Technology thread...
- Thread starter yudansha
- Start date
yudansha
TheGreatOne
Evil geniuses - well put! LOL
You're welcome, Serena!
I found this to be a good article, too:
Sports fans to find new tricks, features in Olympic web coverage but no blogs
(CP) - Higher, faster, stronger. It's the Olympic slogan for athletes but it also applies to web programmers who are busy preparing for a busy online season as sports fans are expected to flood sites searching for the latest statistics and photos.
With the Games happening overseas, the Internet will prove an invaluable resource for Olympic fans in North America who can't get to a TV set for live coverage.
"The Olympics are unlike any other sporting event because there are so many competitions and so many athletes and not all the sports get covered (on TV)," says Rick Broadhead, a Toronto-based technology analyst who has written 30 books on online issues and trends.
"The web really becomes a vehicle to track the sports and the athletes that you're particularly interested in."
Companies are well aware of the allure of real-time online coverage. Major world events like the Olympics generate millions of hits for cash-strapped websites. NBCOlympics.com says it's bracing for 20 million unique visitors. CBC.ca/Olympics expects about 10 million page views between August 18 and 29.
"It grows in importance for each Olympiad," said Andrew Lundy, chief producer of CBC Sports online who will be running www.cbc.ca/Olympics.
And with every Games, there is a multitude of sites for sports nuts to fill their insatiable appetite for information, whether the sport is synchronized swimming, badminton or freestyle wrestling.
"For Athens and for Olympics that occur off time zones, often time the only way people can get quick information is through the web," says Lundy. "A lot of events will be happening when people are at work and not at home watching TV."
To accommodate workers, the CBC site will have a tear-off ticker that can run on a desktop. The ticker will automatically refresh itself with headlines and winners and losers.
"You can keep it with you even if you close your web browser," said Lundy.
Many news sites are also taking advantage of advances in wireless technology and handheld computers like Blackberrys and PDAs by offering update e-mail services.
Hoping to take advantage of having an Olympic athlete in its ranks and the latest online fad, the University of Western Ontario recently set up a web log, better known as a blog, for rower Rosyln MacLeod.
But there's a major snag. She won't be able to post once she enters the Olympic Village in Athens because of International Olympic Committee regulations.
That means web designer Robin Sutherland will have to find an alternative option.
"The trick now is to see how we can support that idea without actually having her post to the website," he said from the campus in London, Ont.
The plan is to have another person at the university write the blog while MacLeod is in Athens.
The CBC's athlete diaries won't be refreshed during the Olympics either because of the same regulations. But Lundy says the IOC is slowly easing into the online culture.
"We're seeing a bit of lightening up of IOC rules and regulations. They were very, very tight for Sydney and they loosened a little for Salt Lake. They're even looser here (for Athens) for things we can do online," he said.
One clear example of change is the IOC allowing online video streaming of the Summer Games for the first time.
Broadband users will be able to watch video clips on NBC's and BBC's Olympic sites. It was previously banned to ensure television networks, who dish out millions and millions for broadcast rights, didn't have to compete with the web.
It's a costly initiative as the sites have to hire a streaming company to ensure only residents of the respective sites watch the clips, as per IOC rules.
The BBC video coverage, live from Athens from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., will include live video from up to four events at once. The site boasts that it will provide more than 1,200 hours of coverage online.
Blogs, online journals kept by regular folks, weren't as popular at the time of the Salt Lake City Olympics. Fans of blogs say the Olympic committee will eventually have to change their regulation because the online journals are becoming part of mainstream news culture, especially after the Democratic National Convention accredited a bunch of them.
"There's a much more personal engagement because a lot of it is reflective or first-hand account," said Sutherland.
"They're missing an opportunity," adds Broadhead. "That would take accessibility to a whole new level."
Regardless, Broadhead says spectators and volunteers will take up the activity.
"We'll see blogging play a role in the coverage of the Olympics whether or not the athletes are allowed themselves," he said.
A Belgian volunteer is keeping a blog at www.athene2004.be. Athens residents Theoharis and Yiannis are posting their experiences at 18 Days in August at http://18dina.blogspot.com.
Other bloggers are just using the blogs as information centres like www.livingroom.org.au/Olympics and http://Olympicfever.blogspot.com.
Some other sites worth checking out:
- www.Olympic.org - This is the Olympics' official site; interesting if you want to know more about rules. Also has good history of the Games.
- www.athens2004.com - Written in Greek, English and French, the official Athens site contains schedules, weather forecast for each venue and live video streaming and scoreboards. Promises to update content every 10 to 30 seconds daily while Games are on.
ANGELA PACIENZA; © The Canadian Press, 2004
You're welcome, Serena!
I found this to be a good article, too:
Sports fans to find new tricks, features in Olympic web coverage but no blogs
(CP) - Higher, faster, stronger. It's the Olympic slogan for athletes but it also applies to web programmers who are busy preparing for a busy online season as sports fans are expected to flood sites searching for the latest statistics and photos.
With the Games happening overseas, the Internet will prove an invaluable resource for Olympic fans in North America who can't get to a TV set for live coverage.
"The Olympics are unlike any other sporting event because there are so many competitions and so many athletes and not all the sports get covered (on TV)," says Rick Broadhead, a Toronto-based technology analyst who has written 30 books on online issues and trends.
"The web really becomes a vehicle to track the sports and the athletes that you're particularly interested in."
Companies are well aware of the allure of real-time online coverage. Major world events like the Olympics generate millions of hits for cash-strapped websites. NBCOlympics.com says it's bracing for 20 million unique visitors. CBC.ca/Olympics expects about 10 million page views between August 18 and 29.
"It grows in importance for each Olympiad," said Andrew Lundy, chief producer of CBC Sports online who will be running www.cbc.ca/Olympics.
And with every Games, there is a multitude of sites for sports nuts to fill their insatiable appetite for information, whether the sport is synchronized swimming, badminton or freestyle wrestling.
"For Athens and for Olympics that occur off time zones, often time the only way people can get quick information is through the web," says Lundy. "A lot of events will be happening when people are at work and not at home watching TV."
To accommodate workers, the CBC site will have a tear-off ticker that can run on a desktop. The ticker will automatically refresh itself with headlines and winners and losers.
"You can keep it with you even if you close your web browser," said Lundy.
Many news sites are also taking advantage of advances in wireless technology and handheld computers like Blackberrys and PDAs by offering update e-mail services.
Hoping to take advantage of having an Olympic athlete in its ranks and the latest online fad, the University of Western Ontario recently set up a web log, better known as a blog, for rower Rosyln MacLeod.
But there's a major snag. She won't be able to post once she enters the Olympic Village in Athens because of International Olympic Committee regulations.
That means web designer Robin Sutherland will have to find an alternative option.
"The trick now is to see how we can support that idea without actually having her post to the website," he said from the campus in London, Ont.
The plan is to have another person at the university write the blog while MacLeod is in Athens.
The CBC's athlete diaries won't be refreshed during the Olympics either because of the same regulations. But Lundy says the IOC is slowly easing into the online culture.
