Newstand - May 2001
By Sabrina I. Pacifici, Published on May 1, 2001
| Breaking News | Other Sources for Breaking News | Tech Trends | CongressLine: Federal & State Legislative News |
A Constitutional Right to Decode? May 31, 2001. The Motion Picture Association filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, in support of its members' position that Congress must enact laws that restrict web sites from disseminating "free, effective and fast means of decrypting plaintiffs' DVDs."
Ford Rolls-Out Custom Intranet, May 31, 2001. Ford Motor Corp. claims they have implemented the largest corporate intranet portal, called of course, MyFord.com. Using Microsoft Windows 2000 servers and Plumtree software, the project took 6 months to complete, and will be used by an estimated 200,000 employees on a regular basis.
Government Online Buying to Soar by 2005, May 31, 2001. According to a report conducted by Jupiter Media Matrix, government agencies on the local, state and federal level will pump nearly $300 billion into the economy by 2005 via online purchasing.
Corporate Portals Ready for the Big Time, May 31, 2001. I think we have hear this refrain before, but in reference to intranets as the new cutting edge application taking the business world by storm. See what a couple of years and millions of dollars in IT investment will get you. This information is from a report conducted by the Butler Group, a leading European IT consultancy.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
Microsoft to Introduce New Version of Office, May 31, 2001. "Office XP, which will sell for $499 and be available in 15 countries, is the sixth version of the program, which was first introduced in 1991."
Not one to let a good PR opportunity go unchallenged, The Register reports that Office XP is a devil in thin disguise, as evidenced by this headline:
Windows XP Will Make Internet Unstable - Top Security Expert
Silencing Critics - But Still Facing Competition, Microsoft Receives E-Book Patent, June 1, 2001. Microsoft's technology, called ClearType, is a pivotal component in the company's effort to revolutionize the e-book platform. ClearType allows a purported 300 percent increase in resolution over conventional computer displays.
Spam Makers Settle Spat Over Double Meaning, May 30, 2001. This issue could reasonably have landed in court, rather than on more neutral ground. Hormel has agreed to the continued use of the word "spam" to define unsolicited email, while requesting that references to their product, canned meat, be made by using all capital letters, as in SPAM.
Internet Privacy - Implementation of Federal Guidance for Agency Use of "Cookies", May 30, 2001. This report, dated April 27, 2001, comprises 15 pages in PDF. According to the report: "Of the 65 sites we reviewed, 57 did not use persistent cookies on their web sites. However, of the eight sites that were using persistent cookies, four did not disclose such use in their privacy policies, as required by OMB."
Owning the Future: Looting the Library, June 1, 2001. This provocative article has a parallel theme to the recent book, Double Fold, mentioned in the Newstand last month. In this author's opinion, however, it is publishers, not the librarians, who are the villains. Their purpose is to eliminate libraries by instituting a pay-per-access model for all current information, and their primary means of achieving this goal is through relentless attacks against fair use provisions of the copyright law.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
I.B.M. Meets With 52,600, Virtually, May 28, 2001. "I.B.M. invited all 320,000 of its employees to a marathon brainstorming session called WorldJam last week, capping a nine-month, multimillion-dollar effort to imagine and build a suitable room in cyberspace for an event that would be impossible to hold anywhere else."
Enterprise Search May Be Solution to Tech Start-Up's Search For, May 28, 2001. "It's becoming a familiar pattern. In order to stave off extinction, a dot com business reinvents itself as a software provider, consultant, or application service provider for the corporate market."
Here are 15 tips to make your website more accessible, May 28, 2001. This is an excellent resource for web masters who are in the process of redesigning their sites to comply with Section 508 access requirements. It includes specific recommendations and how to implement them, as well as links to free and fee applications and tools that will assist you in compliance.
New search engine offering full text search of the decisions of any or all of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, May 27, 2001. The terrific professionals at the LII have added a new search engine, whose index is updated each week day evening. It currently contains approximately 60,000 documents, and throughput speed varies due to the format of the documents, and coverage varies by court.
