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mytrip points out a blog posting by Rogers Cadenhead, author of the Drudge Retort blog, who says: "I'm currently engaged in a legal disagreement with the Associated Press, which claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing 'hot news' misappropriation under New York state law." An AP attorney filed six Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown requests this week demanding the removal of blog entries and another for a user comment. The AP material they object to consists of snippets of from 33 to 79 words. Cadenhead claims his lawyer believes that all fall squarely within the province of fair use.

dacut writes "A search on Amazon for Philip M. Parker turns up over 85 thousand books, in fields ranging from economics ( The 2007-2012 Outlook for Lemon-Flavored Bottled Water in Japan ) to medical topics ( The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Sleep Apnea ) to crossword puzzles ( Webster's English to French Crossword Puzzles ). For once, however, this is not a case of a search engine returning irrelevant results or finding multiple authors. In an article titled, "He Wrote 200,000 Books (but Computers Did Some of the Work)," the New York Times (registration required) describes how Mr. Parker "has developed computer algorithms that collect publicly available information on a subject" and "turns the results into books in a range of genres," relying on on-demand print services to keep the cost of publishing down.

These books, however, do not add to our general knowledge base. Parker concedes, "If you are good at the Internet, this book is useless." This is merely reformatting and visualizing data that is already out there. However, given the demand for "research" firms as Gartner, Forrester, IDC, etc. (and as anyone who has been told to regurgitate data into PowerPoint form for PHBs can attest), there is demand out there for this type of service.

He has put up a YouTube video demonstrating the program. Alas, the process has been issued a patent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/business/media/14link.html?_r=1

Steve Kerrison writes "With the power of CPUs ever-increasing and the number of cores in a system increasing too, having a supercomputer sit under your desk is no longer a pipe dream. But generally speaking, the extreme high end of modern computing consists of a big ugly box housing that generates a lot of noise. A UK system integrator has developed a concept PC that blows that all away. The eXtreme Concept PC (XCP) has quite a romantic design story, with inspiration coming from concept cars and the sarcophagus-like Cray T90. The end result is a system that resembles a Cylon — computing power never looked so ominous. Although just a concept, the company behind the design reckons there could be a (small) market for the systems, with varying levels of compute power accompanied by appropriate (say, LN2) cooling."

tuxgeek writes "In the continuing saga of Yahoo resisting a Microsoft buy out, Yahoo is now being sued by its shareholders. 'Two Detroit pension funds have sued Yahoo Inc. and its board of directors, saying they breached their duties to shareholders in trying to thwart a takeover by Microsoft Corp. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday by lawyers representing Detroit's police and fire retirement system and general retirement system, as well as 'all other similarly situated public shareholders.'"

dacut writes "In news which surprises nobody who owns a cell phone, Test & Measurement World reports that an audit by Ditech Networks showed that 39% of mobile calls fell below industry standards for voice quality. Unlike most carrier tests which focus solely on problems originating in the carrier's network, these tests factored in "the places where people make calls, codec impairments, and mobile devices like phones and headsets." These problems are more widespread in rapid growth markets (India, South America, and the Middle East), with 59% of calls below the minimum vs. 23% elsewhere.

The associated commentary does note that, "not surprisingly, Ditech offers technology that can help fix the problem in the form of its Voice Quality Assurance product," which helps reduce the types of problems uncovered by the audit. But if they're right, the carriers best pay some attention to the problem: poor call quality caused 66.5 million subscribers to switch providers in 2007, costing carriers $23.6 billion."
http://www.tmworld.com/article/CA6529743.html?nid=3373&rid=858295678

Charter Communications, which provides cable and internet access to 2.6 million customers, accidentally and irretrievably wiped out 14,000 active e-mail accounts while trying to clear out unused accounts. From the article:

There is no way to retrieve the messages, photos and other attachments that were erased from inboxes and archive folders across the country on Monday, said Anita Lamont, a spokeswoman for the suburban St. Louis-based company. "We really are sincerely sorry for having had this happen and do apologize to all those folks who were affected by the error," Lamont said Thursday when the company announced the gaff.

They're providing a $50 credit to each affected customer, which seems a paltry sum for anyone who was less than diligent about backing up their e-mail.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080124/D8UCEF2O0.html

dacut writes "According to an article in the New York Times, "AT&T plans to introduce a nationwide program today that gives owners of small- and medium-size businesses some of the same tools big security companies offer for monitoring employees, customers and operations from remote locations. Under AT&T's Remote Monitor program, a business owner could install adjustable cameras, door sensors and other gadgets at up to five different company locations across the country."

This isn't necessarily new technology — ADT and Digital Witness have similar offerings — but it is coming from a company which allegedly monitors all web traffic through its facilities."

Roland Piquepaille writes "An international team of researchers has discovered a new generation of optical molecules which interact 50% more strongly with light than any molecules ever tested. These organic molecules, known as chromophores, have been theorized by physicists at Washington State University, synthesized by chemists in China and tested for their actual optical properties by chemists in Belgium. But if they're excellent candidates for being used in optical technologies such as optical switches and Internet connections, these new materials should not be used before several years — if ever. Read more for additional details and a picture of the physicist who broke a law he established in 1999."