mail with fraudulent and untraceable routing information. A third 
defendant, Richard Rutkowski, 30, was acquitted. The case was the first to 
be brought under a tough Virginia anti-spam law that took effect last year. 
(AP 5 Nov 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041105/D865NE501.html>

IRELAND TO SILENCE MOBILES IN CINEMAS, THEATERS
      Ireland's cinemas and theatres have been given the go-ahead by the 
country's communications watchdog to permit the use of mobile phone 
interceptors. Interceptors will allow the creation of "quiet zones" where 
the mobile phones will not ring but where calls can still be made to 
emergency services or to lists of approved numbers, the Communications 
Regulator said on Wednesday. (The Age 4 Nov 2004) rec'd from John Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/04/1099362260997.html>

E-GOVERNANCE FACES CHALLENGES ABROAD
      Many overseas e-governance projects are failing, due to poor 
planning, political interference and bureaucratic bungling, according to 
World Bank information technology specialist Robert Schware. E-governance 
refers to efforts by governments to use Internet and computer technology to 
provide services to citizens and businesses. Schware notes that about 35% 
of all such projects in developing countries are a washout, with an 
additional 50% failing in some respect, leaving only about a 15% success 
rate. Schware cites $63 million spent by Ireland's government to test 
electronic voting technology before the project was abandoned due to doubts 
about its accuracy and privacy concerns. Uganda spent $22 million on an 
e-voting system, which performed poorly at the polls in 2001. And the U.K. 
pursued a $23.5 online university project that attracted only 900 students. 
One problem, says Schware, is that politicians sometimes want to speed up 
the timeline of the e-voting projects in order to win votes -- a process 
that usually ends up hurting the project. (AP/Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27612-2004Nov5.html?nav=headlines>

GAME MAKERS THREATENED BY PATENT LAWSUIT
      Computer game makers, including such big names as Electronic Arts, 
Atari and Sega, have been sued by Texas-based McKool Smith, which claims 
the makers' games violate a 1987 patent that covers a way to display 3D 
objects realistically in a 2D space, such as a computer monitor. The 
technique is used by almost every game that uses 3D modeling, including 
older games such as Quake and Doom. The companies are now frantically 
researching prior art, citing games such as The Colony and Spectre, which 
may have been released before the 1987 patent was granted. (The Register 3 
Nov 2004)
<http://www.theregister.com/2004/11/03/game_cos_3d_lawsuit/>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Golf is the only sport where the ball doesn't move until you hit 
it." (Ted Williams)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: TED WILLIAMS
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is Ted Williams (1918-2002), who was one 
of the greatest hitters in major league history. A lifetime .344 batter 
with 521 home runs in 19 years (1939-60) as a left-hand-hitting outfielder 
for the Boston Red Sox, Williams won six American League (AL) batting 
titles (his last at the age of 40, in 1958), four home-run crowns, and nine 
slugging-average championships.
      Nicknamed The Splendid Splinter, Williams won baseball's prestigious 
Triple Crown (most home runs, most runs batted in, and highest batting 
average) in both 1942 and 1947. He played his most notable season in 1941, 
when he won his first batting crown, with a .406 average -- the first 
player to reach the .400 mark since Bill Terry, who batted .401 in 1930. No 
hitter has since accomplished that feat.
      Williams led the AL in bases on balls eight times, and he accumulated 
2,019 career walks to rank second behind Babe Ruth. He achieved his many 
impressive career statistics despite missing nearly five full seasons 
serving as a Marine Corps pilot during World War II and the Korean 
conflict. Williams was the league's Most Valuable Player in 1946 and 1949, 
and in 1966 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
      Williams retired in 1960 but returned to baseball in 1969 to manage 
the Washington Senators. In his first year with the Senators he was named 
American League Manager of the Year, but he left the franchise in 1972, 
after it had become the Texas Rangers. Following his retirement as a 
manager, he occasionally worked as a batting coach and became a consultant 
for a line of fishing equipment. Considered a champion fly fisherman, 
Williams was inducted into the Sportsman's Fishing Hall of Fame. His 
autobiography, "My Turn at Bat," was written with John Underwood and 
published in 1969. His other book, "The Science of Batting," came out in 1971.
      Williams was born Theodore Samuel Williams in San Diego. California. 
At the age of 17 he began playing professional ball with the San Diego 
Padres of the Pacific Coast League. In 1938 he tried out with the Boston 
Red Sox in spring training, and a year later he joined the Sox outfield. In 
his rookie year he showed his star power by batting in 145 runs. Williams 
remained with the Red Sox until his retirement in 1960. The tall, rangy 
left-hander was such a fearsome hitter that opposing teams often used the 
"Williams shift" -- moving fielders toward right field, where Williams 
customarily drove his base hits.
      Williams was a patient hitter who resisted venturing out of the 
strike zone for a pitch. Yet he was never able to translate his hitting 
prowess into a World Series win for the Sox. His one opportunity came in 
1946, but he managed just five singles in 25 at-bats. In his final season, 
1960, he hit a dramatic home run in Fenway Park in his last at-bat. It was 
his 29th of the season, a record for players at least 40 years old.

