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Today's Topics:
1. China Sees Red Over HDTV Ads (George Antunes)
2. Schools Discover Automated Calling And Go Wild (George Antunes)
3. Gravity-Wave Study Points to Risks Of Doing Big Science
(George Antunes)
4. Counting Engineers (George Antunes)
5. Competition, Technology Enhance the DVR (George Antunes)
6. China Takes Lead In Skype Users (George Antunes)
7. How the Internet Shrinks The Distance Between Us (George Antunes)
8. Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February (George Antunes)
9. Ensnared on the wireless Web (Monty Solomon)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:06:06 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] China Sees Red Over HDTV Ads
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
[The candela (cd) is the new standard unit for measuring luminance. Roughly
equivalent to the "candle power" unit of days gone by. I mention this only
because I had to look it up. Chalk up another one for Google!]
China Sees Red Over HDTV Ads
The Chinese government says TV makers are exaggerating the HD picture quality.
By Phillip Swann
TVPredictions.com
http://www.tvpredictions.com/chinahd031607.htm
Washington, D.C. (March 16, 2007) -- High-def owners are claiming that
companies are making false claims about their HD picture quality. And the
government has issued a report saying the companies should stop it immediately.
Has the Federal Communications Commission finally acted on consumer
complaints that cable and satellite operators may sometime dilute their
high-def transmissions to make room for more channels?
No, actually, the debate over HDTV picture quality has spread to the
People's Republic of China.
According to CCTV.com, a Chinese news site, the government's Ministry of
Information Industry has issued a report saying that some high-def TV
makers in China are exaggerating their picture resolution. Officials say
the ads are confusing and hurt the consumer's ability to decide which set
to buy.
High-Definition was introduced to China just a few years ago but it's
expected to grow rapidly. There are 110 million households in the country
with HD-capable cable service and China plans to switch to an all-digital
format in 2015.
The Ministry of Information Industry says some HDTV ads are claiming the
average luminance of their sets is between 800 and 1000cd per square meter.
However, the luminance is actually between 350cd and 600cd.
CCTV.com reports that government officials say consumers should check
whether the high-def set has received the official "quality certificate of
international standard."
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:29:06 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Schools Discover Automated Calling And Go Wild
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Schools Discover Automated Calling And Go Wild
Meant for Emergencies, Systems Are Now Used For Lunch-Money Updates
By ELLEN GAMERMAN
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2007; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117399035245738476.html?mod=hps_us_pageone
It isn't just telemarketers and credit-card companies interrupting your
family dinner with phone calls. Lately, it's your kid's school.
In January, the Raleigh School in North Carolina sent out 1,400 automated
phone messages informing elementary-school parents of a delayed school
opening because of bad weather -- then another 1,400 calls to apologize for
giving the wrong time in the previous message. Maureen Sawchak says she got
the calls on her home phone and two different cellphones that morning. They
"were ringing off the hook," she says.
All over the country, schools are putting in automated phone systems that
can quickly place thousands of recorded calls. Originally intended to
notify parents of emergencies, more and more automated messages are about
routine matters, ranging from stern warnings about talking in class to how
to dress for tomorrow's pep rally.
One automated calling company, TeleParent Educational Systems, of
Fullerton, Calif., lets teachers pick from a menu of 600 canned messages --
including one that says a child is a "pleasure to have in class" and
another saying he or she has "been late to class five or more times."
But snafus in some systems across the country have resulted in parents'
being bombarded by calls five nights a week. Schools send endless repeats
of the same messages, or place calls at 2 a.m., or send updates about kids
who don't even go there anymore.
At Whittier High School, the system hasn't been fine-tuned to differentiate
between absences and lateness. Rachel Bautista says she gets calls saying
her grandson Justin, a 10th grader at Whittier, skipped class, so she goes
with him to the school office to clear his record.
"He has water-polo practice and he's sometimes a little late to class," she
says. But "there's no talking to this recording." The school district says
if a student arrives in class after the teacher submits the day's
attendance list, that can register as a skipped class and trigger a call home.
At the beginning of the school year, John Mallinger got an auto-call from
the Katy Independent School District in Texas, where his daughter Dori is
in first grade, and he feared there was an emergency. Then he got another
call and worried again. When he got the third call, he knew what was
coming: yet another recorded message informing him that his 7-year-old's
school-lunch account was down to $1.
