NewsScan Daily, 14 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 14 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Google Cuts Deal with Libraries to Digitize Holdings
        Changing Partners…
        Report Concludes Linux Has Fewer Flaws
        Microsoft Unveils Desktop Search Tool
        ICANN Gives the Nod to Two More Domains

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: The Art of the Lyric

GOOGLE CUTS DEAL WITH LIBRARIES TO DIGITIZE HOLDINGS
      Flush with new wealth after its IPO last summer, Google has offered 
to underwrite the cost of digitizing library collections at Harvard, 
Stanford, Oxford, the University of Michigan and the New York Public 
Library. Although company executives declined to comment on the total 
funding amount, one estimate pegs it at $10 for each of the more than 15 
million books and other documents covered in the agreement. The 
announcement comes as a number of other library digitization projects are 
underway, including one at the Library of Congress to put selections of its 
best holdings online and one at the University of California to create the 
California Digital Library. In addition, the Library of Congress and a 
group of international libraries from the U.S., Canada, Egypt, China and 
the Netherlands say they're planning to create a publicly available digital 
archive of one million books on the Internet. The trend toward online 
libraries and virtual card catalogs has publishers scrambling to respond 
and libraries rethinking their central mission as storehouses of printed, 
indexed material. "Our world is about to change in a big, big way," says 
Daniel Greenstein, university librarian for the California Digital Library. 
Instead of devoting time and effort to maintaining physical collections, 
libraries in the future can focus on gathering information and making it 
accessible online. (New York Times 14 Dec 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/technology/14google.html>

CHANGING PARTNERS…
      Verizon and its wireless partner Vodafone are poised to make an offer 
for Sprint, a deal that would scuttle Sprint's tentative plans for a 
$35-billion merger with Nextel. Although there are still regulatory hurdles 
and tax issues to overcome, a successful bid by Verizon would turn Verizon 
Wireless, currently No. 2 in the U.S. after Cingular, into a wireless 
behemoth with more than 65 million customers. Market leader Cingular claims 
about 47 million subscribers, thanks to its recent acquisition of AT&T 
Wireless. And although Vodafone's support comes with a price tag -- it 
apparently wants a new dividend arrangement for Verizon Wireless and the 
right to buy Verizon's stake in Vodafone Italy -- the deal with Sprint may 
prove irresistible, as it would give Verizon access to much-needed 
spectrum, especially as it's trying to roll out EVDO, or wireless 
high-speed Internet access, as an alternative to DSL. (Wall Street Journal 
14 Dec 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110298004512599036,00.html> (sub req'd)

REPORT CONCLUDES LINUX HAS FEWER FLAWS
      A four-year research effort by code-analysis firm Coverity has 
concluded that Linux has significantly fewer software bugs in it than most 
commercial counterparts. Coverity uncovered 985 flaws in the 5.7 million 
lines of code that make up the Linux core operating system, compared with 
the more than 5,000 defects typically found in commercial software of 
similar size. "Linux is a very good system in terms of bug density," says 
Coverity CEO Seth Hallem. Though Coverity's report doesn't contain any 
specific data about the frequency of glitches in Microsoft's Windows 
operating system, it's likely to add fuel to the debate over which system 
-- Linux, Mac OS or Windows -- is most secure. One recent report found that 
Red Hat Linux contained fewer critical flaws than Microsoft Windows, while 
a Forrester Research study (sponsored by Microsoft) unsurprisingly favored 
Microsoft. (CNet News.com 13 Dec 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Security+research+suggests+Linux+has+fewer+flaws/2100-1002_3-5489804.html>

MICROSOFT UNVEILS DESKTOP SEARCH TOOL
      Hot on the heels of Google's Desktop Search launch two months ago, 
Microsoft has rolled out its competing MSN Toolbar Suite that enables users 
to search for keywords in a variety of types of files, from e-mails to 
instant messages to PDFs. Google's Desktop Search does not support searches 
in PDF files but, unlike MSN Toolbar, it does record all Web pages visited. 
Both products are still in beta stage, but meanwhile the competition is 
heating up with Yahoo's announcement last week that it will launch a 
desktop search product in January, and AOL's plans to join the fray 
sometime early next year. (AP 13 Dec 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041214/D86V2VP00.html>