"We're seeing a bit of lightening up of IOC rules and regulations. They were very, very tight for Sydney and they loosened a little for Salt Lake. They're even looser here (for Athens) for things we can do online," he said.
One clear example of change is the IOC allowing online video streaming of the Summer Games for the first time.
Broadband users will be able to watch video clips on NBC's and BBC's Olympic sites. It was previously banned to ensure television networks, who dish out millions and millions for broadcast rights, didn't have to compete with the web.
It's a costly initiative as the sites have to hire a streaming company to ensure only residents of the respective sites watch the clips, as per IOC rules.
The BBC video coverage, live from Athens from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., will include live video from up to four events at once. The site boasts that it will provide more than 1,200 hours of coverage online.
Blogs, online journals kept by regular folks, weren't as popular at the time of the Salt Lake City Olympics. Fans of blogs say the Olympic committee will eventually have to change their regulation because the online journals are becoming part of mainstream news culture, especially after the Democratic National Convention accredited a bunch of them.
"There's a much more personal engagement because a lot of it is reflective or first-hand account," said Sutherland.
"They're missing an opportunity," adds Broadhead. "That would take accessibility to a whole new level."
Regardless, Broadhead says spectators and volunteers will take up the activity.
"We'll see blogging play a role in the coverage of the Olympics whether or not the athletes are allowed themselves," he said.
A Belgian volunteer is keeping a blog at www.athene2004.be. Athens residents Theoharis and Yiannis are posting their experiences at 18 Days in August at http://18dina.blogspot.com.
Other bloggers are just using the blogs as information centres like www.livingroom.org.au/Olympics and http://Olympicfever.blogspot.com.
Some other sites worth checking out:
- www.Olympic.org - This is the Olympics' official site; interesting if you want to know more about rules. Also has good history of the Games.
- www.athens2004.com - Written in Greek, English and French, the official Athens site contains schedules, weather forecast for each venue and live video streaming and scoreboards. Promises to update content every 10 to 30 seconds daily while Games are on.
ANGELA PACIENZA; © The Canadian Press, 2004
Littledragon
Above The Law
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- With no patient chart in sight, Dr. Sheila Gamache strides into Thom Kolby's hospital room to check on him a day after the 54-year-old arrived ashen-faced and perilously close to death with a clogged artery starving his heart of oxygen.
Rather than flipping through a clipboard thick with pages of notations and test results, Gamache gets up to speed on Kolby's condition simply by logging onto a wireless notepad she carries on her daily rounds at the Indiana Heart Hospital.
Like a handful of others nationwide, the Indianapolis hospital has traded its once scattered medical charts, file folders, X-rays and other documents for a unified electronic records system accessible with a few keystrokes.
Federal officials who are trying to convince more hospital executives to go "paperless" say electronic records can make hospitals more efficient, reduce medical errors and lower health-care costs.
The costs of the transition can be high, and many physicians are also unwilling to trade the ease of jotting down paperbound notations of their patients' statuses for a system that requires them to type the same information into a computer.
But concerns aside, digital records are a leap ahead for records system rooted in cumbersome 19th century filing systems.
The Indiana Heart Hospital's year-old digital records system allows Gamache, a cardiologist, to show Kolby an X-ray movie of his beating heart just after he was admitted the day before with a clogged artery and in excruciating pain.
"Do you see that right there?" she tells Kolby gravely, pointing to the looped movie of the blockage displayed on a flat-screen computer in his room. "I'm not kidding, they have a name for these and they're called widow-makers."
Kolby, of New Palestine, Indiana, watches the digital movie quietly with his sons Tyler, 14, and Caleb, 12, then observes, "That must have been the pain I was feeling." He tells Gamache he's feeling wonderful and is glad to be alive a day after a surgeon reopened the blocked artery by inserting a stent.
After the checkup, Gamache sits down at a computer outside Kolby's room -- one of 650 spread across the 88-bed hospital -- to enter notes and order changes in his blood-thinning medication.
And all of it without the typical paper trail filled with scrawled physician handwriting.
Cost barrier
Despite its digital records system, which cost $15 million to implement, the hospital is not fully paperless. It still generates paper so that it can interface with the majority of the medical community that remains burdened with paper-filled records rooms.
To cut that paper load and meet President Bush's goal of making sure most Americans have computerized medical records available within 10 years, the federal government is trying to move things along.
On July 21, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson outlined a plan that sets technology standards and provides financial incentives for doctors and hospitals to invest in health care information technology.
David J. Brailer, the national coordinator for health information technology appointed by President Bush in May, said cost has been one barrier. He said it can cost tens of millions of dollars for a large hospital, or network of hospitals, to make the change. Getting physicians, nurses and medical technicians to abandon years of routine for a new system is another obstacle.
"We don't just automate the old systems -- we change the way the work is done. And sometimes there's resistance to change," Brailer said. Younger physicians are less apt to object.
The software must, of course, be reliable and handled with care. A new system at a Department of Veterans Affairs' hospital in Tampa, Florida, was plagued by troubles that delayed surgeries and sparked congressional probes. The VA said last week that it is scrapping that system.
Nearly all hospitals do have electronic billing, but adoption of electronic health records has been slow. Just 13 percent of hospitals and 28 percent of physicians' practices had some level of electronic health record systems in 2002, according to HHS.
Lofty goals
Yet the change appears to carry great benefits.
According to a recent analysis by the Institute of Medicine, the routine use of electronic records could help reduce the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries caused by medical mistakes every year.
Brailer said paperless systems also cut administrative costs by eliminating the need to produce, maintain and store enormous numbers of paper files. Although it takes doctors longer to enter their patient observations on a computer instead of writing them down, he said digital records save time in the long term.
Tapping into this new data stream could advance even loftier goals.
The Mayo Clinic and IBM Corp., for example, are collaborating on a project enlisting IBM's powerful supercomputers to analyze electronic medical records and quickly assess patients' responses to new treatments for cancer or other diseases.
The project began when the partners integrated millions of patient records once stored in several incompatible formats into a standard system. Those records, when combined with data such as the vast body of information emerging from analysis of the human genome, could help doctors identify disease causes and prevention, Dr. Hugh Smith, chairman of the Mayo Clinic Board of Governors, said in a statement.
One drawback that electronic records systems pose for hospitals, however, is that they can reduce hospital revenue, Brailer said. That's because more efficient systems eliminate duplicated treatments, shorten hospital stays and get patients out of intensive care units faster.
"This is an industry that's not necessary paid on the basis of efficiency. It's paid on the basis of volume," Brailer said.
Faster turnaround times
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare spent about $30 million to get its three Chicago-area hospitals switched to a full electronic records system that about 6,200 employees began using last year.
Mark R. Neaman, the company's president and chief executive office, said the goal is about $10 million in savings in the first year, largely by reducing the data-collection process.
Eliminating the time-consuming dictation and transcription process of physicians' patient observations has saved $500,000 alone so far, he said.
Neaman said turnaround times for test results have fallen significantly at the three hospitals, which have about 50,000 inpatient admissions and 100,000 emergency room visits annually. Getting mammogram results, for example, now take about a day, not days or weeks.
