CMC Magazine Headlines (2004)

This is a list of past headlines of CMC Magazine for 2004. Please note that the links on the headlines to outside news sources may not be valid as many online news sources rarely archive stories very long at the same URL where they were originally published. You could use keyword searching techniques to locate resources related to these headlines if the link does not work.

2004-01-01: Internet Population Growth Rate Slows
Although Internet use by adults in the United States is at 63%, the rate at which new users are adopting the Internet has slowed.
2004-01-03: CAN-SPAM in Effect
With the new year, the US Federal law, Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003, is now in effect. Companies using email legitimately for marketing will have to be careful to comply with the law. Illegal spammers are expected to move offshore. There is also an expected increase in unsolicited snail mail marketing. (See Live Simple: Reduce junk mail and telemarketing.)
2004-01-09: Getting Ready for Internet Protocol 6
Having more addresses possible is the biggest benefit of the upcoming Internet Protocol version 6. The downside? Software and routers have to be upgraded, and it may be slower and less secure.
2004-01-16: Global E-Commerce Seen as Economic Engine
This article from the E-Commerce Times examines the global market for online business including the opportunities from growing populations of Internet users and challenges from taxation, security, and shipping costs.
2004-01-20: Online Gamers Exhibit Unanticipated Behavior
Massive multiplayer online role playing games like The Sims Online and Everquest have proven to be profitable for software makers. These games also have attracted the attention of researchers who examine online behavior. Players engage in unanticipated behavior that brings to light social and legal issues.
2004-01-27: ...how to transfer this money which is ($25,500,000.00) Twenty Five, Million five hundred thousand United States dollars from Nigeria to a foreign account...
The Nigerian government wants to crack down on the scam involving advance fees for money transfer. Variants of the scam, dubbed the Nigerian 419 scam after the section of Nigerian law which it violates, have circulated in Internet email, faxes, and postal mail for decades.
2004-01-31: Technology Falls Short on Simplicity
You want a cell phone to make a phone call? Forget it: this is the 21st century--you can use your cell phone to take photos, play games, send text messages, surf the Web, and customize your ring tones.
2004-02-07: Net to Lawmakers: Tax Me? Go Ahead, Make My Day
The moratorium on Internet access taxes expired in November, 2003. Now, advocates of a permanent tax ban would like nothing more than a showdown.
2004-02-19: Analyst: The Future of IT is Adaptive
Futurist Chris Meyer sees Information Technology reaching the peak stage of its rapid growth curve--adaptive enterprise. The next wave of the economy--it's molecular.
2004-02-25: The Other Side of the Bust--Lower Costs, More Reliable Technology
Bloated technology, bloated salaries, and bloated egos were the norm in the turn-of-the-century dot com world. But the collapse in the dot com industry did something good--it eradicated some of the hype and rewarded those who focused on competent, user-oriented technology that actually works. Now this competent-edge technology is getting cheaper.
2004-02-25: Micropayments Anticipated Soon, Again
The desire for efficient micropayments for Web-based purchases is nearly as old as the Web itself. This time around, the drive for small-amount transactions is being fueled by something real--success stories.
2004-02-27: Spam: Peace in Our Time?
Optimism grows in the struggle against spam, with sender authentication systems in the works, filtering getting better, and entrepreneurs seizing business opportunities for developing software and systems to fight spam.
2004-03-01: Nearly Half of Net Users Contribute Content
A recent Pew Internet Project report shows that 44% of Internet users have contributed online content to Web sites, blogs, or file sharing sites.
2004-03-04: Silicon Valley Supports Bush
A economy in nine consecutive quarters of growth in gross domestic product, pro-business policies, tax cuts, and free trade makes George W. Bush the pick of many high-tech executives in Silicon Valley.
2004-03-08: ICANN Keeps Focus on Basics
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers met in Rome over the weekend. ICANN President and CEO Paul Twomey has a vision for ICANN's role to foster international communication, while at the same time expressed the need to keep ICANN focused on its core technical role.
2004-03-18: Global Economy + Communications = Outsourcing
US Secretary of State Colin Powell reacted to concerns about the outsourcing of jobs to places such as India.
