NewsScan Daily, 27 August 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 27 August 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"
        Philips Plans Web Gadgets
        BellSouth, DirecTV Ink Deal
        TV Games Go Interactive Via Text-Messaging
        New Uses of Biotech
        Intel Builds New Plant in China
        Amazon Sues Spoofers

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Jean-Henri Dunant
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

PHILIPS PLANS WEB GADGETS
Philips Electronics is teaming up with four of Europe's largest telecom 
operators to launch a new line of Internet-enabled devices, including 
handheld computers, DVD recorders and flat-screen TVs with broadband 
Internet connections. The move is part of Philips' broader strategy to 
create a wireless home entertainment environment, where the DVD player, the 
CD player and the mobile phone will all be able to communicate with each 
other to transmit images, music or video to another device. However, 
analysts say Philips' new products are probably a bit ahead of the market 
and likely will have limited appeal to European consumers. Philips, which 
is Europe's biggest consumer-electronics maker, has struggled in the past 
few years to compete in the U.S. market, and has signed dozens of deals 
with companies such as Nike, Dell and AOL Time Warner in an effort to build 
its brand and boost its image. (Wall Street Journal 27 Aug 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106192889658658500,00.html (sub req'd)

BELLSOUTH, DIRECTV INK DEAL
BellSouth and DirecTV have cut a deal that will enable BellSouth to bundle 
DirecTV's satellite television service with its local, long-distance and 
Internet offerings. The companies plan to discount the services if 
purchased as part of a package. The agreement follows similar partnerships 
between EchoStar Communications and SBC, and between EchoStar and Qwest 
and, separately, DirecTV and Qwest. The alliances between telecom firms and 
satellite TV companies will enable them to better compete against the cable 
industry, which controls more than 60% of the broadband Internet market and 
is moving aggressively into telephone service as well. "DirecTV sees this 
strategic relationship as an important first step in the evolution of 
telecommunications and entertainment that will put us in a leading position 
against our competitors in this rapidly changing marketplace," says DirecTV 
chairman and CEO Eddy Hartenstein. (AP 27 Aug 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030827/D7T63EAO0.html

TV GAMES GO INTERACTIVE VIA TEXT-MESSAGING
Game shows played by viewers at home using text-messaging is the next big 
trend in TV entertainment in the U.K., British new media consultant Ashley 
Smith told participants at the Game Developers Conference. Voting via 
text-messaging is already popular on shows such as Pop Idol and Big 
Brother, but new programs will take that interactivity one step further. 
"We want to react to what happens on TV and SMS [short-text messaging] acts 
as a form of communication," said Smith, who predicted that viewers will 
take a much more active role in how a program's plot line proceeds. "We 
might see the mobile device influence what you see on the TV. But you have 
to be creative. You have to think beyond votes." Smith cited the success of 
multiplayer TV games such as WaterWar in Finland, which involves two teams 
battling each other using squirt guns. Players sitting at home can send 
instructions to their on-screen character via text message. About 50 can 
play at any one time, with others queued up to jump in when a player drops 
out. In the Philippines, gamechannel.tv offers a range of multiplayer 
interactive games during the early evening prime time slot. But Smith 
cautioned that developers need to move beyond the gaming audience to 
mainstream viewers. "The biggest question is whether the concept can be 
successful in prime time and whether you will get a high enough number of 
people playing. We need to move away from something just for gamers and to 
something that people will be interested in watching, like Robot Wars." 
(BBC News 27 Aug 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3182641.stm

NEW USES OF BIOTECH
A U.S. Army-funded research institute at three universities (UC-Santa 
Barbara, Caltech, and MIT) will be established to apply biology to the 
development of sensors, computers and materials. Called the Institute for 
Collaborative Biotechnologies, it will have its headquarters at the 
University of California at Santa Barbara, and will extend the use of 
biotechnology to non-medical applications, such as better materials for 
uniforms or armor, faster and lighter computers and batteries, and more 
elaborate sensors. James Valdes, a scientific adviser to the Army, 
explains: "We feel that this coming century the big technologies will be 
biotechnology, that biotechnology has the potential to transform how we 
conduct our business probably as much as I.T. did in the past century." The 
new institute will do unclassified research intended mainly to apply 
biotechnology to the development of materials and information 
processing.(New York Times 26 Aug 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/national/27BIOT.html

INTEL BUILDS NEW PLANT IN CHINA
Responding to the growing demand for computer chips in Asia, Intel plans to 
build a $200-million chip testing-and-assembly facility in Chengdu, in the 
western Sichuan province of China. The Chengdu site, which will employ 675 
people and become operational in 2005, was selected because of its 
strategic location and availability of a well-trained work force. (AP/San 
Jose Mercury News 26 Aug 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6623845.htm

