Clips August 15, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

This did not go yesterday, when it was sent.

*******************
Clips August 15, 2002

ARTICLES

Mapping of wireless networks could pose enterprise risk
Study Finds That Teachers Fail to Grasp the Web's Potential
Todd Kluss Doesn't Need to Go to the Movies. They Come to Him.
Energy Department Seeks to Close Web Site That Searches Journal Abstracts
Burek resigns from post as Maryland CIO
TSA issues first IT work orders
Standards for grant portal drafted
ID scanners being used by bars to thwart underage sales
Sex Offenders to Be Listed on Web Site
Ellison again urges federal ID database
NEC launches environmentally friendly PC
Military enforces 'Semper Fido' with microchips
Can Optical Networking Outshine DSL and Cable?
Alleged HP forger arrested in China
*************************
Computerworld
Mapping of wireless networks could pose enterprise risk

There comes a point when the quest for ubiquitous computing turns into a 
security nightmare.
That's the concern of some federal law enforcement officials who last month 
warned companies throughout the Pittsburgh area of what can best be 
described as a systematic effort to mark and map nonsecured Wi-Fi 802.11b 
wireless access points throughout many of the nation's major metropolitan 
areas.

Bill Shore, a special agent with the FBI's Pittsburgh field office, sent an 
e-mail last month to private-sector members of the local FBI Infragard 
chapter, warning them of a process known as "warchalking" -- the physical 
marking of a building or facility to denote an open wireless access point.

Infragard chapters are local partnerships between the FBI and businesses in 
particular geographic areas focused on cybersecurity information sharing. 
There are 56 such chapters in the U.S.

Shore likened warchalking to hobos marking public places that are willing 
to provide a hot meal, or the way spies mark dead-drop locations to 
exchange packages. Although the markings can be used for legitimate 
purposes, such as denoting a free public access point, officials fear that 
markings are being made on corporate buildings -- enabling hackers, and 
possibly even terrorists, to more easily locate vulnerable wireless LANs.

The threat posed by warchalking, however, goes far beyond what might be 
considered isolated incidents of scanning for the presence of wireless 
networks.

"In Pittsburgh, the individuals are essentially attempting to map the 
entire city to identify the wireless access points," Shore said in an 
interview. Although he said there have been no reports of buildings in 
Pittsburgh being physically marked as they have in other parts of the 
country, Web sites have popped up that provide interactive digital maps 
denoting the precise locations of dozens of Wi-Fi access points in cities 
such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and Berkeley, Calif., as well as 
regions of northeast Texas and various college campuses.

For example, a Web site called Zhrodague Wireless Maps (ZWM) allows war 
drivers -- those who go around looking for wireless networks -- to submit 
output from their war-driving adventures and then creates digital 
street-level maps that show the location and signal strength of 802.11b 
access points. In some cases, satellite photos are used.

The site, which advertises itself as a service that puts "Wi-Fi on the 
map," includes more than 28,000 entries from war-driving results in Boston 
alone. It also provides maps for Germany and Okinawa, Japan.

Another Web site, Warchalking.org, includes a message board where computing 
enthusiasts often post messages about their warchalking plans. One user 
bragged about his warchalking excursion in Santa Monica, Calif., where he 
marked the "corrugated metal wall of an art gallery."

Shore acknowledged the threat such markings and Web sites pose to ongoing 
criminal and counterintelligence investigations, especially antiterrorism 
investigations. The ability of criminals and terrorists to spot these 
markings while simply walking down the street and then use vulnerable 
corporate wireless networks for anonymous Internet access "poses a real 
problem" for law enforcement, he said.

But William Harrod, director of the Investigative Response Division at 
TruSecure Corp. and a 14-year veteran of the FBI, downplayed the security 
significance of warchalking, saying that terrorists or serious criminals 
are unlikely to rely on it for identifying access points.

Harrod, who served at the FBI as a Supervisory Forensic Computer Specialist 
and a Rapid Start Team Leader, also downplayed the utility of having online 
interactive maps for terrorist activities. "It's not terribly hard to find 
access and gain that access," he said.
***********************
New York Times
Study Finds That Teachers Fail to Grasp the Web's Potential
By KATIE HAFNER

THE advent of the Internet, and the Web in particular, has upended a few 
traditional notions about who is educating whom. A study made public 
yesterday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project concluded that 
students tend to be far more adept than their teachers when it comes to 
finding creative educational uses for the Internet.

"Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized  much less responded 
to  the new ways students communicate and access information over the 
Internet," the study's authors wrote.

Douglas Levin, a senior researcher for the American Institutes for 
Research, a nonprofit research firm in Washington that conducted the Pew 
study, said that "for many schools, the bulk of assignments are not 
particularly inventive"  like assigning students to go to specific Web 
sites to find answers to particular questions. "If I had to judge the 
cost-effectiveness of the use of technology in schools by those uses," he 
said, "I'd be very disappointed."

The study was based on focus-group interviews with 136 middle school and 
high school students in Washington, Detroit and San Diego, along with 200 
additional essays written by students around the country. One focus-group 
participant, Matthew Smith, 17, who will be a senior this fall at San Diego 
High School, said he was particularly struck by the mundane use of the 
Internet as a textbook.

"Physics teachers use
physicsclassroom.com and say, `Go there and look up such and such lesson 
and I'll quiz you tomorrow,' " he told a reporter. "I don't consider that 
creative, or even educational."

