Credit Cards With Chips Have Little Use in U.S.
By SAUL HANSELL from the New York Times
Suddenly, smart cards — credit cards embedded with tiny computer chips — are everywhere. American Express (news/quote) put a chip on its sparkly new Blue card, and issued 2.2 million of them in just 14 months. Rushing to mimic Blue's success, Visa says at least four of its banks will issue seven million credit cards with chips on them this year. And MasterCard says it is getting into the smart card business, too.
The cards may be smart, but so far they haven't showed it. In contrast to Europe, where smart cards have been used for a decade to fight fraud and reduce telecommunications costs, there is hardly anything that can be done with one in the United States.
In other parts of the world, companies are experimenting with using smart cards for electronic cash, but that idea has flopped in the United States. As a result, few stores have smart card readers that can connect with the new, chip-equipped credit cards. Nor do most wireless phones here take chip cards, as they do in Europe and much of Asia. The card companies say the chip cards add security for shopping on the Internet, but a survey showed that only 6 of every 1,000 Blue card holders have actually used the chip on the Web.
So far, smart cards in the United States are little more than a silicon and plastic fashion statement. Credit cards have long been marketed with insubstantial distinctions, like the rise a few years ago in "platinum" cards that differed from gold cards in little more than color. Now some bankers see smart cards as this year's platinum fad, said Michael Auriemma, president of Auriemma Consulting in Westbury, N.Y., only more expensive for the issuers.
"One of my clients said, at least half seriously, that he wanted to put a picture of a chip on the card," Mr. Auriemma said. "It has the same functionality and it costs $3 less."
The credit card companies do worry that customers will eventually notice that the future they have been promising has never arrived. And so they are now scrambling to find useful things to do with the chips that are already in millions of wallets.
"Right now, there isn't a lot of utility associated with the cards," said Carl F. Pascarella, president of Visa U.S.A. "We have to look for ways to justify the chip and create a consumer-value proposition in the marketplace."
READ THE REST OF THE STORY
Monday, August 13, 2001
Dreams of Scientists
TOP 10 IMPOSSIBLE INVENTIONS THAT WORK
http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue4/ar4topten.html
TOP 10 IMPOSSIBLE INVENTIONS THAT WORK
http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue4/ar4topten.html
Girl from Ipanema is sued over the song she inspired
by Philip Delves Broughton (Filed: 13/08/2001)
From the London Telegraph Online
TALL, tanned, now 57, and still beautiful, The Girl from Ipanema is being sued by the families of the men who made her famous.
Sixties original: Heloisa Pinheiro, The Girl from Ipanema
Heloisa Pinheiro, the inspiration for the most famous bossa nova song, recently opened a boutique in Rio de Janeiro called The Girl from Ipanema.
The families of the song's writers, however, say she has no right to use the song for commercial purposes.
The shopowners along the fabled Ipanema beach in Rio have rallied behind Mrs Pinheiro, known to all as Helo, while those suing her have been portrayed as enemies of the laid-back beach life so vital to Brazilian culture.
It was 39 years ago that Mrs Pinheiro sashayed down to Ipanema beach, past a bar where two songwriters, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, were whiling away the day.
Enraptured by the 18-year-old, whom de Moraes called "a golden girl, a mixture of flower and siren, full of light and grace", the men wrote their song. Each day as she walked to the sea, they wrote, each man she passed went "Ahhhhhh".
The Girl from Ipanema was first performed in 1964 on an album by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, duskily sung by Gilberto's then wife Astrud Gilberto.
It put bossa nova on the musical map and became an informal Brazilian national anthem, a paean to its sunkissed young women. Millions of tourists have since been drawn to the beaches of Rio by the song's sultry promise.
The bar where Jobim and de Moraes were sitting when they saw Mrs Pinheiro was long ago renamed The Girl from Ipanema and the song's sheet music is painted on its walls. In economic terms, the Ipanema district of Rio has benefited hugely from the song.
Mrs Pinheiro, however, has not been so fortunate. Had the song been written about her today, she might have become a millionaire with the right agent.
Instead, in 1966, she married an engineer, Fernando, and during the intervening years she has done only a little acting and modelling, including posing for Playboy in 1987. Five years ago, her husband lost his job, forcing her to become the bread winner.
Their main cost is paying for their 22-year-old son who suffered brain damage as an infant and requires special care.
"This store is the means I have to guarantee the sustenance of my family," Mrs Pinheiro told the New York Times. "I borrowed $50,000 (£37,000) to set it up and it's not profitable yet, so I can't afford to have it closed down."
Mrs Pinheiro suspects that the songwriters' heirs are jealous, because both Jobim and de Moraes were said to have been in love with her. Though married at the time, Jobim is said to have told Mrs Pinheiro in 1965 that he wanted to marry her. He ended up being best man at her wedding. Jobim's widow is among those suing Mrs Pinheiro.
Carlos Monjardim, president of the Ipanema Merchants' Association, organised a party for Mrs Pinheiro last week, proclaiming her "the eternal ambassador of Ipanema".
He said of the lawsuit: "This is an act of pettiness that shocks and offends the entire community of Ipanema. What Pele is to all of Brazil, Helo is for Ipanema."
by Philip Delves Broughton (Filed: 13/08/2001)
From the London Telegraph Online
TALL, tanned, now 57, and still beautiful, The Girl from Ipanema is being sued by the families of the men who made her famous.
Sixties original: Heloisa Pinheiro, The Girl from Ipanema
Heloisa Pinheiro, the inspiration for the most famous bossa nova song, recently opened a boutique in Rio de Janeiro called The Girl from Ipanema.
The families of the song's writers, however, say she has no right to use the song for commercial purposes.
The shopowners along the fabled Ipanema beach in Rio have rallied behind Mrs Pinheiro, known to all as Helo, while those suing her have been portrayed as enemies of the laid-back beach life so vital to Brazilian culture.
It was 39 years ago that Mrs Pinheiro sashayed down to Ipanema beach, past a bar where two songwriters, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, were whiling away the day.
