GearBits

Litigation in the Handheld Industry

I don't usually just point to someone else's story, but Brighthand's summary of notable lawsuits over the past 10 years or so in the handheld industry is as fascinating as it is disappointing. The legal wranglings involving nearly every major player in that space have threatened to tear it apart from the inside for a good, long while.

Gary Shapiro is My New Best Friend

Who is Gary Shapiro, you ask? He's the President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry trade group.

Why am I suddenly so fond of him? Because he wrote (or at least signed) a positively brilliant response to a letter from the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America, a.k.a. the spawn of Satan). The RIAA letter was asking why the CEA didn't want to back its efforts to get the FCC to mandate a copy-protection flag for digital radio transmissions (as it has with digital TV signals and that goes into effect next summer).

In the CEA's response, Shapiro basically cuts off at the knees every claim the RIAA makes and dismisses every hope it expresses. It's just a great letter...here's the last paragraph:

"In closing, let me again reinforce that non-commercial recording of freely broadcast over the air radio programming is a fundamental consumer right, and one that has consistently been given great deference by Congress. Any discussion of curtailing that right, prior to even the most minimal showing of harm, is ill conceived and premature."

If you want to read it yourself, first read the RIAA's letter and then read the CEA's response. And thanks to boingboing for the lead.

As a final thought, let me just say once and for all that I truly, honestly, and with every ounce of my being, hope the RIAA is soon sued into oblivion and every one of its greedy, soulless and foul-smelling executives sent to prison on 317 consecutive life terms for wanton abuse of consumer/citizen rights and its ongoing, wholesale assault on culture.

palmOne Wins Dismissal of Xerox Lawsuit

palmOne today announced that the lawsuit filed against it by Xerox claiming infringement of its 'unistroke' input method has been summarily dismissed. The overly broad patent and the existence of prior art invalidated Xerox's lawsuit.

MILPITAS, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- palmOne, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLMO) announced that summary judgment had been issued in its favor dismissing Xerox Corporation's claim that palmOne's former text-entry system, Graffiti(R), infringed a Xerox patent. In a decision released today, Judge Michael A. Telesca of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York held that the Xerox patent was invalid.

The summary judgment ruling will result in the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Xerox in 1997 against Palm, Inc. and its former parent, 3Com Corp. Palm, Inc. has since spun off PalmSource, Inc., maker of the Palm OS(R) platform, and acquired Handspring, Inc. to form palmOne, Inc. palmOne had retained liability for the Xerox matter.

"We firmly believed that the broad interpretation of the patent, as it evolved in this case, would render the patent invalid," said Mary Doyle, senior vice president and general counsel for palmOne. "We are very pleased that this court has agreed."

"This is a terrific outcome," said Todd Bradley, palmOne president and chief executive officer. "We've persevered for years to achieve this result and the vindication palmOne deserves."

The Xerox patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 5,596,656, which covered unistroke symbols. The court held that the patent was invalid because, "The prior art references anticipate and render obvious the claim," or that the unistroke system was not a unique invention.

We're glad that the judicial system seems to have taken the most rational view in this case. It would be nice if some other patents awarded for blatantly obvious "innovations" got invalidated as well.

Now, palmOne, how about offering the original Graffiti on some of your devices for those Palm OS users who can't stand Graffiti 2?

World's Smallest Fuel Cell

Casio Computer Co has announced that it has developed the world's smallest fuel cell.

Large-scale polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC) are already in development for use in automobiles. What Casio has succeeded in doing is to miniaturize a PEFC so that it is similar in size to a conventional lithium-ion battery.

However, the PEFC battery has a capacity nearly four times that of a lithium-ion battery. Laptop computers should be able to run on PEFC power for 8-16 hours.

Casio hopes to introduce its fuel cell to the market after regulators are expected to allow PEFCs on the market, around 2007.

It Seems that 97X Truly IS the 'Future of Rock & Roll'

I stopped by the WOXY studio (photo) today to say good-bye and thank the folks there for two decades of awesome music. I got to have a nice chat with Bryan Jay, WOXY's resident tech guru, about the situation facing the online side of the station's operations.

In a nutshell, and an oversimplified nutshell at that, to maintain the current online listenership would require a few hundred thousand dollars a year in bandwidth (they chew through several terabytes each month). Unlike my previous take, which is that the big barrier was royalties, it's these bandwidth expenses that are the largest hurdle. The good news is that there may be a way they can cut some of these expenses down, but that alone isn't enough.

The next hurdle is the fact that an actual online radio station (as opposed to someone just streaming music) would require about 4 full-time staffers. Salaries and benefits for those peeps would come out to just under $300K a year.

The final hurdle is indeed the royalties that an Internet broadcaster of this size would have to pay the artists and composers (unlike terrestrial radio, which only has to pay composers). IIRC what Doug Balogh (former owner) mentioned today, that would be a bit over a $100 grand a year.

Add up those figures and you're talking about $650 thousand or so each year that the station would have to generate through advertising and other revenue streams. And that's just to break even. Obviously, this isn't a trivial business model to make work on a for-profit basis.

97X's tagline is 'The Future of Rock & Roll.' To me, it has always been just that; I could depend on it to show me what's new and on the horizon. Today, 97X still represents the future, but no longer in a positive way. As 97X looks to go off the air this Thursday, the future of rock & roll seems to belong entirely to corporate radio and the RIAA. They are the ones with the lobbyists and the economic/political power. What do we consumers and music lovers have to look forward to? From here, it looks to be the death of independent radio and the ever-increasing homogenization of our culture. Yippee...I can hardly wait.

One Voice Against the RIAA

The lobbyists working for the RIAA and the biggest few radio companies have convinced enough of our elected federal officials that the price of broadcasting a song over the Internet should far exceed the price of broadcasting a song over the airwaves to make it law.

The result is hundreds, if not thousands, of diverse and otherwise viable Internet-based radio stations have been forced out of business because Internet broadcasters have to pay not only higher per-song fees based on listenership, but they are required to pay both the original copyright holder (i.e., the songwriter) and the recording artist (terrestrial stations do not have to pay recording artists royalties if they are not the original songwriter because playing their recorded songs is akin to free advertising for their albums). This effect has hit me personally due to the forthcoming death of 97X, the best alternative rock station ever because, despite it being a profitable terrestrial radio station for well over a decade, it cannot afford to pay the onerous and unfair webcasting royalties.

Why? What is the rationale for this disparity?

Surely there's no benefit to consumers or the public, yet isn't that the primary mission of our government?

So, while I am but one person with a conscience and a blog, I will henceforth make it a personal goal to see the RIAA go down in flames (or at least be so radically changed that it can no longer act out in this despicable and anti-consumer fashion). Please...if you care at all about the evolution of culture in America, or even just about the music you're allowed to hear, read up on the issue. My suggestion is to start with Lawrence Lessig's latest book, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. It serves as a good intellectual property law primer, history lesson, and summary of the status quo and why it needs to change.

As the saying goes, "if you aren't outraged, you haven't been paying attention."

300-GB Holographic Storage Devices?

Optware Corporation, a Japanese firm specializing in holographic storage media, has demonstrated a practical holographic recording and playback device.

Its system is based on polarized collinear holography, as opposed to conventional holographic recording and playing devices. This system multiplexes the signal and reference beams used for recording and playing of holographic media with just one objective lens.

Conventional technology requires a two-beam axis, a more complex system with precision issues, including positioning the media with each optical axis.

Prototypes shown used a blue-violet semiconductor laser for the signal beam and reference beam, a red semiconductor laser for the servo, and a CMOS image sensor for detection of the playback signals.

Optware says it is on track to introduce a commercial product storing up to 300-GB on a 12 centimeter holographic disc by 2005.

Update on the Demise of Cincinnati's 97X (WOXY) Alternative Radio Station

This was in 97X's latest newsletter update (see Mitch's previous GearBits post for background):

INTERNET BROADCAST STATUS UPDATE

We had anticipated that the last day of our terrestrial broadcast at 97.7 FM would be around May 1st, but things sometimes take longer than expected, so it now looks like it will be closer to, but no later than, May 13th.

That’s the good news … the bad news is that it might also be our last day broadcasting on the Internet.