"I just delete it," says Mr. Mallinger, whose daughter attends Roosevelt
Alexander Elementary. He says he has received lunch-money calls five days a
week since late September, even though Dori has never bought her lunch at
school. "I just don't even listen to it."
A spokesman for the school district says it has had few complaints from
parents about the calls, which are made when a child's cafeteria account
drops below $2.
Schools rushed to embrace emergency-notification phone systems in the wake
of 9/11. The NTI Group, in Sherman Oaks, Calif., says its education clients
-- which total 11,000 individual schools and school districts -- delivered
130 million calls to parents last year, 40 times as many as were called in
2003.
The new school auto-calls reflect an expansion in the industry away from
the cruder automated attendance notification systems that many schools
started using in the early 1980s. The latest technology can send more than
5,000 calls a minute, and has Web-based controls that let administrators
target different groups of parents or send messages in different languages.
Tracking features can identify which households listened to the calls and
which hung up. Packages range from $250 a year to more than $500,000.
One reason the systems are used so much is that teachers are fans. Many see
the calling systems as a way to meet parents' demands for greater
communication. And the systems have an added advantage: Parents can't talk
back to a recorded message about their kid's math grade.
Some parents are fans, too. Sherrie Courtney-Sanders says she wouldn't have
known how well her 17-year-old daughter, Jennifer, has been doing in
Spanish at Garden Grove High School in California if it weren't for the
automated message she got last week: "Your daughter, Jennifer Sanders,
received an A in her sixth-period class today." Ms. Courtney-Sanders says
the feedback was great, because her daughter had been struggling in the class.
Molly Benedum, a 41-year-old accountant and mother of four in Cuyahoga
Falls, Ohio, says she was interrupted twice during a business meeting last
month by calls from the school district telling her about a weather-related
school closing. She says she wondered, "'Aren't they supposed to stop
calling after the first call?'"
Ms. Benedum is running for school board and says that if she is elected,
she'll take a close look at the glitches. The school district says it was
still figuring out the emergency all-call system when it made that
double-call to some parents, but it has since worked out the kinks and has
had no further problems.
US Netcom Corp., a Missouri company that also sells these systems to
utilities, cable companies and other businesses, says it trains school
staff so they won't ramble in their messages. Saf-T-Net, a Raleigh, N.C.,
company that sells its AlertNow auto-call system to more than 1,500
schools, says it has built-in safeguards like a confirmation page and
playback features to cut down on message mistakes.
[Andrew Robbin]
Schools say they can't always win: If they make too few calls, they're out
of touch, too many and they're pests. But as schools switch from sending
fliers home with students to using emails, phone blasts and Web-site
updates, some educators worry that when there's a really important message,
parents may not know to listen. The phone calls are "kind of a calling-wolf
routine," says Joe Markham, director of transportation, safety and security
at the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale. The school has decided not to
blanket parents with auto-calls except in an emergency.
Andrew Robbin, principal at Cherry Brook Primary School in Canton, Conn.,
says he uses a new $5,000-a-year auto-call system to keep in touch with
parents about everyday issues. Recently, he recorded and sent out calls to
celebrate National Healthy Heart Day and to reassure parents that a
reported school-bus accident had resulted in no injuries.
But Mr. Robbin knows that not everybody is listening. The system tells him
that. A report generated by the calling system this winter showed only half
of the parents listened to the messages in their entirety; 7% hung up
immediately once they knew who was calling, and the rest of the messages
went to answering machines.
Mr. Robbin is on the receiving end of his own calls. They go out to all
faculty and staff -- including him. The phone often rings during his
17-month-old's early evening bath time: "He's always naked without a
diaper, every time," says Mr. Robbin.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:38:39 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Gravity-Wave Study Points to Risks Of Doing Big
Science
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Gravity-Wave Study Points to the Risks Of Doing Big Science
By PETER GRANT
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2007; Page B1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117400533045738757.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks
Competition isn't always pretty in the scientific world, but it's usually
effective. Recall the intense race between the National Cancer Institute in
Bethesda, Md., and the Pasteur Institute in Paris during the 1980s to
discover the AIDS virus. The labs feuded for years and even went to court
over who won. But they got the job done.
