8 February 2006 Technology News
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For Olympics, commercials for screens of all sizes
Brace yourself, Olympics fans, for $1 billion in advertising that will begin inundating you in 24 hours on screens in four sizes: small, on cell phones; medium, on computers and airplanes; large, on television sets; and extra large, in movie theaters.
Just as the sponsors of Super Bowl XL extended their glitzy, expensive commercials beyond the game--onto Web sites, cell phones, cinema screens and video iPods--so, too, will the scores of marketers that plan to run spots during the NBC Universal television coverage of the Olympic Winter Games, in Turin, Italy, from tomorrow through Feb. 26.
The expansion of the Olympic campaigns into other media is emblematic of the efforts advertisers are making to reach consumers who are increasingly able to zip through traditional television pitches. -
Japan's Net-organized suicides soar
The number of Japanese killing themselves in groups after meeting through the Internet--strangers afraid to die alone--soared to a record 91 last year, nearly double that of 2004, police said Thursday.
The deadly pacts pose a grim challenge for officials struggling to deal with Japan's high suicide rate, one of the worst among industrialized nations.
No religious prohibitions exist against taking one's own life in Japan, where suicide was once a form of ritual atonement for samurai warriors and in modern times is a way to escape failure or save loved ones from embarrassment or financial loss. -
Report: Spitzer probe now includes radio groups
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has issued subpoenas to nine of the largest U.S. radio groups as he widens a probe into illegal payoffs in the music industry, the New York Post reported on Thursday.
The report, which cited Spitzer as its source, said subpoenas had been issued to Clear Channel Communications, Citadel Broadcasting and Cox Radio, among others.
The pay-for-play schemes under investigation include air time for songs by Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson and John Mayer, the report said. -
What are Amazon's search intentions?
Internet search giant Google has snatched the leader of Amazon.com's A9 subsidiary, Chief Executive Udi Manber, causing some experts to question the future of the e-commerce company's search efforts.
Manber will become Google's vice president of engineering after he leaves A9 at the end of the week. His departure from Amazon was announced late Tuesday. A9 is a general Web search site, like the more popular Google or Yahoo, and it powers the Web search and site search on Amazon.com.
"Losing the person who is the head of their operations just diminishes credibility for their search and puts a larger question mark behind what they are doing," said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch. "Overall, the move is not a good sign for their search prospects." -
It's up to Silicon Valley to choose
Recently, there's been a lot of chatter about the openness of the Internet being under attack. While the Net is indeed facing a threat, it's not the one that some pundits make it out to be.
Consider, for example, a CNET News.com editorial by Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge. Sohn claims that "without regulation, the vital Internet we know today would never have developed." That's a laughable reinterpretation of history akin to Al Gore's insinuation that he created the Internet, and a twist of the facts worthy of George Orwell's "1984." But in a world where information moves so fast that people sometimes forget the facts, it's worth setting the record straight.
The Internet, and the technologies that developed around it, has thrived precisely because of minimal government regulation. The idea that bureaucratic control of the old telcos spurred the growth of the thriving communications infrastructure we see today is palpably ridiculous. -
Happy 10th and bon voyage, Telecom Act
This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which sought to create an open and competitive market. That competition is emerging, but not in ways the regulators anticipated.
As demand for voice, data and video transmission has converged into a single demand for information transmission, the market has moved toward broadband technology capable of providing rapid transmission of any data.
Consumers care less about how data is transmitted than about how much data is transmitted. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 cares more about how the data is transmitted. It must be reformed so the competitive market the act initially sought can be unleashed. -
Depressed mice recover with molecular therapy
Depressed loner mice get more sociable when researchers delete a memory molecule from their brains, a finding that might help treat human ills like social phobia and post-traumatic stress, scientists said on Thursday.
This molecular therapy worked about as well as giving mice the antidepressants Prozac or Tofranil, the researchers reported in the current issue of the journal Science.
