Website

Same thing that also happened in Europe. Nikkei Research Survey say, Japan citizen which have age more than 50 year is often equal with the youngster which surfing at the cyber world. In average old man citizen in Japan use the Internet to arrange traveling and read the news. "Citizen of Japan between 50 till 69 years old which familiar by Internet in average spending 2,4 hour/day for online," said Nikkei Research.

That Number is not far differ from the online average of the entire age group, there is 2,5 hour/day. The old man of Japan, man and woman, using Internet to read the news, opening map, exercising eat manner and restaurant guidance, and also to order the air transport ticket, train, and hotel. Some old woman of Japan say, they also enjoy the surfing to learn about life style and trend, like fashion, cosmetic, and food. But, citizen of Japan in 50 till 69 year age not so interested by blog and online community site.

On the contrary, young man of Japan very interested in blog and online community site. Japan old man also not so interested to buy recent technological device, music, and multimedia content which can be ordered online. This also quite contrary with the habit of online expense of young man of Japan.

The Site not only present the cutting of film and television show, its also play the film and show for full time. News Corp Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin say, News Corp will own to access to almost all US Internet consumer in the moment of site launch. The television program that will presented in the site, for example Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. Others some newest film from 20th Century Fox also will come up, like The Devil Wears Prada and Borat. In this time Youtube considered as a threat for Media Company because have taken their audience, especially teenage segment.

Teenage all the world in this time more opting in front of the computer screen than watch television. Besides Youtube is also involved by a conflict with one media company, Viacom Inc. The company which direct MTV and Comedy Central claim the Youtube main company, Google Inc, equal to USD1 milliard with the accusation conduct the copyrights collision by presenting Viacom television program in the video sharing site.

For smoothly the way of launching plan, NBC Universal and News Corp also cooperate with Google three biggest competitor, Yahoo Inc, Microsoft Corp, and Time Warner Inc. Both media company will supply entertainment program to the third site. Beside cooperate with the big company, NBC And News Corp is also doing approach with the other Internet company.

Brazil and Mexico become the first hand that accepting Intel Classmate PC in big amount and will distribute it to some school in their country. By cheap PC, thousands of student in the country expected can access the technology and Internet from their class room.

This year, Intel is also have a plan to run the Classmate PC programs in more than 25 developing countries include of Chile, China, India, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, and Vietnam. This Year, Intel have plan to provide its application with eight language there is English, Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish.

Classmate PC that powered by Intel is part of Intel plan to use the power combination from technology, curriculum, and teachers to increase the education developed country. Intel will cooperate with the country to specify the plans like offer of professional training for teachers about how to use the technology effectively to increase teach program under the program of Intel, developing local content according to education curriculum, and work with local industry to provide the Internet connection.

28/03/2007

According to Ballmer, this Google action is insane. "We are (Microsoft) walk from 24.000 becoming 75.000 employees in 27 year. That is a long year and very consistent. According to me, with them (Google) try to duplicate the number in one year, that's insane," comment of Ballmer from Softpedia, Sunday ( 18/3/2007).

Besides commenting about the growth of employees number, Ballmer also highlights the Google business which only focus at searching machine. " Google have build very good business. But they only have one main matter (that is search engine), the other only sweetener," said Ballmer.

Ballmer explicitly that his company, Microsoft, exactly reverse from the Google. There is experiencing multi business, start from desktop, server, online and entertainment.

About 41% pensioner chosen surfing in Internet, while 39% pensioner chosen to gardening and setting right house.

Traveling and take the air is become the third choice to all the pensioner with the percentage about 28%. Most activity is often conducted by all pensioner in Internet is send the e-mail with the percentage of 84%, and also look for the information as much 83%.Almost half from surveyed pensioner is had ordered the travel ticket through the Internet and one from three of pensioner have tried the Internet banking.

About 28% pensioner in England use the Internet to read the online news . About two from three pensioner routinely communicate with its son or daughter through the Internet. And, four from ten England pensioner use the Internet to communicate with their grandchild.

" We possibility will produce the most sophisticated technology under our license policy from US government in this time," president And CEO of Intel, said Paul Otellini in Beijing.

The factory at begin, in north-east town of China Dalian, will focus at standard chip for the computer even Intel do not close the possibility step by step will going to more sophisticated technology.

" Opportunity to do the other product is wide opened so we will learn it when market and various governmental regulation is change ," said Otellini.