CMC Magazine Editorial
Outsourcing means more efficiency and more reliable and less expensive software, technology, and services. Creative entrepreneurs can use these cheaper components to create new products and services that have never been possible before. With global communications, the flow of work to the most efficient workers is inevitable. Those who rail against outsourcing should focus on developing creative and technical skills that can capitalize on the cheaper and more reliable components and services that can come from outsourcing or develop the skills to create reliable and inexpensive components and services and thus become an "outsourcer" themselves.
2004-03-20: ICANN's Cerf Comments on Net Governance
The technical management of top-level domain names can be contentious from a technical, economic, and political perspective.
2004-04-06: Peace in the Valley
Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are now getting along because if they don't, free and open-source software communities will take away their customers.
2004-04-12: California Lawmaker Seeks to Limit Internet User Choices
California state senator Liz Figueroa seeks to pass a law against a proposed Internet service that people would choose voluntarily to gain free electronic mail service. Figueroa, from Fremont, California, claims that the service "reads" the user's mail and therefore is an invasion of privacy.
2004-04-23: Amazon Sales at Record High
The booming US economy is even lifting online retailers.
2004-04-28: Internet Access by Electrical Outlet Available Soon
On June 1st, US power companies will be allowed to sell broadband Internet services over electrical power lines. Concerns remain about interference to radio frequencies.
2004-05-04: BBC TV To Be Downloadable
The British Broadcasting Corporation plans to make some of its television programs downloadable so that users can view them when and how they want.
2004-05-10: All is Not Well in Alphaville
Elections disputed. Voting irregularities. Mud slung.
2004-05-17: "Phishing for Dollars" Scams Challenge Security
Beware of email that directs you to a Web site to enter information about a bank, credit card, or other account--it may be a fraud.
2004-05-20: Industry to Developers: Please Give Us Something That Works
While many in the United States bemoan the loss of manufacturing jobs based on 20th, 19th, or even 18th century technologies, a tremendous part of the US economy begs for information technology products, services, software, and hardware to work more reliably, securely, easily, and simply.
2004-05-27: Can Spam Redux
The US Congress passed the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act five months ago. The law has done little to stop unsolicited email. So Congress is going to try again.
2004-06-03: Economy Booming and IT Jobs Increasing
The positive news on the economy just keeps getting better: information technology jobs in the United States are growing because of increased technological activity and because the United States remains the #1 spot for research in the world.
2004-06-09: Criminal Activity on Internet Reflects Real World
As money laundering, illegal drug sales, and black markets make up a big chunk of many economies, it comes as no surprise that organized criminals are using the Internet in a variety of ways.
2004-06-16: Nanorobots Are Coming
The marriage of two of the current red-hot economy's stellar areas--nanotechnology and information technology--promises to make new kinds of products and services possible.
2004-06-23: Government Tax Leads to Fraud and Abuse
Al Gore's tax on your phone bill--meant to "wire schools" to the Internet--has instead short-changed many children who may have been better served by other means.
2004-06-23: Microsoft Patents Human Body as a Network
Microsoft received a patent for a "method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body."
2004-06-30: Bounty Hunters May Nab Spammers
The United States Federal Trade Commission is considering putting a price on the "heads" of spammers, payable to the first person to identify them.
2004-07-06: Blogs Serve as Online Social Forum
Just as generations past have engaged in social communication on computer bulletin boards, mailing lists, and Usenet, many today seek the blog.
2004-07-14: Geolocation Offers Content Customized to User's Location
Technologies that can determine a user's geographic location promise customized content for users of Web sites. However, like many approaches to customization, the assumptions developers make about their audience are often wrong.
2004-07-14: Where Are the Robots?
According to prognostications of many decades ago, by the year 2000, we were supposed to have jet packs, picture phones, meals-in-a-pill, a moon base, and of course robots, robots everywhere--running the vacuum cleaner and serving as pets. Some folks at Carnegie Mellon University are repeating the robot expectations for a new century with the same quaint imagery of decades ago.
2004-07-21: Blabbing Bloggers Bother Blood, Barristers
People writing web logs often reveal personal information and sharp opinions, raising ire from family and friends--and sometimes subpoenas from lawyers.
2004-07-21: Web to Kill the Radio Star?
Advertising spending online is already 2/3 that of radio and is growing so fast that it may surpass radio by 2007.
2004-07-30: Developers Declare Independence through Open Standards
The Open Group has published the "Developer Declaration of Independence" to dissolve the bonds of proprietary systems and to assert the unalienable rights of open standards, choice and among all vendors, and the pursuit of interoperability.
