VoIP ZONE
 

RURAL TELECOMS & TIME WARNER CABLE CLASH OVER VoIP Time Warner Cable has recently clashed with rural telecoms in several areas over the MSO's efforts to offer VoIP service.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2006-04-23-voip-rural_x.htm

CYBERZONE

SMITHSONIAN AGREEMENT ANGERS FILMMAKERS

"Some of the biggest names in documentary filmmaking have denounced a recent agreement between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks Inc. that they say restricts makers of films and television shows using Smithsonian materials from offering their work to public television or other non-Showtime broadcast outlets." Read the complete article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/arts/television/01smit.html?

ex=1301547600&en=8293d567dfc155d7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004531.php

SEAGATE BOOSTS DRIVES TO 750GB

Seagate has pushed one step closer to the terabyte hard drive with a new 3.5-inch drive that holds up to 750 gigabytes.

http://news.com.com/Seagate+boosts+drives+to+750GB/2100-1041_3-6065030.html

http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W3RT032D4105709A7C77F32AA48E00

N.Y. ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE RULES INTERNET SURFING AT WORK IS OK The New York Department of Education took Toquir Choudhri to the City's Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, which presides over disciplinary cases from almost every city agency. Choudhri, an employee for 14 years, had disobeyed a supervisor's order to stop surfing on the Internet.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/50169.html

INTERNET PIONEER SEES BIG THINGS FOR WIRELESS BROADBAND Broadband wireless and the upcoming spectrum auctions are keys to unlocking the current iron grip on broadband access held by cable and wireline phone companies, said one of the original architects of the Internet.

http://email.wirelessweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ev3x0C1swl0B4I0ETIe0Ea

AT&T EYES NEW MARKETS FOR IPTV, ROLLS OUT FASTER DSL AT&T Inc. said it plans to offer IPTV service in 20 additional markets by year's end. The telecom also has begun selling a DSL service capable of hitting 6 mbps download speeds for as little as $27.99 per month.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/14429099.htm

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HD DVEDs GET A LITTLE MORE INTERACTIVE The interactive components of current-generation DVDs that are popular with movie enthusiasts might very well be surpassed by new features in the HD DVDs released by Universal.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=122003XBM81A

RECORDING TWO SHOWS AT ONCE WITH JUST ONE NEW TiVO With TiVo's new dual-tuner recorders, two shows can be recorded and a previously recorded show can be watched, all at the same time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/technology/27tivo.html?8cir&emc=cir

THE PROSTITUTES' UNION

Among the poor and most vulnerable, Smarajit Jana has found a way to slash the incidence of HIV--by organizing sex workers as any other labor collective

http://cl.exct.net/?ffcb10-fe501273716000757c1d-fdfb15737467027b72147874-ff3310707762

FLU ZONE

ONLY DRUGS & VACCINNES WILL DEFLECT BIRD FLU PANDEMIC Shutting borders and stopping travel will buy afflicted countries just a few weeks at most, according to the latest pandemic simulations

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9065?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nshref=dn9065

[VIDEO AVAILABLE AT LINK]

ENERGY ZONE

CATALYTIC ONE-TWO PUNCH COULD YIELD ALTERNATIVE FUEL

Oil is the fuel of modern life. Made up of long hydrocarbon chains, it can be broken down into a slew of useful substances and products. Other fossil resources-- coal and natural gas--are made up of much shorter chains and it has proved difficult to rearrange their carbon and hydrogen atoms to make fuels such as diesel. Now chemists have used a combination of catalysts to produce more useful hydrocarbons from short-chain molecules, potentially opening the door to an alternative-fuel future.

http://cl.exct.net/?ffcb10-fe591273716000747413-fdfb15737467027b72147874-ff3310707762

SCIENCE ZONE

GAMERS MAY SOON CONTROL ACTION WITH THOUGHTS Two start-ups have developed technology that monitors a player's brain waves and uses the signals to control the action in games. They hope it will enable game creators to immerse players in imaginary worlds that they can control with their thoughts instead of their hands.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14415506.htm

NEW FRESH FOOD LONG-LIVE PRESERVATION SYSTEM A Tokushima, Japan company has developed a high-precision refrigeration system for keeping fruit and vegetables fresh for 3-6 months. The new system uses highly accurate temperature and humidity monitoring to significantly slow down cellular decomposition, without the risk of freezing damage. The company has already successfully tested the system on peaches, persimmons, strawberries and lettuce.

[ The US military is the world's largest consumer of airfreighted fresh fruit and vegetables, moving mountains of the produce to Iraq and other posts around the world.] http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20060418D18JSN12.htm

BIO BRIEFS

FART-FREE BEAN

Microbiologists have found the bacteria resonsible for preparing fart-free beans. Beans cooked with a pinch of bacteria means diners can tuck in without the explosive results, scientists say.

Researchers from Venezuela say two strains of bacteria are the key to producing fart-free beans.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1624063.htm]

[NOTE: If Reuters can run this headline, so can we.]

ASIA-PACIFIC ZONE

MICROSOFT LAYS OUT $900 MILLION IN CHINESE INVESTMENTS Microsoft signed a deal with China on Wednesday to purchase $700 million of Chinese electronics hardware over the next five years, the latest move by the software giant in the fast-growing mainland market.

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+lays+out+900+million+in+Chinese+investments/2100-1016_3-6065177.html?tag=nefd.top

WIRELESS ZONE

PIONEERING MUNI-WiFis EARLY STRUGGLES

The city of St. Cloud, FL, launched what analysts say is the country's first free citywide WiFi network. These analysts may have their own definition of "free," but residents of this 28,000-person Orlando suburb are still paying to use their own Internet service providers as dead spots and weak signals keep some residents offline and force engineers to retool the free system. St. Cloud is a small town, but the troubles with the small town's big Internet project may hold lessons for municipalities from Philadelphia to San Francisco considering similar networks.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14411895.htm

SF METRO CONNECT's NON-PROFIT APPROACH

If this Cisco-backed consortium gets the San Francisco citywide Wi-Fi contract, it plans to avoid advertising in favor of 'corporate sponsorship.' But what's the difference?

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,2eft,1,71oj,26wz,jcj3,9ffi

SITE CITE

VIRTUAL MACHINES

A virtual machine is a self-contained operating environment, created by a software layer, that behaves as if it were a separate computer.  Benefits of creating virtual machines include better exploitation of powerful computing resources and isolation of applications to prevent cross-corruption and improve security.

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/467039/1176609/17130/2/