In contrast, he said he admired the inventiveness of a science teacher who 
led an online study group that convened before quizzes to review material. 
"Teachers don't use those methods more because they have a lack of faith in 
the Internet," he said.

Both Mr. Levin and students who took part in the study said the teachers 
who were most sophisticated about the Internet encouraged students to use 
it to share information with one another and correspond with experts 
outside of the school, or set up an interactive Web site for the class.

Foreign language is a good example of a subject that lends itself to 
creative use of the Web, Mr. Levin said. "Instead of reading passages in 
their textbooks about conversations in cafes made up 30 years ago, now they 
go and read the foreign language newspapers online, which makes it much 
more relevant to their lives," he said.
***************************
Washington Post
Pirates of the Hollywood Seas
Todd Kluss Doesn't Need to Go to the Movies. They Come to Him.
By Bret Schulte

This is the Adams Morgan apartment of a man Hollywood executives would call 
a thief, though his thievery seems to lack profits or glamour or sex appeal.

Todd Kluss, at 25, is blondish and stick-thin. He sits at his computer 
desk, where a small figure of Darth Vader looks poised to leap from atop 
his stereo. He makes his bed every day, topped with a JCPenney comforter. 
The freezer is stacked with Hungry Man dinners. In the bedroom closet hangs 
a row of plain T-shirts arranged by colors: white, gray and black.

He downloads bootleg copies of movies off the Internet. He's not in it for 
the money, he says, despite the fact that the bootleg market is a 
multibillion-dollar industry.

He first ventured down this dark path six months ago, when he grew 
enchanted with the film "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

After paying about $8 to see it on opening weekend, Kluss knew: "I liked 
the movie, but I wasn't going to see it in the theater more than a few 
times. [Downloading] was a nice way of having it until the DVD comes out."

Kluss admits he doesn't always buy the DVD. He calls much of his contraband 
"samplers." And how he has sampled.

Kluss located, downloaded and burned onto compact discs "Star Wars: Episode 
II -- Attack of the Clones" a day prior to the theatrical release; he 
viewed with ambivalence M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" a full week before 
reviewers had even caught a sniff of it; and he has opted to watch "Austin 
Powers in Goldmember," "Reign of Fire" and "Minority Report" in the privacy 
of his own home, and without spending the eight bucks per pop.

He says: "People who go through the trouble of downloading these movies are 
die-hard fans who would buy it on DVD anyway. . . . It's a way to sort 
through what I want to buy."

A self-described film buff with a full-time job and a master's degree, the 
clean-cut Kluss doesn't feel like an Internet bad boy.

"I'm not in it to save the money," he says. "Basically what I do is like a 
tide-over: The film has been out in the theaters but it's not out on DVD yet."

Kluss is the walking embodiment of a fear that has caused studio executives 
to clamor for congressional protection and the chairman of the Motion 
Picture Association of America to bemoan the decline of the "moral rubric 
in this country."

In February, Michael Eisner, the CEO of the Walt Disney Co., and Peter 
Chernin, president of News Corp. (parent company of 20th Century Fox), 
testified before Congress on the need for greater enforcement of copyright 
laws in the face of, say, Kluss's double-hard-drive PC with 384 megabytes 
of RAM and a 500-megahertz Pentium 3 processor wired into a DSL connection.

Eisner stated: "There must be a reasonably secure environment to prevent 
widespread and crippling theft of the creative content that drives our 
economy."

The theft appears only to be gaining momentum. A recent report issued by 
Viant Media and Entertainment says "the beginning of May 2002 established a 
new high-water mark for online film piracy activities." The report 
estimated that somewhere between 400,000 to 600,000 films were being 
downloaded by Internet users per day.

Jack Valenti, chairman of the MPAA, describes this as "a terrible threat."

Kluss argues differently. He downloaded the latest "Star Wars" installment 
early, but he wanted to first see it on the big screen, quaking in digital 
sound and surrounded by fans wielding plastic light sabers. For that, he 
stood several hours in line outside the Cineplex Odeon Uptown Theater in 
Cleveland Park -- as unsuspecting of Princess Padme's deadening aura and 
Anakin's oddly Shakespearean speech patterns as anyone else.

It's also a way to find films he can't buy. In a chat room, Kluss heard 
about the now-shunned 1946 classic "Song of the South," which features the 
hit song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." After civil rights groups complained that 
Uncle Remus and other black characters in the film promoted negative 
stereotypes, Disney stopped further distribution. The movie is no longer in 
release, except as a bootleg.

"It will probably never see the light of day again," Kluss says. "I wanted 
to see it because it's kind of historically significant."

To find the latest in pirated Hollywood goods, he relies on newsgroups or 
file-sharing programs much like Napster, which was shut down last summer. 
Also like Napster, the file-sharing programs are available on the Web for 
free. Kluss selected one called Kazaa, which has no central server but 
directly links users' PCs to each other.

Once connected, he can scroll through the offerings. On a recent Monday he 
found, among others: the new Vin Diesel vehicle, "XXX"; Adam Sandler's "Mr. 
Deeds," "Spy Kids 2" and "Windtalkers."

The quality varies depending on the source of the bootleg. For films not 
yet released, the most desirable option is a dub of an advance-review copy, 
generally sent to the media. Beyond that, you're limited to an assortment 
of reproductions that come from someone in the theater, perhaps the 
projection booth, pointing a video camera at the screen. Occasionally, 
you'll see the heads of audience members bob into view.

