NewsScan Daily, 18 Jul 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 18 Jul 2003 ("Above The Fold")
***********************************************************
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization
making significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology. NSD is
written by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, [email protected].
***********************************************************

"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        AOL Time Warner Unloading Some Weight
        Implantable Microchip Strikes a Chord in Mexico
        Why Are Spammers Backing Spam-Control Laws?
        Sky-High Surveillance Hits Airline Industry
        Yesterday a Microsoft Flaw, Today a Cisco Flaw
        A Technology Recovery -- or a Red Herring?

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Comedy Today
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

AOL TIME WARNER UNLOADING SOME WEIGHT
AOL Time Warner will is selling its CD and DVD manufacturing business to 
Cinram International of Toronto for $1 billion, and will soon be announcing 
an agreement to sell two of its three Atlanta sports teams (the Hawks in 
the NBA and the Thrashers in the NHL), along with the arena they play in, 
to Dallas car dealer David McDavid (for $350-400 million). The sales are 
the latest in a continuing effort by AOL Time Warner chief executive 
Richard D. Parsons to lower the company's $20 billion debt. (New York Times 
18 Jul 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/07/18/business/media/18AOL.html

IMPLANTABLE MICROCHIP STRIKES A CHORD IN MEXICO
Palm Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital Solutions, maker of the implantable 
VeriChip, is targeting consumers south of the border, where people see the 
tiny devices as a possible new way to thwart crime. The microchips, which 
are available in the U.S. as well, are implanted under the skin and can be 
used to link to information on identity, blood type and other information 
housed on a central computer. In Mexico, citizens hope the tiny devices 
could prove one more weapon in the arsenal needed to combat a rising wave 
of kidnappings, robberies and other crimes. The Mexican company in charge 
of distribution says it hopes to implant 10,000 chips in the first year and 
ensure that 70% of all hospitals contain the technology necessary to read 
the chips. Company officials say they are working on developing a similar 
technology that would use satellites to locate people who've been 
kidnapped, an application that is popular with Mexicans, but has raised 
privacy concerns in the U.S. (AP 18 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030718/D7SBU7D00.html

WHY ARE SPAMMERS BACKING SPAM-CONTROL LAWS?
Bigtime spam-mongers and junk-mail proponents like the Direct Marketing 
Association are backing proposed antispam legislation, while consumer and 
public-interest groups, almost without exception, oppose the bills. What's 
going on? "It's a sign of who benefits from these bills and who doesn't," 
says a spokesman for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email. 
"When you see some of the biggest spammers in the country backing 
legislation that is allegedly antispam, you really need to wonder about 
what these bills actually do." The answer is that rather than banning all 
unsolicited e-mail outright, as many consumer groups wish, they legitimize 
spam, as long as the perpetrators adhere to certain rules, such as using 
accurate subject lines and valid return addresses, and allowing recipients 
to opt out of future mailings. Two bills are currently making their way 
through Congress and a variant of thereof is expected to pass 
overwhelmingly and be signed into law later this year. (Wall Street Journal 
18 Jul 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105848273351539900,00.html (sub req'd)

SKY-HIGH SURVEILLANCE HITS AIRLINE INDUSTRY
Southeast Airlines is pioneering an in-flight surveillance program that 
will use digital videocameras installed through the cabins of its planes to 
record passengers' activities throughout the flight as a precaution against 
terrorism and other threats. The charter airline, based in Largo, Fla., 
says it may use face recognition software to match faces to names and 
personal records, and plans to store the digital data for up to 10 years. 
"From a security standpoint, this provides a great advantage to assure that 
there is a safe environment at all times," says Southeast's VP of planning. 
The airline says that while such security measures are not required by the 
FAA, it expects other airlines will adopt similar systems soon. That 
prediction alarms privacy advocates who especially question the need for 
retaining the video after the flight is over. "What's the point of keeping 
track of everyone when nothing happens on the flight?" asks Lee Tien, 
senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who points 
out that the video system could record conversations between passengers as 
well as capture the titles of passengers' reading material. (Wired.com 18 
Jul 2003)
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59652,00.html

YESTERDAY A MICROSOFT FLAW, TODAY A CISCO FLAW
Cisco, which makes communications routers and switches, has found a flaw in 
its software that could be used by network vandals to cause widespread 
outages; the company has released a free patch to fix the flaw in its 
Internetworking Operating System. No vandals have exploited the 
vulnerability up to this point, and Cisco says: "We literally have people 
working around the clock right now to get this situation taken care of." 
According to the company, the vulnerability could only be exploited by 
sending a "rare sequence" of data packets to a device running IOS, the 
equivalent of Windows for routers and switches. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 
17 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6324946.htm

