NewsScan Daily, 10 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 10 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Cell Phones Aloft?
        Mobile Phones to Outnumber Land Lines
        Amazon Gets into the DVD Rental Business
        Yahoo Looks For Success in Desktop Search
        Google Tests Power of Suggestion

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Jean Antoine Watteau

CELL PHONES ALOFT?
      The Federal Communications Commission next week is expected to 
approve a measure that would begin the regulatory process of considering 
whether there are technical solutions to some of the obstacles blocking 
cell phone use aboard aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration and 
Boeing have both supported the FCC's current ban on such use, arguing that 
cell phones can interfere with navigation systems. But some of the major 
airlines quietly have begun their own tests to determine whether cell phone 
use can be made feasible. Last July, American Airlines conducted a test of 
a system that requires passengers to pay to use special cell phones 
provided by the airlines that routed signals through a picocell -- a 
miniature cell tower the size of a pizza box -- inside the airline. The 
signals were then sent to a small satellite dish perched atop the airliner, 
which beamed them up to a satellite, where they bounced back down to 
special cell stations linked to phone networks on earth. The system has the 
advantage of funneling all calls through a single communications path, 
making it easier for the airlines and carriers to track and bill the calls. 
However, experts say there likely will be no action taken on changing the 
rules for at least two years. Meanwhile, some frequent fliers are cringing 
at the thought of a liberated cell phone policy. "The last thing I want is 
a bunch of jabbering business geeks," says futurist Paul Saffo, who travels 
200,000 miles a year. "The only quiet time I get is when I fly. It's my 
meditation time." (New York Times 10 Dec 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/technology/10phone.html>

MOBILE PHONES TO OUTNUMBER LAND LINES
      Cell phones are expected to generate more revenue this year than 
traditional land line phones in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according 
to a new report by the International Telecommunication Union. Just four 
years ago, fixed-line phone revenue was nearly double that of wireless, but 
mobile phone use is growing rapidly, especially in developing countries 
where wireless networks are much cheaper to install than traditional 
terrestrial ones. "Virtually all the global growth in the telecoms service 
sector over the last decade has come from the mobile sector, broadband and 
other data services," says Susan Schorr, one of the authors of the study. 
"Taken together, the value of mobile and other non-voice services is now 
greater than that of the traditional fixed-line telephone service, which 
had been the mainstay of public telecommunication operators since the late 
19th century." Since 2000, four-fifths of all growth in mobile phone sales 
took place in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. "The 
developing world is… where most of the potential for future growth 
resides," says Schorr, who adds that broadband is catching on in those 
countries as well, with China expected to overtake the U.S. this year as 
the world's biggest broadband market. (AP 10 Dec 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041210/D86SR8GO0.html>

AMAZON GETS INTO THE DVD RENTAL BUSINESS
      Amazon is launching a DVD rental-by-mail business in the U.K., in a 
test to see whether the business offers a viable new revenue stream for the 
e-commerce giant. The U.K. is a fairly safe proving ground because the 
entire country can be serviced from just one warehouse, which Amazon 
already operates on the outskirts of London, says Reed Hastings, CEO of 
market leader Netflix. He notes that in the U.S., Netflix has a network of 
30 warehouses near metropolitan areas in order to provide overnight 
delivery to most of its customers, while Amazon operates only six 
warehouses, mostly in rural areas. Meanwhile, Netflix, which plans to have 
2.5 million subscribers by the end of the year, has shelved its plans to 
expand to the U.K. market and has reduced the price on its most popular 
rental plan in the U.S. from $21.99 to $17.99 after learning of Amazon's 
plans to enter the market. (Wall Street Journal 10 Dec 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110262988825696104,00.html> (sub req'd)