As of now, the quality of the bootlegs is roughly on par with a worn VHS 
tape. Colors are often faded, images aren't crisp. When an acceptable copy 
is found, it can be downloaded -- which can take several hours -- and then 
copied onto compact disc. The process can all be for nothing if the user on 
the other end decides to log off before you've finished downloading the 
movie from his computer.

"For someone who is a fan of film, it's hardly a way to watch," Kluss says. 
Downloading films "has not affected my movie watching. I still go to the 
theaters. I still rent movies. This is just a supplement to that."

Film industry folks aren't buying it. Since Napster, entertainment moguls 
have been consumed by the issue of copyright laws and intellectual property 
rights. At the February Senate hearing, Eisner accused Apple Computer of 
promoting illegal theft with its "Rip. Mix. Burn." advertising campaign, 
and called for computer technology that would prohibit the downloading of 
copyright-protected information. Meanwhile, Disney has joined a consortium 
of major film studios and record companies that have filed suit against 
companies including Kazaa for copyright infringement.

"We cannot sit idly by while these services continue to operate illegally, 
especially at a time when new legitimate services are being launched," said 
Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.

Valenti simply calls it stealing.

"It's a question of how one conducts oneself. Taking something from the 
owner is theft."

Kluss believes he speaks for many when he says: "I don't think that's a 
valid argument. These are mostly people doing it for the love of film."
*********************
Chronicle of Higher Education
Energy Department Seeks to Close Web Site That Searches Journal Abstracts
By ANDREA L. FOSTER

The U.S. Energy Department wants to shut down a Web site it operates that 
lets scientists search journals for citations and abstracts in the physical 
sciences. The department says the site, called PubScience, duplicates 
commercial services.

PubScience permits researchers to examine more than 1,000 peer-reviewed 
journals free and at the same time, instead of searching multiple Web 
sites, publications, and references.

The Web site was in jeopardy as far back as a year ago, when the U.S. House 
of Representatives approved a bill accompanied by a report that recommended 
eliminating the service. (See an article from The Chronicle, July 20, 
2001.) But Thurman L. Whitson, product manager for PubScience, said the 
report was not a factor in the Energy Department's recent decision.

A notice on the PubScience Web site explains that two privately run Web 
sites, Scirus and Infotrieve, do the same thing as PubScience. It also says 
that 90 percent of the literature available through PubScience can be 
retrieved through the two commercial sites.

Scirus and Infotrieve "have progressively increased the availability of 
freely searchable citations, and this trend is anticipated to continue," 
the PubScience notice says.

Stephen Miles Sacks, editor and publisher of Scipolicy: The Journal of 
Science and Health Policy, says the Energy Department informed him on 
Tuesday that PubScience would cease to exist in 30 days. But Mr. Whitson 
says the department would not make a final decision on the Web site until 
after September 8, the deadline for receiving public comments on the proposal.

Mr. Sacks is strongly opposed to the elimination of PubScience and says 
that abstracts from his publication are compiled by neither Scirus, which 
is owned by Elsevier Science, nor Infotrieve.

"The action is ill-advised and anti-small-science research," he says.
**************************
Government Computer News
Burek resigns from post as Maryland CIO
By Trudy Walsh

Linda D. Burek resigned Monday from her job as Maryland's CIO. Her 
resignation comes less than two months after a Baltimore Business Journal 
article revealed Burek's past experience with Software Performance Systems 
Inc. of Arlington, Va., a company that was the lead contender for an 
enterprise architecture contract with the state 
(www.gcn.com/21_17/news/19178-1.html).

During Burek's tenure as Maryland CIO, the state faced a sharp budget 
downturn, an anthrax scare and the threat of terrorist attacks.

Burek was appointed CIO in November 2001. She had been deputy CIO of the 
U.S. Justice Department for four years.
************************
Federal Computer Week
TSA issues first IT work orders

The Transportation Security Administration has awarded the first two work 
orders for its information technology infrastructure.

TSA tapped Unisys Corp. for the agency's billion-dollar Information 
Technology Managed Services (ITMS) program Aug. 2 but postponed making an 
official award until meeting with an investment review board.

A group led by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of 
Homeland Security is assessing all projects valued at more than $500,000 at 
agencies, including TSA, slated to go into the proposed Homeland Security 
Department.

"I'm not going to let the bureaucrats get in the way of letting us make 
progress," Patrick Schambach, TSA associate undersecretary for information 
and security technology, smiled and said at a Federal Sources Inc. 
breakfast today, then added, "They are sticking to their word. We are 
getting same-day decisions going through that process."

The board approved the work orders Tuesday evening. The first order covers 
creation of an enterprise operations center, which includes installing a 
data center, security operation center and help desk, according to Megan 
Russell, ITMS contracting officer. The second order covers IT equipment for 
TSA headquarters and field offices, Russell said.

"I've been claiming victory for about a week now," said Schambach, who also 
is TSA's chief information officer. "We finally have some money attached to 
this thing and we're moving forward."

For fiscal 2002, the first order is worth $15.1 million; the second, $8.2 
million, Russell said. The funding for fiscal 2003 is estimated at $67.5 
million and $154 million.

The beginning stage of ITMS will provide TSA with basic capabilities not 
"Star Wars stuff," according to Schambach. The program eventually will 
supply the full range of IT and telecommunications services that support 
desktop management, enterprise architecture development, cybersecurity and 
related operations.

ITMS emphasizes managed services, a relatively new procurement strategy in 
which an agency pays a company for technology solutions that solve a 
particular problem. In this case, Unisys has a unique opportunity to build 
an IT infrastructure from the ground up for an agency formed just nine 
months ago and charged with securing the nation's transportation systems.

