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RAIN 804 Weekly Update: Technology (13)



ZDNET 4/22/02
Why storing private data is such a tricky business
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2862051,00.html


First Monday 7/2002
After the Dot-Bomb: Getting Web Information Retrieval Right This Time
by Marcia J. Bates
In the excitement of the "dot-com" rush of the 1990's, many Web sites were developed that provided information retrieval capabilities poorly or sub-optimally. Suggestions are made for improvements in the design of Web information retrieval in seven areas.
Classifications, ontologies, indexing vocabularies, statistical properties of databases
(including the Bradford Distribution), and staff indexing support systems are all discussed.
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_7/bates/index.html


CIO 7/19/02
CIOs' New Choice: Get Strategic...Or Else!
by Erik Sherman
Even before the technology bubble burst, Ralph Larsen, then Johnson & Johnson's CEO, was growing worried about how much the company might be spending on technology, as he had no precise idea.
Following a companywide crash of J&J's e-mail systems in the fall of 1997, Larsen asked his corporate controller, JoAnn Heisen, to step in and take over as CIO to turn things around. Heisen's mandate from Larsen? "Fix it," recalls Heisen, who embarked on a cost-cutting mandate aimed at shaving IT costs by $50 million per year by 2003. "Nobody knew what was wrong; they just knew it wasn't working. Nobody was talking to each other."
Since the economic downturn, CEO aggravation with IT has gone increasingly public. Companies such as Kmart Corp., Samsonite Corp., Whirlpool Corp. and Hershey Foods Corp. have ended up losing millions on failed technology. In February 2001, for example, Nike Inc.'s supply chain management system went haywire, leading to excess inventory and delays in orders for its sports gear that cost an estimated $100 million in lost sales. Complained Nike CEO Phil Knight: "This is what we get for our $400 million?"
http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article/0,3668,a=29362,00.asp


eWeek 7/26/02
Mozilla Still Good After 32 Days
By Timothy Dyck
I've been using Mozilla [www.mozilla.org] full-time for 32 days now after years on
Internet Explorer. At first, it was just to test out the software for work, but I've now installed it on my personal systems and don't plan on going back. Here are the pros and cons I've found so far (I went directly to Mozilla 1.1 Alpha and am now running 1.1 Beta).
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,417131,00.asp


AP 7/28/02
Unheralded hard drives a catalyst for better gadgets
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/07/28/national1538EDT0611.DTL&type=tech


The Trentonian 7/29/02
Bill would allow govt. hackers in your PC
SCOTT FROST,
Should the record industry be allowed to hire hackers to hijack you're computer and take away any music you might have "stole" through music and movie downloading?
Well, that's the new idea being bounced around Congress right now, and fans of downloading music from both sides of spectrum think the idea is just one more Big
Brother scheme spewed by the government to control your spending.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4883847&BRD=1697&PAG=461&dept_id=44551&rfi=6


Forbes 7/29/02
Instant Messaging
Instant Messages, Slower Profit
David Simons,
NEW YORK - These days, information technology has about as much buzz as a beehive in winter--except enterprise instant messaging. The noise from that corner of corporate computing makes it sound like it's 1999.
http://www.forbes.com/home/2002/07/25/0725simons.html


AP 7/30/02
Man Hijacks al-Qaida Web Site
Tue Jul 30, 9:00 PM ET
By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Web operator Jon Messner gained control of one of al-Qaida's prime Internet communication sites, he offered it to the FBI ( news - web sites) to use it for disinformation and collecting data about sympathizers.
What followed, he says, was a week of frustration.
FBI agents struggled to find someone with enough technical know-how to set up the sting. By the time they did, the opportunity was lost as militant Islamic Web users figured out the site was a decoy, said Messner of Ocean City, Md.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020731/ap_on_re_us/al_qaida_online_8


New York Times 8/1/02
Cybercafe Crackdown May Trip Up Leering Boys
By IAN FISHER
AHORE, Pakistan, July 27 — Shahid Masood is a bit down on the Internet these days. But he has never seen anyone who looks like a terrorist at the cybercafe he owns here.
Mostly he sees boys trying to see girls without their clothes. People do not use it in a positive manner," he said in this vibrant city with two universities and many students, who make for enthusiastic customers — if not always rich ones. "Most of the people access porn sites. Then it is email and chat sites. Otherwise, there is not much usage of the Internet."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/international/asia/01LAHO.html?


Chicago Tribune 8/1/02
AT RANDOM ON ACADEMIA
Scholars are all agog over digital Gutenbergs
BY JULIA KELLER
Scholars are accustomed to working in conditions that, if not exactly plush, at least are placid: libraries lined with warm wooden bookshelves; offices featuring blissful solitude.
Armed guards typically aren't part of the mix.
For scholars who work with the Gutenberg Bible at the University of Texas, however, the atmosphere is chillingly militaristic: A guard with a loaded sidearm must be present at all times.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0208010015aug01.story?coll=chi%2Dleisure%2Dhed


New York Times 8/1/02
Tablet PC Makers Embrace a Dying Art: Handwriting
By MICHEL MARRIOTT
or Steven Storch, a New York lawyer, the process was gradual but the realization sudden: his handwriting had devolved into an illegible scrawl of hurried, inky scribbles.
Mr. Storch, 52, does not blame the digits on his writing hand, but rather the pervasive digital technology in his office and home. For most of his life he had jotted notes and thrashed out ideas with a pen and a yellow pad, but over the last eight years he has typed almost everything into computers. These days, he said, "the only writing I do is to sign a check and put my signature on a letter."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/technology/circuits/01HAND.html?


The Age 8/2/02
Spam, the plague giving the Net indigestion
By Josh Gordon
Canberra
Australia is being bombarded by spam. Not tinned, spiced ham, but junk e-mails peddling pornography, gambling, sham get-richquick schemes and mail-order cure-all pills.
With e-mail now rivalling telephones and post as a channel of communication, the Federal Government is increasingly worried about the implications for children, workplace productivity and privacy.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/01/1028157817675.html


FastCompany Aug 2002
No Security
"Are you secure? How do you know?" That's the slightly paranoid
slogan of a new training academy, run by Sondra Schneider, that's
devoted to keeping corporate data safe in an unsafe world. Now, if
only her students would talk to us ...
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/61/security.html



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