NewsScan Daily, 5 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 5 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Wireless Companies Eye Next Next-Generation Technology
        A Hotspot for Your Car
        Sirius to Launch Video Service Next Year
        'Spam King' Agrees to Cease-Fire
        Carbon TVs on the Drawing Board

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Eliza Pinckney

WIRELESS COMPANIES EYE NEXT NEXT-GENERATION TECHNOLOGY
      About 26 wireless carriers, including Cingular, Vodafone, China 
Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, are working together to develop an advanced mobile 
phone standard called W-CDMA that will enable users to transmit and receive 
high-resolution video instantaneously. Currently, 3G (third generation) 
technology relays data at about 384 kilobits per second, but companies 
taking part in the project hope to raise that speed to 100 megabits per 
second, or about 2,000 faster than conventional dialup modems. The 
companies hope to settle on the new standard by 2007 and launch the new, 
faster version by 2009. (AP 4 Jan 2005)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050105/D87DL6R00.html>

A HOTSPOT FOR YOUR CAR
      A closely held Northern Virginia company has developed a satellite 
antenna that turns a moving vehicle into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. RaySat 
says it expects to launch its new product in the third quarter of this 
year, priced at around $3,500. Monthly charges are likely to range from $50 
to $200. The company already sells antennas for delivering Internet access 
to high-speed trains in Europe, and plans to target long haul truckers, 
emergency personnel and other mobile workers in this country. "The people 
who want it are dying for it," says RaySat president and CEO Samer Salameh. 
In addition to the Internet access service, RaySat has developed an antenna 
that enables cars to receive satellite TV broadcasts -- an application that 
may have broader appeal among consumers, according to RaySat rival KVH 
Industries, which also offers mobile satellite TV. (Wall Street Journal 5 
Jan 2005)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110488144715416968,00.html> (sub req'd)

SIRIUS TO LAUNCH VIDEO SERVICE NEXT YEAR
      Sirius Satellite Radio says it's planning to launch a video service 
during the second half of 2006. Subscribers will pay a monthly fee, just as 
Sirius' radio customers do now, and the company says it will devote two to 
three channels to children's programming. (Reuters 5 Jan 2005)
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=OVTHQRXNPCOF0CRBAEZSFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=7243588>

'SPAM KING' AGREES TO CEASE-FIRE
      Under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, a man dubbed 
the "Spam King" will stop distributing spyware until a federal lawsuit is 
resolved. In addition, Sanford Wallace has agreed to send online ads only 
to people who visit the Web sites of companies -- SmartBot.net of Richboro, 
Pennsylvania and Seismic Entertainment Productions of Rochester, New York. 
"The commission does believe this is great relief for consumers until the 
matter is ultimately resolved in the courts," says FTC lawyer Laura 
Sullivan. "This provides wonderful protection for consumers in the 
interim." Wallace's most recent exploits included sending pop-up messages 
to Microsoft Word users offering to sell software that would block the 
pop-ups (but according to the government, didn't work). In the 1990s he 
earned the nickname "Spam King" after spewing out as many as 30 million 
junk e-mails per day to consumers. (AP/CNN.com 4 Jan 2005)
<http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/01/04/spyware.ap/index.html>

CARBON TVs ON THE DRAWING BOARD
      Forget plasma and even LCDs -- the next big thing in television could 
be a new type of flat-panel display that relies on diamonds or carbon 
nanotubes to produce images. Theoretically, these "field effect displays" 
(FEDs) could deliver a sharper picture, consume less energy and even cost 
less than today's high-end alternatives. "The concept of a nanotube TV will 
give you image quality similar to CRTs (cathode ray tubes), and the best 
image quality is still found on CRT TVs," says Tom Pitstick, VP for 
marketing at Carbon Nanotechnologies. "All the major display manufacturers 
are looking at nanotube TVs." Samsung has already developed a prototype 
using Carbon Nanotechnologies' nanotubes and commercial versions should 
start appearing on the shelves in late 2006. One advantage of the FED 
technology, which is described as a sort of hybrid of CRT and LCD 
technologies, is that size is not an issue as it is with LCD screens. A 
2004 prototype of a nanotube FED measures 38 inches -- far larger than most 
currently available LCDs -- and U.K. developer Advance Nanotech says the 
technology is suitable for screens up to 100 inches across. (CNet News.com 
5 Jan 2005)
<http://news.com.com/Carbon+TVs+to+edge+out+liquid+crystal%2C+plasma/2100-1041_3-5512225.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "I make big mistakes. Like I've said, I was wrong 80 percent of the 
time. But there was that 20 percent..." (Artie Shaw)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: ELIZA PINCKNEY
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Colonial era planter Elizabeth 
("Eliza") Lucas Pinckney (1722-93), who was the first to successfully 
cultivate the growth of indigo in the United of States.
      The blue dye produced from the indigo plant was in great demand in 
Europe, and when Pinckney shared her knowledge with other South Carolina 
farmers, indigo became a leading export for the colony. Indigo became a 
staple crop and helped sustain the region's economy well past the 
Revolutionary War. Pinckney's involvement with the indigo plant was more 
accidental than planned. When her father, George Lucas, was called to serve 
as the lieutenant governor of Antigua in the West Indies, she was left at 
age 16 with the responsibility of managing his three plantations. She 
experimented for three years with growing ginger, cotton, and alfalfa, as 
well as the indigo plant, for which there was a ready market in Britain 
that by 1754 would buy more than a million pounds of the crop annually. 
Later when she married Charles Pinckney, South Carolina's first native 
lawyer, she would continue in her role of plantation manager on her 
husband's Charleston plantation. There she produced silkworms for the 
manufacture of silk. Her husband died in 1758, leaving her the sole 
responsibility for managing the family's extensive landholdings.
      Pinckney was born of English parents in the West Indies Island of 
Antigua. Her father was an officer in the English army and had his daughter 
educated in England. She moved to South Carolina in 1738 where her father 
had acquired plantations near Charleston. Their management became her 
responsibility the very next year when her father was ordered back to 
Antigua. Her marriage to Charles Pinckney in 1744 produced two sons, 
Charles Cotesworth and Thomas, both of whom had distinguished military 
careers during the Revolution and both became leading Federalists. The 
Pinckney family, in fact, played a leading role in the politics of South 
Carolina and the nation during and after the American Revolution.
      When Eliza Pinckney died in Philadelphia in 1793, President George 
Washington, who had met her on a tour of the South in 1791, served as a 
pallbearer at his own request.

[For a library copy of H. Ravenel's biography of Pinckney, check out RLG's 
RedLightGreen service at: 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=21910517&> 
-- or to purchase a copy of Pinckney's letters go to: 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/157003186X/newsscancom/ref=nosim>. 
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]

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