2004-08-05: Terrorist Use of Web Sites Studied
Professor Gabriel Weimann researches the growing number of Web sites used by terrorists to recruit, spread propaganda, and raise money.
2004-08-06: Elected Officials Resent Constituent Web Sites
It used to be that you'd have to attend a meeting or call an elected official to make your voice heard. Those were the good old days, according to some politicians.
2004-08-08: Judges Nix Pokey Pix
A federal appeals court ruled that a Web cam can't be used to broadcast the proceedings at the Maricopa County, Arizona jail.
2004-08-11: Internet Users Get Maps Online, Meet Others Off
A survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 88% of online Americans say that the Internet plays a role in their daily routines. Among Internet users, popular activities include getting maps or directions and communicating with friends and family. Less popular activities included finding new people to meet and reading for fun.
2004-08-17: Is it the End of the Phone as We Know it?
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) changes the way people can talk to each other. Lower costs and more features are possible using VoIP than on the 19th-century networks initiated by Alexander Graham Bell.
2004-08-26: Online Economy Booming
Online retail sales are expected to grow at 17% annually through 2008, and online advertising revenue is up, but this is just part of the picture for the online economy. Online marketing is becoming an increasingly sophisticated means to reach fragmented audiences.
2004-08-26: Software Freedom Day to be Held Saturday, August 28, 2004
Free and open source software can provide very efficient power for innovation.
2004-08-27: Outsourcing Drives Jobs in the US
Global outsourcing helps develop investment and jobs in the United States.
2004-09-07: In the Eye of the Storm
The Internet Storm Center watches for viruses and other problems around the clock.
2004-09-09: Will Virtual Meetings Ever Replace In-Person Meetings?
Use of remote conferencing showed an increase in interest in late 2001, and conferencing businesses are doing well now. But people remain obsessed with in-person meetings and don't seem interested in giving them up despite the difficulty of travel, toll on families from absence, higher travel expenses, increased hassle from security measures, crowded airports, weather delays, and terrorist threats.
2004-09-09: Net Censorship in China Falters
The Chinese government has worked to filter Internet content with its so-called "Great Firewall of China." But massive amounts of open, collaborate content seeps through the cracks.
2004-09-10: Bloggers Correct Associated Press
When the Associated Press sent out a false story about a campaign event in West Allis, Wisconsin last week on its wire, bloggers stepped into the fray and corrected it. Can old media outlets like the Associated Press continue to operate with the assumption that an unconnected, uninformed, and passive public accepts their version of events?
2004-09-13: Valley VCs Loving Games
Social aspects of online communication have caught the attention of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The next investment focus is on the outgrowth of social activities--games.
2004-09-16: Blogosphere Shakes Up Old Media
The blogosphere has become prominent in the past week in media circles because of the scrutiny bloggers have placed on CBS News reports. Previously, bloggers have played a part in uncovering a false Associated Press story and critiquing false stories in the New York Times. Do blogs have potential for aiding problem solving in other areas?
2004-09-18: Sims Get Ambition
The popular Sims 2 computer game offers a virtual world of characters programmed with aspirations, memories, and fears. The emergent behavior, interpreted through the user's imagination, is the basis for the appeal of the game.
2004-09-20: Microsoft Battles Open Source
Using aggressive lobbying, Microsoft pushes public policy to favor its software.
2004-09-21: Bloggers Correct CBS News
More than eleven days after people in the blogosphere began questioning its reporting, CBS News formally apologized for "a mistake in judgment" for using questionable documents in a report. The sequence of events shows how older media outlets like CBS News are quick to dismiss commentary coming from online sources. The incident also shows how eagerly media outlets as diverse as the Boston Globe, New York Times, and even PC Magazine stepped in to prop up the faulty reporting of CBS News in the days immediately after the original report and criticism.
2004-09-22: Cities Consider Ministry of Internet Access
In an effort to lure the digitally inclined, some cities are considering providing broadband, wireless Internet access as a public amenity and passing along the bill to the taxpayers.
2004-09-22: Bio Viruses Inform Virtual Virus Research
Scientists are studying the interplay of humans, computers, and cyberattacks using methods used for tracking human epidemics.
2004-09-24: Experiment Dramatizes Net Users' Dependence
Volunteers stopped using the Internet for two weeks. They felt out of touch, lost, and helpless.
