VoIP: THE GOOD, THE BEST AND THE BETTER REVIEW http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/technology/01pogue.html?_r=1&8cir&emc=cir&oref=slogin

KEEP IT STUPID ZONE

ATTORNEY HAS COMPLETE EMPATHY FOR HIS CLIENT While Retrieving Drunken Client, Lawyer Is Busted for Drunken Driving Police arrested a Wisconsin lawyer for drunken driving after he went to the station to pick up a client who had been arrested for the same offense. Attorney Rick Petri said he had had some drinks before police phoned him at home at about 2 a.m. to get his client. When Petri arrived at the police station, he was given a preliminary breath test. Said Petri: "I did not think I was intoxicated, and I was wrong."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1170077829050

NEW ZEALAND's INAUGURAL "COMPLETE ASS" AWARDS NZ Telecom wins supreme award status.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/3946972a10.html

CYBERZONE

YOUR EMAIL IS NOT PREGNANT

Software for identifying false positives within unsolicited e-mail has been disclosed. It involves a method for augmenting an e-mail address’s binary representation in a way that allows embedded key information to be carried within the e-mail address transparently though the Internet’s existing e-mail system.

View this technology at: http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20070130A3

GOOGLE's MOON SHOT: ITS QUEST FOR THE UNIVERSAL LIBRARY Google intends to scan every book ever published, and to make the full texts searchable, in the same way that Web sites can be searched on the company's engine at google.com.

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/070205fa_fact_toobin

This is a very long New Yorker article, and well worth reading.

COMPUTER PROGRAM WRITES ITS OWN FICTION

Could a computer one day be a fiction bestseller?

While a computer-written bestseller may be unlikely, a technology expert has created a computer program that writes its own fiction stories with minimal user input. The program, called MEXICA, is the first to generate original stories based on computerized representations of emotions and tensions between characters.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/01/26/automaticbooks_tec_print.html

SOUND RECOGNITION COMES TO MUSIC SEARCH

Don't know the name of a song? No problem. The new Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System, or MARS, works by identifying several features in a tune, such as speech, pitch, tempo, and the location of pauses in the song, so you can simply sing or hum a tune to find it in the new search service.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13100C1EOCTQ&nl=2

INTERNET WAR: NOTHING NEUTRAL ABOUT IT

There's a high-stakes battle raging in Washington over what companies will pick up the tab for the rising rivers of Internet data and the newly upgraded networks that deliver it.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1310047RGA3K&nl=2

TAGGING TAKES OFF FOR WEB USERS

Tagging or labeling online content is becoming the new search tool of choice among web users, shows research.

As more and more people put their own content online, they are also being invited to tag it with descriptive keywords to help organize their data. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the trend in tagging is growing among US web users. It found that over a quarter of online Americans - 28% - had tagged content such as a photo, news story or blog.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6318531.stm

SCIENCE ZONE

PRESIDENT BUSH, WHAT PART OF GLOBAL WARMING DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?

Has the White House interfered on global warming reports? A new report claims that the Bush administration has suppressed scientists' climate-change work More than 120 scientists across seven federal agencies say they have been pressured to remove references to "climate change" and "global warming" from a range of documents, including press releases and communications with Congress.  Roughly the same number say appointees altered the meaning of scientific findings on climate contained in communications related to their research.

These findings, part of a new report compiled by two watchdog groups, shed new light on complaints by a scattering of scientists over the past year who have publicly complained that Bush administration appointees have tried to mute or muzzle what researchers have to say about global warming.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0131/p01s04-uspo.html

ASIA PACIFIC ZONE

TRANS-TASMAN CABLE MAY BE SOUPED UP

Rising demand for broadband in Australia and New Zealand has helped the consortium that owns the Southern Cross Cable sell a further $US310 million (NZ$443m) of capacity on the communications artery during the past six months.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,104084~3944235a28~,00.html

TOKYO DEPARTMENT STORE BEGINS RFID COSMETICS TRIAL A kiosk can provide customers with a simulation of what they would look like wearing 19 different makeup products, and the system notes each time an item is removed from the display stand.

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/1228506/1423585/49181/2/

SHANGHAI LAUNCHES TRIAL OF 4G MOBILE NETWORK China launched the first trials of a home-grown 4G (fourth-generation) mobile communications network in a district of Shanghai on Sunday, despite the fact it hasn't even decided on standards for 3G (third-generation) services, the Web site of the state-run China Daily reported.

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=1604E46:ECCF9AA50A17C8DC9557ECFAC3490A11EFF29049075316B4

WIRELESS ZONE

WHO HAS THE BEST MUNICIPAL WiFi NETWORK?

Tests run on 14 municipal networks have determined why some networks perform well while others don't. The good networks have one thing in common, a study found.

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/1228506/1423585/49173/2/

CHIP ENABLES ONE-SECOND GPS TRACKING

A new chip designed for mobile phones combines two satellite navigation services to offer a tracking time of less than one second.

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/1237457/1423585/49667/2/

RECYCLED SATELLITE RADIO PLANNED

An in-car satellite radio and multimedia system that could use out-of-date satellites is unveiled http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/6301359.stm

SITE CITE

WOMEN GO WILD IF GUYS RAISE A SMILE

A lonely man desperate to find a girlfriend might be well advised to hire a few women to smile at him then let female copycat genes run their course.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1828323.htm