"We're starting today," said Michael Glaser, the Unisys account executive 
for the contract.

The company has teamed with DynCorp and IBM Corp. on the potential 
seven-year task order, which is performance-based.
***********************
Federal Computer Week
Standards for grant portal drafted

The Office of Federal Financial Management has issued an initial draft of 
proposed data standards for agencies posting grant opportunities on FedBizOpps.

Moving more of the $325 billion in grants it awards each year online is one 
of the Bush administration's e-government initiatives. FedBizOpps 
(fedbizopps.gov) has been selected as the federal grant portal.

The federal government has been working to comply with the Federal 
Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 since the Clinton 
administration. The law requires agencies to develop a plan for 
streamlining grants management and criticized them for maintaining federal 
grants systems that are "duplicative, burdensome or conflicting, thus 
impeding cost-effective delivery of services at the local level."

The Aug. 12 notice in the Federal Register is a proposal to establish "a 
standard format for federal agency announcements" for grants. "The purpose 
of the standard format is to have information organized in a consistent 
way," the notice says.

The proposal is an interim format that addresses some but not all of the 
necessary issues, the notice says.

Another Federal Register notice proposes a set of standard data for grant 
announcements in FedBizOpps, which eventually will be the central 
repository for federal solicitations and grants.

The 13 data elements will standardize how grants are listed so users will 
be able to find information easily and quickly, the notice says.

Comments on the notices are due by Oct. 11.
*************************
Government Computer News
Central Command recovers missing PCs

By Dawn S. Onley
GCN Staff

Two notebook computers reported stolen from the Central Command in Tampa, 
Fla., a joint command overseeing the war efforts in Afghanistan, were 
recovered earlier this month.

An Air Force spokesman said a suspect, identified only as a member of the 
military with access to the secure area where the notebooks were kept, is 
in custody. The computers were found in a private residence, authorities said.

A motive has not been determined, said Maj. Mike Richmond, spokesman for 
the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.

The suspect's commanding officer will decide whether to pursue charges
**********************
Government Computer News
DOD to use Schlumberger middleware for Common Access Cards

By William Jackson
GCN Staff

The Defense Department is adding smart-card middleware for Linux systems to 
its Common Access Card program, expanding capabilities beyond Microsoft 
Windows platforms for the first time.

The $9.3 million contract for Cactus software from Schlumberger Ltd. of New 
York was awarded through the Naval Inventory Control Point in 
Mechanicsburg, Pa. The contract is part of DOD's Enterprise Software 
Initiative.

The middleware will allow communication between smart cards and other 
devices and applications. Cactus works with both Windows and Linux 
operating systems.

The Common Access Card is a smart card that is being issued to all DOD 
military and civilian personnel. The cards will serve as physical IDs, 
controlling access to facilities and systems, as well as providing 
encryption for secure e-mail.

Schlumberger also provides smart cards and readers for the DOD program. The 
company recently shipped its one-millionth card to DOD, and the Army is 
using SchlumbergerSema Reflex 72, Reflex USB and Reflex 20 PCMCIA card readers.
************************
Washington Post
Egypt Gets Into Gear on the IT Superhighway



Reuters
Thursday, August 15, 2002; 1:04 AM



By Rachel Noeman

CAIRO (Reuters) - In a quiet classroom above Cairo's cacophony of braying 
donkeys, car horns and calls to prayer from graceful minarets, a group of 
people from all walks of life perch over PCs studying the uses of 
"Microsoft Word."

With free Internet access and a hefty government subsidy, students like 
these gathering in IT clubs across the country are helping to build Egypt's 
IT sector, which is still growing despite stagnation elsewhere in the economy.

Egypt -- an ancient trading crossroads between Africa, the Middle East and 
Europe -- is seeking to become a new regional hub on the information 
superhighway.

Government initiatives and several successful private IT ventures have 
already helped propel the local IT industry to the Arab world's top ranks, 
but Internet penetration and the number of installed computers remains low.

Egypt also faces some tough competition. IT development is moving apace in 
Jordan and Morocco, while Dubai has been aggressively pushing its own role 
as a regional center, tapping the wealth of skills in nearby India, a 
fast-growing IT center.

But Ali Faramawy, Microsoft Corp's regional general manager, said Egypt's 
strength was its home-grown pool of talent.

"As a business center, Dubai for the time being is the undisputed 
leader...When it comes to raw talent, resources and people, I think Egypt 
will be the number one player," he said.

Yet that skills base has to be nurtured, which is the reasoning behind the 
government-backed IT clubs which are now running in about 390 locations, 
often in low-income areas.

"These are subsidized Internet access centers where people can, without 
computers at home, actually access the network, have training on computers 
and improve their own skills," Communication and Information Minister Ahmed 
Nazif told Reuters.

ANOTHER INITIATIVE

In another initiative, Egypt this year offered free Internet access in 
several cities, targeting the whole country by September, so people can 
surf the World Wide Web for the cost of a local phone call, less than $0.25 
an hour.

Egypt has about a million Internet subscribers, out of a total population 
of almost 70 million. Analysts say there is plenty of room for growth in 
Egypt and across the Arab world.

A report sponsored by the United Nations Development Program said personal 
computers are more widespread in the Arab world than in any developing 
region outside Latin America, yet Arab states have the lowest Internet 
access and usage.

Nevertheless, Egypt's IT sector, while still relatively small, is growing 
rapidly alongside a fast-expanding telecoms sector, even though the economy 
is in the doldrums.