" Our Target is to make the factory as cheapest chip manufactures in our network and able to test-drive the new technology and new manufacture technique to degrade our expense."

Build of Fab 68, that will produce integrated 300 millimeter wafer, scheduled will start in this year and will be start productive in first semester of 2010, said the company.

It is the first times since 1992, when Intel build the Fab 10 in Ireland, where the company start build the fab from early in location which really new, like reported by AFP.

Based on the research result, like reported by Livescience.Com, Friday ( 16/3/2007), type of video games which is not ‘show action’ like “ Tetris” do not show that matter.

According to Daphne Bevelier from University of Rochester, based to the compare between one who play and do not play at video game in 30 hour spanning time, the result show one who play the video game had ability to recognize the object more accurate.

According to the research that publicized in Psychological Science journal, the video game player is able to recognize very small object. Because, the game of video game train the brain speed to catch the object which look in eyesight.

Even believed, by playing the video game will assist to heal the people who have an eyesight problem. The study also show by playing video game, people would protected from stroke attack.

In the statement, cabinet minister of Saudi Arabia agreeing the draft of Information Technology Cyber Law which have been proposed by the kingdom parliament.

This approval, like reported on Reuters.com, Tuesday (27/3/2007), used by Saudi Arabia kingdom to get the authentication to execute the penalization.

This law applicable to arrest all site criminal or enter the site without permission with an purpose to change the layout or damage it. Others, its also affirm the enjoinment of hand phone abuse which equiped by the camera and dissimilar appliance used to impinge other people privacy, for example with making a picture without permission.

Hand phone technology in Saudi Arabia in fact have been opposed by conservative Saudi Arabia police union with the existence of hard Islam law. During some month in 2004, the state also prohibit the hand phone sales transaction. unfortunately, enjoinment to discontinue the decrease of technology new trend have been failed.

Country with the youth population which rapidly grow also very tight in observing the user of Internet with always following to consumer footstep. Not only that, sexual problem and political content is blocked and also some forum which followed by liberals and Islam extremist also forcibly discontinued.

Research which have been done previously show the mean mount accuracy of a doctor to recognize the heart beat that showing problem in heart only about 40 gratuity. But, the ability proven to twofold mount after exercising with iPod. In that research, 149 internist doctor listening five variation of heart beat during 400 times in 90 minute.

" Efficiency of using the stethoscope and ability to recognize abnormal heart beat are the important skill to identify heart disease and minimize the depending of costly equipments," said the chief research Dr. Michael Barrett, doctor and cardiology professor from Temple Doctor and Hospital University . Detection appliance like echocardiogram, he said, unnecessary often weared and use only at attack moment of acute condition.

Barrett so sure by the way to improving the ability is true depended by exercising continuously. Not from the study in class or demonstration in laboratory. With other digital music player, besides iPod, this ability perhaps also can decrease even not yet been proved.

Two last year, radiologist from California University Los Angeles Dr. Osman Ratib and Dr. Antoine Rosset also use the iPod with big capacity to save the scan result image. By Osirix open source software which been developed by him, all radiologist can share the video and image in iPod which incircuit with the desktop computer base on Mac through the teleconfrent. Nowaday all doctor can so easily share the medical information.

Previously Ebert have never been interested with the video game. " In this time i'm allready 82 years old. So i passed that era in our culture. First soap opera ,yes i'm . Game Video, i'm not," said Ebert. The grandma recently start to play Wii console in Greenspring Retirement Community, Springfield, where is considered to be her own home.

" Very funny, because usually I am not the one who ordinary do things like this. I play the tennis if can be called like that, when becoming high school student. I get the fun doing it," said Ebert. Ebert sway the Wiimote like tennis racket and in the end of game , Wii defeat her.

Ebert say, playing the game remind her at the feeling like in the past time. Nintendo plan to extend the video game global market which in this time equal to USD 30 billion. The market expected not only fulfilled by children and adult who is becoming the main customer of Nintendo. New Nintendo Console, named Wii succeed to reach popularity exceed the Sony Corp console, Sony Playstation 3, and Microsoft Corp console, Xbox 360.

One of factor why Wii more interesting because Nintendo focus to make easier game to be played and more spontaneous, and also more interesting the market. While the competitor is more focus at the graphic improvement and sophisticated technology. 77 years old grandpa, Ted Cambell play Wii for the first time in Greenspring Retirement Community.