Enraptured by the 18-year-old, whom de Moraes called "a golden girl, a mixture of flower and siren, full of light and grace", the men wrote their song. Each day as she walked to the sea, they wrote, each man she passed went "Ahhhhhh".
The Girl from Ipanema was first performed in 1964 on an album by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, duskily sung by Gilberto's then wife Astrud Gilberto.
It put bossa nova on the musical map and became an informal Brazilian national anthem, a paean to its sunkissed young women. Millions of tourists have since been drawn to the beaches of Rio by the song's sultry promise.
The bar where Jobim and de Moraes were sitting when they saw Mrs Pinheiro was long ago renamed The Girl from Ipanema and the song's sheet music is painted on its walls. In economic terms, the Ipanema district of Rio has benefited hugely from the song.
Mrs Pinheiro, however, has not been so fortunate. Had the song been written about her today, she might have become a millionaire with the right agent.
Instead, in 1966, she married an engineer, Fernando, and during the intervening years she has done only a little acting and modelling, including posing for Playboy in 1987. Five years ago, her husband lost his job, forcing her to become the bread winner.
Their main cost is paying for their 22-year-old son who suffered brain damage as an infant and requires special care.
"This store is the means I have to guarantee the sustenance of my family," Mrs Pinheiro told the New York Times. "I borrowed $50,000 (£37,000) to set it up and it's not profitable yet, so I can't afford to have it closed down."
Mrs Pinheiro suspects that the songwriters' heirs are jealous, because both Jobim and de Moraes were said to have been in love with her. Though married at the time, Jobim is said to have told Mrs Pinheiro in 1965 that he wanted to marry her. He ended up being best man at her wedding. Jobim's widow is among those suing Mrs Pinheiro.
Carlos Monjardim, president of the Ipanema Merchants' Association, organised a party for Mrs Pinheiro last week, proclaiming her "the eternal ambassador of Ipanema".
He said of the lawsuit: "This is an act of pettiness that shocks and offends the entire community of Ipanema. What Pele is to all of Brazil, Helo is for Ipanema."
AdAware protects you from snooping software from downloaded programs
Version 5.5 was just released, but 5.6 will be out in two weeks.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Version 5.5 was just released, but 5.6 will be out in two weeks.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Dictionaraoke
The M-W.Com online dictionary recently added sample pronounciations. Now those samples are being put together to tell childrens stories and make songs. Check out Dr Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" and Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" as performed by the pronounciation speakers.
http://www.dictionaraoke.com/index.html
The M-W.Com online dictionary recently added sample pronounciations. Now those samples are being put together to tell childrens stories and make songs. Check out Dr Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" and Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" as performed by the pronounciation speakers.
http://www.dictionaraoke.com/index.html
Fron the New York Times; August 8, 2001 Rebels in Black Robes Recoil at Surveillance of Computers
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 — A group of federal employees who believed that the monitoring of their office computers was a major violation of their privacy recently staged an insurrection, disabling the software used to check on them and suggesting that the monitoring was illegal and unethical.
This was not just a random bunch of bureaucrats but a group of federal judges who are still engaged in a dispute with the office in Washington that administers the judicial branch and that had installed the software to detect downloading of music, streaming video and pornography.
It is a conflict that reflects the anxiety of workers at all levels at a time when technology allows any employer to examine each keystroke made on an office computer. In this case, the concern over the loss of privacy comes from the very individuals, federal judges, who will shape the rules of the new information era.
The insurrection took root this spring in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco and the largest of the nation's 12 regional circuits, covering 9 Western states and two territories. The Judicial Conference of the United States, the ultimate governing body of the courts, is to meet on Sept. 11 to resolve the matter.
The conflict between the circuit judges and the Administrative Office of the Courts, a small bureaucracy in Washington, deteriorated to a point that a council of the circuit's appeals and district judges ordered their technology staff to disconnect the monitoring program on May 24 for a week until a temporary compromise was reached. Because the Ninth Circuit's was also linked to the Eighth and Tenth Circuits, the shutdown affected about a third of the country and about 10,000 court employees, including more than 700 active and semiretired judges.
Leonidas Ralph Mecham, who runs the Administrative Office of the Courts, and who ordered the monitoring of all federal court workers, said in a March 5 memorandum that the software was to enhance security and reduce computer use that was not related to judicial work and that was clogging the system. A survey by his office, he wrote, "has revealed that as much as 3 to 7 percent of the judiciary browser's traffic consists of streaming media such as radio and video broadcasts, which are unlikely to relate to official business."
Officials in the judicial branch on both sides of the issue provided several internal memorandums written as the dispute continued over the weeks.
After the shutdown, Mr. Mecham complained in a memorandum that disconnecting the software was irresponsible and might have resulted in security breaches, allowing unauthorized outsiders access to the judiciary's internal confidential computer network. "The weeklong shutdown put the entire judiciary's data communication network at risk," he wrote on June 15.
Mr. Mecham warned in that memorandum that on the days before the software was disabled, there were hundreds of attempts at intrusion into the judiciary's network from places like China and Iran.
But Chief Judge Mary Schroeder of the Ninth Circuit responded that the concerns were overblown and that the circuit's technical people carefully monitored computer activity during the week that the software was disabled.
In a June 29 memorandum, she said that there was no evidence that the electronic firewall used to block hacking had been breached and suggested that Mr. Mecham had exaggerated the potential of a security breach because having hundreds of attempted breaches per day was routine and routinely blocked.
The Ninth Circuit disconnected the software, she wrote, because the monitoring policy was not driven by concern over overloading the system but Mr. Mecham's concern over "content detection." Many employees had been disciplined, she noted, because the software turned up evidence of such things as viewing pornography, although they had not been given any clear notice of the court's computer use policy.
Moreover, she wrote, the judiciary may have violated the law.
"We are concerned about the propriety and even the legality of monitoring Internet usage," she wrote. Her memorandum said that the judiciary could be liable to lawsuits and damages because the software might have violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which imposes civil and criminal liability on any person who intentionally intercepts "any wire, oral or electronic communication."