List of Federal Government Web Sites That Sell or Auction Items or Services, May 27, 2001. From the GPO to the Postal Service, this list makes for interesting reading, and goes hand-in-hand with this next story:
Government E-Sales Outpace Retail, May 27, 2001. Bet you didn't know that the federal government was using e-commerce technology successfully. How does $3.6 billion in online sales for the year 2000 sound!
Link to the Pew Internet and American Life Report, Dot-Gov Goes Retail.
Your Rights Online; Google Owns Your UseNet Post, May 27, 2001. According to the Google Groups Posting - Terms and Agreements: By posting communications on or through the Service, you automatically grant Google a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed, and to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicensees.
Re: Petition Requesting Investigation of and Enforcement Action Against Amazon.com, May 25, 2001. This is a copy of the reply from the FTC concerning the joint petition by Junkbusters Corp. and EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) to investigate potential deceptive practices by Amazon concerning their privacy policy. The FTC rejected the petition.
Wall Street Journal (Public Access)
H&R Block Finds No Humor in Ex-Worker's Online Advice, May 25, 2001. A former employee posted a message last year to a Yahoo board advising taxpayers on how to alter information on their W2 forms that would result in H&R block tax preparers submitting requests for unearned tax refunds.
Draft Convention on Cybercrime and Explanatory Memorandum Related Thereto, May 25, 2001. Prepared by: Committee of Experts on Crime in Cyber-Space (PC-CY). Submitted to: European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) at its 50th plenary session (18 - 22 June 2001).
European Parliament Investigation of Echelon, May 24, 2001.
Wall Street Journal (Public Access)
Software Uses Patterns Made on Keyboard, Mouse to Target Ads to Individual Users, May 25, 2001. Predictive Networks Inc. is a company that specializes in tracking and analyzing online behavior in order to customize ads aimed at individual types of users. Their new 'biometric' tool identifies Web users by gender and age via distinct patters a person makes when using a keyboard, mouse or TV remote. Some privacy advocates are rather worried about this technology.
CCH: Tax Legislation 2001. This free, and very useful resource from CCH, provides details of the new tax bill provisions, with charts indicating changes to: rate reduction, marriage penalty relief, alternative minimum tax, education, estate tax reduction, and retirement.
Advertiser Site Allows People to Escape Internet Tracking, May 24, 2001. Web users seeking to retain some level of anonymity while browsing or shopping online may now complete the "opt-out" form sponsored by the Network Advertising Initiative.
Privacy Fears Over eTour Deal, May 24, 2001. Etour.com sold its database of 2.2 million subscribers to AskJeeves. This database includes e-mail addresses, names, gender and ages of users. So much for the site's privacy policy that stated such information would not be shared with third parties...."for any reason, at any time, ever." 'Never' sure doesn't mean much any more.
EDS and EzGov Unveil Online Filing and Payment System for Annual Corporate Reports in Massachusetts, May 23, 2001. Corporations now may go online to www.state.ma.us/sec/cor; enter their customer identification number and a personal identification number provided by the state; then fill out and submit their annual reports.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
Finding Free Internet Access for those Without, May 23, 2001. Although 98% of public schools in America provide Web access to their students, this access terminates when summer vacation begins. Using the ConnectNet.org database, nonprofit organizations are provides listings, in English and Spanish, to free access points in given areas. Nifty idea.
Health Information on the Internet: Accessibility, Quality, and Readability in English and Spanish, May 23, 2001. The objective of this study was to evaluate health information on the Web covering four topics: breast cancer, depression, obesity and childhood asthma. The study took place between July and December 2000. An assessment was made of 14 search engines and 25 health web sites.
See also: Click With Care: New Study Spotlights Problems And Potholes in Health Information on the Internet
Inside Yahoo!, May 22, 2001. "The untold story of how arrogance, infighting, and management missteps derailed one of the hottest companies on the Web."
Corporate Filters Mean Big Business, May 22, 2001. Pornography and other Internet content that company bosses find objectionable is increasingly getting blocked on corporate networks.
New Survey Dispels Myths On Citizen Engagement, May 29 Issue, 2001. A survey for the Pew Partnership for Civic Change indicates that despite the impact of the Internet and TV, Americans remain very much connected and engaged in their communities via volunteer work, donations to charities, helping neighbors, and what is more, they generally perceive their quality of life to be quite good.
