NewsScan Daily, 8 August 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 8 August 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        IBM Fires Back in Battle Over Linux
        UCITA Support Fading Fast
        Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent with Tech Support
        MP3.Com Founder Launches Internet Phone Venture
        Price Discrimination Could Spark Consumer Backlash

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Gustav Mahler
        Mailbag: The World as We Find It

IBM FIRES BACK IN BATTLE OVER LINUX
IBM has countersued SCO Group, charging that SCO has devised a "campaign of 
falsehoods" that creates "the false impression that SCO holds the rights to 
Unix that permit it to control not only all Unix technology but also 
Linux." The suit also accuses SCO of unfair competition, and of violating 
"no fewer than four" of IBM's patents in its UnixWare operating system and 
other products. The move ups the ante in the ongoing dispute over SCO's 
claims that the Linux operating system contains misappropriated Unix code. 
Earlier this week Linux distributor Red Hat filed a lawsuit against SCO, 
charging "unfair and deceptive actions." Meanwhile, SCO claims to have 
terminated IBM's license, but Big Blue continues to sell machines based on 
both Linux and Unix, saying that its license, which was acquired years 
before SCO bought the Unix rights, is not revocable. (AP 8 Aug 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030808/D7SPIRUO3.html

UCITA SUPPORT FADING FAST
Key backers of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) 
have bowed to pressure from opposition groups and will stop lobbying for 
the bill's passage. The bill was intended to protect software developers 
from intellectual property theft by bringing into conformity conflicting 
software licensing laws in various states, but critics, including the 
American Bar Association and the American Library Association, said the 
legislation would grant software makers too much power over their products 
at the expense of consumers. So far, UCITA has been enacted in only two 
states, Maryland and Virginia, and now that the effort has lost the support 
of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), 
UCITA is unlikely to gain further consideration from other states, says an 
NCCUSL spokeswoman. Opponents of the bill commended NCCUSL for its 
decision: "It is heartening to see NCCUSL backing away from a very flawed 
statute, but it will never be able to write sound law for the information 
economy until it takes to heart the criticisms of the user sector," said 
Jean Braucher, a law professor at the University of Arizona and a member of 
AFFECT -- Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions. (CNet 
News.com 7 Aug 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5061061.html?tag=fd_top

 NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT WITH TECH SUPPORT
A March survey of 10,000 computer users by Consumer Reports magazine 
indicates that of the 8 million users who seek tech support from software 
companies every year, about a third are not helped. "People are so 
frustrated with tech support, they're not even calling," says CR senior 
editor Jeff Blyskal. Not only that, but software's getting worse, according 
to a 2002 report funded by the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology. That study estimated that software glitches cost the U.S. 
economy about $60 billion a year, with more than half of that borne by 
users. "Consumers are unpaid conscripts in an unpaid army of product 
testers who go and find the problems and alert the manufacturers," says 
Blyskal. And while a spokesman for the Software and Information Industry 
Association says software makers do not intentionally hurry products to 
market before all the bugs are worked out, experts say the current crop of 
software is riddled with errors, in part because of its increasing 
complexity. To make matters worse, many companies are starting to charge 
users for the privilege of attempting to resolve problems while the number 
of tech support personnel steadily dwindles. And software firms' strategy 
of channeling users toward online help menus and e-mail leaves much to be 
desired, according to the CR survey, which showed that 73% of users said 
Web solutions are hard to find, navigate or don't work at all. The e-mail 
route is equally as frustrating, with 50% reporting either unhelpful 
replies, response delays of longer than two days or no response at all. 
Meanwhile, industry watchers hold out little hope for improvement: "You're 
adding more complex software, more hardware devices, home-based Internet 
applications. These things interact and they don't always work together. 
That's going to make this a bigger problem," says Blyskal. (CNN.com 8 Aug 2003)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/08/07/software.glitches/index.html

