V4 N40 -  13 March 2005

iTHINK ZONE
 

MICHAEL POWELL's EXIT

Michael Powell is the only regulator who deregulated before something was regulated. He has been a refreshing FCC Commissioner since his
1998 appointment (and Chairman since 2001), usually taking the side of the consumer and small business. A key advocate for the mobile phone prortability made him a hero to most of us. In a recent PBS interview, Powell said "Every single area that we have regulatory oversight for is in the midst of its most profound revolution ever, whether it be television or transition to high definition television, whether it be the deployment of broadband services over cable infrastructure, the increased use of satellite, television competition, telephone competition. All of those areas are at their most significant crossroads and inflection points. Whether we like it or not, we're right in the center of this information revolution for consumers. "

READ ON
http://cyberzone.pacific-tier.com/iThink.htm
[Posted March 10 ]

INNOVATION ZONE

WHAT MATTERS MOST DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU ARE Global village was always an idealistic oxymoron. Politically, culturally, and economically, the differences among nations loom far larger than any differences that might exist among neighborhoods made up of small clutches of homes and shops.  World Changing Ideas. Inventive people everywhere are creating technologies for a shrinking planet. Click on any of the countries to read first hand accounts about emerging technologies from around the globe.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/04/issue/feature_gp.asp?trk=nl

INTEL GAZES INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL
Intel's goal is to change the way human beings interact with technology. "Instead of the clunky user interfaces like keyboards used today, we can have conversations with our technology devices,"  explained Justin Rattner, Intel senior fellow and director of the corporate technology group.
http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=30938

CYCORP: THE COST OF COMMON SENSE
Ask most companies how they bring value to the market and theyll point to their products. Cycorp is a bit different. The 10-year-old company bakrolls its true quest: creating a 'knowledge base' that can endow computers with something approaching common sense.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/03/issue/brief_cycorp.asp?trk=nl

THE BLEEDING EDGE OF COMPUTING
Already, computers can "see and hear the world from our perspective through microphones and cameras on wearable eyepieces and headsets.
Soon, our computers might be able to observe what we do all day ...  and act as a virtual assistant who helps us on a second-by-second basis."
http://www.newsfactor.com/hardware/story.xhtml?story_title=The-Bleeding-Edge-of-Computing&story_id=30799&category=hardware

VoIP ZONE

VoIP BLOCKING TELCO FINED
The FCC has fined Madison River Communications, a North Carolina telecom holding company, $15,000 for blocking VoIP calls to its customers. Besides paying the fine, the company has agreed to refrain from blocking VoIP traffic and to institute measures to ensure that such interference won't happen again. The FCC action came after Vonage and Nuvio told the FCC that broadband providers are blocking or degrading their VoIP service. Vonage now confirms that Madison River was the broadband provider it complained about. Madison River operates four rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) in the Southeast and Midwest US.
http://news.com.com/Telco+agrees+to+stop+blocking+VoIP+calls/2100-7352_3-5598633.html

VONAGE ASERTS IT'S BEING BLOCKED--AGAIN
Company says "new instance" of service outages in the Midwest seems to indicate a port-blocking incident. Vonage Holdings Corp. said it is investigating new potential incident of its Voice over IP service being blocked, this time by a cable television company that also provides Internet services.
http://www.advancedippipeline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=159400156

VoIP CHALLENGES FOR PUBLIC SAFETY CALL CENTERS The adoption of nomadic and mobile Voice-over-IP offerings has vendors and public-safety officials scrambling for answers to problems that could be much more complex than the challenges faced when wireless E911 emerged.
http://www.contactcentertoday.com/story.xhtml?story_id=31018

INTERNET TELEPHONY READY FOR PLUG & PLAY VoIP news from this week's Hanover CeBIT Technology Fair.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-internet-phones.html

WIRELINE, WIRELESS PROVIDERS CONVERGE ON SHARED MOBILITY The goal of the newly formed International Packet Communications Consortium is simple: make voice roaming and feature transparency across all wired and wireless networks a reality.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1g2c,1,91o5,hbt5,jcj3,9ffi

THE HIDDEN COSTS OF VoIP SERVICE
One of the sweetest things about an Internet phone is the cost. But there's more to most calling plans than meets the eye.
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,119863,00.asp

CYBERZONE

SERVICE LETS CUSTOMERS TRADE DVDS FOR 99 CENTS A cross between Netflix and Napster ... It's Peerflix http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/11098274.htm

GREASE MONKEYS BECOME TECH JUNKIES
The goal is the same -- to wring as much speed as possible out of an automobile -- but computerization has permanently changed what it means to work on your car.
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W1RT043A4319809A7C77F3CD535FA0

LIBRARY EXPERIMENTS WITH IPODS FOR AUDIO BOOKS The South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, has begun a program of loaning iPod shuffles to library patrons to listen to audio books. Ken Weil, director of the library, said that the introduction of Apple's newest iPod device, the shuffle, made the program economically viable. "It's the right product with the right price," he said. Although currently the selection of books available in  MP3 format is relatively limited, Joe Latini, assistant director of the library, said patrons can request new titles to be added. He also noted that because books in MP3 format cost just $15 to $25, compared to about $75 for books on CD, the savings will likely pay for the iPod devices over time. The library has ten of the devices available for checkout, four of which store 512 megabytes while the other six hold up to 1 gigabyte.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66756,00.html

