The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

Show my parrot Netcoco the cookies (and I'll show you the news)

Intel hyperthreading traced to DEC tech
Next month, Intel will bring its hyperthreading technology to desktops, another advance in the chip world that can be traced to Digital Equipment Corporation. Although Digital often floundered when trying to sell its own chips, the defunct computing giant left behind technologies and engineers that are at the core of many recent and coming advances. "There is all this cool technology coming out on PCs that came from Digital," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. Nonetheless, McCarron, among others, noted that these breakthroughs rarely helped Digital's bottom line.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-961495.html

Speedier w-CDMA wireless winning converts
Samsung and Novatel Wireless are the latest converts to wideband-CDMA, a standard expected to dominate the cellular world by mid-decade. Both companies announced separate deals this week to license wideband-CDMA (w-CDMA) chip designs from Qualcomm. Handset maker Samsung and wireless modem manufacturer Novatel Wireless, which is working with Lucent, said they expect to have commercial w-CDMA products available by mid-2003. Lucent and Novatel are developing a wireless modem meant for laptops or PDAs (personal digital assistants), and Samsung is building a phone.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-961601.html

Ballmer: Windows prices are firm
Microsoft won't cut the price on its Windows operating system to compete with a $199 personal computer that runs rival operating software, the No. 1 software company's CEO said on Wednesday. Walmart.com, the online shopping site of the nation's largest retailer Wal-Mart, has been selling a $199 personal computer -- monitor and modem not included -- that runs the Lindows operating system. LindowsOS, from San Diego, California-based Lindows.com, is based on the Linux operating system, which is a free, open-source operating system that is increasingly being used by large corporations for back-end systems. But it has made few inroads in PCs.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-961616.html

Divx vets look to beat movie pirates
As one of the key architects of the discontinued Divx DVD system, Robert Schumann knows first hand how hard it can be to sell copyright protection to the masses. Still, some three years after Circuit City pulled financial support for the limited-use DVD technology he helped build, Schumann and a group of former Divx engineers are hoping for a second act in Hollywood with the advent of digital cinema. Herndon, Va.-based Cinea, the company Schumann co-founded after Divx folded in 1999, is close to unveiling a beta for its Cosmos digital cinema security system that will help movie distributors keep track of how their products are used while protecting them from piracy.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961484.html

AOL hopes 8.0 is its lucky number
America Online has quietly released the latest version of its popular online service, which the company hopes will be the jolt it needs to reverse its sagging fortunes. AOL 8.0 is now available within the online company's proprietary service. Subscribers can download the new software by typing "upgrade" into the AOL keyword box, causing a window to pop up to walk people through the process. AOL, a division of media giant AOL Time Warner, is planning to officially launch the upgrade next Tuesday in New York City. The splashy event will be hosted by comedian Dana Carvey in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and will feature a musical performance by pop singer Alanis Morissette. The company has enlisted 2,000 AOL members to participate.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961541...g=fd_lede1_hed

FCC approves new digital radio tech
Federal regulators on Thursday approved a new technology for offering digital radio service, one of the biggest upgrades in decades in sound quality and choice of stations. At its regular monthly open meeting, the Federal Communications Commission approved a technology for digital radio service developed by iBiquity Digital, a privately held company backed by many big radio broadcasters. "The beauty of digital is it always has the potential to provide better services for consumers with more efficient use of the spectrum," said FCC Chairman Michael Powell. To benefit from the technology, consumers will eventually have to buy new radios, which are not expected to be on the market until next year, and stations will have to upgrade their transmitting equipment, at an average cost of about $75,000, according to iBiquity.
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-961666.html?tag=fd_top_1

An icebox with your white box
The Web-enabled refrigerator was once a symbol of dot-com excess. Now, that excess is available at a retail store near you. Korea's LG Electronics is selling a 26-cubic-foot Multi-Media Refrigerator, with a built-in 15-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen for watching TV, surfing the Internet or looking at digital pictures. But with a price tag of $8,000, the "first refrigerator of the Internet Age" costs well more than an upscale fridge and a top-of-the-line PC combined. In addition to surfing the Web while searching for a midnight snack, people using LG's kitchen convergence device can store recipes and messages from family members.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961619.html?tag=fd_top_3

Hollywood chases down campus pirates
Trade groups for the movie and recording industries are putting new pressure on universities to crack down on file-swapping by students using high-speed campus networks. In a letter sent to more than 2,000 university presidents, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other copyright owner trade groups told university officials that large numbers of students were using college resources to violate federal law. "We are concerned that an increasing and significant number of students are using university networks to engage in online piracy of copyrighted creative works," the trade groups wrote in a letter sent to universities this week. "We believe there must be a substantial effort, both disciplined and continuous, to bring this piracy under control."
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961637.html?tag=fd_top_5

MIT tries free Web education
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has decided to publish online all its course materials -- a $107,840 value. The MIT OpenCourseWare project launched two weeks ago with a preliminary pilot that just scratches the surface of MIT's publishing ambitions. As of Sept. 30, people with an Internet connection and a Web browser have been able to access the syllabus, lecture notes, exams and answers, and in some cases, even the videotaped lectures of 32 MIT courses. So far, more than 130,000 Web visitors from around the world have plugged into the pilot, tapping into a vein of information for which MIT undergraduates pay $26,960 per year for tuition.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961563.html?tag=fd_top_10

Chips offer insights into birdlife
It is one of more than 40 biological sensors - or motes - buried on the island, each only slightly larger than the two double-A batteries that power them. The latest has already begun to collect data on the conditions inside the burrow and relay it to a laptop computer. This is birding without a field guide or binoculars. Ultimately, the scientist will be absent. Dr Mainwaring is hoping to track one of Maine's most elusive seabirds, the storm petrel, with a subterranean online sensor network, and do so from his office 3,000 miles away.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2305725.stm