IT NICHE

Mobile phone radiation 'interrupts sleep'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:44:00 +0000

MOBILE phone radiation causes headaches and interrupts vital sleeping patterns, according to research funded by some of the world’s biggest phone manufacturers.

Researchers from the US and Sweden discovered during the study that participants exposed to mobile phone radiation experienced headaches, change of moods, confusion and trouble sleeping.

In their findings, published in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), the researchers said 38 of the 71 participants showed symptoms of mobile phone radiation.

“The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals, components of sleep, believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear, are adversely affected,” the researchers said in the PIERS article.

“Moreover, participants that otherwise have no self-reported symptoms related to mobile phone use appear to have more headaches during the actual radiofrequency exposure as compared to sham exposure.”

The researchers from Wayne State University in the US and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute found mobile phone radiation extended the period of time it took for participants to fall asleep – and even then they were still affected.

“Under the (radiofrequency) exposure condition, participants exhibited a longer latency to deep sleep,” the researchers said.

The Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF), made up of industry giants like Nokia and Motorola, funded the study.

A MMF spokesperson was quoted by UK newspaper The Independent as saying the “results were inconclusive” and “the researchers did not claim that exposure caused sleep disturbance”.

Study leader Bengt Arnetz told the newspaper that mobile phone radiation decreased participants’ ability to wind down and fall asleep.

“We did find an effect from mobile phones from exposure scenarios that were realistic,” Professor Arnetz said.

Ultra-fast broadband connection launched

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:42:00 +0000

A POWERFUL new broadband tool up to 250 times faster than a standard broadband connection was used yesterday to link researchers across the Pacific.

The internet connection, which sends one gigabit per second, is being hailed as a cutting-edge model for allowing world experts to collaborate from different countries in real time.

Yesterday, the OptIPortal linked researchers at the University of Melbourne with researchers at the University of California in San Diego via giant screens.

Using the technology, a scan of the brain can be shown to the cellular level and maintain full clarity. It combines high-definition video and audio with the sharing of ultra-resolution visualisations from a broad range of disciplines.
The resolution of the OptIPortal is 50 times higher than the highest resolution HD television commercially available.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Victorian Premier John Brumby watched the demonstration.

During the link-up Senator Conroy said he hoped the technology would eventually reach Australian households.

"We are, as you know, pushing ahead to try and develop genuine high-speed broadband here in Australia, which we would ultimately hope to deliver this sort of technology into everybody's home and that's why it's so exciting to see this project up and running," he said.

Ms Gillard was later challenged on whether the Government's broadband policy would allow for that level of technology to be available to homes.

She said the Government would concentrate on delivering its election promise of providing fast broadband to 98 per cent of homes under a $5 billion scheme.

Smarter games, dumber children

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:17:00 +0000

CHILDREN should be banned from playing computer games until the age of seven because the technology is "rewiring'' their brains, it has been claimed.

Bombardment of the senses with fast-pace action games is said to be causing a shortening of attention span, harming the ability to learn.

The concerns emerged as technology industry experts gathered this week at a special summit discussing the development of children at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Educational psychologist Jane Healy said research indicated that computer games fuelled the development of basic "flight or fight'' instincts rather than considered reasoning.

"If you watch kids on a computer, most of them are just hitting keys or moving the mouse as fast as they can. It reminds me of rats running in a maze.''

She believes parents would be wise to keep children away from computer games until at least the age of seven to allow their brains to develop normally.

Researchers from the Joan Ganz Cooney Centre, which investigates the relationship between children, the media and technology, said the average age that US youngsters started to use electronic gadgets had fallen from just over eight to just over 6 1/2 since 2005.

The researchers looked at more than 300 products including computer games, toys, virtual worlds for children and supposedly educational software to be run on home computers. Of these, only two educational video games employed proven learning techniques.

The researchers found that too many products involve children sitting isolated in front of a computer screen. Others make unsubstantiated claims about their educational benefits.

There has been an explosion in the creation of virtual worlds for children in the past year.

Huge numbers of children are members of internet sites, including those dedicated to Barbie or the Bratz dolls.

The summit heard calls for an industry code of ethics designed to do away with commercial exploitation of children who visit such sites.

By contrast, Alice Cahn, of the Cartoon Network, told the summit that technology was delivering huge benefits.

"We should not be worried about technology changing the face of play, but rather that all kids have access to the best kinds of technology'', she said.

The Daily Mail

Schools counter cyber bullying in class

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:13:00 +0000

SCHOOLS are being forced to give students special lessons on how to treat each other with respect when communicating online amid an explosion of cyber bullying among teenagers.

The "cyber citizenship" courses based on an American idea aim to promote more harmonious relationships between high school students in class and at home.

Riverside Girls High School at Gladesville in Sydney's Northern Suburbs will lead the way this year in curbing nasty exchanges between students in cyberspace.

Principal Judy King and her staff have written programs for the harmony courses which initially will be aimed at students in the early years of high school.

A survey of Riverside students found some spent up to 30 hours a week networking on the internet.

One senior student spent four to five hours every night on social networking website Bebo when her mother thought she was doing homework.

"The intensity of the friendship groups and the fallout is worse in all schools because of cyberspace," Ms King said.

"So... we are going to concentrate on cyber citizenship – that's what the American teachers call it. And we're going to incorporate that into Year 7 and Year 8 ICT (Information and Communication Technologies)."

Cyber bullying is reaching epidemic proportions in schools with bullies and victims using websites such as Facebook and MySpace to trash other children's reputations, research has found.

A national study of up to 7500 students across 100 public and private schools commissioned by the Federal Government is about to lift the lid on "covert bullying".

The research shows families have been forced to move home because of the damage done to their children's reputations.

One teenager in the survey said: "I feel like sharks are circling me."

Dr Barbara Spears of the University of South Australia's School of Education said: "They are manipulating MySpace and Facebook to denigrate, exclude, isolate and humiliate. Kids feel unsafe, violated, threatened and powerless because of this – they are bewildered."

Education Minister John Della Bosca acknowledges this bullying is an issue for the entire community.
Character assassinations

The worst of cyber bullying:

A FIGHT between a high school student and a 15-year-old ex-pupil, which led to a brawl involving 15 students and watched by about 150 others, was recorded with a mobile phone and posted on YouTube

ON Bebo a Year 11 girl made death threats towards another girl, including bringing weapons to school

A WBESITE set up by two Year 7 students made derogatory remarks about pupils and teachers

A FORMER teacher at elite public school Hurlstone Agricultural High sued when a hate-filled website accused him of being a paedophile

Xbox 360 could get Blue-ray player

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:19:00 +0000

MICROSOFT could introduce Blu-ray support for the Xbox 360 gaming console if consumers wanted it, an executive said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Xbox 360 currently supports HD-DVD, the rival to Blu-ray in the high-definition DVD format wars. A HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360 can be bought separately to the console.