MP3.COM FOUNDER LAUNCHES INTERNET PHONE VENTURE
MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, who also serves as CEO of Lindows, is 
continuing his battle against the Goliaths of this world -- this time 
through his new startup, SIPhone, which provides telephone service via 
broadband Internet connection. Robertson says his new venture, which offers 
unlimited free calls to other Internet-based phones, will spur development 
of the fledgling Internet phone industry by offering low-cost, easy-to-use 
handsets. He expects demand will come from businesses with branch offices 
overseas and consumers who make a lot of international calls. (Los Angeles 
Times 7 Aug 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-phone7aug07122446,1,1907337.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

PRICE DISCRIMINATION COULD SPARK CONSUMER BACKLASH
The Internet has made it easy for consumers to comparison shop for items 
such as mortgages, cars, airline tickets and the like, but the flip side of 
that convenience is that sellers also know more about buyers than ever 
before: how much they buy, when they buy, and even how much they can afford 
to pay. The inevitable result is price discrimination -- the practice of 
offering different prices to different buyers, something that drives 
consumers crazy. For example, a few years ago Coca-Cola experimented with 
vending machines that jacked up the price of its sodas as the temperature 
rose. And airlines have become masters of the practice, offering different 
customers the exact same thing -- a seat on a plane -- for vastly different 
prices. But University of Minnesota mathematician Andrew Odlyzko says even 
though consumers hate it, companies increasingly will try to vary their 
prices to suit certain times, places or buyers. But the trend could spark a 
consumer backlash, fueled by growing concern over personal privacy issues. 
"The growth in price discrimination is just one factor involved in this 
evolution of our economy toward where the fight is really going to be -- 
about ownership or control of information," says Odlyzko. 
(AP/Siliconvalley.com 7 Aug 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6481387.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have 
exhausted all other alternatives." (Abba Eban)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: GUSTAV MAHLER
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the  composer-conductor Gustav Mahler 
(1860-1911), whose nine completed symphonies (a 10th was left unfinished at 
his death) and seven song cycles are vast in scale (they often take an hour 
or more to perform and call for a very large orchestra). His major 
innovation was in exploring the radical possibilities of solo instruments 
in an orchestral setting, and using the human voice instrumentally.
      Mahler was born in Kaliste, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), 
but a few months later the family moved to the nearby German town of 
Jihlava, where he spent his childhood and youth. At age 10 he made his 
debut as a pianist in Jihlava and at 15 was so proficient musically that he 
was accepted as a pupil at the Vienna Conservatory. After winning piano and 
composition prizes and leaving with a diploma in 1878, he supported himself 
by sporadic teaching while trying to win recognition as a composer. When he 
failed to win the Conservatory's Beethoven Prize for composition, he turned 
to conducting for a more secure livelihood, reserving composition for the 
lengthy summer vacations.
      Mahler spent virtually his whole career as an opera and orchestra 
conductor. From conducting musical farces in Austria, he rose through 
various provincial opera houses, including important engagements at 
Budapest and Hamburg, to become artistic director of the Vienna Court Opera 
in 1897, at the age of 37. As a conductor he had won general acclaim, but 
as a composer, during this first creative period, he encountered the tepid 
public response that was to confront him for most of his career. Influenced 
by the school of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, Mahler's compositions were 
essentially autobiographical -- the musical expression of his personal view 
of the world, leading him to compose lyrical symphonies and songs rather 
then dramatic operas, despite the fact that as a conductor most of his work 
was in opera. After spending three seasons in the United States, he 
returned to Vienna, where he died from heart disease at age 51.
      It is said that the novelist Thomas Mann was inspired to write his 
famous novella "Death in Venice" after seeing Mahler break down in tears on 
the train departing Venice.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019315160X/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Henry-Louis de la Grange's "Gustav Mahler -- Vienna, Triumph, and 
Disillusion" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all 
revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