Cybercafes are dotted across main streets and city shopping malls, 
signaling Egypt's efforts to bridge the digital divide.

Egypt has also started to build the first of a series of IT business parks, 
or "smart villages," aimed at IT firms in the outskirts of Cairo. Nazif 
said he expected the first buildings to be occupied in September.

SOLID PROGRESS

Nazif said one of Egypt's big achievements was attracting new IT foreign 
investment, vital for the overall economy as it provides and contributes to 
the balance of payments and produces high value-added exports of services 
and products.

New IT investment has grown consistently in the last three years, to 1.05 
billion pounds ($230 million) in 2001, compared to 620 million in 2000 and 
290 million in 1999. The IT sector has created some 10,000 new jobs in the 
last two years, he said.

Microsoft's Faramawy said Egypt had made good progress in fostering IT 
skills and attracting multinationals, but the level of computerization was 
still low, with just one million installed computers in total, in homes and 
businesses.

"Around 200,000 machines are shipped into Egypt, or manufactured in Egypt, 
every year," he said. This could be three times higher with better 
financing schemes to help hard-pressed families and small businesses, he added.

In comparison, Turkey offers loans already pre-approved for government 
employees with no minimum amounts, Faramawy said.

"Turkey was shipping 2-1/2 times the number of PCs that Egypt ships, with a 
similar population," he said.

Yet, Microsoft sales have grown sharply since it started up in Egypt, one 
of its biggest Arab markets alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab 
Emirates, although 2001 was slower, he said.

"Over the last four-and-a-half years, we have grown overall something like 
600 percent, from a relatively small base...Egypt has been a very good 
market for us."

He said more and more firms were starting to recognize how much IT could 
enhance their effectiveness, with the government leading the way in its use 
of IT solutions and automation.

DOT-COM DEVELOPMENT

One IT venture has soared ahead from its small beginnings in 1999. Mostafa 
Shoukry and Ayman Rachid, working on a shoestring budget, launched an 
Internet service called Otlob.com -- "Otlob" means "Order" in Arabic -- 
taking orders for fast-food outlets.

By early 2000, it was sold to a private firm IT Worx that left the two with 
a handsome return, which a source close to the venture put at a little more 
than one million Egyptian pounds.

"Mostafa and Ayman went out, without much technology background, and set it 
up," said IT Worx general manager Wael Amin, who declined to confirm the 
purchase price.

"They hired a contractor and created the Web Site," he said, describing it 
as one of the first flourishing e-commerce businesses in Egypt, which he 
has since sold on again.

"When we took it over, it was only doing food and handling 20 to 30 orders 
a day. On May 12, we sold it to LINKdotNET, as part of a portfolio of 
companies," Amin said, adding that Otlob now handles online orders for 
flowers, pharmaceuticals, videos, books and software, as well as food.

Orascom Telecom said in June that its Internet subsidiary LINKdotNET had 
obtained a majority holding in nine online firms, including Otlob, in a 
merger valued at 365 million Egyptian pounds through a share swap agreement.

With all services combined by mid-2002, it was completing about 500 
transactions a day, up from 30 at the end of 2000, growth of more than 
1,500 percent in just 18 months, Amin said.

Faramawy said skill and entrepreneurship, like that shown by Otlob and 
LINKdotNET, should help Egypt fulfil its IT potential.

"Egypt's challenge, given the population and the economy might be the 
hardest, but at the same time, the people and the amount of talent that is 
available in the country is probably our greatest asset," he said.
************************
USA Today
ID scanners being used by bars to thwart underage sales

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Every weekend, thirsty patrons crowd into the cramped 
brick foyer of Brian Boru's, a smoky downtown pub, and wait for the doorman 
to swipe their driver's licenses through a small electronic device. The pub 
is one of a small but growing number of nightclubs, convenience stores and 
beer distributors that have begun using scanners to check patrons' ages and 
keep alcohol, tobacco and fake IDs out of minors' hands. The scanners read 
the magnetic strips or bar codes of information included on driver's 
licenses issued by all but nine states.

"It's the future of our business," said Chris Hale, general manager of the 
pub. "It protects us. It's idiot proof. There's no more human error."

Usually, bartenders, doormen and store clerks simply look at IDs to check 
birth dates and photos, making judgment calls about the cards' validity. 
Errors are possible, especially at a time when high-tech fake IDs that look 
like the real thing are widely available.

Most scanners, which cost $500 to $2,500, verify a customer's age and an 
ID's authenticity by making sure the information on the front of the card 
matches the data encoded in it.

Once an ID is swiped, the customer's name and age pop up on a screen as the 
device reads  and then stores on a computer disk  personal information such 
as height, weight, birth date, address, and, in some states, Social 
Security number.

Anti-drug and anti-alcohol crusaders have welcomed the scanners as another 
tool for fighting underage substance use.

But privacy advocates fear businesses will use the information gleaned for 
other purposes, such as notifying customers who regularly attend jazz 
concerts of upcoming events.

"Why should your visit to a restaurant, bar or convenience store end up 
resulting in marketing pitches?" asked Beth Givens, director of the Privacy 
Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego-based consumer organization.

Merchants say they use the information only to protect themselves and their 
clerks from unknowingly selling alcohol and cigarettes to minors.

TMA Hospitality, which owns eight nightclubs in the Dakotas and Iowa, 
bought scanners from Intelli-Check, of Woodbury, N.Y., for each of its bars 
about two years ago.