Unfortunately, when science reaches a certain size, it's hard to preserve
the competitive drive. This is especially true in fields such as nuclear
physics, which require a huge investment in experimental devices and an
enormous amount of manpower to get even a single data point. It's difficult
for such costs to be borne by one institution alone.
Potential problems are manifold. Big science projects often have a hard
time attracting top scientists, who tend to prefer working in small groups
requiring less administration. Some also miss the spark that comes from a
race to be first with a discovery. Scientists also like having it clear who
gets credit. Careers can be made or broken by recognition for important finds.
Individual recognition isn't easy at places like the $600 million particle
accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., where 1,100
physicists from around the world are collaborating to recreate what the
universe was like in the first milliseconds after the big bang. Each
experiment requires more than 500 people to man the control room, analyze
results and make sure the detectors, each one the size of a house, are
working properly.
Scientific papers from the site have carried the names of hundreds of
authors. The lab has worked out a plan to identify some scientists as the
"principal authors" of papers. But what if the project were to earn the
biggest prize: a Nobel? The Nobel Institute won't bestow the award on more
than three scientists on any given project.
The latest big science endeavor to face concerns of scale is one trying to
detect gravitational waves, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein when
he figured out that gravity was a warping of space and time by matter.
Einstein said any mass changing speed or direction as it moved through
space would produce gravity waves, like ripples on the water. He thought
the waves were too subtle to detect. But scientists now believe they can
measure ones set off by a cataclysmic event in the universe, like a
supernova or the collision of two black holes.
Since 2001, three massive detectors in the U.S. run by the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, or LIGO, have been trying to
find these waves, searching up to 400 million light-years away. They use
interferometers -- instruments that measure distance using wavelengths of
light -- housed in L-shaped vacuum tunnels up to 2.5 miles long. French and
Italian institutes run a similar facility near Pisa, Italy, named Virgo.
But LIGO, which cost $360 million to develop, doesn't compete with Virgo.
Last month, they signed a memorandum of understanding under which they'll
work together.
One of LIGO's founders, Rainer Weiss, an MIT physics professor emeritus,
said he originally hoped the scientists could take the measurements with
small interferometers, but they ultimately had to resign themselves to
having to go the route of big science.
"Most of us like to work with two or three people," he says. "Not several
thousand."
LIGO scientists say working with Virgo allows them the critical ability to
compare results from different parts of the planet. But they admit to a
danger that the results won't get sufficient scrutiny from peers competing
in the field because they're all working together. "There's the worry that
somebody might unintentionally favor an analysis that finds things that
aren't really there," says Stan Whitcomb, a Caltech physicist who helped
design LIGO.
LIGO-Virgo has taken steps to solve the problem by having different groups
analyze data in different ways to check each other's work.
The search for gravitational waves already has shown the best and worst
that can happen with small, competitive projects. In 1969, renowned
University of Maryland physicist Joseph Weber announced he had detected the
waves, but rushed his findings out, a common mistake of scientists eager to
be the first with a discovery. His work couldn't be duplicated and was
discredited.
Then in the mid-1970s, a relatively unknown University of Massachusetts
astronomer, Joseph Taylor, and his student, Russell Hulse, proved
Einstein's gravitational wave theory. They happened to discover a pair of
neutron stars spiraling toward each other so fast they rotated around each
other once every eight hours. They determined the stars were losing energy
in a way that Einstein predicted would happen if they were producing
gravity waves.
The scientists won the Nobel Prize for the discovery in 1993. They also
demonstrated the kind of serendipity often lost in big science.
As for LIGO-Virgo, the consortium decided that for published papers, all
the scientists will be listed alphabetically. "It seems a little unfair to
the people whose last names begin with 'W,' doesn't it?" Dr. Whitcomb jokes.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:42:58 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Counting Engineers
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
March 16, 2007, 10:35 am
Counting Engineers
By Carl Bialik
Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/
How many engineers do China and India have compared with the U.S.? It
depends on how you define ?engineer.?