ICANN GIVES THE NOD TO TWO MORE DOMAINS
      ICANN, the Internet's oversight agency, has given preliminary 
approval for two additional domain names -- ".mobi," which would delineate 
Web sites and other services specifically geared toward cell phones, and 
".jobs," which would target the human resources community. In October, 
ICANN gave preliminary approval to ".post" for postal services and 
".travel" for the travel industry. ICANN will now begin negotiations with 
the applicants of all four suffixes on creating and running the domains. 
There are currently about 250 domain names, mostly for specific countries, 
such as ".ch" for Switzerland. (AP/Washington Post 13 Dec 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61424-2004Dec13.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade 
into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set 
to music." (Stephen Sondheim)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE ART OF THE LYRIC
      From time to time we like to honor the great American popular song 
lyricists, and today we turn our attention to composer/lyricist Stephen 
Sondheim. Sondheim studied musical composition under Milton Babbitt and was 
tutored in lyric-writing by Oscar Hammerstein II, a family friend and 
neighbor.
      At age 25 he wrote the lyrics to "West Side Story" (music by Leonard 
Bernstein, book by Arthur Laurents, inspiration by Wm. Shakespeare).
      Some of Sondheim's other works (music and/or lyrics) include "Gypsy," 
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "A Little Night Music," 
"Sweeney Todd," and "Sunday in the Park with George."
     Here are a few examples of his lyrics. How many can you sing?
                ***
When you're a Jet,
You're a Jet all the way
 From your first cigarette
To your last dyin' day.
                ***
Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.
                ***
Rosalia: I like the city of San Juan.
Anita: I know a boat you can get on.
Rosalia: Hundreds of flowers in full bloom.
Anita: Hundreds of people in each room!
[Girls sans Rosalia:]
Automobile in America.
Chromium steel in America.
Wirespoke wheel in American,
Very big deal in America!
                ***
Something familiar,
Something peculiar,
Something for everyone:
A comedy tonight!
Something appealing,
Something appalling,
Something for everyone:
A comedy tonight!
Nothing with kings, nothing with crowns; Bring on the lovers, liars and clowns!
Old situations,
New complications,
Nothing portentous or polite;
Tragedy tomorrow,
Comedy tonight!
                       ***
Maria!
I've just met a girl named Maria,
And suddenly that name
Will never be the same
To me.
                     ***
She lightens my sadness,
She livens my days,
She bursts with a kind of madness
My well-ordered ways.
My happiest mistake, the ache of my life: You must meet my wife.
She bubbles with pleasure,
She glows with surprise,
Disrupts my accustomed leisure
And ruffles my ties.
I don't know even now quite how it began.
You must meet my wife, my Anne.
                      ***
Tonight, tonight,
Won't be just any night,
Tonight there will be no morning star.
Tonight, tonight,
I'll see my love tonight!
And for us, stars will stop where they are.
Today the minutes seem like hours,
The hours go so slowly,
And still the sky is light.
Oh moon, grow bright,
And make this endless day endless night!
                      ***
Could be! Who knows?
There's something due any day;
I will know right away,
Soon as it shows.
It may come cannon-balling down thru the sky, Gleam in its eye,
Bright as a rose!
Who knows?
It's only just out of reach,
Down the block, on a beach,
Under a tree...
I got a feeling there's a miracle due,
Gonna come true,
Coming to me!
                     ***
[To find a library copy of the Sondheim "Musical Comedies" DVD, go to RLG's 
RedLightGreen.com at 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=24125946&> 
-- or to purchase go to 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AKY5I/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
Note: We donate all revenue from our recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]

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