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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (9701)	11/21/2002 8:11:23 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

A male dog has his advantages. He can lick his balls. <<LAS VEGAS — Big screens, small gadgets and fast wireless connections have received much attention at the Comdex technology trade show this week, but a mundane product quietly unveiled at Microsoft's booth may have more of an impact on the average computer user. On display was an electronic stamp the U.S. Postal Service plans to sell to certify authenticity and delivery time of e-mail. The technology, called "electronic postmarks," will not necessarily end the era of free e-mail. But it does create a "first class" version with a small delivery charge. The postmarks are likely to be used to transmit sensitive documents, for instance, to authenticate the sender and give the recipient more reassurance. The plan is to have e-mail-postage software available in the next 30 to 45 days At first, it would be an add-on to Microsoft's popular Outlook e-mail-management software. Later, it would be bundled into the new version of Microsoft's Office suite, due around summer. When loaded, it would appear as several buttons on the Outlook control panel. Users would pay the Postal Service anywhere from a penny to $2, depending on the volume of use, to add an official stamp of authenticity. The stamp would be applied with a click, not a lick. Actually, it would take 10 clicks — unless you send a lot of certified e-mails, in which case you could tailor the system to only require two, said Michael Wolf, who developed the product for AuthentiDate of New York. After two years of working with the Postal Service, AuthentiDate won a contract in July to run the service and use its network to issue, verify and store the certificates of authenticity. Terms were not available, but corporate filings indicate the Postal Service paid AuthentiDate $250,000 and established provisions to share revenue. Because AuthentiDate would run the service, said Chief Executive Rob Van Naarden, "We get most of the revenue." Microsoft, which helped tailor the product for Outlook and provided software-development tools to AuthentiDate, would get a share of postmark sales that it generates, Van Naarden said. Having a feature certified as secure by a federal agency contributes to the sense of trustworthiness Microsoft is trying to impart after numerous high-profile security lapses. AuthentiDate is interested in bundling the technology with products from other software vendors, but for now it's focusing on Microsoft, said Wolf, the company's chief technical evangelist. "Microsoft is not prohibiting us from approaching any other vendors," he said. Certifying e-mail is a crowded business full of companies providing encryption and other technologies to secure transmission of information. Federal privacy measures require such precautions for medical records and other sensitive documents. Several attempts by companies to charge per e-mail for authentication services have failed, noted analysts at IDC, a research company in Framingham, Mass. "It's a great idea, but unfortunately nobody's paid for it in the past, and there's no indication they will in the future," said IDC's Chris Christiansen. A key reason is people still don't trust the technology enough, IDC's research shows. Van Naarden said electronic postmarks will succeed because they have federal authority. He said the stamps would provide legal force to electronic documents, and the Postal Service can prosecute people who circumvent the system. Van Naarden would not say how many electronic stamps he expects will be sold, but that business volume should be in the hundreds of millions of dollars in a few years. Likely markets include government, financial services and health care. Microsoft has worked for years on adding electronic postage to Office. It has a partnership with Stamps.com that enables Word users to buy postage online and print envelopes stamped with a bar code accepted by the Postal Service. The feature will be updated in the new Office suite next year. Microsoft has had other business relationships with the Postal Service, which has become increasingly entrepreneurial since it was reorganized in 1971 as a government-owned corporation.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (9701)	11/22/2002 12:33:55 AM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 89467

Although he's busy giving away his son's fortune to charities, Bill Gates Sr. found time to co-author a book on why the federal estate tax should apply to rich Americans. A prominent Seattle lawyer before his son co-founded Microsoft, the elder Gates now leads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also lobbies in support of the estate tax, which faces repeal by the Bush administration, because he believes it's a fair approach for sharing wealth. In "Wealth and Our Commonwealth, Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes," Gates and co-author Chuck Collins argue that the tax is fair because the rich became so because they benefited from society's economic development and growth. They suggest reforms rather than repeal. Collins is co-founder of Responsible Wealth, a Boston-based lobbying group. The book is being published by Beacon Press and goes on sale Jan. 16. The book tour stops here in late January. Wall Street threw a big party in October, but few fund investors came, according to Lipper, the mutual-fund tracking company. Lipper estimates about $3 billion went into equity funds in October, the first positive move since May but very small in light of the major October rally. Science and technology funds had a tiny net inflow in October, breaking a string of outflows that started in February and had drained $6.6 billion in total. Telecommunication funds took in less than $50 million, only their second inflow in the past 23 months. But these two fund types led the market's bounce, rebounding 16.4 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively, in October after deep and lengthy losses. Utility funds, which now have the longest ongoing streak of outflows at 22 months, shed another $200 million. One of the largest ports on the West Coast reports normal operations now but the 10-day dock shutdown in October cut volume dramatically. The Port of Long Beach said this week turnaround times for container ships and terminal operations have returned to near-normal. The lockout of longshoremen resulted in a 30.7 percent decline in container volume in October, compared with the same month a year ago. The number of containers fell to the equivalent of 301,318 container units, based on preliminary figures. Oregon's big Christmas-tree industry is in full swing these days, cutting and delivering evergreens across the country — and worldwide. The state is the largest producer, with more than 8 million trees expected to be harvested this year. California gets almost half the trees followed by other Western states and the Northwest with about 23 percent. Mexico is a growing customer with about 9 percent exported there, according to reports. Airline fares are down about 10 percent so far this year, according to the Air Transport Association, an industry group representing most domestic airlines. But there are signs the decline is beginning to slow. Average first-class and business fares are down 10.9 percent this year with coach fares down 10 percent. In October, first-class and business fares continued to decline, down 1.3 percent from the same month a year earlier. But coach fares were up 1.5 percent compared with last October. The fares are based on averages for a 1,000-mile domestic flight.