2004-09-25: Internet Tops TV
The Generational Media Study conducted by the Online Publishers Association shows that 45.6 percent of respondents in the 18- to 54-year-old range picked the Internet as their first media choice, followed by 34.6 percent who chose television first.
2004-09-27: Berners-Lee Dreams of a Web of Meaning
The next phase in the development of the World Wide Web has to do with the Semantic Web project. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, answers questions about the Web's current challenges and future potential.
2004-09-29: Court: Web Sites Need Not Comply with Americans with Disabilities Act
A federal appeals court has ruled that Web developers need not follow the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, the court noted that the issue could be revisted. Judge Stanley Marcus wrote, "In declining to evaluate the merits of this case, we are in no way unmindful that the legal questions raised are significant."
2004-09-29: Bloggers Correct CBS News, Again
In another episode in the struggle of blogosphere versus old news media, bloggers have shown how CBS News has fallen for an already-debunked hoax that a military draft is in the works. The US Selective Service System itself has debunked this myth on its Web site: "Selective Service is not getting ready to conduct a draft for the U.S. Armed Forces... there is no need for a draft for the War on Terrorism or or any likely contingency, such as Iraq. Additionally, the Congress has not acted on any proposed legislation to reinstate a draft." Other news outlets have also fallen for the military draft hoax and are erroneously reporting that a draft is something that is impending.
2004-10-01: Access to the Net Not Enough to Motivate Use or Learning
A survey of adults in Britain found that few used their Net access for lifelong learning or online courses. Report author Dr. Neil Selwyn said that access to the Net is not enough to motivate people to use the Net, but that "it is up to educators and IT companies to put forward the content that attracts people."
2004-10-01: New Media, Networks Enable Amateur Innovation
Networked, passionate amateurs are collaboratively exploring new areas of subjects that used to be the domain of professionals.
2004-10-04: World Cyber Games To Begin
More than 700 video game players will gather in San Francisco this week for a playoff involving competitors from around the world.
2004-10-05: Presidential Candidates Bypass Internet Advertising
The 2004 US Presidential campaign means big money to media outlets. Of the estimated $1.5 billion campaign ad spending, only a small fraction is spent online according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project report.
2004-10-06: Presidential Candidates Give Short Shift to Communication Technology
Although communication and information technology endeavors offer opportunities for economic growth, jobs, innovation, new products, and individual creativity, the 2004 US Presidential candidates spend little time talking about it.
2004-10-07: Spammers and Virus Writers Collaborate
People causing some of the Net's worst problem are uniting in a "dark alliance."
2004-10-09: WE R FMLY
Text messaging is held up as a way for parents and children to communicate.
2004-10-12: Phishing Reels in Millions
Online identity theft continues to claim hundreds of millions of dollars each year through email messages tricking users to give up personal information. A cross-industry alliance is working to stop it, but the awareness and actions of individuals remains key to preventing the fraud.
2004-10-13: Déjà vu All Over Again
While social networking has shown to engage many Net users, business models to earn money from social networking Web sites have been lacking. The hype around social networking sites as "the next big thing" recalls the old days of the dot-com frenzy in which fads ruled.
2004-10-15: Content Syndication Grows Online
For decades, news publishers have sold their content to other news outlets for redistribution. Content syndication has now broadened online to include more than just news, but RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds of all kinds and affiliate advertising networks like Google.
2004-10-18: Booming Economy Boosts E-Commerce
The strong economy has a white-hot spot: e-commerce. A panel of experts looks ahead and sees a bright outlook for digital and online products of all kinds.
2004-10-18: Wiki Wars Erupt
Battles have broken out on Wikipedia concerning entries for US presidential contenders President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. The collaboratively-edited pages have attracted people who have sought to influence how the entries for each candidate should read.
2004-10-20: Social Emulation Seen as Influencer of Internet Purchases
David Bell, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, examined the role of social emulation in online purchasing. In an examination of an Internet grocery retailer, he found social emulation influenced the first use of the Internet service, but then users relied on their own experience for subsequent uses.
2004-10-23: Internet Browser Competition Expected to Heat Up
Firefox's release of the 1.0 version of its Internet Web browser on November 9th is expected to stir up competition in Web browser share.
2004-10-25: US Congress to Legislate Against Spyware
The US Congress took on spam last year and passed the CAN-SPAM Act, which had little apparent effect in stopping the flow of spam. This year, they'll take on spyware.