" I think Wii is very impressive," said Cambell. Entire dweller in the place not yet decided the place for keep the Wii, though Ebert have offered the chamber apartment, whereabout wide screen television is located. Wii fever also have knocked over the oldman in Chicago region. 71 years old Woman called Flora Dierbach even have interesting idea. she want to perform Wii boling tournament.

Office 2007, improving efficiency and productivity of customer, for example by lessening click amount in the operation.

Exclusive Feature of Office 2007 is radical change at productivity application of Office 2007 compared to previous Office version. Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface that's conducive Office 2007 operated with less click. With its technology, consumer of Office 2007 can be easier swiftly reach for best job result. Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface fiture at tend to replace the traditional and toolbar menu that becoming the control feature of previous Office version.

Microsoft present Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface technology at Office 2007 after taken having exploiting study and extensive research into the consumer. When application of Office 2007 becoming progressively strong, user challenge is how to find and know the way of exploiting the immeasurable application type feature. Input from the customer then push the Microsoft to present the new user interface (UI) which enabling consumer to explore all the Office 2007 benefit.

Microsoft have four main design target in serve the Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface. There is facilitating exploiting of a number Office 2007 application, lessening complicated design and interupt of UI, facilitating the consumer to search and find the useful tool and feature, and also support the creation of quality, functional, and nice looking documents.

Lucky And Flo, two black Labrador dog used by Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna (KPDNHEP) Malaysia in eradication operation of DVD film and CD music pirate , executing first big operation those who are successful in Johor, on Tuesday.

New Straits Times Newspaper reporting, all syndicate boss have offered the big present for the death of two tracker dog.

"As effect of big loss experienced by piracy syndicate, we hear from Ministry of Commerce that Johor syndicate mean to kill Lucky and Flo, said of Neil Gene, a manager of Association of Malaysia Film.

"Authoritative of Malaysia look seriously of this threat and security in dog location is now improved," he said to Reuters.

In last Tuesday raid, two dog assist to confiscate about million piece of pirated DVD film and game which hidden in Johor Baru, city in South Malaysia which neigbour with Singapore. At least six people been arrested.

Dog undertake during one month in the effort between police and Association of Malaysia Film, mustering six big company of Hollywood.

Previously the dog especially only undertake to check container in cargo warehouse.

According to Dommy Arnanta, AMD Country Manager of Indonesia, in the opening of AMD office in Indonesia,"AMD truly had a plan to open the office in the last year but because some barrier is finally delayed and newly this year can be launched".

AMD assume the office opening in Indonesia its not something that to late even more than 10 year the product of prosesor been used in Indonesia. The Office opening represent the effort of AMD to more improving its marketing as well as fulfilling the desire of all procesor consumer.

With the office opening, he hope the selling of AMD product in Indonesia can reached more than the last year, that is equal to 12 %. But Dommy evade to mention how much the sale value of AMD procesor in Indonesia.

AMD remain to be principled to always fulfill the consumer request, its meaning their product will always adapted by consumer desire, its from the price and also the technology.

For the early step, AMD will be more focussed the marketing in Java. With this step non meaning AMD only just keep silence for the market outside Java, because in fact market outside Java can be so prospective.

" By this way we can more focus," he said.

We also will be non-stoped educated to all AMD consumer in Indonesia because during the time a lot people think that AMD procesor is easy to get high temperature. " In fact its not like that and we try to change the image," she said

For that purpose AMD Indonesia will do the road show to some town in Java, besides to introduce the opening of AMD office in Indonesia, the road show also conduct education to the customer.

In this time AMD have four channel partner in Indonesia that is PT Berca Cakra Teknologi, PT Data Benua Persada, PT E Media Devices, dan Rajawali Cipta Komputindo. For a while for the Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) that is PT Berca and PT Metrindo Supra Sinatria.

Named Internet Addiction Treatment Center ( IATC), the games addict rehabilitate center located in Daxing Province. The rehabilitate center main target is the teenage. IATC mix the therapy with the military discipline to heal the patient. Mostly patient in IATC is the youngster with online game addictive problem, internet pornography, cybersex, and chatting. Li Yanlin, One of the patient said, slowly he start obsessed by Internet game.