Over the past three months we’ve been looking for sponsors or investors who could help us fund this very expensive venture into the future. We’ve talked with many, many potential partners, but as of now, it’s not looking good. There are still some active conversations, but every day that goes by makes it less and less likely that we will find a funder.

Believe it or not, it would cost more to run this Internet radio station (with half the staff) than it ever did to run our terrestrial radio station. The main reason is the costs of music performance royalties and bandwidth for our audio streaming. Unlike traditional AM and FM radio where the cost of operating the transmitter is fixed no matter how many people listen, on the Internet our costs go up for each additional person that tunes in. With our online audience approaching 50,000 unique listeners and growing every month, the already substantial costs continue to rise with no significant revenue stream to pay for them.

We've researched alternative scenarios including moving to a listener-supported subscription service, but even in best case scenarios, reasonably priced subscriptions would not create enough revenue to cover the costs of creating and delivering 97X. As a commercial business, it would be improper for us to accept listener donations, and even if we did, it would not provide a viable, long term solution.

However, it’s not over ‘til it’s over, and there’s always a chance that someone with a vision of the future will see a way to say yes. We’ll keep you posted.

Damn you RIAA, ClearChannel, and all the other corporate media tyrants and your damnable lobbyists for getting the Congress to adopt prohibitively expensive webcasting royalty rates and damn you legislators for allowing yourselves to be influenced manipulated by these soulless, culture-destroying organizations.

What Should Be Included in an Operating System?

As Microsoft includes more and more things in its Windows operating systems -- the most recent addition is a whole new set of security functions, like firewalls and pop-up blockers -- my mind keeps returning to the same question that I'm not sure has ever been resolved: what exactly should be included in an operating system?

Before I begin, let me make it perfectly clear that I am not, nor likely ever will be, a computer or software engineer. I don't have the slightest idea about the underlying architecture that governs modern operating systems. So, I am basing these comments on a "common sense" perspective, which may be very technically flawed (I'm sure someone out there will be more than happy to correct me);

It seems that there is a lot of junk in contemporary OS's that just doesn't need to be there, and Microsoft isn't the only culprit. Why should a web browser or a multimedia player or an email client or a word processor be necessary for a computer operating system to function? Just try to remove Internet Explorer or Outlook Express from your Windows machine (I know it can be done, but it's anything but trivial). Can I choose to buy Windows without these components for less money? No, at least not that I'm aware of.

Why are addressbook and calendar programs part of the Palm operating system? Can I buy/license Palm OS without these apps for less money than a normal license? I don't believe it's possible.

Heck, was it ever even possible to buy DOS without the "Edit" program? While a text editor certainly isn't required to function as an operating system, I doubt that you could get a discounted copy of DOS that didn't have this feature.

Now, I realize that an OS is a product, much like a car or a couch or a bicycle. In that sense, the manufacturer wants it to have the most appealing mix of features and price that will compel its customers to buy it. But what the software company wants to sell you is a different issue than what the operating system must include for it to function.

I have a hard time accepting the premise that I am required to pay for an unrelated feature that is bundled with an "operating system" that lies outside the core functionality of operating the system (i.e., managing hardware interfaces and what-not). I don't prefer Windows Media Player -- why do I have to pay for it? I don't prefer Internet Explorer -- why does the price of the OS include some portion allocated to Microsoft recouping the cost of developing it?

An operating system is like a car in some ways. Certain parts of it are highly integrated while others are very modular. In cars, and in many other tangible goods, the modular parts are easily replaced and/or optioned so as to not require being purchased in the first place. For example, if I want custom wheels or a custom stereo on my new car, the dealer will usually credit me for the factory wheels or factory head unit that would have come on the car by default. Microsoft, however, does not credit me for Windows Media Player or Outlook Express if I want something else (or nothing) instead -- I have to buy it as a bundle with no options...take it or leave it.

If that were the extent of the impact, I'd have no problems with it. However, when you combine the unwillingness to give customers options for purchasing non-core components with the monopoly power of the Windows operating system, you create a very unfair and damaging situation.

Imagine we were back in the days of a Ma Bell telephone monopoly. Imagine that if you wanted phone service at your house, you had one choice available to you: "phone service 9000." PS9000 is Ma Bell's only service product, and it includes every conceivable option available, such as voicemail, 3-way calling, caller ID, call forwarding, "wirecare," and a whole bunch of other services that you don't really need. But, you're stuck paying $94 a month for this mega-package even if what you want/need is just basic local phone service.

Society has said this is inappropriate on several occasions. For example, US law mandates that cable companies must offer a bare-bones "basic" cable service at a very low price. These local monopolies are not allowed to have just a single gargantuan cable package that costs $100 a month saying "if you want any part of cable service, you have to buy everything we offer." That's not allowed.

So why is Microsoft, a company already established as a similar type of monopoly, allowed to offer only one or two high-priced "mega-package" products? Both Windows XP Home and Pro are stuffed with nearly every possible add-on feature you can imagine. It'd be like the cable company only offering a $94 "Home" package (without HBO) and a $110 "Professional" package that includes HBO. Why is this OK for Microsoft, but not for the phone company or a cable provider?

Olympus Ultra-Compact Digicam

Olympus Japan today announced the CAMEDIA AZ-1, a 3.2-megapixel ultra-compact camera measuring just 3.7 x 2.6 in x 0.8 in.

The AZ-1 uses a 'folded optics' lens design similar to the Minolta DiMAGE X series and the Sony DSC-T1, T11, to achieve its compact size. It features a 3x optical zoom.

A cradle is also provided for charging the camera, and provide for USB and video out connectivity.

The CAMEDIA AZ-1 also boasts a large 2.5-inch, 210,000-pixel view display - with high contrast and a wide viewing angle - and album and slideshow functions that makes it suitable for use as a photo viewer and portable photo album.

Nokia Re-N-Gages

Nokia has just announced the latest addition to their N-Gage series, the N-Gage QD.

The N-Gage QD improves on the original with a number of new features, including a brighter screen, a better user interface and game controls, a hot-swappable multimedia (MMC) slot, better battery life, and new smartphone features.

The new smartphone features include personal information management, email, and an XHTML browser.

In addition, the microphone and speaker in the QD have been reoriented from the original, making for easier handling as a phone.

A new launcher application simplifies connecting the Nokia's mobile network community via the N-Gage Arena, downloading and playing all available titles, as well as taking part in multiplayer gaming via Bluetooth wireless.

Nokia expects pricing to be in the range of $199 at retail, or $99 with a mobile contract. The N-Gage QD game deck is expected to be available in May-June 2004 worldwide.

Smackdown: Wal-Mart vs. Microsoft

Dan Gillmor, long time journalist and Linux doubter, feels that Linux may have a shot at being significant on the desktop. Why? One major plus is the fact that Wal-Mart is starting to sell Linux-powered PCs in its stores.

Will Microsoft react the same way that every other consumer good producer has in the face of Wal-Mart's massive pressure, by buckling under and dramatically cutting its price? Or, will Microsoft try to ignore this new development, insisting that Wal-Mart just won't have a significant impact on the situation? Or, will something happen to provoke a feud between the two monolithic corporations?

This is a fight I'm waiting to see materialize, for it has the makings of a very interesting situation. Much like Rodan vs. Mothra or Dracula vs. The Mummy, we don't really have an obvious "good guy" to root for. In one corner, you have a company that enjoys a near monopoly in its industry and which has abused that power through various actions which have drawn many, repeated lawsuits. In the other corner, you have...well...exactly the same. Should be interesting...

Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) Getting Closer

I posted this moblog entry earlier today.

Cingular Acquires AT&T Wireless

US mobile telephone operator Cingular has announced that it will acquire rival AT&T Wireless for $41B. The deal creates the largest US wireless provider, with 46 million customers and sales of over $32B.

Cingular is a joint venture between BellSouth and SBC Communications, with over 24 million customers. AT&T Wireless is the second-largest US wireless carrier, with over 22 million subscribers.

British mobile phone company Vodafone was the other participant in a bidding war for AT&T Wireless, which was up for sale with a deadline of Feb 13, extended to Feb 15.

The acquisition is still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, but is expected to close by late 2004.

