Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak used to synchronize precise atomic clocks with the more variable rotation of the Earth.Reuters.
Although the Earth's rotation with respect to the sun has been used since ancient times to know the time of day, it is not like clockwork, and can speed up or slow down by a few thousandths of a second a day.
“We would get out of sync with the sun,” says Richard Langley, a University of New Brunswick researcher who is an expert in the complex and bureaucratic science of timekeeping.
On Friday morning, Howard Stern signed off of traditional radio for the last time, ending more than two decades of great entertainment.
The self-proclaimed King of All Media signed off with a over-the-top midtown Manhattan party for thousands of fans - some of whom came from as far away as Ohio and many of whom had to get out of bed by 4 a.
m. to even get close to the stage New York Times reports. The morning was capped by a "victory lap" through Times Square where Stern stood atop a double-decker bus.
"We broke every rule known to radio and mankind and I'm proud of that," Stern shouted to supporters from an outdoor stage.
"And I don't think this ride is over yet. Let the freedom bell be rung, and let it be rung by a stripper!
"We beat then at their own game, we figured out how to do it," he said. "Change the rules, break the chains, the last of a dying breed."
Stern rocked the broadcasting world in October 2004 when he signed a five-year contract with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
reportedly valued at $500 million.
Stern has two entire channels with Sirius, which is not regulated by the U.S.
Federal Communications Commission and charges subscribers $13 a month for more than 100 channels.
The Bosh is advising caution as regards reports that Britney Spears is the most searched for single entity on the World Wide Web. A Brit search on Google, for example, turns up 10,800,000 results pages, but a Paris Hilton search turns up 13,400,000, and Paris hasn’t even released her album yet.
Must be that the sex tape decreased interest in her!
Michael Jackson also is ahead of Brit-Brit, as far as number of Google search pages in his name goes; the closeted bigot comes in with 11,100,000 pages. Wagging tongues have been comparing these two megastars; little noses, great dance moves, funny collections of animals; Britney and Michael are virtually the same person, they would have us believe.
Yet there is a personage leaving the others behind in the dust; George W. Bush, who gets 50,400,000 Google results pages. Outdoing him is that perennial favorite, God, clocking in at 153,000,000 pages.
Here we can see that women’s lib has a way to go; Goddess only gets 17,100,000 pages, still more than Britney’s 10 comma 8. (By Scott Rose)
Chip maker Intel Corp. has announced that it has formed a multiyear partnership with German automobile company BMW that includes sponsorship of the BMW Sauber Formula One motor racing team Team.
The deal, which BMW describes as a "long-term strategic technology partnership," starts in January.
Intel's sponsorship will renew the rivalry with Advanced Micro Devices, who sponsor Sauber's F1 rival Ferrari reports BBC
"Formula One demands the control and coordination of hundreds of parameters simultaneously and the precise execution of every step," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen.
"Cutting-edge technology is a crucial success factor, and BMW has accepted the challenge.
"We are delighted that a strong partner such as Intel has done likewise in collaboration with us."
The deal will see the German automobile giant deploying Intel based systems across their network. The Intel logo will be displayed on the car used by BMW's Sauber team starting January 2006.
Nearly 150 million people are estimated to watch each of Formula One's 19 races. BMW bought the Sauber team in June this year.
"Intel and BMW intend to collaborate heavily on the IT technology and marketing side as our brands are very dynamic and innovative," said Intel senior vice president Eric Kim.
"Intel will infuse the BMW Sauber F1 Team with its technology - technology that we believe will support the team's performance."
Visto Corp, a maker of software for wireless e-mail, said on Thursday it filed a lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. for infringing Visto patents for technology that support e-mail on mobile devices.
The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, was made a day after Visto licensed patents belonging to NTP, the company that is engaged in a patent challenge to Research in Motion. The NTP case could shut most service to the BlackBerry communications device reports New York Times.
Visto said it is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Microsoft from "misappropriating" technology from Visto and its co-founder developed nearly 10 years ago.
Microsoft's wireless e-mail product, Windows Mobile Direct Push Technology, will be introduced in the spring.
Visto contends that Microsoft's software violates three patents that deal more with synchronizing data and security than directly with wireless e-mail, the crucial element of NTP's patents."They have a product that they look like they've copied from us," Mr.
Bogosian said. He acknowledged that no one at Visto had examined or used the Microsoft system, which, like BlackBerry, is aimed primarily at corporate users.
Visto's customers include Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile service provider, as well as U.
S. market leader Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT T Inc. and BellSouth, and Sprint Nextel Corp.
.
Microsoft and MCI announced Monday that they will work together to develop a network to allow people to place phone calls from personal computers to virtually any landline phone by using Windows Live software with its Voice over Internet Protocol capabilities combined with MCI`s global phone network reports M C.
The deal will allow consumers to place calls for as little as 2.
3 cents a minute -- undercutting rates MCI offers existing customers . For Microsoft, the partnership puts it in competition with a growing field of major Internet companies offering free or low-cost Web-based calling services -- from international Web-calling company Skype, a unit of eBay Inc., to Time Warner Inc.
's America Online and Yahoo Messenger reports Reuters. "The intent is to be very price competitive with who is out there," Patty Proferes, senior vice president of Mass Markets and Corporate Advertising for MCI, said in a phone interview.
The two companies said the new service, to be known as MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call, will be available through Windows Live Messenger -- Microsoft's recent name change for its MSN Messenger, which counts 185 million active users worldwide.
The companies are presently testing the service as part of a Windows Live Messenger limited beta available only in the US. They plan to deliver the beta to France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks. With the beta version, customers can place calls to some 220 countries.