They targeted a molecule in a section of the brain known to be related to sensations of pleasure and danger, said Olivier Berton of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, one of the report's authors. -
Think you got game? These tests will tell
Are you an undiscovered athletic marvel, with the agility and foot speed of Serena Williams or the concentration of Tiger Woods?
If you've ever pondered which Olympic gold medalist you could have been, one Silicon Valley technology company wants to help solve the mystery.
Sports Potential, in Palo Alto, Calif., has developed a series of tests and sophisticated software to calculate an individual's aptitude for a wide range of sports--from baseball to bobsledding. After a two-hour test, the company's Web-based software can illustrate a subject's physical traits, such as body composition, power, speed, agility and endurance, and compare the results with people in the same age group. -
iTunes Countdown to One Billion Downloads
The user to download the One Billionth song from iTunes will enjoy
[*]One 20-inch iMac
[*]Ten 60GB iPods (5 white/5 black)
[*]One U.S. $10,000 iTunes Music Card (good for any media type)
For every user who downloaded the 100,000th song, he will get
[*]One 4GB black iPod nano
[*]One U.S. $100 iTunes Music Card (good for any media type)
What are you waiting for? Download now!
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Microsoft pushes ahead with mobile e-mail effort
Microsoft said Sunday that its long-awaited push e-mail capability for mobile devices is finally headed into the market.
Although Microsoft is offering push e-mail abilities later than some mobile specialists, such as Research In Motion and Good Technology, the company says the numbers are still on its side. Although there are a billion mobile phones and 400 million Outlook e-mail users worldwide, only about 10 million people are getting their corporate e-mail delivered to their phones.
"We look at the universe out there and we know there is just a huge, huge opportunity yet to be met," Microsoft Vice President Suzan DelBene said in a telephone interview on Friday. -
Trying to get a read on Amazon's books
Talk to Wall Street analysts who cover the Internet, and one company stands out as the least forthcoming, most furtive, least transparent and most difficult to work with--and it isn't Google.
It's Amazon.com.
Yes, Google has a bad-boy reputation for refusing, as a matter of principle, to give Wall Street forward-looking guidance. But the company offers more detailed information than Amazon about its actual operations. By contrast, Amazon is happy to talk about future projections, but it appears to hate to talk about the present. -
Sun to unveil security offerings
Sun Microsystems is expected to announce two security initiatives Monday, one introducing a form of encryption for its next-generation Sun Java System Web Server and another that re-slices the way it delivers security features for Solaris.
As part of its initiatives, Sun plans to introduce Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 with support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). The company also plans to nix its tradition of offering Solaris in two flavors--one for the masses and another version with extensive security enhancements that are targeted to government agencies, financial institutions and health organizations. These efforts come as corporate customers are increasingly wanting security features in their networking gear to applications.
"With this announcement, we'll have more security features in our Sun Java Web Server," said Brian Leonard, Sun's marketing director of Web tier products. "This is not meant to replace current RSA encryption technology with ECC, but rather allows the processing of both." -
Cisco readies security enhancements
Cisco Systems on Monday is expected to unveil several enhancements to its security lineup that are designed to bolster its management offerings and ability to secure applications that reside on the network.
Cisco, as part of its adaptive security efforts to monitor and secure access to applications on the network, is debuting its Content Security and Control Security Services Module. This module, designed for the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500 series, aims to deliver Anti-X services that combine antivirus, anti-spyware, file blocking, antispam, URL blocking and content filtering.
Cisco is also expected to unveil a software upgrade for the ASA 5500 series. The Cisco ASA 5500 series 7.1 software, in conjunction with the appliances, aims to allow up to 5,000 concurrent SSL VPN sessions per device, providing remote and mobile workers the ability to access applications and network resources securely. -
HP reorg to split handhelds, notebooks
Hewlett-Packard has given its iPaq handhelds their own business unit, announcing plans Sunday to separate the product teams for its notebooks and handhelds, including the new iPaq hw6900 series.
Dave Rothschild, formerly of Sun Microsystems, Pixo and Netscape, will lead the new business unit reporting to Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group. Before Sunday, Ted Clark had presided over the development of both notebooks and iPaqs in the Mobility Business Unit, and he will keep control of notebook development in the new organization, HP said in a press release. Four units now make up HP's Personal Systems Group: handhelds, notebooks, desktops and workstations.