Notes from the 2004 PalmSource Developer Conference

Well, I'm back from the PalmSource Developer Conference in San Jose and, well, I'm bushed (the SJC-ORD-CVG red-eye sequence sucks). Nevertheless, here are some noteworthy comments that you may not find on other sites.

First, the big news is that Palm OS 6.x will be called Palm OS Cobalt and Palm OS 5.4 (and beyond) will be called Palm OS Garnet. When I first heard the latter, I thought they said "darn it" and was really confused. Follow that link for more info about the new Palm OS -- while there aren't any Cobalt devices announced yet, the breadboard demos were stunning. I cannot wait to see what the device makers come up with powered by Cobalt -- should be sweet.

Ironies of ironies -- the conference venue, the San Jose Fairmont, had free Wi-Fi Internet throughout the common areas of the hotel. However, to sign on to the service, you had to use an Internet Explorer-compliant web browser -- Mozilla didn't work and neither did any of the Palm OS web browsers. So, all those Tungsten C owners were walking around with slight scowls on their faces.

I got to fondle the most teeny smartphone, the GSPDA Xplore G18 (shown to the right). This GSM/GPRS (class 10) phone is about 2/3 the size of the already small Treo 600 and includes a camera. It has no keypad (on-screen buttons), but at 3.7 oz, I can't see where you'd put them. While there's no SD or other expansion slot on the camera itself, there's a slick little SD/MMC card reader adapter that plugs into the USB port on the bottom of the phone. For those wanting their Palm OS apps in the smallest possible PDA-phone combination (possibly even the smallest Palm OS device overall), this is it.

One thing I noticed while "people-watching" was that there were a LOT of Treo 600s being used by the other 1,100 or so attendees -- my hunch is about 20% of everyone there had one of these. The recent announcement that palmOne is taking pre-orders for T-Mobile-friendly Treo 600s just put me over the edge -- I pre-ordered one yesterday for $399. Now all I need to do is wait till early March when they will supposedly be shipping. For the record, I firmly believe that the rumored Treo 610 is complete hogwash. The current device is obviously so compelling to so many that palmOne is most likely to just keep making more and more of them, thereby bringing costs down so as to improve its profits.

During the multi-PUG (Palm Users Group) meeting Tuesday night, an engineer with Tapwave demonstrated Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 on the Zodiac. I believe this is the first public demo of the game, which has been "coming soon" for a few months now. It's good to see some of the promised game titles finally coming out for the Zodiac (which rocks, BTW).

FISH Memory Card Standard Debuts

The Universal Transportable Memory Association (UTMA) has introduced a flash memory card standard requiring no adapters, cables or card readers, called a Flash Internal Semiconductor Harddrive, or FISH. Cards based on the standard plug into any USB port, allowing transfer of information between PCs, PDAs, cameras or other devices.

FISH Memory cards are smaller than SD cards and have transfer rates of 10 Mbps. FISH cards are fast enough to capture streaming video from DVRs and videocams. Standard FISH cards are 1.3" long with width and thickness the size of a USB port. Miniature versions exist, 25% smaller. Current FISH technology allows for 2-GB, with 16-GB expected in 2005.

47 independent industry experts were involved in the development of the UTMA standard. Inputs to the standard came from 34 different companies. This industry consensus is expected to lead to a broad range of devices.

1-GB SanDisk SD Cards

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.

Foldable Screens for E-Newspapers

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.

Fax.com's Impressive Chutzpah

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.

Consumer Electronics: New Fad or Strategic Shift?

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.

Adobe's New EBookstore

Software company Adobe Systems recently opened an online store offering customers digital content in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

The Adobe Digital Media Store offers ebooks from publishers such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, and Random House, and includes links to digital publications such as BusinessWeek, Popular Science, the New York Times, and USA Today.

Adobe's move is the latest chapter in the two-steps-forward, one-step-back saga of the ebook industry, which last saw Barnes and Noble exit the ebook market.

Based on Adobe Reader 6.0, digital content from the Digital Media Store uses a digital rights management (DRM) scheme that allows users to view paid-for material on desktop computers and Palm OS-based handheld computers.

Keys to Adoption: 'Ease of Use' and 'Usefulness'

ExtremeTech has an interesting article about how marketers often try to claim that a new device is "easy to operate as a TV." Well, that doesn't really mean much any more, and as home A/V electronics resemble PCs more and more, we may be in for a backslide in terms of usability.

"In the past year, I've added two different home theater setups in my house and played around with a lot of home theater equipment of various types -- ranging to entry-level Home Theater In a Box kits to high-end receivers and media recorders. What I'm struck by is just how painful most of these are to install – and how much more of a pain they are to use."

In the late 1980's, an academic researcher named Fred Davis, along with some colleagues, published a simple theory, the "Technology Acceptance Model". That model posits that two factors will greatly influence the propensity of someone to adopt, or begin using regularly, a particular technology.

Those two factors are A) perceived usefulness (i.e., how much benefit does the technology offer to the user), and B) perceived ease of use (i.e., how simple and/or intuitive is the technology). Usability experts like Jakob Nielsen have long decried the ever-complexifying of web and user interfaces in software. The same complaints can obviously be made about hardware, as the ExtremeTech article plainly points out.

So, what can we do? Well, maybe it's time for industry to start listening to researchers a bit more. While it seems perfectly obvious now that usefulness and ease of use should influence someone's decision to adopt a technology, judging from the store shelves and marketing messages, that insight hasn't found its way thoroughly into the world's top consumer electronics makers.

Microsoft: Now at Its Most Vulnerable?

It seems that Microsoft, that behemoth juggernaut of the tech world, may currently be at its most vulnerable in quite some time. While vulnerability is a relative term -- Microsoft still has more in cash than some countries' entire GDP -- some strategic and market threats have combined to possibly create real concern for Microsoft's top management.

• Real Networks' Lawsuit threatens to reinvigorate the antitrust and antimonopoly landslide against the Redmond company here in the US.

• A host of other lawsuits, most related to anticompetitive behavior over the years, have forced the firm to burn up valuable cash and have damaged its reputation, especially in Europe.

• Additionally, some recent judgments, such as the win for Sun regarding Java, have forced Microsoft to abandon support for older products. This may force some enterprise and personal users of Windows 98 and 95 (which account for 39% of corporate users) to look at alternative products rather than simply update to the latest version of Windows.

• Alternatives to Microsoft's monopoly products, Windows OS and its Office suite, continue to gain credibility and technical robustness. Recent adoptions of OpenOffice.org, a competitor to Microsoft Office, Sun's Linux-based Java Desktop System (also just written up in Wired), and Munich, Germany's decision to dump Windows for Linux are all examples that Microsoft's strangle-hold on world IT may be beginning to wane...at least a bit.

• As spam, viruses, and other net-based security threats mount, Microsoft's record as having a rather relaxed attitude towards security in its products makes it potentially vulnerable to competing products.

• Finally, while the world is still very much PC-based, the trend is distinctly away from beige boxes. The growth of specialized computers and converged devices make it harder and harder for a single company to be all things to all people. Dedicated competitors are then able to nip away at the fringe of Microsoft's customer base as those customers' needs change more quickly than Microsoft can adapt its products.

Do I think that "market forces" are correcting what the antitrust lawsuits couldn't (or didn't)? Not really...at least not soon. While I certainly don't want Microsoft to go away entirely, I would like greater diversity and balance in the industries in which it competes. What do you think...is Microsoft more vulnerable right now than it has been in years, or is it just business at usual for Redmond?

Forrester Wrong about Charging for Email

In a commentary at CNET, a Forrester "senior analyst" claims that the only viable solution to saving email from spammers is to charge everyone to send any email.

This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

First, it punishes the masses for the actions of a minority of miscreants. While there are certainly precedents for doing this, why make the same mistake now with email?

Second, spam really doesn't cost that much relative to the benefits of email, or companies would have stopped using email as a means of corporate communication. Spam email just doesn't create as much of a problem as the popular press wants you to believe. If companies were truly worried about their bandwidth usage, they'd stop giving Internet access to every desktop across the company (downloading a single graphics-intensive webpage, such as CNN.com's homepage, is about equivalent to downloading a hundred emails...and don't even start to think about employees streaming video onto their desktops for personal reasons).

