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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, APRIL 01, 2002 Free E-Mail Too Successful? The Rocky Road of Copyright Protection Microsoft, Patches And Problems AND RIT Launches Graduate Program in Game Design Shopping Online for Scholarships New Search Engine Takes on Google FREE E-MAIL TOO SUCCESSFUL? As with many other online services and content lately, free e-mail has not been able to attract a sufficient number of advertisers to support all of the users who want these products. When Microsoft bought Hotmail in 1998, there were 8.5 million members. Today there are 110 million, with commensurate spiraling of costs to maintain the e-mail service. Although Hotmail is not currently planning to charge members, Parul Shah, who oversees the e-mail service, does not rule that out as a possibility. Meanwhile, e-mail providers Yahoo! and mail.com, though not charging for simple membership, have begun to charge for special services, including mail forwarding and extra storage space. AOL does not offer premium e-mail services; e-mail accounts are included in the monthly fee for membership. USA Today, 31 March 2002 http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/04/01/fee-mail.htm THE ROCKY ROAD OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION A bill recently introduced by Sen. Hollings has drawn criticism from various experts, though copyright owners support efforts to curb the illegal reproduction of copyrighted works. David J. Farber, a professor of telecommunications systems at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a former chief technologist at the FCC, said the bill is a "very, very badly conceived idea." Rob Enderle, an analyst at Giga Information Group Inc. speculated that the restrictions the bill would impose could flatten the market for PCs because copying songs is "one of the reasons people buy new machines." The Recording Industry Association of America defended copyright protection measures, saying that piracy cost the industry $3 billion in 2001. Computerworld, 1 April 2002 http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO69702,00.html MICROSOFT, PATCHES AND PROBLEMS Despite releasing a patch last week for two security flaws in Internet Explorer, Microsoft is under pressure from security groups to address a recently revealed problem in Windows NT and Windows 2000. The IE patch fixed two holes: one would allow hackers to put damaging code on a Web surfer's computer through a cookie, while the other could permit the execution of files that already exist on a computer when the user visits a Web page. The Windows flaw can allow hackers to gain otherwise restricted privileges on servers running either of the operating systems. As with other software flaws recently, this one was revealed by a security services company that decided information about the flaw was spreading faster than a patch was being developed, raising the risk of the flaw being exploited. CNet, 29 March 2002 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-871771.html ALSO ***************************************************** RIT LAUNCHES GRADUATE PROGRAM IN GAME DESIGN Three years ago Carnegie Mellon University established the Entertainment Technology Center, which teaches skills applicable to creating video games. In January of this year, the Art Institutes of San Francisco began offering an undergraduate degree program in game design. The Rochester Institute of Technology now offers a master's degree in computer game design. Students in the program are confident that they will be able to put their skills to use professionally, despite the uncertainty about job offerings that accompanies a new academic field. Students say that if they are unable to use their skills in creating games, any company that needs graphic simulations could benefit from a graduate of the program. New York Times, 1 April 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/01/technology/01GAME.html SHOPPING ONLINE FOR SCHOLARSHIPS Each year, approximately 700,000 individual scholarships are available from more than 25,000 providers. Many scholarships have very narrow criteria for eligibility, so getting the right applicants connected with the right scholarships can be a daunting task for both sides, which is partly why a significant amount of scholarship money is not claimed. A new crowd of scholarship Web sites is letting more students find more scholarship programs more quickly than they were previously able to do. Scholarships.com reports usage double what it was a year ago. Some sites, such as FastWeb.com, are able to provide their services for free by selling users' information to marketing partners, while other sites, such as ScholarshipExperts.com, charge a fee to users. New York Times, 31 March 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/business/yourmoney/31COLL.html NEW SEARCH ENGINE TAKES ON GOOGLE A Rutger's University mathematics professor is confident that the new version of his search-engine technology will outshine Google, which many regard as the best available search engine. Apostolos Gerasoulis, the man behind Teoma, has been working on his search engine since 1999 and received the financial support to take on Google when he sold Teoma to Ask Jeeves for $4.4 million last year. Since then, new tools have been added to Teoma that Gerasoulis believes make his product more effective at finding Web resources than Google. The algorithms that Teoma uses divide the Web into clusters of online communities. Rob Lancaster of the Yankee Group said that one of the benefits of Google is its simplicity and that Teoma will have to educate users about how to get the most from its site. Associated Press, 1 April 2002 http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/337110p-2800855c.html.com ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EDUCAUSE Quarterly" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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