Thursday, May 05, 2005
Carbon Nanotube Electronics Will Lead to $3.6 Billion in Business Opportunities by 2009
STERLING, Va., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report from NanoMarkets LC, a market research and consulting firm based here, the unique electrical, thermal and physical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) will create $3.6 billion in new business for the electronics and semiconductor sectors by 2009. NanoMarkets' research indicates that carbon nanotubes are already becoming a key enabling technology that electronics firms should not dismiss as being a long way off.
The report, "Carbon Nanotube Electronics, A Technology Analysis and Eight-Year Market Forecast," says that the biggest near-term opportunities for "nanotube electronics" will come from the sensor, display and memory sectors. Each of these markets will include more than $200 million in CNT-based products by 2007:
* Nanotubes are already being used to produce tiny sensors, potentially
capable of distinguishing a single molecule. This could make nanotubes
the material of choice for the highly sensitive sensors required for
medical and homeland security applications. The low power consumption
of nanotube sensors also makes them ideal choice for battery-powered
sensor networks.
* Nanotube-based field emission displays combine the high-quality video
of CRTs with the flatness of LCD and plasma displays, but without the
burn-in and poor viewing angles associated with today's flat-panel
displays. Samsung will release its CNT-driven television in 2006.
Other large electronics firms that are developing such displays include
Hitachi, Sony, Mitsubishi and Toshiba.
* Nanotube-based memories will combine the speed of SRAM with the non-
volatility of Flash, which should allow them to quickly penetrate the
laptop, mobile phone and PDA markets. NanoMarkets believes this market
could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
NanoMarkets also notes that CNT-based interconnects and thermal management could help provide CMOS with a much needed enabling technology as it moves to 45-nm and 22-nm nodes. Nanotube-based logic, processors, interconnects and thermal management solutions are already the subject of intense research by IBM, Intel and NEC which believe that their work in this field will help CMOS scale to smaller feature sizes.
'Honey, I'm off to see some art...'
OSLO (Reuters) - Striptease is art like opera or ballet, an Oslo court has ruled in a victory for nightclub owners over Norway's tax authorities.
"I'm very pleased. Ninety percent of the guests here tell me that what I'm doing is art," a female stripper at the Dream Go Go Bar in the city of Trondheim told NRK radio Wednesday.
The court ruled this week that striptease should be treated like other artistic stage shows, ranging from stand-up comedy to opera, for which tickets are exempt from value-added tax (VAT).
Read the rest...
"I'm very pleased. Ninety percent of the guests here tell me that what I'm doing is art," a female stripper at the Dream Go Go Bar in the city of Trondheim told NRK radio Wednesday.
The court ruled this week that striptease should be treated like other artistic stage shows, ranging from stand-up comedy to opera, for which tickets are exempt from value-added tax (VAT).
Read the rest...
Yahoo! Search Goes Primetime with Comprehensive Video on the Web
SUNNYVALE, Calif. --May 5, 2005--Yahoo! Inc. today announced that Video Search, available at http://video.search.yahoo.com, has launched in general availability with new content from partners including Buena Vista Pictures, CBS News, CMT, Discovery Communications, MTV, Reuters, Scripps Networks (Home & Garden Television, The Food Network), VH1 and more.
The production release is a follow-up to the successful Yahoo! Video Search beta launched in December 2004. Yahoo! Video Search offers comprehensive video search online through its next generation media crawling and ranking technology, Yahoo's key content and media relationships, and Media Really Simple Syndication (Media RSS) a self-publishing specification that enables publishers to promote audio and video content. This combination enables consumers to find and view any type of online video from news footage to movie trailers to television clips as well as independently produced video.
"Yahoo! Video Search provides consumers with a comprehensive source for video on the Web," said John Thrall, head of media search engineering, Yahoo! Search. "
In addition to the new relationships, Yahoo! has formed partnerships with a number of other video content sources. Through its relationship with TVEyes, Yahoo! enables searching within Bloomberg video broadcasts and direct links to the relevant portion of the broadcast. Other partnerships include Internet Broadcasting Systems (national network of local news), IFILM, The One Network, and Stupid Videos. Moreover, Yahoo! Video Search also obtains content from independent publishers and online video sites such as Internet Archive.