Group marketing manager for Xbox hardware Albert Penello said Microsoft would have to consider introducing a Blu-ray accessory in the event that HD-DVD failed.

"It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider," he said.

The surprise decision last week by Warner Bros, the top seller of home movies, to abandon the HD-DVD format in favor of Blu-ray should not affect sales of Xbox 360 consoles, Mr Penello said.

"I fundamentally don't think... this has a significant impact on Xbox 360 versus (Sony's) PlayStation 3," Mr Penello said.

"With the PlayStation 2, DVD was a big part in the beginning, but over time, people were not buying it as a DVD player after first year or two."

The Xbox 360 supports a plug-in HD-DVD accessory that is bought separately, while Sony, hoping to give its next-generation video format a leg up, built a Blu-ray player into its PlayStation 3 machine.

"You can't say it's not a bummer, not a setback, but I've seen this battle declared over so many times," Mr Penello said of the Warner Bros decision.

"I want consumers to have a voice in this and I think there are a lot of consumers who bought HD-DVD who are going to have a say in how this shakes out."

Warner Bros is the movie division of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc.

With Reuters

iPhone 'not arriving any time soon'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:54:00 +0000

THE iPhone will not be arriving on Australian shores any time soon, according to an independent phone retailer that has reviewed the product.

Crazy John's, Australia's largest independent phone retailer, reviewed the iPhone in a recent promotional magazine distributed in Australia.

Unfortunately the reviewed device does not indicate an impending release, according to Crazy John's head of sales and marketing Stephen Morley.

"I don't believe the product is imminent here in Australia," Mr Morley said.

Mr Morley said the handsets reviewed were not Australian models and that they were sourced from "partners in other markets".

"We've had several staff testing the product over the past 6-8 weeks.

"We test lots of products, regardless of if we'll be selling them or not."

The iPhone is already in Australia unofficially, due to consumers importing the device and performing unauthorised modifications for use on local networks.

In most countries where the iPhone has been released, Apple has chosen a single phone network to provide service for the handsets. iPhones can be "unlocked" to work on other networks, but doing so will void the phone's warranty.

Another type of software modification, known as a "jailbreak", allows users to install non-Apple software such as games on their iPhones – but also voids the warranty.

The handset pictured in the Crazy John's review appears to have been modified, as it has third-party applications on the screen and displays "Vodafone" in the status bar.

Apple has confirmed the iPhone will be released in Australia this year, but no further details about the date or the network have been provided.

The company is currently working on a second-generation 3G iPhone which would offer faster data transfer on local high-speed networks.

Vodafone said it expected the Australian release date to be delayed until the 3G model was available.

"Most handset manufacturers’ range of devices in market are designed to provide customers with high-speed access to content, such as mobile music, mobile TV and entertainment, within coverage areas," Vodafone said.

"Vodafone would be surprised to see an iPhone released in Australia before a 3G or HSPA-enabled model becomes available."

Last October Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said the carrier had been in talks with Apple, but there have been no confirmations from Apple or other networks about an Australian deal.

"Almost every supplier has big plans in the next six to 12 months with their version of an iPhone in response," Mr Trujillo said.

Spokespeople for Telstra, Optus, Three and Apple had no further details.

Thousands follow WWI soldier's fate on blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:45:00 +0000

THOUSANDS of people have been following the fate of a British soldier fighting in the trenches of World War I on a website publishing his letters home exactly 90 years after they were written.

Like William Henry Bonser ("Harry") Lamin's real family almost a century ago, the modern reader visiting the "Experiences Of An English Soldier" blog does not know when the next letter is coming, or whether the one they are reading is in fact the last.

Many are braced for the dreaded telegram from the army notifying relatives of a soldier's death.

"There are a lot of people saying how keen they are to follow him and are rooting for Harry," said Bill Lamin, the 59-year-old IT teacher who found his grandfather's letters when he was a boy and decided to turn them into a blog.

"They get hooked as if it is happening now. People are rooting for a guy who is in the thick of it," he said.

The most recent entries from Harry, who served with the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment, were on December 30, 1917, after he had moved from the battlefields of northern Europe to Italy.

He thanks his brother, Jack, for the box of biscuits he sent and wishes his sister Kate a happy Christmas and New Year.

Many of the letters are mundane and focus on his wife and child in England, but some offer a glimpse of the horrors of trench warfare that young men faced.

"We have had another terrible time this week," Harry wrote on June 11, 1917, when describing his part in the Battle of Messines Ridge.

"The men here say it was worst (sic) than the Somme advance last July. We lost a lot of men but we got where we were asked to take. It was awful I am alright got buried and knocked about but quite well now and hope to remain so.

"It is a rum job waiting for the time to come to go over the top without any rum too. The CO got killed and our captain, marvellous how we escaped."

In another entry from October the same year, details of British casualties are pencilled out, possibly by army censors seeking to maintain morale back home.

Mr Lamin said the daily number of visitors to his site reached about 20,000 last week after several media reports appeared, although the daily total was normally lower.

"World War I has always been fascinating for people, the horrors of it," he said.

Dozens of people have written to the site to comment on Harry's experiences, including many from the US.

One anonymous contributor wrote: "As a boy I was taught that war was glorious, I now know that it is exactly the opposite and will teach my children the same."

Mr Lamin would not give any clues as to Harry's fate, listing only his birth date as 1887.

ONLINE dating "sad and flustrating"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:31:00 +0000

ONLINE dating renews women's hope in love and sex but can be just as disappointing as the real-life dating scene, according to new Canadian research.

Susan Frohlick, an anthropology professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, says the women she surveyed gained a sense of empowerment from their online dating experiences.

But they still wanted the man to make the first move and expected him pick up the tab.

"Women are finding it as a useful tool to enter into the dating world, they find that it's safe, they find that they can be a little more bold than they would in face-to-face relationships," Ms Frohlick said of her survey, which looks at how women over 30 view online dating.

"But, at the same time, they are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene."

Complaints include a preponderance of men who are looking for much younger women, as well as men who misrepresent their looks, interests or marital status, or who show little interest in moving the relationship offline, she said.

"There's not much of a difference between the virtual world and the real world," said Linda, 33, a Toronto professional who has used an online dating site on and off, three or four times for a few months each time.

"It's sad and equally as frustrating."

Linda says she knows it can work out, noting that a friend met her husband after spending more than two years on different websites, but she admits she's given up on the game.

"At least when you're in the bar, you know what they look like," she said, citing examples of meeting bald men whose profile pictures displayed a full head of hair.

