NewsScan Daily, 25 Jul 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 25 Jul 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Microsoft Promises 'Integrated Innovation'
        China Wants to Be a Leader in Cell-Phone Technology
        Cybersecurity at the Defense Department
        Libraries Get Reprieve on Net Filter Deadline
        Intel, Alzheimer's Association Team Up on Patient Care
        Japanese Government Scraps Hacking Contest

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Nation-Building, France, 1794
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

MICROSOFT PROMISES 'INTEGRATED INNOVATION'
Microsoft plans to increase its R&D spending this year by perhaps 8%, to a 
total of $6.9 billion, and to expand its work force by 4,000 to 5,000 
positions during the current fiscal year. Disputing recent pronouncements 
by others, Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates says that that the 
computer industry is far from being in decline or in a state of rapid 
consolidation: "The debate about what came out of the boom and what these 
information technology investments mean has really gotten fairly extreme. 
Obviously we put our money where our beliefs are in saying we disagree with 
all of this." And Microsoft's business strategy at this point in time? 
"Integrated innovation" that will give the company's Windows and Office 
software customers a continuous stream of features and service. Gates says, 
"It shouldn't be necessary for people to buy additional products for their 
secure infrastructures." (New York Times 25 Jul 2003)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/technology/25SOFT.html

CHINA WANTS TO BE A LEADER IN CELL-PHONE TECHNOLOGY
China is developing its own technology that can run the next generation of 
mobile telephone networks (known as "third-generation" or 3G networks), 
capable of high speed Internet access from phones or handheld devices. A 
Chinese executive explains: "If we use an overseas standard, then the 
technology is controlled by foreign manufacturers. If China has its own 
standard, then the domestic enterprises can master the technology by 
themselves, so they can be at the same competitive level with overseas 
manufacturers." One industry observer notes: "This is China saying we have 
to build our own intellectual property. China is realizing that you cannot 
only rely on the fact that your labor is cheap. China has a lot of 
manufacturing already, and they want to be in on the innovation part." 
(Washington Post 25 Jul 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43008-2003Jul24.html

CYBERSECURITY AT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Purdue University computer science professor Eugene Spafford says there is 
too much reliance in the Defense Department on off-the-shelf commercial 
software: "Most of those products are not written to be used in an 
environment where there is a significant threat. We have attacks being 
committed by hackers, by anarchists, by criminals, probably by foreign 
intelligence services. The products have not been designed to be reliable 
or robust under those kinds of circumstances." There's also a "near 
mono-culture" resulting from the use of common products across many 
different DOD systems: "When a new attack is found that has affected any 
one of these products, it seeps through the entire network. Operators of 
systems may be in the position of applying three to five security critical 
patches per week for every system under their control. That really is 
unacceptable for us to be in a state of high readiness." Microsoft chief 
security strategist Scott Charney offers an perspective on the issue: 
"Reasonable minds are debating whether a homogeneous environment or a 
heterogeneous environment is better for decreasing risk. The advantage of a 
homogeneous environment, or more of a mono-culture, is it's much easier to 
manage. You train your people in a particular system, and they manage that 
system, they know all the security settings, you run tools to make sure 
they lock it down." (IDG News/Infoworld 25 Jul 2003)
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/07/24/HNdodsecure_1.html

LIBRARIES GET REPRIEVE ON NET FILTER DEADLINE
The Federal Communications Commission said yesterday that libraries will 
have an extra year to comply with the provisions of the controversial 
Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which mandates that libraries 
accepting federal funding must install Internet filtering software. The new 
deadline is July 1, 2004. Opponents of the Act -- including the American 
Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union -- have 
challenged CIPA, saying it violates free speech guarantees, but the U.S. 
Supreme Court ruled June 23 that CIPA did not infringe on First Amendment 
rights, noting "the ease with which patrons may have the filtering software 
disabled" by asking a librarian to unblock a particular site. (CNet 
News.com 24 Jul 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5053614.html?tag=lh