She noted that the Ninth Circuit had ruled just this year that the law was violated when an employer accessed an employee Web site. In fact, the issues of what is permissible by employers have produced a patchwork of legal rulings and the matter has never been addressed directly by the Supreme Court.
Judge Alex Kozinski, a member of the Ninth Circuit appeals court, drafted and distributed an 18-page legal memorandum arguing that the monitoring was a violation of anti- wiretap statute.
Judge Kozinski, widely known for his libertarian views, said the court employees who were disciplined, an estimated three dozen, could be entitled to monetary damages if they brought a lawsuit.
A spokesman for Mr. Mecham said that the software could not identify specific employees but workstations. When unauthorized use was detected, Mr. Mecham's deputy, Clarence Lee Jr., wrote to the chief judge of the district, urging that the employee who used the workstation be identified and disciplined. One such letter includes an appendix listing the Web sites that employee had visited, some of them pornographic. There is no evidence that any alleged abuse of the system involved judges.
Judge Kozinski said: "Aside from my view that this may be a felony, it is something that we as federal judges have jurisdiction to consider. We have to pass on this very kind of conduct in the private sphere."
Prof. Jeffrey Rosen of the George Washington University Law School, author of a recent book on privacy, "The Unwanted Gaze" (Vintage 2001), said, "It's fascinating that the courts have to grapple with these issues so close to home." The law is evolving, he said, adding: "This drama with the judges reminds us of how thin the privacy protections are. There's a real choice right now whether e-mail and Web browsing should be regarded like the telephone or a postcard."
Judge Edwin L. Nelson, who is chairman of a judges' committee that deals with computer issues, said in an interview that his group met last week and drafted proposals to deal with monitoring. Judge Nelson would not discuss the proposals but they are almost certain to resemble policies used in the rest of the federal government, in which clear notice is given to computer users that they may be monitored.
Jim Flyzik, vice chairman of an interagency group that considers computer privacy issues in the federal government, said that each department had its own policy but that clear and unambiguous notification of monitoring was usually an element.
In the private sector, a survey by the American Management Association this year found that 63 percent of companies monitored employees' computer use.
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 — A group of federal employees who believed that the monitoring of their office computers was a major violation of their privacy recently staged an insurrection, disabling the software used to check on them and suggesting that the monitoring was illegal and unethical.
This was not just a random bunch of bureaucrats but a group of federal judges who are still engaged in a dispute with the office in Washington that administers the judicial branch and that had installed the software to detect downloading of music, streaming video and pornography.
It is a conflict that reflects the anxiety of workers at all levels at a time when technology allows any employer to examine each keystroke made on an office computer. In this case, the concern over the loss of privacy comes from the very individuals, federal judges, who will shape the rules of the new information era.
The insurrection took root this spring in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco and the largest of the nation's 12 regional circuits, covering 9 Western states and two territories. The Judicial Conference of the United States, the ultimate governing body of the courts, is to meet on Sept. 11 to resolve the matter.
The conflict between the circuit judges and the Administrative Office of the Courts, a small bureaucracy in Washington, deteriorated to a point that a council of the circuit's appeals and district judges ordered their technology staff to disconnect the monitoring program on May 24 for a week until a temporary compromise was reached. Because the Ninth Circuit's was also linked to the Eighth and Tenth Circuits, the shutdown affected about a third of the country and about 10,000 court employees, including more than 700 active and semiretired judges.
Leonidas Ralph Mecham, who runs the Administrative Office of the Courts, and who ordered the monitoring of all federal court workers, said in a March 5 memorandum that the software was to enhance security and reduce computer use that was not related to judicial work and that was clogging the system. A survey by his office, he wrote, "has revealed that as much as 3 to 7 percent of the judiciary browser's traffic consists of streaming media such as radio and video broadcasts, which are unlikely to relate to official business."
Officials in the judicial branch on both sides of the issue provided several internal memorandums written as the dispute continued over the weeks.
After the shutdown, Mr. Mecham complained in a memorandum that disconnecting the software was irresponsible and might have resulted in security breaches, allowing unauthorized outsiders access to the judiciary's internal confidential computer network. "The weeklong shutdown put the entire judiciary's data communication network at risk," he wrote on June 15.
Mr. Mecham warned in that memorandum that on the days before the software was disabled, there were hundreds of attempts at intrusion into the judiciary's network from places like China and Iran.
But Chief Judge Mary Schroeder of the Ninth Circuit responded that the concerns were overblown and that the circuit's technical people carefully monitored computer activity during the week that the software was disabled.
In a June 29 memorandum, she said that there was no evidence that the electronic firewall used to block hacking had been breached and suggested that Mr. Mecham had exaggerated the potential of a security breach because having hundreds of attempted breaches per day was routine and routinely blocked.
The Ninth Circuit disconnected the software, she wrote, because the monitoring policy was not driven by concern over overloading the system but Mr. Mecham's concern over "content detection." Many employees had been disciplined, she noted, because the software turned up evidence of such things as viewing pornography, although they had not been given any clear notice of the court's computer use policy.
Moreover, she wrote, the judiciary may have violated the law.
"We are concerned about the propriety and even the legality of monitoring Internet usage," she wrote. Her memorandum said that the judiciary could be liable to lawsuits and damages because the software might have violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which imposes civil and criminal liability on any person who intentionally intercepts "any wire, oral or electronic communication."
She noted that the Ninth Circuit had ruled just this year that the law was violated when an employer accessed an employee Web site. In fact, the issues of what is permissible by employers have produced a patchwork of legal rulings and the matter has never been addressed directly by the Supreme Court.
Judge Alex Kozinski, a member of the Ninth Circuit appeals court, drafted and distributed an 18-page legal memorandum arguing that the monitoring was a violation of anti- wiretap statute.
Judge Kozinski, widely known for his libertarian views, said the court employees who were disciplined, an estimated three dozen, could be entitled to monetary damages if they brought a lawsuit.
A spokesman for Mr. Mecham said that the software could not identify specific employees but workstations. When unauthorized use was detected, Mr. Mecham's deputy, Clarence Lee Jr., wrote to the chief judge of the district, urging that the employee who used the workstation be identified and disciplined. One such letter includes an appendix listing the Web sites that employee had visited, some of them pornographic. There is no evidence that any alleged abuse of the system involved judges.