Patently Absurd, May 29 Issue, 2001. According to the author, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is fast heading toward irrelevancy because of overwhelming demands on its budget-constrained staff.
The Day I Got Napsterized, May 28 Issue, 2001. This article is from Newsweek, and recounts the experiences of author Steven Levy, whose 1984 book, Hackers, was posted on a web site where it could be downloaded in its entirely. He had not given permission for this activity, and was shocked to discover that a professor at Stanford University had scanned the book for use by his students, thinking the work was out of print! As if this was not enough, the author's most recent book, Crypto, had also been served up on a Web site.
New Site Out Goggles-Google with Added Search Engine Features, May 21, 2001. The newest star that has been added to the firmament of the best Web search engines is iLOR, reviewed in LLRX Buzz on May 7, 2001. iLOR uses Google to collect search results, and then boosts these results using functionality that is triggered when the user "mouses over" each link.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
A Front Row Seat As Amazon Gets Serious, May 20, 2001. "Its watchwords have changed from the buoyant "get big fast" to the pedestrian 'march to profitability.' And instead of designing zippy new features for its Web site and plotting new industries to conquer, its employees are turning to the tedious work of ordinary companies: cutting costs and raising revenue."
For Used Books, a Shelf in Cyberspace, May 20, 2001. Several used book dealers in Connecticut are maximizing their marketing by using their own web sites and eBay as a means of connecting with a wider potential audience of collectors. After a steady stream of articles recently bemoaning the demise of small book shops, this article gives one cause to rejoice, even if only a bit.
Adobe Co-Founder Says Media Integrating on Web, May 19, 2001. John Warnock co-founded Adobe in 1982, and in this interview he comments on a range of topics including; a new wave of network publishing, document authentication, electronic books, and digital copyrights.
Access vs. Excess: Use of Internet Filters Poses Thorny Question, May 19, 2001. Libraries throughout the country receiving federal e-rate funds are working on Web usage policies that will allow them to retain support while at the same time provide a reasonably open channel of access to useful information on the Web.
The End of Subject Specific Scout Reports, May 18, 2001. The end to these useful resources is attributed to lack of funds.
This Year's Model, May 18, 2001. This thought provoking article explains in blunt terms why high-end web site content (the author refers to publications including Slate.com, The New Yorker, The New Republic, among others) simply cannot generate a profit as it is inherently of interest to a very small segment of readers.
Open-Source Browser Aim: No Limits, May 18, 2001. A new open source browser, called No Limits, is under development by a group in Australia. The browser will be able to support two rendering engines, i.e., the code that displays a Web page. Users will be able to opt between the engine that displays a page the fastest or the most compatibly.
Speednames Launches Intellectual Property Claim Service, May 18, 2001. "Digital domain name registrar Speednames has launched an intellectual property claim service for customers that have queued or want to queue for .biz domain names on q.speednames.com.
How to Squeeze More Into the Digital Attic, May 17, 2001. "According to a study from the University of California, mankind will generate more information in the next three years than it did in all of the previous 300,000." InPhase Technologies, a Lucent spin-off, is developing technology to hold data in three dimensions, using the depth of a storage device, not only its surface.
Washington
Post Archives, May 17, 2001. "More than 120 years of archived content from the The
Washington Post will be digitized by Michigan-based Bell & Howell. The
digitalized files will be made available on the ProQuest online
information service. The electronic files will be released over the next
two years."
The End of the Internet As We Know It, May 17, 2001. "The CEO of Forrester Research is predicting the death of the World Wide Web and the dawn of a new, application-based Internet. Two new waves of innovation -- which Forrester calls the "X Internet" -- will eclipse the Web: an executable Net that greatly improves the online experience, and an extended Net that connects the real world."
Razorfish Teams With Elsevier Science to Create the First Comprehensive Search Engine Dedicated to Science, May 16, 2001. The search engine Scirus (www.scirus.com), will search for information sources freely available on the Web as well as specified access-controlled scientific information sources from the invisible web.
See also: SearchDay - Scirus - A New Science Search Engine
Infonomics 101, May 15, 2001. This is an interesting commentary concerning the monetizing of free information on the Web.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
Hacker Gadfly at the Center of New Suit, May 18, 2001. "The man at the center of the landmark DeCSS case - a federal court battle over Corley's posting of and linking to software code designed to decrypt DVD movies - is now being sued by the Ford Motor Company in a separate cyberspace matter."