Third, the economics of charging for sending email just don't make sense. The cost more to develop, implement, and operate a system that can accurately track and bill email senders is just prohibitive. The concept of micro-payments is attractive, but it has so far eluded even the best attempts at implementing it.

Finally, and most importantly, it would not stop spam. Charging for email would only happen within this country, whereas a lot of spam, if not most spam, comes from outside the realm of the US's legal influence. Moreover, it wouldn't change the fact that spoofing spammers' identities would still be really easy. How do you "bill" some unknown kid in China for sending his 10,000 emails?

This approach would doom email -- it would simply kill it outright. Since spammers would be the only ones motivated enough to circumvent the billing system, spam would only increase as a percentage of all email even faster than if the current system were left in place. Eventually, the only ones sending email would be huge corporations (internal emails only, so they don't get charged) and spammers, making the whole system just worthless to Joe and Jane User.

Forrester, once again, gets it wrong. When will the world stop listening to these guys??

Home Entertainment Industry News Tidbits

I was perusing this week's copy of TWICE (This Week In Consumer Electronics) and I noticed a few stories that seemed interesting in that they contained info I hadn't heard before. So, I'll summarize.

First, there's a large story about how sales of home audio (components, speakers, etc.) are in a major slump right now -- electronics retailers and custom installers just aren't selling much right now. Why is this? They suspect that the huge emphasis on innovative and large displays (DLP, plasma, LCD, etc.) is partly to blame (after all, consumers don't have endless checkbooks), but they also believe that the lack of innovation regarding compressed/digital audio (to attract younger buyers) and networking (part of integrated solutions) are also to blame. Sounds right to me -- there's just not much innovation going on in home audio right now...it's all in displays.

Second, there's an interesting pair of bar charts. While I can't reproduce them here, they provide the sales of LCD flat-panel TV's and plasma televisions from 1Q02 through 3Q03. I've long thought plasma was a neat, but interim and short-lived, technology -- something that was here for only a brief period until something significantly better came along (e.g., 8-track and DAT). Well, the numbers finally seem to be bearing this prediction out. Quarter-on-quarter growth of LCD sales during 2003 was 30% to 57% -- impressive numbers! On the other hand, during the same period, plasma saw only 2% to 7% growth. Granted, plasma sales last quarter were $438 million, versus $274 million for LCD, but the trend clearly shows LCD trumping plasma in 2004 and beyond. Unless something happens to either displace LCD or greatly improve plasma's performace or value, LCD will be the new king of the flat-panel display. For how long is anyone's guess -- maybe SED will rise up strong.

Finally, there seems to be a huge shortage of DLP- and LCD-powered rear-projection TV's. A Tweeter (retail chain) manager says that Samsung's DLP line is "turning very quickly." The root causes of the shortage appear to be overly conservative ordering by the retail chains as well as higher-than-expected demand by consumers. Could it also be the fact that there's finally enough HD programming on to interest a significant number of folks (e.g., the Super Bowl)?

Interesting stuff.

Motley Fool Thinks TiVo Inc. is OK...For Now

The folks over at Motley Fool often have some sage advice for investors. Alyce Lomax of MF believes that TiVo, the company, is still quite viable and not in as bad a shape as some pundits would have you believe:

"Competing DVR products from a company like Comcast, easily accessible with service fees bundled onto a bill that already comes every month, could stunt TiVo's growth. However, right now it seems there's no need to panic; TiVo's got a whole lot of people evangelizing it, and the DirecTV deal provides a great deal of comfort. It still brings millions of potential subscribers to the table, who may very well all talk up the power of TiVo."

I really wish the cable operators would adopt TiVo-powered DVRs instead of the clunky devices like the Scientific Atlanta 8000 that some currently offer. While tech junkies are usually pretty fickle since they want the latest and greatest, I've yet to come across someone who had TiVo and then got rid of it for something else. I'm sure it's happened, but it's definitely not very common (yes, TiVo is that good).

Air Guitar

Six years ago, researchers from Cornell University built the world's smallest guitar to demonstrate the possibilities of using silicon fab techniques to manufacture micron-sized systems.

Now, Cornell has demonstrated a playable version of the red-blood-cell-sized guitar to show how such devices could be used as cheaper, more energy-efficient electronic circuit components.... by using a laser to strum the strings.

The new nanoguitar is 5 times larger than the original, but still only viewable with a microscope. Its strings are silicon bars, from 6-12 microns in length, and cross sections of 150 x 200 nanometers. The strings vibrate at 17 octaves higher than a real guitar.

You play the nanoguitar by focussing a laser beam on the strings. As the strings vibrate, they create interference patterns, which are detected and electronically converted to audible sound. The device plays simple tones and chords, with pitches determined by string length.

Practical applications? Of course.

Nanoscale objects vibrating at radio frequencies can substitute for quartz oscillators in electronic circuits, using less space and power. Since these vibrations can be tuned to a narrow range of frequencies, they are also usable in filter circuits. The unique light modulation system is also usable in fiber-optic communications systems to replace more expensive light sources.

All this, and the ability to play a wicked Santana...now that's my kind of science!

The Robot Hall of Fame: First Inductees

Carnegie Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame recognizes excellence in robotics technology, honoring real-world robots and fictional robots that have inspired scientific accomplishments.

Recently, CMU announced the first inductees into the Hall of Fame, chosen by a jury from 32 nominees.

The honorees: Sojourner, NASA's Mars Pathfinder Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX) robot; Unimate, the first industrial robot; R2-D2, the droid from the Star Wars movie trilogy; and HAL, the ship-board computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Jacob R. Matijevic of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory accepted for the Sojourner rover. Joseph F. Engelberger, whose company Unimation installed the first robots on a General Motors assembly line in 1961, accepted for Unimate. Kathleen Holliday of Lucasfilm, accepted for R2-D2. Arthur C. Clarke sent a special message from Sri Lanka, on behalf of HAL.

Also on hand for the celebration were David Prowse (Darth Vader) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2) from the first Star Wars episode.

The public is invited to nominate robots for the next induction ceremony, to be held in October 2004, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute.

Old Dell vs. New Dell

Barry Doyle and Andrew Baxter from Bargain PDA had a chance to talk with Michael Dell (yes, that Michael Dell) at COMDEX. One of the points he made was that "Michael Dell feels 'it's too late for Palm' so at this time Dell is not planning to offer any Palm OS-based products." I find this curious, especially as we enter the era of the new Dell.

The new Dell is the Dell of widescreen televisions, PDAs, and other consumer electronics. The new Dell is worried about innovation and marketing as much as computer technology and supply chain management. The new Dell is expanding its product line every few hours.

In contrast, the old Dell was the Dell of the desktop PC, the notebook PC, and the server. The old Dell worried about managing its production, its suppliers, and its relationships with large companies and governments. The old Dell rationalized its product line so that it could make whatever it made as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible.

Now, Mr. Dell's comment strikes me as the comment of the CEO of old Dell, not new Dell. The old Dell loved to take other companies' products and cut the cost out of them with an axe, then sell Dell versions at a substantial discount. The old Dell did this successfully with the Pocket PC, which was ripe for commoditization. It took a basic commodity design and made it for less...end of story.

In contrast, devices based on Palm OS compete primarily on their innovativeness and the degree with which they fit a particular customer segment for which they were designed. This requires a lot of marketing prowess and clever and skilled engineers gifted as much in industrial design as in electronics and manufacturing. These are the same skills that Dell now needs to compete with the consumer electronics giants like Sony, Philips, Samsung, etc. -- the consumer electronics industry is somewhat different from the personal computer industry (at least for now).

So, why is Mr. Dell speaking as if he were still king of the old Dell instead of visualizing the path of the new Dell? Considering that there is a lot more innovation going on in Palm OS than there is in Pocket PC (Palm OS 6 is due to be released in a month or two while very little has changed for Pocket PC in 3 years or so), why would Mr. Dell choose to stick with the commodity OS instead of pursuing products based on the innovative OS? Doesn't the latter better fit with the new Dell strategy, where innovation and creativity actually matter just as much as production management? Or, does Michael Dell secretly have doubts about his company's ability to compete in consumer electronics? What do you think?

Update: I just read this editorial at Brighthand, wherein Ed Hardy speculates, with good reason, that Microsoft may not be very enthusiastic about Pocket PC any more. If that is indeed the case, Dell definitely seems to have bet on the wrong horse.

