January 2004 Archives

Woman Falls Up, Dies

Anna Reynolds of Kenosha, WI was killed Thursday when her car's antigravity system malfunctioned and propelled her to low-Earth orbit. The vehicle and Reynolds' body were recovered by a rescue team stationed at the new Global Space Dock (GSD).

According to mourning family members, Reynolds' had been having intermittent problems with the AnyGrav® unit in her automobile, a Toyota® Calypso GRX. Reynolds likely died from the combination of low oxygen levels, reduced air pressure, and extremely low temperatures experienced in the upper atmosphere.

Toyota North America representative Toby Almondson expressed his condolences and stated that such a malfunction should not happen. "The Calypso GRX, like all of Toyota's hovercars, is equipped with an altitude limiter. For this to happen, multiple components would have to fail simultaneously, which is highly unlikely." Kenosha Civil Security promised a full investigation as soon as Reynolds' body and vehicle are retrieved from the GSD.

Boy Injured Playing Video Game

Eric Martinson, 13, of Detroit-Ann Arbor, MI, fell down a flight of steps while playing a new retinal implant video game. The fall resulted in a concussion, a broken arm, and a sprained ankle. Martinson's doctor expects him to be able to leave the hospital in 2-3 days.

According to his mother, Martinson didn't see the first step at the top of the stairway because he was distracted by the video game. Martinson recently received the Nintendo EyeBoy retinal implant gaming system (see photo) for his birthday. The Nintendo EyeBoy is the first video game to be implanted in the player's retina. It relies on a microchip to project game images directly on the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye.

Tina Hathaway, from Nintendo Marketing Relations, said the accident was unfortunate and that safety precautions are stressed to all consumers of its products. "The Nintendo EyeBoy was extensively tested. While accidents can, and sometimes do, occur, we highly recommend that all safety measures recommended in the product's literature be followed at all times." Hathaway mentioned that the EarBoy, a cochlear implant from Nintendo, will soon be available for unobtrusive and more convenient gaming and listening to music.

Medical experts still question the merit of these kinds of prosthetic devices. "While we know people are buying these, we still feel that the full impact of the technology has not yet been determined," said Dr. Manoj Ravibadrum of the Yale School of Medicine. "Distractions resulting from these implants can put both their wearers and those around them in potentially life-threatening situations. Since they are completely undetectable by a casual observer, enforcing their non-use is nearly impossible." Retinal implants have been employed in professional applications, such as Civil Security and even physicians, but the technology has only recently been extended to entertainment purposes and approved for use by minors.

Industry Group Passes New Copyright Legislation

Washington, D.C. -- The US Intellectual Property Protection Council (IPPC) authorized additional changes to US copyright laws today. The changes will extend copyright protection to 1,000 years past the life of the copyright owner. Additionally, "copyright owner" was more generally defined to now include corporations, business entities, or anyone with a "significant financial investment in the creation of the content."

Josh Reardon, Executive Director of the IPPC, was pleased by the change. "These new regulations will ensure that as long as a company or other content owner exists, either physically or legally, its bases for revenue and its incentive to innovate will remain protected and valuable. Furthermore, the changes to criminal penalties introduced by this legislation have been needed for a long time." The new law increases the maximum penalty for intellectual property infringement to life in prison and/or $100 billion in fines.

The IPPC was granted sole power to set US copyright, patent, and trademark law by the Cornyn-Powell Act. That act handed over legislative control to the quasi-governmental organization, which formed when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) joined together in 2008.

In case you've been living under a rock, you might not have heard that Volkswagen is trying hard to leave behind its image as the maker of the original bargain-basement Beetle and the VW Bus, a favored ride by Deadheads and hippies the world over.

Volkswagen has begun selling the Phaeton (shown), a large luxury sedan that shreds any previous stereotype that VW may think it needs to overcome.

For starters, the Phaeton offers an optional W-12 engine (yes, that's 12 cylinders) pumping out 420 HP. The car sports Volkswagen's 4Motion AWD system and a 6-speed automatic tranny with the Tiptronic pseudo-manual shifting feature. Real wood, real leather, and a 4-zone climate control system are some of the interior features.

So what does the top-of-the-line W12-equipped Phaeton run? Would you believe me if I said this Volkswagen is nearly $90,000? Of course, if you can settle for a mere 335 HP, 8-cylinder engine and no options, you can drive a Phaeton home for the bargain price of just $65,000, gas guzzler tax not included.

David Bradley, 55, is retiring from IBM today, after 28-1/2 years.

Bradley, a cultural icon among computer history aficionados, will be continuing to teach at North Carolina State University after retirement.

Back in 1980, Bradley was part of the 12-man team working on the IBM PC. Among other tasks, the team needed to figure out a way to restart the computer should something go wrong and it stop responding to other commands. Bradley took on the task and in five minutes programmed the well-known key combination that is his claim to fame: Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

Bradley claims to have every cartoon that features his famous key combination, and he was once a clue on the final round of Jeopardy. On these acheivements, Bradley says, "If I can be a clue in The New York Times' Sunday crossword puzzle, I will have met all my life's goals."

It snowed 3 inches here last evening and the overnight temperature hovered in the single digits -- even road salt doesn't work that well at this temperature. Needless to say, the roads were pretty messy. My 968 doesn't do so well in these conditions (no surprise there) and it got me thinking about what tech I'd like on a car. Here's a short list:

• Optional AWD -- the Porsche 911 Turbo has a slick AWD set-up that allows up to nearly 100% of the power to go to the rear wheels, ideal for racing in dry conditions. But, when needed, a significant % of its power can go to the front wheels, enhancing traction in the wet. Ideally, though, it'd be great to be able to switch off AWD entirely and then (easily) remove the forward portion of the drivetrain altogether to save weight when it's not needed.

• Intelligent snow tires -- I don't think these exist, but it would be pretty cool if the tires could automagically extend little snow/ice studs or blades when the car detects slippery below freezing conditions. Sure, this idea is a bit Bondian, but it'd still be neat.

• Hovercraft mode -- Why bother with snow at all? Activate hover/levitation mode and skim right over it without a care. As you might guess, I really hope to live long enough to see Luke Skywalker's Land Speeder become reality. Of course, I'd also take Corben Dallas' hovercab (from The Fifth Element).

• Better airbags -- If I'm gonna get in an accident, which is inevitable given the proclivity of folks who can't drive deciding they should simultaneously attempt to converse on the phone, I want protection. Sure, modern cars have front airbags, side airbags, head airbags, rear airbags...but that's not enough. I want the setup the Mars Rover has (below). Now that's security.

Nikon has just announced the Coolwalker MSV-01, a 30-GB portable image storage device. The Coolwalker is, in effect, a mobile photo album.

The Coolwalker has a 30-GB capacity - tens of thousands of images can be stored on its hard disk. Images downloaded from a PC or compatible digital camera are displayed on a 2.5-in TFT monitor. Additional storage is available via a Compact Flash (CF) slot; adapters are available for SD, MMC, SM and MS media formats.

Beyond storage, the Coolwalker makes organization of image files into a mobile photo album easy and convenient. Options include thumbnail browsing, image playback, rotate, zoom, delete, move, copy, and rename.

After a mobile photo album is organized, images are easy to share with family and friends by connecting the Coolwalker to a PC, TV or display projector. An included remote control makes slide show playback very convenient.

