NewsScan Daily, 11 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 11 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Authentication Won't End Spam, Say Experts
        Phone Companies Tackle Cybersecurity
        New Domain Rules 'Will Make Hijacking Easier'
        New Photo Printers Skip the PC
        Firefox Makes a Splash

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Rockets

AUTHENTICATION WON'T END SPAM, SAY EXPERTS
      Panelists at a forum sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission warned 
that criminals are already one step ahead of major e-mail authentication 
initiatives planned by major ISPs, including AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and 
EarthLink. The ISPs are still testing and backing several different plans, 
but the basic idea is that the e-mail system would check that the block of 
Internet addresses assigned to an e-mail provider includes the specific 
numeric address of a message sender. If the numeric address of the sender 
doesn't correspond with addresses assigned to the purported mail service, a 
red flag would be raised. The problem with that scheme, said the panelists, 
is that a majority of spam is now launched by "zombie" machines controlled 
by remote spammers. E-mail from a zombie PC looks as if it is coming from a 
legitimate source -- because it is. In the first half of this year, it's 
estimated that an average of 30,000 computers a day were turned into 
zombies, according to Symantec. But despite these discouraging statistics, 
the experts still insisted that authentication is a vital first step, to be 
followed by a system that evaluates the "reputation" of senders, perhaps 
using a process that marks good e-mail with an electronic seal of approval. 
(Washington Post 11 Nov 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41460-2004Nov10.html>

PHONE COMPANIES TACKLE CYBERSECURITY
      As owners of some of the worlds biggest Internet conduits, telephone 
companies like AT&T and Sprint are in a prime position to monitor Internet 
activity and stop mischief makers long before they reach the desktops of 
corporate customers. AT&T recently launched a network security system 
called Internet Protect and Sprint offers a similar service called IP 
Defender. Meanwhile, Internet security firm McAfee is marketing a "Clean 
Pipes" service designed to help carriers purge attacks as they traverse 
carrier networks. Other big players in the cybersecurity realm include IBM, 
Symantec and VeriSign, and equipment makers like Cisco and Juniper Networks 
are embedding security features into their data-routing gear as well. A 
recent study by Symantec shows a fourfold increase in the number of new 
viruses attacking Windows computers, to 4,496 in the first half of 2004 -- 
the largest increase the company has ever documented. Based on numbers like 
that, Yankee Group predicts that the managed security services market will 
expand from $1.5 billion in 2002 to $3.7 billion in 2008. (Wall Street 
Journal 11 Nov 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110012845170270721,00.html> (sub req'd)

NEW DOMAIN RULES 'WILL MAKE HIJACKING EASIER'
      New rules for domain transfers will come into effect on Friday, 
making it easier for people to hijack domains, according to the security 
and network services company Netcraft. The new rules, set by the Internet 
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), will mean that requests 
for transferring a domain will be automatically approved in five days 
unless they are denied by the owner of the domain. Currently, the ownership 
of a domain and the nameservers allotted are not altered if a request for a 
transfer evokes no response. Domain owners who do not manage their records 
carefully face problems under the new regime. If the contact addresses 
given in the records are incorrect, then a request for transfer would go to 
a wrong address and after five days of no response, the transfer would 
become effective. (The Age 10 Nov 2004) Rec'd from J. Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/10/1100021855873.html>

NEW PHOTO PRINTERS SKIP THE PC
      This year's holiday shoppers can check out a new line of photo 
printers that print out 4x6 glossies directly from a digital camera, and 
are portable enough to take on the road -- no PC required. The printers -- 
made by Canon, Olympus, Sony, Epson and Hewlett-Packard -- are loaded with 
different features: some plug into the TV, so you can edit your photos on 
the big screen before printing, and some print a contact sheet first that 
can be used as a guide for making individual photo sets for friends and 
family. Print times range from 50 seconds to an agonizing two and a half 
minutes. Prices range from $135 to $170. Check them out! (New York Times 11 
Nov 2004)
<http://tech2.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/technology/circuits/11stat.html>

FIREFOX MAKES A SPLASH
      A decade ago, the release of Netscape's new browser was greeted with 
breathless anticipation, and yesterday the release of Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 
rekindled some of that excitement. The Mozilla Foundation, which inherited 
the Netscape programming code base, launched the first non-beta version of 
its open-source browser at 1 p.m. PT Tuesday, and its servers were 
immediately overwhelmed by users seeking to download the free software. 
Firefox 1.0 is available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems in 
more than a dozen languages, and features new updating capabilities and 
search functions not found in previous versions. (Wired.com 11 Nov 2004)
<http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65668,00.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real." (Jules Verne)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: ROCKETS
      In his history of the 20th century space age, William E. Burrows 
points up the contribution of the Jules Verne imagination. "Reviewers of 
'From the Earth to the Moon' and other Jules Verne science fiction tended 
to dismiss them as children's stories. In fact, 'From the Earth to the 
Moon' was brilliant scientific prophecy. Rocketry's three giants -- 
Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, and Hermann Oberth -- not only were profoundly 
inspired by it but actually learned from it. Far from being a simplistic 
tale, 'From the Earth to the Moon' and its sequel were serious attempts not 
only to use science to whet the public's appetite for adventure but to 
convince it that nature, science, and technology were now and forever 
inseparable.
      "From a technical standpoint, the two Moon books heralded the space 
age; the imaginative leap that connected an ancient fantasy with a reality 
they themselves helped to shape. As might be expected, Verne got a few 
things wrong. The air-pressure buildup inside the cannon as the projectile 
races toward its mouth, combined with the immense explosive force behind 
the vehicle, would have caused it to disintegrate. Yet this does not 
diminish Verne's extraordinary vision. Tampa, the launch site, is less than 
120 miles from Cape Canaveral and is on the correct latitude. The 
projectile's change in direction near the little Moon anticipated the 
discovery of the gravity-assisted course change technique in 1961 that 
would make exploration of the outer planets possible. The projectile's 
landing in water suggested the splashdowns that would be used in the 
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. His calculation that it would take 
the projectile four days to reach the Moon given an initial velocity of 
twelve thousand yards a second was similarly on the mark. The seemingly 
outrageous prediction that 'light or electricity' would one day be used to 
propel spacecraft was realized with the discovery that the solar wind -- 
Kepler's heavenly breezes -- could push interplanetary spacecraft and so 
could charged particles shot out of an ion engine. The 
sixteen-foot-diameter aperture telescope used by the Gun Club to find the 
projectile on the Moon became the Mount Palomar telescope, which went into 
operation in California in 1948.
      "But Verne's greatest and most self-fulfilling prophecy had to do 
with the use of rockets to break the projectile's descent to the lunar 
surface. Perhaps more than any of the other innovations that he used for 
the expedition to the Moon, the rocket engine itself inspired the fathers 
of the space age. Tsiolkovsky would say: 'For a long time I thought of the 
rocket as everybody else did -- just as a means of diversion and of petty 
everyday uses. I do not remember exactly what prompted me to make 
calculations of its motion. Probably, that great fantastic author Jules 
Verne.' Oberth would recall that during his formative years, he 'always had 
in mind the rockets designed by Jules Verne.' And Goddard was so impressed 
by 'From the Earth to the Moon' that he noted it in his diary."
                            ***
[To find a library copy of "From the Earth to the Moon" visit RLG's 
RedLightGreen.com: 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=19289144&> 
-- or to purchase a copy go to: 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517148331/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]

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