NewsScan Daily, 20 August 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 20 August 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Do-Not-Spam List Effort Will Be Futile
        Satellite Is Cheaper Than Cable
        Gateway's Latest PC Designed for Videogaming
        HP Misses Target, Cuts Jobs, Ponders the Future
        FCC Chief Powell Urges Local Programming
        East Meets West in Global Technology

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Why the Dinosaurs Really Died

DO-NOT-SPAM LIST EFFORT WILL BE FUTILE
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris says that even if efforts 
in Congress to establish a "do-not-spam" list succeed, that won't fix the 
problem of unwanted junk mail. "If such a list were established, I'd advise 
customers not to waste their time and effort. Most spam is already so 
clearly illegitimate that the senders are no more likely to comply with new 
regulations than with the laws they now ignore." The drive toward setting 
up a "do-not-spam" list has picked up steam following the popularity of the 
FTC's recently established "do-not-call" registry for people who want to 
stop telemarketing calls. Muris says the magnitude of the problem and the 
fact that "spammers can easily hide their identities and cross 
international borders," makes government regulation extremely difficult. 
"In the end, spam will be reduced, if at all, through several technological 
improvements, as well as safer computing practices by others." (AP 19 Aug 
2003) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030819/D7T1A63G3.html

SATELLITE IS CHEAPER THAN CABLE
The price of satellite television reception has dropped below that of cable 
for the first time ever, according to a new study by J.D. Power & 
Associates. The price differential between the two competing technologies 
has "narrowed significantly" over the last five years, with the current 
average satellite TV cost up 8% to $48.93 a month. During the same time 
period, the average cable TV bill has soared 41% to $49.62 a month. Much of 
that increase is attributed to the cost of upgrading networks and adding 
new services, such as digital TV and video-on-demand, but those efforts 
haven't proven successful in boosting customer loyalty. "Digital cable 
hasn't turned out to be the solution the cable industry needed to stem the 
tide of migration to satellite providers," says J.D. Powers senior director 
Steve Kirby. The report suggests cable providers should focus on improving 
customer service and possibly bundling television with other services. 
(Wall Street Journal 19 Aug 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10613168321296100,00.html (sub req'd)

GATEWAY'S LATEST PC DESIGNED FOR VIDEOGAMING
Gateway announced the Thursday launch of a PC designed especially for 
playing videogames. The 700X Gaming PC will include the most powerful 
graphics processor from Nvidia and some top titles from Electronic Arts, 
including "Battlefield 1942" and "Madden NFL 2004." The 700X will also 
feature a Pentium 4 processor, a giant 160-gigabyte hard drive, a built-in 
DVD burner and a 19-inch monitor, and will be priced at $2,099. A lower-end 
model, the 500S, will cost $1,149. Gateway's move follows Dell's launch of 
its Dimension XPS system last April, which also caters to the requirements 
of the videogame crowd. (Reuters 19 Aug 2003)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=4&u=/nm/20030819/tc_nm/tech_gateway_dc

HP MISSES TARGET, CUTS JOBS, PONDERS THE FUTURE
Hewlett-Packard has, for the first time since its merger with Compaq, 
missed its quarterly financial targets, and is cutting 1,300 additional 
jobs to get the company back on track. Chief executive Carly Fiorina says, 
"The third quarter is always tough but we should have done better," but 
industry analyst Mark Stahlman of American Technology Research sees a 
bright side for HP: "Everything that was part of the old HP was weak and 
dragged down the results. Everything that was part of the new was strong 
and ahead of plan." Most of the new cuts will come from HP's enterprise 
systems group and its consulting businesses. Overall, Fiorina is a bit 
bearish on information technology's short-term future: "We don't see a 
rapid upturn in IT spending. IT spending will continue to lag the overall 
economy." (Washington Post 19 Aug 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17211-2003Aug19.html

FCC CHIEF POWELL URGES LOCAL PROGRAMMING
Michael K. Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has 
been widely criticized for his desire to loosen restrictions on the number 
of TV outlets allowed a single owner, but he insists: "I don't think the 
national ownership cap does all that much to promote localism. If you think 
localism is an issue, stop trying to get to it by the ruse of ownership 
rules." He explains: "The media is not nearly as concentrated as people 
have been led to believe. We have done the most comprehensive analysis of 
the TV market, and it is by no means particularly concentrated. In 
antitrust definitions, it is unconcentrated. That's not to say there are 
not a lot of big companies, but big is not the same thing as concentrated. 
Size is not the exact equivalent of power." In light of those beliefs, 
Powell is now about to urge measures that will force media companies to 
increase their local programming. (San Jose Mercury News 20 Aug 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6573076.htm

EAST MEETS WEST IN GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY
Since U.S. clients account for more than two-thirds of India's software and 
services export revenues, there are an increasing number of training 
programs attempting to explain American ways to Indian technical people: 
"Your interaction with people of alien cultures will only increase," says 
Col. Gowri Shankar, a trainer, "and you should be equally at ease whether 
in Hyderabad or Houston." Some of Shankar's pet peeves: speaking one of 
India's many languages in front of foreigners, questioning colleagues about 
their compensation and cracking ethnic jokes, or indulging in 
overfamiliarity. "Americans are friendly, but do not slap an American on 
his back or call him by his first name in the first meeting." (New York 
Times 19 Aug 2003) 
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/business/worldbusiness/19indi.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the 
world; the humorist makes fun of himself." (James Thurber)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: WHY THE DINOSAURS REALLY DIED
      Space enthusiasts Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski say it's time 
to return to space:
      "In both fictional worlds and in the possibilities waiting in the 
real world, to confront space habitats seriously means a complete change in 
our outlook toward the solar system. Many have argued persuasively that the 
grand project of uplifting the bulk of humanity to the economic level of 
the advanced nations requires use of the solar system's resources, 
especially since manufacturing entails a level of pollution that the 
biosphere cannot abide. (This hard fact makes impossible the more cozy 
stories of expansive industrial futures.) To use the resources of our 
sunspace demands treating it as a genuine 'new frontier,' not just as a 
place to go and come back from.
      "From the beginning, space colonies were advanced not only with the 
assertion that they were possible, but also out of a concern for the future 
welfare and survival of humanity. The whole point of space settlements was 
to build living, self-repairing and self-reproducing, potentially mobile 
environments. One irony waiting to happen is that human civilization may be 
destroyed by an asteroid strike (there was a near miss in 1989) because we 
failed to develop the spacefaring capacity to prevent it. Space travel 
leading to skylife is vital to human survival, because the question is not 
whether our planet will be hit by a fatal asteroid but when. A planetary 
culture that does not develop spacefaring is courting suicide. All our 
history, all our social progress and growing insight will be for nothing if 
we perish. No risk of this kind, however small it might be argued to be, is 
worth taking, and no cost to prevent it is too great. As it's been put 
humorously, 'The dinosaurs died because they didn't have a space program.'"
                                     ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0151002924/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski (eds.), "Skylife: Space Habitats 
in Story and Science, Harcourt, 2000" -- or look for it in your favorite 
library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult 
literacy programs.)

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