Judge Kozinski said: "Aside from my view that this may be a felony, it is something that we as federal judges have jurisdiction to consider. We have to pass on this very kind of conduct in the private sphere."
Prof. Jeffrey Rosen of the George Washington University Law School, author of a recent book on privacy, "The Unwanted Gaze" (Vintage 2001), said, "It's fascinating that the courts have to grapple with these issues so close to home." The law is evolving, he said, adding: "This drama with the judges reminds us of how thin the privacy protections are. There's a real choice right now whether e-mail and Web browsing should be regarded like the telephone or a postcard."
Judge Edwin L. Nelson, who is chairman of a judges' committee that deals with computer issues, said in an interview that his group met last week and drafted proposals to deal with monitoring. Judge Nelson would not discuss the proposals but they are almost certain to resemble policies used in the rest of the federal government, in which clear notice is given to computer users that they may be monitored.
Jim Flyzik, vice chairman of an interagency group that considers computer privacy issues in the federal government, said that each department had its own policy but that clear and unambiguous notification of monitoring was usually an element.
In the private sector, a survey by the American Management Association this year found that 63 percent of companies monitored employees' computer use.
From "Time - Europe" Illuminating the Web
A good commentary on the web's contents and searching it.
http://www.time.com/time/europe/biz/magazine/0,9868,166169,00.html
Here are their links from the bootom of the story:
On the invisible web you can ...
Look at the earth from space ... earth.jsc.nasa.gov (375,000 images)
See where and how we live on it ... www.worldpop.org/prbdata.htm (85 demographic variables for 221 countries)
Dive into its waters ... www.ilec.or.jp/database/search.html (Database on 500 lakes worldwide)
Learn about the fish that swim in them ... www.fishbase.org (Detail and resources on 25,380 species)
And how to cook them www.recipesource.com (70,000 recipes from around the world)
Pretend to plan your next business trip ... www.tscentral.com (15,000 exhibitions and trade shows globally )
Pick an airline ... www.waasinfo.net (World Aircraft Accident Summary)
Check the weather ... www.weatherbase.com (in 434 world cities)
Watch Wimbledon instead ... www.itftennis.com (Pro tennis results and rankings since 1977)
And relax www.sleephomepages.org
A good commentary on the web's contents and searching it.
http://www.time.com/time/europe/biz/magazine/0,9868,166169,00.html
Here are their links from the bootom of the story:
On the invisible web you can ...
Look at the earth from space ... earth.jsc.nasa.gov (375,000 images)
See where and how we live on it ... www.worldpop.org/prbdata.htm (85 demographic variables for 221 countries)
Dive into its waters ... www.ilec.or.jp/database/search.html (Database on 500 lakes worldwide)
Learn about the fish that swim in them ... www.fishbase.org (Detail and resources on 25,380 species)
And how to cook them www.recipesource.com (70,000 recipes from around the world)
Pretend to plan your next business trip ... www.tscentral.com (15,000 exhibitions and trade shows globally )
Pick an airline ... www.waasinfo.net (World Aircraft Accident Summary)
Check the weather ... www.weatherbase.com (in 434 world cities)
Watch Wimbledon instead ... www.itftennis.com (Pro tennis results and rankings since 1977)
And relax www.sleephomepages.org
People weirder than Dan make web sites to meet women
A new line of work for Jesus...Restaurant reviews and purification baths.
http://jesus.com/endorsements/va_restaurants.html
http://jesus.com/date/
A new line of work for Jesus...Restaurant reviews and purification baths.
http://jesus.com/endorsements/va_restaurants.html
http://jesus.com/date/
Rent a political activist
Have your own message held in front of the White House for $5 per hour...$100 if you want demonstrators included.
http://www.whitehouseprotests.com/
Have your own message held in front of the White House for $5 per hour...$100 if you want demonstrators included.
http://www.whitehouseprotests.com/
Muppets in Mahna Mahna!
A full length, high quality copy (MPG) of the classic song from the Muppet Show
http://www.bigmeats.net/index.php?meal=meat&dinner=21
A full length, high quality copy (MPG) of the classic song from the Muppet Show
http://www.bigmeats.net/index.php?meal=meat&dinner=21
Tim Berners-Lee commentary on "Why WWW-dot...?"
http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/www.html
Tim Berners-Lee also has good links to some of his other commentaries at his personal page: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/www.html
Tim Berners-Lee also has good links to some of his other commentaries at his personal page: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
The Eightfold Path to Enlightened Website [design]
Some very good links as well as brief and to the point commentary.
http://www.teknozen.com/tekfiles/8.html#graphics
Some very good links as well as brief and to the point commentary.
http://www.teknozen.com/tekfiles/8.html#graphics
Interesting commentary on Web Page Design.
Not authoritative, poorly researched, slightly out of date, but still interesting.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Indep/CHassan/index.htm
Not authoritative, poorly researched, slightly out of date, but still interesting.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Indep/CHassan/index.htm
Connection Speed Tests - Some are better than others
http://www.testmyspeed.com/eastcoastspeedtests.htm
http://www.testmyspeed.com/eastcoastspeedtests.htm
Wall Street Journal eCommerce Special Report
http://interactive.wsj.com/public/current/summaries/ecommerce2001-5.htm
http://interactive.wsj.com/public/current/summaries/ecommerce2001-5.htm
iGeneration and ProsoftTraining Merge Internet Certification Programs
Tue Jul 31 15:06:00 2001 GMT
Companies Form Strategic Partnership to Offer Complete Human Capital Solution
SAN FRANCISCO, July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- iGeneration and ProsoftTraining (Nasdaq: POSO), creators of professional certification for 21st-century information technology (IT) job roles, today announced the merger of the iCP (iGeneration Certified Professional) and CIW (Certified Internet Webmaster) certification programs. No two organizations have had more experience in identifying and developing Internet technology job roles and building certification programs and products to meet the growing global human capital requirements for people with Internet skills. The companies decided to merge their certification programs in response to industry demand, and to better leverage the core strengths of each organization to provide customers with a full range of human capital performance solutions for emerging IT-related jobs.