The Coolwalker also can be connected to any PictBridge-compatible printer for PC-free printing of photographs.

On January 31, 2004, NASA closes their passenger list for a one-way trip to a comet.

On July 4, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft will launch a 370-kg copper projectile into the surface of comet Tempel 1, forming a football-stadium-sized crater. In that projectile - which will be obliterated by the impact - will be a CD containing the names of spaceflight enthusiasts who signed on for this one-way trip to a comet.

As the projectile hits Tempel 1 at 37,000 kph, Deep Impact will collect pictures and data on the material ejected from the comet's new crater, the first-ever glimpse into the interior of a celestial snowball.

"This is an opportunity to become part of an extraordinary space mission," said Dr. Don Yeomans, member of the Deep Impact team. "When the craft is launched in December 2004, yours and the names of your loved-ones can hitch along for the ride and be part of what may be the best space fireworks show in history."

People can submit their names for the mission by visiting NASA's Deep Impact website.

When it hits Time magazine, you know it's gone mainstream.

Spim, that is, the not-too-recently-coined, is-it-on-its-way-out word for spam sent through instant messaging (IM) channels.

These are snappy IMs, usually with embedded weblinks that lead unwary users to websites working hard to sell you speed-reading courses, Viagra, appendage extenders, webcam subscriptions, or other such essentials of life.

Nearly 600 billion IMs were sent worldwide in 2003, and Yahoo estimates that 2% of its own messages are spim. That's 12 billion messages of spim a year.

Efforts to control spam in e-mails is starting to help the problem there, but the spim problem is spinning out of control. And spim is more annoying, because it can pop out at any time, demanding your attention.

While IM programs let you set up blacklists and whitelists of users, only ICQ offers filtering of web links or by selected words. While effective for the moment, the extent of the spam wars show that this war is just beginning.

The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group, recently published the results of a survey on consumers and HDTV (high-definition television). Here are a few interesting results, which can be found as a supplement in a recent issue of TWICE Magazine:

What Viewers Want
When asked what they most wanted to watch in high definition, consumers responded as follows:
• 38% Movies
• 21% Sports
• 14% Education
• 7% Drama
• 6% News
All other categories were 3% or less. What intrigues me about this is the fact that 14% said educational content was their top desire. I don't have stats for regular TV, but my hunch is that this is quite a bit higher than for regular old programming. Has anybody seen this stat for TV overall?

What Viewers Notice
What do prospective buyers recognize about the HDTV format?
• 85% Crystal clear picture
• 60% Wide screen
• 46% Dolby Digital 5.1
• 21% 16:9 display format
I'm not sure why "16:9 display format" isn't the same as "wide screen," but I didn't write the questions.

Would Pay Extra
This percentage of viewers would pay extra charges to see the following types of content:
• 34% Movies
• 25% Sports
• 23% Educational content
• 19% News
• 17% Dramas
• 15% Comedy
• 13% Music TV
• 12% Sit-Coms
Now I ask you...do we really need to see Ray Romano in high-definition?

Interesting stuff. Now if we can just get the signal providers to start carrying more HD content, we can start truly enjoying the wonder that is high definition TV.

Peter Rojas over at Gizmodo rightly points out that most music stores today are more trouble than they're worth:

"...to be perfectly honest, [we are] feeling more and more convinced that the best move would be to simply stay away from online music stores (and their restrictions) altogether and just stick to MP3."

That's exactly why I've yet to sign up for iTunes or Real's music store or (god forbid) Wal-Mart's music download service. I don't want to reward the corporations who produce these consumer-unfriendly content protection schemes. Convenience and/or hassle factors aside, I personally don't believe the state of things today is a viable, satisfying situation.

Do I have an alternative? Sadly, I'll admit that I don't, but that certainly does not mean there isn't one waiting to be invented. Was Napster (the first version, not today's bastardization of the same name) better? In some ways, but I don't think it did enough to bring rewards back to the artists who produced the music.

Ideally, we'd have a system that permits both peer-to-peer and direct-from-distributor content sharing while simultaneously rewarding the artists and producers of the content based on the value they produce for the consumers. If/when such a system turns up, we'll all know it, since it will immediately reveal all these intermediary services to be the transient evolutionary mis-steps they are. In the meantime, I'll continue to buy CDs (at least I own those) and rip them to MP3 so I can listen to my music the way I want to, when I want to, and on what device I want to. After all, isn't that the way it should be?

Update: Of course, the geniuses at Forrester disagree.

SanDisk Corporation is now shipping the world's first production 1-GB secure digital (SD) card.

At $500, the 1-GB SD card has the capacity to store over 30 hours of digitally compressed music, 1,000 high-res digital images, and over five hours of MPEG-4 compressed video.

This new SD card uses a novel stacking technology, which enables SanDisk to double the previous memory capacity without increasing the size of the card.

SanDisk worked with Sharp's Integrated Circuits Group to devise a way to stack additional layers of NAND MLC die in ultra-thin packages without increasing the card size. In the 1-GB card, two ultra-thin packages are vertically mounted in the same height that currently houses a single package.

The new stacking process also has the potential for application to compact flash (CF) and Sony memory stick (MS) storage media.

Electronics giant Philips has just announced that it would be mass-producing a thin display panel that could be used to display e-newspapers and magazines downloaded from a fixed or mobile Internet link... and then rolled up or folded away.

Philips created the display using E Ink technology, which uses plastics-based monochrome display electronics.

Philips has already demonstrated similar glass-based displays, and estimates that it can produce the flexible 5-inch displays at a rate of one million units per year.

If you own an older PC or a "beige box" generic machine, you may not have a system that benefits from some of the conveniences of newer cases, such as front-mounted USB ports and audio jacks. If that's the case, you may want to look into one of the many accessories that move various ports to the front of the case by using an empty 5.25" or 3.5" drive bay.

The one I selected is the Ultra Media Bay 3.5" (shown above), which I bought from Tiger Direct for $9.99 (beige price; black units available for $10 more). The unit is basically a box with front-mounted ports and a bunch of cables coming out the rear (see below). It looks somewhat like a Borg-inspired jellyfish.

Installation was painless and took less than 5 minutes. I first popped off the side panels of my case and removed an empty slot cover from the back. The unit then slid into the empty 3.5" bay below my floppy drive (doing this made me wonder why I still have the floppy drive installed). I installed the new slot cover in the back -- this one has a hole through which the cables get routed to the ports on the back of the PC. I then ran the USB2.0, headphone, and mic cords throught the slot and plugged into the appropriate ports in the back of the case. Side covers get put back on and I'm done. Below is what it looks like installed.

It's important to realize that this unit doesn't increase the number of ports you have -- it merely relocates existing (unused) ports to the front of the case. That's the case (bad pun) with most of these drive bay accessories. But, if you are tired of reaching back behind your PC to mess with cables, one of these might be just the ticket. TigerDirect.com and CyberGuys.com have many different units to choose from, some including media adapters (for flash cards), case fan and cooling controls, and other various interfaces.

Almost one in three (30%) adults say the cellphone is the invention they most hate but cannot live without, according to the 8th annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index study.

Other very essential but despised inventions cited by the survey are the alarm clock (25%) and television (23%).

The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which looks at attitudes toward inventions, also looked at the impact of other inventions such as email and voicemail. While teens overwhelmingly believe email (81%) and voicemail (71%) make life easier, adults agreed only to a lesser extent (59% and 58%, respectively).