"If you're a patient waiting for a crucial test result, an hour can seem like a day," he said.
The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit coalition of business and other groups, is one of several organizations working to encourage hospitals to move to computerized records systems.
Suzanne Delbanco, the Washington-based group's chief executive officer, said the biggest impetus for change may come from baby boomers who are less willing than their parents to wait around for test results demanding more efficient medical care.
"As patients begin to recognize that hospitals are largely in the dark ages, they will begin to demand that they get the best care possible, which is in part dependent on hospitals using electronic records," she said.
Rather than flipping through a clipboard thick with pages of notations and test results, Gamache gets up to speed on Kolby's condition simply by logging onto a wireless notepad she carries on her daily rounds at the Indiana Heart Hospital.
Like a handful of others nationwide, the Indianapolis hospital has traded its once scattered medical charts, file folders, X-rays and other documents for a unified electronic records system accessible with a few keystrokes.
Federal officials who are trying to convince more hospital executives to go "paperless" say electronic records can make hospitals more efficient, reduce medical errors and lower health-care costs.
The costs of the transition can be high, and many physicians are also unwilling to trade the ease of jotting down paperbound notations of their patients' statuses for a system that requires them to type the same information into a computer.
But concerns aside, digital records are a leap ahead for records system rooted in cumbersome 19th century filing systems.
The Indiana Heart Hospital's year-old digital records system allows Gamache, a cardiologist, to show Kolby an X-ray movie of his beating heart just after he was admitted the day before with a clogged artery and in excruciating pain.
"Do you see that right there?" she tells Kolby gravely, pointing to the looped movie of the blockage displayed on a flat-screen computer in his room. "I'm not kidding, they have a name for these and they're called widow-makers."
Kolby, of New Palestine, Indiana, watches the digital movie quietly with his sons Tyler, 14, and Caleb, 12, then observes, "That must have been the pain I was feeling." He tells Gamache he's feeling wonderful and is glad to be alive a day after a surgeon reopened the blocked artery by inserting a stent.
After the checkup, Gamache sits down at a computer outside Kolby's room -- one of 650 spread across the 88-bed hospital -- to enter notes and order changes in his blood-thinning medication.
And all of it without the typical paper trail filled with scrawled physician handwriting.
Cost barrier
Despite its digital records system, which cost $15 million to implement, the hospital is not fully paperless. It still generates paper so that it can interface with the majority of the medical community that remains burdened with paper-filled records rooms.
To cut that paper load and meet President Bush's goal of making sure most Americans have computerized medical records available within 10 years, the federal government is trying to move things along.
On July 21, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson outlined a plan that sets technology standards and provides financial incentives for doctors and hospitals to invest in health care information technology.
David J. Brailer, the national coordinator for health information technology appointed by President Bush in May, said cost has been one barrier. He said it can cost tens of millions of dollars for a large hospital, or network of hospitals, to make the change. Getting physicians, nurses and medical technicians to abandon years of routine for a new system is another obstacle.
"We don't just automate the old systems -- we change the way the work is done. And sometimes there's resistance to change," Brailer said. Younger physicians are less apt to object.
The software must, of course, be reliable and handled with care. A new system at a Department of Veterans Affairs' hospital in Tampa, Florida, was plagued by troubles that delayed surgeries and sparked congressional probes. The VA said last week that it is scrapping that system.
Nearly all hospitals do have electronic billing, but adoption of electronic health records has been slow. Just 13 percent of hospitals and 28 percent of physicians' practices had some level of electronic health record systems in 2002, according to HHS.
Lofty goals
Yet the change appears to carry great benefits.
According to a recent analysis by the Institute of Medicine, the routine use of electronic records could help reduce the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries caused by medical mistakes every year.
Brailer said paperless systems also cut administrative costs by eliminating the need to produce, maintain and store enormous numbers of paper files. Although it takes doctors longer to enter their patient observations on a computer instead of writing them down, he said digital records save time in the long term.
Tapping into this new data stream could advance even loftier goals.
The Mayo Clinic and IBM Corp., for example, are collaborating on a project enlisting IBM's powerful supercomputers to analyze electronic medical records and quickly assess patients' responses to new treatments for cancer or other diseases.
The project began when the partners integrated millions of patient records once stored in several incompatible formats into a standard system. Those records, when combined with data such as the vast body of information emerging from analysis of the human genome, could help doctors identify disease causes and prevention, Dr. Hugh Smith, chairman of the Mayo Clinic Board of Governors, said in a statement.
One drawback that electronic records systems pose for hospitals, however, is that they can reduce hospital revenue, Brailer said. That's because more efficient systems eliminate duplicated treatments, shorten hospital stays and get patients out of intensive care units faster.
"This is an industry that's not necessary paid on the basis of efficiency. It's paid on the basis of volume," Brailer said.
Faster turnaround times
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare spent about $30 million to get its three Chicago-area hospitals switched to a full electronic records system that about 6,200 employees began using last year.
Mark R. Neaman, the company's president and chief executive office, said the goal is about $10 million in savings in the first year, largely by reducing the data-collection process.
Eliminating the time-consuming dictation and transcription process of physicians' patient observations has saved $500,000 alone so far, he said.
Neaman said turnaround times for test results have fallen significantly at the three hospitals, which have about 50,000 inpatient admissions and 100,000 emergency room visits annually. Getting mammogram results, for example, now take about a day, not days or weeks.
"If you're a patient waiting for a crucial test result, an hour can seem like a day," he said.
The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit coalition of business and other groups, is one of several organizations working to encourage hospitals to move to computerized records systems.
Suzanne Delbanco, the Washington-based group's chief executive officer, said the biggest impetus for change may come from baby boomers who are less willing than their parents to wait around for test results demanding more efficient medical care.
"As patients begin to recognize that hospitals are largely in the dark ages, they will begin to demand that they get the best care possible, which is in part dependent on hospitals using electronic records," she said.
Littledragon
Above The Law
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Surely, there's someone out there who needs six factory-sealed, 100-pound cans of freon. Officials at Penn State University just hope that someone is on eBay.
Last year, the university's salvage and surplus department raised more than $90,000 selling used or unneeded equipment on eBay. As colleges and universities absorb budget cuts, some are turning to the online auction site to get rid of their more unusual, hard-to-price pieces.
"More and more, we're seeing that we're getting more money through eBay than we are through our traditional methods," said Jim Dunlop, director of procurement services for Penn State.
Salvage and surplus operations have long been a part of college life, especially at large, public universities. Dorm furniture, lab equipment, even office artwork needs to be replaced eventually, and university surplus warehouses end up looking like the set of "Sanford and Son," where there's one of everything and always a deal to be made.
But traditional means of dumping unwanted items -- campus surplus stores and live auctions -- only go so far. After all, once Penn State Public Broadcasting is done with it, who in central Pennsylvania needs a 15-section radio tower?
"We were having live auctions here once a month, and we were flooding the market in our area for what we had available," said Patsy Hendricks, surplus property supervisor at Oregon State University. "We sold palates of glassware, scientific glassware, for $10, $15. We knew there was a better way to do this."