The World's Most Powerful Supercomputers

Twice a year, the TOP500 project releases a list of the sites operating the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world. The latest edition of the high-performance computing compilation has just been released.

Retaining its number one position is the Earth Simulator Center, built by NEC in Yokohama, Japan, with a Linpack benchmark performance of 35.86 teraflops per second. In second place is the ASCI Q machine at Los Alamos, at 13.88 TFlop/s.

The Earth Simulator System is used to model the atmosphere, ocean and solid earth, producing data useful for the prediction and analysis of natural disasters and environmental trends. When it was completed in early 2002, the Japanese machine was so powerful that it equalled the combined processing power of the 20 fastest American computers at the time.

IBM leads the list in terms of total installed performance, accounting for over 35% of the installed base of 528 TFlop/s, followed by HP at 22.7 % and NEC at 8.7%.

Intel processors power 38% of the listed systems, up from 11% only a year ago.

Wal-Mart: Threat to Our Prosperity?

Fast Company describes why Wal-Mart may be the newest threat to American welfare. Per the magazine, Wal-Mart's massive buying power not only squeezes its suppliers, it also creates huge pressure on US employment in a variety of ways:

Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas.

The social costs of Wal-Mart's way of doing business, and the attitudes it reinforces in its customers, are threatening even more than just US employment, as the article plainly spells out.

Wal-Mart has also lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills: "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions."

Earlier this year, National Public Radio (NPR), of which I'm a huge fan, ran a four-episode piece about Wal-Mart -- it was truly eye-opening. Give it a listen when you get a chance.

Opinion: I am personally mortified by the ongoing homogenization of the US through the increasing expansion of these "big box" stores like Wal-Mart, Target, K-mart, etc. I can honestly say that I've spent less than $100 over the past 3 years in a Wal-Mart. Support your locally owned businesses -- they need your help.

Thanks to boingboing.net for the lead.

All Work and No Surfing

While Sam pointed out some studies that suggest that gaming at work makes for happier, more productive workers, a new book suggests that web browsing while on-the-job may have similar benefits.

"According to research, doing personal Web surfing while on the job can lead to better time management, stress reduction, improvement of skill sets and helping to achieve a balance between work and personal life."

The book by Claire Simmers and Murugan Anandarajan was based on an analysis of employees who had Internet access at work. While it's doubtful that one study can resolve this, this and Sam's story point towards an interesting question: are we happier when our work and social lives interact or are we happier when we keep them separate? Common wisdom suggests the latter, but these studies might indicate that co-mingling of these different aspects of our lives makes us better workers.

All Work and No Play

Companies usually frown on their employees playing games on their computers. However, the BBC is reporting on a study that suggests that gaming at the office improves job satisfaction and even productivity.

In one of the first serious studies of the effects of game playing in the office, researchers from the University of Utrecht focussed on 60 employees from a Dutch insurance firm.

The employees were split into groups, some allowed to play games like Solitaire and Minesweeper for up to an hour a day, and others denied the chance.

The results, documented via logbooks and other performance metrics, showed that the gamers had higher job satisfaction and productivity ratings than the non-gamers. Researchers noted that the effect was similar to that of a "coffee break," which provides the opportunity for workers to recharge.

The findings were presented at the first ever Digital Games Research Association conference. The research team is carrying out further studies with a larger number of participants, and using more complex games.

Mobile Exec Leaving Microsoft

Confusion over who makes what decisions within Microsoft's mobile division continues. It was reported on Thursday that Juha Christensen is leaving Microsoft.

Christensen is currently the Corporate Vice President in charge of Marketing for the Mobile Devices Division. According to his bio page, his duties at Microsoft include being "responsible for managing strategic partnerships, business development and product marketing for Microsoft’s mobility solutions. Products overseen by Christensen include Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphone 2002." Those who reported to Christensen will report to Pieter Knook, Senior VP of Microsoft's mobile and embedded devices unit.

Back in March, Steve Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer began to personally oversee Microsoft's Mobility group (as it was called then). While the division is making more money than it used to, it remains unprofitable now 7 years after its first products entered the mobile market.

So, was Christensen asked to step down, or did he truly see greener pastures at the unnamed "Silicon Valley-based mobile device start-up?" It seems hard to imagine leaving Microsoft if you're living up to Ballmer's expectations.

Samsung Has Big Plans

According to this story at CNET News, Samsung has big plans -- it wants to usurp Sony as the king of consumer electronics. The interview with Eric Kim, Executive VP of Samsung Electronics, is pretty interesting.

This is all really no surprise, however -- Samsung has stated this intent for a couple of years now in nearly every industry and market it competes in. As the article suggests, overcoming its relatively mediocre brand image will take a bit of work, and so far, I think Samsung's efforts have been working. Geeks who I talk to generally perceive Samsung products as good, if not great.

So, how do you perceive Samsung? Is it just a 2nd rate Korean company with a chip on its shoulder, or does Sony now have something to really worry about?

Microsoft Offers $500,000 Bounty on Virus Writers

Flash: Microsoft Corp. is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the authors of two computer virus programs.

Microsoft is offering $250,000 apiece for the writers of SoBig and MSBlast (aka Blaster or LovSan), which affected millions of computers through August and September.

Law enforcement officials are supporting the move, which would be unprecedented in cyber-crime. These rewards appear to be the first from a fund of $5M that Microsoft has put aside for this purpose.

More Halloween Horror? Microsoft Eyes Google Takeover

According to the New York Times, while search company Google prepares for an IPO, it is also entertaining the possibility of a partnership - and even a merger - with Microsoft.

Google has noted that its preference is to take the IPO route, but it has been in talks with Microsoft over the last two months regarding possible alliances, including the possibility of a full acquisition.

Google is considering selling a 10-15% percent stake to the public, expected to raise more than $2 billion.

According to some sources, even if Google completes its IPO, Microsoft may still be interested in pursuing Google at a later date.

Halloween Horror for Symantec, Customers

According to CNet some of the 1.2 million customers who recently installed a security package from Symantec can't use the software because of new antipiracy measures.

The Norton bundle - which includes Antivirus 2004, Internet Security 2004, Antispam 2004 and SystemWorks 2004 - asks for a product activation code each time the customer reboots the PC. In time, the software informs the customer that he has reached the activation limit, and simply stops functioning.

Del Smith, Symantec senior product manager, noted, "As of last night, our engineers were able to reproduce the problem on one type of machine. This really has been a top priority for our product activation development team."

Symantec estimates that nearly 4 million pirated copies of its programs are sold annually, and so installed technology in its newer products to combat this.

The company hopes to have a solution soon, but in the meantime has recommended that customers who encounter the problem contact them, and not restart their computers.

Trick or treat!

Handspring, Palm One

It's official... Shareholders have approved Palm's spinoff of its PalmSource operating system unit, and the acquisition of Handspring by its palmOne hardware unit.

PalmOne will be helmed by Todd Bradley, currently leading the Palm Solutions Group. Its Handheld Computing Solutions group will be led by Ken Wirt, currently a senior VP for Palm Solutions, and its Smart Phone Solutions group will be led by Ed Colligan, currently Handspring President.

Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm and currently Handspring's Chairman and Chief Product Officer, will be Chief Technology Officer for palmOne. Donna Dubinsky, Handspring CEO, joins palmOne's board of directors.

Under the stock swap formula put together earlier this year, Handspring's shareholders would own 32.2 per cent of the new company, and Palm's shareholders would own 67.8 percent.

Officials hope the new focus brought about by the PalmSource spinoff and Handspring acquisition will help it stay ahead of rivals in a shrinking market.

A New Way to Generate Electricity

Here's something Ben Franklin missed, while he was flying his kite in the rain.

At the University of Alberta in Canada, engineers have discovered a new way to generate electricity.

Researchers Larry Kostiuk, Daniel Kwok and their team pumped water through tiny microchannels in a glass disk, and found that they could directly generate an electrical current. The research, published recently in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, is revolutionary.

A liquid in contact with a non-conducting solid surface creates a thin layer of charge. If the liquid is forced through a microchannel of about the same dimension, ions charged similarly to the surface are collected, while ions oppositely charged pass through the channel. The result: the channel becomes positive at one end and negative at the other - a battery.