INTEL, ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION TEAM UP ON PATIENT CARE
Intel has formed a consortium with the Alzheimer's Association to fund 
research on new ways to improve the care of Alzheimer's patients, such as 
using a combination of sensors and wireless technologies to monitor the 
patient, thereby freeing up the caregiver to tackle some chores. "If you 
are a caregiver, this is really empowering technology," says Eric Dishman, 
director of proactive research at Intel. Intel says it is also 
investigating the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on 
items that the patient uses every day, such as a coffee cup or plate. The 
tags could track activity patterns for each object, and a link to an 
artificial intelligence system could generate prompts via the radio or TV 
on what to do with it (i.e., instructions for making coffee or washing a 
dish and putting it away). The Everyday Technologies for Alzheimer Care 
will fund more than $1 million worth of new research. (San Jose Mercury 
News 25 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/6379256.htm

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SCRAPS HACKING CONTEST
Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has canceled a national 
computer-hacking contest, bowing to an outpouring of angry mail and phone 
calls complaining that sponsoring such an event would just encourage 
cybercrime. The ministry said the "Security Koshien" contest was intended 
to foster computer expertise among high school and vocational students, and 
would have involved teams of students attempting to hack into opponents' 
systems while protecting their own from similar breaches. (AP 25 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030725/D7SGIQBG0.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "There were two 'Reigns of Terror', if we could but remember and 
consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless 
cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand 
years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a 
hundred million; but our shudders are all for the horrors of the momentary 
Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe 
compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and 
heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief 
terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn 
over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older 
and real Terror -- that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of 
us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves." (Mark Twain)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: NATION-BUILDING, FRANCE, 1794
      Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose -- or so they say. But is it 
really true that the more things change the more they remain the same? Or 
is that fundamentally false?
      In any event, it's worth taking the occasional statistical sampling 
from History -- in this case the history of the French Revolution (not a 
very pretty time in the course of human events).
      Here's encylopedia.com's calm summary of the frenzied Reign of Terror 
imposed by the leaders of that revolution:
      "Instead of a democracy the Convention established a war dictatorship 
operating through the Committee of Public Safety, the Committee of General 
Security, and numerous agencies such as the Revolutionary Tribunal. Known 
to history as the Reign of Terror, this period represented the efforts of a 
few men to govern the country and wage war in a time of crisis. Georges 
Danton and Maximilien Robespierre dominated the new government, with 
Robespierre gradually gaining over Danton and others. Price and wage 
maximums were unevenly enforced, and acceptance of the inflated paper 
currency, the assignats, was made mandatory. A huge number of suspects were 
arrested; thousands were executed, including Marie Antoinette. A 
revolutionary calendar, with 10-day weeks, was adopted.
      "The fanatic Jacques Hébert, who had introduced the worship of a 
goddess of Reason, was arrested and executed in March 1794, along with 
other so-called ultrarevolutionaries. The next month Danton and his 
followers, the 'Indulgents,' who advocated relaxation of emergency 
measures, were executed. To counter Hébertist influence, Robespierre 
proclaimed (June 1794) the cult of the Supreme Being. France's military 
successes lessened the need for strong domestic measures, but Robespierre 
called for new purges. Fearing that the Terror would be turned against 
them, members of the Convention arrested Robespierre on July 27, 1794 (see 
Thermidor), and had him guillotined; a majority of Commune members were 
also executed."
      Vivre la France.
                                 ***
See http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/frenchre_thereignofterror.asp 
or browse around more generally in www.encyclopedia.com.

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

UNSHREDDING SHREDDED DOCUMENTS
Re: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/technology/circuits/17shre.html
      Interesting that someone is now offering to reconstruct shredded 
documents using computer-based pattern recognition:  If I remember 
correctly, this has actually been attempted with human pattern recognition 
capabilities. After the overthrow of the Shah in Iran in 1979, the new 
government put hundreds of students to work trying to reassemble shredded 
documents from the captured American Embassy. The strips were stuck 
side-by-side vertically on a wall and the students would walk up and down 
trying to spot matches. They must have had some success, or they wouldn't 
have kept on doing it, but I have no idea if they actually recovered any 
documents. (Diana Bouchard, Quebec)