A man who won $57,000 in an Indiana lottery game died just hours later when he was hit by a pickup truck.Link

I posted this in a comment just now, but I'll add it here in case anyone doesn't read the comments.

MyHomeTheater.com has a cool TV viewing distance calculator embedded in the webpage. Makes it easy to determine what size TV you'll need for your viewing distance or, alternately, how far away you should sit from your current TV. Works for both 4:3 and 16:9 displays. Check it out.

Kyocera has issued a recall notice concerning a certain model of battery sold in its 7135 smartphone (shown).

1/23/04 CPSC, Kyocera Wireless Corp. Announce Recall of Batteries in Smartphone Cell Phones

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the manufacturers named below, today announced voluntary recalls of the following consumer products. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. (To access color photos of the following recalled products, see CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.)

Name of product: Batteries in Kyocera Cell Phones (Model 7135 Smartphones)

Units: About 140,000

Manufacturer/Importer: Coslight International Group, of Hong Kong, manufactured the batteries for Kyocera Wireless Corp., of San Diego, Calif.

Hazard: The recalled batteries can short-circuit and erupt with force or emit excessive heat, posing a burn hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Kyocera Wireless Corp. has received four reports of battery failures, including one minor burn injury.

Description: The recalled batteries are included in Kyocera model 7135 Smartphone cell phones. The black and silver flip-up phones say "Kyocera" at the top of the screen. The recalled batteries have the red and white Kyocera name printed on the front and a product code ending with -05 printed on the underside.

Sold at: Verizon Wireless, US Cellular and ALLTEL Corporation stores, in addition to Web site and telemarketing retailers nationwide sold the cell phones with the -05 battery from September 2003 through December 2003 for about $500. The batteries also were sold separately during this time for about $21.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers with the recalled units should immediately stop using the battery in the cell phone. Kyocera Wireless will contact consumers to arrange for delivery of a free replacement battery. If consumers are not contacted by Kyocera by Feb. 6, they are asked to contact the firm to receive the free replacement battery. The batteries should be stored in an environment with non-flammable materials.

Consumer Contact: Call Kyocera Wireless Corp. at (800) 349-4478 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or visit their Web site at www.kyocera-wireless.com.

Believe or not, it was twenty years ago (1/24/1984) that Apple introduced the very first Mac. Obviously a lot has changed over the years, but there are a few things that still remain the same. Steve Jobs are once again leading the charge, and Apple has been innovating on multimedia fronts (iPod, iTunes, etc.).

I do remember my first experience with a Mac in 1984. One of my friends purchased the Mac right after it came out, and I had a chance to play with it. The key word here is "play." Even though it was grossly underpowered in today's standard (I think it only had 128K or 512K--I don't remember which but I do remember my friend upgrading his memory to 1MB sometime later). Regardless, it was so much fun using the Mac that I didn't want to part with it. I'm visually oriented, and the Mac was something I could simply figure out intuitively. Unfortunately, my career changed soon after that and I got stuck with using the "ugly" and "unsophiticated" IBM PC. Now I'm so locked into the PC platform, even if I want to change the platform, I can't really afford to do it.

However, I think I can still wish you a Happy Birthday, and I sincerely hope that you will be around for a long time to come . . .

Being able to record shows on a digital video recorder (DVR) like our TiVo is just bliss. I don't think I need to tell you we're big fans. However, there are some limitations to the current TiVo product, including no tuning of digital cable signals and no recording of HDTV content.

The announcement of DirecTV's HD tuner/DVR with TiVo at CES was a big break-through. Finally, folks will be able to record HD signals onto a TiVo-type device. However, this only helps DirecTV (satellite) users, not those of us who are cable subscribers.

Scientific Atlanta rolled out its 8000HD, an HD-capable cable DVR, to Time Warner cable users in Green Bay, Wisconsin in December. That basic box is what I want to see TiVo produce, but it isn't likely to happen any time soon for a couple of reasons.

First, tuning ATSC (over-the-air digital programming) and over-the-air HD would fairly easy for a TiVo unit to do, but the number of people who rely on OTA signals for their HD content is pretty small. And as cable and satellite providers add more HD content, those folks will continue to diminish as a percentage of all HD consumers. Instead, TiVo would have to produce a box that can either tune/record satellite broadcasted content or tune/record QAM (cable) content. Neither of those is trivial because of proprietariness and/or controls enforced by the carriers (TWC, Comcast, DiSH, etc.). Plus, with new initiatives like OpenCable on the way, introducing an expensive new product based on today's cable standards might be a strategic mistake.

Partnering, such as what TiVo has done with DirecTV, will be necessary. But, it does not appear that TiVo has had much success so far partnering with any cable TV companies (e.g., Time Warner Cable and Comcast). Why these cable companies insist on using these schlocky DVRs is beyond me, but I suspect it gets down to minimizing their costs. Scientific Atlanta makes tons of low-priced set-top boxes and makes their software barely work. TiVo, in comparison, puts loads of work into enhancing the user interface and the whole user experience...and it shows. But this also makes their products more expensive. This might be a good example of "you get what you pay for."

So the upshot is that I doubt that we'll see a cable-compatible or "general-purpose" HD TiVo outside of DirecTV's unit any time in the next few years. In the meantime, I hope that Scientific Atlanta will license TiVo's interface so we can have the best of both worlds.

While researching the construction of a long range 2.4 GHz link, I ran into a very interesting page detailing the theory and construction of slotted waveguide antennas. These strange looking and simple-to-make devices offer performance equal to or better than the best commercial antennas. Antenna gain of 15 dBi is pretty common.

Always up for a geeky challenge, I arranged for one of my local machine shops to get me some aluminum tubing. I found some inexpensive pre-made cables on eBay. And coincidentally I just purchased a new hotrod CNC milling machine for my company's machine shop. I should have some antennas made by next week. Once I get everything together I'll see if I can talk Craig into testing a long range link with me.

The UPS man brought me a strange parcel the other day -- a TiVo I didn't know I should be expecting. Yet, there in my living room was a brand new 80-hour Series 2 TiVo, shipped directly from the company's Tennessee facility.

As an existing TiVo customer, I can log into tivo.com and check my account status and do various other things. Examining that revealed that, yes, a new 80-hour DVR had been added to my account. What was curious was that the Account Status for that unit was listed as "TiVo Evaluation Unit," whereas my current unit is shown as "Lifetime Service."

Confused, since I didn't order this unit, I called the friendly folks at TiVo's sales support. They didn't know what "TiVo Evaluation Unit" meant either, so they said they'd call me back. I hung up fearing that I had just looked the proverbial gift horse in the mouth. But then, keeping the unit and being charged later for the purchase price and/or setup fee wasn't what I hoped for either, so it was a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation.

A couple hours later, the lady from TiVo sales support called back and told me that yes, this was apparently a free TiVo and that I should keep it and hook it up. I hung up the phone and did a little dance. I guess clean living pays off once in a while.

Now I need to go buy a new S-video cable and a 4-way powered cable splitter so I can cram the new unit into our A/V setup at home. While I'm still not entirely satisfied with our DVR setup -- TiVo's can't tune any kind of QAM cable signal, HD or otherwise, so we're limited to recording only analog cable channels (ch. 2-78) -- this will certainly do for a while. Hey, you can't argue with free.

