Bryan Legates belongs to a breed of techie increasingly in demand in today's global economy. The 36-year-old engineer at Linear Technology of Milpitas is an analog chip designer in an industry dominated by digital engineers. Analog engineers do the old-fashioned, almost artistic work of putting real-world information, such as sound, voltage or temperature, into digital form -- the zeroes and ones that computers recognize.

RECRUITING KID SPYS

The National Security Agency's "CryptoKids" website uses cartoon characters to recruit future codemakers and codebreakers.

TUNING IN TO HOMETOWN TV FROM ANYWHERE

Just as TiVo and other digital video recorders ushered in the concept of "time shifting" a few years ago, the Slingbox promises to make "place

shifting" a reality for households. By letting consumers access their cable or satellite connections when they travel, Slingbox has the potential to splinter even further the way television is watched and delivered.

LIBRARIES USING THE WEB TO SNARE TEENS

Teenagers can be a hard group to connect with, the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Library System's staff has found, so they

decided to try where they are most likely to be found. And, as any parent of a teenager knows, that place is online. After two years of

Myowncafe.org offers not only library services -- including 24-hour ask-a-librarian research help and easy access to library catalogs and

online magazines -- but also a calendar of community activities throughout the area, college and career information, and message

boards where teens can post their views on a variety of subjects.

BIO ZONE

FOREIGNERS PATENT ANCIENT REMEDIES

For thousands of years Indian villagers have used an extract from seeds of the neem tree as an insecticide. So when a U.S. company

patented a process for producing the substance in 1994, India reacted with outrage. After spending millions of dollars in legal fees to successfully overturn the patent, India's government now is creating a 30-million-page database of traditional knowledge to fend off entrepreneurs trying to patent the country's ancient lore. India is not alone in worrying about ``bioprospectors'' profiting from the genetic resources of its plant life with no benefit to its people. It joined with China, Brazil and nine other nations a few

years ago to begin pushing for international protections.

SCIENTISTS CREATE HYBRID BRAIN

Human embryonic stem cells have for the first time developed successfully in

the body of another living species, US and Japanese researchers have shown.

BIO BRIEFS

Birmingham--2005: Year in Review: Biotech investors putting money into future

Memphis--Biotech's promise: City prepared to build core research areas to next level

San Francisco--Biotech firm aims its DNA 'editor' at HIV: Richmond company's technology shows promise in tests

San Jose--Chasing the grail of genomics: $1,000 test would open new frontier

Seattle--Biotech tax breaks sought

ASIA-PACIFIC ZONE

CHINA's HIGH-TECH TRADE EXPECTED TO TOP US$400 BILLION IN 2005

CHINA's SCIENTIFIC R&D SPENDING HITS RECORD US$24.5 BILLION

China's total spending on scientific research and development hit record 196.63 billion yuan (24.58 billion US dollars) in 2004, the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) said in a report released on Wednesday.The report said the spending in 2004, an increase of 27.7 percent from 2003, or 42.7 billion yuan (5.34 billion dollars) more than the previous year, accounted for 1.23 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), which was revised after the country's first national economic census.

PREPAID CELL USERS' REGISTRATION MANDATORY IN CHINA

China's Minister of Information Industry, Wang Xudong, has said that prepaid customers have to register their beginning 2006. Of the 388 million mobile phone subscribers, 200 million are pre-paid subscribers. Current regulations insist furnishing of full details for the post-paid customers. Pre-paid customers have no obligation provide any personal details.Real-name registration has stirred argument from the time it was mooted. Telecom companies feel that collection of personal information is tedious and customers may feel their privacy is at risk.Ministry's sources also said during 2005 over 10,000 mobile connections were barred permanently for sending fraudulent and immoral messages.

CHINA ADDS OVER 53 MILLION CELL SUBSCRIBERS IN NOVEMBER

In the month of November, this year, China has created a record, by adding 53.3 million subscribers to the mobile phone service taking the total to 388 million. On an average, 4.84 million new customers were added every month, in the first 11 months of 2005. However, despite fierce competition from mobile operators, fixed line operators have added 39 million customers and taken the total customer base to 350 million until November 2005. Tele-density has reached 29.1 and 26.6 for every 100 Chinese for mobile and fixed line services respectively. November also witnessed telecom user population peaking to 738 million.China's postal and telecom industry has reported the total revenue of $72 billion up to November 2005, an 11.2% increase over the first 11 months of 2004. SMS (short messaging service) remains most popular among users, total SMS' exchanged increased by 40.1% to 274.3 billion text messages

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CHINA TO PROVIDE FREE DIGITAL RESOURCES

The National Library of China (NLC) will provide free digital resources to the public. Readers can log on the search engine Google to enter the NLC's website for the free digital resources, the paper said.The NLC said they will open the full texts of digital resources without reserved copyrights to the public.  Besides ancient books or rubbings of ancient bronze and stone carvings of China, 330,000 rare books bought from Western countries including academic works from 1473 to 1926 will also be available to the public, the paper said.

HOPE AND TOIL AT INDIA's CALL CENTERS

As fireworks boomed across nearby New Delhi and families lit candles and incense and prayed late into the evening, thousands of call-center agents reported to work at a gleaming office tower here. Donning headsets and fake American names, they placed and fielded phone calls to.

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