"We're delighted to be working with Yahoo! on a project that takes the video entertainment experience to the next level," said Jason Hirschhorn, senior vice president of digital music and media, MTV Networks Music Group. "Yahoo! Video Search caters directly to MTV Networks' global network and fan base, so users have the ability to access our content in an even more customizable way."
"This relationship greatly expands the number of users who will have immediate access to our vast reservoir of current and historical broadband CBS News video -- all for free," said Betsy Morgan, Vice President for Business Development, CBS News.
Yahoo! Video Search also provides users with integrated access to video content from the Yahoo! network by including movie trailers from Yahoo! Movies, music videos from Yahoo! Music, and exclusive video from The Apprentice, including the full confessionals from fired contestants, and The Contender, including the full boxing match from each episode.
The production release is a follow-up to the successful Yahoo! Video Search beta launched in December 2004. Yahoo! Video Search offers comprehensive video search online through its next generation media crawling and ranking technology, Yahoo's key content and media relationships, and Media Really Simple Syndication (Media RSS) a self-publishing specification that enables publishers to promote audio and video content. This combination enables consumers to find and view any type of online video from news footage to movie trailers to television clips as well as independently produced video.
"Yahoo! Video Search provides consumers with a comprehensive source for video on the Web," said John Thrall, head of media search engineering, Yahoo! Search. "
In addition to the new relationships, Yahoo! has formed partnerships with a number of other video content sources. Through its relationship with TVEyes, Yahoo! enables searching within Bloomberg video broadcasts and direct links to the relevant portion of the broadcast. Other partnerships include Internet Broadcasting Systems (national network of local news), IFILM, The One Network, and Stupid Videos. Moreover, Yahoo! Video Search also obtains content from independent publishers and online video sites such as Internet Archive.
"We're delighted to be working with Yahoo! on a project that takes the video entertainment experience to the next level," said Jason Hirschhorn, senior vice president of digital music and media, MTV Networks Music Group. "Yahoo! Video Search caters directly to MTV Networks' global network and fan base, so users have the ability to access our content in an even more customizable way."
"This relationship greatly expands the number of users who will have immediate access to our vast reservoir of current and historical broadband CBS News video -- all for free," said Betsy Morgan, Vice President for Business Development, CBS News.
Yahoo! Video Search also provides users with integrated access to video content from the Yahoo! network by including movie trailers from Yahoo! Movies, music videos from Yahoo! Music, and exclusive video from The Apprentice, including the full confessionals from fired contestants, and The Contender, including the full boxing match from each episode.
Secured Digital to Launch Innovative VoIP Service Integrating Landline Calls with Internet Network
NEW YORK --May 5, 2005--Secured Digital Applications, Inc. today announced the introduction of an innovative Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) based calling card service that will use the wireless broadband network that the company is licensed to operate in Malaysia to transmit land-based calls using VoIP technology.
The service will be implemented in the third quarter of 2005 in the central Malaysia region with expansion planned into other regions later in the year. The service uses proximity cards and readers to hand off telephone calls initiated on ordinary land-based switched services (known as "Plain Old Telephone Service" or "POTS") to the VoIP network at significantly reduced costs to consumers. The reader will be used to identify the caller and to transmit customer information and security codes to the company's VoIP network.
The proximity cards and readers were developed by Innospective Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Secured Digital, and can be installed on any telephone using POTS service. The consumer passes a calling card with proximity technology near the proximity reader to activate the reader, which then recognizes long-distance telephone calls, securely connects to the VoIP network, and transfers the POTS call to the VoIP network.
The VoIP network is being introduced through a broadband license held by Perwimas Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, another subsidiary of Secured Digital. The license is presently used for the company's Visionet wireless broadband service and to provide backhaul network services to third-party providers.
"We believe that our ability to seamlessly convert POTS calls into calls using the VoIP network is a competitive niche that will provide us with entry into a rapidly growing area of the telecommunications industry," said Patrick Lim, Chairman and CEO of Secured Digital. "This strategy enables us to focus on customers and markets that do not have access to the broadband Internet service that normally is required for VoIP service."
