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RAIN 02/03: Weekly Update 02/01 Part 2



There are 12 stories in this posting.


Federal Computer Week 01/21/02
Searching for accountability
Interior CIO, deputy respond to criticism on American Indian trust data system
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0121/mgt-int-01-21-02.asp

BY Graeme Browning
The Interior Department's chief information officer and one of his top deputies have
testified that they played little more than advisory roles in the development of a
seriously troubled, multimillion-dollar computer system set up by the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) to handle trust payments to more than 300,000 American
Indians.



Tuscaloosa News 02/01/02
Former librarian sentenced for stealing valuable prints
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/stories/15744newsstorypage.html

By Stephanie Hoops
TUSCALOOSA | A former librarian at the University of Alabama was ordered Thursday to spend weekends in jail and weekdays at work to repay $185,000 in damages for stealing prints from university library books and selling them online and to an antique store.



Information Week 01/28/02
New Way To Work
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle?doc_id=IWK20020124S0028

By Aaron Ricadela
In 1987, Apple Computer produced a short promotional video, imagining how people would use technology at the dawn of the 21st century. Its anticipation of the way professionals would one day work was remarkably prescient. In the video, a globe-trotting professor uses a portable computer to download data from a worldwide information network. An intelligent software agent becomes his liaison to online
information. He speaks commands to his machine in plain English and authors an interactive, multimedia document for colleagues to share.
Not everything outlined in that scenario has come to pass, of course. The tablet computer heralded by the video evolved into the Apple Newton, a spectacular failure, and speech-recognition software still isn't widely used. But the Internet, software agents, and multimedia collaboration have steadily infiltrated our daily work habits, and advancing software and falling computational costs are chipping away at barriers
that have made talking to PCs and entering handwritten notes into them fantasies for most workers.



Seattle Times 02/01/02
Stroll down Memory Lane to the time of ancient laptops
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestlife/134398154_erik01.html

by Erik Lacitis
The TRS-80 wasn't beautiful, but (sometimes) got the job done.
Once again, I was reminded that we live in a warp-speed age. It happened when a reader was incredulous at my writing that, in 1988, I was using a laptop.
She couldn't believe that there were laptops around back then, because, you know, ancient history is the first "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode in March of 1997.
A few decades ago, parents bored their kids by telling them about shoveling snow out there on some remote farm in Minnesota.



TownOnline.com 1/29/02
City bucks state on public access
Secretary of Commonwealth tells city personnel director to release training document to press
http://www.townonline.com/metro/cambridge/news/34071608.htm

By DAVID ORTIZ
The city of Cambridge is refusing to release public records relating to diversity
sensitivity training for city employees — despite being ordered to by the Secretary of
the Commonwealth.
The document being held up by the city contains transcripts of diversity training
sessions, in which city employees talk candidly about racism and openly discuss their
feelings about members of other races. The transcript also reportedly contains a
verbatim record of discussions between various employees concerning racial
characteristics.


The Observer-Reporter 02/01/2
Lawmakers' spending to be public information
http://www.observer-reporter.com/294269069750194.bsp

BY SCOTT BEVERIDGE
The state House has unanimously approved a policy requiring its members to disclose exactly how much they spend in public money.



Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 01/31/02
Pa. House to reveal members' receipts
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/news/s_15044.html

By Brad Bumsted
HARRISBURG — State taxpayers for the first time will be able to see the receipts for how their state House members spend public money.
The state House has approved a policy requiring that receipts for expenditures by
leaders and rank-and-file members be available for public review.
The change reversed the House's previous policy, which held that lawmakers' receipts for meals, hotels, airfare, office equipment, and even credit card charges, were not public record. The resolution by House Majority Leader John Perzel and House Minority Leader Bill DeWeese was unanimously approved on Tuesday.



Chicago Sun-Times 02/01/02
Upper Deck has upper hand in authenticity
http://www.suntimes.com/output/show/wkp-news-fave01north.html

BY DENISE I. O'NEAL
The Upper Deck Co., has instituted a sophisticated new system that provides a visual
record of signed memorabilia as a safeguard for collectors against purchasing fraudulent products.
The PenCam Authentication System--a video camera attached at the end of a pen used
during autograph sessions--is a high-tech device that digitally records the signing of
items.
"PenCam is the next-best thing to fans actually witnessing the autograph in person," said Richard McWilliam, the founder and CEO of Upper Deck.



Dallas Morning News 02/01/02
Preserving the Prairie's history
Where a prominent black neighborhood once thrived
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/moveaway_01met.ART0.6c146.html

By ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News
The Prairie doesn't have a cemetery or historical markers or get a mention in most Dallas history books.
"It was right here," Sam Wicks says, "and all over out in there."



New York Post 02/01/02
ATTENDANCE MESS
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/38679.htm

by CARL CAMPANILE
February 1, 2002 -- The teenager charged with shooting two students in Martin Luther King HS on Jan. 15 was marked "present" two days later while cops were still looking for him, school-attendance records show.



Washington Post 02/01/02
Air Security Database Raises Privacy Concerns
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174136.html

By Robert O'Harrow Jr
Federal aviation authorities and technology companies will soon begin testing a
vast air security screening system designed to instantly pull together every
passenger's travel history and living arrangements, plus a wealth of other personal and demographic information.
The government's plan is to establish a computer network linking every reservation system in the United States to private and government databases. The network would
use data-mining and predictive software to profile passenger activity and intuit obscure clues about potential threats, even before the scheduled day of flight.



Technology Review January/February 2002
The Net Effect
http://www.techreview.com/articles/garfinkel0102.asp

By Simson Garfinkel
Why doesn’t the U.S. appreciate wireless text messaging? It has no standards.
I was loading up a moving van on Martha’s Vineyard the morning of September 11 when the first jet hit the World Trade Center. As soon as I heard the news I tried to call
my wife, Beth, who was 150 kilometers away at our house near Boston. No dice: my desk telephone could not place a call off-island. I tried my cell phone: it didn’t
work either.





Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
pakurilecz@aol.com
Richmond, Va