AMAZON SUES SPAMMERS
Amazon.com has filed federal lawsuits against 11 e-mail marketers it 
accuses of faking their e-mail addresses to appear as though the messages 
were sent by Amazon (a practice that is known as "spoofing" and is linked 
with spam abuses). The research firm IDC predicts that half of all external 
corporate e-mail -- more than 2 trillion messages this year -- will be 
spam. (USA Today 26 Aug 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-08-26-amazon-sues-spammers 
_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are 
running from, and to, and why." (James Thurber)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JEAN-HENRI DUNANT
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Swiss humanitarian Jean-Henri 
Dunant (1828-1910), who founded the Red Cross in 1864, and in 1901 shared 
the first Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his Red Cross work, and 
for his efforts on behalf of disarmament and international arbitration.
      Dunant was born into a Geneva family that was religious, 
humanitarian, and civic-minded. In his early years he participated in 
religious, including full-time work as a representative of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, traveling in France, Belgium, and Holland. At age 
twenty-six, he entered the business world as a representative of the 
Compagnie Genevoise des Colonies de Sétif in North Africa and Sicily. In 
1858 he published his first book, "An Account of the Regency in Tunis," 
which contained his travel observations and a remarkable chapter (later 
published separately) on slavery among the Mohammedans and in the United 
States of America.
      Having personally witnessed the 1859 Battle of Solferino, which 
resulted in nearly 40,000 casualties, he was so disturbed by the lack of 
care for the wounded that he acted to organize emergency aid services for 
the Austrian and French wounded. In 1862 Dunant published "Un Souvenir de 
Solférino," an appeal for the formation of volunteer groups devoted to the 
relief of suffering caused by war and natural disasters. He proposed that 
all countries form voluntary relief societies for the prevention and 
alleviation of suffering in war and peacetime, without distinction of race 
or creed; he also proposed an international agreement covering the war 
wounded.
      Dunant was also instrumental in the formation of the first Geneva 
Convention, in which twelve nations signed an international treaty 
guaranteeing neutrality to sanitary personnel, to expedite supplies for 
their use, and to adopt a special identifying emblem, a red cross on a 
field of white. Sadly, he became so preoccupied with his humanitarian work 
that he neglected his business affairs and went bankrupt in 1867.
      After his business failed, he left Geneva and stayed briefly in 
various places, finally settling down to a life of poverty in the small 
Swiss village of Heiden. In 1890 a village teacher named Wilhelm 
Sonderegger found him and informed the world that Dunant was alive, but 
quite ill. He was moved in 1892 to the hospice at Heiden, where, in Room 
12, by his own choice he spent the remaining eighteen years of his life.
      As the world began to recall his humanitarian achievements, he became 
the belated recipient of suitable honors, prizes and monetary awards. Upon 
his death, in accordance with his wishes, there was no funeral ceremony. He 
had not spent any of his prize monies, and true to his selfless spirit, he 
bequeathed legacies to those who had cared for him in the hospice, endowed 
a "free bed" for the sick poor, and left the remainder to philanthropic 
enterprises in Norway and Switzerland.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0531009491/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for a biography of Dunant by Carol Zeman Rothkopf --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

CRIMINALS DO AS CRIMINALS DO
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9073
      Maelstrom made a good point about the differences between what life 
is like today and what it was like in years past. However, there is more to 
maelstrom's analogy than he mentions. Even though we lock our cars today 
and take the keys with us, the fact is, criminals continue to steal cars. 
If we will learn anything from this analogy, we must look at the response 
of owners, manufacturers, legislatures, other businesses, and inventors who 
try to make the criminal's efforts less productive while protecting one's 
investment in a car.
      Whole industries have appeared that help the car owner keep his car 
longer or feel the pain of the theft of his car a little less. Take the 
preventative measures first. For example, car alarms, specially coded keys 
and legislation are meant to make the thieves' work more difficult or, if 
he succeeds, at least less rewarding. Then take the responsive measures 
ranging from the mundane law enforcement division assigned to finding 
stolen cars to the high-tech GPS-enabled location transmitters in some 
cars. And finally, the insurance industry that charges higher insurance 
rates for cars more prone to theft and then hopefully gives the owner 
something to assuage the loss of his car. All this simply because criminals 
continue to steal cars.
      Like the car thief, the criminal hacker is not going to go away. He 
or she is a paradigm of the 21st century's digitized life! We will, whether 
we like it or not, have to continually try to outsmart the attacker and 
make his endeavors less rewarding. The economics of the marketplace will 
eventually lead to a tiresome equilibrium of continuously evolving products 
to protect computers and data and more sophisticated hackers who manage to 
get past that latest technology. Companies that make products that 
consistently stay ahead of the hacker will be rewarded. Those that make 
mediocre products will eventually lose market share. We will, whether we 
like it or not, learn to survive in this tiresome equilibrium. Hacking 
happens, so batten down the hatches and sail on. (R. Brian DosSantos)