WHY IS INTERNET VOTING DIFFERENT FROM ABSENTEE VOTING?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8844
      Twice now people have brought up the issue of coercion in Internet 
voting in your newsletter. This puzzles me, because absentee voting has 
been around for a long time and is very well accepted by the public. I 
don't know about other states, but in my state anyone who wants to can vote 
with an absentee ballot by mail. This presents exactly the same problems 
with influence and coercion as Internet voting, but no one seems to have a 
problem with it. What's the difference? (Nate Scherer)

BIOMETRICS NOT THE SOLUTION
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8818
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8821
      I'd like to comment on the use of biometrics for personal 
identification, since this is often touted as the holy grail in 
authenticating people. Here's the fundamental paradox: Identifying someone 
requires (1) having trusted, sample/reference criteria, ideally impossible 
to forge/duplicate; (2) a current sample (ideally easily obtained, yet also 
virtually impossible to forge); and (3) a test/trial wherein the reference 
criteria and current sample are compared to determine the authenticity of 
the current sample. Closely related requirements include the necessity that 
the personal identification criteria REMAIN unique to the individual in 
order for it to maintain the value that we would assign to it for 
authentication, AND that the reference criteria be readily available 
wherever the comparisons need to take place.
      Now, to the security novices of the world, biometrics look like a 
great answer. Fingerprints, retinal scans, etc. (assumed to be unique) seem 
like ideal candidates, since they are (readily?) available wherever a 
person goes. The chilling paradox with this is that as soon as you reduce 
whatever criteria you select to computer readable form for comparison, you 
guarantee the compromise of that criteria -- as it is now easily forged, 
and moved about. Worse, the frightening thought that this sacred criteria 
is now available for falsifying one's identity at places, times and events 
unknown to the owner.
      So ask yourself, do we really want to start reducing our very private 
and uniquely identifying biometrics criteria, i.e. our signatures, 
fingerprints, retinal scans, and DNA sequences, etc. to be used and abused 
everywhere? Once these things are compromised, our identities will become 
impossible to guarantee and the ultimate identity theft will be complete. 
In violation of civil liberties ? Scared yet? We should be. (Tim Voss)

COMPLACENT PARENTS
Re: Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8818
      I conclude that Parker J. Palmer is seriously grazing the idea that 
there is more than one kind of teacher and one kind of student. There are 
also those minorities that can accept the Ivan Illich concept of 
deschooling: people who can enhance and revise their learning experiences: 
people who can achieve levels of self education superior to that provided 
by their government. These are dangerous people who are mostly unacceptable 
to industry, academia and government -- unless they engage in some form of 
disguise or subterfuge. These are the people that change the world and not 
always for the better. We each personally understand what is meant by 
better. In Ontario the government has taken back control of education from 
the teachers' union without impacting the complacency of the parents of the 
students. One step forward, eh! (Tom Mousseau, Ontario)

POWER OVER SOMEONE LESS IMPORTANT THAN POWER TO DO SOMETHING
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8818
      The Parker J. Palmer Worth Thinking About piece on teaching 
over-emphasizes the power maniac argument. To wit, more complicated 
teaching methods need as much or more organization, thus managerial powers 
of teachers would increase in any group learning method. They would become 
producers of plays, or directors of classroom theater, "team-builders." The 
important point is that the traditional method still allows more choice by 
students about pursuing their own interests: attending lectures or not, 
searching for information on the Internet, reading widely outside the 
classroom. The motivational aspects of "classroom theater" should not be 
underestimated, however, and teachers might embrace these if they realize 
they will have more (albeit a more subtle kind of) power, but more work to 
do than with traditional lecturing. In an ideal world, there would be a 
mix, and no worries about "power over" but, instead, an effort to become 
better at "power to do something"... (Steve Torok)

IBERO-AMERICAN HONORARY SUBSCRIBER
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=680
      Just to be precise, in Portuguese, the surname is "Camões" and not 
"Camõens". Anyhow, having another Ibero-American among Honorary Subscribers 
is just great. (Luiz Cláudio) [Thanks. Our archives have been corrected.]

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