Motor mechanics and shipbuilders are counted in China?s official
statistics, as are recipients of two- or three-year degrees, according to
an article in the new issue of Issues in Science and Technology, the
magazine of the National Academy of Sciences. By this definition, Chinese
universities may have awarded more than 517,000 degrees in engineering,
computer science and information technology in 2004-2005, nearly four times
the U.S. total, but the article questions the quality of those degrees.
?Graduation rate increases have been achieved by dramatically increasing
class sizes,? according to the article, and only graduates of the top-tier
universities have much credibility in the job market.
That stands in contrast to a perception that China?s number of engineers is
surging ahead of that of the U.S., which ? the perception goes ? must
invest heavily in expanding undergraduate engineering programs. This
perception has been summarized by a misleading, apples-to-oranges
formulation that the U.S. graduates roughly 70,000 undergraduate engineers
annually, whereas China graduates 600,000 and India 350,000 ? a mantra
repeated in news articles and by politicians and government agencies.
I wrote about these numbers twice in 2005. The debate over the numbers
prompted research by Vivek Wadhwa, the lead author of the Issues in Science
and Technology article and an executive in residence at Duke?s Pratt School
of Engineering. In a 2005 paper and the new article, he argues the U.S. is
?way ahead on a per capita and quality basis,? at least when it comes to
bachelor?s degrees.
Yet there are signs the U.S. does face a real problem with advanced
degrees. ?China is racing ahead of the United States and India in its
production of engineering and technology PhDs and in its ability to perform
basic research,? Mr. Wadhwa and colleagues wrote. India?s shortage may be
the most severe: There aren?t enough PhDs to staff some universities. One
proposed fix: ?Make it easier for foreign students to stay after they
graduate.?
Certainly, faulty numbers don?t help move the policy debate forward.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:45:15 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Competition, Technology Enhance the DVR
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Competition, Technology Enhance the DVR
TiVo, Telecom Companies Vie For TV-Recording Consumers;
Heartburn on Madison Avenue
By MARIAM FAM
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117400220295938676.html?mod=technology_featured_stories_hs
Digital video recorders, which transformed television watching for millions
of households, are undergoing a makeover as they become a major weapon
wielded by cable, satellite and telephone companies in their battle for
market share in the pay-TV business.
Telecom companies are adding a range of new features to the devices, which
were originally launched in the late 1990s by TiVo Inc. and gained
popularity for their ability to let people record and pause live TV. Users
can now do such other things as program their DVR from afar by cellphone or
computer to record a favorite show. Some recorders also now allow viewers
to download content off the Internet or record a show in one room and watch
it on a TV in another.
The competition is heating up thanks in part to technological advances that
allow phone, TV and Internet features to be combined. The speed with which
the DVR is morphing also reflects the growing importance of new technology
in the pay-TV business as the market becomes saturated and telephone
companies emerge as new competitors.
In the past, satellite and cable companies would introduce at most a couple
of new products or features a year. Last year, Time Warner Cable alone
rolled out more than 10 new features including interactive ads and "Quick
Clips" a continuously updated on-demand news and weather service.
On Wednesday, TiVo and Verizon Wireless (jointly owned by Verizon
Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC) made it possible for Verizon
cellphone users to schedule recordings on their TiVos using more than a
dozen handsets. AT&T Inc.'s Homezone television service added a similar
feature last week. Users of any Web-enabled handset can browse its TV guide
nine days out, select shows and choose to record an episode or an entire
series.
The DVR innovations are causing heartburn in some parts of the TV industry
because most owners use their devices to skip commercials. Already, fear of
ad skipping has helped prompt advertisers to shift money to the Internet
and develop interactive ads for TV. (A lot is at stake: According to TNS
Media Intelligence, the value of TV advertising in 2006 was $65.4
billion.)The pressure is expected to intensify as new features help attract
even more DVR customers. The devices are expected to be in 25.5 million
households by the end of this year, up from 18.6 million at the end of
2006, according to Leichtman Research Group.
One of the leaders in developing new features is industry pioneer TiVo. The
company has a history of innovation, but the new drive also reflects TiVo's
struggle to compete against phone, cable and TV operators who sell more of
their own DVRs than TiVo, thanks to their size, customer base and broad
array of other products. At the end of January, TiVo had 4.4 million
subscribers up only 100,000 from one year earlier.
