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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2004 Feds Introduce Secure Flight, Ditch CAPPS II SBC and Sprint Announce Wi-Fi Coverage Deal Oracle Extends Bid for PeopleSoft Again Judge Dismisses VeriSign Suit Against ICANN Computer Problems Leave IU Students Without Funds SMU Offers Women's Gaming Scholarship DNA Analysis Used to Fight Spam FEDS INTRODUCE SECURE FLIGHT, DITCH CAPPS II David Stone, the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), this week said that work on the much-criticized Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) has ended and that a new system, called Secure Flight, would take its place. CAPPS II was faulted for not adequately protecting personal information of airline passengers and for being unnecessarily secretive. The slogan for the Secure Flight program is "Preserving our freedoms," and Stone called Secure Flight a wholly new program, saying CAPPS II "is no more." The new program, Stone said, will not use algorithms to try to assess the terrorist risk of airline passengers but is "a very intense focus on known or suspected terrorists." Before this week's announcement, officials from the Bush administration had delayed any further development work on CAPPS II until after the election in November, fearing the political consequences of criticisms of the system. Work will begin after the election on Secure Flight, which will endeavor to provide TSA officials with better information for identifying potential terrorists and avoid misidentification of other airline passengers. Despite objections to CAPPS II's use of commercial data, the new system will use such data if, according to Stone, it improves security in a meaningful way. Washington Post, 27 August 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37282-2004Aug26.html SBC AND SPRINT ANNOUNCE WI-FI COVERAGE DEAL SBC Communications and Sprint have announced a deal that will give the customers of each company access to the other's Wi-Fi hot spots around the country. Sprint customers will have access to 2,300 access points operated by SBC; because most of Sprint's 3,000 hot spots are operated by third-party providers, which are not covered under the deal, SBC customers will have access to just 6 new hot spots, including some in the Kansas City and Salt Lake City airports. The current state of Wi-Fi coverage is not unlike that of cellular phones when that technology was new--users often needed to subscribe to service from several vendors to have broad coverage in various markets around the country. The new deal is the latest, however, in a consolidation of Wi-Fi coverage. Boingo Wireless, for example, offers its subscribers 2,700 access points from various vendors for a single fee. Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2004 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109355865756102395,00.html ORACLE EXTENDS BID FOR PEOPLESOFT AGAIN Oracle has again extended its hostile takeover bid for rival PeopleSoft. The new deadline is September 10 in Oracle's $7.7 billion bid, which must gain approval from a federal court before proceeding. The U.S. Justice Department had gone to court to prevent the takeover, saying it would limit competition and thereby raise prices in the business software market. The trial ended in July, but the judge in the case is not expected to issue his ruling until September. The price for the takeover has fluctuated since the original offer was made in June 2003. According to a PeopleSoft spokesperson, 22 million shares, or about 6 percent of those outstanding, have so far been tendered under the offer. New York Times, 27 August 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/technology/27oracle.html JUDGE DISMISSES VERISIGN SUIT AGAINST ICANN A federal judge has thrown out VeriSign's antitrust case against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). VeriSign had charged that ICANN's board of directors had been improperly influenced when it insisted that VeriSign discontinue its Site Finder service, which redirected mistyped URLs to VeriSign's own site. The company alleged that the ICANN board received guidance from VeriSign's competitors, constituting an antitrust violation. The judge in the case disagreed, however, saying, "There is nothing inherently conspiratorial about a 'bottom-up' policy development process that considers or even solicits input from advisory groups." VeriSign continued to defend the Site Finder service and promised to refile the case in state court. According to Tom Galvin, vice president of VeriSign's government relations group, the company will continue "to gain clarity regarding ICANN's appropriate role and the process for the introduction of new services." CNET, 26 August 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5326136.html COMPUTER PROBLEMS LEAVE IU STUDENTS WITHOUT FUNDS Computer problems at Indiana University (IU) have left several thousand students without financial aid funds at the beginning of the semester. The difficulties arose from an implementation of PeopleSoft software, according to William B. Stephan, Indiana's vice president for university relations, who stressed that the problem was likely the implementation and not the software itself. Installation delays for the software reportedly led to a domino effect of other delays in updating student records and making financial aid funds available. Rebecca E. Porter, executive director of enrollment services and associate vice chancellor for student services, said that the university will not cancel any student's registration due to unpaid bills. In addition, the university's bookstore will allow students to temporarily charge purchases to their accounts at the bursar's office, and the university is making no-interest emergency loans to some students. Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 August 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/08/2004082704n.htm SMU OFFERS WOMEN'S GAMING SCHOLARSHIP Officials at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, have announced a scholarship program intended to draw more women into the field of developing video games. Data from an industry trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, indicate that 39 percent of game players are female and that women purchase about half of all games sold, but the majority of developers of games remains male. The Game Development Scholarship for Women is restricted to women attending an 18-month certificate program for game development at SMU. Officials of the certificate program, called The Guildhall, are working with WomenGamers.com and recruitment service Mary-Margaret.com to secure funding for the scholarship. Currently, tuition for The Guildhall is $37,000. Reuters, 26 August 2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6081450 DNA ANALYSIS USED TO FIGHT SPAM Researchers at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center have modified an algorithm--originally created to discern patterns in protein sequencing--to serve as a spam filter. The algorithm, named Chung-Kwei after a Feng Shui character, analyzes e-mail, looking for patterns of letters that exist in spam but not in legitimate messages. Because of the amount of spam in circulation today, the researchers have an abundance of spam e-mail to feed to the algorithm to train it to identify those strings of characters that indicate a message is spam. Chung-Kwei is able to process 88,000 messages in about 15 minutes, said the researchers, and will continue to "learn" as more e-mail arrives. The tool is able, for example, to identify e-mails that have "S" replaced with "$" as spam. Researchers said Chung-Kwei is able to successfully detect nearly 97 percent of spam. BBC, 25 August 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3584534.stm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ 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/ ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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