"Here, the police are doing quite a bit to stop underage drinking, and we 
want to be part of the solution," said Kelly Lancaster, general manager of 
Borrowed Bucks Roadhouse in Fargo, N.D.

According to a study last year by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration, about 13% of youths under age 18 are smokers and 
27.5% of those age 12 to 20 reported drinking alcohol in the month before 
they filled out the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

"Part of the problem is that fake IDs are easy to get, so we want to make 
sure we have tools to identify them," said Wendy Hamilton, national 
president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Paul Barclay, owner of The Rack, an upscale pool hall in Boston, bought a 
$2,500 Intelli-Check scanner in 1997 and posted a sign outside the bar 
warning customers that every ID is scanned.

"Some people see that and turn away," he said. Fake IDs are confiscated.

Despite the possibility of losing a few customers, Hale said, the scanner 
saves money in the long run because it prevents Brian Boru's from being 
fined or closed by liquor control agents for serving underage customers.

A January report by researchers at Brandeis University concluded that the 
scanners stymie underage purchases of alcohol and tobacco only if they are 
used for every customer  something that isn't yet possible because not 
every state has licenses that are readable by the machines.

"Not every state has a machine-readable license yet," said Brad Krevor, a 
Brandeis professor who designed the study.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators says that 41 
states have licenses that have magnetic strips and bar codes.

But merchants say some of the states don't activate the data strips or bar 
codes immediately, making the scanners difficult  if not impossible  to use 
consistently.

"The problem is not with the manufacturer, it's with the individual 
states," said Bob Richard, who owns 11 Barney's convenience stores in 
Toledo that have used scanners since 2000. "They've been more hassle than 
they are worth."

**************************
Los Angeles Times
Sex Offenders to Be Listed on Web Site
From Times Staff Reports

The Orange County Board of Supervisors this week approved mapping the 
locations of the county's 2,709 registered sex offenders and placing the 
information on its Web site.

But Sheriff-Coroner Mike Carona, who endorsed the idea, also expressed 
concerns about the program being too aggressive with information that might 
inadvertently provide a sex offender's exact location.

A task force will report to supervisors in two weeks on implementing the map.
************************
San Francisco Gate
Ellison again urges federal ID database
But Oracle boss says he isn't calling for a national identity card

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison used part of his stage time at the 
LinuxWorld conference Wednesday to defend his call for a federal identity 
database, which he said has been widely misunderstood.

Ellison said he never actually proposed a national identification card, 
although many have interpreted his plan that way.

"The only thing I proposed was that the existing government IDs should be 
as difficult to duplicate as our credit cards," he said. "Then we should 
have a national directory . . . where the FBI or some national police 
agency keeps track of all the people that we think are bad guys."

Ellison has offered to donate Oracle software to run such a database.

If the CIA, FBI and other government databases were all put together, the 
Sept. 11 terrorists who were already wanted by the government would never 
have been able to enter the country and buy tickets for their targeted 
flights, Ellison said.

Ellison, who flies his own jet, said he is also disturbed by the fact that 
his pilot's license would be easier to duplicate than a credit card.

Ellison is not registered with a political party, but he called himself "a 
lifelong Democrat" on Wednesday.

He sidestepped a question about how sales are going this quarter.

"I can't talk yet. I think our CFO said a couple days ago we're on track to 
make the quarter. That's our current public statement," Ellison said.

Ellison appeared at LinuxWorld at San Francisco's Moscone Center to tout 
the Linux versions of his company's software, which make it possible to run 
Oracle databases and applications on clusters of computers all running the 
open-source Linux operating system.

Oracle has increasingly embraced Linux in recent years, a move that 
dovetails with Ellison's open disdain for Microsoft -- a feeling many Linux 
users share.

"By the end of this calendar year, literally all our Oracle mid-tier 
machines will be running Linux," Ellison said.

E-mail Carrie Kirby at ckirby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
******************************
Mercury News
NEC launches environmentally friendly PC
By Mike Langberg

NEC is a computer company that's poised to do well by doing good, thanks to 
the world's first environmentally friendly personal computer, the PowerMate 
eco at $1,599.

Introduced on Aug. 5, the eco is intended more for business users than 
consumers, but the underlying design concepts could easily be applied to 
mass-market PCs.

The eco is also stylish, with its hardware built into the backside and base 
of a 15-inch flat-panel LCD screen. This ``all-in-one'' approach got a lot 
of publicity earlier this year with the introduction of Apple Computer's 
new desk-lamp-like iMac, although the idea has been tried before by 
manufacturers including Gateway and IBM.

What sets the eco apart, though, is NEC's response to environmental 
concerns involving the entire computer industry.

PCs are packed with toxic metals and plastic that can't be recycled; they 
also generate a lot of waste heat that increases the burden on office air 
conditioning systems.

The eco from the Santa Clara-based Mobile Solutions division of NEC 
(www.neccomp.com) takes several important steps in the right direction, 
offering:

A type of plastic called NuCycle, developed by NEC, that is fully 
recyclable and contains no toxic flame-retardant coatings. The plastic 
casing of most computers, in contrast, can't be fully recycled and gives 
off toxic fumes when burned in an incinerator.

Lead-free solder in the motherboard, the main circuitry of a PC, which 
makes reclaiming the motherboard easier for recyclers and less hazardous to 
the water supply.

A low-power 900 MHz Crusoe processor from Santa Clara-based Transmeta 
(www.transmeta.com) that consumes one-third the electricity and produces 
one-third the heat of conventional desktop PC processors such as Intel's 
Pentium or AMD's Athlon.