Two years ago, TiVo rolled out "TiVoToGo," a feature enabling subscribers
to transfer recorded programs to laptops and certain handheld devices. TiVo
also offers a high definition DVR and a feature that allows viewers with
more than one TiVo to record a show in one room and watch it in another.
TiVo last year also began allowing subscribers to download selected content
off the Internet for playback on television sets. The content is made
available by partners such as the National Basketball Association, CBS
Corp. and Reuters Group PLC. TiVo later cut a deal with Amazon.com Inc. to
make movie and TV shows available for rent or purchase as well. Movie
titles include "Babel" and "Casino Royale."
But competitors are beginning to improve on some of these features. For
example, subscribers to Verizon's new TV service can watch recorded
programs in up to three rooms with only one DVR connected to the so-called
"hub TV." The other two TVs can access the same programming via set-top
boxes. A customer can begin watching, say, a recorded movie in the living
room and then finish watching it in the bedroom.
Jim Roche, who works for an insurance company in Richmond, Va., said
Verizon's multi-room feature comes in handy. "My girlfriend and I have
different TV tastes," he explains. "She can record something and go later
watch it the bedroom" while he's watching something else downstairs. "So
we're not fighting over the DVR at the same time," he says.
EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network also has introduced a
multiroom DVR while DirecTV, the other large satellite-TV operator, has one
in the planning stage. Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications Inc.
have the multiroom feature in some of their markets. Most cable operators
say they're planning a similar feature.
Most cable, satellite and phone companies also offer high-definition DVRs.
Operators are a little slower, though, in allowing users to program DVRs
from Web sites. Subscribers to TiVo and to AT&T's new TV services, Homezone
and U-verse, can do that now. Cable and satellite operators say they're
planning similar features.
Michael Sawyer, a Charter subscriber in St. Louis, says he would consider
switching to another company to get more features including the one that
would allow him to program his DVR from a Web site. "If you hear about
something when you're at the office and somebody tells you about a program
and you go like: 'Man, I'd like to catch that,' it would be great to be
able to jump online and tell your box to save it for later," he says.
Charter is working on activating that feature.
But consumers also will be influenced by price and one of the downsides to
some of the new features is cost. Verizon's multiroom DVR costs $19.99 a
month (not including the cost of leasing the extra set-top boxes), compared
with $12.99 for its standard device. TiVo's high-definition DVR costs $800
to buy. Its other models start at $100. TiVo and Verizon Wireless' new
service costs $1.99 a month.
The latest feature to begin gaining traction among operators is wireless
programming. TiVo and AT&T's Homezone currently allow that. But a venture
of Sprint Nextel Corp. and four of the country's largest cable operators is
planning to start enabling users to program DVRs from wireless handsets
starting later this year, says John Garcia, president of the venture. The
venture isn't disclosing which cable operators would be first, but a
spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable (a unit of Time Warner Inc.) says that it
is planning for a 2007 launch of this feature.
Future technological advances may do away with the need of a set-top DVR
altogether. Cablevision Systems Corp., the country's fifth-largest cable
operator, wants to give subscribers storage space within its network for
recording shows. Cablevision executives say this would cut costs and make
DVR technology available to more subscribers.
If Cablevision succeeds in doing this, other cable operators would probably
follow suit. But the company's effort is being battled in court by some of
the country's biggest TV and movie producers, who claim that a "network
DVR" would violate their copyrights.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:46:47 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] China Takes Lead In Skype Users
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
China Takes Lead In Skype Users
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117400562733938783.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news
Skype, the Internet telephony service owned by eBay Inc., said China
recently passed the U.S. to become its biggest market by subscribers.
"China has increasingly become very important for our business, and we see
it as a main driver for us," said Scott Bagby, new market development
director.
Asia now accounts for 30% of Skype's 171 million global subscribers, up
from 20% last year, largely because of the growth in China, said Kelly
Poon, market development manager for Greater China.
Skype operates in China under a partnership with Tom Online Inc.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:48:33 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] How the Internet Shrinks The Distance Between Us
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
How the Internet Shrinks The Distance Between Us
By Alan Paul
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117386278684636614.html?mod=technology_featured_stories_hs
Living 7,000 miles away from home ain't what it used to be. My parents
moved from New York to Sitka, Alaska in 1964. I was born in Anchorage two
years later. Their extended families were some 3,500 miles away in
Pittsburgh and New Jersey, but my folks might as well have lived on the moon.