Oregon State was a pioneer in using Internet auction sites to sell some of the university's -- and the state's -- more unusual items. Hendricks said she first started using Amazon.com's auction site in the late 1990s, switching to eBay about four years ago.
The idea is catching on. It was after a visit to Oregon State that Penn State first began using eBay, said Will Gallaher, manager of Penn State Salvage and Surplus. Michigan State and Washington State universities also sell on eBay; the University of Washington, in addition to using eBay, has webcast its live auctions, allowing people to participate from around the world.
A Hammond organ here, an ice cream machine there and various and sundry nuts, bolts and gauges generated a decent revenue stream for Penn State. But it was a globe with a wooden stand sold in September 2001 that convinced Gallaher and Pam Coffman, who handles the university's eBay sales, that eBay was for real.
"Years ago, we'd sell one for $300, $400, $500, and people usually throw the globe away and put in a piece of glass or something and make a nice table out of it," Gallaher said.
Not this time. A museum in the Netherlands paid $11,600 for the globe, then paid movers to pack it up and ship it overseas.
Since then, Penn State has sold three pianos, a Moog synthesizer, a doughnut machine, an ion synthesizer and other assorted oddities on eBay.
Sometimes, they barely know what they're selling -- they only know someone could use it. A tilting chair recovered from Penn State's Milton S. Hershey College of Medicine is described on eBay as "great for a tattoo artist or doctor."
eBay isn't for all colleges
But for all its successes, eBay isn't for every college. Mark Ludwig, manager if Iowa State University Surplus, said he doesn't have the personnel to photograph and describe every item for an eBay sale, and that he doesn't have the space to store things while the auction takes place.
A bigger problem for many state universities are laws regulating the disbursement of state property or limiting contracts the state can enter into.
Tim Sell, business manager for SWAP, the surplus sale operation for the University of Wisconsin and the state, said he spent nearly two years trying to work out a way to sell Wisconsin's surplus items on eBay, but ended up setting up his own auction site. It generated about $280,000 in sales in its first year, but Sell said he'd still prefer to use eBay, which reaches a wider audience.
And when you're selling such a motley assortment, the wider the audience the better.
"You look at something, and you think there's no way anybody's going to pay good money for that, and then it's the first thing out the door the next sale," Ludwig said. "The saying, 'One man's junk is another man's treasure' -- it's absolutely true."
Last year, the university's salvage and surplus department raised more than $90,000 selling used or unneeded equipment on eBay. As colleges and universities absorb budget cuts, some are turning to the online auction site to get rid of their more unusual, hard-to-price pieces.
"More and more, we're seeing that we're getting more money through eBay than we are through our traditional methods," said Jim Dunlop, director of procurement services for Penn State.
Salvage and surplus operations have long been a part of college life, especially at large, public universities. Dorm furniture, lab equipment, even office artwork needs to be replaced eventually, and university surplus warehouses end up looking like the set of "Sanford and Son," where there's one of everything and always a deal to be made.
But traditional means of dumping unwanted items -- campus surplus stores and live auctions -- only go so far. After all, once Penn State Public Broadcasting is done with it, who in central Pennsylvania needs a 15-section radio tower?
"We were having live auctions here once a month, and we were flooding the market in our area for what we had available," said Patsy Hendricks, surplus property supervisor at Oregon State University. "We sold palates of glassware, scientific glassware, for $10, $15. We knew there was a better way to do this."
Oregon State was a pioneer in using Internet auction sites to sell some of the university's -- and the state's -- more unusual items. Hendricks said she first started using Amazon.com's auction site in the late 1990s, switching to eBay about four years ago.
The idea is catching on. It was after a visit to Oregon State that Penn State first began using eBay, said Will Gallaher, manager of Penn State Salvage and Surplus. Michigan State and Washington State universities also sell on eBay; the University of Washington, in addition to using eBay, has webcast its live auctions, allowing people to participate from around the world.
A Hammond organ here, an ice cream machine there and various and sundry nuts, bolts and gauges generated a decent revenue stream for Penn State. But it was a globe with a wooden stand sold in September 2001 that convinced Gallaher and Pam Coffman, who handles the university's eBay sales, that eBay was for real.
"Years ago, we'd sell one for $300, $400, $500, and people usually throw the globe away and put in a piece of glass or something and make a nice table out of it," Gallaher said.
Not this time. A museum in the Netherlands paid $11,600 for the globe, then paid movers to pack it up and ship it overseas.
Since then, Penn State has sold three pianos, a Moog synthesizer, a doughnut machine, an ion synthesizer and other assorted oddities on eBay.
Sometimes, they barely know what they're selling -- they only know someone could use it. A tilting chair recovered from Penn State's Milton S. Hershey College of Medicine is described on eBay as "great for a tattoo artist or doctor."
eBay isn't for all colleges
But for all its successes, eBay isn't for every college. Mark Ludwig, manager if Iowa State University Surplus, said he doesn't have the personnel to photograph and describe every item for an eBay sale, and that he doesn't have the space to store things while the auction takes place.
A bigger problem for many state universities are laws regulating the disbursement of state property or limiting contracts the state can enter into.
Tim Sell, business manager for SWAP, the surplus sale operation for the University of Wisconsin and the state, said he spent nearly two years trying to work out a way to sell Wisconsin's surplus items on eBay, but ended up setting up his own auction site. It generated about $280,000 in sales in its first year, but Sell said he'd still prefer to use eBay, which reaches a wider audience.
And when you're selling such a motley assortment, the wider the audience the better.
"You look at something, and you think there's no way anybody's going to pay good money for that, and then it's the first thing out the door the next sale," Ludwig said. "The saying, 'One man's junk is another man's treasure' -- it's absolutely true."
yudansha
TheGreatOne
Walt Disney Co. to start selling computers for kids (mouse included)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Walt Disney Co. has added a personal computer and flat screen monitor to its lineup of consumer electronics products.
It even comes with a mouse. The computer, which also comes with games, a digital pen and a drive that plays both CDs and DVDs, joins a television, DVD player, clock radio, cordless phone and other products the company has introduced over the past two years.
The computer will retail for $599 US, with the monitor sold separately for $299.
The Disney Dream Desk PC was unveiled Thursday in New York.
The computer was designed by Frog design and will be made by Germany's Medion AG, a large private-label maker of personal computers.
The Windows PC comes with ContentProtect, an e-mail and Internet filtering system. It also comes with proprietary programs that allow users to combine their own video clips with Disney characters and sound effects and create drawings using a built-in digital pen.
Disney announced it will also be introducing a digital camera and camcorder later this year.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Walt Disney Co. has added a personal computer and flat screen monitor to its lineup of consumer electronics products.
It even comes with a mouse. The computer, which also comes with games, a digital pen and a drive that plays both CDs and DVDs, joins a television, DVD player, clock radio, cordless phone and other products the company has introduced over the past two years.
The computer will retail for $599 US, with the monitor sold separately for $299.
The Disney Dream Desk PC was unveiled Thursday in New York.
The computer was designed by Frog design and will be made by Germany's Medion AG, a large private-label maker of personal computers.