A TECHNOLOGY RECOVERY -- OR A RED HERRING?
There are increasing numbers of anecdotal indications that Silicon Valley 
may be emerging from a deep business slump: year-over-year job losses are 
lower, median home prices have been climbing, stocks of eBay, Cisco and 
Yahoo are surging again, and Intel this week posted an 8% year-over-year 
quarterly increase in revenue, its biggest in three years. "The momentum 
and mood are back," says Tony Perkins, founder of tech's Red Herring 
magazine, which soared during the dot-com and then went bust this past 
spring. (USA Today 18 Jul 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2003-07-17-valley_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "I don't think being funny is anyone's first choice." (Woody Allen)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: COMEDY TODAY
      In an engaging review of Gerald Nachman's new book on comedy 
("Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s"), essayist 
Joseph Epstein -- who is a national treasure -- writes about how today's 
comedians seldom respect the intelligence of their audiences:
      "A few weeks ago someone lent me a videotape entitled 'The Best of 
Danny Kaye.' Most of the material came from Kaye's television show of the 
early 1960s. Along with being a swell dancer and an amusing singer -- 
Kenneth Tynan said he had perhaps the best diction of anyone in show 
business -- Kaye was a skit comedian. The skits on this tape assumed that 
his viewers knew something about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, 
classical composers, ballet, and French history -- and Danny Kaye was never 
thought of as a cerebral comedian.
      "Why are the producers of mass entertainment less willing to be 
richly allusive today when a great number of Americans have participated in 
higher education now than then? The Internet and cable television are 
sometimes said to constitute a knowledge explosion. Why comedy, like 
learning, must be pitched to the lowest, not the highest, level, is far 
from clear, except for the belief that the cruder the presentation the 
larger the audience the safer the investment. Someone recently told me that 
when he performs today, early in his act Mort Sahl tells three jokes at 
three different levels of sophistication, and pitches the rest of his act 
on the basis of the audience's reaction to those three jokes: smart, 
passable, hopeless.
      "Every good joke, it has been said, requires three people: the person 
who tells it, the person who gets it, and the person who doesn't. It would 
be a great pity if everyone today is much too worried about those laggards, 
those dullish third persons. Catering to them can only kill the joyfulness 
of comedians shpritzing away at full sail, not particularly caring if 
everyone in the audience can keep up with them."
                               ***
See 
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/884ptejv.a 
sp  for Epstein's review, and for Gerald Nachman's new book "Seriously 
Funny," see 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375410309/newsscancom/ref=nosim  -- 
or look for it in your favorite library. And you might also want to check 
out http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618340734/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Joseph Epstein's most recent book: "Snobbery: The American Version." 
(We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.)

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

HOW DO YOU MEASURE A VISIONARY?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8785
      Your article "How Do You Measure Computing Consumption?" brings back 
some important memories.  (Martin Greenberger) Note to our readers: Way 
back in 1964, Dr. Greenberger (at the time with MIT and more recently with 
UCLA) wrote "The Computers of Tomorrow," described by the Atlantic Monthly 
as a discussion of the possibility of an "information utility" that raises 
"the question of how government regulation might or might not play a role 
in this new market. The author also predicts electronic banking and 
computer-managed financial markets. The Internet itself may even owe 
something to the thinking of Mr. Greenberger:  he envisions online services 
that offer everything from publishing capabilities, home shopping, and 
library research to design and engineering applications and even 
computerized 'communities.'" This was almost 40 years ago! 
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/tech.htm

HOSPITAL FOR FOUNTAIN PENS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8773
      If you're going to do "pen bereavement," you should mention 
Fahrney's, in Washington, which I think is the only known "pen hospital." 
They've been fixing these things for years. (Ken Robinson)

I THANK YOU GOD FOR MOST THIS AMAZING DAY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8773
      I've carried this poem around by e.e. cummings in my wallet (and now 
my Palm) for many years. I was amazed to see it in your news letter. Good 
choice! (Richard Rathe, MD)