They spoke to their parents every other Sunday for five or ten minutes at a
time, and occasionally had my brother and sister speak onto reel-to-reel
tapes that they parcel posted back, so the grandparents could hear the
kids' voices. The rest of the time, they existed in a sort of radio
silence. That's just how it was when you lived on the other side of the
world, until very recently. Now the tide has turned in some very profound
ways. We live twice as far away but the distance is much smaller.
Not only do I talk to my parents and anyone else as often as I want, but a
host of technologies allow us to live in China with one foot in America. My
parents had to struggle to stay connected to their friends and families
while we battle to unplug from life "back home" and live a fully engaged
existence in China.
The linchpin of this shrinkage, of course, is the Internet. Everything else
flows from those fiber-optic connections. When a December earthquake off
the coast of Taiwan cut Internet service for millions of Asian residents,
including countless expats, it highlighted both the fragility and the
essential nature of this connection to the world. We were in America for
the winter holidays and though service was restored by the time we
returned, it was painfully slow for more than a month. The inability to
watch videos or download podcasts and music was a bit of a wake-up call
about how high my expectations have risen.
I spend virtually all day online. My Internet phone allows me to talk to
anyone, anywhere for as long as I want, for about 25 bucks a month. Many
people, especially those over 50, just can't understand how they can dial
10 numbers and reach me in China. I sometimes feel like a spokesperson for
Vonage. I maintained my New Jersey office-phone number, so my calls include
B-list publicists hawking obscure bands and awful products, telemarketers
selling membership in the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police and wrong
numbers, usually looking for New Jersey Plumbing Supply. (These calls have
plagued me for nearly a decade -- the company once printed stationery with
my number on it.)
We have regular Webcam chats with my folks, as well as select aunts and
uncles, cousins, friends, nephews and nieces. Anytime I open
instant-messaging software someone appears, eager for updates on life in
China. This despite a regularly updated personal Web site which allows
those who care to know far more about my family's daily life than ever
before, when we lived in America.
Podcasts have also altered the expat experience. One American reader living
in Switzerland wrote me about driving along Lake Geneva listening to U.S.
newscasts on his morning commute. I know the feeling. Why struggle to
listen to Chinese radio in my car, when I can listen to podcasts of my
favorite NPR shows? Why practice my Chinese with a cab driver, when I can
catch up on American politics or culture?
Why? Because it is wonderful to be so plugged into all things American, but
it comes at a cost. As Robin, an American expat living in London, emailed
me, "A downside to all these options is that being an expat has lost some
of its allure. You can be anywhere and still be local with communication
options, TV, and the Internet. I think the experience is devalued."
It is easy to envelope yourself in a virtual world and be blind to what is
happening right outside your door. A virtual existence can never be as
satisfying as real life. Reading a book review can't replace reading a
book, watching the Food Network is no substitute for cooking and eating a
great meal -- and simulating a fully lived American life can't compare to
putting both feet on the ground in China.
That's why I usually leave my iPod at home and talk to the cabbies. And
it's why I have thus far denied myself the beautiful, brilliant, insidious
Slingbox. Slingbox allows you to watch a distant TV on your computer. I
first learned about it from several readers when I wrote about the
difficulties in watching Pittsburgh Steelers games here. My friend and
fellow Steelers lunatic, Eric Rosenblum, signed up last fall and watching
games at his house has whet my appetite. A subscription is particularly
appealing this week -- with the NCAA Tournament kicking off, I will be
compulsively scanning the Internet for scores and updates. I fantasize
about Slingbox and the round-the-clock basketball I could be watching. And
that's why I need to avoid it.
One of the very best things about living here has been the sharp reduction
of my entire family's TV-viewing time. In the case of nine-year-old Jacob,
the change is remarkable. He was a zombified TV addict in the making in the
U.S. We had to set strict limits on his viewing and he tested them daily.
He never, ever turns on the TV here, absent his beloved (and our despised)
Cartoon Network, which is the main reason we have shunned more expansive
satellite options. Seeing me watch football and basketball, he would
quickly realize that Yu-Gi-Oh lived in the same box.