The Canadian researchers used a 2-cm glass disk with 450,000 microchannels, each 10-16 microns across. Hydrostatic pressure was used to provide water flow, and generated a current of 1.5 microamps. The researchers used this electrokinetic effect to power blinking LED lights.

"This is the first new way to produce sustainable electricity in 160 years," says Kostiuk. "It allows for the direct conversion of energy of moving liquid to electricity with no moving parts and no pollution."

The microchannel work is the first new electricity-generation method since William Robert Grove - the father of the fuel cell - developed two electrochemical batteries in 1839.

Work continues to characterize the electrokinetic batteries, but already researchers are talking about applications including power sources for cellphones, calculators and other electronic devices.

In addition, Kostiuk notes: "This discovery could be a new alternative energy source to rival wind and solar power, although this would need huge bodies of water to work on a commercial scale."

No Frills Mobile

In this mobile age characterized by the flavor-of-the-day feature, where the camcorder phone trumps the camera phone, it's refreshing to find a company whose business plan is based on the motto "Less is more."

The Cyclone phone, by New Horizons Technologies International (NHTI), is about as basic as you can get - but it works! It is recyclable and rechargeable, and in its guide as the 911+ emergency cell phone, can be powered by three regular AA batteries!

The five-ounce phone is packaged with nationwide minutes and retails for $39.99 (15 minutes); $49.99 (30 minutes); or $59.99 (60 minutes), and will be available at your local grocery, hardware store, or Kwikee Mart. Duracell, a major partner, will be marketing the phone alongside its battery displays.

The purchaser activates the phone himself by dialling a toll-free number. A live operator asks for his ESN (electronic serial number), and gives the customer his own phone number. Voila!

The low cost and simplicity means the phone will appeal to seniors and to parents with pre-teen children - who may need to phone home, but don't need to SMS. NHTI hopes people will buy the Cyclone like flashlights, and store them throughout the house, car, cottage, school locker or backpack....ready for use in the next emergency.

EscapeCellHell.org

Some of our elected officials are caving into financially well-endowed lobbyists and waffling on the Number Portability Act that is slated to go into effect in November.

Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, has a new website that makes it really easy to email your elected officials to let them know that you expect them to represent your wishes by keeping Number Portability on track.

EscapeCellHell.org is the place to go.

(Thanks, boingboing.net)

My Ancient Calculator and Why I Haven't Upgraded

I'm still using two graphing calculators -- the Casio FX-7000 (pictured) and FX-8000G -- that I got in high school. If you don't know me personally, that was nearly 20 years ago. Given my obsession with the latest and greatest technology, why do I hang on to these relics? I've been wondering that myself and I've come up with two possible explanations.

First, since I used these calculators in high school and all through college (all 11 years of it), I learned a lot of the advanced math I know using these things. Therefore, I am intimately familiar with every shift-function and special calculation mode that they offer. I would hate to have to re-initiate that learning curve by trading these things in for a newer model, especially one that likely doesn't do all that much more than these do. So, my first hypothesis is that I'd like to stick with what's comfortable.

My second hypothesis is that calculators haven't really advanced all that far in the past 20 years. Sure, they have more memory and higher density displays than they used to (my two calculators have a combined total of 2 KB of RAM). But, given that 80% of my calculations these days involve the four basic operands (+ - x ÷), these tiny enhancements don't really help me that much.

Looking at these two possible reasons, I think the answer to why I don't upgrade is both, actually. What I have is good enough for my use and what is available doesn't provide compelling enhancements. So, what's different between the calculator industry and the consumer computer industry?

Well, I do believe that most of the computer gear I have is good enough -- there are relatively few problems or uses that I face on a regular basis that can't be solved with technology I already have. However, the PC industry is really good at coming up with technology that reflects compelling advances and interesting new capabilities. While the calculator industry is at the mercy of mathematicians to devise new functions (unlikely), the PC industry has basically an unbounded space in which to explore and expand their products' functionality. I think this is what causes me to be constantly intrigued by the latest and greatest consumer tech -- this sense of exploration and creativity that is associated with constant innovation.

Micropayments Anyone?

An effective system for handling micropayments, or the ability to electronically pay someone really small sums (often in the pennies or fractions of a cent), has so far eluded designers. This has lead to a lot of really bad online revenue models being dreamed up to compensate for, or accommodate, this gap.

MIT Technology Review has a nice article on micropayments, "Selling Online Content—25 Cents at a Time". The piece reviews some new ideas, including a system offered by a company called Bitpass, that might eventually break down this barrier and let the easy flow of tiny sums of money finally happen as fluidly and efficiently as it should...and needs to.

Granted, when a robust micropayment system finally gets developed, you can probably kiss free content on the Internet good-bye. While it will take a while to get widely accepted, paying a 30th of a cent to read an article will likely become second nature and generally assumed. Heck, free content may even become the exception rather than the rule (wow...just like the real world) and advertising-based revenue models might start to seem charmingly anachronistic.

So, how much would you be willing to pay to get a weather forecast? 1 cent? 1/10th of a cent? 1/100th of a cent? Someday, payments like these might be automatically deducted from your "account," although figuring out what that "account" actually looks like will likely take a huge amount of work and coordination across the various financial industries. But, it will happen...sooner or later.

Microsoft Money Influencing What College Students Learn

As commented on by TeleRead, the Washington Post has an intriguing article about the potential influence Microsoft wields in our educational institutions.

While some of the research money and gifts that Microsoft has provided to top-tier universities and individual faculty has enabled projects that would otherwise have been financially impossible, a growing number of concerns have been raised about the degree to which these gifts are reducing the range of ideas that students have access to during their education.

"The corporation...has also directly or indirectly influenced curriculums and research priorities, drawing an outcry from critics who say the donations are turning computer science departments into vocational schools where mastery of proprietary computer programs are valued over the study of theory."

As an academic, I'm very aware of the fine line that researchers tread between doing things that benefit their students in the short run (e.g., getting corporate donations) and doing things that potentially harm the pedagogy in the long run (e.g., not exposing students to a variety of ideas and theories). The size of Microsoft's war chest, which it achieved through its monopolistic practices, to pursue these relationships is stunning, as the article goes on to point out:

"Today, more than 2,000 professors from top-tier schools are considered close collaborators with Microsoft, accepting cash, software, hardware or other in-kind donations from the company for specific research projects or classes. ... Microsoft's total research and development budget -- $4.7 billion in 2003, $4.3 billion in 2002 and $4.4 billion in 2001 -- is estimated to be more than all the rest of the software industry spends together. ... In comparison, according to the National Science Foundation, computer science department expenditures at all universities and colleges from all sources for 2001 was less than $1 billion."

Hmm...makes you wonder if www.microsoft.edu isn't just around the corner.

Protests Over RFID Just Silly

Why is it that folks are protesting the use of RFID technology by companies like Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, and others?

In case you haven't heard of RFID, it stands for Radio Frequency ID. The technology behind RFID is still being tweaked, but the idea is pretty straightforward. RFID tags are simple circuits that have some small amount of information (a few kb at most) embedded in them. These small tags "identify" themselves and broadcast their information when they pass within a few yards or feet of special radio-frequency sensors. The tags are inert until they receive power from the reader's wavefield. These RFID tags could be placed on things (e.g., pallets of shampoo or individual bags of dog food) so that products can be tracked throughout the supply chain and more accurate information can be had about inventory levels, locations of products in stores and warehouses, etc. Additionally, they could possibly be used in metro or rail passes, hotel door keys, etc. -- wherever a unique identifier is needed.

According to stories like "Privacy advocates call for RFID regulation" (CNET News.com), there is an organized and growing opposition to the further development and deployment of this technology (which is already in use by the US military). The opposition claims that RFID offers the significant potential for companies to invade our personal privacy more easily and extensively than they already do.

Even though I fully agree that privacy is something we need to protect, the RFID technology does not pose a more serious threat than anything else out there today for a few reasons.

First, getting a chip to broadcast its coded information requires a sensor. Installing these sensors everywhere is both expensive and troublesome. While a supermarket or department store might be able to recoup this expense, most businesses would not. A restaurant, for example, would be unlikely to be able to tag much of its products because they're eaten on-site. Moreover, the restaurant isn't going to have much interest in RFID tags a patron may already have on his/her person when he/she walks in, so what would be its financial return for installing these sensors?