Microsoft has launched its Xbox 360 games console in Japan to what seems like a more subdued response than it received in Europe and North America reports BBC.
Surveys by Gaming Fan-sites, leading up to the Japanese launch, showed Japanese gamers pulling for the Sony Playstation 3, even though its a year away from release. Microsoft hopes to overcome Sony and Nintendo by being the first to release its next-generation console.
Queues formed for its main launch event in Tokyo but early sales were reported to be slower than at other launches.
Japan's games market is traditionally dominated by Sony and Nintendo.
The country is the biggest market for console games, after the US.
NBC Universal and Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday said they would make several NBC-owned television shows available on the iTunes music store.
The shows, taken from NBC, the USA Network and the SciFi Channel, include current and older programming, the companies said.
NBC Universal is the second big broadcaster to agree to sell shows to users of Apple's new video iPod reports USATODAY
ABC in October announced a deal with Apple to sell reruns of hits such as Desperate Housewives and Lost. NBC Universal is offering 300 episodes from new shows such as Law Order and The Office, classics Dragnet and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and segments from Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien's late-night shows.
"Eventually, a goal is to get all of our shows up there," said Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group.
"This benefits the consumers. Now they can watch great programming wherever they are and whenever they want."
Most of the programs cost $1.
99, the same as hit programs "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," which Walt Disney Co.'s ABC several weeks ago said it would offer at the iTunes music store.
The iTunes music store has sold more than 3 million videos since the iTunes catalog launched two months ago.
Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, estimates Apple has sold 1 million video iPods to date and is on track to sell an additional 1.5 million this month.
"This NBC deal is about more than the iPod," he says.
"It's about Apple being the entity to become the personal media center for consumers. People will start using their computers to play back movies and TV shows."
Seperately, News Corp.
announced it would begin distributing made-for-Internet episodes of "The Family Guy," its popular animated show, beginning next year reports Forbes
A Microsoft Xbox 360 owner from Chicago has sued the world's largest software maker, saying the new video game console has a design flaw that causes it to overheat and freeze up reports Yahoo News
Robert Byers, who brought the suit, said the power supply and central processing unit in the Xbox 360 overheat, affecting heat-sensitive chips and causing the console to lock up.
Complaints of similar freezing problems began to surface as soon as the Xbox 360 went on sale November 22. Owners reported some systems crashed during both normal and online game play.
Microsoft has stated it has received isolated reports of problems, but emphasized the possible glitches represented a small fraction of units sold.
The proposed class action suit claims that in Microsoft's bid to gain share in the $25 billion global video game market, the company was so intent on releasing the Xbox 360 before competing next-generation machines from Sony and Nintendo that it sold a "defectively designed" product.
A final decision on the controversial .
xxx domain has been delayed again. Paul Twomey, president of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers said on Thursday the group is still awaiting the recommendations of an advisory committee reviewing the proposal, and has no plans to make a decision at ICANN's meeting this week in Vancouver reports BBC news. Plans for the .
xxx have been criticised by many people and organisations, among them former Icann board member Karl Auerbach and US conservative religious groups, including the Family Research Council.
Approval had already been delayed numerous times. First, when Pope John Paul II died, then, after the intervention of the governmental advisory committee (GAC) of ICANN, and finally following pressure from the American Government reports Times UK.
The reason given for the delay, this time was that the GAC wanted to review a 350-page report on the domain by ICANN, released just this week - despite it being completed more than two months ago.
Microsoft Corp is making its new security service, Windows OneCare Live service available for free in a "beta," to help it work out any potential problems before the product's likely introduction next year reports Reuters. OneCare is the latest in Microsoft's Live series.
Windows Live is a free Web-based service which incorporates Web searches, email, syndicated headlines from other sites, and photos and audio from across the Web reports TechTree The service, which offers anti-virus, firewall, backup and recovery, as well as personal computer maintenance, will eventually be available for a subscription fee, said Microsoft spokeswoman Samantha McManus.
"This is the first major step for Microsoft into the consumer security market," McManus said, noting about 15,000 customers have been taking part in a limited test since June.
One year after the debut of Firefox 1.
0, and more than 100 million downloads later, Mozilla has released Firefox 1.5, the latest version of its acclaimed open source Browser. Firefox 1.
5, which is available as a free download from www.Mozilla.com, will aim to build on the success of last year's Firefox 1.
0, which won a cult following among users who say the software is slicker and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), the market leader reports Times.
Improvements included in Firefox 1.5 include automatic updates, faster surfing speeds and drag-and-drop page tabs designed to make the product more user friendly.
The Mozilla Foundation is planning to use the SpreadFirefox website to showcase user-submitted videos of Firefox fans talking about the product as part of a marketing blitz due to raise the profile of the already popular browser. Recent figures from web analytics firm OneStat.com suggest Mozilla-based browsers have a total global usage share of 11.
51 per cent in a market still dominated by Microsoft's ubiquitous IE browser software reports the register
Maxell Corporation of America, has said it will launch its first holographic storage products in September 2006. The first drive will have a capacity of 300GB and a throughput of 160Mbps. Maxell says the technology designed by InPhase Technologies is capable of achieving 1.
6TB per disk with a 120MBps bandwidth.
According to Maxell, Holographic data storage is superior to existing disc and hard drive technologies, and is also competitive against tape technologies in capacities and transfer rate. In addition, it offers a 50+ year media archive life and random data access.
Finally, the media is expected to have the lowest cost per gigabyte of any commercial quality removable storage.
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