INTERNET VOTING WOULD DIMINISH OUR DEMOCRACY Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8761
      Using Internet voting is a really bad idea that takes a little bit 
more of our democracy away. Here's why:
      1. It's not secure;
      2. It's inner workings are hidden;
      3. The Feds cannot even keep secure their own web sites, on which 
there is no voting;
      4. There's no paper trail to verify the voter's intent;
      5. There are no recounts;
      6. There's built-in discrimination: the method proposed requires a 
Microsoft Windows-based computer with Internet access. So Mac or Linux 
users can't use it; neither can those who can't afford a PC or monthly 
Internet charges.
      7. Politicians cannot take office any sooner if we get faster 
results: several months elapse before their terms begin.
      Yes, "Internet voting takes just seconds", but shouldn't our goal be 
a well-informed electorate that takes time to decide for whom to vote? And 
absentee ballots make voting from home possible and speedy, without 
compromising our identities or the voting process. (Rick Cullen)

A GUN TO THE HEAD
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8761
      The BIG problem with Internet voting is that there is *no* way to 
ensure that the voter isn't voting with a gun (figuratively or even 
literally) held to their head. At a polling place, the election clerks and 
judges can oversee the voting to make sure that voters aren't being 
"coached" and that nobody is looking over their shoulder or examining their 
ballot following voting. There are NO such protections if people are voting 
outside the "sanitized/safe" environment of the polling place... I 
challenge you to get in touch with Ms. Brunelli and ask her about this 
issue of how to confirm that the voters are not voting under duress or 
pressure! I think this could be a **very** serious problem indeed!!! 
(Gordon Peterson)

SAFE SYSTEM?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8761
      On July 9, 2003, the Inquirer (UK) site contained an article "US 
election fraud scandal looms?" (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10393) 
linked to a New Zealand website that contained additional information and 
links about an apparent security breach whereby Diebold touch screen voting 
machine manuals and a variety of other files and utilities... I'm still 
reading some of the downloaded articles in my spare time, but I would feel 
better if someone with better technical resources than a retired school 
teacher could debunk this hint of potential election scandal...or not. 
(B.R. Black)

LET'S CHECK AGAIN IN SEPTEMBER
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8769
      I'm glad the RIAA is so happy that their threats are working, and I 
agree that the drop in file-sharing isn't a coincidence. However, I'd just 
point out that North American colleges and universities had all finished 
their spring semesters by the end of June, and millions of students are now 
spending the summer without access to institutional networks (=high 
bandwidth). Might there be a connection, or lack thereof (pun intended?) 
Let's see what happens to the file-swapping figures as of September 30! 
(David W. Sisk)

NEILSEN/NETRATINGS BANKRUPTCY (IN CREDIBILITY)
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8769
      I am stunned at how easily Nielsen attributed the 15% decline in file 
swapping to the actions of the RIAA. Is there anything else which might 
have happened in June that might have attributed to the decline? Perhaps 
that thousands of college students left their access to high speed 
connections to the Internet via college networks and went home or elsewhere 
for the summer? Hmmm. Nah! That's too obvious and easy. I would say that 
Nielsen/NetRatings' credibility is totally bankrupt at this point. (Howard 
J. Ramagli, Ph.D.)

FILE-SWAPPING DECLINE IS DUE TO STUDENT VACATIONS Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8769
      I'm not so sure -- I'd speculate that at least some of this is likely 
to be due to the end of the academic year, and students losing the fast 
Internet connectivity they enjoyed in their wired student residences. 
(Martin Radford)

MIT: CALL A LIBRARIAN
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8771
      The idea of a search engine for the world's poor is great. Only one 
thing concerns me. You describe how the computers at MIT will do a search 
and "filter the results" to find the "most relevant" ones (or, as the 
original article says, "choose the most suitable webpages"). Just how will 
this filtering or choosing happen without the intervention of a human 
being? Isn't the whole idea of a search engine to do this in the first 
place, and don't they generally do a mediocre job of it? Is the machine as 
good at filtering/choosing as an experienced web searcher would be? Why not 
send the request via e-mail to an information center (aka a library) where 
a knowledge expert (aka a librarian) could provide the same service? Many 
libraries already do this. If the researchers at MIT really hope to design 
a better search engine I think they should first talk to the folks across 
the campus in the library, where they have already done it. (Martin Raisch)

VICTIMIZED
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8755
      Regarding the story "Has Your PC Been Hijacked to Spread 
Pornography?": This actually happened to me! A couple of years ago my ISP 
called me to say they were shutting me down because I violated their 
contract by using my computer as a server. I assured them I was not. 
Eventually, after several departments researching the incident, the ISP 
believed me. Months later the police called to talk to me about being a 
"victim" of computer crimes. Turns out some kids in Madison (my home town) 
were hijacking several computers, stealing identities, using stolen credit 
cards, etc. My situation could have been much worse. Fortunately the 
technology offers much better protection than it did 2 years ago, but the 
criminals are also that much more sophisticated. (Pete Zeimet)

