From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Edupage, 10 November 1999
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 11:30:37 -0600
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Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association
dedicated to transforming education through information technologies.
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TOP STORIES for November 10, 1999
Prosecutors Look at Ways to Break Grip of Microsoft
Privacy Battle Over Databases at High Court
'Seinfeld' Computer Virus Emerges
Team of State Sentries Will Follow the Sun to Monitor Y2K Blips
ALSO
Smart Software Lets Universities Offer Self Service Degree Information
A Wiretap-Friendly Internet
Board Blocks Student Access at School Computers to Some Web Sites
Data Bunkers Protect Off-Site Sites
PROSECUTORS LOOK AT WAYS TO BREAK GRIP OF MICROSOFT
Now that Microsoft has been found to have abused its power in the operating
system market, Justice Department officials, state attorney generals,
academics, and other experts are debating what actions should be taken
against the software company. Federal District Judge Thomas Penfield
Jackson will approve a settlement or determine a court-imposed remedy; his
final ruling is expected in February. Although implementation of the ruling
may be years away due to appeals, many ideas on how best to hobble Microsoft
are already being devised. One solution is to split the company into three
separate firms: one to sell the operating system, one to sell applications
such as Word and Excel, and one to handle all Internet-related business.
Another idea is to split Microsoft into three equal parts, each holding all
software codes and intellectual property rights. Other ideas involve
Microsoft auctioning or giving away the source code to the Windows operating
system, which would allow competitors to develop Windows- compatible
applications. (New York Times 11/10/99)
PRIVACY BATTLE OVER DATABASES AT HIGH COURT
The Supreme Court today will take up the contentious issue of states' rights
to sell driver's license information that has been collected in state
databases. The issue is one of states' rights vs. personal privacy, and the
court will hear arguments from both sides. The Clinton administration
claims that the New York motor vehicle department collected $17 million in
profits from the sale of driver's license information in one year alone.
South Carolina's attorney general, Charlie Condon, says the 1994 Driver's
Privacy Protection Act is nearly impossible to enforce due to the act's 14
provisions that allow the sale of personal data from driver's licenses or
motor vehicle registrations. Condon argues that Congress has no right to
force states to adhere to the law. Roughly 30 states give out information
from motor vehicle records, says the Direct Marketing Association's Richard
Barton. The transportation appropriations bill recently signed by President
Clinton contains a privacy amendment from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) that
requires states to get consumer consent before their personal data can be
sold. (Wall Street Journal 11/10/99)
'SEINFELD' COMPUTER VIRUS EMERGES
A new e-mail virus named "Bubbleboy" was sent late Monday to anti-virus
company Network Associates. The company had a free software patch to block
the virus available the next day on its Web site. "Bubbleboy" is the first
of its kind in that an e-mail user need not click on the message to activate
it--simply highlighting the message subject line displayed in the user's
inbox will activate the virus. Those using Windows 98 and 2000, some
versions of Windows 95 with Internet Explorer 5.0, and Outlook Express are
susceptible to invasion by "Bubbleboy." Netscape products are apparently
immune. "Bubbleboy" is more a bother than a real problem--it renames the
infected computer's registered user "Bubbleboy," among other "Seinfeld"
references--but the technology used to deliver the virus could be used to
deliver far more damaging material. Vincent Gullotto, the FBI's director of
virus detection, says "Bubbleboy" could be a catalyst for much more
destructive viruses to come. (Associated Press 11/10/99)
TEAM OF STATE SENTRIES WILL FOLLOW THE SUN TO MONITOR Y2K BLIPS
The state of California will dispatch 20 people on New Year's Eve to monitor
Y2K-related issues all over the world and report back to California, which
will be one of last places on earth to make the change to the new century.