I have avoided even learning more about Slingbox, because I know it
wouldn't take much to seduce me over to the dark side. I am afraid to look
into its eyes. Robin's email helped convince me that my instincts were
right. He has Slingbox and wrote, "I find that instead of exploring London
at times, I'll catch up on "Lost" or "The Shield.""
Robin says he's happy to have the option, but for now, I'm pleased that I
don't have it. Technology is only as good as the limits you place on it ?
for example, the BlackBerry that frees you from your desk also ties you to
your job -- and I know my own weaknesses. Now if you'll excuse me, I think
I'll ride my bike over to the little restaurant around the corner and dig
into a plate of dumplings.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:36:33 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Nintendo's Wii Outsold Other Consoles in February
By NICK WINGFIELD
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2007 10:26 a.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117400285245138680.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news
Nintendo Co.'s Wii continued to outsell all other videogame consoles in the
U.S. in February, but Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 still held onto a strong
overall lead among the latest generation of games hardware, according to
the most recent industry sales figures.
According to preliminary retail figures for February from researcher NPD
Group Inc., U.S. retailers sold 335,000 Wiis, 228,000 Xbox 360s and 127,000
Sony Corp. PlayStation 3s -- the three newest machines that are currently
jockeying for their share of the games market. Those results mean
Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 a year earlier than its rivals, is
in first place among the latest generation of consoles with cumulative U.S.
retail sales of 5.1 million consoles, followed by Nintendo with 1.9 million
Wiis and Sony with 1.1 million PlayStation 3s, according to NPD estimates.
In an interview, David Hufford, a spokesman for Microsoft, said the company
is pleased with its market position, pointing out that six out of the top
ten best-selling games in February were titles for Xbox 360. For Microsoft,
the big challenge now is to extend the appeal of the Xbox 360 to a more
mainstream audience beyond so-called hardcore gamers that are the first to
buy new hardware and games. Mr. Hufford said the company has high
expectations for the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero 2, a music
game published by Activision Inc. that has been an enormous hit on the
PlayStation 2.
"I think Guitar Hero is really the first that will break out more into the
mainstream and resonate with millions of people," he said. "It's the
beginning of our broadening campaign."
Microsoft has said it has shipped more than 10.4 million Xbox 360s in total
to retailers, but that's a worldwide figure and stores haven't necessarily
sold all of those systems to consumers, accounting for the discrepancy
between the Redmond, Wash., company's figures and those from NPD.
The coming year will see other highly anticipated games that will heat up
the console battles, including the third installment of Microsoft's Halo
outerspace combat franchise. In October, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
plans to release Grand Theft Auto IV, a new version of the controversial
game series designed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
While Sony's PlayStation 3 -- at $500 to $600, the priciest of the newest
consoles -- has lagged behind the sales of its competitors, the company's
older game console, the PlayStation 2, continues to sell well because of
its low price ($129 in most stores) and vast library of game software. The
PlayStation 2 was the second best-selling console in February after the
Wii, with 295,000 sold in U.S. stores.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:53:07 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Ensnared on the wireless Web
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Ensnared on the wireless Web
Hackers' latest tactic to steal information is setting up fake
hotspots that users unwittingly use to access Internet.
By Tami Abdollah
Times Staff Writer
March 16, 2007
As Los Angeles and hundreds of other communities push to turn
themselves into massive wireless hotspots, unsuspecting Internet
users are stumbling onto hacker turf, giving computer thieves nearly
effortless access to their laptops and private information,
authorities and high-tech security experts say.
It's an invasion with a twist: People who think they are signing on
to the Internet through a wireless hotspot might actually be
connecting to a look-alike network, created by a malicious user who
can steal sensitive information, said Geoff Bickers, a special agent
for the FBI's Los Angeles cyber squad.
It is not clear how many people have been victimized, and few
suspects have been charged with Wi-Fi hacking. But Bickers said that
over the last couple of years, these hacking techniques have become
increasingly common, and are often undetectable. The risk is
especially high at cafes, hotels and airports, busy places with heavy
turnover of laptop users, authorities said.
...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wifihack16mar16,0,5875273.story
Expert's tips for safer surfing
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wifisecurity16mar16,0,4772862.story
------------------------------
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End of Medianews Digest, Vol 206, Issue 1
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