More Than a Palmtop, Not Quite a PC, May 17, 2001. Web pads and Web tablets are entering the market as alternatives to PDAs, with much of the functionality and power of the larger laptops and desktop computers.
Government Internet Subsidy Stretched to Its Limits, May 16, 2001. "School and library requests for discounted Internet connections and wiring are now far outstripping the resources available for the e-rate program, forcing federal officials to revisit how the funds are distributed."
Yahoo Goes Beyond Initial Plan Against Adult Sites, May 16, 2001. "Yahoo has begun making it harder for users to find sexually explicit chat rooms and clubs. The action has sparked anger and fear among users, prompting thousands of them to sign a petition demanding that the company continue to maintain the popular online forums."
Review
of Revised Internet Names, May 15, 2001. Representatives
from the Department of Commerce met yesterday with VeriSign Inc.
Web Surfers Hunt Like Animals, Researchers Find, May 15, 2001. Researchers are studying and analyzing the searching habits of Web users to develop programs that determine a site's usability, thereby making searching more intuitive and less complex.
Newsbytes Has All New Look as of May 14, 2001. Click to Newsbytes today and you will find the site has been completely redesigned, and now appears under the masthead of parent company Web site, WashingtonPost.com. News areas covered and navigation of the site remain consistent with its former design, but now there is easy access to content sectors from the Washington Post site as well.
What They (Don't) Know About You, May 11, 2001. This article is a follow-up to one that appeared on the front page of the WSJ April 13, 2001. It concerns data aggregator Choicepoint's collection and sale of personal information to government agencies (including the FBI), and to the public as well (you can obtain a report on yourself for $20).
New York Times (reg. req'd)
Judges Seek Answers on Computer Code As Free Speech, May 11, 2001. "In what may signal a heightened significance for a case testing the constitutionality of a 1998 digital copyright law, a panel of appeals court judges has asked both sides of a case to answer a list of 11 questions on whether computer code can qualify as free speech."
Digital Storage: Computer Age Gets a Valhalla, May 10, 2001. Two decades worth of computer and electronic equipment has been assembled into a collection by a group of computer pioneers. They goal is to preserve the history and examples of the evolution of computing, in the LA based Computer Museum History Center.
State of the Art: Palmtops Add Spice to Staple, May 10, 2001. Palmtops are aggressively competing with desktop and laptop computers to be the favorite technology of choice for everyone ranging from professionals to students. New designs that are innovative, colorful, and host a lot of practical applications in a little package have palmtop makers bragging about their products as replacements for computers of all kinds.
Gracenote Files Lawsuit Against Roxio, Inc., May 10, 2001. Gracenote alleges Roxio breached contract, infringed its patents, violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and improperly used its trademarks.
MPAA v. 2600 - Transcript of Second Circuit Court of Appeals Argument, May 10, 2001. The Court issued an order on May 8 modifying its instructions given at the close of oral arguments in the DeCSS case and inviting responses to 11 questions that focus on the First Amendment aspects of the case. The deadline has been pushed back to May 30 and the page limit increased to 25.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
Looking Back at My First IBM PC, May 10, 2001. The author bought his first PC, an IBM, for $3,000, 20 years ago. He reminisces about computing "back then," and many of us share these memories rather wistfully.
The Privacy Dilemma in the Internet Age, May 9, 2001. "In the Internet age, as more and more personal information becomes publicly available and technology allows it to be stored and analyzed more easily, the laws that derive from Brandeis are becoming more and more inadequate."
Amazon is Losing Customers Fast, May 9, 2001. "Amazon.com is disputing a report that suggests it may be losing customers at an alarming rate."
Committee for Economic Development
The Digital Economy: Promoting Competition, Innovation and Opportunity, May 9, 2001. The CED Report "focuses specifically on four key areas of public policy that have been roiled by technological and commercial developments: competition, privacy and security, intellectual property, and the gap in access and use related to skills and income." The full text, in PDF, may be read at: http://www.ced.org/docs/ecommerce.pdf.