The other thing that intrigues me about this is if I'm not the only one who was "gifted" with a Series 2 recently. If TiVo is dumping inventory, that either means they're trying to get out of the hardware biz entirely (a risky proposition) or they are gearing up with a new model (an exciting possibility). Hopefully, we'll figure out what's going on one way or another with our favorite DVR company.

Wi-Fi (802.11-based wireless networking) is exploding. Everybody from McDonald's to Starbucks are providing wireless Internet via Wi-Fi. It's not just the US, either. Gizmodo is reporting that the UK sandwich chain Benugo is starting to do the Wi-Fi thing as well, giving away Palm Tungsten C wireless PDAs as part of the promotion.

Just today at lunch, I noticed that the local Bruegger's Bagels eatery had a little sticker on the door for Surf and Sip, a relatively new paid Wi-Fi hotspot service.

Where will it end? Well, actually, I hope it doesn't. Wi-Fi could be the next great technology that permits ubiquitous, cheap, and fast Internet access for the masses. Cellular technologies have great coverage, but the infrastructure is really expensive. Contrast that with the idea of making every PC a wireless access point, and you start seeing the potential.

Sometimes something works so well and feels so good to use that it becomes extraordinary and remarkable beyond its limited role in life. The most recent example of this that I've come across is my Swingline Comfort Grip stapler (shown).

I admit that it is a bit strange, at least here on GearBits, to be talking about something that has no electronics in it, much less something that requires no power source other than one's hand. This stapler feels good in use and is as reliable an office tool as I've found, having yet to jam (it replaced a cheap Boston brand hand stapler).

The Swingline can be used comfortably as a hand stapler (thanks to its ergonomic design and comfy spongy sure-grip covering) and effectively as a desktop stapler -- there is no compromise. When not in use, the stapler can even be stood on end to save desk space.

Sorry to go overboard on something as banal as a stapler. After living with various pieces of crap in this function for years, I'm pretty happy to have found such a nicely designed and robust tool.

I didn't know that Stephen Hawking was such an accomplished rap artist. The track QuakeMaster has to go down as some of the best "nerd rap" to date.

Suppose that one day extra-terrestrials come to Earth and live peacefully among us. Imagine that several different species/races of these aliens eventually show up. Imagine each race has multiple genders and they are as shy about their private parts as humans are (or other races don't want to see them). Where are we going to put all the bathrooms?

At CES this year, portable MP3 gadgets were all the rage. Why is this happening when the music industry still insists that physical products, CDs to be exact, are the best format for the consumer? Obviously, something is going to have to change, and my hunch is that it won't be the consumer.

Will download services like Apple's iTunes become the new standard? I'm not sure, since a lot of music fans like to have some kind of physical component as well. For example, my wife really enjoys lyrics sheets and liner notes in CD booklets and would hate to be forced to go totally digital. Also, a physical CD acts as a durable back-up for your MP3 in case of hard drive failure or some other problem. And, of course, most of today's CD's don't require any pesky DRM configuration or other use-limiting annoyance -- they simply play when you put them in the player (as they should).

While I expect download services like iTunes to expand and become more numerous, I think the next dominant mode of music distribution is still out there waiting to be developed. Perhaps what is really needed is a standard that will permit all device manufacturers and content owners to focus on what they do best rather than worrying about whom to partner with and which format du jour should be supported. After all, wrangling over DRM schemes, formats, and distribution channels does nothing to create value for the consumer. And he who figures out how to create the most value for consumers will win in the long-run.

My one-year contract with my mobile carrier is about up and I'm contemplating a change. Now that I can take my number with me (thank you, Congress), changing cellular carriers is more of an option.

Currently, I use a Kyocera 7135 on Verizon Wireless. While I have no complaints about Verizon's service (coverage and uptime have been stellar), I would prefer to go back to a GSM because the high-speed data options are better. Even the "broadband wireless" service that Verizon has rolled out in DC and San Diego doesn't seem as convenient to me as my phone always having an IP address like it does with GPRS (at least I don't think it does with Verizon's new service...I think it still requires logging on and/or dialing up). I'm not nearly as concerned with bandwidth as I am with coverage and not having to dial up or change modes to get a data connection.

I enjoyed using my Treo 270 on T-Mobile, so one idea I had was to get a Treo 600 (shown) and go back to T-Mobile. But, given that Palm OS 6 is coming out fairly soon, I'm having doubts. One concern is that, given the long validation periods that the carriers require for new handsets, we may not see Palm OS 6-powered smartphones until early 2005.

But then, I doubt I'm typical. My phone basically does three things. First, it's an organizer -- the Palm OS side of things handles all my PIM with aplomb. Second, it's mobile Internet, for email and web on-the-go. Third, it's a voice communicator, since only about 15% of all my minutes used over the past year have been voice calls (the other 85% being data calls). As I said, I'm sure that puts me pretty far outside the mainstream cellular customer. But, as smartphones get better, maybe it will become more the rule rather than the exception.

I spent an hour on the highway today and spent a good part of that time wondering what the world would be like in a hundred years. One century -- not that much time at all, but if we look at the technological changes that have happened since 1904, predicting what the next 100 years would yield a huge range of forecasts.

Obviously, wireless will continue to evolve quickly. I'd fully expect to see wireless handheld videocoms as the norm. However, I don't expect the data landline to go away. Gigabit Internet is probably going to look like child's play to the casual user in 2104, and there will likely always be a need for fixed-location, high-speed Internet/data access, such as into the home.

The "intelligent house" probably won't really be all that intelligent, but home automation will certainly have reached new plateaus. New display technologies will, in all likelihood, have replaced windows (e.g. those clear LCD panels that can shade or display images) in upper-end homes and will be finding its way into everyday building practice. Good-bye to CRTs and anything that looks like a dedicated display unit (thank goodness).

My guess is that telecommuting will be much more widespread. The advances in high-richness communication media and easier-to-use information management technology will allow much better distributed collaboration. Besides, at $30 per gallon of gas, the car has changed quite a bit too since 2004. Granted, we won't all be running "Mr. Fusion" units on our hovercraft, but gasoline-powered engines will have generally disappeared from the highways. What will replace it? You got me...if I knew that, I'd be filthy rich in about 40 years. Maybe fuel cell, maybe all-electric, but probably something the mainstream hasn't even heard of yet.

So what do you guys think the technology of 2104 would be like? Will we have time travel? Will we have that base on Mars established yet, and will man have ventured to any other planets? Will Microsoft have assembled enough cash that it was able to purchase its own country, relocating from the US to avoid further anti-monopolistic regulation? Will PCs still exist? Will I be able to purchase my very own working Holodeck?

Long before Paris, Nicole and "The Simple Life" confirmed Arkansas to be the center of the hick universe, the world took a pretty dim view of Georgia due to John Boorman's 1972 film "Deliverance". Possibly Burt Reynolds' only decent film, Deliverance struck nerves where we didn't even know they existed. Along with ruining Ned Beatty in any film thereafter (for me), its dueling banjos scene at the gas station remains one of my faves in all of filmdom.

Last fall I Tivo'd an unedited version of Deliverance off of TNT and was perusing through it last night. I watched dueling banjos a few times and started wondering about the sad little banjo kid and what happened to him. Surprisingly I found that after 31 years of anonymity, Billy Redden has returned in Tim Burton's "Big Fish". Read about it in this New Yorker article.

I will buy the first production car that can actually do this.

Cool anim, Mazda...thanks.

