Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB53FAA36@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 08:09:48 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: Edupage, 16 November 1997
> ************************************************************
> Edupage, 16 November 1997. Edupage, a summary of news about
> information technology, is provided three times a week as a service by
> Educom, a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and
> universities seeking to transform education through the use of
> information technology.
> ************************************************************
>
> TOP STORIES
> ISP Sues Spammer
> AOL Not Responsible For Malicious Posting
> Mastering The Net
> Giant CD-ROMs Slated For 2000
>
> ALSO
> High-Tech Theft
> Defining Information
> Solving "The Year 2000 Problem" -- The Old-Fashioned Way
> Edupage Exposed Again To Censor's Knife
>
> ISP SUES SPAMMER
> SimpleNet, a San Diego-based Internet service provider, has filed a
> lawsuit against several companies and individuals that allegedly used
> its servers to send hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages
> advertising a book called "Meet, Attract and Date Gorgeous Women."
> But unlike previous "spam" cases alleging civil violations, SimpleNet
> is requesting that criminal charges be brought against the
> perpetrators: "Criminal charges are being brought because the named
> defendants have orchestrated an intricate and highly deceptive plan to
> defraud SimpleNet and its customers," says the plaintiff's attorney.
> SimpleNet has also filed a civil claim in federal court, alleging that
> the defendants illicitly used company resources and damaged its
> reputation. The bulk mail and responding flame mail caused
> SimpleNet's servers to crash on at least one occasion, and the
> unsolicited messages have
> caused several organizations to filter out any messages coming from
> the SimpleNet domain. (Net Insider 13 Nov 97)
>
> AOL NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR MALICIOUS POSTING
> In another case involving liability of Internet service providers, a
> federal appeals court has ruled that a man who received death threats
> after some anonymous enemy posted false and malicious information
> about him could not hold America Online responsible. Noting that the
> federal Communications Decency Act of 1996 immunizes Internet and
> online providers from lawsuits over material that comes from third
> parties, the Court said that, if Internet service providers were held
> responsible for such messages, they would "have a natural incentive to
> remove messages upon notification, whether the contents were
> defamatory or not. Liability upon notice has a chilling effect on the
> freedom of Internet speech." (AP 14 Nov 97)
>
> MASTERING THE NET
> Marlboro College in Vermont will begin offering two new graduate
> programs in January -- a master of arts in teaching with the Internet
> and a master of science in Internet strategy. "Knowledge-making is
> changing in every field because of this technology," says the
> college's president. "We're not focusing just on the Internet, but
> how people can use this kind of cardinal technology in a broader way."
> The programs will focus on teaching teachers how to incorporate the
> Internet into the classroom experience, and teaching managers how to
> oversee an organization's Internet strategy. (Boston Globe 14 Nov 97)
>
> GIANT CD-ROMs SLATED FOR 2000
> Norsam Technologies Inc. in Albuquerque, N.M., is developing a CD-ROM
> technology that would enable users to store up to 165 gigabytes on a
> single disk -- almost 10 times as much data as can be stored on
> digital video disks. The additional capacity is made possible by
> replacing the prevailing 800- and 350 nanometer laser writing
> technology with a more powerful 50-nanometer particle beam. "The
> Norsam HD-ROM will ... be a major competitor in the high-availability
> data arena," says the company's president. The HD-ROM disks will be
> the same size as current CD-ROMs, but will require users to install
> high-density readers in their devices. (InternetWeek 14 Nov 97)
>
> =============================================
>
> HIGH-TECH THEFT
> A group of Ottawa technology, law and insurance firms have joined with
> police to start Canada's first technology anti-theft association.
> Police say thefts, break-ins and robberies of computer parts have cost
> Eastern Ontario businesses $40-million over the past year. Five years
> earlier, almost no thefts were reported. (Toronto Financial Post 14
> Nov 97 p6)
>
> DEFINING INFORMATION
> The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National
> Research Council is information technology literacy issues. Sets of
> questions have been developed for computer and communications
> scientists and engineers, employers and labor professionals,
> librarians, K-12 educators, etc. about the nature and scope of
> information technology literacy, and you are invited to submit your
> answers to those questions in the form of a short position paper. See
> < http://www2.nas.edu/cstbweb/549a.html >
>
> SOLVING "THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM" -- THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY
> Like administrators throughout the world, Treasury Board officials in
> Canada are trying to solve the problem caused by computer numbering
> systems that are unable to deal with the date for the year 2000 and
> beyond. Treasury Board Secretary Marcel Masse says that the public
> service is ready to write dates on checks by hand in the year 2000.
> (Ottawa Citizen 13 Nov 97A5)
>
> EDUPAGE EXPOSED AGAIN TO CENSOR'S KNIFE
> Because we used a "red flag" word, the last issue of Edupage was
> rejected as salacious by the filtering software used at one U.S.
> institution of higher learning. The offending word was found in the
> sentence: "The new bill is more narrowly focused than the CDA, and is
> targeted strictly at impeding the flow of commercial pornography on
> the World Wide Web." (Of course, because of the same filtering
> software, some of you out there will never read this issue of Edupage
> to know why you were unable to read the last issue of
> Edupage. Oh well.)
>
> Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas
> (douglas@educom.edu). Telephone: 770-590-1017.
>
> Technical support is provided by Information Technology Services at
> the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
>
> ************************************************************
> Edupage ... is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to
> Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message:
> subscribe edupage Ernst Mach (if your name is Ernst Mach; otherwise,
> substitute your own name). To unsubscribe send a message to:
> listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: unsubscribe edupage. (If
> you have subscription problems, send mail to manager@educom.unc.edu.)
>
> Educom Review ... is our bimonthly print magazine on information
> technology and education ... Subscriptions are $18 a year in the
> U.S.; send mail to offer@educom.edu. When you do, we'll ring a
> little bell, because we'll be so happy! Choice of bell is yours: a
> small dome with a button, like the one on the counter at the dry
> cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for service"; or a small hand bell;
> or a cathedral bell; or a door bell; or a chime; or a glockenspiel.
> Your choice. But ring it!
>
> Educom Update ... is our twice-a-month electronic summary of
> organizational news and events. To subscribe, send mail to:
> listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe update Ernst Mach
> (if your name is Ernst Mach; otherwise, substitute your own name).
>
> Translations & Archives... Edupage is translated into Estonian,
> French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, Korean, Lithuanian,
> Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish.
>
> Don't miss the 21st Annual CAUSE Conference on Information Resources
> in Higher Education, December 2-5, 1997. Walt Disney World Dolphin
> Hotel, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CAUSE and Educom are exploring the
> possibility of a merger. See:
> http://www.cause.org/conference/c97/c97.html.
>
> Today's Honorary Subscriber is Ernst Mach (1838-1916), the Austrian
> physicist and philosopher who, as an "empiricist," believed that
> science is a record of facts perceived by the senses and rejected any
> philosophy that appeals to something outside the bounds of human
> experience as suspect. He disallowed absolutes of any kind, including
> concepts such as Newton's "absolute motion." Mach also researched
> airflow, and is honored in what came to be called the Mach numbers
> (which express the ratio of the speed of
> a body to the speed of sound in the undisturbed medium through which
> the body is traveling).
>
> ************************************************************
> Educom -- Transforming Education Through Information Technology
> ************************************************************
>
>
>
>