The service will be implemented in the third quarter of 2005 in the central Malaysia region with expansion planned into other regions later in the year. The service uses proximity cards and readers to hand off telephone calls initiated on ordinary land-based switched services (known as "Plain Old Telephone Service" or "POTS") to the VoIP network at significantly reduced costs to consumers. The reader will be used to identify the caller and to transmit customer information and security codes to the company's VoIP network.
The proximity cards and readers were developed by Innospective Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Secured Digital, and can be installed on any telephone using POTS service. The consumer passes a calling card with proximity technology near the proximity reader to activate the reader, which then recognizes long-distance telephone calls, securely connects to the VoIP network, and transfers the POTS call to the VoIP network.
The VoIP network is being introduced through a broadband license held by Perwimas Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, another subsidiary of Secured Digital. The license is presently used for the company's Visionet wireless broadband service and to provide backhaul network services to third-party providers.
"We believe that our ability to seamlessly convert POTS calls into calls using the VoIP network is a competitive niche that will provide us with entry into a rapidly growing area of the telecommunications industry," said Patrick Lim, Chairman and CEO of Secured Digital. "This strategy enables us to focus on customers and markets that do not have access to the broadband Internet service that normally is required for VoIP service."
May 27, 2005 is Proclaimed the First Annual e-freeday
While e-mail continues to provide widespread benefit to society, the prolific growth of e-mail in recent years has undoubtedly come with some costs, according to Tommy Lorden. These costs have been documented at both personal and organizational levels, contributing to everything from increased stress to decreased productivity.
"After grappling with these dynamics at the Company for which I work for, we decided to designate a day each month in which we would forgo e-mail in favor of old-fashioned face-to-face conversations," said Lorden. "We call it going 'e-free.' We're simply seeking improved communications, better relationships, and more balance by reminding ourselves that we are in control of email (and not the other way around)."
Please join us and others around the world, in going e-free on May 27th, 2005. It's simple, free, fun, meaningful, and you might just have an actual conversation with someone that could better the world! Visit www.efreeday.org for more information... and spread the word!
WHAT: First annual e-freeday.
WHEN: May 27, 2005.
WHY: To remind ourselves and our associates not to allow e-mail to take control of our time at the expense of harmony in our lives.
"After grappling with these dynamics at the Company for which I work for, we decided to designate a day each month in which we would forgo e-mail in favor of old-fashioned face-to-face conversations," said Lorden. "We call it going 'e-free.' We're simply seeking improved communications, better relationships, and more balance by reminding ourselves that we are in control of email (and not the other way around)."
Please join us and others around the world, in going e-free on May 27th, 2005. It's simple, free, fun, meaningful, and you might just have an actual conversation with someone that could better the world! Visit www.efreeday.org for more information... and spread the word!
WHAT: First annual e-freeday.
WHEN: May 27, 2005.
WHY: To remind ourselves and our associates not to allow e-mail to take control of our time at the expense of harmony in our lives.
Businesses Need to Prepare to Destroy Discarded Employee Records
ITASCA, Ill. May 5, 2005--June is quickly approaching, and the "Proper Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records" provision of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) will go into effect immediately. The provision requires businesses - even those that employ just one person - to properly dispose of a consumer report or any record derived from one. This includes data pulled from credit reports and credit scores.
Nearly 10 million people last year were victims of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. With these crimes showing no signs of weakening, FACTA is among many recent laws focused on protecting consumer and company privacy.
The FTC, according to the provision, generally recommends destroying or shredding records containing consumer information. Depending upon the volume of personal records, this method of destruction can be accomplished easily with the purchase of a shredder.
Nearly 10 million people last year were victims of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. With these crimes showing no signs of weakening, FACTA is among many recent laws focused on protecting consumer and company privacy.
The FTC, according to the provision, generally recommends destroying or shredding records containing consumer information. Depending upon the volume of personal records, this method of destruction can be accomplished easily with the purchase of a shredder.