The new plan for NASA announced yesterday calls for the US's space program to focus on designing a new class of human space transport vehicles to facilitate a lunar colony and manned exploration to Mars.

"For the new craft, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the plans have been left wide open. They specify only that it should initially ferry crews to the International Space Station, and then evolve into an Apollo-like craft to carry astronauts to the Moon and beyond.

The plan also leaves open the question of exactly when astronauts would return to the Moon, any time between 2015 to 2020. And no date at all is specified for the plan's most ambitious goal, the human exploration of Mars." [New Scientist]

Personally, I have very mixed reactions to this announcement. On the positive side, I'm always happy to see US policy emphasizing space research and exploration. The better we understand our solar system and beyond, the better we're able to understand our own planet, which is important.

On the negative side, I have many concerns. First, and most significant, where the hell is the money for this going to come from? As someone on the radio said this morning, Bush will be long out of the White House when this country is stuck, billions in debt, trying to pay for this new space program.

Second, I'm not sure that manned space travel is the best bang for our buck right now. Keeping humans alive and healthy in space is extraordinarily more expensive than sending unmanned vehicles. Humans' ability to gather data does not necessarily compensate for that added expense. Furthermore, the risks are huge -- over half of all missions to the surface of Mars have ended in disaster. Why would we want to spend so much money -- billions and billions -- just to risk a handful of humans' lives when robotic explorers are just now becoming very effective and efficient substitutes? NASA's budget, even with expansions, isn't likely to be adequate to develop such revolutionary technologies, which further reduces the chance that we'll see a significant payoff from this gamble.

Finally, I'm unsure whether this program is the best way to spend the US's diminishing revenue base. With ecological disasters looming (e.g., rising sea levels from melting ice caps) and our need for alternative energy sources becoming harder to ignore, perhaps terrestrial concerns need to take precedence in the next few decades.

I'm all for giving NASA some more money, but putting so much of our financial well-being into a program with unclear benefits just doesn't seem wise to me at this time. Of course, if 2004 wasn't an election year, this whole initiative probably wouldn't have been brought into the picture anyway.

I was doing a driver update for my Thinkpad T41p and discovered that IBM is updating drivers for the new Thinkpad X40. Well I did a search on Google, and it turns out IBM is already marketing this laptop in Japan. It looks like the new Thinkpad will be smaller and lighter than the previous X31 (2.8 lbs vs 3.6lbs) and will come with a SD slot instead of a CF slot (interesting transition I might add--personally I prefer the CF slot since my digital SLR uses the CF card). It looks like IBM is outsourcing its production to Winstron, a company that also manufactures another Thinkpad series.

One thing that's puzzling is the performance specs. It looks like the CPU in the machine is Intel Pentium M 1.0 GHz and the maximum memory capacity is 1.25G (256M preinstalled + 1G add-on). In comparison, the X31 comes with the CPU up to 1.6 GHz and has the maximum memory of 2G. However, the new chip in the X40 is the new Intel ultra-low voltage chip (1.0 volt instead of 1.48 for regular M chips), which should boost the battery life. The laptop should last about 3.5 hours with the small four-cell Li-Ion battery pack that ships with the system. The laptop still uses the 12.1" XGA screen as does the X31. Unfortunately, the unit seems to be using the slowest (4200 rpm) hard disk as well.

All in all, I'm not sure this is a great upgrade in my book. It looks like you are trading off one thing for another, and I think IBM can do a better job than this. Perhaps road warriors should wait for the Thinkpad X41 in the future.

In my predictions for 2004, my number 6 headline was ""Nikon Discontinues 35mm Photography Line, Concentrates on Digital."

I imagined this headline because of the tremendous gains in digital photography in 2003, and the apparent failure of film photography, including APS, to address market erosion, except at the low-end (but watch out for my headline 4, on camphones and the low-end digital market - as camphones become ubiquitous, the bell may toll for disposable film cameras).

Well, it's only two weeks into the New Year, and it's not Nikon, but - hot on the heels of my China moonshot headline - this prediction is now a reality.

Kodak has announced that it will stop selling traditional film cameras in Europe and North America, and concentrate instead on digital.

Kodak based the announcement on a need to focus on high-growth areas, and reflects the surging demand for digital cameras, which in 2003 outsold film-based cameras in the US for the first time. Last year, 12.5 million digital cameras were sold in the US, compared with 12.1 million film cameras. The balance is expected to tilt even further to the digital side in 2004.

In the meantime, Kodak will continue selling its disposable film cameras in Europe and North America, as well as film and other accessories .

I have always stayed away from any Turbo-charged engines in the past for a variety of reasons (Turbo lag for one). Instead, I have always opted to get a regular V6 or V8 in order to get the necessary HP I needed. So, why am I writing about this turbo engine? To my surprise, for the first time in my life, I am driving a car that has a turbo-charged engine. The 1.8T has 5 Valves per cylinder (total of 20 Valves) and can typically produce 170 or 180HP @ 5900 rpm stock and if you add a new chip from custom auto shops, you can get this up to 200 to 210HP easily for about $500 installed. However, it is not the prodigious HP that I felt in love with. It's the broad and flat torque curve. For instance, my engine (170 HP) produces the maximum torque of 166 lb.ft @ 1950-5000 rpm. Talk about the range! The engine has a minimum turbo lag, and sings beautifully at 4000 to 5000 rpm. The best yet is the gas mileage I can get with this engine--21/22 city and 30/31 highway. The engine is also environmental friendly (ULEV) as well. So, I'm sold. This is a highly refined engine that goes against the "macho" logic that you need to apply the brute force in designing engines (the bigger and more, the better).

If you have been wondering why I have been so quiet lately, the reason is that I've been busy setting up my new laptop. Until several years ago, I had kept upgrading both my desktop and laptops, and the cost of replacements were getting too prohibitive. So, I decided not to buy both, and given my travel needs, I went with the exclusive laptop strategy. It has worked OK for awhile, but I have always been frustrated by the wide performance gaps between laptops and desktops. Also, given the short battery life (about 2 hours), it left something to be desired even in terms of mobile computing.

Well, last week, I took the plunge and got the latest Thinkpad T41p from IBM. This laptop has a certain number of features that bridge the gaps. The laptop features a new Intel Centrino 1.7 GHz CPU that extends the battery life, and with the 9-cell battery that came with the laptop, I'm able to get close to 7 hours away from AC. Furthermore, with L2 cache of 1 MB, the 1.7GHz machine feels more like a 2.4GHz machine. The laptop came with 512 MB 333 MHz DDR SDRAM, but I added additional 512 MB to make it 1G.

The laptop comes with a new Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm ATA hard drive. Typical laptops use 4200 rpm or 5400 rpm disks to conserve battery life, but that makes the system too slow for me. The new hard disk is both fast and silent. The screen is a gorgeous 14.1" SXGA+ (1400x1050), and now I can view and edit documents directly on my laptop (with XP's Cleartype, documents look print quality). The laptop also comes with built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (802.11b), 2 USB 2.0 ports, and the Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet connector. I know 802.11g is the wave of the future, but I'm not ready to upgrade to it yet. Besides, if I want to, I can get the mini-PCI a/b/g card from IBM and simply replace the current 802.11b card. I'm glad that IBM made this user replaceable. So, if another Wi-Fi standard comes out in the next year or two, I'll be ready to upgrade.