The Windows PC comes with ContentProtect, an e-mail and Internet filtering system. It also comes with proprietary programs that allow users to combine their own video clips with Disney characters and sound effects and create drawings using a built-in digital pen.
Disney announced it will also be introducing a digital camera and camcorder later this year.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
Thanks for the Disney computer article, yudansha.
Sounds like a nice thing to have if you have some extra money, but both of my youngest nephews, 3 and 6, have long since discovered the joy of a regular computer. There are so many programs out there you can get, which Aunt Serena has done, but sooo many online activities for them to explore and get involved with, which they do quite often. Disney.com, PBSkids.com, including all the Sesame Street characters, as well as all the other PBS children's shows, plus NickJr. com is excellent for those Nickelodeon fans, plus Cartoon Network, found through Warner Brothers. All of these offer many, many free hands-on learning tools, as well as fun activities for kids of all ages--even Aunt Serena.
Sounds like a nice thing to have if you have some extra money, but both of my youngest nephews, 3 and 6, have long since discovered the joy of a regular computer. There are so many programs out there you can get, which Aunt Serena has done, but sooo many online activities for them to explore and get involved with, which they do quite often. Disney.com, PBSkids.com, including all the Sesame Street characters, as well as all the other PBS children's shows, plus NickJr. com is excellent for those Nickelodeon fans, plus Cartoon Network, found through Warner Brothers. All of these offer many, many free hands-on learning tools, as well as fun activities for kids of all ages--even Aunt Serena.
Amos Stevens
New Member
hhaaaaaaaaaa! Old Fashioned technology! Thanks Tora!
Littledragon
Above The Law
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The questions pour in: Will President Bush reschedule his prime-time speech to avoid a conflict with "American Idol?" (Nope.) Why does he hate nature? (He doesn't.) Do presidents pick up a hot line red phone? (No, phone colors of choice have been black, turquoise and white.)
Online exchanges like these offer a peek into the ways of the White House, not to mention a taste of what's on the minds of some Americans.
"Ask the White House" is an online chat held about five times weekly. People fire eclectic questions at administration officials and staffers, mixing heavy affairs of state with light fare about where Barney the dog sleeps. The forum is supplemented by e-mail exchanges that offer officials a bit more time to research their answer.
A Tucson, Arizona, man offered the White House chef a corndog stuffing recipe at Thanksgiving; a Richmond, Virginia, writer asked the Federal Trade Commission chief how he could get his ex-wife's name added to the Do-Not-Call Registry; a Cleveland man proposed to his girlfriend during a chat.
"When we take a question that is offbeat and funny, it's good," says Jimmy Orr, White House Internet director. "We encourage that. If there is an element of humor, they are more apt to be read."
Besides, Orr added, "it humanizes the guest. Instead of a senior administration official that is very governmental and stern, it shows they have a sense of humor too."
Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of questions are sent to Orr's e-mail during a single live session. He reviews them and forwards questions relevant to the topic of the discussion to the guest, but the guest can take on any question.
The topic is usually one that underscores the president's message, or reflects something he did that day.
Tough questions
Launched in April 2003, the forum has let people interact with first lady Laura Bush, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. White House Chief Usher Gary Walters talked of in-residence ghosts, Presidential Chef Walter Scheib was offered a tip using chopped-up turkey corndogs as stuffing.
"This is a new recipe to me, but if you like it -- enjoy," a noncommittal Scheib replied.
A few softballs are tossed over the Internet. One coach asked how his young players could become eligible for tee-ball games hosted by the president on the South Lawn of the White House. (An application can be found on the Little League Web site.) Another wanted to know how many event invitations the president receives weekly. (More than 1,000.)
In either form of cyber communication, tough questions do get through, probing officials on the environment, education and national security. Jobless people want to know when the economy will improve.
In some cases, there is anger in the air. "Who in their right minds would give Saddam Hussein back? Did we not go into that country and take him out? So why are we giving him back?"
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage delicately handled this one, responding that it was the "proper course of action."
"Saddam Hussein is responsible, some people estimate, for the deaths of a million Iraqis. He is responsible for the invasion of Kuwait and the raping and killing of thousands. Those are the people in the first instance who have a right to extract justice."
Others grouse, then get to the root of their frustration. "The Bush regime hates nature. How else to explain the war against our land, water and air?"
Jim Connaugton, chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality, rebuffed the attack, saying, "You apparently are not aware that the president is an avid outdoorsman and conservationist who enjoys restoring habitat, planting native grasses and reforesting his own land." Then, Connaugton went on to explain Healthy Forests legislation.
Dispelling myths
Orr said it's important to take the tough questions, to get a good balance. "If we only posted the questions that praised the president and the policies, people would think it's only red meat for the conservatives," he said.
The online Q&A has helped dispel some myths. Walters responded to a question about a red phone located in the Oval Office like one on the original "Batman" TV series.
"If it were a hot line, it may have been concealed in a desk drawer," he allowed. But he was only aware of black, turquoise and white desk phones used by recent presidents.
Among the testier questions:
--Chris from California: "This White House attempting to celebrate Earth Day is the biggest crock I've ever seen. How can you guys do it with a straight face?"
--Bon from France: "There will be no bygones. French people won't ever forgive your insulting behavior neither the sillyness of your president and his stupid people. You are not welcome in my country."
On a lighter note, White House press secretary Scott McClellan was asked by an Ohio middle schooler if he would move the president's speech to another time. "I want to watch 'American Idol.' How about moving the speech to 9 p.m?"
McClellan told her he thought they would stick to the 8:30 p.m speech.
"There are some important issues that the president wants to discuss with the American people at a time when most Americans will be able to hear what he has to say," he said.
Online exchanges like these offer a peek into the ways of the White House, not to mention a taste of what's on the minds of some Americans.
"Ask the White House" is an online chat held about five times weekly. People fire eclectic questions at administration officials and staffers, mixing heavy affairs of state with light fare about where Barney the dog sleeps. The forum is supplemented by e-mail exchanges that offer officials a bit more time to research their answer.
A Tucson, Arizona, man offered the White House chef a corndog stuffing recipe at Thanksgiving; a Richmond, Virginia, writer asked the Federal Trade Commission chief how he could get his ex-wife's name added to the Do-Not-Call Registry; a Cleveland man proposed to his girlfriend during a chat.
"When we take a question that is offbeat and funny, it's good," says Jimmy Orr, White House Internet director. "We encourage that. If there is an element of humor, they are more apt to be read."
Besides, Orr added, "it humanizes the guest. Instead of a senior administration official that is very governmental and stern, it shows they have a sense of humor too."
Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of questions are sent to Orr's e-mail during a single live session. He reviews them and forwards questions relevant to the topic of the discussion to the guest, but the guest can take on any question.
The topic is usually one that underscores the president's message, or reflects something he did that day.
Tough questions
Launched in April 2003, the forum has let people interact with first lady Laura Bush, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. White House Chief Usher Gary Walters talked of in-residence ghosts, Presidential Chef Walter Scheib was offered a tip using chopped-up turkey corndogs as stuffing.
"This is a new recipe to me, but if you like it -- enjoy," a noncommittal Scheib replied.
