NewsScan Daily, 29 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 29 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       New IBM Chip for Broadband Applications
       Recording Industry Sues Kazaa
       Chasing TiVo
       Hollywood Backs Toshiba on HD-DVD Format
       WiMax Prospects Looking Up

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: J.R.R. Tolkien

NEW IBM CHIP FOR BROADBAND APPLICATIONS
     A new chip from IBM will be used next year in such consumer-product
applications as high-definition TV sets from Sony and Toshiba and a "home
server for broadband content" from Sony. Sony and Toshiba cooperated with
IBM in the chip's development. Code-named "Cell," the chip is made up of a
64-bit power processor core and multiple processor cores for handling such
broadband applications as video games, movies and other digital content; it
will also be able to handle video streams from cable and satellite systems,
decompressing encoded information and expanding it for display on
high-definition plasma screens. Future applications will allow a viewer to
do things such as: reorient digitized video as it's received to provide
views from above or an end-zone view; take a TV character and place him in a
videogame; or interact with a commercial to see how the advertised clothing
would look on an image of the viewer stored in the system. (Wall Street
Journal 29 Nov 2004) <http://www.wsj.com>

RECORDING INDUSTRY SUES KAZAA
     Australia's recording industry has filed a lawsuit to shut down the
Kazaa file-swapping network, which it calls "an engine of copyright piracy
to a degree of magnitude never before seen" because it allows users to
freely exchange songs, movies and TV programs without paying royalties to
the copyright owners. Sharman Networks Ltd., which owns Kazaa, will argue
that it not only warns users not to commit music piracy but also that it has
no control over what people actually do with the "peer-to-peer" software it
provides. But the recording industry points out that Sharman provide
software that helps users filter pornography and viruses -- yet don't
provide software to filter out files containing copyrighted material. (San
Jose Mercury News 29 Nov 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10295215.htm>

CHASING TIVO
     DirecTV plans to offer a digital video recorder (DVR) service that will
duplicate almost all of the features now available from TiVo (currently its
partner) and, in addition, provide the kind of video-on-demand programming
now available on cable. DVRs make it possible for viewers to schedule and
record TV shows on a hard drive, and also to pause and replay live TV. But
TiVo has told analysts to beware of "vaporware" (nonexistent software that's
still just in the talking stage), and TiVo CEO Mike Ramsay says, "NDS has
delayed their product offering into later next year. I think we have got a
fairly clear runway with DirecTV that we certainly want to take advantage
of." Ramsay adds, "When it is time to compete, we will focus on that, too.
And I think we'll do very well." (USA Today 29 Nov 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/entertainment/2004-11-29-dvr_x.htm>

HOLLYWOOD BACKS TOSHIBA ON HD-DVD FORMAT
      Four major Hollywood studios have announced their support of Toshiba's
high-definition DVD format, which is competing against the Blu-ray rival
technology backed by Sony. Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal
Pictures have pledged to begin offering titles in the new Toshiba format
next year, while Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema did not give a date for
their HD-DVD debut. Blu-ray is capable of storing more digital programming
than HD-DVD, but proponents of HD-DVD say that because the Toshiba
technology more closely resembles that used for current DVDs, it will cut
manufacturing costs. Toshiba plans to begin selling its first HD-DVD
products -- a player and a recorder, as well as a laptop with a built-in
HD-DVD drive in late 2005. (AP 29 Nov 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041129/D86LJB200.html>

WIMAX PROSPECTS LOOKING UP
      Upstart TowerStream is offering a new take on wireless broadband,
delivering high-speed connections to business customers through antennas
perched atop highrises in urban areas. The service, dubbed WiMax (worldwide
interoperability for microwave access), uses fixed antennas to send and
receive signals across entire metropolitan areas. The radio signals and
antennas are unaffected by bad weather and provide a cheaper alternative to
data cables buried below streets that are vulnerable to accidental severing
by construction crews. Although other companies are getting into the WiMax
business, TowerStream is currently the market leader, with a lock on prime
locations like the top of the Empire State Building and the MetLife Building
in New York City. "The real estate is the hard part of the business," says
TowerStream COO Jeff Thompson. "When you tell people you can reach 10,000
clients, they don't believe you."  It took him more than two years to
negotiate those leases, but Thompson's optimism is warranted, say many
analysts. The high-speed wireless Internet market is worth about $400
million globally and could quadruple in the next few years, according to the
WiMax Forum, a group of WiMax equipment makers and providers. (New York
Times 29 Nov 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/technology/29max.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Not all who wander are lost." (J.R.R. Tolkien)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: J.R.R. TOLKIEN      Today's Honorary Subscriber is
the English writer and scholar John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), the
renowned professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University who is best known for
reinstating fantasy as a serious literary genre.
     Tolkien set the stage for publishing his own original fantasy, "The
Hobbit," by a 1936 lecture entitled "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,"
in which he established the aesthetic value of the mythological creatures --
Grendel and the dragon -- in medieval poetry. He followed up "The Hobbit"
with a critical theory of fantasy, "On Fairy-Stories," published in 1939.
After that he absorbed himself almost completely in composing his two
mythological romance masterpieces, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy published
in 1954-55, and "The Silmarillion," published in 1977. In these imaginative
sagas, Tolkien created an elaborate fantasy world in which the inhabitants
have their own language and mythology.
     Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. His father died when he
was 4 years old and the family returned to England where Tolkien was
educated at King Edward's School in Birmingham and at Exeter College,
Oxford. In 1915, he enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers, and before leaving
for France he married his longtime sweetheart, Edith Bratt. Tolkien saw
action in the Battle of the Somme, but trench fever kept him frequently
hospitalized during 1917. After the war he joined the Oxford University
faculty, holding posts in philology and in English language and literature,
enjoying a career that lasted until his retirement in 1959.
      Tolkien's work on creating the fantasy world portrayed in "The Lord of
the Rings" trilogy began as early as his teen years. The work later gained
shape and depth from his professorial studies of the heroic literature of
northern Europe -- Beowulf, the Edda, and the Kalevala. The spirit of these
poems and their languages inspired his humorous and whimsical literary
creations, such as heroes who are short and stout, with very furry feet.
     Tolkein invented an imaginary land, Middle Earth, describing in
meticulous detail its language, its geography, and its exciting history,
which included fantastic tales of battles between good and evil. "The
Hobbit; or, There and Back Again" was written to introduce readers to this
special world, where its inhabitants, elves, dwarfs, wizards, and the
furry-footed hobbit Bilbo Baggins fight and win against an evil dragon.
Tolkein's fantasy tales became immensely popular in the 1960s, especially
among young adults. A film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" has enjoyed
great popular success in theatres and on video media, due in part to
stunning computer animations. Today, Tolkein's books continue to sell well
and hobbit has become a household word.
                            **
[To find a library copy of "The Lord of the Rings" visit RLG's
RedLightGreen.com:
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=25229178&>
-- or to purchase a copy go to:
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000634DCW/qid=1101649338/newsscancom/ref=nosim>
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

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