Netizens-Digest Friday, January 7 2000 Volume 01 : Number 349 Netizens Association Discussion List Digest In this issue: [netz] A Troubled and Hopeful Earth Begins a New Millennium (US) [netz] Benton: Farber joins FCC [netz] New appointment to the FCC [netz] Please help [netz] Ecommerce is hype to try to stop netizenship and flourishing Internet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 16:24:23 From: John Walker Subject: [netz] A Troubled and Hopeful Earth Begins a New Millennium (US) Registrations for the On-line Learning Series of Courses are now being accepted. All courses are delivered by e-mail, are two to three weeks in duration and cost start at $25.00 US. Information is available at: http://www.bestnet.org/~jwalker/course.htm Starting 1 February 2000 Creating web pages with HTML Level 1 Creating web pages with HTML Level 2 Creating web pages with HTML Level 3 and much more... The following is an excerpt from the CSS Internet News. If you are going to pass this along to other Netizens please ensure that the complete message is forwarded with all attributes intact. http://www.bestnet.org/~jwalker/inews.htm - -------------------- A Troubled and Hopeful Earth Begins a New Millennium (US) By Ted Anthony The Associated Press http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIHA2ITV2C.html Hour by frantic, expectant hour, a new millennium swept across the planet today, uniting billions of human beings from Earth's every corner in a satellite-linked pageant that greeted 2000 in celebration, contemplation and wonder. With that, the tumultuous 20th century was ending - convulsive and astonishing to the very last. Welcoming the millennium first - at 5 a.m. EST, before 23 other time zones - was Kiribati, a diminutive South Pacific island nation so enthusiastic about the attention that it realigned its chunk of the international date line east by two hours to stage the first ceremony. "Let us put aside all divisions. Let us unite in love and peace," grass-skirted dancers, illumiated by moonlight and the licking flames of glowing torches, sang in Micronesian on a dark tropical beach of Kiribati's usually uninhabited Millennium Island. >From halfway across the world, though, two dramatic developments grabbed a share of the attention. Ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned abruptly 12 hours before 2000 arrived in Moscow, surprising his nation and the world. The first post-Soviet president, who helped end the wave of communism that spread across the world for more than 70 years, turned power over to his prime minister immediately. And on a remote Afghan tarmac, hijackers freed 155 hostages who spent a terrifying week as captives on a grounded Indian Airlines. The hijackers drove away after the Indian government agreed to release two militants and an Islamic cleric; the hostages clambered off the plane shortly after. Apprehensions about terrorism and technology had already been clouding the world's millennial revelry. Nations, airlines and computer users girded for eruptions of the Y2K bug. Police worldwide braced for terrorist attacks. Americans, shaken by a spate of arrests at their borders, looked around and wondered if violence would come. "We're prepared for anything," said Cmdr. Steve Jones, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando, Fla. Fearing a millennium-linked terrorist plot, federal agents swept across the nation Thursday, arresting people in two cities and questioning dozens of others about whether an Algerian suspected of smuggling explosives was part of a terrorist plot. Security was stiffened at airports, borders, government buildings and gathering places. A jittery Seattle canceled its party, and many bashes months in the planning fizzled as people decided to stay home. Emergency officials steeled themselves for a busy few days. In New York City, where a souped-up version of the usual frenetic midnight celebration was planned in Times Square, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani implored citizens "not to let the psychology of fear infect the way they act." "Otherwise," he said, "we have let the terrorists win without anybody striking a blow." The dreaded Y2K bug made for some unease, too. In South Korea, for example, a court computer ordered 170 people to appear for trial on Jan. 4, 1900. Companies girded. "The stress today is trying to think of what we forgot," said Lloyd Stegemann, an executive at Rhode Island-based GTECH, the world's largest lottery machine supplier. But New Zealand, regarded as a Y2K test case for the industrialized world, began 2000 with no reports of glitches. "The lights are still on," said Basil Logan, chairman of the Y2K readiness commission. The millennium's arrival ends what is perhaps human history's most turbulent century - one that brought the world cars and planes, transistors and TVs, microchips and the Internet and open-heart surgery. But there was also upheaval and violence on an unprecedented scale. In wars, death camps and man-made famines, more people died more quickly in the 1900s than ever before - in new conflicts and old hatreds stoked by fresh technologies. The atom, harnessed, created an efficient way to kill lots of people quickly. AIDS emerged. With that parentage, the 21st century begins against a backdrop of apprehension - about terrorism, technology and humanity's place in an increasingly confusing world. Leaders around the world called for calm and cooperation. "We must ensure that in the coming century all our people live in one America - an America where we are not separated from one another by prejudice, by economic injustice, or by a digital divide," President Clinton said. He asked Americans to embrace change and compassion while safeguarding democratic principles. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the infant century's hope but warned of its "new dangers - or old ones in a new and alarming form." Celebrations softened some of the unease. An hour after Kiribati, New Zealand unleashed a starfield of fireworks that flushed its sky with purples, oranges and violets. Two hours later, Sydney treated 1.5 million onlookers to an elegant harborside fireworks showcase four years in the making. Launched from the city where the 2000 Summer Olympics will take place, the pyrotechnics seemed to flow upward into the heavens like liquid. In Cambodia, thousands streamed to the 800-year-old stone temples of Angkor to celebrate. For Bethlehem, the moment meant freedom for 2,000 doves, flying into the floodlit night outside Christ's traditional birthplace. They bet on horses in Hong Kong, prepared for 2,000 weddings in Thailand and streamed by the millions into the world's public places. Last up as the millennium cascades across the globe? French Polynesia, which sits just opposite Kiribati on the international date line. Not everybody was celebrating. In Dhaka, the capital of predominantly Muslim Bangladesh, authorities deployed 5,000 police to stop New Year's revelers from drinking banned liquor and holding street parties today. But many people planned hotel celebrations. "We can't miss the fun," said Sohel Ahmed, a Dhaka University student. Rabbis in Israel banned celebrations because New Year's coincides with the Jewish Sabbath. Police tightened security today in preparation for Christian pilgrims awaiting Jesus' return, 400,000 Muslims praying at a Jerusalem mosque and religious Jews ushering in the Sabbath. In China, a country that adopted the Western calendar just 50 years ago, the government didn't seem to be enjoying the milestone much. It kept a close watch to prevent chaos and doomsday cult activity, and offered only limited official celebrations. Technically, the century and millennium end Dec. 31, 2000, but the world has overwhelmingly chosen to mark the moment now. The current calendar, supposedly dating from Christ's birth, was begun in Roman times and fine-tuned by medieval sages. It is used throughout the world to conduct business, but at a historical and religious level is often rejected. Jews, for example, view the year as 5760; for Muslims it is 1420. What was believed to be the first baby of the millennium, a boy, was born in Auckland, New Zealand at 12:01 a.m. (6:01 a.m. EST), said Waitakere Hospital General Manager Rachel Haggerty. And, as 2000 approached the United States, one more milestone unfolded on a smaller canvas in Allentown, Pa., where Sarah Knauss' life ended. According to the Guinness Book of Records, she was the world's oldest person - 119 years old. She died quietly in a nursing home, some 33 hours before seeing her third century. - -------------- Also in this issue: - - Words of the Century - From Telephone to Internet (US) SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Ask John Morse, publisher of Merriam-Webster Dictionaries, to name the word that defines the close of the millennium and he doesn't hesitate: Internet. "No other word has become part of people's lives so quickly or has had such an impact," he says. - - A Troubled and Hopeful Earth Begins a New Millennium (US) Hour by frantic, expectant hour, a new millennium swept across the planet today, uniting billions of human beings from Earth's every corner in a satellite-linked pageant that greeted 2000 in celebration, contemplation and wonder. With that, the tumultuous 20th century was ending - convulsive and astonishing to the very last. - - New Zealand eases into New Year No Y2K troubles reported as key utilities remain up and running without incident. - - Rather than battle Web, malls join it (US) BUFORD, Ga. - As Americans do more shopping from the convenience of their computers, mall owners are working to make their brick-and-mortar investments doorways to a retail world where Web sites, catalogs and stores converge. - - How the chip defined Silicon Valley (US) It was the relative lack of silicon in the soil of Santa Clara Valley that helped persuade eighteenth-century Spaniards to make this fertile region the site of the first real city in California. - - Hackers target UK rail information (UK) Hackers broke into and distorted Railtrack's internet home page on Friday as a Y2K prank. - - RealNetworks sues startup over copyright issues (US) SEATTLE -- RealNetworks Inc., the leader in broadcasting video and audio over the Internet, is suing a Seattle-area start-up over software that, among other things, allows users to copy RealNetworks files and convert them into other formats. - - It's the End of the Internet As We Know It (US) At the precipice of Y2K disaster - and the end of civilization as we know it - we're honored to write one of the last articles ever to be published on the Internet. Finding a worthy topic for such a momentous occasion was a struggle. But who can go wrong with an "end