A few softballs are tossed over the Internet. One coach asked how his young players could become eligible for tee-ball games hosted by the president on the South Lawn of the White House. (An application can be found on the Little League Web site.) Another wanted to know how many event invitations the president receives weekly. (More than 1,000.)
In either form of cyber communication, tough questions do get through, probing officials on the environment, education and national security. Jobless people want to know when the economy will improve.
In some cases, there is anger in the air. "Who in their right minds would give Saddam Hussein back? Did we not go into that country and take him out? So why are we giving him back?"
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage delicately handled this one, responding that it was the "proper course of action."
"Saddam Hussein is responsible, some people estimate, for the deaths of a million Iraqis. He is responsible for the invasion of Kuwait and the raping and killing of thousands. Those are the people in the first instance who have a right to extract justice."
Others grouse, then get to the root of their frustration. "The Bush regime hates nature. How else to explain the war against our land, water and air?"
Jim Connaugton, chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality, rebuffed the attack, saying, "You apparently are not aware that the president is an avid outdoorsman and conservationist who enjoys restoring habitat, planting native grasses and reforesting his own land." Then, Connaugton went on to explain Healthy Forests legislation.
Dispelling myths
Orr said it's important to take the tough questions, to get a good balance. "If we only posted the questions that praised the president and the policies, people would think it's only red meat for the conservatives," he said.
The online Q&A has helped dispel some myths. Walters responded to a question about a red phone located in the Oval Office like one on the original "Batman" TV series.
"If it were a hot line, it may have been concealed in a desk drawer," he allowed. But he was only aware of black, turquoise and white desk phones used by recent presidents.
Among the testier questions:
--Chris from California: "This White House attempting to celebrate Earth Day is the biggest crock I've ever seen. How can you guys do it with a straight face?"
--Bon from France: "There will be no bygones. French people won't ever forgive your insulting behavior neither the sillyness of your president and his stupid people. You are not welcome in my country."
On a lighter note, White House press secretary Scott McClellan was asked by an Ohio middle schooler if he would move the president's speech to another time. "I want to watch 'American Idol.' How about moving the speech to 9 p.m?"
McClellan told her he thought they would stick to the 8:30 p.m speech.
"There are some important issues that the president wants to discuss with the American people at a time when most Americans will be able to hear what he has to say," he said.
Littledragon
Above The Law
tora said:Finally they came up with some technology hits
LOL very clever!
Littledragon
Above The Law
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Attorneys general from 45 states sent letters Thursday to seven companies that offer online file-sharing software, hinting at possible legal consequences if the networks don't better inform computer users about potential copyright violations from sharing files.
But a legal expert questioned how file sharing might break state laws.
The move signals the states' willingness to go after the purveyors of Kazaa, Morpheus and other similar peer-to-peer software, which entertainment companies contend are profiting from the unauthorized distribution of songs, movies and software by users of their programs.
The letter was signed by attorneys general from all but five states -- Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Wyoming -- the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The attorneys general ask the companies to improve how they inform those who use their software about potential legal and security risks associated with file-sharing, which include being sued for copyright infringement, identity theft, and unwittingly being exposed to pornography, computer viruses and spyware.
The companies are also urged to develop better filters for pornography, but not to make any changes to their software, such as adding encryption features to hide users' identity.
"Encryption only reinforces the perception that P2P technology is being used primarily for illegal ends," the letter says. "Accordingly, we would ask you to refrain from making design changes to your software that prevent law enforcement in our states from investigating and enforcing the law."
Legal implications
The letter stops short of spelling out consequences if the companies don't heed the requests, but it includes references to past legal action taken by the states against suspected spammers.
It's unclear what legal action based on state law is open to the attorneys general.
Efforts to use federal copyright laws to shutter the current crop of file-sharing software distributors have stalled since the original file-sharing network, Napster, was forced to close down in 2001.
But states can only enforce copyright violations when it applies to sound recordings made before 1972, said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
"I'm not aware of any state law that file-sharing violates," von Lohmann said. "This letter is clearly an exercise of political clout on the part of the entertainment industry."
Letters were sent to the companies behind Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, Bear Share, Blubster, MetaMachine/EDonkey 2000 and Lime Wire, as well as two of the so-called P2P industry's trade associations.
Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, a trade group that represents several of the firms, questioned the jurisdiction of the attorneys general.
In a statement, Lime Wire LLC in New York said it would provide additional warnings to its users "as appropriate," but rejected
But a legal expert questioned how file sharing might break state laws.
The move signals the states' willingness to go after the purveyors of Kazaa, Morpheus and other similar peer-to-peer software, which entertainment companies contend are profiting from the unauthorized distribution of songs, movies and software by users of their programs.
The letter was signed by attorneys general from all but five states -- Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Wyoming -- the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The attorneys general ask the companies to improve how they inform those who use their software about potential legal and security risks associated with file-sharing, which include being sued for copyright infringement, identity theft, and unwittingly being exposed to pornography, computer viruses and spyware.
The companies are also urged to develop better filters for pornography, but not to make any changes to their software, such as adding encryption features to hide users' identity.
"Encryption only reinforces the perception that P2P technology is being used primarily for illegal ends," the letter says. "Accordingly, we would ask you to refrain from making design changes to your software that prevent law enforcement in our states from investigating and enforcing the law."
Legal implications
The letter stops short of spelling out consequences if the companies don't heed the requests, but it includes references to past legal action taken by the states against suspected spammers.
It's unclear what legal action based on state law is open to the attorneys general.
Efforts to use federal copyright laws to shutter the current crop of file-sharing software distributors have stalled since the original file-sharing network, Napster, was forced to close down in 2001.
But states can only enforce copyright violations when it applies to sound recordings made before 1972, said Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
"I'm not aware of any state law that file-sharing violates," von Lohmann said. "This letter is clearly an exercise of political clout on the part of the entertainment industry."
Letters were sent to the companies behind Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, Bear Share, Blubster, MetaMachine/EDonkey 2000 and Lime Wire, as well as two of the so-called P2P industry's trade associations.
Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, a trade group that represents several of the firms, questioned the jurisdiction of the attorneys general.
In a statement, Lime Wire LLC in New York said it would provide additional warnings to its users "as appropriate," but rejected
Littledragon
Above The Law
SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (AP) -- Nadine Whitfield was making $51,000 as an electronics technician for the Postal Service when she decided to try formal computer training to increase her pay.
Her choice: Northface University, a new, for-profit school that aims to graduate legions of software developers with more useful skills than established colleges can provide -- in barely half the time.
Northface's strategy is to pare away liberal arts and focus on a tech-heavy curriculum. The promised result is ready-to-work software designers who won't cost companies much to train.
Administrators elsewhere, however, question whether such a specific focus will deny Northface students more rounded skills needed for success.
"It sounds like an institution that has identified a need, but will come out with programmers instead of people really trained to think critically," said Eric Grimson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology administrator.
Northface charges $60,000 tuition for an intensive 28-month bachelor's degree in computer science. The school is backed by IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Unisys Corp., which have donated software, development tools and training regimens.