The T41p also comes with the 128MB ATI Mobility FIREGL T2 graphics card (you heard me right, 128MB). I usually don't play games and do 3D design work, but I'm ready if I want to do more heavy graphics or multimedia work in the future. The ATI Mobility FIREGL graphics card features a high-speed DDR memory with 128-bit memory interface.

Finally, the laptop comes with the IBM 16X/10X/24X/8X Max CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Ultrabay Slim Drive. So, now I can watch DVD or burn CD's while on the road or at home.

All in all, it's quite an impressive machine and can definitely be classified a desktop replacement. The best news of it all is that it only weighs 5.4 lbs (typical desktop replacement laptops weigh somewhere between 7 to 9 lbs and to me that's too heavy to travel with). Two thumbs and toes up for me.

A new record has been set by The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King....for how long the final credits roll.

Back in 1922, the film Nosferatu credited 11 cast members in 1 minute and 35 seconds.

Star Wars credited 143 people. The Matrix listed 151. The Two Towers credited 559 names, and by the time Matrix: Revolutions rolled around, there were 701 people on the credits. The credits for Titanic lasted all of 7 minutes.

But the final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic beats them all....at a whopping 9 minutes and 33 seconds.

Wired has an amazing story about Fax.com. In a nutshell, Fax.com has flaunted US and state laws against sending junk/spam faxes, going so far as to tell a US District Court of Appeals that it wouldn't be posting a $2.75 million bond. To date, it has been fined tens of millions of dollars and is even facing a billion-dollar lawsuit, yet no government agency or individual plaintiff has recovered a dime. Part of this is due to Fax.com's having split itself into multiple smaller companies and routing its revenue through a maze of US and international bank accounts.

"Fax.com Chief Executive Kevin Katz has denied any knowledge of these companies or any knowledge of where former Fax.com employees now work. In a Dec. 8 deposition for Kirsch's lawsuit, Katz denied working with a former business partner until he was shown a signed contract, said he didn't know who was working at Fax.com anymore, and didn't know he was the CEO until reminded by his lawyer. Katz also denied knowledge of any of the successor companies named in the FCC order. "

How does this happen? Is the US legal system so castrated when it comes to dealing with corporate misbehavior that a company can simply tell the courts to go take a flying leap? Have we not learned anything from debacles over the past decades like the savings & loan disaster, Enron, and the WorldCom/MCI mess? Apparently not.

Having been woken up myself a few times in the past couple months at 3AM by a phone call from a fax machine, my hunch is that my own number was being tried by a Fax.com server. If people like Kevin Katz can invade my privacy, why can't theirs be? Per US law, it would be illegal for me to call upon people to harm Mr. Katz and/or his possessions. It would be illegal for me to suggest that people damage the property of one of Fax.com's children companies, Tech Access Systems Corp, which resides at 521 ½ South Myrtle Avenue, Suite 1 in Monrovia, CA 91016 at the phone number of 626-359-6464*.

In the end, I hope someone in Washington DC wakes up and does something to address the whole unethical gvernance issue. Or, is allowing this type of behavior what our president and the Republican party mean by being "pro-business?"

* That information was gotten from junkfax.com, a consumer advocacy group that is dedicated to defeating Fax.com and spam-faxers like it.

Over the past few quarters, a huge number of computer companies have publicly announced their intentions to bust onto the consumer electronics (CE) scene. For example, Gateway wowed everyone when it announced it would selling (relatively) inexpensive plasma TVs and some other home-oriented non-computer devices. Those CE sales did a lot for Gateway's financial situation in the most recent quarter. Dell has announced that it will aggressively extend its product line into the family room, offering things like LCD TVs and other home electronics. Even Intel has recently announced it will create a business unit focused on consumer electronics.

These are all departures, to varying degrees, from the computing businesses that these companies have existed as so far. CNET News.com has an assessment that this move into CE by traditionally computing-oriented companies is fraught with risks...and I agree. In order to succeed, delivering home and consumer electronics is going to take a very different skillset than is required in the "beige box" and CPU business.

First of all, the majority of the computer industry competes primarily on cost and delivery -- these skills are all related to what you might call "supply chain management." In contrast, many consumer electronics products are as much about quality in some form, such as reliability or aesthetics, as they are about low cost. Granted, APEX has made a niche for itself by offering trailing-edge CE at bargain-basement prices, but they are still very much a marginal player at this point. Understanding what drives consumers to go ga-ga over a piece of electronics is not easy or trivial, and I have my doubts as to Dell or Intel's ability to get it right the first time...or maybe even the third time.

Second of all, you have to think about the distribution problems. Intel and Dell don't have huge presences in retail stores right now. Dell doesn't sell anything in stores, which is where a lot of people want to shop for expensive consumer electronics. Most people won't drop $2000 for a TV sight-unseen...I know I wouldn't. Establishing those relationships (for everyone except Dell) will take time, and Dell may want to rethink the direct-delivery strategy that has served it so well so far. CE is not like computers, and direct-delivery may turn out to be more of a liability than an asset in this new arena.

Sony is a good example of a company that has migrated from CE to computers and it has morphed designs for the two product types very successfully. For intel or Dell to do that, they'll need some serious outside help, for it's unlikely that anyone inside the companies currently has a good handle on designing consumer-oriented devices. Managing the distribution networks and matching them up with consumers' needs will take a lot of rethinking -- if their managers are unable or unwilling to be flexible enough to do that, I suspect these endeavors into the CE world will be albatrosses around these companies' financial necks, and short-lived for that main reason.

Research in Motion has just released the BlackBerry 7510, a new version of the famously addictive wireless handheld with phone and data capability.

Similar to the color 7200 series, the 7510 features new long-range digital walkie-talkie and speakerphone capabilities.

The color screen features a high resolution 240x160 display supporting over 65,000 colors. Other highlights include built-in email, browser and organizer apps; integrated attachment viewing for email; and a development platform based on Java.

Walkie-talkie service is provided by Nationwide Direct Connect, and phone service is via Nextel.

Astronomers at the University of British Columbia in Canada have reported discovery of a large planet 90 light-years away, which is heating the star it orbits around.

Studies by the team show that the planet's magnetic field is producing hot spots on its sun.

The planet is 270 times larger than the Earth, nearly the size of Jupiter, and orbits the star HD179949, which is very similar to our Sun. Circling closely to its sun, the planet completes an orbit every 3 days.

The scientific team said that hot spots on the sun are caused by the planet's magnetic field transferring energy to the sun's photosphere, resulting in bright ultraviolet patches. Scientists estimate that the effect raises the temperature of the sun's gaseous layer by 750 degrees.

In comparison, the star's gaseous layer is normally at 14,000 degrees, and the planet itself has a surface temperature of 2,700 degrees.

PDAntic.com has a really nice review of the new Microsoft SPOT watch from Abacus (a division of Fossil). These watches access data wirelessly through an FM sub-band.

Interesting idea. The watch looks pretty large to me, but heck, I don't even wear a watch to begin with. Should be interesting to see how these things pan out.

The Palm OS User Council is hosting its 2004 Handheld Users Survey. We hope everyone will fill it out, as it looks to take less than 5 minutes total to do so. The results should be interesting.

Bumped from Jan. 06

Apple's iTunes Music Store has captured over 80% of the market for legally downloaded music, the Trojan Horse for the real moneymaker, the iPod music player. Steve Jobs has called iTunes "the Microsoft of music stores."

