Posted: 8/2003

Overheard…

"Since January 1 of 2002, U.S.
taxpayers have shelled out millions of dollars to keep afloat WorldCom/MCI,
which is the poster child for ’90s-style corporate corruption in America. These
inappropriate and outrageous contracts include the $45 million
‘sweetheart’/no-bid job that WorldCom/MCI was handed to rebuild the Iraqi cell
phone system."

–Will Thomas, corporate
accountability project director, Gray Panthers, on the government’s use of
federal contracts to prop up the bankrupt and fraud-riddled WorldCom/MCI
organization. The group has created a "countdown clock" on its Web
site (www.graypanthers.org) to show
how many taxpayer dollars it claims are being spent every second ($26.12) to
keep the company afloat.

What’s Up in Ohio?

A
new America Online Inc. survey found more than three-quarters of respondents (76
percent of 3,650 people age 13 and over) use an instant messaging application.
The survey, conducted in partnership with Opinion Research Corp. from May 30
through June 9, reveals the top 10 markets for IM are:

1. New York

2. Philadelphia

3. Washington, D.C.

4. San Francisco

5. Los Angeles

6. Atlanta

7. Boston

8. Seattle

9. Columbus, Ohio

10. Toledo, Ohio

.com Turns 20

On
June 23, 1983, the now-familiar navigation system that allows e-mail to reach
its intended recipients, and information seekers to find the Web sites they
need, was tested for the first time. The Domain Name System, or DNS as the
structure of .com, .edu and others is known, was invented by researchers working
at the University of Southern California. Two computer scientists, Jon Postel
and Paul Mockapetris, created the system as part of the pre-Internet ARPANET
project, to develop a stable system that translated the numerical codes that
identified Web addresses into names that were easy for people to use and
remember.

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