HP has continued to develop the iPaqs it inherited as part of the Compaq acquisition as the market for traditional personal digital assistants has declined. Shipments of PDAs have been steadily dropping over the last several years, but devices such as Palm's Treo and or HP's hw6500 series iPaqs that blend voice capabilities with contacts, calendars and Internet connectivity are hot sellers. -
Yahoo grapples with online rights
In advance of what could be harsh congressional questioning this week, Yahoo plans to issue a statement Monday outlining its belief in openness and freedom of speech--even when it is forced to violate those beliefs by laws in China.
Yahoo and three other technology companies are to testify Wednesday before a House human rights subcommittee about their business dealings in China.
"We are deeply concerned by efforts of governments to restrict and control open access to information and communication," an advance copy of the statement said. "We also firmly believe the continued presence and engagement of companies like Yahoo is a powerful force in promoting openness and reform." -
So long, Dalai Lama: Google adapts to China
So what does the Dalai Lama look like, anyway?
Chinese Tibetans or other Buddhists who might be curious could try finding images of the spiritual leader on Google.cn, a search engine that Google tailored for China and is now, two weeks after its unveiling, on full display to local Web users.
Is he that guy with puffy cheeks wearing a Western suit? No, that's Liu Jianchao, China's foreign ministry spokesman, demanding that the Dalai Lama stop trying to split the motherland. What about that balding man leading a big delegation? No, that's Chen Yi, a late Chinese vice prime minister, offering grain to the Tibetan people. -
Barron's sees more stock slide for Google
Shares of Web search leader Google--off 24 percent from highs set last month--could face a further 50 percent decline, Barron's said in the financial weekly's Feb. 13 edition.
Barron's scenario for a fall in Google's stock is based on speculating about what may happen if mounting competition or fraud by users of its Google's ad-buying system led to a 20 percent shortfall in bullish analysts' 2006 revenue estimates.
The weekly uses a back-of-the-envelope calculation to show how a 20 percent revenue miss could cascade into a 30 percent profit shortfall. Such a drop could then lead to a decline in the price-to-earnings multiple of the stock to 30 times earnings from the present P/E ratio of 41, it said. -
Buy a hybrid, save a guzzler
Some of my favorite people drive a Prius. They bought the car, obviously, because they were worried about the planet. But the fringe benefits are pretty nice too.
Prius drivers can use a carpool lane in some places even when no one else is in the car. No matter where they're driving, they coast down the road in a whisper-quiet hum unlike anything else. Best of all, even if no one likes admitting it, they get to enjoy the cool-kid cachet that comes with being an early adopter of a fad. No other vehicle has had a recurring role on the TV show "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Now President Bush has taken the hybrid craze to a whole new level. To cure our addiction to oil, he said last week, we must invest in hybrid cars, hydrogen cars, even cars that run on wood chips and grass. Energy technology is having its big moment. -
From celebrity circuit to criminal charges: Horie's downfall
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's disgraced Internet mogul Takafumi Horie used to be a regular on television quiz shows and the celebrity circuit, often with a model on his arm. Now his only date is in court.
The brash ex-Livedoor boss, who was charged Monday with breaking securities law, took great pleasure in thumbing his nose at the establishment during his meteoric ascent as one of Japan's leading Internet stars.
Few in the corporate old guard will be crying into their sake at news of his indictment along with three other former Livedoor executives in a dramatic fall from grace for the Ferrari-driving Internet whizkid. -
Web Site Lets Public Track Alaska Volcano
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - From his home in Nanwalek, Vince Evans can stare across the water at Augustine Volcano as it pumps out clouds of ash and steam, but like many residents in the isolated village, Evans prefers to check the Internet for the latest on the erupting island mount.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory's popular Web site lets the public track Augustine's activity, from live earthquake data to hourly updates on the blasts of ash and rocky pyroclastic flows that have rumbled down the snowy volcano since it began erupting in mid-January.