of" countdown list? - - Web site To Reward Y2K Workers (US) PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Those stuck working the night shift while the rest of the world rings in the new millennium may get a little something unexpected in return. - - New Lists and Journals * NEW: ISP-NT Moderated Digest * NEW: Moms Only * NEW: AN ACTORS RESOURCE and much more... On-line Learning Series of Courses http://www.bestnet.org/~jwalker/course.htm Member: Association for International Business _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ John S. Walker _/ _/ Publisher, CSS Internet News (tm) _/ _/ (Internet Training and Research) _/ _/ PO Box 57247, Jackson Stn., _/ _/ Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8P 4X1 _/ _/ Email jwalker@hwcn.org _/ _/ http://www.bestnet.org/~jwalker _/ _/ _/ _/ "To Teach is to touch a life forever" _/ _/ On the Web one touch can reach so far! _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 00:21:07 -04 From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller) Subject: [netz] Benton: Farber joins FCC INTERNET PIONEER TO BE NAMED TOP FCC TECHNOLOGIST Issue: FCC The Federal Communications Commission plans to announce today that it has appointed David J. Farber, a University of Pennsylvania professor and a pioneering computer scientist, as chief technologist for the agency. Prof. Farber served last year as a Justice Department expert witness in the Microsoft antitrust trial. Farber argued against one of Microsoft's main contentions: that the way the company had chosen to integrate its browser software into its Windows operating system was the only possible technical alternative. A pioneer of the Internet, Farber helped develop the first electronic telephone switches while at Bell Laboratories in the 1960's. During the 1970's, he conducted ground-breaking work in networked computing systems at the University of California at Irvine. Farber said that he would get involved in a variety of technology issues at the FCC, including high-speed and wireless networks, the convergence of communications and computing technologies, the infusion of Internet technology into the nation's communications system, and the impact of the Internet on media the agency now regulates. "There is a struggle for radio spectrum," he said, "and that is one of the issues we will have to grapple with." [SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: John Markoff] http://www12.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/biztech/articles/03farb.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 09:01:44 -0500 (EST) From: ronda@panix.com Subject: [netz] New appointment to the FCC kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller) wrote: >INTERNET PIONEER TO BE NAMED TOP FCC TECHNOLOGIST >Issue: FCC Interesting that to welcome in the New Millennium in Russia, Yelsin resigned, while in the US, someone who has been active in helping to create and support the development of ICANN is appointed to a position of great responsibility in the US government. Instead of helping to unravel ICANN and figure out what the problem was that had to be solved and how to solve it, ICANN continues and those involved in promoting its formation are moving into positions where the problems that they helped create with ICANN can be multiplied. It would seem that before accepting such an appointment, someone who had been involved with the creation of ICANN and who recognized the fact that it is a serious problem would take on to do what is needed to change that situation. That hasn't happened. But that is what needs to happen. So this appointment gives the impression that the US government is still living in the past while the world has moved to the future. One isn't surprised :( Ronda ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 100 12:29:02 +0800 (WST) From: Moira Kirkwood Subject: [netz] Please help Can anyone please direct me as to how to record a change of email address for the Netizens mailing list? My former address will soon be obsolete, as I have retired from work Moira Kirkwood Reid Library, University of Western Australia email: kirkwood@library.uwa.edu.au phone: + 61 08 9380 2348 ; (Aust. 08 9380 2348) fax : + 61 08 9380 1012 ; (Aust. 08 9380 1012) Opinions expressed are my own. * * * * * * Happiness and fulfilment derive, not from what we get out of life, but from what we put into it. * * * * * * ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 16:16:02 -0500 (EST) From: ronda@panix.com Subject: [netz] Ecommerce is hype to try to stop netizenship and flourishing Internet I was recently realizing that the US, government, media and business e-commerce hype is not so much an interest they have but a weapon to try to stem netizenship and the educational and scientific and other cooperative and resource sharing activities that are the basis for the origin and development of the Internet. And then I came across this article which in some ways helps to document the nature of the hype of "e-commerce" attack on the Internet's healthy development. >From: tnadler@trial.freedom.net >Subject: Media's role in commercializing the internet >Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 17:02:15 -0800 > > >Dave, >I believe that you may redistribute this column in full for non-profit use. >The author maintains a mailing list for those who wish to receive it via >email, and