NewsScan Daily, 1 Jul 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 1 Jul 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Intel Loses in Court Case: Spamming Isn't Trespass
        Wi-Fi Picks Up Steam with SBC, Barnes & Noble Hot Spots
        Targeted Ads From eBay
        International Sales Catching Up with U.S., Says Amazon
        Music and Video in Soft Drink Cups
        Japanese Magazine Group Targets 'Digital Shoplifting'

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Pssst
        Honorary Subscriber: Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

INTEL LOSES IN COURT CASE: SPAMMING ISN'T TRESPASS
In a case that rose to the California Supreme Court for review, Intel 
argued that Kenneth Hamidi, a disgruntled ex-employee who had sent large 
numbers of e-mail messages to current Intel employees was misappropriating 
Intel's computer resources and thereby guilty of "trespass to chattels," 
which allows someone to sue for the inappropriate use of personal property. 
But the court rejected Intel's position, and ruled in a 4-3 decision that 
the doctrine of trespass to chattels did not apply, because the 
ex-employee's e-mail messages did not damage the company's computers and 
did not impose a significant cost on the company. The decision is seen as a 
set-back in the fight against unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam," 
which Internet service providers have said was a burden on their computers. 
William M. McSwain, one of Hamidi's attorneys, said of the ruling: "Spam 
needs a legislative approach. And Congress and half the state legislatures 
are hard at work finding one. What spam doesn't need is to have the courts 
create a new tort doctrine in a way that has unintended consequences." The 
court, said McSwain, reaffirmed the principle "that an unsolicited message, 
sent by a business or an individual, is not presumptively a trespass simply 
because the recipient doesn't want to receive the message." (New York Times 
1 Jul 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/07/01/technology/01SPAM.html

WI-FI PICKS UP STEAM WITH SBC, BARNES & NOBLE HOT SPOTS
SBC Communications and Barnes & Noble both have announced plans to install 
so-called Wi-Fi hot spots that the public can use to tap into broadband 
Internet access. SBC's hot spots will be located in 2,000 hotels, airports 
and other high-traffic areas concentrated mostly in its 13-state region, 
and Barnes & Noble plans to test Wi-Fi access in two dozen stores in 
Atlanta and Seattle this summer. B&N noted that its service likely will be 
offered for free as part of a promotional campaign during its pilot phase, 
but left open the possibility that there might be some charge imposed later 
on. Pricing for the SBC service is still undetermined, but the company 
plans to offer a multi-tiered plan, depending on what other SBC services 
users subscribe to. The largest provider of paid hot spots in the U.S. is 
Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, which operates more than 2,600 Wi-Fi 
locations around the country, primarily in Starbucks coffee shops, Borders 
bookstores and airline lounges. (Wall Street Journal 1 Jul 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105701002564585700.djm,00.html (sub req'd)

TARGETED ADS FROM EBAY
The Internet was expected to revolutionize advertising by showing ads only 
to those who might have special interest in the products or services they 
promote, and now Internet auction company eBay says its "click-through" 
rate on a targeted advertising program has increased 33-fold (and its own 
ad revenue by 35%) since it was launched. Called "Keywords," the new 
paid-search ad program associates banner ads with specific keyword search 
terms, and advertisers pay only when a searcher "clicks through" to look at 
the full ad. Google and Overture have somewhat similar 
programs.(Reuters/USA Today 1 Jul 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2003-06-27-new-ebay-ads_x.htm

INTERNATIONAL SALES CATCHING UP WITH U.S., SAYS AMAZON
Amazon expects its fast-growing international sales to equal its U.S. sales 
by 2005. International sales now comprise 32% of the total, but soared 68% 
in the first quarter of this year. Key to boosting international sales 
profits will be the growth of more commission-based businesses, such as 
being a third-party seller for other retailers, says Amazon senior VP Diego 
Piacentini: "As soon as those service commission-based businesses will 
grow, the gross margins in international will grow." Meanwhile, Amazon is 
eyeing future opportunities in online music sales, similar to Apple's 
popular iTunes service. "You should definitely expect Amazon to run a 
digital music download service in the future. We are going to be the place 
where people buy music. Digital will be even better for us, because you 
don't have to ship the products," says Piacentini. (Reuters 1 Jul 2003)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=3&u=/nm/20030701/tc_nm/tech_amazon_dc

MUSIC AND VIDEO IN SOFT DRINK CUPS
Music promoters are hoping to create new stars by sampling their work in 
"enhanced" mini-CDs embedded in the lids of soft drink cups at movie 
theaters and theme parks. About 4.8 million such CDs enhanced with video 
clips will be distributed nationwide to show off a new pop singer named 
Rachel Farris. Similar promotional campaigns have been designed for 
companies such as United Airlines, CocaCola and Victoria's Secrets. (AP/San 
Jose Mercury News 1 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6210081.htm

JAPANESE MAGAZINE GROUP TARGETS 'DIGITAL SHOPLIFTING'
Japanese bookstores are readying a public relations assault on so-called 
"digital shoplifting" by cell phone users who snap photos of magazine ads 
showing a new hairstyle or flashy clothing and send them to their friends 
for instant feedback. The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association has 
branded the practice "information theft" and says its members are being 
cheated out of valuable sales. In response, the group has teamed up with 
Japan's phone companies to launch a national campaign warning shoppers to 
mind their "magazine manners." (BBC 30 Jun 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3031716.stm

  *****

FLASH CARD
      "The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up 
mathematics, not only advanced this subject, but, saturated with it, they 
fancied that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all 
things. " (Aristotle)

PSSST
Hey, want your friends to know about NewsScan? Send them this: 
http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-KHWARIZMI
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the 9th century Arabian mathematician 
and astronomer Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (~780-847), who wrote 
treatises that in later centuries became important source materials 
influencing the work of European scholars.
      Al-Khwarizmi was born sometime before 800 A.D. in an area not far 
from Baghdad and lived until at least 847. He worked as a scholar in 
Baghdad's "House of Wisdom," so named because it functioned as a center of 
study and research in the Islamic world. Foremost among al-Khwarizmi's 
works was his treatise "Al-jabr wa'l muqabala" (The Science of 
Transposition and Cancellation), which deals with the solution of 
equations. The Arabic word for transposition, al-jabar, became "algebra" in 
the Latin transliteration of the book's title. In addition to this 
treatise, al-Khwarizmi wrote works on astronomy, on the Jewish calendar, 
and on the Hindu numeration system. Further recognition of the historical 
importance of his scholarship lies in the fact that the English word 
"algorithm" derives from the Latin form of al-Khwarizmi's name.
      Al-Khwarizmi lived in Baghdad under the caliphates of al-Ma'mun and 
al-Mu'tasim in the first golden age of Islamic science. The caliph 
al-Ma'mun (813-833) supported al-Khwarizmi's preparation of a world 
geography based largely on Ptolemy. He also compiled a set of astronomical 
tables, based largely on the Sindhind, an Arabic version of the Sanskrit 
work Brahma-siddhanta (7th century AD), but also showing Greek influence.
       Drawing on Hindu as well as Greek sources, al-Khwarizmi adopted the 
Hindu numerals, including the zero. These numerals (miscalled "Arabic 
numerals") were introduced to Europe by Fibonacci, greatly facilitating 
mathematical manipulations. While some critics quibble about the 
originality of al-Khwarizmi's work, it is generally acknowledged that he 
stands in the foremost rank of mathematicians of all time.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/2870371748/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Allard A.'s biography of Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi -- or look for 
it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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