The school's prime sponsor is IBM, which, like the other sponsors, expects to hire some grads. IBM wants to counter Microsoft's market dominance and educate more grads in IBM-written applications for Linux and other open-source systems.
"I'm jazzed about the Northface program," said IBM research fellow Grady Booch, a member of the school's advisory board. "Northface is producing a far better match for the skill sets IBM needs."
The school, run by a pair of former venture capital executives and a former technology chief at several companies, is accredited by an organization that certifies trade schools, making its students eligible for federal loans.
But university chairman H. Scott McKinley, a former Asia managing director for Chase Capital Partners, rejects all comparisons to trade schools, saying he has plans to offer a master's in business administration with a technology bent.
The school opened in January and sits in a gleaming new office park on Utah's Jordan River, south of Salt Lake City. It has enrolled 130 students, with 90 more coming next quarter.
A 'destination school'
The school's business plan calls for 1,200 graduates a year by 2007.
The business plan calls for 1,200 graduates a year by 2007 -- five times MIT's 225 graduates in computer-related fields each year, Northface executives say.
That may seem ambitious, given declining computer-science enrollments. But McKinley says he doesn't need to achieve that figure for Northface to break even. He expects Northface to turn a profit within a year.
Great Hill Partners, a Boston investment firm, is pledging $15 million for the venture. Matthew Vettel, a principal at the firm, calls Northface a "destination school" for people certain of their career.
"It's difficult to build an education brand, but when you have a skilled faculty and relevant curriculum, we think the marketplace will support the brand," Vettel said. The faculty includes Terry Halpin, a former head of database modeling for Microsoft, and Tony Morgan, a Cambridge-educated former executive at Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Unisys.
The school recruited Whitfield and others by matching high SAT scores against online registrations for computer games and software programs. After taking out loans and getting a $10,000 scholarship, Whitfield enrolled in January.
For Whitfield, a 30-something who was living in Oakland, California, a big selling point was Northface's partnerships with tech firms.
"It's a big challenge academically," Whitfield said. "But I have hands-on experience with people who have expertise in their field. It's a lot of real-time experience."
This quarter, Northface offers nearly a dozen technical courses, ranging from algebra review to databases and modeling -- and one liberal arts course. The school operates year-round, with only nine days between quarters and a three-week break for Christmas and New Year.
Haym Hirsh, chairman of the computer-science department at Rutgers University, is not a Northface believer. He doesn't think its intensive focus can inspire the kind of "out-of-box" thinking that goes with a broader education.
Hirsh said he wouldn't recommend Northface for teenagers graduating from high school.
"It's all spin for themselves to put themselves on the level of a MIT," he said. "But I think there is a legitimate need for what they're doing" -- for returning students or career changers.
At MIT, computer-science students also take biology, calculus, physics, chemistry and humanities.
"We believe our students need to have a perspective on the world," MIT's Grimson said. "You can't just go hacking in your room."
Her choice: Northface University, a new, for-profit school that aims to graduate legions of software developers with more useful skills than established colleges can provide -- in barely half the time.
Northface's strategy is to pare away liberal arts and focus on a tech-heavy curriculum. The promised result is ready-to-work software designers who won't cost companies much to train.
Administrators elsewhere, however, question whether such a specific focus will deny Northface students more rounded skills needed for success.
"It sounds like an institution that has identified a need, but will come out with programmers instead of people really trained to think critically," said Eric Grimson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology administrator.
Northface charges $60,000 tuition for an intensive 28-month bachelor's degree in computer science. The school is backed by IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Unisys Corp., which have donated software, development tools and training regimens.
The school's prime sponsor is IBM, which, like the other sponsors, expects to hire some grads. IBM wants to counter Microsoft's market dominance and educate more grads in IBM-written applications for Linux and other open-source systems.
"I'm jazzed about the Northface program," said IBM research fellow Grady Booch, a member of the school's advisory board. "Northface is producing a far better match for the skill sets IBM needs."
The school, run by a pair of former venture capital executives and a former technology chief at several companies, is accredited by an organization that certifies trade schools, making its students eligible for federal loans.
But university chairman H. Scott McKinley, a former Asia managing director for Chase Capital Partners, rejects all comparisons to trade schools, saying he has plans to offer a master's in business administration with a technology bent.
The school opened in January and sits in a gleaming new office park on Utah's Jordan River, south of Salt Lake City. It has enrolled 130 students, with 90 more coming next quarter.
A 'destination school'
The school's business plan calls for 1,200 graduates a year by 2007.
The business plan calls for 1,200 graduates a year by 2007 -- five times MIT's 225 graduates in computer-related fields each year, Northface executives say.
That may seem ambitious, given declining computer-science enrollments. But McKinley says he doesn't need to achieve that figure for Northface to break even. He expects Northface to turn a profit within a year.
Great Hill Partners, a Boston investment firm, is pledging $15 million for the venture. Matthew Vettel, a principal at the firm, calls Northface a "destination school" for people certain of their career.
"It's difficult to build an education brand, but when you have a skilled faculty and relevant curriculum, we think the marketplace will support the brand," Vettel said. The faculty includes Terry Halpin, a former head of database modeling for Microsoft, and Tony Morgan, a Cambridge-educated former executive at Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Unisys.
The school recruited Whitfield and others by matching high SAT scores against online registrations for computer games and software programs. After taking out loans and getting a $10,000 scholarship, Whitfield enrolled in January.
For Whitfield, a 30-something who was living in Oakland, California, a big selling point was Northface's partnerships with tech firms.
"It's a big challenge academically," Whitfield said. "But I have hands-on experience with people who have expertise in their field. It's a lot of real-time experience."
This quarter, Northface offers nearly a dozen technical courses, ranging from algebra review to databases and modeling -- and one liberal arts course. The school operates year-round, with only nine days between quarters and a three-week break for Christmas and New Year.
Haym Hirsh, chairman of the computer-science department at Rutgers University, is not a Northface believer. He doesn't think its intensive focus can inspire the kind of "out-of-box" thinking that goes with a broader education.
Hirsh said he wouldn't recommend Northface for teenagers graduating from high school.
"It's all spin for themselves to put themselves on the level of a MIT," he said. "But I think there is a legitimate need for what they're doing" -- for returning students or career changers.
At MIT, computer-science students also take biology, calculus, physics, chemistry and humanities.
"We believe our students need to have a perspective on the world," MIT's Grimson said. "You can't just go hacking in your room."
Littledragon
Above The Law
The "Catwoman" video game doesn't fare much better than its big-screen inspiration, which film critics have dismissed as lots of flash and little substance.
Electronic Arts' (EA) multiplatform action game is a real looker, but this interactive version of the "Catwoman" movie has a weak story, short game play and finicky camera angles that make it difficult to enjoy.
The game opens as Patience Phillips, who is played by Halle Berry in the movie, is murdered after discovering a disturbing secret held by her employers, the Hedare Corporation. She's brought back to life by a magical Egyptian cat and becomes the revenge-seeking Catwoman. While new enemies and missions are introduced over time, the game's story never really builds into anything, so it gives you -- the player -- little incentive to finish the adventure.