2004-10-27: Zombies Attack
Computer viruses can allow remote servers to command personal computers over an Internet connection. Networks of infected PCs can then be used for spamming, phishing, and keystroke logging.
2004-10-28: Internet Users Have Broader Awareness of Political Views
A survey by the Pew Internet & American Life project found that Internet users sought a range of information and viewpoints online rather than material that just reinforces their political views. The survey found that Internet users are more aware of arguments that challenge their views than people who do not use the Internet.
2004-10-30: Sales of Virtual Goods Top $100 Million
Objects created in massively multiplayer online role-playing games can be sold in online auctions to other players who want the additional powers without all the additional hours of playing the game. Edward Castranova, an economist at the University of Indiana, estimates that the sales of these objects have exceeded the $100 million mark. "Virtual sweat shops" in places such as Hong Kong and Mexico are said to exist where players create these objects expressly for sale.
2004-11-02: Net Plays Role in 2004 Election
These links from CNET News are to articles covering the use of the Net for election results information, voter guides, blogging, electronic voting information, and the repeated failures of technology initiatives.
2004-11-04: Internet Opened Conversations
The Internet was used in the elections of 2004 not just as a means of one-to-many communication, but as a means to raise money and hold conversations with supporters.
2004-11-06: Students Engaged While Mobile
Bryan Alexander at Middlebury College in Vermont sees his students learning with mobile devices, multimedia, instant messaging, and blogging. While the use of new technology for learning is often prematurely hailed as a breakthrough (remember filmstrips?), Alexander makes a good case for engaging students with the technology that engages them.
2004-11-08: British Group to Educate Consumers about Computer Security
The Confederation of British Industry will launch Project Endurance, an effort to inform consumers about computer security issues.
2004-11-09: Low-Cost Technology Inspires Creativity
Low-cost technology available to creative people can inspire compelling works.
2004-11-15: News Customization to Drive Online Journalism
The head of the Associated Press sees individuals driving news delivery through customization and in dissemination forums such as blogs.
2004-11-17: Global Grid to Help Communities
The World Community Grid is a massive grid computing project to capture unused computing cycles for scientific research projects.
2004-11-23: Collaboration Tackles Big Questions
Collaboration is king in many areas of scientific research, and online communication is often key.
2004-11-26: Web Retailing Up Again
Traffic to Web retailing sites has already exceed last year's record highs. Consumers in the US are expected to spend $16.7 billion online during November and December, an an increase of 29% from the previous year.
2004-11-29: CyLab Explores the Future of Computer Security
With computer security being one of the big challenges of the Internet, Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab is conducting research with analogies from biological viruses and the paintings of Seurat.
2004-11-30: Online Commons Considered
The Institute of Public Policy Research in the United Kingdom is considering how to create government-run versions of communities which have been ocurring online for decades.
2004-12-06: Games Tap "Hive Mind"
Teams of players, collaborating using online communication, play games and approach problem-solving in novel ways.
2004-12-07: Study: Artists and Musicians Use Internet to Find Audience
A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that many artists see the benefits of the Internet for reaching new audiences. The artists are concerned, however, with those who steal their work online.
2004-12-09: Security Concerns May Hamper Ecommerce
Consumers purchasing online are concerned about security, a Gartner Inc. survey showed.
2004-12-15: Invasion of the Pod People
The practice of offering audio files for download and later off-line listening is not new. But the popularity of portable digital audio devices and personal publishing (notably in the form of blogs) have intersected with a well-known brand name of music players to create yet another trend to watch in online-enabled communication.
2004-12-18: Airships to Provide Communications
The first airship satellite, called a stratellite, is expected to be launched next month by Sanswire Networks. Filled with helium and hovering in the stratosphere, a stratellite could provide wireless broadband coverage to an area of over 800,000 square kilometers.
2004-12-20: Panel: Innovation Key to Economic Success
A panel led by the President of Stanford University released a report urging leaders to stress scientific and technological innovation. The recommendations include cutting through "sports and entertainment culture" to stress the importance of mathematics and science.
2004-12-28: Conflict Over Internet Guidance
Developing countries want the United Nations--an organization noted for its corruption and incompetence--to control the technical development of the Internet while the people and organizations that created the Internet and World Wide Web in the first place recognize the value of the freedom present on the Internet today.