SERENDIPITY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8914
      "Correction: In yesterday's issue the name of our hacker friend was 
spelled incorrectly. The correct name is maelstrom." Shucks, I'm 
disappointed. I thought "mailstrom" was both deliberate and clever. (Pete 
Kaiser)

      OK, John & Suzanne, tell your hacker friend I thought s/he was a 
clever punster when I read "mailstrom" but now I have removed the punster 
bonus points in my mental accounting. Don't you think "mailstrom" would be 
a great alias for a spammer? Or an anti-spammer? However, I did enjoy 
maelstrom's article, so pass along my appreciation. (Bekke Aaron)...

[Our hacker friend also thought the name was accidentally and 
serendipitously clever, and may use it as a future alias. -- J&S]

SCHOOL DAYS, SCHOOL DAYS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8882
      Having seen the piece and the reactions to it that were not only 
given by people on NewsScan but also in my direct surroundings, I sincerely 
hope the experiment works, but I fear that it won't. There are in my view 
two reasons for this: changed role of schools, and a changing style of 
parenting.
      Schools have been going through rapid changes. A schoolteacher in the 
early 1950s would get a (reasonably) well-adjusted individual in the 
classroom who would at least know the difference between a washing basin 
and a toilet (you'd be amazed...), and who would have a fair inkling on 
what is allowed and what not. As a teacher your job was to educate, 
transfer knowledge. Teachers now have been endowed with the task of being 
surrogate parents, with all the responsibility, but none of the authority 
that goes with the job. As a result I am not surprised that teachers will 
suggest these measures to show the parents that little Timmy might be an 
angel at home, but he's the devil incarnate in school (I know, I was one as 
well), and should be exorcised by a team of veteran priests.
      A (recently retired) teacher was amazed that when she reprimanded one 
of the children in her care, she got an angry message from the parents 
stating that she shouldn't confine little Timmy's "need for expression." 
Another teacher who worked in her school instinctively hit a repetitively 
screaming child, an urge I think everyone has when confronted with one of 
those. She apologized to the child and she reported the incident to the 
headmaster. The father administered his own sanction and used a baseball 
bat on her, in class, in front of the children.
      Parenting as well is becoming more and more a "game of negotiation": 
I have already met young individuals who think there is nothing wrong with 
various offenses as they think they know how to talk themselves out of it. 
The difference between right and wrong is deemed negotiable, and 
strengthened by the non-existence of sanctions. Kids get into the classroom 
and know they have a form of immunity from persecution. They come home and 
what will most parents do? Discuss whether little Timmy was morally 
justified in beating little Annie with a chair. However, if the teacher so 
much as points at little Timmy....
      Give children some credit, they will figure out this happens and use 
it to their benefit. As a kid I was never impressed by teachers throwing me 
out, or sending me to the director's office. However, I did respect my 
parents: their rule was to any offense (school or at home) was two verbal 
warnings, third warning is administered by hand. I'm an adult now, and I 
still have a very healthy respect for my dad's warning finger. The idea, in 
my view, is one step of these teachers to come to terms with their own 
roles and an effort to educate the parents. I wish them luck. (René Bekker)

ROAD RACE, FIRST LAP
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8923
      Regarding NewsScan reader Jim McGee's query about the "Mexican" 
Lincoln that Tom McCahill sang the praises of, this is probably a reference 
to the cars that ran in La Carrera Panamericana, a grueling road race run 
in Mexico in the early 1950s that Lincolns dominated. Some background on 
the race can be found at http://tinyurl.com/j9ag, and latter-day replicas 
of the Lincolns that took part in the race are pictured at 
http://www.lincolnpartsintl.com/rare.htm. (Dave Garrett)