"When I wake up, I turn it on and keep track of Augustine through the night," said Evans, a 43-year-old health practitioner in the south-central Alaska community. -
Bill Graham's rock archives stream online
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Some of rock's most intriguing content is now in cyberspace via Wolfgang's Vault. The memorabilia seller offers treasures from the stash of promoter Bill Graham, programmer of San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, who died in 1991.
A 75-song playlist culled from 7,000 to 8,000 vintage audio and video concert recordings made between 1966 and 1999 began streaming on the Wolfgang's Vault Web site February 8, at no cost to consumers. The owner of the Graham archive is optimistic that some of the seminal performances will make it to retailers' shelves as CDs and DVDs by year's end.
San Francisco-based Wolfgang's Vault sells authentic Graham concert memorabilia from such acts as Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, U2, Tom Petty, Jimi Hendrix and the Who. -
'Tale' traces descent into rock 'n' roll hell
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - So you want to be a rock 'n' roll star? Well, as the Byrds once instructed, first you get a guitar and learn to play it, at least a little. Then you get the right haircut, the right clothes. Then you go see the agent downtown. After that it's cake; though, to assure maximum fame, it helps to get an embarrassing video on the Internet, marry fabulously, get hooked up to a drug habit and -- rock gesture of all rock gestures -- to die young.
Jen Trynin didn't commit all of these star turns, but she worked her way through a few. As she recounts in her booze-drenched and smoke-wreathed memoir, "Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale," her career trajectory started off innocently enough: learning the guitar at age 11, identifying with Joni Mitchell and other singer-songwriters, releasing a pleasant EP on an obscure jazz label.
But then, in the whirl of the early-'90s Boston scene, Trynin decided that she was really a rocker and formed a band. Here her book takes off, and it's a whirlwind. At first, naturally, her geography is all uphill, from the indignity of landing a slot three dozen down the list at an open-mike night to the hard work of flogging a self-released debut CD, the memorable "Cockamamie." More than once she threatens to quit the music business, saying of that particular kitchen, "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity." -
MySpace Rises As New Online Star
NEW YORK - The Internet has a rising star whose name isn't Google. Just over 2 years old, MySpace now has 2 1/2 times the traffic of Google Inc., and it quickly eclipsed Friendster as the top social-networking site where users build larger and larger circles of friends.
Credit luck and acumen: MySpace learned from predecessors and figured out the right tools to package. And when its founders noticed heavy usage among musicians and fans, MySpace embraced that community with custom features.
"It's like being at a giant music conference 24 hours a day every day," said Greg McIntosh, 27, guitarist for Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Great Lakes Myth Society. -
Some Personal Web Pages Give Dark Glimpses
BOSTON - It's like countless Internet photo albums: An adorable baby girl aglow at Christmas, at her baptism, in a skunk costume for Halloween — joined in some frames by one or both of her smiling parents.
Those pictures of Lillian Rose Entwistle, now heart-wrenching, have a far broader audience than the friends and family for whom they were intended, after she and her mother were slain and her father charged with killing them. The warm images helped catapult the Hopkinton murder from cable news onto the cover of People magazine and newspapers in Neil Entwistle's native Britain.
As Web diaries and personal home pages proliferate, the likelihood that the victim or suspect of a high-profile crime had a life online is increasing. The blogs and photos normally lost in the clutter of the Internet can speak for the dead and hint at the motivation of killers when violence thrusts ordinary people into the spotlight. -
US Congress set to grill Internet companies over China clampdown
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Internet giants will come under unprecedented grilling in Congress this week for joining hands with China to censor the Internet, despite the proud American tradition of free speech.
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Cisco Systems have all agreed to appear on Wednesday before a House of Representatives human rights panel, which summoned them following public outcry over their compliance with Beijing.
By complying with China's demand for censorship in order to enter the booming Chinese market, some of the top American Internet firms in essence have become "a megaphone for communist propaganda and a tool for controlling public opinion," said Chris Smith, who will co-chair the hearing.