"A lot more successful, attractive women are using these tools – I don't think the men match up."

Lori Miller, a singles and dating expert for www.lavalife.com in Toronto, says dating via the web can mimic the bar scene. But it also gives women the chance to approach and meet dozens of men while knowing a little something about them beforehand.

"You're literally thrown into the largest singles bar," she said.

"It is a lot of work, it is the luck of the draw just like being in that coffee shop and meeting the one."

Ms Frohlick's small survey, to be completed in April, is questioning up to 25 Canadian women about their online dating habits. She hopes it will become a pilot for a far larger survey of women across North America.

Russia launches its own GPS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:27:00 +0000

RUSSIA successfully launched a rocket this week carrying the last three satellites to complete a navigation system to rival America's GPS.

The military-run GLONASS mapping system works over most of Russia and is expected to cover the globe by the end of 2009, once all its 24 navigational satellites are operating.

A space rocket blasted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome on the steppes of neighbouring ex-Soviet Kazakhstan, from which Russia rents the facility.

"The launch was carried out smoothly at 10:32 p.m. (6:32 a.m. EST)," RIA news agency quoted a spokesman for the Russian space agency as saying. "We expect satellites to separate from the booster on the orbit at 2:24 a.m. (10:34 a.m. EST)".

Work on GLONASS — or Global Navigation Satellite System — began in the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s to give its armed forces exact bearings around the world.

The collapse of the Russian economy in the late 1990s drained funds and the plans withered, but President Vladimir Putin has ensured the project is now being lavishly funded from a brimming government budget.

Officials said GLONASS would mainly be used alongside the US global positioning system, which Washington can switch off for civilian subscribers, as it did during recent military operations in Iraq.

Pirate movies and pirated music

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:19:00 +0000

US rap was the most illegally-downloaded genre of music in 2007, with three number one hits featuring singer Akon appearing in the list of popular downloads.

The most frequently traded song on file-sharing networks was Party Like A Rockstar by Atlanta-based rap group Shop Boyz, according to the study commissioned by Wired magazine.

Other songs in the top 10 included Senegalese-American rapper Akon's collaboration with Snoop Dogg, I Wanna Luv U, Don't Matter by Akon and Bartender by T-Pain featuring Akon.

All three songs featuring Akon reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart during late 2006 and 2007. The Billboard charts are compiled from radio airplay and sales.

Tracks by US rap and hip-hop artists DJ Unk, Soulja Boy, Mims and Sean Kingston were also in the list. The only pop song included was Justin Timberlake's My Love.

Akon, T-Pain, Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake also appeared in the list of most-downloaded artists, a combination of illegal album and singles downloads.

British rock group Radiohead, who released their seventh album In Rainbows as a download in October, did not appear on either list despite appearing prominently on BitTorrent websites.
Most-traded movies

The film Resident Evil: Extinction – based on a popular videogame – was the most popular movie on file-sharing networks, according to the study.

Other movies in the list included Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry, Ratatouille and Superbad.

Surprisingly, one of the year's biggest blockbusters Transformers was only seventh-placed. Other box-office hits Spiderman 3 and Shrek The Third did not appear at all.

The most-downloaded TV show was Heroes, followed by Prison Break, the BBC's Top Gear, Smallville and Desperate Housewives.

The study was undertaken by BigChampagne Online Media Measurement and tracked consumption trends across major peer-to-peer file-trading networks including BitTorrent, Gnutella and eDonkey.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing (also known as P2P) is a method of sharing large files without a central source. Instead of files being hosted on a server and downloaded by several users, files are shared between users directly.

BitTorrent is currently the most popular form of P2P file-sharing.

2012 - The Year of the Linux Mobile Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:45:00 +0000

According to a Computerworld Singapore report quoting newly published research, 2012 will be the year of the Linux mobile phone, with some 31 percent of all smart phones, or 331 million devices, running Linux. The prediction is based largely upon the fact that Linux has a much faster growth rate than either Symbian or Windows Mobile, some 75 percent year on year.

Symbian is probably likely to be the main casualty, as outside of the US (where it enjoys a market share of less than 10 percent) it claims in excess of 70 percent of the global smart phone business, although the majority of this is restricted to Europe. Things are already very different in Asia, where Linux has a 30 percent market share in China and Japan for example.

The main driver as far as mobile handsets are concerned would seem to be Motorola which has announced it plans to get Linux running on 60 percent of its devices within a two year time frame with the help of the newly created LiMo group.

Motorola has also just announced its Linux based RAZR2 V8 mobile phone handset which it showcased at LinuxWorld in San Francisco a few weeks ago. The Linux RAZR2 V8 has already shipped in India and Vietnam, and the US joins the list this week. It's an important push forward for the mobile Linux market, because this is no niche handset, no geek toy, but rather a mainstream multimedia phone replete with USB 2 connectivity, Windows Media Player 11 codec and an external touch screen display for text messaging. There's also the 2 MP camera with MPEG4 video, and an 8x zoom. The quad-band global support, and a decent HTML browser.

Priced at around $500, perhaps the year of the Linux mobile has actually already arrived.

Apple rumour site to shut down

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:43:00 +0000

APPLE and a popular website that published company secrets about the maker of the Mac, the iPhone and the iPod have reached a settlement that calls for the site to shut down.

Apple and the site, ThinkSecret.com, settled the suit, which Apple filed in January 2005, and no sources were revealed, Apple and ThinkSecret said in statements.

College student Nick Ciarelli, ThinkSecret's publisher, said he plans to move on. He started the site at 13.

"I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits," he said in his statement.

California-based Apple filed its suit after ThinkSecret published details of a stripped-down Macintosh computer called the Mac mini two weeks before the product was launched formally.

"We are pleased to have reached this amicable settlement and happy to have this behind us," an Apple spokesman said.

Other Mac rumour sites are still going strong, with MacRumors.com claiming that Apple may be revealing an ultra-portable notebook in early January.

Hollywood icon to create videogames

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:34:00 +0000

THE blockbuster producer behind films such as Pirates Of The Caribbean and Top Gun will try his hand at creating videogames in a joint venture announced by MTV.

Jerry Bruckheimer, the creator of TV shows including CSI and Cold Case, has signed a deal with MTV to form a videogame studio that would compete with industry giants Activision and Electronic Arts.

The planned studio would be co-owned by Bruckheimer and MTV and work on original games from concept to production and marketing, reported Kotaku.

"Video games represent a new and innovative medium for what we've always tried to do, which is to tell great stories. But this medium is unique in that it gives the player control over how those stories unfold," Bruckheimer said.
Jeff Yapp of MTV said the company were interested in Bruckheimer's storytelling talents and would seek to produce original concepts with him rather than spin-offs based on his previous work.

