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Microsoft service downloads TV shows to portable devices

Television addicts rejoice: Now you can take more shows on the road.

Microsoft Corp. has launched a $19.95-a-year service that lets people download certain TV shows to portable devices such as media players and advanced cell phones.

The software company already has let customers watch free short clips of some shows on Windows-based portable devices.

With the new service, MSN Video Downloads, customers will have access to more content: sports highlights and some shows from Fox Sports, news and business headlines from MSNBC.com, and children's programming from Cookie Jar Entertainment.

Users simply log on to a Web site using a traditional laptop or desktop computer. They can download the shows and transfer them to portables.

The service marks Microsoft's latest effort to get people interested in Portable Media Centers and other devices that use its Windows Media Player technology for watching movies and listening to music.

Protecting private information on your computer means more than encrypting files and running an occasional spyware sweep. A nosy neighbor can peer over your shoulder as you work on a confidential document on a flight, for instance. For times when you need to keep wandering eyes away from your screen, the 3M Co.'s privacy filters can make it difficult for others to see what you are doing.

With a privacy filter over the display, anyone trying to snoop will see a black screen; only the person working directly in front of the machine can see what's on the screen. The filters, which can reduce glare while improving clarity, use 3M's microlouver technology and work somewhat the way miniblinds do.

The company makes privacy filters to fit a variety of computers, including laptops with a 15.4-inch widescreen and standard screens of 12.1, 13.3, 14.1 and 15 inches. Prices start at about $50, depending on screen size; 3M has more information and a list of places to buy the filter at www.3m.com/computerfilters Privacy filters for larger desktop monitors are also available, so people working on sensitive files like salary spreadsheets can relax while co-workers breeze past.

The Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, once a main industry event for technologists, will not be held this year, according to ZDNet.

MediaLive International, which bought the rights to Comdex several years ago, canceled the confab last year because of declining attendance and competition from other events. This year, organizers of the trade show said Comdex will need at least another year to get its act together, according to the article.

"Comdex will not be returning to Las Vegas in 2005," MediaLive spokesman Ben Stricker told ZDNet. "We hope to produce another Comdex in 2006."

Executives at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the main venue for Comdex for years, confirmed earlier that most of the facility is already sold out for the show's usual mid November time slot, the report added.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, the Minnesota teenager who created an Internet worm that infected 50,000 computers in 2003, will serve 225 hours of community service after he gets out of prison to pay back Microsoft Corp. for the nearly a half-million dollars in damage he caused, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle has announced.

Parson's restitution was decided in an agreement among federal prosecutors, defense attorneys and Microsoft representatives.

Parson, 19, already has pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging computers when he created a variation of a worm called Blaster that flooded the Internet in August 2003. He was sentenced in January to 18 months in prison.

He is living at home in Minnesota, awaiting word from the court on where he will serve his sentence, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Microsoft originally claimed Parson caused more than $1-million in damage.

Instead of paying back the money, Microsoft agreed to let Parson perform 225 hours of unspecified community service "working with less-fortunate members of the community" during three years of supervised release after serving his sentence, according to the restitution agreement.

Six percent of Americans own a TiVo or other digital video recorder, and another 6 percent plan to buy one in the next year, a study finds.

The overwhelming majority of DVR owners - 81 percent - say they "love" or "like" them, according to the joint study from Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research. More than half say the DVRs have had a "big impact" on their lives.

Among all recorders of television shows, including VCR owners, 29 percent cite the ability to skip ads as the primary reason for recording shows, while 52 percent want to watch shows at a more convenient time.

Those who don't record shows are evenly split between those who say it's too difficult or time consuming, and those who cite an unwillingness to decide ahead of time what they want to watch.

The study also finds that a quarter of Americans have watched video on the Internet, and a similar number have used pay per view or other on-demand services offered by cable or satellite providers.

Weblogs are the latest Internet element to be a problem for traditional media: Adults who have blogs spend less time with newspapers than do adults who don't post on these online venues.

A study by Universal McCann's Media in Mind found adult bloggers spend 2 hours, 53 minutes a week reading newspapers, compared with nonbloggers' 3 hours, 7 minutes. Younger adults are even worse, from the standpoint of newspapers. Bloggers 18 to 24 spend just 46 minutes a week reading the paper, compared with nonbloggers' 1 hour and 37 minutes, according to an article on Mediapost.com.

Personal Tech is still looking for people to send us notes about problems they've had with technology's complexities, from setup to user manuals to figuring out how to use things. Examples don't have to be restricted to computers. Send e-mail to personaltech@sptimes.com Readers with questions or comments about tech news of the day can submit them to Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Times' Talkback site www.sptimes.com/talkback