The low heat output of the Crusoe chip has an important side benefit: The 
eco has no fan, making it whisper-quiet, a welcome change from the low 
drone of most desktop PCs.

I talked with several experts in the emerging field of ``e-waste'' and they 
praised NEC's innovations in making a PC that will be more readily recycled 
at the end of its useful life.

Not that anyone, including NEC, is claiming the eco solves all 
environmental impact problems.

For one thing, the eco still contains toxic metals. All flat-panel LCD 
panels, for example, are made with a small amount of mercury that can 
pollute water supplies if the panel is crushed in a landfill.

And there's still the question of how to get consumers to do the right 
thing. Computers, monitors, printers and other PC-related equipment aren't 
safe for incinerators or landfills. Yet most consumers are unaware of the 
options for environmentally responsible recycling, or are unwilling to pay 
disposal fees. Our society as a whole needs to come up with programs that 
educate consumers and remove obstacles standing in the way of safe disposal.

But NEC deserves credit as the first computer manufacturer to make 
environmental friendliness a design goal, and for marketing that goal to 
buyers. I hope it's an example other PC builders will follow.

Putting aside political correctness, the eco is still an attractive computer.

Weighing just 16.5 pounds, the eco isn't much bigger than a regular 15-inch 
LCD panel, with all the hardware tucked out of sight behind the screen and 
a CD drive in the base. The screen has small built-in speakers, so you only 
need to make room for a keyboard and mouse on your desk beyond the eco's 
small pedestal.

What you get for $1,599, in addition to the bright 15-inch screen and the 
900 MHz Crusoe processor, are: 256 megabytes of random-access memory (RAM), 
a 20-gigabyte hard drive, a built-in Ethernet connector, the Windows XP 
Professional operating system and a CD-ROM drive. NEC also offers the eco 
with a CD-RW drive for $1,849 or a DVD/CD-RW drive for $2,099.

What you don't get are an internal floppy drive or modem. If you need 
either, you can buy external USB versions for about $50 to $75 each.

I spent several days doing my routine computing work checking electronic 
mail, with Eudora, surfing the Web with Internet Explorer, writing with 
Microsoft Word and editing pictures with Adobe Photoshop Elements, on a 
borrowed eco and didn't find the machine any slower than my regular desktop 
with a 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 chip.

My stress level dropped while I worked on or near the eco, thanks to the 
complete lack of fan noise. On more than one occasion, I couldn't remember 
whether the eco was turned on until I looked at the screen.

Not that I'd recommend the eco to most home computer users.

First of all, the eco is expensive. A conventional desktop PC with similar 
specifications and a 17-inch tube monitor, the equivalent of a 15-inch flat 
panel, would cost about half of what NEC wants for the eco.

In fairness to NEC, however, building an all-in-one requires using 
components normally found in laptop computers. These smaller components are 
more expensive, and the eco is competitively priced against laptop 
computers with 15-inch screens and Apple's iMac.

Second, the eco is designed for the corporate market rather than consumers: 
There's no floppy drive or modem. There's also no software included with 
the eco beyond Windows XP, so buyers will need to get their own word 
processor and other common applications.

I'd encourage NEC to consider a consumer version of the eco using Window XP 
Home, which could lower the cost, while providing buyers with easy access 
to optional USB modems and floppy drives.

If you're interested in buying the eco now, don't look in stores. NEC is 
only offering the machine through a few online retailers, including CDW 
(www.cdw.com) and PC Connection (www.pcconnection.com). The first shipment 
in early August is already sold out, so you might have to wait for an eco 
of your own.

If you want an all-in-one desktop PC intended for consumers, consider the 
Gateway Profile 4. On Aug. 26, Gateway (www.gateway.com) will introduce the 
latest version in the Profile line, first launched in June 1999, with 
systems priced from $999 to $1,999. For just $400 more than the eco, the 
top-of-the-line Profile is an impressive piece of hardware, with a 17-inch 
LCD screen, 2.66 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 120 GB hard drive 
and DVD/CD-RW drive. On the other hand, you'll have to put up with fan 
noise and the knowledge that you're not a pioneer in environmentally 
friendly computing.
**************************
Nando Times
Military enforces 'Semper Fido' with microchips
By RAQUEL RUTLEDGE, Special to The Christian Science Monitor

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (August 14, 2002 7:35 p.m. EDT) - It's summer, and 
American soldiers everywhere are clearing out of their government houses, 
packing dining room tables and TVs, and heading to new assignments. But an 
increasing number are leaving something behind - the family pet.

Many simply let their cat quietly slip out. Others dump their dog in a 
secluded area of their military base and speed away.

Abandoned pets are a growing part of the military culture, say authorities 
who have to deal with this aspect of the transient lives of soldiers.

A pack of feral Chows at Georgia's Fort Benning is a case in point. The 
abandoned Chows, which lurk in the Georgia Pine forests of the 180,000-acre 
base surviving on dead animals, attacked a jogging soldier last March, says 
Christy Evans, an animal-care specialist at the Fort Benning vet clinic and 
kennel.

Dogs and cats are dropped off in remote corners of the post at a rate of 
more than 20 a week, she says.

But the military is fighting back. Adopting a Big Brother approach, the 
military is implanting microchips in cats and dogs that live on government 
land - as much for animal control as for owner control.

"He or she is not getting away," says Fort Polk, La., Garrison Command Sgt. 
Maj. Ricky L. Jones of the soldier who abandons a pet. "Not that anyone is 
distrustful, but with the chip you can't hide."

