NewsScan Daily, 24 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 24 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        The iPod Halo Effect
        Firefox Takes a Bite Out of IE
        Computer Authentication of Artworks
        Powell: 'You Own the Spectrum in Your Home'
        Trojan Horse Aimed at Nokia Cell Phones

FEATURES
        Thanksgiving Publication Schedule
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Pierre Bayle

THE IPOD HALO EFFECT
      The popularity of Apple's iPod music players is having an unexpected 
effect -- six percent of iPod users report having dumped their old PCs for 
Apple Macs, and an additional 7% say they're planning to do the same. Among 
the reasons cited are ease of use, a focus on entertainment and the 
perception of better security. Gene Munster, senior research analyst at 
Piper Jaffray, which conducted the study, says the iPod halo effect will 
boost Apple's bottom line for a while to come: "We're in the very early 
innings of a multiyear trend." However, to maintain the buzz, Apple will 
need to stay ahead of the pack with new design trends. "They've got to keep 
that 'cool factor' going. If they don't, they're in trouble," says Munster. 
(CNet News.com 24 Nov 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Survey+Some+iPod+fans+dump+PCs+for+Macs/2100-1042_3-5465935.html>

FIREFOX TAKES A BITE OUT OF IE
      The percentage of Web surfers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 
browser has fallen below 90%, with many of those users switching over to 
Mozilla's Firefox. According to a survey by OneStat.com, IE's market share 
has dropped 5% since May to 88.9%, while Mozilla browsers -- including 
Firefox -- have garnered an additional 5% in the same time period. 
Firefox's goal is to capture 10% of the market by the end of 2005. OneStat 
compiled the statistical comparisons from two million Internet users in 100 
countries. (BBC News 24 Nov 2004)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4037833.stm>

COMPUTER AUTHENTICATION OF ARTWORKS
      Computer scientists at Dartmouth University have developed a new 
mathematical process of authenticating art using high-resolution digital 
photos and complex computer analyses to map out the idiosyncrasies of an 
artist's unique pen and brush stokes for comparison with other artworks. 
The process replicated the work of human authenticators when it was used to 
analyze works by artists Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Perugino. Dartmouth 
professor Hany Farid, co-director of the project, says: "What we've tried 
to do is capture certain mathematical properties of an artist in terms of 
their underlying style, properties almost certainly not visible to human 
eyes." But he emphasizes that the process is meant to be an additional 
tool, and not a replacement for the traditional means of authenticating 
artworks: "It's simply another tool that is contributing to the dialogue of 
art authenticating." (CBS News 23 Nov 2004)
<http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/11/23/Arts/artcomputer041123.html>

POWELL: 'YOU OWN THE SPECTRUM IN YOUR HOME'
      Federal Communications Commission Chair Michael Powell explains to 
the editors of Reason magazine why he's upbeat about the telecom future: 
"I'm increasingly excited that I can actually talk to you about your TiVo 
and what that means for convergence. I can talk about your WiFi network at 
home. I can talk to my son about a cell phone, and he knows what I'm 
talking about. For the first time, I actually have neighbors who know what 
it means that digital transition gets spectrum back. Because they never had 
a reason to think about spectrum. That was the mystery world of 
broadcasting, and no one really paid attention to it. But now they do, 
because they can actually imagine that spectrum belongs to people in their 
own homes. What I love about WiFi is it's a way of saying you, not some 
institution, own the spectrum in your home. (Reason Dec 2004)
<http://www.reason.org>

TROJAN HORSE AIMED AT NOKIA CELL PHONES
      A new attack by Trojan Horse software known as "Skulls" targets Nokia 
7610 cell phones, rendering infected handsets almost useless. It replaces 
most of an infected phone's program icons with images of skulls and 
crossbones, and disables all of the default programs on the phone 
(calendar, phonebook, camera, Web browser, SMS applications, etc.) -- i.e., 
essentially everything except normal phone calls. Symbian, the maker of the 
Nokia 7610 operating system, says that users will only be affected if they 
knowingly and deliberately install the file and ignore the warnings that 
the phone displays at the conclusion of the installation process. Experts 
don't consider the Skulls malware to be a major threat, but note that it's 
the third mobile phone bug to appear this year -- and therefore probably 
means that this kind of problem is here for the foreseeable future. (ENN 
Electronic News.net 23 Nov 2004)
<http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9566568>

*****

THANKSGIVING PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
      In celebration of the American Thanksgiving holidays, this will be 
the last issue of NewsScan Daily until next Monday, 29 November. We wish 
everyone a safe and happy weekend.

FLASH CARD
      "There is no less invention in aptly applying a thought found in a 
book, than in being the first author of the thought." (Pierre Bayle)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: PIERRE BAYLE
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the French rationalistic and skeptical 
philosopher Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), who was a caustic advocate for 
religious toleration, best remembered for his well-known "Historical and 
Critical Dictionary." Published in 1697, the dictionary presented 
critically annotated biographies that provided Bayle with a platform to 
expose the narrow dogmatic thinking he found so prevalent in the religious, 
philosophical and historical writings of his era.
      Bayle's method was to present orthodox positions and then to use 
quotations, anecdotes, commentaries and clever annotations to slyly 
discredit them in favor of more tolerant views. His style of subversive 
criticism would later be adopted by the encyclopaedists of the 18th-century 
enlightenment. Bayle was even-handed in his opposition to dogmatic 
thinking, rejecting opinions not only if he thought them overly emotional 
but also if they were solely intellectual.
      Bayle was born near Foix, in southeastern France. Although his father 
was a French Huguenot minister, Bayle was schooled by the Jesuits and 
became a Roman Catholic for a short time as a young man, before reverting 
to Protestantism, and later becoming a religious skeptic. From 1675 until 
1681, Bayle was a tutor and teacher of philosophy at the Protestant Academy 
of Sedan. In 1681 he moved to Rotterdam where he taught philosophy and 
history at the Ecole Illustre.
      In 1682 he published anonymously his reflections on the comet of 
1680, deriding the superstition that comets presage catastrophe. After that 
he began to publish writings in his own name that openly questioned a wide 
variety of Christian traditions, gradually giving rise to the suspicion 
that he was an atheist, especially after he advocated that religious 
toleration be extended even to atheists.
      Then in 1693 Bayle was deprived of his Rotterdam professorship, 
leaving him little else to do but to continue working on his dictionary, 
which he had begun the previous year. He turned it into an outlet for his 
extensive criticism of orthodox Christian beliefs, and upon its completion 
in 1697 Bayle was thoroughly condemned by both the French Reformed Church 
and the Roman Catholic Church of Rotterdam.
      Bayle's dictionary was to become a favorite reference work of 
Voltaire, who called him "the greatest master of the art of reasoning." 
Certainly Bayle was rightly hailed for his dialectical skill, the accuracy 
of his work, and his encyclopedic knowledge. Continuing controversies with 
leading theologians marred his later years, but to the end of his life he 
remained convinced that the only certainty is that everything is uncertain. 
In 1702 he brought out a new edition of his dictionary and 1704 he 
published the "Continuation of Diverse Thoughts," in which he attempted to 
demonstrate the impossibility of answering the atheists objections to 
orthodox theology.
      Bayle died in Rotterdam in 1706, affirming his faith in the goodness 
and mercy of God, and the virtue of religious tolerance.

[To find a library copy of Walter Rex's "Essays on Pierre Bayle and 
Religious Controversy," visit RLG's RedLightGreen.com: 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=22088094&>-- 
or to purchase a copy go to: 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9024701848/qid=1101312638/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]

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