Earlier this year, the two companies moved to endorse one another's certification programs, allowing the CIW community immediate access to the career and job connection services provided through the iGeneration TalentPool. With the iCP certification program merging with the CIW offering, IT professionals and corporations alike have a one-stop training, certification and job connection solution that sets the standard in Internet professional and organizational development.
iCP certification tests will remain available through December 31, 2001, so that current iCP candidates can complete any in-process training and certification. iCP certification holders will receive comparable certifications or credits in the CIW program. Current iGeneration training partners will have the opportunity to enroll as a CIW ATP (Authorized Training Provider) during a migration enrollment period. More information on the iCP merger with CIW can be found on www.iCP2CIW.com.
iGeneration will focus on providing assessment, placement and human capital performance solutions to corporations. ProsoftTraining has licensed iGeneration curriculum and certification content. Jerry Baird, chairman and CEO of ProsoftTraining, will join the iGeneration board of directors.
"It is with great pleasure that we join forces with the company that has been involved in the creation of professional-level Internet certification as long as we have," said Jerry Baird. "Together we created the category of vendor-neutral Internet certification. Combining our programs and the core strengths of each company will create more value in this certification category for individuals, employers and educators."
"This new partnership also addresses the big questions around employee retention, retraining and staffing that IT leadership is grappling with today," said Gary Millrood, CEO and president of iGeneration. "How do I raise the level of performance? How do I make sure my organization is current on all the latest technologies? Do I have the right assessment tools in place to ensure that I have the best people for the job? The merged CIW certification program and auxiliary iGeneration assessment, training and staffing services is the portfolio of customizable solutions that this partnership brings to the marketplace."
About iGeneration
iGeneration is a professional services organization dedicated to enhancing the performance of today's most valued business asset -- human capital -- to maximize efficiencies and productivity to meet the demands of today's marketplace. iGeneration achieves this by providing end-to-end Human Capital Performance Solutions that improve the performance and job outcomes of today's IT organizations through customized interventions in the form of market intelligence services, assessment, training, custom curriculum, certification and staffing.
The industry-recognized development methodology that serves as the foundation for the iGeneration portfolio of services and products is a research-based blueprint that professionals and companies alike can use as a benchmark for building successful IT careers and organizations. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, iGeneration is privately held. For more information, visit www.igeneration.com, or call 1-877-411-4141.
Tue Jul 31 15:06:00 2001 GMT
Companies Form Strategic Partnership to Offer Complete Human Capital Solution
SAN FRANCISCO, July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- iGeneration and ProsoftTraining (Nasdaq: POSO), creators of professional certification for 21st-century information technology (IT) job roles, today announced the merger of the iCP (iGeneration Certified Professional) and CIW (Certified Internet Webmaster) certification programs. No two organizations have had more experience in identifying and developing Internet technology job roles and building certification programs and products to meet the growing global human capital requirements for people with Internet skills. The companies decided to merge their certification programs in response to industry demand, and to better leverage the core strengths of each organization to provide customers with a full range of human capital performance solutions for emerging IT-related jobs.
Earlier this year, the two companies moved to endorse one another's certification programs, allowing the CIW community immediate access to the career and job connection services provided through the iGeneration TalentPool. With the iCP certification program merging with the CIW offering, IT professionals and corporations alike have a one-stop training, certification and job connection solution that sets the standard in Internet professional and organizational development.
iCP certification tests will remain available through December 31, 2001, so that current iCP candidates can complete any in-process training and certification. iCP certification holders will receive comparable certifications or credits in the CIW program. Current iGeneration training partners will have the opportunity to enroll as a CIW ATP (Authorized Training Provider) during a migration enrollment period. More information on the iCP merger with CIW can be found on www.iCP2CIW.com.
iGeneration will focus on providing assessment, placement and human capital performance solutions to corporations. ProsoftTraining has licensed iGeneration curriculum and certification content. Jerry Baird, chairman and CEO of ProsoftTraining, will join the iGeneration board of directors.
"It is with great pleasure that we join forces with the company that has been involved in the creation of professional-level Internet certification as long as we have," said Jerry Baird. "Together we created the category of vendor-neutral Internet certification. Combining our programs and the core strengths of each company will create more value in this certification category for individuals, employers and educators."
"This new partnership also addresses the big questions around employee retention, retraining and staffing that IT leadership is grappling with today," said Gary Millrood, CEO and president of iGeneration. "How do I raise the level of performance? How do I make sure my organization is current on all the latest technologies? Do I have the right assessment tools in place to ensure that I have the best people for the job? The merged CIW certification program and auxiliary iGeneration assessment, training and staffing services is the portfolio of customizable solutions that this partnership brings to the marketplace."
About iGeneration
iGeneration is a professional services organization dedicated to enhancing the performance of today's most valued business asset -- human capital -- to maximize efficiencies and productivity to meet the demands of today's marketplace. iGeneration achieves this by providing end-to-end Human Capital Performance Solutions that improve the performance and job outcomes of today's IT organizations through customized interventions in the form of market intelligence services, assessment, training, custom curriculum, certification and staffing.
The industry-recognized development methodology that serves as the foundation for the iGeneration portfolio of services and products is a research-based blueprint that professionals and companies alike can use as a benchmark for building successful IT careers and organizations. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, iGeneration is privately held. For more information, visit www.igeneration.com, or call 1-877-411-4141.
A new web authoring tool from Adobe with free download.
http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/
The software does require a 5MB player/plug-in to be viewed.
http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/
The software does require a 5MB player/plug-in to be viewed.
University at Albany Libraries' How to Choose a search engine
The best search engines to find different kind of material.
http://library.albany.edu/internet/choose.html
The best search engines to find different kind of material.
http://library.albany.edu/internet/choose.html
A study of what activities on the WWW will result in SPAM
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227888-8-6602372-1.html?tag=ld
See the story for the results of the study:
From the flood of direct e-mail advertising that most of us receive every day, you'd think the world is full of debt-ridden, sexually deprived people who want easy money.
