New AltaVista App: Too Invasive?
A new line of business software introduced Tuesday by AltaVista will let workers scour corporate networks, e-mail accounts and personal computers by stitching together valuable and sometimes embarrassing information scattered on far-flung office systems. AltaVista hails the new product as a desirable tool for increasing productivity. A prominent computer privacy expert said it could backfire, hurting employee morale by making it easier to fish out personal e-mails and other sensitive data stored on hard drives. The software also could raise legal issues and create new security headaches.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,44461,00.html
Launching the Web into outer space
Vint Cerf, known as the father of the Internet, has got his eyes on the stars. The senior vice president for Internet architecture and technology at telecommunications company WorldCom is working on a proposal to create a network of Internets to facilitate communication between planets, satellites, asteroids, robotic spacecraft and crewed vehicles. While it may sound like the stuff of science fiction, Cerf's participation lends a certain gravity to plans for the stellar Net system.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201...html?tag=bt_pr
Building a Better Bio-Supercomputer
The mapping of the human genome has triggered an explosion in data about the nature of life. As pharmaceutical and biotech research companies like NuTec struggle to understand the workings of tens of thousands of genes and the hundreds of thousands of proteins they produce, biology is overtaking nuclear weapons as the field demanding the most sophisticated computers. Every other day seems to bring a new discovery - like last week's announcement that a biotech company located a gene thought to be responsible for heart-attack-inducing cholesterol.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27032,00.html
TI and Compaq Launch iPAQ Music Center
In its continued effort to expand the scope of digital music and grow its market position in digital audio, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) today announced that Compaq Computer Corporation selected TI’s industry-leading programmable digital signal processor (DSP) technology to enable audio encoding and decoding in the iPAQ Music Center, a digital audio device that serves as Compaq’s first home entertainment system and extends Compaq's iPAQ™ product line. The iPAQ Music Center, the first TI-enabled product that allows users to digitally record music from almost any source, will store and organize thousands of digital music files without the use of a PC.
http://news.mp3.com/news/liststory/?...8&month=200106
Who Rules the Internet in Mexico? Why, It's America
Mexico's fast-growing Internet market is still dominated by a network of sites that originated in the U.S., and only one of the country's top destinations specifically targets a Latin audience, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Top American sites, including MSN, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft.com, were popular in Mexico. The StarMedia Network, based in New York, was the only popular destination that catered to a Spanish-speaking audience.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27096,00.html
Song about 13-year-old’s love of instant messaging to hit music stores
Thirteen-year-old singer Brittney Cleary wanted to debut with a song most kids her age could relate to. So she picked a tune about love, right? Wrong. Her song is called "I.M. Me," a reference to instant messaging, the online technology that allows computer users to carry on typewritten, private conversations in real time. Cleary, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., says she and her buddies talk online about "everything."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/586497.asp?0dm=C12QT
Sony-Universal web-music service negotiates for Microsoft technology
As Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group named a management team for their joint-venture online music-subscription service, people familiar with the matter said the company is in talks with Microsoft Corp. about using its technology in hopes of boosting the site’s audio prowess and consumer base. According to people familiar with the matter, the companies are talking with Microsoft about using the software maker’s Windows Media Player as the site’s audio format, although the talks are continuing and it isn’t clear whether the parties will reach a deal.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/586281.asp?0dm=C1EQT
Net users are saddos
People prefer to stay at home rather than go out and enjoy themselves, claims a new report by Telewest. Don't ask us how, but they say people go out on the beer 100 times a year instead of the 160 times a year they used to two years ago - a drop in being sociable of some 40 per cent. And what's this got to do with Telewest which is, after all, a cable TV and Internet outfit and not a chain of pubs or restaurants? Well, it seems the reason people are staying more is because they want to watch TV or use their PC.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19648.html
Blair's hired the wrong e-minister by mistake!
Tony Blair has made a terrible error in hiring Douglas Alexander as e-minister - he actually meant to hire Douglas' sister Wendy. That at least can be the only explanation as to why Douglas was given the high-ranking job when he knows next to nothing about the Internet, while his sister Wendy, four years his senior, holds the post of e-minister in the Scottish Parliament. How embarrassing.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/19638.html