"What I wanted was his ability to tell a story that uniquely connects to an audience and now to give him a new set of tools," Mr Yapp said in an interview with MTV's gaming blog Multiplayer.
MTV takes on Activision

MTV has this year been competing with Activision for a slice of the music-based game market with its answer to the successful Guitar Hero series, Rock Band.

Rock Band, released in November, was developed by Harmonix, which also developed the first two Guitar Hero titles before being purchased by MTV in 2006.

Entertainment company RedOctane, which owns the rights to the Guitar Hero series, was bought by Activision in the same year.
Merging films and games

Also released this year was the game Stranglehold, developed by Chicago studio Midway Games in collaboration with acclaimed Chinese action director John Woo.

Stranglehold was marketed as an interactive sequel to Woo's 1992 film Hard Boiled and allowed gamers to play as Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, the protagonist of the film, and follow a storyline that began where Hard Boiled ended.

The appearance of Inspector Yuen in Stranglehold was modeled on actor Chow Yun Fat, who played the same role in the film.

In 2005 Steven Spielberg announced a deal with Electronic Arts to develop three original games, but as of yet none have been released. The company is expected to release more information on the collaborations early next year.

Record spending on Xmas gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:08:00 +0000

FRANTIC Christmas shoppers will spend $800 million across Australia today in a desperate spending spree to stock up on last-minute presents, food and alcohol.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal today's shopping bonanza is expected to cap a record year of yuletide spending, with Australians forking out $36.5 billion in the six weeks leading up to Christmas.

Figures released by the Australian Retailers Association show that shoppers in NSW alone are expected to spend $296million on last-minute Christmas gifts and food in retail stores today.

And experts yesterday said that leading the last-minute Christmas shopping rush will be men.

The huge spending follows bumper sales at the weekend, with shoppers taking advantage of extended trading hours at department stores and markets across Sydney and the state.

"It'll be a healthy Christmas for retailers, who want their cash registers ringing long and loud," the Australian Retailers Association's executive director Richard Evans said.

Department stores are expecting a huge trading day today, with shoppers splurging on this year's popular items including GPS trackers and PlayStation3 consoles.

David Jones spokesman Paul Zahra said more than one million customers were expected to shop at stores nationwide between Saturday morning and tonight.

Myer stores across Sydney have also recorded big spending from consumers on electronics such as iPods, and strong sales for gift cards and fashion accessories.

The Sydney Fish Market is today expected to record its busiest day of the year, with police on duty to cope with the large crowds.

A spokeswoman said 80,000 people were expected to visit the market during the 36-hour trading period from Saturday morning until this evening, with fishmongers selling more than 800 tonnes of seafood.

The Australian Retailers Association attributed today's anticipated shopping crush to the fact that some 60 per cent of Australians leave their gift purchasing until Christmas Eve.

Consumer behaviour expert Stephen Downes said more men would be in stores today buying last-minute gifts. Dr Downes said while women spent more time buying presents, men spent more money.

"Men are characterised as 'grab and go' in their shopping behaviour," he said

Game Blamed For Death

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:53:00 +0000

THE popular fighting game Mortal Kombat is being linked to the death of a seven-year-old girl in Johnstown, Colorado.

The game series, first published by Midway in 1992, is receiving criticism following an incident in which two teenagers apparently imitated the game during an assault that ended in death.

Lamar Roberts, 17, and Heather Trujillo, 16, have been charged as adults with felony child abuse causing death after beating Ms Trujillo's younger half-sister, Zoe Garcia, on December 6th.

The incident occurred as the teenagers babysat Trujillo's half-sister while their mother was at work. They both allege that the girl lost consciousness following a wrestling game, and their attempts to resuscitate her failed.

According to the autopsy, Garcia's body had more than 20 bruises, swelling of the brain, and bleeding in her neck muscles and under her spine.

Media reports are dubbing this incident "the Mortal Kombat death", saying that the girl's horrific injuries were caused by Roberts and Trujillo imitating moves from the game.

But the police affidavit, published by The Denver Channel, does not clearly link the game to the physical assault.

In the affidavit, Roberts alleges that he was downstairs playing videogames while the girls wrestled upstairs.

Trujillo alleges that "she and the victim had been wrestling, playing 'Mortal Combat'."

There is no clarification whether "Mortal Combat" is the misspelt videogame title or a term for rough play. The affidavit describes the alleged wrestling moves in detail, but does not link them specifically to the fighting game.

The affidavit doesn't include any further statements about the game, or what game Roberts was allegedly playing downstairs.

This one reference has placed Mortal Kombat at the centre of a media storm about videogame violence.

Roberts and Trujillo are awaiting trial in Weld County jail. If convicted, they face up to 48 years in prison.

Online Dating Site Offers DNA Matching

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:43:00 +0000

AN online dating website that compares the DNA of its customers promises a more satisfying sex life and healthier children for couples who are genetically matched.

Scientific Match helps singles find their "genetic match" by analysing their DNA and recommending a partner who has different immune system genes than themselves for a subscription fee of $US1995 ($2323) per year.

"Welcome to a new era of human relationships. We're the only introduction service that creates matches with actual physical chemistry," the website's homepage says.

After signing up to the website, clients are sent a DNA collection kit containing cheek-swabs and a pre-paid return envelope. Their saliva samples are then processed and they are matched with other users whose genetic profiles are different to their own.
Scientific Match claims the benefits of its matching process are a sexier smelling partner, more satisfying sex, healthier babies and a higher number of orgasms for women.

The US company, owned by Love Sciences, currently provides the service to singles in areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.
The future of dating?

Scientific Match says its service is based on the theory people with different immune systems breed "healthier" babies who have a wider variety of immune system genes.

"Since nature’s goal is to perpetuate the species, it encourages us to mate with others who have immune systems different from our own," the company says.

Among the studies referenced to support the theory is a 1995 experiment that found women were attracted to the scents of men with different immune systems.

In that study, led by Claus Wedekind and Dustin Penn at the University of Utah, women were asked to smell T-shirts worn by different men and rate their appeal.

"Nature attracts us to our genetic matches with our noses. The fact is, we love how other people smell when their immune systems are different from ours," Scientific Match says.

The company's founder Eric Holzle told CNET he believed genetic matching would "dominate the future of dating services", but the website was derided by one expert.

"(It) sounds like a complete and utter rip-off that preys on people's lack of knowledge of causation and correlation," said geneticist Dean Hamer from the US National Cancer Institute.
'Age of the Genome'

Scientific Match isn't the only website to offer a service based on DNA analysis. Last month Wired magazine ran a cover story about the "Age of the Genome", discussing websites that offer people an overview of their genetic profiles.