But, offensive nature aside, these pesky e-mail messages cause problems of a technical nature. They make an enormous mess of your in-box, cramming it with junk and often pushing your account over its size limit.
Before you figure out how to stop the inundation, however, you have to find out where these sneaky spammers come from. How the heck do they get your address? Do they just spam everyone on your e-mail service (for instance, Hotmail), or do they intercept your name when you buy products online? When you sign up for newsletters, do unscrupulous Web sites sell your address? It's hard to know. We decided to find out which online activities and even mail services generate the most junk e-mail and look at ways to recover from the deluge.
CNET contributor Matt Lake opened 12 free e-mail accounts (and monitored some older ones) and dedicated each to one typical online activity. He even opened accounts at each e-mail provider and left them untouched just to examine the myth that just having an e-mail account can generate spam. Next, he joined up at sites that require you to register an e-mail address, posted messages on message boards around the Web, registered domain names, and visited chat rooms. In each case, over a few months, he checked to see which activities attracted the most unsolicited e-mail to an account, then tried to figure out how to remove the spam. Finally, he categorized those behaviors in terms of high, medium, and low risk, and the results were somewhat surprising.
Check out our spam statistics and read on to see which online activities put you at more risk than walking on the train tracks at night. We won't leave you hanging either; we've tested some opt-out options and reported back on whether they actually work.
High-risk activity
What's the worst that can happen to your in-box? Find out which Net activities generate the most spam.
Medium danger
Don't panic. If you're a Webmaster or even a domain squatter, your in-box remains relatively safe.
Lowest spam quotient
You'll be surprised! See which supercommon Web activities are shockingly low on spam servings.
Opt-out attempts
Does unsubscribing really work? Sometimes. Find out some other ways to duck unsolicited mail.
Spam at a glance
Check the stats! A quick look at high-, medium-, and low-risk activities, plus our spam in-box breakdown.
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227888-8-6602372-1.html?tag=ld
See the story for the results of the study:
From the flood of direct e-mail advertising that most of us receive every day, you'd think the world is full of debt-ridden, sexually deprived people who want easy money.
But, offensive nature aside, these pesky e-mail messages cause problems of a technical nature. They make an enormous mess of your in-box, cramming it with junk and often pushing your account over its size limit.
Before you figure out how to stop the inundation, however, you have to find out where these sneaky spammers come from. How the heck do they get your address? Do they just spam everyone on your e-mail service (for instance, Hotmail), or do they intercept your name when you buy products online? When you sign up for newsletters, do unscrupulous Web sites sell your address? It's hard to know. We decided to find out which online activities and even mail services generate the most junk e-mail and look at ways to recover from the deluge.
CNET contributor Matt Lake opened 12 free e-mail accounts (and monitored some older ones) and dedicated each to one typical online activity. He even opened accounts at each e-mail provider and left them untouched just to examine the myth that just having an e-mail account can generate spam. Next, he joined up at sites that require you to register an e-mail address, posted messages on message boards around the Web, registered domain names, and visited chat rooms. In each case, over a few months, he checked to see which activities attracted the most unsolicited e-mail to an account, then tried to figure out how to remove the spam. Finally, he categorized those behaviors in terms of high, medium, and low risk, and the results were somewhat surprising.
Check out our spam statistics and read on to see which online activities put you at more risk than walking on the train tracks at night. We won't leave you hanging either; we've tested some opt-out options and reported back on whether they actually work.
High-risk activity
What's the worst that can happen to your in-box? Find out which Net activities generate the most spam.
Medium danger
Don't panic. If you're a Webmaster or even a domain squatter, your in-box remains relatively safe.
Lowest spam quotient
You'll be surprised! See which supercommon Web activities are shockingly low on spam servings.
Opt-out attempts
Does unsubscribing really work? Sometimes. Find out some other ways to duck unsolicited mail.
Spam at a glance
Check the stats! A quick look at high-, medium-, and low-risk activities, plus our spam in-box breakdown.
From CDNet News
Pop-under ads fail to catch buyers
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6688554.html?tag=st.ne.1005.saslnk.saseml
By Gwendolyn Mariano
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 26, 2001, 2:15 p.m. PT
As pop-under ads gain steam, they fall short of converting Web surfers into buyers, according to a new report released Wednesday.
Research firm Jupiter Media Metrix found that camera maker X10--which uses pervasive pop-under ads that automatically open a browser window linked to the site--had the most significant number of people that dropped out of its ad or Web site. While X10 has achieved a mass reach online, with 32.8 percent of the Web's entire audience between January and May, 73 percent of its visitors left the pop-under window or site within 20 seconds, according to Jupiter.
The results, according to New York-based Jupiter, reveal that pop-under ads build brand awareness at the expense of brand affinity.
The report comes amid the wave of debate over pop-under and pop-up ads that have stirred the advertising community and Web measurement companies. While Jupiter initially defended its inclusion of pop-up and pop-under pages in its traffic numbers, its competitor Nielsen/NetRatings attempted to eliminate such counts from its results.
Marissa Gluck, senior analyst at Jupiter, said even though X10 ads are "ubiquitous" and are at a high frequency of exposure, they don't tell the whole story. She said the Internet is not that dissimilar to offline media in that consumer behavior shows that people react to such ads "just as they do with their TV remote control--they click away advertising they don't find relevant or entertaining."
The X10 ad is "not the widely successful campaign that it might appear to be," Gluck said. "The consumer is in control of the experience despite the best efforts of marketers to impose their will on consumers. Consumers are ultimately the ones in charge--they vote with their mouths, just like they vote with their remote."
X10 could not be immediately reached for comment.
X10 has been climbing Jupiter's U.S. top 50 Web and digital media properties chart, moving up a notch from fifth place in May to fourth place in June. X10 had 28.6 million unique visitors in May and 34.2 million in June.
However, Jupiter said, without traffic from pop-unders, X10 would have only 2.7 million unique visitors. The site's number of engaged shoppers, meaning those who spend at least three minutes on a site, is 1.2 million.