SOFTWARE ASSESS BURGLARY
A Todai University (Japan) professor has tied up with building contractor Takenaka Corp. to develop software which uses Metropolitan Police Department crime data to assess the risk of theft or burglary at buildings, both commercial and domestic, around Tokyo. The software takes into consideration such factors as time of day, locale, security, window placement, and patrol routines of security guards.
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050304D04HH938.htm

POWER ZONE

WORLD's SMALLEST DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELL Toshiba Corp.announced that Guinness World Records has officially certified its highly compact direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) as the world's smallest DMFC. The fuel cell will feature in the 2006 edition of Guinness World Records. Toshiba's DMFC measures only 22x56x4.5 mm (maximum of 9.1 mm with fuel tank). Although small enough for integration into a wireless headset for mobile phones, the prototype is efficient enough to power an MP3 music player for up to 20 hours on a single 2cc charge of highly concentrated methanol. The DMFC outputs 100 mW of power, and can continue to do so, non-stop, for as long as users top up its integrated fuel tank.
http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20050308A9

BIO/NANO/MEMS ZONE

40Gbps OPTICAL SWITCH USING QUANTUM NANOTECHNOLOGY Tokyo (SPX) Mar 07, 2005 - Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories announced Friday the development of the world's first semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)(1) enabling waveform re-shaping of high-speed optical signals at 40Gbps by using quantum dots(2).
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-05v.html

BIO-BRIEFS ZONE

Boston--Analysts: Biogen down, not out after Tysabri
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300213

Denver--Biotech firm Sirna heads to California
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300214

Houston--A new wrinkle: Isolagen heading east
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300215

San Francisco--Chiron's vaccine chief resigns; new hire provides shot in the arm
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300216

San Francisco--Patent struggle pending: Drug regulators wrestle with rules for biogenerics
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300217

San Francisco--Biotechs outsourcing the heavy brainwork: But drug discovery, trials likely to stay
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300218

Seattle--Biotech plan raises embryo issue
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300219

Seattle---Potential investors wary of biotech companies' IPOs http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300220

South Florida--Big biotech meet set for Miami
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1300221

ASIA ZONE

SINGAPORE OVERTAKES U.S. IN INFORMATION TECH RANKINGS Singapore overtook the United States as the world's top user of information and communications technology while Hong Kong and Japan entered the top 10 for the first time, a World Economic Forum (WEB) survey said today. The United States dropped to fifth in the 2004-2005 Global Information Technology rankings behind Iceland, Finland and Denmark.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/41207.html

CHINA TELECOM WILL OPERATORE INTERNET CAFE China Telecom, which operates infrastructure telecommunications across the country, has received a license from the government to run Internet bars. With this license the company will be able to operate Internet cafes in nearly 26 cultural departments belonging to the Ministry of Culture. It is already operating Internet in the chain stores and according to reports Internet bars in the country number over 100,000 and all are profitable. The Ministry of Culture is interested in developing the Internet cultural market and hence issued nearly 5 licenses to operate the Internet cafes all over the country.

FREE OF QUOTA, CHINA TEXTILES FLOOD THE U.S.
In the first month after the end of all quotas on textiles and apparel around the world, imports to the United States from China jumped about 75 percent, according to trade figures released by the Chinese government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/business/worldbusiness/10textile.html

WIRELESS ZONE

CHINA TRIES TO SNEAK Wi-Fi NETWORK PAST ILLINOIS City versus state squabbles over Wi-Fi networks have reached the hilarity zone here in the US, as officials on both sides try to slip networking laws past each other. Chicago Alderman Edward Burke has gone into bureaucratic overdrive, hoping to craft legislation that will guarantee the city's right to run its own Wi-Fi service. Speed is key in this situation because the Illinois General Assembly will soon consider a ban on city-funded broadband networks. Chicago officials see a citywide wireless network as a potential revenue source, a way to bridge the digital divide and a means of attracting tourists. State officials, meanwhile, appear intent on making sure service providers can control wireless networks.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/10/chicago_wifi_illinois/

A NEW BREED OF ISP
In all the furor about "anti-competitive" municipal wireless buildouts, press reports frequently ignore the fact that private enterprises are starting to specialize in helping municipalities get off the ground, much to the dismay of the heavily subsidized RBOCs.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1fwr,1,kcqt,g9td,jcj3,9ffi

HOTSPOTS

Swisscom says connections are up 200%; Lexington WiFi offer Kentucky's biggest hotzone; Canadian WISP upgrades to faster equipment; and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1g2c,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

CyberBrew cafes popping up all over; Alvarion equipment will unwire 117,000 people in rural Ontario; Hilton Grand Vacations decides to StayOnline; and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1fd7,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

SITE CITES

FORMAT WAR: BLU-RAY vs HD-DVD
A war for the digital-video standard is underway. In the left corner, we've got Blu-ray, which has an insane storage capacity; in the right corner we've got HD-DVD, which will work in our current DVD players. Find out how the formats stack up in the battle for the next-generation video standard.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dvd-comp.htm
 

Marty Plotnick's CyberZone is a weekly review of Hawaii technology and international technology news.  The Hawaii Technology Calendar is available on the front page of this site, with links and descriptions of events relevant to the Hawaii technology and telecommunications community.  CyberZone takes special interest in researching and collecting links to stories from international technology news sources of interest to CyberZone's readers.  If you have any comments or suggestions for improvements to his site and information resource please contact Marty Plotnick at martycri@lava.net