For about $US1000 ($1164) companies such as 23andMe and Navigenics analyse customers' DNA and allow them view the results online, including overviews of their inherited traits and talents and their predispositions towards various diseases.

23andMe, named after the 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain DNA, also allows family members to sign up together and trace their genealogy.

One of the problems with offering advice based on genetic profiles is that disease risks are often associated with a combination of genetic variations rather than just one, the magazine reported.

Journalist Thomas Goetz said the experience of browsing through his genetic profile was "simultaneously unsettling, illuminating and empowering".

"There's nothing intuitive about navigating your genome," he said after spitting into a cup and having his DNA analysed.

"It requires not just a new vocabulary but also a new conception of personhood. Scrape below the skin and we're flesh and bone; scrape below that and we're code."

Looking Ahead - Technology in 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:16:00 +0000

SMARTER mobile phones, smaller memory sticks, flashing T-shirts and barcodes on every corner: a look into the world of technology in 2008.

Leaner chips for smaller PCs, smarter phones

When Apple released the iPhone, they proved you can develop a mobile phone with an easy to use interface in a sleek, sexy package.

But one of the most exciting features of the iPhone is that it functions like a computer - a true smartphone.

This has been made possible by the development of smarter, smaller, less power hungry computer chips, and the field is set for even better models.

Intel's Silverthorne 45nm processor, scheduled for release in the first half of 2008, delivers computer performance comparable to a desktop or laptop computer, on a 74mm x 143mm sized motherboard.
The Silverthorne processor uses 10 times less power than today's low power processors and can work alongside WiFi, 3G and WiMAX.

Expect many more smart phones, including the Australian version of the iPhone, and an avalanche of paperback-sized laptops to hit the market in 2008.

More bytes for your data

As computer processors get smaller, so does the physical size of computer memory, but there is a limit.

As the components become more cramped, they create more heat and cause weird quantum effects to occur.

Fortunately researchers at the Centre for Applied Nanoionics have made a breakthrough.

By using trace amounts of copper, mixed with Msilicon, they believe they can develop flash memory sticks that will hold terabytes, or thousands of gigabytes.

While it may be sometime later this decade before we see terabyte-sized memory in the stores, an alternative that is sure to appear in 2008 is remote storage.

Remote data storage frees up space on a hard drive and acts as a back-up in case the computer is stolen or destroyed.

Several companies such as Apple's .Mac and Symantec's Norton 360 already offer remote data storage, but with Google looking at offering a similar product, expect to see this area grow rapidly.

The end of the plain old telephone

For the past few years Voice over IP (VoIP) has been little more than a cheap way to make phone calls. However, the introduction of Naked DSL (broadband with a conventional phone service) to Australia, and the rapid growth of wireless internet, will see many VoIP providers offer these services as more people migrate across from the traditional plain old telephone service (POTS).

Services that should appear in the near future include voicemail delivered to your email inbox, fax converted and emailed as pdf documents, and the ability to direct multiple phone numbers to the one handset.

Radio goes digital

Expect to hear a bit about digital radio ahead of its official start date of January 1, 2009.

Digital radio will allow radio stations to broadcast multiple channels, along with images and data, such as radar images during the weather, or pictures of artists during a song.

Despite it being available in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Australian broadcasters have elected to wait until the release of DAB+ (digital audio broadcast), which provides better audio quality.

A number of manufacturers have indicated they will have DAB+ products ready for sale during 2008, including a plug-in which would allow listeners to tune into digital radio through an iPod.

The book is dead...

Reading text on a screen always seems harder than reading it on paper, which probably explains why electronic books haven't taken off.

But this hasn't stopped online book store Amazon having a go with its electronic book named Kindle.

The Kindle uses a unique electronic ink technology to produce a screen display that mimics the appearance of print on paper.

The screen is not backlit, to extend battery life, and the text can be easily read under most lighting conditions, indoors and out.

Users can download books through Amazon's WhisperNet, which operates via a mobile phone network, which are charged to an Amazon account.

Kindle can be configured to automatically download newspapers and magazine, and can play MP3 files and Audible spoken word books.

At this stage there is no word on when it will be released in Australia.

...Long live the book

But don't bemoan the death of the paperback just yet.

The Espresso Book Machine can produce a made-to-order book in minutes.

Also known as the "ATM book machine", it uses a black and white printer to produce the pages of a book from a PDF file, while a colour copier prints the cover on heavier stock.

Once the pages are printed, an electronically controlled clamp pulls the pages together, glues, trims and delivers the finished product out of a slot at the bottom.

The machine has been developed specifically to produce out-of-print books, and is being showcased around North America. If the concept takes off, you may end up seeing them in most libraries and bookstores around the world.

Devices talk wirelessly, faster

Universal Serial Bus (USB) has cemented itself as the standard for transferring files from one device to another, but in 2008 you can expect to see some new features.

Wireless USB uses ultra-wideband radio to deliver transfer rates of 480Mbps at a distance of three metres; comparable to wired USB 2.0, and several hundred times faster than Bluetooth.

It will soon be available in North America, Japan, Europe and Korea, but is yet to get the final tick in Australia.

Also in the pipeline is USB 3.0, which will use a combination of copper wire and fibre optic to provide transfer rates of 4.8 gigabits a second, 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard.

A high definition movie, which is about 27GB, would take just 70 seconds to transfer using USB 3.0, compared to 14 minutes using USB 2.0.

The USB 3.0 specification is due in the first half of 2008, and it is expected to become available for use in 2009.

Watching you everywhere you go

Despite the Global Positioning System (GPS) network existing for more than a decade, its use in everyday applications is only just coming to the fore.

From mobile phones, to cars and aircraft, GPS devices help us determine where we are, much quicker and more accurately than using a paper map. But GPS is also being used to help others find our location.

MySpot, recently launched in Australia, gives users the ability to send an alert message from their mobile phone when they press a "panic button", or if they fail to respond to a set alarm.

The phone sends an SMS, or text-to-voice message, with the its GPS position that can then be used to locate the user. The service is being targeted at parents, hikers and security firms.

In the United States, Verizon Wireless' Chaperone Child Locator allows parents to track where their children are via their mobile phone.

Parents can locate where their child is, or when they arrive or leave a particular destination, such as school, sporting practice or a friend's house.

Barcoded information

Telstra is currently trialling a new barcode system called Mobicode, which is already in use in Japan.

Squares made up of black and white boxes contain encoded text and numbers, similar to barcodes on consumer packaging.

Users activate the mobicode reader on their phone and point the camera at the code. The application captures an image, decodes the mobicode and acts accordingly.

Mobicodes could be used to offer discounts on products and services, linked to mobile websites, or upload contact details stored on the back of a business card.