Feline superpowers
After transforming into Catwoman, the sexy heroine (wait until you get a load of her outfit, or lack thereof) soon discovers that she has incredible agility and other catlike powers, including the ability to run up walls, leap from ledge to ledge and swing across poles. She also enjoys a host of fighting skills, such as pouncing on prey to kick them into next week and cracking her whip. Defensive moves include avoiding bullets, thanks to her feline acrobatics.
The Catwoman character, who closely resembles Berry in the movie, also has "cat sense," a kind of heightened intuition about her environment that helps her track down enemies.
You control Catwoman from a third-person perspective throughout each of the seven main levels -- or scenes, as they are called -- including alleyways, a nightclub, jewelry store, mansion, factories and eventually, the Hedare headquarters.
Unlike other third-person games where the camera view is positioned over the lead character's shoulders (think "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City"), the game's developers chose a more cinematic approach, where the "camera" continuously moves around the environment to show various angles. Although this helps you appreciate the game's detailed settings and characters, it doesn't give you much control, which is frustrating because you don't always have the best view of the game action. This is especially troublesome when enemies are shooting at you.
Intuitive maneuvers
Along these same lines, the confusing angles may cause you to become disoriented, forcing you to run around the current game environment to get your bearings.
Maneuvering Catwoman, however, is quite intuitive. The developer implemented a unique and clever controller layout that puts an emphasis on the two analog sticks and trigger buttons instead of the four main buttons.
After each scene is completed, you are rated on how many objectives you met. You also can exchange "bling" hidden throughout the game for additional powers and other extras.
This single-player adventure may be worth a weekend rental for fans of the film -- and it can be easily completed in that time -- but others should steer clear of this hairball of a game.
Electronic Arts' (EA) multiplatform action game is a real looker, but this interactive version of the "Catwoman" movie has a weak story, short game play and finicky camera angles that make it difficult to enjoy.
The game opens as Patience Phillips, who is played by Halle Berry in the movie, is murdered after discovering a disturbing secret held by her employers, the Hedare Corporation. She's brought back to life by a magical Egyptian cat and becomes the revenge-seeking Catwoman. While new enemies and missions are introduced over time, the game's story never really builds into anything, so it gives you -- the player -- little incentive to finish the adventure.
Feline superpowers
After transforming into Catwoman, the sexy heroine (wait until you get a load of her outfit, or lack thereof) soon discovers that she has incredible agility and other catlike powers, including the ability to run up walls, leap from ledge to ledge and swing across poles. She also enjoys a host of fighting skills, such as pouncing on prey to kick them into next week and cracking her whip. Defensive moves include avoiding bullets, thanks to her feline acrobatics.
The Catwoman character, who closely resembles Berry in the movie, also has "cat sense," a kind of heightened intuition about her environment that helps her track down enemies.
You control Catwoman from a third-person perspective throughout each of the seven main levels -- or scenes, as they are called -- including alleyways, a nightclub, jewelry store, mansion, factories and eventually, the Hedare headquarters.
Unlike other third-person games where the camera view is positioned over the lead character's shoulders (think "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City"), the game's developers chose a more cinematic approach, where the "camera" continuously moves around the environment to show various angles. Although this helps you appreciate the game's detailed settings and characters, it doesn't give you much control, which is frustrating because you don't always have the best view of the game action. This is especially troublesome when enemies are shooting at you.
Intuitive maneuvers
Along these same lines, the confusing angles may cause you to become disoriented, forcing you to run around the current game environment to get your bearings.
Maneuvering Catwoman, however, is quite intuitive. The developer implemented a unique and clever controller layout that puts an emphasis on the two analog sticks and trigger buttons instead of the four main buttons.
After each scene is completed, you are rated on how many objectives you met. You also can exchange "bling" hidden throughout the game for additional powers and other extras.
This single-player adventure may be worth a weekend rental for fans of the film -- and it can be easily completed in that time -- but others should steer clear of this hairball of a game.
Littledragon
Above The Law
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Internet phone calls should be subject to the same type of law enforcement surveillance as cell and landline phones, federal regulators said Wednesday.
The Federal Communications Commission voted for proposed rules that would require Internet service providers to ensure their equipment will allow police wiretaps.
Lawyers for the Justice Department, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration asked the FCC in March to affirm that Internet calls -- or Voice Over Internet Protocol -- fall under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
The 1994 law requires the telecommunications industry to build into its products tools that federal investigators can use to eavesdrop on conversations after getting court approval.
"Our support for law enforcement is unwavering," FCC chairman Michael Powell said. "It is our goal in this proceeding to ensure that law enforcement agencies have all of the electronic surveillance capabilities that CALEA authorizes to combat crime and terrorism and support homeland security."
Voice Over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP, converts phone calls to data packets and sends them across high-speed Internet connections.
The FCC will solicit comments from industry and the public as it crafts final rules.
The Federal Communications Commission voted for proposed rules that would require Internet service providers to ensure their equipment will allow police wiretaps.
Lawyers for the Justice Department, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration asked the FCC in March to affirm that Internet calls -- or Voice Over Internet Protocol -- fall under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
The 1994 law requires the telecommunications industry to build into its products tools that federal investigators can use to eavesdrop on conversations after getting court approval.
"Our support for law enforcement is unwavering," FCC chairman Michael Powell said. "It is our goal in this proceeding to ensure that law enforcement agencies have all of the electronic surveillance capabilities that CALEA authorizes to combat crime and terrorism and support homeland security."
Voice Over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP, converts phone calls to data packets and sends them across high-speed Internet connections.
The FCC will solicit comments from industry and the public as it crafts final rules.
yudansha
TheGreatOne
China issues digital TV licences to four firms, ending state TV monopoly
BEIJING (AP) - China has issued licences to four companies to broadcast digital television, ending the monopoly once held by state-run China Central Television, the government said Friday.
The announcement comes amid rapid changes in China's state-dominated television market meant to expand competition and drive innovation.
All of the companies approved for new licences are state-owned, an official from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television told Dow Jones Newswires.
The licences are to be issued to Shanghai TV; China Broadcast Network Co.; CHC Home Cinema and a five-company consortium that includes China National Radio, according to the official.
Foreign companies are barred from holding broadcasting licences, but Chinese regulators have approved a handful of foreign channels to make limited broadcasts on local cable systems.
The new digital licences also should fuel demand for programming, creating new opportunities for private and foreign-financed production ventures.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
BEIJING (AP) - China has issued licences to four companies to broadcast digital television, ending the monopoly once held by state-run China Central Television, the government said Friday.
The announcement comes amid rapid changes in China's state-dominated television market meant to expand competition and drive innovation.
All of the companies approved for new licences are state-owned, an official from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television told Dow Jones Newswires.
The licences are to be issued to Shanghai TV; China Broadcast Network Co.; CHC Home Cinema and a five-company consortium that includes China National Radio, according to the official.
Foreign companies are barred from holding broadcasting licences, but Chinese regulators have approved a handful of foreign channels to make limited broadcasts on local cable systems.
The new digital licences also should fuel demand for programming, creating new opportunities for private and foreign-financed production ventures.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