GAO
Knocks Clinton Administration's E-Mail Recordkeeping, May 8, 2001.
Electronic Records: Clinton Administration's Management of
Executive Office of the President E-Mail System, GAO-01-446, April 30, 2001.
What's Next for The Web? Ask the Inventor, May 8, 2001. Tim Berners-Lee, the individual credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989, wants voice input, e-commerce tracking and better standards. His new article co-authored with James Hendler and Ora Lassila, is called the Semantic Web. Subtitled, "A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of possibilities," it is available, full-text, on the Scientific American Web site, at http://www.sciam.com/2001/0501issue/0501berners-lee.html.
Association for Competitive Technology
An Assessment of the Costs of Proposed Privacy Legislation, May 7, 2001. This 51 page report in PDF, by Robert Hahn (Director of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies), estimates the cost of various aspects of proposed privacy legislation to be in the billions of dollars.
FTC Can Restrict the Use of Consumer Data, Judge Rules, May 7, 2001. Credit reporting agencies lose a privacy decision in their fight to resell personal data. For a copy of the decision, Individual Reference Services Group v. Federal Trade Commission, please see http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/00-2087.pdf.
Web Sites Going Free-to-Fee, May 7, 2001. As more dot-com's go under, those that remain are increasingly adopting fee-based strategies to stay afloat.
The Controversy Over Outsourcing Library Functions, May 2001. Law firms are employing library service providers for filing and updating print resources, plus a range of other consulting services.
Playing Twenty Questions to Test Low-Cost, Free or Subscription Databases for End User Online Service, May 2001. The author reviews several well known databases used by researchers. She ran a series of specific searches to evaluate the pros and cons of each service. Included in the review are: FindArticles, Northern Light Special Collections, and Contentville.
Preventing Content From Being Napsterized, May, 2001. This is an informative article that warrants a read. Many sites, lead by major and lesser newspapers around the country, are using digital rights management solutions to stem the tide of online intellectual property theft.
New York Times (reg. req'd)
Privacy Concerns for Google Archive, May 7, 2001. Google purchased from Deja.com an archive of more than 650 million messages, dating back to 1995, that had been posted to electronic bulletin boards (Usenet newsgroups). These messages, available at http://groups.google.com, are being called an "archive of human conversation."
Patents: Requests for New Trademarks by Patent Companies Have Fallen, May 7, 2001. After two years of sharp increases in requests for trademarks with a "dot-com" tag or an "e-" prefix, the number of those applications plummeted last year at the same time that Internet stocks began to fall.
Questioning Continues in Copyright Case, May 4, 2001. This case, which is being touted as the first major challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, does not seem to be proceeding toward a positive outcome for the Webzine, 2600. The company's lead counsel, Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan, was under attack by copyright law expert Judge Newman.
State of the Art: Unearthing Office Tools Long Buried, May 3, 2001. Before investing in the new Microsoft Office XP, you may want to read this insightful review that highlights the fact that in this software, many old things are new again, just with a different name and at a price, of course.
Defending the Cookie Monster, May 7, 2001. According to the author, "There are lots worse things in the world than Web sites leaving cookies on your computer." Learn to exercise control over cookies and use them to your advantage, while deleting those that you deem useless and intrusive.
A Review of Nicholson Baker's Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, June, 2001. Mr. Baker's book has generated press from high profile newspapers including the New York Times and Washington Post. His claims and rhetoric have also been perceived by many librarians as inaccurate and detrimental to their work, and services. Here is one such response to his position, authored by Barbara Quint.
Napster Alternatives, May 3, 2001. This review of four peer-to-peer music sharing applications discusses the pros and cons of each, provides a handy 'Napster Alternatives' comparison chart, and also mentions two new applications, Espra and BitBop Tuner, that are on the way.
Documents and Information on the 2nd Circuit DeCSS Code Case. This site is an open public forum developing arguments to challenge publishers' assertions of absolute control over digital media. Links to articles on the 2nd Circuit case, news links, FAQs, background information, and copies of the briefs may be found here.
DC Court Pilots E-Filing, May 3, 2001. The Superior Court of the District of Columbia has undertaken a year long pilot program to test the merits of electronic filing. This court has