In one example, a mobicode offers a 25 per cent discount at a fast food chain, and then displays the nearest locations on map on the user's mobile phone.

Dating singles could wear a Mobicode on their clothing with their contact details encoded, or a link their RSVP online dating page, which they allow prospective dates to photograph.

If the trial is successful, Telstra hopes to roll it out across the country in 2008.

Wearable electronics

Clothes aren't always just going to be about looking good, or even just feeling comfortable.

Nanotechnology is allowing researchers to develop electronic fibres that can be woven into fabrics, with some interesting applications.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have developed stretchable, threadlike sensors that can be woven into shirts to alert the wearers when they're slouching at a desk.

Australia's CSIRO have also incorporated sensors in a knee sleeve, which alert football players before they overstretch, and into a shirt known as the wearable air guitar.

Graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab have developed black plastic badges worn around the neck that could be used to detect mental depression, based on how a person interacts during a conversation.

Dutch electronics company Philips have recently commercialised a fabric called Lumalive, which contains special light emitting diodes (LED) integrated into fabric. The Lumalive fabric turns clothes and furniture into a live display or billboard on which any text, animation or moving images can be displayed.

Other devices nearing commercial release include fabric with built-in sensors and heaters to reduce the threat of hypothermia, and boots with heels that can generate small amounts of electricity with each step, which can be used to charge your MP3 player - a technology already being tested by the military.

Bionic Balls For Smart Refs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:14:00 +0000

A NEW "bionic ball" being tested at the Club World Cup in Japan could soon be a regular feature at FIFA tournaments, its developers say.

The technology, involving magnetic sensors that determine if the micro-chipped ball has crossed the goal line, has worked well so far, according to co-designers adidas and Cairos.

The developers added that feedback from the players at the seven-team competition had been positive.

"We are very satisfied," adidas's chief of FIFA Affairs Gunter Pfau told a news conference in Tokyo to demonstrate the ball's qualities. "No ball was damaged. All the systems have worked."

An implanted microchip sends an instant signal to the referee's wristwatch to indicate if the whole of the ball has crossed the line.

FIFA hope the breakthrough will eliminate controversy and want to use the technology at the 2010 World Cup if the prototype proves 100 percent reliable.

Earlier difficulties with chips becoming loose have been addressed, adidas said, adding that the ball was stress-tested to seven times the force of gravity.

Arguments over whether the ball has crossed the goal line have raged for years, Geoff Hurst's disputed goal for England in the 1966 World Cup final against Germany arguably the most famous example.

Hurst smashed a shot against the crossbar and the ball bounced downwards. It was unclear if it had crossed the line but the referee awarded a goal after consulting his linesman.

England won the game 4-2 but many German fans still debate the validity of Hurst's goal.

"We're not trying to change history," Mr Pfau said, using a photograph of Hurst's goal in his demonstration.

"This technology is for more transparency and to support the referee in making more accurate decisions."

'w00t' is word of the year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:47:00 +0000

"w00t," an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year by the publisher of a leading dictionary.

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster announced "w00t" - typically spelled with two zeros -reflects a new direction in language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.

It' was like saying "yay," the dictionary company said.

"It could be after a triumph or for no reason at all," Merriam-Webster said.
What's your favourite word of the year? Tell us in the comment box below.

Visitors to Merriam-Webster's website were invited to vote for one of 20 words and phrases culled from the most frequently looked-up words on the site and submitted by readers.
Runner-up was "facebook" as a new verb meaning to add someone to a list of friends on Facebook.com or to search for people on the social networking site.

Merriam-Webster president John Morse said "w00t" reflected the growing use of numeric keyboards to type words.

"People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A," he said.

"This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character."

One website, www.thinkgeek.com, already sells T-shirts with the word "w00t" printed on the front.

"w00t belongs to gamers the world over. It seems to have been derived from the obsolete 'whoot' which essentially is another way to say 'hoot' which itself is a shout or derisive laugh," ThinkGeek said on its website.

"But others maintain that w00t is the sound several players make while jumping like bunnies in Quake III," it added, referring to a popular video game.

Most theories about the word's origins come from gaming - it may be an abbreviation of "we owned the other team", or "wow, loot!".

But another theory claims that it is a hacker term for administrator (or "root") access to a computer.

Online gamers often replace numbers and symbols with letters to form what Merriam-Webster calls an "esoteric computer hacker language" known as "1337" or "l33t speak." This translates into "leet", which is short for "elite".

A separate survey of words used in the media and on the internet by California-based Global Language Monitor produced a different set of winners.

"Hybrid" took top honours as word of the year with "climate change" the top phrase.

Global Language Monitor, which uses an algorithm to track words and phrases in the media and on the internet, said "hybrid" had broad connotations of "all things green from biodiesel to wearing clothes made of soy to global warming."

Runner-up was "surge," based on the "surge" of 30,000 extra US troops deployed to Iraq since mid-June, followed by the word "Bluetooth," a technology used to connect electronic devices via radio waves.

"The English language is becoming more and more a globalised language every year," said Global Language Monitor president Paul Payack, noting that this year's list included words also culled from India, Singapore, China and Australia.

Adult shops fight Christian sect

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:29:00 +0000

From www.news.com.au

THE adult-entertainment industry has declared war on the fundamentalist Exclusive Brethren sect for allegedly infiltrating local councils.

The Canberra-based Eros Association says the conservative Christian group is bankrolling legal challenges to halt the spread of adult stores.

The accusations come after a group of Exclusive Brethren business leaders offered to fund Lithgow City Council's Supreme Court fight against a development application for a sex shop.

The Department of Local Government gave the offer a green light, claiming councils were allowed to "accept donations from third parties" - a clause critics say amounts to sanctioned bribery.

Flirt Adult Store owner Jeff Oliver won an appeal in the Land and Environment Court after the council refused him planning permission to set up shop in Lithgow's main street.

According to council and independent correspondence, local members of the Exclusive Brethren offered to fund the council's appeal against the court ruling.

The council was prepared to accept the money after the Department of Local Government decreed there was no legal impediment to it "accepting a donation from a third party".

It decided not to pursue the appeal, however, and the Flirt Adult Store was allowed to open.

About 100 members of the Exclusive Brethren live in the Lithgow area.

"There is increasing evidence that the Exclusive Brethren have infiltrated other morals groups around the nation and have embarked on a national campaign to stop adult retail shops from opening," Eros co-ordinator Robbie Swan said.

"There is also increasing evidence that their members are secretly being elected to local councils, with moral agendas their main reason for being there.

"There's an urgent need for a national enquiry into just how far this 'entryism' has gone and to what extent local government decisions on moral matters have been compromised by this cult."