Well, the Redmond giant is awakening. Last month, Microsoft began offering, with Loudeye, a service that lets other companies build online music stores. Later this year, Microsoft will offer its own music download service through MSN.

And finally, at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft is expected to reveal new details about a line of portable devices that could challenge the iPod's position in the digital music world.

As previously reported by GearBits, Microsoft's handheld Portable Media Center device will store photos, music and video. A 40 GB device will hold up to 175 hours of video, 10,000 songs or 100,000 pictures. The first commercial devices are expected later in 2004, from licensees Samsung, ViewSonic, iRiver, Tatung and Creative.

Prices are expected to range from about $400 to $700, pitting lower-end devices squarely against Apple's 20 and 40 GB iPods... and trumping them with what could be the next mobile killer app, video playback.

I Googled the web and the USENET, but did not find these two words written adjacent to one another. I guess I will claim the term as uniquely mine and get the trademarking work underway. More later...

Seriously though, this has happened to me recently. You will recall that I recently purchased a new home. One of its many features is an impressive 250 gallon saltwater reef aquarium built into the wall behind the basement's wet bar. In a purpose-built aquarium "control room" is a dizzying array of equipment: wet-dry filtration, UV sterilizer, reverse osmosis water filter, protein skimmer, cartridge filter, mixing tanks, pumps, valves, timers, lighting ballasts, fans, drains, etc, etc. The former homeowner was seriously into his craft and bequeathed the whole shooting match to me when I signed on the dotted line. He left no instruction manuals and I never met him face to face. It was time to learn something about aquaria.

I read books, scoured the web, talked to friends and got my feet wet (literally). I feel I now know enough to keep my ragtag bunch of fishes and corals alive. They're actually kind of fun to watch and we have named them all: Jumper (Spanish Hogfish), Nemo (Clarkii Clownfish), Zippy (Damsel), 3Fish (Coral Beauty Angelfish), Mociute Fish (Koran Angelfish), Bubbles (Yellow Tang) and Dory (Vlamingi Tang).

In my web travels I found a REALLY cool aquarium designed and built by Robert Michelson. He built most of the sub-systems himself from scraps in his workshop. The entire aquarium is automated. The page has numerous links and supporting info. Some will be interesting and some just mystifying. Whichever way you find it, the destination is a worthy one.

It seems that the US Army is developing a robotic dog (pictured below on the left) that will carry up to 100 lbs of supplies into combat.

Except for the hip-mounted rocket launcher (which the Army should consider), this is obviously a blatant rip-off of Ravage, the Decepticon Transformer invented by Hasbro (shown below on the right). I expect Hasbro to announce a lawsuit for copyright infringement any day now.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the lead.

The NASA Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) project has produced some stunning images. Grab one and use it as your desktop wallpaper so you, too, can feel like you're exploring the Red Planet.

Apple has just unveiled the much-rumored, much-denied iPod mini at Macworld Expo. Voila!

Weighing in at 3.6 ounces, the iPod mini sports a shell of anodized aluminum (your choice of silver, gold, blue, pink, or green), holds 4GB of music, and will retail at $249.

The original iPod retails at only $50 more, now at 15GB in size, and is also available in 20GB and 40GB versions.

To conserve space, the iPod mini sports a smaller LCD screen, and integrates the iPod’s buttons with the Touch Wheel to form a new Click Wheel.

In addition to playing music ripped from your CD collection or purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, the iPod mini can store contacts, a calendar and to-do lists. Also available are nightlife guides, news articles and games - Music Quiz, Brick, Parachute and the ubiquitous Solitaire.

Creative has just launched the NOMAD MuVo TX digital audio player.

The media player includes USB 2.0 connectivity, which ensures that hours of music can be downloaded in seconds. Requiring no cables, the player plugs directly into a computer’s USB port for instant recognition as a removable flash drive.

Measuring 36.7 x 74 x 16mm, and weighing 43 grams, The NOMAD MuVo TX features 512 MB of memory for up to 16 hours of music, and a continuous play time of up to 15 hours. A backlit LCD display shows song information, track number, play time, play mode and EQ setting. A built-in microphone also enables recording of over 32 hours of live audio.

The player is bundled with Creative MediaSource software, a full MP3/WMA ripping and organizing app.

Wireless software publisher JAMDAT Mobile has announced that it is launching wireless games based on The Lord of the Rings epic. Available through Verizon Wireless' Get it Now service, the games suite include six separate apps:

The Return of the King is an eight-level scrolling adventure game with Aragorn, Frodo, Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin and Sam battling Orcs, Uruk-hai, Trolls, the Army of the Dead, Shelob and other foes.

The Lord of the Rings Trivia includes more than 360 trivia questions covering characters, objects and locations and more from all three chapters of the Ring trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings Pinball is a fast two-table pinball game wrapped in a Middle-Earth theme.

Wallpapers offer various Middle-Earth images including characters, locations, scenes, and maps. Finally, The Lord of The Rings Tones Player provides ring tones based on the musical score.

TiVo has just filed a patent infringement suit against satellite TV company EchoStar Communications.

Some set-top boxes from EchoStar's satellite service come with digital video recorder (DVR) capabilities, which TiVo says violates its US patent for a "multimedia time warping system."

TiVo's patents are considered critical to its licensing business - which includes Pioneer, Sony and Toshiba as licensees - as well as for set-top boxes used by partner DirecTV, a rival to EchoStar. TiVo's patent portfolio includes 40 awarded patents and over 100 applications pending.

Interesting article over at MarketingProfs.com, which examines why TiVo seems to pay little attention to the throngs of fans and "influencers" over at the TiVo Community website.

The main point in this part-1-of-2 article is that TiVo is more of a sales-oriented company, concerned with making the numbers, than it is a company rooted in evangelism, where the customer is the focal point.

"Our hypothesis is that the TiVo culture is rooted in sales, not evangelism. Evangelism is what’s good for a customer; sales is what’s good for a company. Managing a balance between the two is the challenge for any organization."

The second part of the article offers TiVo six pieces of advice in the form of mandates. They are:
1. Create a Cause
2. Create Community
3. Customer Plus-Delta
4. Napsterize Your Knowledge
5. Create Bite-Size Chunks
6. Build the Buzz

Some of it is patent marketing-ese, the fluffy stuff that fills management books, but there are some nuggets. They say about #3, Customer Plus-Delta, the following:

"TiVo should systematize online community feedback and make it a highly visible system. eBay’s executives convene customer advisory boards of Power Sellers several times per year. Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO, often leads those sessions. She is a feedback machine who solicits customer input and uses it to make company decisions. ..."

Interesting read...I know of several companies who would be well-served by taking these lessons to heart regarding their own fanatical customer bases. [Thanks to Jeff for the lead.]

North America's first 2K DLP Projection system, a Christie CP2000, has been installed at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA. Millimeter.com has the complete story. The movie first shown on the new projector was The Last Samurai.

While this is the first US deployment of this technology, multiple international orders for 2K DLP Cinema projectors for early 2004 include 20 in Singapore, 20 in China, and 10 in Belgium. The 2K DLP technology from Texas Instruments allows 2048 x 1080p resolution and employs 3 DMD (digital micro-mirror device) chips, one each for red, blue, and green. The Christie CP2000 system installed at Grauman's also provides a contrast ratio over 500:1 and screen size up to 75 feet wide, and uses either a 4,500 or 6,000 Watt lamp. More information on DLP can be found at DLP.com.