YAHOO LOOKS FOR SUCCESS IN DESKTOP SEARCH
      Yahoo is introducing a new tool for searching through e-mails and 
computer files on Windows-based PCs. Unlike Google's desktop search tool, 
Yahoo's won't operate within a browser, which means that desktop searches 
won't be co-mingled with online searches conducted on its Web site. Yahoo 
is licensing its desktop search product from startup X1 Technologies, which 
has established itself as a pioneer in desktop search since its inception 
three years ago. "Some people may pooh pooh this because Yahoo didn't build 
it on their own, but this is going to give consumers some really good 
choices," says Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. Yahoo says its 
desktop search tool can sift through more than 225 different data types, 
including many formats that Google's search product can't index yet. "The 
ultimate vision is to create a dashboard to help people manage their 
digital lives," says Yahoo search division head Jeff Weiner. (AP/USA Today 
10 Dec 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2004-12-10-yahoo-desktop-search_x.htm>

GOOGLE TESTS POWER OF SUGGESTION
      Google has quietly unveiled a new feature on its Labs site called 
Google Suggest, a drop-down menu that prompts users to select a word based 
on the first couple of letters they type in. For instance, typing in "Mi" 
generates a list starting with "Microsoft," followed by "miniclip," 
"Michael Moore," and "miserable failure," among others. The company 
regularly launches new features in its Labs section, which is reserved for 
ideas that "aren't quite ready for prime time," according to a message on 
its site. (CNet News.com 10 Dec 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Google+offers+a+suggestion/2100-1024_3-5487090.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and 
mystery. There is always more mystery." (Anais Nin)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JEAN ANTOINE WATTEAU
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the early 18th century French painter 
and draftsman Jean Antoine Watteau, whose art is valued for depicting with 
grace and charm the life enjoyed by the elegant society of his time.
      Always socially ill at ease, Watteau was not himself a participant in 
society so much as a spectator and creative recorder of what he saw. So 
distinctive was the coloring and style of Watteau's rococo paintings that 
today his name is used to describe women's dresses and hats that resemble 
those worn by his subjects. Watteau was widely admired by his 
contemporaries, both in France and in England, who avidly collected his 
"fetes galantes" -- his romantic and idealized scenes depicting elaborately 
costumed ladies and gentlemen at play in fanciful outdoor settings.
      Watteau's reputation diminished after his death, due probably to the 
fact that the emerging Age of Reason favored artists whose work was less 
fanciful and more in tune with the social disturbances of the period. 
During the French Revolution, critics actually accused Watteau of "having 
infected the dwellings of his time with bad taste."
      Critical interest in Watteau sprung up again in the 19th century, 
especially in England and among such French poets as Victor Hugo and 
Baudelaire who placed him among the "beacons" of mankind in his famous 
poem, "Les Phares." The Goncourt brothers compared him to Rubens, Marcel 
Proust recognized him as one of France's great painters. Eventually esteem 
for Watteau enjoyed in the circle of art lovers, poets, and novelists 
extended to the broad public.
      Watteau was born the son of a roof tiler in Valenciennes, France in 
1684. At age 18 he went to Paris, where he supported himself by turning out 
religious pictures and copying the works of popular Dutch artists He also 
began making countless sketches from life, which were to supply him with a 
lifetime of thematic inspiration. His career in painting truly began in 
1704 when he started studying with Claude Gillot, who designed and executed 
scenery for the stage, and infused Watteau with a love of the Italian 
theater and the characters from the commedia dell'arte.
      He enjoyed a busy life as a painter, working both in France and 
England. For much of the time he chose to live in relative seclusion. In 
1712, Watteau was named a provisional member of the Academie Royale; later 
elected a full member in 1717. Sometime around 1719 Watteau came down with 
tuberculosis. He traveled to London to see a noted physician, Richard Mead. 
In 1720 he returned to Paris and stayed with his art dealer friend E.F. 
Gersaint. While there he painted 'Enseigne de Gersaint', an image of the 
interior of Gersaint's shop originally intended to be outdoor shop sign 
advertising a two-week exhibition. Today it is treasured as one of 
Watteau's best paintings. When Watteau's health failed to improve, he moved 
to Nogent-sur-Marne just east of Paris, where he died on July 18, 1721.
                               ***
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