The study compared six sites: X10, Amazon.com, eBay, Monster.com, Unicast and BizRate.com. While X10 had the most significant number of people dropping out of the ad or site, Unicast trailed with a 64 percent drop-off rate, and BizRate.com had a 37 percent drop-off rate.
Pop-under ads fail to catch buyers
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6688554.html?tag=st.ne.1005.saslnk.saseml
By Gwendolyn Mariano
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 26, 2001, 2:15 p.m. PT
As pop-under ads gain steam, they fall short of converting Web surfers into buyers, according to a new report released Wednesday.
Research firm Jupiter Media Metrix found that camera maker X10--which uses pervasive pop-under ads that automatically open a browser window linked to the site--had the most significant number of people that dropped out of its ad or Web site. While X10 has achieved a mass reach online, with 32.8 percent of the Web's entire audience between January and May, 73 percent of its visitors left the pop-under window or site within 20 seconds, according to Jupiter.
The results, according to New York-based Jupiter, reveal that pop-under ads build brand awareness at the expense of brand affinity.
The report comes amid the wave of debate over pop-under and pop-up ads that have stirred the advertising community and Web measurement companies. While Jupiter initially defended its inclusion of pop-up and pop-under pages in its traffic numbers, its competitor Nielsen/NetRatings attempted to eliminate such counts from its results.
Marissa Gluck, senior analyst at Jupiter, said even though X10 ads are "ubiquitous" and are at a high frequency of exposure, they don't tell the whole story. She said the Internet is not that dissimilar to offline media in that consumer behavior shows that people react to such ads "just as they do with their TV remote control--they click away advertising they don't find relevant or entertaining."
The X10 ad is "not the widely successful campaign that it might appear to be," Gluck said. "The consumer is in control of the experience despite the best efforts of marketers to impose their will on consumers. Consumers are ultimately the ones in charge--they vote with their mouths, just like they vote with their remote."
X10 could not be immediately reached for comment.
X10 has been climbing Jupiter's U.S. top 50 Web and digital media properties chart, moving up a notch from fifth place in May to fourth place in June. X10 had 28.6 million unique visitors in May and 34.2 million in June.
However, Jupiter said, without traffic from pop-unders, X10 would have only 2.7 million unique visitors. The site's number of engaged shoppers, meaning those who spend at least three minutes on a site, is 1.2 million.
The study compared six sites: X10, Amazon.com, eBay, Monster.com, Unicast and BizRate.com. While X10 had the most significant number of people dropping out of the ad or site, Unicast trailed with a 64 percent drop-off rate, and BizRate.com had a 37 percent drop-off rate.
Yahoo is a registrar for the dot-biz domain names.
http://new.domains.yahoo.com/biz_learnmore.html
The link also contains good info about how the system will work.
http://new.domains.yahoo.com/biz_learnmore.html
The link also contains good info about how the system will work.
From ZDNet News July 18, 2001 Microsoft pulls back on Java support
Microsoft is quietly pulling back support for Java in its new products, dealing a new blow to a rival technology that played a starring role in the software giant's continuing antitrust battle with the government.
Prerelease copies of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, which goes on sale this fall, drop the software needed to run Java-based programs. Java software is used to create some of the animated and interactive features of Web pages and hand-held devices; Web surfers using computers with Windows XP won't see those features without loading additional software.
A Microsoft spokesman said Java support was diminished for "business reasons" and noted that it follows last year's legal dispute with Java's creator, Sun Microsystems Inc. Under terms of a settlement with Sun, Microsoft was given the right to continue to use early versions of Sun's Java code in Microsoft products for seven years, but made no commitment to do so.
The spokesman said the Java support in Windows up until now "is a lot of code that many users don't need, and if they do need it there will be a variety of ways for them to obtain it, including through PC manufacturers, who will be free to install it on Windows XP, and by downloading it from the Web." He also said that customers upgrading from an earlier Windows version will still be able to use the Java software.
After Windows XP is launched in October, users will be directed to download a plug-in from Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com) to make Java-based programs work. Without this step, "any Web page that contains Java applications will not run -- it will be a dead page," said Jan Vitek, a professor of computer science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "This favors Microsoft's new technologies, and will inconvenience consumers," he said.
For Web-based businesses, Vitek added, "if you want your Web page accessible to the largest number of people, you may want to drop Java" and switch to Microsoft's competing set of products, which is under development and is known as .Net.
Because Java is designed for use across different operating systems, Microsoft has long viewed it as a threat to its Windows monopoly, and the technology has played a central role in the U.S. antitrust case. Among its findings in the case three weeks ago, a unanimous federal appeals court in Washington D.C. ruled that Microsoft had engaged in a deceptive and predatory campaign to cripple Java technology.
Microsoft hasn't said whether it will appeal the June 29 ruling to the Supreme Court. After the ruling, the company said it would work with the government to resolve remaining issues in the case, whether in a settlement or proceedings before a new judge.
A Sun spokeswoman declined to comment.
Tightening Java security
In a separate move affecting Java, Microsoft is tightening security settings in its new Windows and Office programs that in some cases will also disable Java programs. Microsoft's new products will now screen out Java as a possible carrier of computer viruses in e-mail and, under high-security settings, in Web-browsing software. This move, first signaled in a software "security patch" distributed last year, is part of a broader effort by Microsoft to help stamp out the spread of computer viruses.
A Microsoft security-product manager, Scott Culp, noted that the tighter security settings affect several Microsoft products as well.
"We treated our own technology exactly the way we have treated Java," he said. The security settings are fully customizable by the user or by a computer-system administrator, he noted. "We made the default setting the highest possible and want the customer to be able to then make an informed choice," Culp said.
Java backers complain that the new security settings unfairly lump Java with other, more risky types of code, because Java has built-in security making viruses extremely rare. Unlike many forms of "executable" code that Microsoft seeks to block, Java runs in a software "sandbox" in the browser that prevents it from gaining control of the computer. As a result, Java viruses have been rare.
"Making e-mail and browsing more secure is a good thing, but banning Java doesn't make sense," said Andrew Shikiar, the director of Possie (www.possie.org), an Atlanta-based group of Java developers funded by small and midsize companies affected by the changes.