Lithgow councillor Martin Ticehurst said he was disturbed by the fact it was perfectly legal for councils to accept money from groups such as the Brethren that wanted to influence outcomes.

"It's not just the involvement of religious groups that concerns me. Councils should not be allowed to accept money from any activist group," Mr Ticehurst said.

"It could be perceived as a form of bribery, and I think it's potentially dangerous."

The sect, which does not allow its members to vote, is known for its large donations to the Liberal Party.

Google and the Wisdom of Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:25:00 +0000

From BusinessWeek.com

One simple question. That's all it took for Christophe Bisciglia to bewilder confident job applicants at Google (GOOG). Bisciglia, an angular 27-year-old senior software engineer with long wavy hair, wanted to see if these undergrads were ready to think like Googlers. "Tell me," he'd say, "what would you do if you had 1,000 times more data?"

What a strange idea. If they returned to their school projects and were foolish enough to cram formulas with a thousand times more details about shopping or maps or—heaven forbid—with video files, they'd slow their college servers to a crawl.

At that point in the interview, Bisciglia would explain his question. To thrive at Google, he told them, they would have to learn to work—and to dream—on a vastly larger scale. He described Google's globe-spanning network of computers. Yes, they answered search queries instantly. But together they also blitzed through mountains of data, looking for answers or intelligence faster than any machine on earth. Most of this hardware wasn't on the Google campus. It was just out there, somewhere on earth, whirring away in big refrigerated data centers. Folks at Google called it "the cloud." And one challenge of programming at Google was to leverage that cloud—to push it to do things that would overwhelm lesser machines. New hires at Google, Bisciglia says, usually take a few months to get used to this scale. "Then one day, you see someone suggest a wild job that needs a few thousand machines, and you say: Hey, he gets it.'"

What recruits needed, Bisciglia eventually decided, was advance training. So one autumn day a year ago, when he ran into Google CEO Eric E. Schmidt between meetings, he floated an idea. He would use his 20% time, the allotment Googlers have for independent projects, to launch a course. It would introduce students at his alma mater, the University of Washington, to programming at the scale of a cloud. Call it Google 101. Schmidt liked the plan. Over the following months, Bisciglia's Google 101 would evolve and grow. It would eventually lead to an ambitious partnership with IBM (IBM), announced in October, to plug universities around the world into Google-like computing clouds.

As this concept spreads, it promises to expand Google's footprint in industry far beyond search, media, and advertising, leading the giant into scientific research and perhaps into new businesses. In the process Google could become, in a sense, the world's primary computer.

"I had originally thought [Bisciglia] was going to work on education, which was fine," Schmidt says late one recent afternoon at Google headquarters. "Nine months later, he comes out with this new [cloud] strategy, which was completely unexpected." The idea, as it developed, was to deliver to students, researchers, and entrepreneurs the immense power of Google-style computing, either via Google's machines or others offering the same service.

What is Google's cloud? It's a network made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates 1 million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes. It stores staggering amounts of data, including numerous copies of the World Wide Web. This makes search faster, helping ferret out answers to billions of queries in a fraction of a second. Unlike many traditional supercomputers, Google's system never ages. When its individual pieces die, usually after about three years, engineers pluck them out and replace them with new, faster boxes. This means the cloud regenerates as it grows, almost like a living thing.

A move towards clouds signals a fundamental shift in how we handle information. At the most basic level, it's the computing equivalent of the evolution in electricity a century ago when farms and businesses shut down their own generators and bought power instead from efficient industrial utilities. Google executives had long envisioned and prepared for this change. Cloud computing, with Google's machinery at the very center, fit neatly into the company's grand vision, established a decade ago by founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." Bisciglia's idea opened a pathway toward this future. "Maybe he had it in his brain and didn't tell me," Schmidt says. "I didn't realize he was going to try to change the way computer scientists thought about computing. That's a much more ambitious goal."

Fastest-Growing Tech Companies of 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:26:00 +0000

Via BusinessWeek.com

Companies connected to the chip sector have been among the biggest drivers of technology industry growth in 2007. Four of this year's 10 fastest-growing tech companies manufacture semiconductors or the materials used to make them, according to a ranking of companies with the fastest gains in share price, sales, and profits and the largest returns on equity.

Cypress Semiconductor finished fourth, after Google (GOOG), AT&T (T), and Apple (AAPL), in BusinessWeek.com's annual Hot Tech Growth 75 ranking. Nvidia, MEMC Electronic Materials, and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates claimed the sixth, seventh, and eighth spots, respectively.
Pass the Chips, Please

What puts so many chipmakers and their suppliers at the top of the heap? Demand for chips is up, fueled by robust purchases of personal computers and mobile phones. PC shipments are expected to finish the year 13% higher than in 2006, according to researcher Gartner (IT), and consumers are expected to buy as many as 1.1 billion wireless phones, up 13% from the 990 million sold last year, says research firm iSuppli.

Competitive pricing among some of the industry's biggest players, including Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Texas Instruments (TXN), kept them out of the upper growth ranks.

Instead, some of the biggest beneficiaries are the smaller companies that supply the highly specialized, crucial materials needed to build chips. Consider silicon, one of a chip's most basic components. One of the prime suppliers is MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR), based far from Silicon Valley, in St. Peters, Mo., about a 30-minute drive from St. Louis.
MEMC Rides the Roller Coaster

Spun off from Monsanto (MON) in 1959, MEMC seemed little more than a footnote to the heady boom-and-bust cycles that marked the semiconductor sector in the mid-1990s. As chipmakers such as Intel and Texas Instruments ramped up production to meet the needs of PC and cell-phone makers, they needed more and more of MEMC's silicon wafers, the dinner-plate-size discs from which individual chips are made. As chip manufacturing surged, MEMC's revenues soared, from $552 million 1993 to $1.1 billion in 1996.

The bust came just as suddenly. After overestimating demand, MEMC's fortunes took a nosedive in 1997, and sales fell for six straight years, bottoming out at $687 million in 2002. "The wafer industry was just a train wreck during those years," says analyst Paul Leming of Soleil-Princeton Tech.

Enter Nabeel Gareeb, who, after a 10-year stint at International Rectifier (IRF), joined MEMC as chief executive in 2002 and quickly set about repairing a business model he describes as "badly broken." Gareeb says when he took the job, every dollar MEMC spent on capital expenditures returned only 60¢ in revenue. "We needed gross margins of more than 50% just to break even, and it just wasn't working," he says. Today a dollar spent on cap expenditures at MEMC yields $1.50 in revenue.
The Sun Shines on MEMC

Gareeb's arrival at MEMC was timely: Turns out the polysilicon used in chip wafers also is used in solar panels, which have been in high demand recently, spurred in part by government subsidies in Germany and Japan (BusinessWeek.com, 9/7/06). Demand for silicon is as high now as it's ever been. Spot prices for a kilogram of polysilicon (or simply "poly," as insiders call it) averaged $10 in 2000, but top $200 now.