Some soldiers are deploying overseas and can't take pets with them. Others 
don't want to bother with moving them. Most don't want to pay the $25 or 
$30 surrender fee often charged to give pets to a shelter.

"They think that setting them free is better than bringing them to the 
humane society," says Capt. Heather Mazzaccaro, chief of the Fort Polk vet 
clinic.

Regardless of a soldier's thinking, Fort Polk has used the chip to track 
down soldiers who have abandoned their pets and forced them to pay an 
adoption fee, and the cost of any necessary vaccinations - costs totaling 
$20 to $40.

The Department of Defense allows each base to decide whether to make 
microchipping mandatory. So far, about 35 installations - from all service 
branches - have made microchipping a requirement for living on base, and 
more are adding such programs every month, says Maj. Steve Osborn, 
spokesman for the Army's Veterinary Command.

"It's a way to control our stray animal population and protect our working 
force, too," says Capt. Steven Baty, a veterinarian at Fort Carson, Colo., 
where microchipping has been mandatory since 1998.

And the program seems to work.

Col. Mike Kazmierski was garrison commander at Fort Carson in 1998 when the 
post began requiring residents to have their pets implanted. He says the 
post was having problems not only with abandoned pets but with stolen pets 
and with people denying ownership of problem dogs that attacked other dogs 
or bit people.

"People wouldn't admit to owning the dogs, and we'd have no records of 
their shots or anything," he says. "Once we started microchipping, we found 
stray rates went way down, and people took ownership of their pets."

The tiny chips, the size of a grain of rice, are injected under the skin on 
an animal's neck and contain a bar code that can be scanned and read by 
humane societies and veterinary clinics nationwide. The code is stored in a 
database, linking it to the owner's name, address, and phone number. The 
procedure costs about $15, takes two to three seconds, and is no more 
painful than a typical vaccination, Captain. Baty says.

Angela Strader reluctantly had her Rottweiler, Lexus, implanted with a 
microchip several years ago.

"At first I thought 'I'll move off post,' " says Strader, the wife of a 
soldier posted at Fort Carson. "I didn't know that much about it. Now I'm 
glad Lexus had the chip because she got lost."

Abandoned pets aren't at risk only for their own safety. They can, if left 
to fend for themselves long enough, cause public health problems, animal 
experts say. Left loose too long, they can spread disease and turn feral, 
running in packs and becoming aggressive enough to attack people.

Evans says the Chow pack, still roaming the 34,000-resident Fort Benning 
installation, poses a dangerous dilemma: "Nobody can get near them, and you 
can't shoot them."

Microchip enforcement varies by base. At Fort Polk, La., animal controllers 
are part of a weekly housing patrol, joining inspectors who check to make 
sure lawns are cut and that soldiers aren't violating housing regulations, 
such as working on their cars in driveways. The animal controller carries a 
portable scanner and runs the wand over dogs and cats, looking for numbers 
to light up the small screen. If the pets don't have a microchip, soldiers 
are warned, and if they don't comply, their animals are taken away, or the 
soldier is kicked off post, says Captain Mazzaccaro, at Ft. Polk.

Troops found guilty of abandoning pets can face animal cruelty and other 
nonjudicial charges, says Capt. David Anglin, of the Fort Benning Judge 
Advocate General's office. "A guilty conviction could become part of a 
service member's permanent record and in extreme cases it could destroy a 
person's military career," he says.
*************************
News Factor
Can Optical Networking Outshine DSL and Cable?

As if choosing among cable, DSL and T1 lines were not confusing enough, a 
new contender has stepped up to join the broadband ranks: optical 
networking. The technology is now available to an estimated 80,000 homes in 
50 U.S. communities, and many more locales are installing or planning to 
install it. Ultimately, providers expect 50 percent or more of households 
in Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) areas to subscribe to the service, according to 
James Salter, president of an industry group called the? [For the complete 
story see, http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19026.html]
************************
News.com
Alleged HP forger arrested in China
By Irene Tham

Chinese authorities have arrested the suspected leader of a counterfeiting 
group for allegedly producing and selling fake Hewlett-Packard goods.
Although Chinese officials and HP have withheld the individual's identity, 
the arrest was a result of raids conducted in southern China.

On April 19, China's Public Security Bureau raided several factories in the 
area and confiscated more than 308,000 illegal printer cartridges and 
related items. Then in June, more than 107,000 bogus ink cartridges and 
related items, including four production lines, were seized, HP said in a 
statement.


"The raids were the result of several months of investigation and 
surveillance following tip-offs," an HP representative said. "Our 
co-operation with the Chinese law enforcement officials to stamp out the 
production and distribution of fake HP products is paying off."

Last year, similar raids in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen 
turned up more than 87,000 forged HP printer cartridges and related items.

Over the past two weeks, the company has also started cracking down on 
illegal activities in Indonesia.

More than 40 fake ink cartridges were found at three stores in Harco 
Glodok, a well-known shopping district for electronics products.

"Although small, the effort is a significant first step in our fight 
against counterfeit activities in Indonesia," the representative said.

Early this year, nine shops in Mumbai and Chennai, India, were found guilty 
of hawking false HP products.

To combat counterfeiting, HP introduced a new inkjet cartridge packaging 
that incorporates a "color shifting" security label, which toggles from 
color to black when viewed at different angles.

CNETAsia's Irene Tham reported from Singapore.
**************************
Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 510
2120 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-478-6124
lillie.coney@xxxxxxx