no restrictions accompany the article. > > > >WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY"? > >By Norman Solomon / Creators Syndicate > > >A few numbers tell a dramatic story about extreme changes in media >fascination with the Internet. > >After the 1990s ended, I set out to gauge how news coverage of cyberspace >shifted during the last half of the decade. The comprehensive Nexis database >yielded some revealing statistics: > >* In 1995, media outlets were transfixed with the Internet as an amazing >source of knowledge. Major newspapers in the United States and abroad >referred to the "information superhighway" in 4,562 stories. Meanwhile, >during the entire year, articles mentioned "e-commerce" or "electronic >commerce" only 915 times. > >* In 1996, coverage of the Internet as an "information superhighway" fell to >2,370 stories in major newspapers, about half the previous year's level. At >the same time, coverage of electronic commerce nearly doubled, with mentions >in 1,662 articles. > >* For the first time, in 1997 the news media's emphasis on the Internet >mainly touted it as a commercial avenue. The quantity of articles in major >newspapers mentioning the "information superhighway" dropped sharply, to >just 1,314. Meanwhile, the references to e-commerce gained further momentum, >jumping to 2,812 articles. > >* In 1998, despite an enormous upsurge of people online, the concept of an >"information superhighway" appeared in only 945 articles in major >newspapers. Simultaneously, e-commerce became a media obsession, with those >newspapers referring to it in 6,403 articles. > >* In 1999, while Internet usage continued to grow by leaps and bounds, the >news media played down "information superhighway" imagery (with a mere 842 >mentions in major papers). But media mania for electronic commerce exploded. >Major newspapers mentioned e-commerce in 20,641 articles. > >How did America's most influential daily papers frame the potentialities of >the Internet? During the last five years of the 1990s, the annual number of >Washington Post articles mentioning the "information superhighway" went from >178 to 20, while such New York Times articles went from 100 to 17. But >during the same half decade, the yearly total of stories referring to >electronic commerce zoomed -- rising in the Post from 19 to 430 and in the >Times from 52 to 731. > >In other prominent American newspapers, the pattern was similar. The Los >Angeles Times stalled out on the "information superhighway," going from 192 >stories in 1995 to a measly 33 in 1999; Chicago Tribune articles went from >170 to 22. Meanwhile, the e-commerce bandwagon went into overdrive: The L.A. >Times accelerated from 24 to 1,243 stories per year. The Chicago Tribune >escalated from 8 to 486. > >Five years ago, there was tremendous enthusiasm for the emerging World Wide >Web. Talk about the "information superhighway" evoked images of >freewheeling, wide-ranging exploration. The phrase suggested that the Web >was primarily a resource for learning and communication. Today, according to >the prevalent spin, the Web is best understood as a way to make and spend >money. > >The drastic shift in media coverage mirrors the strip-malling of the Web by >investors with deep pockets and neon sensibilities. But mainstream news >outlets have been prescriptive as well as descriptive. They aren't merely >reporting on the big-bucks transformation of the Internet, they're also >hyping it -- and often directly participating. Many of the same mega-firms >that dominate magazine racks and airwaves are now dominating the Web with >extensively promoted sites. > >Yes, e-mail can be wonderful. Yes, the Internet has proven invaluable for >activists with high ideals and low budgets. And yes, Web searches can locate >a lot of information within seconds. But let's get a grip on what has been >happening to the World Wide Web overall. > >The news media's recalibration of public expectations for the Internet has >occurred in tandem with the steady commercialization of cyberspace. More and >more, big money is weaving the Web, and the most heavily trafficked websites >reflect that reality. Almost all of the Web's largest-volume sites are now >owned by huge conglomerates. Even search-engine results are increasingly >skewed, with priority placements greased by behind-the-scenes fees. > >These days, "information superhighway" sounds outmoded and vaguely quaint. >The World Wide Web isn't supposed to make sense nearly as much as it's >supposed to make money. All glory to electronic commerce! As Martha Stewart >rejoiced in a December 1998 Newsweek essay: "The Web gives us younger, more >affluent buyers." > >Establishing a pantheon of cyber-heroes, media coverage has cast businessmen >like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Steve Case as great visionaries. If your >hopes for the communications future are along the lines of Microsoft, >Amazon.com and America Online, you'll be mighty pleased. > >_________________________________________________ > >Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. His latest book is "The Habits of >Highly Deceptive Media." > >______________________________________________________________________________ - --------- Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6 ------------------------------ End of Netizens-Digest V1 #349 ******************************