Gareeb says solar-related business now accounts for nearly 20% of MEMC's sales. On Oct. 25 the company announced a 10-year deal worth more than $7 billion to supply wafers to German solar-power concern Conergy
Can MEMC keep it up? Analysts expect MEMC to clock north of $1.9 billion in sales this year and to report $3.29 in earnings per share, more than double the $1.60 it reported last year. But Soleil-Princeton's Leming wonders how long Germany can afford to subsidize solar power. "The way Germany has structured it, it has guaranteed pricing in the solar-panel business as far as the eye can see," he says. "But Germany is going to realize that it can't afford this forever."
One Wafer at a Time

Betting on solar power as the demand driver for silicon would have appeared a long shot a decade ago. Another company reaping the benefits of a long-shot bet is Varian Semiconductor (VSEA). Its specialty, ion implant gear, sounds arcane, but it's paying off in a big way, with sales expected to reach $1.1 billion this year, up from $730 million in 2006.

Ion implanting is a crucial step in the chipmaking process. Varian Chief Financial Officer Robert Halliday describes it as "blasting a silicon wafer with a high-pressure spray-paint gun," to implant specific molecules precisely where they're needed. In 2003, when chipmakers typically implanted ions on several wafers at once, Varian made a contrarian wager that it would eventually need to process one wafer at a time. Why? Ion implanting on individual wafers increases the precision with which molecules can be placed, eliminating the unintended damage that can happen when many wafers are processed at once.

Varian's risky maneuver took time to pay off, says analyst Weston Twigg of Pacific Crest Securities. "They came out with this process earlier than their competitors and were able to tune and refine their process," he says. The results speak for themselves: Applied Materials (AMAT), the $9 billion chip manufacturing gear giant, announced in February it was exiting the ion implant business. Since then, Varian's share of the business has soared to north of 60%, up from 43% last year, says Twigg.
Cypress and Nvidia Share in the Sector's Spoils

Cypress Semiconductor (CY)—one of the fast-growing companies that actually makes chips—has certainly profited from the demand for semiconductors, though it owes much of its recent success to an equity stake in solar power concern SunPower (SPWR), which makes and installs solar cells and panels. Cypress also benefits from demand for the Apple iPod: Cypress' Programmable System-on-Chip business is behind the iPod click wheel. The Cypress chip notes how the finger is moving on the click wheel and translates that information into a computer command, such as "more volume" or "next song."

The sixth-fastest-growing tech company is $3 billion graphics chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA). Intel and AMD get much of the credit for pushing the computational power envelope. But the often overlooked yet hugely important components in today's graphics-heavy PCs are the graphics processors from Nvidia and its AMD-owned rival, ATI. Playing games, watching video, and editing photos are all made easier by graphics processors.

Nvidia is the brand of choice among gaming enthusiasts who customize their own machines, but Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell (DELL), and Apple are big Nvidia customers, too. Nvidia's share of the market for graphics chips in notebook computers has grown to north of 80% in the last year, according to analyst Doug Freedman of American Technology Research.
From Laptops to Handhelds

At least part of Nvidia's growth this year can be attributed to stumbles by AMD, which has struggled to integrate ATI and has lost business that Nvidia has been all too happy to take, says Freedman. "ATI couldn't get products out that were very competitive, and that opened the floodgates for Nvidia," he says. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang cautions against attributing too much of his company's success to ATI's troubles: "I'd have to ask how much our leadership position actually led to the merger of AMD and ATI," he says. "We were ramping up and became very successful before that merger."

Nvidia's next challenge? Handheld computing. This year it closed a deal to acquire PortalPlayer, the chip company that made its name supplying chips for the iPod. PortalPlayer is a building block in Nvidia's new strategy to attack the handheld computing market. "Eventually all these mobile devices are going to evolve into the first true computer in your hand," Huang says. "We believe they're going to be a lot more common in the next decade."

Google unveils its application about iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:13:00 +0000

GOOGLE plans to release an application for Apple's iPhone that combines the company's web services such as email, search and calendar into a single interface.

Google, which aims to replicate its success in desktop computer web use on mobile phones, said the new application would make it easier to find, use and switch between its services on the iPhone.

The company is also working to develop new mobile technologies that are faster, easier to use, and available on more devices – but it did not give details.

Other efforts to expand in wireless include the announcement last week that Google would bid in an upcoming US wireless airwaves auction to launch a wireless network, pitting it against established providers Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the exclusive US carrier for iPhone.

In a separate project, Google is also developing an operating system for mobile phones known as Android and based on open source Linux technology. It has about 30 partners including carriers and phone makers supporting the project.
The iPhone, with its touch-screen and full web browser, became the most talked about mobile phone this year when it went on sale in the US in June.

Google Maps and YouTube were among the first applications available on iPhone. Apple said last month that it would allow outside developers to create software for iPhone and that it planned to make a developers kit available in February.

What's the Future of Flatscreens?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:56:00 +0000

THE flatscreen market is changing shape as rear-projection models take a back seat to LCD and plasma screens.

In a move that reflects the future of the flat-screen market, manufacturer Seiko Epson has pulled out of the rear-projection TV market.

Seiko Epson said it had halted production and sales of its rear-projection TVs, becoming the latest company to distance itself from a technology once seen as a promising rival of LCD and plasma televisions.

Seiko Epson will focus resources on front projectors, but it is not withdrawing from the rear-projection TV business and will continue its research and development activities for rear-projection models, a company spokesman announced.

Demand for rear-projection TVs, which were once dominant in the large-sized flat TV market, has been dwindling as electronics makers in recent years started offering larger and cheaper LCD and plasma models.

Seiko Epson said it had aimed to sell about 11,000 units of rear-projection TVs in its first year of operations, though it did not give actual sales figures. The company started selling rear-projection TVs in 2004.

Man vexed not sexed by text message

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:50:00 +0000

A New Zealand woman who sent a naked man to the wrong house on the promise of a good time has been charged with misusing a telephone, local media has reported.

The 17-year-old woman sent the man an enticing text message offering him an early Christmas present in the shape of two friendly women and suggested he take off his clothes to save time, the Manawatu Standard reported.

The 31-year old man wasted no time in arriving at the house, and took off his clothes and threw them through the window before entering.

But it was the wrong house and the householder did not see the funny side. The police were called and the man arrested for being unlawfully on a property.

The woman, who sent the tempting but deliberately wayward message, was also tracked down and charged for misusing a phone.

Both the man and the woman escaped prosecution and were cautioned and put on good behavior bonds.