[To find a library copy "My Turn at the Bat" visit RLG's RedLightGreen.com: 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=26638688&> 
-- or to purchase a copy go to: 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671634232/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

STRENGTH VERSUS WEAKNESS
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11603>
      About the Peter Drucker book: there is an old Chinese saying "Let 
your weaknesses support you, your strengths will take care of themselves" 
-- at variance with the Drucker conclusion that education should 
concentrate on areas of strengths! (Steve Torok)

WANT A FERRARI? BUT CAN'T AFFORD IT?
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11572>
      The idea of ISPs taking responsibility for virus protection is crazy 
-- ISPs are essentially handlers of data not processors of information. 
Once they take on a responsibility for filtering out viruses they become 
liable, whether or not they explicitly provide a limited warranty on 
performing such a service -- such is the reality of US law.
      But the bigger issue is why would you want an ISP to mess with your 
content? Every operation they do takes time, can introduce new problems, 
and therefore introduces delays, risks and costs. Moreover you will 
ultimately have to pay for their efforts -- the extra infrastructure 
required to handle your security for you costs serious money.
      You can, and should, do your own virus filtering or subscribe to a 
service that will do it for you. It isn't expensive and you know what 
you're getting because you should be making an informed choice. Leave that 
choice to an ISP and you might not get the best solution and you will 
suffer accordingly.
      Finally, stop whining. Why would you not want to be independent, to 
make your own decisions, to be responsible for your own success or failure? 
Why would you want your ISP to make decisions (possibly bad ones) for you? 
Expecting the ISP provides security is like expecting that the manufacturer 
of your car should provide a chauffeur. Want a Ferrari? Can't afford it? 
Buy a second-hand Honda or walk. You want security? Engineer it yourself. 
Feel you don't know enough to do it? Either start reading or find a local 
PC company to help you. Sounds too expensive? That's life -- if you can't 
afford to do it properly and aren't willing to learn how to do, that's just 
too bad. (Mark Gibbs)

U.S. LAGS BEHIND PAKISTAN
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11556>
    I feel proud that my country has moved ahead of the U.S. Pakistan 
started issuing machine-readable passports with embedded chips from October 
25, being the first in the world to do it. These passports are for 
everybody, not just diplomats and bureaucrats. That is not all. We already 
have very sophisticated national identity cards that are issued to the 
entire adult population. We are aware of the privacy concerns but do not 
allow them to deny us the benefits of the latest technology and the 
national database. Should we abandon, for example, the use of Internet only 
because there is a possibility of hacking or identity theft? Evil has never 
been far behind good. You have to fight against it, not surrender to it. 
(Muhammad Abd al-Hameed, Lahore, Pakistabm [email protected])

E-VOTING FIRMWARE
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11618>
      I am sending this to you since you might have a way of getting this 
idea to someone who cares. Regarding "... but many computer security 
experts remain pessimistic because no technology exists today that would 
allow an election official who suspects fraud to check software code on a 
voting machine and compare with the code stored in the library..." -- why 
can't they put the code in non-volatile ram or firmware so that when the 
system is booted it is guaranteed to run the right code and boot quickly 
enough to not be noticeable. Then tie the boot to the curtains opening so 
that the system is rebooted when leaving the voting booth OR tie it to a 
big button called 'submit ballot' so that the system stores and then boots 
from the firmware. This way it puts the security in the hardware. An audit 
would consist of a visual inspection of the chip and tamper proof housing. 
The downside is of course there is no dynamic updates...  you would have to 
swap chips if you have a new code release... but then you have some time 
between elections to do updates.
      Just an idea. (John Prichard)

VOTING MACHINE FAILURE VERY LOW
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11618>
      I've used the touchscreen e-voting machines in Collin County, Texas, 
for the past two elections with no issues. Did CNN report how many 
successful ballots were cast using the touchscreen e-voting systems? It 
seems to me that 1,100 problems reported across potentially millions of 
ballots cast is VERY low from systems perspective. I wonder how this 
failure rate compares with the other types of voting machines. (Chris L. White)

WHO'S LISTENING?
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11573>
      I would be interested to see any responses to "Advertisers Track 
Radio Listening Habits" in a future Mailbag. I spoke to a couple engineer 
friends about this, and they claim that the system, as described in this 
article, is not possible. (Ben White)

GO WEST YOUNG MAN
Re: 
<http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=852>
      "Go west young man and grow up with the country," I seem to remember 
Greeley saying. I spent a late summer in New York City's "City Hall Park," 
under the large bronze statue of Horace Greeley, sitting in a small couch 
while excavating the skeletons of the "First Almshouse" nearby, during a 
very active restoration of the park back in 1999. Then Mayor Rudy Giuliani 
had the State of Arkansas flag flown over City Hall, ordered while visiting 
in Arkansas, causing a law to be hastily passed to stop it ever happening 
again. Next to "him" is a monument to Joseph Pulitzer, both on the site of 
the first museum in NYC, and near "newspaper row" where once the presses 
ran to inform the metropolis. They cleaned his statue that summer too. 
(George Myers)

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