Granted, this isn't really "Home A/V" news, since this technology won't be coming to home users any time soon, but it's interesting nonetheless. As home systems get more and more sophisticated, theater owners will be under increasing pressure to convince movie fans that it's worth the extra admission price and hassle to come to the theater instead of just watching movies at home. Once on-demand first-run movies come to cable, which I expect they eventually will, theaters could go the way of the community well.

In my predictions for 2004, my number 8 headline was "China Announces Manned Moon Landing Program."

I made this prediction because over 2002-2003, China has been revving up their space program, culminating in the launch of the Shenzhou V spacecraft in October 2003, making them only the third nation to launch a man in space.

Well, my headline hasn't quite come to pass yet, but it's well on its way (and not bad for only 3 days into the New Year).

The China National Space Administration has just announced an ambitious three-stage Moon landing program. The target is to put a satellite into lunar orbit by 2007, followed by an unmanned landing by 2010, and finally to collect lunar soil samples by 2020.

Also known as the Chang'e Program (after a mythical goddess who travelled to the Moon), China's lunar program will depend on the Long March III-A launch vehicle and the Dongfanghong satellite platform.

Experts noted that the program does not mean that China now possesses manned landing capability. However, manned landings may be possible after completion of the three-stage program.

Since early November, Amazon.com has been showcasing exclusive articles and stories by well-known authors and celebrities.

The latest is a short story, The Salvation of Lyman Terrell, by one of my favorite authors and scriptwriters of all time, J. Michael Straczynski.

Set in the near future, this story about a lawyer with a life-and-death dilemma is standard twilight zone fare, but affords Straczynski followers with a piece not available elsewhere.

Straczynski is a Hugo-award-winning writer, and producer for such television series as The New Twilight Zone; Murder, She Wrote; and Walker, Texas Ranger. He is also the writer for Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man and Supreme Power.

However, many will always remember Straczynski as the creator, writer and force of nature behind the science fiction epic Babylon 5.

What do you do when everyone in your neighborhood's got their own personal catapult?

Break out your rubber band machine gun, that's what!

Based on the classic Gatling Gun mechanism, this contraption allows you to load twelve rubber bands on each of twelve rotating barrels for a total of 144 pieces - that fire off as fast as you can crank the control handle. Imagine the pummeling that you can inflict on your friends and officemates with this machine!

The machine gun is available in kit or plan form from BackyardArtillery, one of a group of companies also famous for providing kits for ancient siege machines.

Also available: slingshots, potato guns, catapult watches, cap guns, burp-ball pistols, soap-bubble guns, smoke-ring bazookas, archery equipment, boomerangs, and all manner of interesting weaponry that make the arms race, well, child's play. It's enough to make anyone a twelve-year-old again.

There's one thing for certain...Time Warner Cable has cojones.

So I get a letter from Time Warner Cable a week or two ago outlining its rate increases for the coming year. Our cable service will be increasing by around 8% in 2004. But, hey, that's just inflation, right? Oh, wait a minute...inflation has been like 2% the past few years. So why the hell is TWC raising its prices so much?

I figure that I must be getting more. You know, they raise the price and introduce another 10 or 15 channels to make it seem fair. So I look into it and it seems that the only noteworthy additions that I'll see are the introduction of HDNet and HDNet Movies. Cool...two new sources of good HD content. OK, I cool down a bit.

Then, a couple days ago, I find out that it's not the case. TWC is moving four HD channels (InHD1, InHD2, HDNet, and HDNet Movies) into an "HD Package" that COSTS EXTRA. For the past 4 months or so, InHD1 and 2 have been part of my Standard Digital Tier. Now, I'm losing them unless I pay extra for this HD package. So, I'll be paying significantly more in 2004 for fewer channels, or I'll be paying WAY more for two additional channels.

Wow, it definitely seems that Time Warner really, really wants me to check out DirecTV and DISH...maybe I just will.

SASEM is coming out with an external USB-based HDTV tuner for PCs and laptops (shown).

It supposedly supports both ATSC (digital cable) HD signals and NTSC (analog TV) with time-shifting (a la TiVo). It will sport both S-Video and composite inputs and both Dolby and SPDIF digital sound.

USB2.0 connections will permit the full range of HD formats (both 720p and 1080i), while USB1.1 connections will allow the OnAir USB HDTV module to deliver content in EDTV (480p/i).

Looks like an interesting product and might just fit into many a home theater setup. The USBHDTV.com website has more additional info.

Well, if it isn't, it should be, with the number of miracle cures being attributed to it. Aspirin is already being used by millions to relieve headaches, the pain of arthritis and as a preventative to heart attacks and stroke.

Now comes a report that a major clinical study is being launched to see if aspirin can protect against certain cancers.

The trial will focus on the action of aspirin against a condition known as Barrett's oesophagus, which is a pre-condition to cancer of the esophagus.

It will involve 5,000 subjects and last 10 years. Cancer Research UK, which is funding the study, believes successful treatment of the pre-condition could prevent up to 50 per cent of cases of cancer in the trial.

Researchers are hypothesizing that aspirin may cut cancer risk by affecting an enzyme called cyclooxegenase-2, which causes inflammation and is also linked to cancer development.

2003 is gone, and 2004 is here! Here are my new year's resolutions:

1. I will not rush out and buy a new Palm OS6 device the first time it comes out. As we have learned from the Tungsten T3, perhaps the third time is the charm. It's likely that the new OS6 device will be released in the late spring, but it might be better to wait for the Fall release.

2. I will not hold onto too many PDA's in my possession. I have a tendency to keep the old PDA's when I get the new ones. Perhpas it's due to a sentimental reason, but it doesn't make any financial sense. So, I'll sell the old ones as soon as I buy the new ones (For instance, my old Sony Clie N60X with the Sony CF Wi-Fi card is going on E-bay this week at an incredible low price).

3. I'll not buy any more new smartphones this year. I have found my T610 and the Tungsten T3 to be a perfect combination for now. Besides, I'm locked into T-mobile till December 2004. In 2003, I ended up buying the Treo 180, but then I switched over to the T610. It's good thing I got the T610 for free; otherwise, it doesn't make any financial sense.

4. I'll play less with my new Palm toys this year and write more reviews. This is a dilemma every reviewer or writer faces--should we play more or write more?

5. Last but not least, I will not buy any more digital toys this year. Last year I invested heavily on my digital photographic gear when I transitioned from my Nikon film SLR to my Nikon digital SLR (D100) with several brand new lenses (due to digital's 1.5 magnification factor), several large capacity CF cards, and many others. Unless we get the 24 mega-pixel digital camera in the reasonable price range (less than $3000), I don't see upgrading this camera for a long time.

Well, that's my new year's resolutions for technology-related items. What's yours?

Tim Berners-Lee, known as the "Father of the World Wide Web", is receiving a knighthood, as announced by Buckingham Palace as part of Britain's 2004 New Year's Honours list.

Laying the groundwork in the early 1980s, Berners-Lee proposed development of the World Wide Web in 1989 while at the CERN Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland. He wrote the first WWW client and the first WWW server along with most of the communications software, defining the URL, HTTP and HTML protocols.

London-born Berners-Lee graduated from Oxford University in 1976, and is currently a senior research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Ironically, the news of his knighthood was given to Berners-Lee by telephone, and not by email.

Happy New Year, Sir Tim!