NewsScan Daily, 9 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 9 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Score One for Technology Customers
       Simulating War
       An End to Phishing?
       Get Unplugged
       Dissin' China

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Book Collecting in Alexandria

SCORE ONE FOR TECHNOLOGY CUSTOMERS
     With corporate technology spending projected to grow only slightly in
the next few years, Silicon Valley is feeling the pinch. Gartner industry
analyst Martin Reynolds says, "They're all fighting for a pie that isn't
increasing as fast as they'd like to tell their shareholders. Everyone is
aggressively trying to cut costs. You've got to fight for every penny." But
bad news for the Valley is good news for a Fortune 500 company like FedEx,
which is now able to dictate the terms of technology agreements, and which
has managed to maintain a stable budget level for several years now.
According to CIO magazine publisher Gary Beach: "In the first 20 or so years
of the technology age, the vendors held all the cards. But now, the fulcrum
of power is not with the vendors or consultants. It's with the customers."
(San Jose Mercury News 9 Dec 2004
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10374844.htm>

SIMULATING WAR
     A company called Will Interactive is one of a number of Washington,
D.C.-area firms prospering by selling interactive training and simulation
technologies to the military. Some of the other companies in that category
are BreakAway and Sensics. Aerospace and defense analyst Juliette Salvati
explains, "The type of warfare that we are fighting now is very different
than what it used to be...  The tools that are used to train for this are
very different, and one of those tools is simulation... It is a fairly young
market, but it is maturing fairly quickly. And over the next couple years, I
think the market is going to become very much more crowded." Will
Interactive's Chief Creative Officer, Jeffrey Hall, says that what the
military wanted to simulate were "relationships under pressure, morale
issues, what it feels like to drive around with sewage in the streets and no
one appreciates you." And David S. Henderson at Fort Sill says: "It's
difficult to put a student in a training environment where you're able to
teach them how to think, not what to think, and that there are consequences
to the decisions that are being made." (Washington Post 8 Dec 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49862-2004Dec8.html>

AN END TO PHISHING?
     Former White House Web security chief Howard Schmidt, is predicting
that "at this time next year" technology companies and law enforcement
agencies will have forced an end to most kinds of Internet "phishing" scams
that trick people into revealing their personal and financial information.
Schmidt, who has worked with the group that created Digital PhishNet,
promises that the major technology companies "are all working together to
get the sites shut down as quickly as possible so they won't be around to
collect your information." (Reuters/USA Today 9 Dec 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/infotheft/2004-12-09-phish-starving_x.htm>

GET UNPLUGGED
    Enough is enough, say experts who think young people need to get a life
beyond the Internet. Psychologists Michelle Weill and Larry Rosen write,
"It's like being lost in space. You get lost in the world of the Internet,
games or multiple instant-message chats." Dave Greenfield, another
psychologist specializing in high-tech issues argues: "Until technology gets
'stupid simple,' equivalent to turning on a light or a television set, it's
going to eat time and energy. Do I have the right adapter? Or the right
battery? Or cable?" Noting that many people buy the latest high-tech gizmos
whether they need them or not, Greenfield says: "It points to a larger theme
in our culture -- that new things are good and better, and that more is
better, and faster is better. And that's not always the case." He's the
author of a book called "Virtual Addiction." (AP/Los Angeles Times 9 Dec
2004) 
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology10dec09,0,432543.story?coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>

DISSIN' CHINA
     Law enforcement authorities in China have banned the new British
computer game "Football Manager 2005" because it refers to Taiwan as a
separate country, contrary to the mainland government's insistence that
Taiwan belongs to China. The government is searching for the game online and
in computer software markets, cybercafes, and places that sell pirated
software. A spokesman for the game's developer, Sports Interactive, says
it's working on a Chinese version for release in China that will comply with
local requirements: "We will follow the correct submission and approval
process within China and look forward to feedback from the Chinese
authorities on any modifications that may be required." Last week China also
banned a Nike television commercial it says is disrespectful and blasphemous
toward Chinese culture. The ad features NBA star LeBron James in a mock
video with a kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese attire, and a
pair of dragons. (AP/9 Nov 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041209/D86S32RG0.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have
in my library are books that other folks have lent me." (Anatole France)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: BOOK COLLECTING IN ALEXANDRIA
     In his book on Fermat's Last Theorem, science writer Simon Singh
recounts this interesting sidelight on the building of the great library of
Alexandria:
     "In 332 B.C., having conquered Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, Alexander
the Great decided that he would build a capital city that would be the most
magnificent in the world. Alexandria was indeed a spectacular metropolis but
not immediately a center of learning. It was only when Alexander died and
Ptolemy I ascended the throne of Egypt that Alexandria became home to the
world's first-ever university. Mathematicians and other intellectuals
flocked to Ptolemy's city of culture, and although they were certainly drawn
by the reputation of the university, the main attraction was the Alexandrian
library.
     "The Library was the idea of Demetrius Phalaerus, an unpopular orator
who had been forced to flee Athens, and who eventually found sanctuary in
Alexandria. He persuaded Ptolemy to gather together all the great books,
assuring him that the great minds would follow. Once the tomes of Egypt and
Greece had been installed, agents scoured Europe and Asia Minor in search of
further volumes of knowledge. Even tourists to Alexandria could not escape
the voracious appetite of the library. Upon entering the city, their books
were confiscated and taken to the scribes. The books were copied so that
while the original was donated to the library, a duplicate could graciously
be given to the original owner. This meticulous replication service for
ancient travelers gives today's historians some hope that a copy of a great
lost text will one day turn up in an attic somewhere in the world. In 1906
T. L. Heilberg discovered in Constantinople just such a manuscript The
Method, which contained some of Archimedes' original writings.
     "Ptolemy's dream of building a treasure house of knowledge lived on
after his death, and by the time a few more Ptolemys ascended the throne the
library contained over 600,000 books."
                              ***
[For a library copy of Simon Singh's "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to
Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem," visit RLG's
RedLightGreen.com:
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=23881764&>
-- or to purchase a copy go to:
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385493622/newsscancom/ref=nosim>
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

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