THE COST OF AN OPEN SOCIETY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9073
      Maelstrom wrote correctly that a "long time ago we didn't lock our 
cars and sometimes left the keys in the ignition. Cars were stolen, so we 
locked our cars and took the keys with us." Recently, car manufacturers 
have made cars so hard to steal that it's become much easier to simply 
carjack vehicles that are already running. This isn't an improvement. It's 
verification of the law of unintended consequences. I'm not sure what the 
answers are, but I do know that better locks don't always produce better 
results. I suspect educating users to not open suspect e-mails and to not 
use Outlook at all would stop most e-mail viruses but the newer ones aren't 
even spread via e-mail. Education also means teaching folks that we will 
always have evil-doers and greedy people and that's just a cost of having 
an open society. Maximum security is always a prison. (Mike Moxcey)

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MUSIC DOWNLOADS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9060
      Stuart Macleod's question is answered by Stan Liebowitz at the School 
of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, who writes on his home page: 
I have just finished what I believe is the most up-to-date and detailed 
analysis the impact of MP3 downloads on the record industry. That paper 
looks at a 30-year history of record sales as well as changes in income, 
prices, sale of blank tapes, videogames, prerecorded cassettes DVDs, 
possible changes in the interest in music, and changes in the population. 
None of these other factors appears capable of explaining any but a very 
small percentage of the recent decline in CD sales. The most recent version 
of that paper will appear in the 2003 issue of Advances in the Study of 
Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Economic Growth, edited by Gary Libecap, 
JAI Press. <http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/intprop/main.htm> You can 
read the paper here. 
<http://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/intprop/records.pdf> (Gavin Moodie, 
Australia)

RIAA SHOWS NO SHAME
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9060
      A reader wrote in and questioned RIAA's assertion that file sharing 
caused slumping industry sales. There is a wealth of information that shows 
no correlation. Check out a directory of articles, studies, and reports at 
http://diariaa.com/shame-lies.htm . Sadly RIAA shows no shame as it 
continues to publicly lie and sue its fans when it should be innovating and 
developing products people want. (Marc Freedman)

IS THERE A LOGICAL ARGUMENT AGAINST DNA-MATCHING?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8858
      Yes, it could be regarded as invasive; and yes, there may be possible 
Human Rights implications. So to put it simply -- if you don't like it, 
don't apply for US visa-less access. The same proposition applies here in 
the UK with regard to proposals for "Benefit Entitlement" smart cards. OK, 
got that over with; now to the real point of my note: if biometric analysis 
is to be used, why then not take it to its currently viable logical 
extreme? If one is going to all this effort, why not collect a DNA sample 
at the same time? I presume I will have to take my eyeball and/or thumb to 
an authorized "capture point" to have my profile collected and encoded in 
order to qualify for a card. Why shouldn't I also deliver a saliva swab 
and/or a nail or hair trimming at the same time? One assumes similar data 
encoding can be carried out, and the pattern added to my card. DNA encoding 
may be slow and costly today, but what is the current speed and cost of a 
non-DNA based investigation into a major crime? Both aspects will improve 
with volume requirement and availability I am always my own control sample, 
so even if the collected item is somehow corrupted or mis-matched later, 
subsequent analysis will prove or disprove allegations based solely upon a 
DNA match. DNA matching has been hugely successful in identifying criminals 
and also, most importantly, eliminating suspects. Is there a logical rather 
than emotional argument for not promoting its use? (Scott Pollard)

ANTI-SPAM EDUCATION
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9055
      "... experts struggle to come up with the ultimate fix, consumers can 
do their own part to discourage spam," says WSJ columnist Dennis Berman: 
"One of the most underrated ways to help stop spam is to dry up end-user 
demand. We desperately need a campaign of education and downright social 
coercion to stop people from cooperating with purveyors of new septic tanks 
and body 'enhancement' products. We can all do our part: Never use 
[spam-mail] to buy products." The above quote from your August 25, 2003 
'Fold' reminds me of the discussions of how to deter illicit drug use. 
Education and reduction of demand are more powerful weapons than harsher 
laws. If a product does not have a market, the seller is out of business. 
(Graham Lewis)

THE BAD (OTHER GUYS) AND THE GOOD (NEWSSCAN) Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9056
      There was both an item on spam and one on pop-ups in the Aug. 25 
NewsScan. While they are irksome, time-consuming, and a real pain, we have 
to accept the fact that spam and pop-ups are here to stay and no amount of 
fancy programming to block them will ever eliminate the problem. We can 
long for the pre-spam days of the mid-'90s or the idyllic days before 
pop-ups, but we will never see them again. What some are doing is 
re-assessing their computer needs and even "breaking" Internet connections 
and setting up their own in-house computer systems, shielded from all 
outside inputs. Before thinking seriously about that, however, how will we 
be able to ensure that gems like NewsScan can be allowed through if we 
block everything? Sometimes we have to take the bad with the good. (John 
McNulty, Halifax)

ALARM BELLS AT THE CENSOR'S OFFICE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9071
      FYI, eSafe blocked the 26 August issue of NewsScan Daily, because it 
contained the word "Pl-yboy." (Eric Schultz) [NewsScan readers may want to 
recall how we used that offending word, in a Flash Card taken from the 
famous Irish playwright John Millington Synge. We hope that the word 
"playwright" -- unlike its boyish cousin -- will not set off censorious 
alarm bells.]

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.
***********************************************************