ROAD RACE, SECOND LAP
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8923
      It was good to see my "ol' friend" (in the fan sense) Tom McCahill 
mentioned, even with slightly erroneous references. He was in full swing 
with his opinionated but often quite accurate automotive reviews in 1963 or 
'64 when I signed on as a subscriber. There were several stories told about 
him (for one, that he drove reviewed cars with his foot pretty much on the 
accelerator all the time while regulating speed by letting off on the 
brake!) and some that he told on himself, such as when he and his $250 (oh 
for the old prices) Schwinn Paramount (and by his size a seemingly unlikely 
rider) wound up in a broken picture window. For that he received a citation 
for reckless driving...on a bicycle! Years later I thought of him while 
watching Home Improvement's Tim the Toolman Allen/Taylor deliver a baby on 
his way to receive the manly Car Guy of the Year award.
      I've always felt Louis Rukeyser (and maybe even Tom & Ray Magliozzi) 
was inspired by him in a small way, though I never saw McCahill on TV. In 
some ways I pictured him as much like baseball commentator and Cy Young 
30-game winner Dizzy Dean if he ever made to the small screen. Kinda over 
the top but folksy and fun.
      McCahill was anything but scientific but he was always hilarious. The 
funniest line I can recall was his description of the 1967 Buick mid-sized 
GTO/SS-muscle car clone, the GS-400, as taking off "like a cat with a 
burning sparkler strapped to his tail". Lest I scare my mother even at this 
late date, let's just say that after driving one myself while my cousin 
squeezed the passenger armrest into a new shape...I agreed with him.
      Maybe other readers can fill in on what happened after Mechanix 
Illustrated went away. Like the Puff the Magic Dragon's little boy, I moved 
on to other things about that time. Rest in peace, Tom. (Jim Hardwick)

WHEN GOOD SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS GO WRONG
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8880
      Mr. Dossett couldn't be more correct when he describes the "correct" 
method of software development. I've repeated this process many times. But 
his is the theory. What I have found is that when the "good" software 
developer spends time with his customer, external or internal, it is often 
the case that the customer will not "see" the same picture as the 
developer. And the customer does not know this, nor does the developer 
recognize it. Then when we get to the first demo, the customer often will 
say "That's not what I wanted!" And then the debate about specs and design 
begins. The truest method is to draw pictures, real pictures. Do screen 
shots, forms without code, etc. and be sure the customer "sees" it the way 
the developer sees it. They could care less how the thing operates, just as 
long as it looks like they expected. Who buys a car based on the drive 
train? It's the body style and contour that the customer "sees." It's also 
nice if the engine starts when you turn the key. How are they even going to 
reach the key from India or Malaysia? (Michael H. Bell)

LISTENING TO KNOW-NOTHING COLUMNISTS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8880
      Three cheers for Alan Dossett and all the people that live in the 
real world solving real problems. All the pundits pronouncing on potential 
problems provide an interesting side show. The communication media 
columnists provide a steady stream of advice to national and all lower 
level political leaders and elected officials. Presumably their 
exhortations are based on the idea that they are also privy to the 
decision-making criteria and the information available to the leaders. 
Entertaining their views is important for favourable evolution of 
democratic processes everywhere. By sheer chance some of them will be right 
and be honoured for their vision, clarity and foresight.
      Up here in Canada it sometimes seems that the Prime Minister and the 
Provincial Premiers are listening to the columnists. The Provincial 
Premiers are of course unabashedly provincial. (Tom Mousseau)

THREE LITTLE WORDS (SO IT MUST BE SPAM)
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&dateissued=20030805
      At the Social Science Data Analysis Center, University of Colorado, 
we use SpamAssassin with a score of 5 getting an item labeled as potential 
spam as was the issue of Aug. 5 (I retrieved it from my SPAM folder). 
Here's the summary:
5.20 points, 5 required;
   *  2.5 -- BODY: Long Distance Phone Offer
   *  1.1 -- BODY: Off Shore Scams
   *  1.6 -- BODY: Discusses money-making
Glad I didn't lose this issue...;-) Keep up the good work. (Richard Cook)

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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 
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