Shikiar also charges that Microsoft's new security rules don't halt the transmission of e-mail attachments that contain Microsoft Word or Excel "macros," a form of code that has often been identified as spreading viruses. But Microsoft counters that it has taken other steps to tighten security on viruses spread this way.
Motoaki Yamamura, development manager for the antivirus software maker Symantec Corp., estimated that about a dozen Java viruses have been found by researchers, compared with thousands based on the "macro" programming features of Word and Excel.
"The threats that I would put at a red-alert level have been zero in the Java category," added Bob Hansmann, enterprise software manager for Trend Micro Inc., another antivirus specialist in Cupertino, Calif.
Yet some corporate computer managers routinely block or scan Java code with gateway programs called firewalls out of a more general fear that computer hackers will find new ways to exploit Java to do mischief. Hansmann speculated that Microsoft is reacting to concerns expressed by some of those customers and said the security restrictions are warranted if managers can turn them on or off.
Lisa Gurry, another Microsoft product manager, said the "macro" security settings in Word and Excel have been tightened using a different approach, substantially lessening their threat while providing the maximum consumer choice. "We want to provide both a high level of security and a high level of choice," she said.
The decision to drop Java support from Windows XP was first apparent last week in a "beta" or test version that Microsoft released to software developers. Java "virtual machine" code, which is what runs Web-based Java programs, had been included in all previous versions. Microsoft didn't announce the change.
Microsoft is quietly pulling back support for Java in its new products, dealing a new blow to a rival technology that played a starring role in the software giant's continuing antitrust battle with the government.
Prerelease copies of Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, which goes on sale this fall, drop the software needed to run Java-based programs. Java software is used to create some of the animated and interactive features of Web pages and hand-held devices; Web surfers using computers with Windows XP won't see those features without loading additional software.
A Microsoft spokesman said Java support was diminished for "business reasons" and noted that it follows last year's legal dispute with Java's creator, Sun Microsystems Inc. Under terms of a settlement with Sun, Microsoft was given the right to continue to use early versions of Sun's Java code in Microsoft products for seven years, but made no commitment to do so.
The spokesman said the Java support in Windows up until now "is a lot of code that many users don't need, and if they do need it there will be a variety of ways for them to obtain it, including through PC manufacturers, who will be free to install it on Windows XP, and by downloading it from the Web." He also said that customers upgrading from an earlier Windows version will still be able to use the Java software.
After Windows XP is launched in October, users will be directed to download a plug-in from Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com) to make Java-based programs work. Without this step, "any Web page that contains Java applications will not run -- it will be a dead page," said Jan Vitek, a professor of computer science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "This favors Microsoft's new technologies, and will inconvenience consumers," he said.
For Web-based businesses, Vitek added, "if you want your Web page accessible to the largest number of people, you may want to drop Java" and switch to Microsoft's competing set of products, which is under development and is known as .Net.
Because Java is designed for use across different operating systems, Microsoft has long viewed it as a threat to its Windows monopoly, and the technology has played a central role in the U.S. antitrust case. Among its findings in the case three weeks ago, a unanimous federal appeals court in Washington D.C. ruled that Microsoft had engaged in a deceptive and predatory campaign to cripple Java technology.
Microsoft hasn't said whether it will appeal the June 29 ruling to the Supreme Court. After the ruling, the company said it would work with the government to resolve remaining issues in the case, whether in a settlement or proceedings before a new judge.
A Sun spokeswoman declined to comment.
Tightening Java security
In a separate move affecting Java, Microsoft is tightening security settings in its new Windows and Office programs that in some cases will also disable Java programs. Microsoft's new products will now screen out Java as a possible carrier of computer viruses in e-mail and, under high-security settings, in Web-browsing software. This move, first signaled in a software "security patch" distributed last year, is part of a broader effort by Microsoft to help stamp out the spread of computer viruses.
A Microsoft security-product manager, Scott Culp, noted that the tighter security settings affect several Microsoft products as well.
"We treated our own technology exactly the way we have treated Java," he said. The security settings are fully customizable by the user or by a computer-system administrator, he noted. "We made the default setting the highest possible and want the customer to be able to then make an informed choice," Culp said.
Java backers complain that the new security settings unfairly lump Java with other, more risky types of code, because Java has built-in security making viruses extremely rare. Unlike many forms of "executable" code that Microsoft seeks to block, Java runs in a software "sandbox" in the browser that prevents it from gaining control of the computer. As a result, Java viruses have been rare.
"Making e-mail and browsing more secure is a good thing, but banning Java doesn't make sense," said Andrew Shikiar, the director of Possie (www.possie.org), an Atlanta-based group of Java developers funded by small and midsize companies affected by the changes.
Shikiar also charges that Microsoft's new security rules don't halt the transmission of e-mail attachments that contain Microsoft Word or Excel "macros," a form of code that has often been identified as spreading viruses. But Microsoft counters that it has taken other steps to tighten security on viruses spread this way.
Motoaki Yamamura, development manager for the antivirus software maker Symantec Corp., estimated that about a dozen Java viruses have been found by researchers, compared with thousands based on the "macro" programming features of Word and Excel.
"The threats that I would put at a red-alert level have been zero in the Java category," added Bob Hansmann, enterprise software manager for Trend Micro Inc., another antivirus specialist in Cupertino, Calif.
Yet some corporate computer managers routinely block or scan Java code with gateway programs called firewalls out of a more general fear that computer hackers will find new ways to exploit Java to do mischief. Hansmann speculated that Microsoft is reacting to concerns expressed by some of those customers and said the security restrictions are warranted if managers can turn them on or off.
Lisa Gurry, another Microsoft product manager, said the "macro" security settings in Word and Excel have been tightened using a different approach, substantially lessening their threat while providing the maximum consumer choice. "We want to provide both a high level of security and a high level of choice," she said.
The decision to drop Java support from Windows XP was first apparent last week in a "beta" or test version that Microsoft released to software developers. Java "virtual machine" code, which is what runs Web-based Java programs, had been included in all previous versions. Microsoft didn't announce the change.
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