By Staff and Wire Reports
Published November 24, 2003
As campuses nationwide crack down on students illegally downloading music off the Internet, two University of Florida programmers may have created a force field that stops thievery.
Dubbed ICARUS, the program monitors network activity on UF's dorm Internet system used by 9,000 students, searching for users sharing files of copyrighted music, movies and games.
When it finds this "peer-to-peer" file-sharing, ICARUS, or Integrated Computer Application for Recognizing User Services, shuts it down.
It also prevents unwanted e-mail advertising, called spam, and destructive "worms" from spreading through dorm computers, said Robert Bird, 28, a senior systems programmer.
Bird and fellow programmer Will Saxon, 25, developed ICARUS at UF to police the dorm Internet system and keep it running smoothly.
Students aren't amused. But the music industry salivates over its potential to stem billions in losses.
UF's ICARUS system uses a secret software code, but more than 150 universities and other private groups from around the world have called or visited the campus to check it out.
Bird hopes the university will decide this spring to treat ICARUS as "open source" programming, which would allow other schools or businesses to share the software. Bird says the programming could be worth millions of dollars to UF.
If students continue to download files after warnings, ICARUS will restrict their Internet use to on-campus sites for five to 30 days, allowing users only to access homework assignments or registration, Bird said.
The software shows enough promise that the Recording Industry Association of America flew its security and technology chief to Gainesville recently for a look. RIAA is unleashing subpoenas and lawsuits aimed at people who illegally share copyrighted music files.
And officials at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group formed to protect the free-speech rights of computer users, sees ICARUS as an invasive menace.
New tablet PC tilts and scrolls
Call it rock 'n' scroll.
Toshiba Corp. launched a new tablet PC that allows users to tilt the clipboard-like computer up and down to scroll through Web pages. Users reading an electronic book or digital magazine also can turn the pages manually by tilting the tablet from left to right.
The unique "dual axis accelerometer" is among several new features in the Toshiba Portege M200, the company said. The product has a suggested retail price of $2,499.
Tablet PCs are notebook computers with handwriting recognition so the displays become digital writing slates. Models with built-in keyboards, including this latest one from Toshiba, sometimes also are called convertibles.
Tablets are still novelty items today, but computermakers expect the mobile devices to gain traction in coming years, with tablet PCs growing to represent nearly 4 percent of worldwide notebook shipments in 2005, up from about 1 percent in 2003, according to market research company In-stat/MDR.
AOL buys audio-video search engine
America Online has acquired Singingfish Inc., an audio and video search engine. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Seattle company has built the largest index of streaming media content, according to Jim Riesenbach, an AOL senior vice president.
Singingfish says its database has a catalog of at least 10-million streams, MP3s and downloads, and adds 200,000 to 300,000 files a month. It generates revenue through licensing its search engine to other Web sites and via fees paid by content producers that want links to their material highlighted.
Riesenbach said the amount of streaming media on the Web grows by a factor of 10 every six months. Offering easy access to that material, both on the Net and within its subscription service, is seen by the Time Warner subsidiary as a reason for broadband customers to sign up for AOL service.
Members can access the Singingfish service off an "Audio and Video" tab at AOL Search.
Microsoft's MSN to sell music next year
After months of speculation, Microsoft has confirmed plans to enter the increasingly crowded online music market, putting it in competition with companies such as Apple's iTunes and Napster.
Microsoft's MSN online service is working on an online music download service that will start next year, Lisa Gurry, group product manager for MSN, said in a statement.
Gurry and other Microsoft representatives provided few other details about the new service. A spokeswoman said decisions about how much songs or subscriptions would cost are pending.
Details aside, just the fact that the Redmond, Wash., softwaremaker, with $32-billion in annual revenue, is throwing its considerable weight into the online music gold rush is important news in the $31-billion worldwide record industry.
TV without the set gets closer
Imagine television, but no television set.
A tiny startup founded by Chad Dyner, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, is working on a device that projects a two-dimensional video image into air. The picture simply floats in front of the viewer and doesn't require special lenses to see.
The company, IO2 Technology of Lake Forest, Ill., isn't saying exactly how it works. Bob Ely, an investor and one of three part-time employees, says the "secret sauce" in the device sucks a block of air out of the surrounding environment, modifies its properties, then blows the air out the top so that it reflects protons projected onto it.
Is it a chemical reaction? Electrical? Ely would say only that nothing is added to or subtracted from the air, and that it's safe to breathe.
The company built a 5-inch-image prototype that was demonstrated in 2002, and now is showing off a 42-inch version. Interest has come from the military and companies that make trade show displays, Ely said.
The quality, he concedes, is fuzzy.
"It's probably not even regular TV, but it's not hideous," he said. "It's Princess Lea in Star Wars, (saying) "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi.' It's not photographic-quality picture, but it certainly works."
Tampa's Computer Mentors looks for donations
Computer Mentors in Tampa needs donations to provide 200 computers to underprivileged families for Christmas. A $100 donation to the nonprofit group, which works with inner city youth, will pay for one system. Donations of old PCs will be accepted, but they must be at least a 233-megahertz Pentium.
The PCs will run Windows 98 and include a modem and free Internet access. Families interested in applying to get a PC and donors can call the group at 813-236-1191, e-mail program director Ralph Smith at RSmith@computermentors.org or visit www.computermentors.org/sponsor.htm