Auckland, New Zealand, for example, will reach the 21st century 21 hours
before California. The spotter in Auckland will report what he or she
observes, good and bad, back to California as Aucklanders move into the New
Year. If Auckland has a problem with its traffic lights, for example,
California officials will have 21 hours to make sure the Golden State's
lights work. The 20 sentries will monitor things such as power grids, truck
and rail deliveries, 911 systems, airport traffic and baggage systems, civil
disturbances,
hospitals, etc. (Los Angeles Times 11/07/99)
=======================================
SMART SOFTWARE LETS UNIVERSITIES OFFER SELF SERVICE DEGREE INFORMATION
In a move that indicates the increasingly "student-centered" approach many
colleges and universities are adopting, Notre Dame University's new online
student grade and degree requirement auditing system promises to be a boon
for students and faculty alike. The audit program, called DegreeWorks and
developed by Software Research Northwest, provides faculty a user-friendly
listing of a student's completed coursework, degree requirements still to be
met, and his or her GPA. Administrators are seeking to involve professors
more in the academic advisement process and remove the mystery from
fulfilling degree requirements. Once the system is working smoothly,
students will be given direct access to the system as well. Among other
things, the program can calculate a student's GPA and provide hypothetical
degree requirements if the student is contemplating a switch in majors. The
respective academic dean is still the final arbiter of which degree
requirements have been fulfilled, not the audit software. (Chronicle of
Higher Education Online 11/09/99)
A WIRETAP-FRIENDLY INTERNET
The Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF), a group of programmers and
engineers who are basically the keepers of the Internet, meet tonight in
Washington, D.C. to decide whether to implement technology that would
facilitate wire-tapping of the Internet. Many officials of such high-tech
companies as Sun Microsystems and PSINet, as well as privacy advocates and
legal scholars, have gone on record opposing the implementation of
wire-tapping capabilities into the Internet. IETF member Scott O. Bradner,
of Harvard University, says that the group will most certainly vote against
making the Internet wire-tap friendly, judging by what he has heard from
other members. Although telephone traffic is now being transmitted via the
Internet, the federal law called CALEA, which mandates that companies that
create high-tech phone networks build wiretapping capabilities into the
system, excludes such requirements for the Internet. However, FBI spokesman
Barry Smith says that Title 18 of the U.S. Code forces private companies to
acquiesce to the legal wiretapping requests of law-enforcement agencies.
(Washington Post 11/10/99)
BOARD BLOCKS STUDENT ACCESS AT SCHOOL COMPUTERS TO SOME WEB SITES
Teachers and students at New York City schools are disturbed that a broad
filtering program on the Board of Education's computer system is interfering
with legitimate class work. The board uses a filter called I-Gear from
Symantec subsidiary Urlabs, and the program blocks access to major news
groups, policy groups, and scientific and medical organizations. Students
at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens were recently assigned to research
the pros and cons of an issue, and received an "Access Denied" message when
trying to visit sites on breast cancer, eating disorders, child labor, AIDS,
and abortion. The city's schools recently received a federal grant allowing
all of them to get Internet connections, most of which go through the
board's server and are therefore subject to the filter. Many of the schools
have had problems with the filter and have filed complaints with the New
York Civil Liberties Union. The Board of Education says it is now writing
an Internet access policy that will allow schools to adjust I-Gear in an
appropriate manner according to the ages of students. (New York Times
11/10/99)
DATA BUNKERS PROTECT OFF-SITE SITES
Corporations are increasingly housing their Web sites in anonymous,
ultra-secure warehouse structures located in metropolitan areas across the
nation. The Web hosting business is expected to grow from $770 million in
1998 to $12 billion by 2002. The security at these facilities, which house
the servers that run the Web sites for many different companies under one
roof, is incredibly tight, and often with good reason. Most terrorism
experts say that these facilities would make a perfect target for terrorists
bent on disrupting the economy and the flow of information. These
facilities never advertise what they are, and from the outside look like
simple storage buildings. Video cameras monitor every single area of the
buildings, and most of these facilities have palm readers that scan the
hands of visitors and know who is allowed entry and who is not. Most of the
buildings are made of bullet-proof Kevlar and reinforced with concrete so
that they could technically survive a car-bomb explosion or withstand rounds
fired from an AK-47. A power failure is almost impossible as well, as most
Web hosting facilities are connected to two separate power sources, a backup
generator, and an enormous battery pack that can power the building for a
day if all else fails. (Washington Post 11/09/99)
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UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS:
THE LEARNING MARKETPLACE: NEW RESOURCES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
Presented by the Leadership Forum of the Center for Academic
Transformation (An EDUCAUSE Affiliate)
November 11, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.center.rpi.edu/LForum/LMWkshp.html
SC99: High Performance Networking and Computing Conference
November 13-19, 1999, Portland, Oregon
http://www.sc99.org/
For additional information on all EDUCAUSE conferences see
http://www.educause.edu/conference/conf.html
For information on other technology-related
educational conferences see
http://www.educause.edu/ir/events.html
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OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS
EDUCOM REVIEW is a bimonthly print magazine on information technology and
education. U.S. subscriptions are $18 a year.
CAUSE/EFFECT is a quarterly practitioner's journal about managing and using
information resources on college and university campuses. U.S. subscriptions
are $52 a year.
For additional information on these and other EDUCAUSE publications see:
http://www.educause.edu/pub/pubs.html
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Edupage Copyright 1999, EDUCAUSE
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EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming
education through information technologies