NewsScan Daily, 25 June 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 25 June 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Guidelines for Networking Digital Devices
       HDTV Wins Fox Network as Another Convert
       Verizon to Support Cell Number Portability
       Spammer: 'I Hate Spam As Much As The Next Guy'
       IBM Dashboard of the Future

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Free Math Generator
       Honorary Subscribers: Walter & Cordelia Knott

GUIDELINES FOR NETWORKING DIGITAL DEVICES
A new coalition called the Digital Home Working Group -- with multi-industry
members including Intel, Sony, Microsoft, Gateway, Nokia, and others -- will
create guidelines for the interoperability of different kinds of digital
devices: PCs, TVs, printers, stereos, set-top boxes, mobile phones, handheld
computers, DVD players, etc. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 25 Jun 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6165119.htm

HDTV WINS FOX NETWORK AS ANOTHER CONVERT
The Fox Television Network, which has been slower than the other three
networks in a transition to HDTV broadcasting, now says it will transmit at
least 50% of its prime-time schedule in HDTV by the fall season of 2004.
Industry analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research sees Fox's decision as a
signal that market acceptance of HDTV is poised to take off: "Without a very
large television, it is hard to tell the difference in picture quality
between Fox's enhanced definition and HDTV. But all the marketing is around
HDTV, and Fox must have been feeling the pressure. This is a significant
development, a sign that the acceptance of HDTV is accelerating." (New York
Times 25 Jun 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/06/25/business/media/25TUBE.html

VERIZON TO SUPPORT CELL NUMBER PORTABILITY
Verizon Wireless, which has 33.3 million subscribers, had decided to
distance itself from other wireless providers by supporting the idea that
customers should be allowed to keep their cell phone numbers when they
switch wireless carriers. Chief executive Dennis Strigl urges his peers:
"Let's as an industry stop moaning and groaning. Our government has spoken.
Our customers tell us they want it. Let's clear the decks and get it done."
(Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times 25 Jun 2003) http://tinyurl.com/f7xw

SPAMMER: 'I HATE SPAM AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY'
Ronnie Scelson, known as the Cajun King of Spam, sees himself as a good
spammer, not a bad spammer: "I hate spam as much as the next guy. What I do
is not illegal. It's the people who spam sex, Viagra, and get-rich-quick
schemes that give commercial e-mailers a bad name. He says that the 60-70
million ads he send out each day all give customers the option to be removed
from mailing lists, do not hide behind forged e-mail addresses, do not get
routed through foreign relays, and always leave contact information. Scelson
makes more than $30,000 a month when business is good, and lives a typical
middle-class life -- except that he keeps a 9mm gun close to him because his
life is threatened so often by anti-spammers. (USA Today 25 Jun 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-06-24-spam_x.htm

IBM DASHBOARD OF THE FUTURE
IBM researcher Mahesh Viswanathan says of IBM's plans for automating the car
of the future: "We're talking about a butler in the dashboard who would look
after you, take care of your every need" -- such as resetting the air
conditioner from your voice command or going to the Internet to get a stock
quote. The key will be speech recognition (much improved in recent years),
supplemented by audiovisual speech recognition. The audiovisual system works
by means a tiny camera mounted above the windshield to record the driver's
lip movements and enhance the computer's understanding of the commands being
spoken. Viswanathan says the dashboard will effectively make you feel "as if
you were talking to another person in the car who can do all these things
for you." (AP/Washington Post 25 Jun 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29079-2003Jun25.html

*****

FLASH CARD
     "I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep
contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share
or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was
one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans
thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth
sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green." (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

FREE MATH TEST GENERATOR
     NewsScan Daily subscriber Richard Bechtold has created a useful and
free site for generating maths tests for different performance levels;
you'll find it at www.rbechtold.com/math.

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: WALTER & CORDELIA KNOTT
     Today's Honorary Subscribers are the husband-and-wife team of Walter
Knott (1889-1981) and Cordelia Knott (1890-1974), founders of Knott's Berry
Farm, a farm and nursery in Southern California that evolved into the oldest
and one of the largest thematic amusement parks in the United States.
     The son of a farmer, Walter Knott grew up in Pomona, Calif., where he
met and married his high-school friend Cordelia. In 1920 they leased 10
acres of land in Buena Park in nearby Orange county and grew berries,
selling them from a roadside stand and to local grocers.
     In 1932 the Knotts successfully nursed several abandoned hybrid berry
plants back to health, naming them boysenberries, after the Anaheim
horticulturist, Rudolph Boysen, who with Knott developed the berry by cross
breeding loganberry, red raspberry, and blackberry plants. The berries were
a hit with the public and sales were brisk from the Knott family's roadside
berry market. 
     They also sold Cordelia Knott's own preserves, relishes, and candies.
Business was soon so good that they were able to open a tea room and berry
market, which evolved into a restaurant that became known for its chicken
dinners. Within a few years, lines outside the restaurant were often several
hours long. To entertain the waiting crowds, the Knotts built a Ghost Town
attraction in 1940, using buildings relocated from old west towns. Further
additions to the farm included a narrow gauge locomotive, a San Francisco
cable car, a Pan-for-Gold attraction, the Calico Mine Train dark ride and
the world's first log flume ride.
     In 1955 Disneyland opened a mere 11 miles away, but without any
negative effect on the Knott's thriving berry farm market and restaurant
business. In fact, by 1960, the Knott family found it necessary to move
their berry farming operations from Buena Vista to much larger acreage
acquired near Modesto, in central California. Then in 1968, the Knott's
fenced the Buena Vista farm site, and for the first time began charging an
admission fee, thereby converting Knotts Berry Farm into a competing
amusement theme park. Today millions of people visit Knott's Berry Farm each
year, and millions more continue to eat food products made from
boysenberries.
     Walter Knott remained active in the operation of Knott's Berry Farm
until the death of his wife in 1974, at which time he turned his attention
toward political causes, leaving day-to-day park operations to his children.
He lived in a modest house inside the park until his death in 1981.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1569753067/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for "Hidden Disneyland," which includes a discussion of Knott's Berry
Farm -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from
our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)]

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Copyright 2003. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.
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