Second, these sensors don't contain any information about you, just the products you purchase. They don't contain your social security number, your age, your address, or your credit card number. A large number of US shoppers have willingly signed up for discount cards at their neighborhood grocery stores. These cards effectively generate the same information that the RFID system would -- what you buy, when, and where. Obviously, a large number (perhaps a majority?) of US shoppers are willing to trade some privacy for cheaper groceries. While it's true that some tags can be re-written wirelessly (perhaps even using PDA or handheld computers), it's unlikely that tags on standard consumer items like toothpaste would have this capability.

Finally, RFID represents a potentially huge improvement in our ability to reduce prices and improve availability of the goods in our stores. By having better information about when and where products are at any given time, supply chain managers can make better decisions about purchasing, stock levels, renewal policies, etc., etc. Personally, if RFID helps the grocery store improve the likelihood that it has the products I want when I want them on its shelves, then I'm all for giving them some additional information.

Maybe it's just that I don't have anything to hide. Maybe I don't really care that anybody knows what I buy. Or maybe I'm just not paranoid enough for my own good. What do you think?

The Bell Tolls for SCO

SCO is still finding it hard to be completely open regarding the portions of Linux code that it says infringe on its Unix copyrights. Some limited parties have been permitted to review what SCO calls the "offending code," but have been required to sign highly restrictive NDAs. However, it seems that the only folks who are swayed by this "evidence" are ardent SCO supporters -- hardly the group that SCO needs to convince at this point in time.

What is perhaps the most troubling is the lame legal tactics that SCO is trying to use to support its claims. By attacking the GPL (GNU General Public License) directly, SCO seems to be both waging a bigger war than it can readily take on (in poker, that's called "bluffing") and making a potentially bigger mess of everything than if it just stuck to claims that it might actually be able to defend. If SCO's counsel is as misguided as it seems, then we may not have to wait much longer for this to all go away.

Also, given IBM's countersuit, and the billions (of both dollars and lawyers) it and other affected entities have to fight SCO, I can't seem to help thinking that this battle isn't going to last much longer. The facades have come down and we now are able to see that SCO's posturing is little more than just that. Hopefully, SCO stockholders will sell while the getting is still good, for once the tide has obviously turned, SCO's stock price will plummet to near zero.

Update: Good discussion at Slashdot.

Crutchfield Servers Hacked

It appears that a hacker was able to break through security at Crutchfield, the online and catalog electronics dealer. I received the following email just this morning (the ____ contained my new temporary password). It appears that no credit card information was made available to the hacker, but other personal ID info was.

"Dear Craig Froehle:

Crutchfield has discovered a breach of our web site security
and we believe your Crutchfield "Your Account" information may
have been compromised. The "Your Account" information may
include Name, Address, E-mail Address, Phone Number,
Vehicle Type, and Wish List information. We do not store
financial information in "Your Account".

As a precaution, we have temporarily disabled the order history
on our website and have reset your account password.

Your new password is __________.

At your earliest possible convenience, please login to the
site and update your password.

Please accept our apologies.

Sincerely,

Customer Service
Crutchfield Corporation"

That's a pretty big-time operation to get hacked, but at least they were smart enough to keep my credit card info out of harm's way. Well, this time, at least. Yeesh.

RSS Grows Up

You know a technology has hit mainstream when big companies want to control it. Such is the state of affairs of RSS, the family of formats used by bloggers and news websites (including GearBits) to syndicate their content. RSS stands for either "Rich Site Summary" or "Really Simple Syndication," depending on who you ask.

This story on CNET News.com describes the current and escalating battle over control of RSS and/or the technology that may replace it. It's certainly telling how popular the RSS concept has become when organizations like IBM, the W3C, and the IETF are all concerned about it.

We'll definitely keep an eye on this, and we'll hope the various entities keep their heads on their shoulders and don't screw up what's turned out to be a really nice and easy-to-implement concept...at least for us hacks.

Streaming Becomes a Legal Nightmare

Acacia Research Corporation has won an early legal victory regarding a patent it holds for streaming compressed media (audio and/or video). If it holds up, this could just gut many online media sources, ranging from cable providers, like Time Warner and Comcast, to established web giants, like AOL and Yahoo!, to other huge corporations that employ the streaming of compressed media signals.

The USPTO (US Patent & Trademark Office) has had its head up its you-know-what for so long regarding patents related to information technology and the Internet that I'm not really all that surprised something like this is happening. However, this massive problem doesn't seem to bother the bureaucrats in Washington -- those technophobic old white guys all too busy reading email hardcopies that their aides printed out for them to notice what's really going on. News.com link

Time Warner Cable Box: 'No DVI Out' Mystery Solved

In two previous posts (1st and 2nd), I described the problem I was having trying to get my new Pioneer Voyager 3510HD set-top box working with my TV. Specifically, I was getting a weird error message when hooking up the two using the DVI ports.

Well, it turns out that the DVI ports on this set-top box aren't enabled. Why not? Nobody seems to know. The hardware, in terms of the physical connector, is there, but the firmware in the box seems to be such that it doesn't permit the DVI hardware to actually function.

This seems kinda dumb to me. Why would you purposefully hamstring the functionality of a piece of hardware that you're giving to your customers when they aren't paying you anything extra in the first place? Makes no sense. At least the mystery is solved.

Time Warner Cable Rant - Part 2

Time Warner came through yesterday evening and delivered a nice new Pioneer 3510HD set-top box. There's just one problem -- I can't seem to get the DVI connection to work. Whenever I hook up my TV to the DVI port, I get this weird black-and-white error screen saying something like "Please connect a high-definition televison to the set-top box."

Well, my TV is a high-definition display, so why won't this work? Component feeds work fine, but not DVI (one of the main reasons I wanted this box). Being able to set the box's output to 720p to match my TV works great -- overall, the picture quality is superb. DiscoveryHD looks like a window...it's that crystal clear.

Anyway, if you have any ideas or know where I can find a user's manual for the Pioneer Voyager 3510HD cable box, please let me know! Thanks.

Time Warner Cable Rant - Part 1?

If you want high-definition television (HDTV) in your house, and you are a Time Warner Cable user, you may or may not be very happy. Why? Well, it comes down to two things: the newness of a small connector and the bureaucracy of a very big company.

If you have a high-definition TV in your house and you want HD programming, you basically have three options. First, you can receive over-the-air (OTA) programming from your local broadcasters. This requires an antenna and a HD tuner box (unless your set has an HD tuner in it already, which few do). Second, you can receive HD signals over cable, such as Time Warner or Comcast here in the US. This also requires some form of set-top box, since HDTV sets rarely have tuners capable of handling digital cable signals. Third, you can subscribe to one of the satellite TV providers, like DirecTV and Dish Network. These require a set-top box and some form of satellite dish (always a nice addition to the aesthetics of the family dwelling).

Given that Time Warner Cable is highly integrated into my home (RoadRunner cable Internet + cable runs throughout the house), my first attempt at receiving HD is, of course, through TWC. Last week, I went and picked up an HD set-top box at my local office and set it up, eagerly awaiting the delivery of my new TV. It shows up and I hook up the component outputs to the TV. Looks OK on the HD channels, but not great. It turns out that the best quality picture is obtained when using the DVI connector, which makes sense.

The problem is that the Scientific Atlanta 3100HD set-top box that TWC gave me doesn't have a DVI port -- just component. The TV delivery guy informed me that he's seen a Pioneer TWC box here in Cincinnati in someone else's home, and it does have DVI, so I should request one. Doing a little searching, it turns out that the Pioneer Voyager 3510HD started being delivered to Time Warner Cable a few months ago. Some TWC regions have these already, including some parts of North Carolina. Why don't all regions have them? You got me. Nobody I spoke to at TWC here in Cincinnati had any clue whatsoever. One rep I spoke to actually told me that the HD box that TWC offers here in Cincinnati is a Scientific Atlanta 2000HD (Scientific Atlanta hasn't made that box in over 2 years and TWC's own offices are providing the 3100HD).

So, I returned the SA 3100HD box (which SA doesn't even make or sell any longer) and requested that a Pioneer be delivered today. We'll see if that happens, and I'll post here either way.

