NewsScan Daily, 26 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 26 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Preparing for a Digital Health Network
       Microsoft: Software Fixes Aren't for Pirates
       Advertising: Pay-Per-Call Challenges Pay-Per-Click
       Artists Against Music Piracy
       Where in the World Is Blackberry?

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Finley Peter Dunne

PREPARING FOR A DIGITAL HEALTH NETWORK
     Eight leading high-tech companies -- IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle,
Accenture, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Computer Sciences -- have agreed to
adopt open, nonproprietary technology standards as the software building
blocks for a national health information network, which the Bush
administration hopes will improve care and reduce costs by moving to a
digital system for handling patient records, clinical research, claims and
payments. IBM executive Neil de Crescenzo says, "The challenge is to turn a
call for change in the nation's health care system into actual change. We
got together to try to speak with one voice to the federal government and
other stakeholders, and say this is an approach we will all stand behind."
(New York Times 26 Jan 2005)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/technology/26health.html>

MICROSOFT: SOFTWARE FIXES AREN'T FOR PIRATES
     Microsoft will soon be requiring that Windows XP users verify that
their copy of the software is genuine before they'll be able to receive
"greater reliability, faster access to updates, and richer user
experiences." Although users of pirated copies of Windows will still be able
get security patches, they won't be able to get other enhancements to
Windows. The company will be expanding a trial authentication program it
began last fall, and will make mandatory in mid-2005 for all users seeking
to access software updates, downloads and security fixes for Windows.
(Reuters/Washington Post 26 Jan 2005)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37035-2005Jan26.html>

ADVERTISING: PAY-PER-CALL CHALLENGES PAY-PER-CLICK
     Analysts say that Yahoo, Google and other search services will follow
the lead of AOL in adopting a pay-per-call advertising approach pioneered by
the San Francisco firm Ingenio, which monitors advertiser phone numbers and
bills them for each call made in response to a Web ad. The concept of
pay-per-call is more attractive than pay-per-click to the relatively large
number of businesses that still do not have Web sites or that are in service
businesses (e.g., dentists, mortgage brokers, attorneys) that don't have a
product they can sell online. Jupiter Research ananlyst Niki Scevak
explains, "The concept of paying for a call rather than a click is one of
the -- if not the most -- significant expansion points for commercial
search. Paid search spending today is tied very tightly to an online
transaction. However, if you look at the landscape of U.S. businesses, the
majority are service-based enterprises." (San Jose Mercury News 26 Jan 2005)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10738475.htm>

ARTISTS AGAINST MUSIC PIRACY
     The U.S. Attorney General and the state attorneys general will have
some celebrity allies in their effort to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to
overturn a lower-court Internet file-sharing decision. Music stars rallying
against file-sharing software's threat to copyright include the Eagles, the
Dixie Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Tom Jones and Beach
Boys founder Brian Wilson. Don Henley of the Eagles says, "There is no more
important case for the future of our business. These systems promote
copyright violations on an unprecedented scale." But Fred von Lohmann, a
lawyer representing the Grokster file-sharing service, says: "All the
prominent movie stars of the day talked about how the VCR was the death of
Hollywood. The court wasn't fooled then by the parochial interests of one
industry, and it won't be now." (USA Today 25 Jan 2005)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-01-25-riaa-wed-usat_x.htm>

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BLACKBERRY?
     The Canadian government has joined the battle of Ontario-based Research
in Motion Ltd. (RIM), creators of the BlackBerry, in that firm's decision to
defend itself all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court against a patent
infringement case brought against it by an Arlington, Virginia, company. RIM
claims that since its BlackBerry relay server is based in Canada, U.S.
patent laws have no jurisdiction. The Arlington company argues that RIM is
using its technology to reap profits in the U.S. and so U.S. patent laws
rule. The Court is expected to hear arguments from the two sides in
February. (AP 26 Jan 2005)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050126/D87RP7R00.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Ye can lead a man up to the university, but ye can't make him think."
(Finley Peter Dunne as "Mr. Dooley")

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: FINLEY PETER DUNNE
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Chicago-born newspaperman Finley
Peter Dunne (1867-1936), who ranks high among American humorists for his
fictional creation of the irrepressible Irishman, "Mr. Dooley." Dunne had
Dooley, portrayed as a Chicago saloonkeeper, speak out in a rich Irish
brogue on the political and social issues of the day.
     "Thrust ivrybody, but cut th' ca-ards" is a good example of the Dooley
humor to be found in the Irish-dialect sketches Dunne wrote for the
editorial pages first of the Chicago Evening Post and later the Chicago
Journal. By the end of his career, he produced more than 700 of these
dialect essays, making the Dooley character a permanent part of American
lore. His Dooley stories were so popular that many of them were republished
in book form in the years 1898 to 1919.
     Dunne was born in Chicago of Irish-immigrant parents and began his
working career in 1884 as a journalist on various Chicago newspapers,
eventually specializing in political reporting and editorial writing. Over
time Dunne's witty commentaries on political sham and hypocrisy established
his voice as a force for clear thinking and tolerance in public affairs.
Politicians recognized the power he exerted on public opinion and learned to
respect and fear him.  Dunne is also credited with improving the image of
the Irish in America by depicting the common sense wisdom and human dignity
possessed by the working class Irish who frequented Dooley's saloon.

[To find a library copy of "Mr. Dooley's Philosophy"
visit RLG's RedLightGreen service at
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=11838425>
or to purchase "Mr. Dooley: Now and Forever," visit
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007DTS7Q/newsscancom/ref=nosim>
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

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