HABITS OF MIND
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8759
      With regard to "Analogies (And Where They Lead)," check out the 
"Habits of Mind" set forth by educator Deborah Meier in her 1995 book, "The 
Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America From a Small School in Harlem." 
Although Professor Meier's "Habits of Mind" were developed as a teaching 
tool at the grade school level, I have found them very helpful guidelines 
as a business professional.(Will Roberts)

CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF STEADY EMPLOYMENT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8751
      Your "The Language Police" Worth Thinking About item explained an 
interesting concept, but one already familiar to anyone who drives or uses 
a corporate computer system. Have you ever gone along, and thought "why on 
earth are they putting traffic lights up here" -- Or logged on, clapped 
your hand to your head, and thought "why on earth did they change all that 
-- it was so good"?? The answer is simple -- things are changed and 
"improved" because the departments created to do good work in the past now 
have to do any sort of work to justify their continued existence. So it is 
with the "language police" -- they exist, therefore they must "do" -- 
whether it be for better [as was], for worse [as is now], and maybe for 
ridicule in the future. (Scott Pollard)

A CATCH-22 TIT FOR TAT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8719
      I read your story about the telecommuter in Florida working for a New 
York firm (and denied unemployment benefits in NY under a NY court 
decision) -- and couldn't help but wonder if there is going to be a 
decision from the Florida state courts in the near future, saying that 
unemployment benefits derive from the state of employment, not the state of 
residence! (Ben White)

THE ROAD TO HELL IS UNPAVED
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8750
      I find NewsScan to be very informative and useful. However, you 
attributed the phrase "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" to 
Samuel Johnson. I believe this attribution to be in error. I read some 
years ago that the actual quotation was not by Johnson, had a broader 
context (which changed the phrase's meaning), and that it dated, as I 
recall but cannot yet confirm, from Biblical times. However, I have now 
conducted a cursory internet-search on the phrase, and located a website -- 
at <http://www.samueljohnson.com/road.html> -- which maintains that 
Johnson's actual quote was not "The road to Hell..." but rather "Hell is 
paved with good intentions". The site further notes that Johnson apparently 
did not originate the phrase, and attributes a similar phrase "Hell is full 
of good intentions or desires" to some six hundred years earlier, to Saint 
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153). (Steven Steinberg)

SUBSCRIPTION INFO FOR NEWSSCAN DAILY:
      To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions 
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages 
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to 
the addresses shown below:
      Text version: Send message to [email protected]
      HTML version: Send mail to [email protected]
      NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT NEWSSCAN DAILY! Send them our little frog: 
http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html

***********************************************************
Please visit the site of RLG, the great organization that makes NewsScan 
Daily possible. (RLG has no influence over, nor any responsibility for, our 
editorial content.) Created in 1974 as the Research Libraries Group, RLG is 
a not-for-profit membership corporation of more than 160 universities, 
national libraries, archives, museums -- and other institutions with 
remarkable collections for research and learning. Its major initiatives are 
long-term retention of digital materials, resource sharing among member 
institutions, and improvement of researcher access to primary source 
material. RLG supplies online research resources worldwide. Visit RLG at 
http://www.rlg.org.

*********

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the TEXT version of NewsScan Daily, send an 
e-mail message to [email protected] with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' 
in the subject line. To subscribe to our HTML version of NewsScan Daily, 
send mail to [email protected], with the word 'subscribe' as the 
subject. (Subscribing to the HTML version won't automatically unsubscribe 
you from the text version; please unsubscribe yourself as explained above.) 
Please note: To unsubscribe from an account to which you no longer have 
access, send mail to at [email protected].

*********

We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the 
great "broadsheet" newspapers in which editors must decide which news 
stories are of such importance that they should be placed "above the fold" 
on the front page. The NewsScan Credo: Be informative, have fun, and get to 
the point! See http://www.newsscan.com/, and send us mail: John Gehl 
<[email protected]> and Suzanne Douglas <[email protected]>, or call 
770-704-7517.

*********

Get a free 6-week trial subscription to Innovation Weekly, an executive 
summary of trends, strategies and innovations in business and technology. 
Send mail to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' in the 
subject line.

What customized news and information services do you need for your company? 
Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call 770-704-7517 to talk 
over the possibilities.

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