Nanotubes...the Next "Big" Thing?

Motorola recently announced that carbon nanotubes might soon provide an inexpensive technology basis for large displays, potentially replacing plasma and LCD even before they hit the mainstream market. Motorola Labs' July 1 press release briefly discusses the potential of these forthcoming "nano emissive display" (NED) flat-panel displays. Other articles can be found in Silicon Strategies and Cnet News.com. Or, if you want to read up on the science of carbon nanotubes, check out this page or this page.

The Sad State of Pop Music

I was having an email discussion with some friends today about the music industry. We were all pretty much horrified by the actions taken by the RIAA over the past few years. From lawsuits against individuals to near-complete domination of US legislators, the music industry is running unfettered and taking us music fans over the cliff with it. If the RIAA were actually doing a good job at working first for the interests of the artists and the fans instead of for their own pocketbooks, we probably would have many fewer complaints.

This, of course, lead to discussion about the advantages (and limitations) of using direct publishing in the music industry. That is, things get better (in some ways) when fans can interact with and buy directly from the artists without having to go though a publisher (e.g., EMI, Sony, Universal, etc.). Jørgen Sundgot, Editor-in-Chief of InfoSync World summed it up best when he said:

And possibly the best part of all? The music would be controlled by what people like, and we'd all be rid of scantily clad, goat-voiced, computer-synthesized, glossy hellspawn courtesy of big American music companies.

Until then, keep supporting the artists directly and the small, independent publishers when you can. Some good places to look for more info include the Association for Independent Music and the original music website, the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA).

Windows Mobile

Microsoft has aggregated its mobile OS products, including Pocket PC and Smartphone, into a new sub-brand called Windows Mobile. This will hopefully remove some of the consumer confusion over Pocket PC versus PPC Phone Edition versus Smartphone. Now, how does Windows CE fit into all this again??

Wi-Fi Hotspots: Forrester Analysis Only Half Right

In this News.com article, Forrester Research is reported as suggesting that the current business models for public 802.11x Wi-Fi hotspots are inadequate. Forrester is quoted as saying, "We believe that much of the money being poured into public WLAN today to enable access...is being wasted." I have to disagree...somewhat.

The issue at hand is that current business models are proving unsustainable. Why? The first big reason is that current hotspot pricing is way out of line with what the market will bear. Stand-alone hotspots may require this type of pricing to meet industry ROI demands, but it's not a viable pricing strategy.

A second reason is cellular wireless access. 3G wireless technologies are giving most mobile business users wireless access that is good enough for most of their Internet needs (i.e., email). Mobile professionals often move from one high-speed wired connection to another (office to hotel, home to client office, etc.), so their wireless needs are often limited while in transit. That is, Joe business traveler can deal with having 40Kbps cellular access for a short while until he gets to a broadband connection.

So, the question moves from "how do we sustain stand-alone hotspots" to "how do we integrate wireless access into other services?" Wi-Fi access is a perfect ancillary service that can add value to various core services. Most services where the service provider wants his customers to "hang around" longer, or services where the customer is "trapped" there, are likely to benefit from offering free Wi-Fi access. Here's why.

Those services that generate revenue by virtue of customers being present in the system should provide Wi-Fi so that its customers have one more reason to stay (or one reason reason to leave). Coffee shops have already figured this out (the longer a patron stays, the more he/she consumes). Malls will probably be next to figure this out.

Public transit, hopsitals, and airports have customers that are there mostly because they have to be and would like to leave as soon as possible. However, while there, the customer would like to make the best use of his/her time as he or she can. Having wireless access to the Internet can make a big improvement in how these customers perceive their time in these environments, thus making them less resistant to spending time in these places. More time spent means more public support, better funding, increased maintenance and improvement, etc. -- all good things.

The cost of providing Internet service once the wireless infrastructure is in place is small, and the incremental cost (what it costs the service provider for each additional customer to use the system) is almost nil. This means that once the initial investment is made, the service is highly scalable and easily marketable without incurring large additional costs.

The rest of the story involves thinking creatively. It amazes me how rigidly business think of themselves sometimes. As an example, why aren't the airlines more interested in making the in-airport experience more enjoyable? It seems that most of the attention is being put on the time that the passenger spends on the plane, when often an equal amount is spent in airports.

In short, I do believe that public wireless Internet access will continue to grow, but it will require the rethinking of business models to make it happen. Just like any other new media, the early years are frought with bad models -- it is just a matter of time before the viable ones are developed and brought to market.

FCC, MS, and BS

Dan Gillmor of The San Jose Mercury News wrote a nice op-ed piece earlier this week. It covers the travesty that is the FCC's recent relaxation of media ownership regulations, the disaster-in-the-making that is the recent AOL/Microsoft settlement, and some irony associated with Barbara Streisand. While I don't really care what Ms. Streisand does, the first two issues should be enough to scare/outrage any conscious, media-loving American into an easily justifiable hissy fit.

Moore is Less (or 'When the Chips Are Down')

The Economist has a nice article on the economic state of affairs of the technology industry. It discusses Moore's Law, the "life cycle" of industries and technological innovations, and how the outlook, while not all good, isn't all bad either. Interesting read, especially if your curiosity extends to theories on macroeconomics and corporate strategy.

Palm to Acquire Handspring

According to this morning's press release from Palm, Inc., it will acquire Handspring immediately after spinning off its PalmSource division sometime this Fall. The photo at the right shows (L to R) Ed Colligan (Founder, President, and COO of Handspring), Todd Bradley (President and CEO, Palm Solutions Group), and Jeff Hawkins (Chairman and Chief Product Officer of Handspring, and inventor of the first Palm Pilot).

Stock issues seem fairly straightforward: Handspring stockholders will receive 0.09 shares of Palm, and no shares of PalmSource, for each 1 share of Handspring common stock. Since PalmSource will be spun off just prior to this merger taking place, this makes sense.

This seems to put Palm squarely on the map as a well-rounded device maker. Whether it has the muscle and inertia to carry its success in the consumer and enterprise PDA markets into the mobile phone market is something that we'll all be watching closely.

Another concerns is the people at these two organizations -- there is a lot of good talent that I hope isn't displaced because of this merger (especially some of Handspring's senior management).

Now we can also all debate what the name of the new company will be (assuming there's a name change for Palm SG in the works as result of this combination spin-off/acqusition). The running favorite seems to be "PalmSprings," but I'm thinking the community in California might have issues with that choice.

Read more on this story at CNet News.com, Brighthand, InfoSyncWorld, PhoneScoop, or CNN Money, and the cynic's view is (always) available at The Register.

Netscape: Victim of Neglect

Today, it was announced that AOL will license Internet Explorer from Microsoft for several more years in exchange for an out-of-court settlement and $750 million. This upsets me in that it seems quite likely to seal the fate of Netscape, which has been neglected by AOL ever since it was acquired back in 1998.

I've used Netscape since 1994. For nearly 10 years, I've enjoyed knowing that I supported one of the very "founding fathers" of the World Wide Web (back when it was actually referred to as that). Now, I don't want to sound too sentimental, for being a technology addict means you can't get too attached to any one piece of gear or tech in particular -- new things are always coming down the pike. But what irritates me the most is that Microsoft has now won the browser war -- effectively committing "browsercide" -- using the same tactics that it was sued for by the US government, yet it has faced no real consequences (other than an ever-increasing cash balance) for its anticompetitive, illegal actions.

While I have no compunctions against criticizing Microsoft when it needs bashing, I can also praise the Redmond giant when it does something right -- I think Windows XP and Office are two pretty darn good products, and I recommend them regularly. However, the way Microsoft has participated in its industry is shameful and merits corrective action. Moreover, we see the gains from those improper actions (i.e., its enormous cash reserves) being constantly employed to help extend its reach.

The past wrongs have not been corrected, and the fruits of those wrongs help Microsoft to perpetuate its will regardless of the appropriateness of those actions. Now, instead of hard-lining its competitors and partners the way it used to in the 1990's, today it can just spend its way to whatever solution it sees fit (e.g., the huge losses it sustains year over year in several product areas). That is testimony enough to suggest that we need to keep an ever-vigilant eye on the software industry in general, and Microsoft in particular.