Yanlin which still noted as sudent had experience of mark decrease after becoming games addict. But, after experiencing treatment during some week in IATC, 18 years age young man have realized the mistake, its play online game. The Rehabilitate Center is funding by the governmental of China. IATC are manage by military colonel under observation of Beijing Military Hospital. IATC Patient mostly is 14- 19 year teenage. They placed in same hostel and obliged to wakeup at 6 in the morning to do gymnastic and practice military march.

Staff center of IATC say, two sides approach which conducted by IATC to overcome the Internet addiction in China is realy unique.”This approach is required by a state which is 2 million teenage suffer by internet addiction ,” said IATC staff. ”A lot of internet addict in rehabilitate center is careless with the others feeling. Military practice assist them to give empathy of and sympathize as a team member. Others, the practice also assist the body cure and strengthen to patient mentality,” said IATC psychologist.

Symantec perceive, US become the fertile farm of various program and intruder action like spam, phising and malicious code. Penetrating of spam estimated to reach 59% of all e-mail traffic. Decrease 5% from previously period. Spam Mostly contained of lure photograph and scheme of financial deception .

After US, country that noted become the spreader of lot garbage program is China. At same period, noted 10% of security threat come from Chinese.

Next, Symantec mention the Germany with 7% of attacker program totalizeing from the existing attack.

America also lead the " boot" activity, which capable to control the computer from long distance so can trigger the appearance of spam and other bother various action. Computer which infected with "boot" is mostly in China, with 27 percentage from totalizeing of world boot infection.

This Research is the Symantec first time to check the attack based on its state origin. Research focussed at attack that happened in second semester 2006, more than 120 million computer running made in Symantec antivirus software.

Dr.Christ Steele, one of famous doctor in English reported have claimed Youtube to delete some video that displayed method of breast cancer and testicle prevention. Its reason, the video too expose stimulus parts. The Observer report, the video clip present kind of interesting tips around of breast and testicle cancer and also its prevention. Others, the video destined for 18 years old member.

" It's so ridiculous," said Steele in Softpedia.Com, Tuesday ( 20/3/2007). In Steele confession, he have seen the breast and testicle cancercous medication process in television before 9 PM. And now Youtube have to conduct the demarcation whom which may access the the cancer video.

" In this time a lot of young girl are interest in breast cancer because famous artist Kylie Minogue have experienced it, and also testicle cancer is attacking lot of young man. But posed at Youtube do not be sensible because continuous show the stimulate parts," say the Steele

Recently, Google which own the Youtube express to free its member to use the Youtube based on member purpose.

To known, pandemic video and medication non just this time available in Youtube. Times before, a woman which is struggling againts cancer decide to spread the life story video in Youtube with an purpose to advise people about the cancer disease. The video get reat feedback, visitor supporting the woman to struggle againts cancer. Visitor also ask she to tell the story around its disease healing.

They are own by Motion Picture Association of America ( MPAA) which based in Los Angeles, USA.

Since yesterday, the two black dog reside in Malaysia. Both loaned by MPAA to Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna (KPDNHEP). During one month they will tracing for the pirated CD, VCD, and also DVD which step into the Malaysia. KPDNHEP intentionally invite the two dog after look at them show off in Hongkong and Dubai.

Next, Flo And Lucky will run the operation that called as Double Trouble. Both have been trained in North Irlandia to recognize polycarbon or dissimilar chemicals which usually used in CD. The two dog it's true can't differentiate the original CD with the fake one, but its ability can exploited to track the container contain the CD which is not reported legaly. Usually, incoming CD by illegal is pirated stuff.

Flo And Lucky have demonstrated its ability in International Airport of Kuala Lumpur yesterday. When the cargo plane unload the goods, the dog will sniff around the packet. Both will turn around and sit in front of a box that assumed compromising. As reward, accompanying officer directly give them tennis ball to be played.

" This is first in the world, dog used by a government to look for the pirated CD," said the Mica Ellis, director MPA for the of Asian Pacific area.

"This time student don't even know who omit two door in side its room. Hostel culture, like night of friendship and socialization among the student, have losed. This very indisposed," say the Gopalan yesterday.

Others, because preoccupation play the internet, a lot of student spending the night till early morning. As a result, a lot of them do not come in morning class or attend but sleep in class.

During the time, IIT Mumbai give the unlimited internet access for its student which live in the hostel to facilitate they to do the shool duty. But, a lot of student use the the facility for chatting or play game. In consequence, start yesterday, at 23.00 AM, the internet access is shutdown . Its purpose, student immediately go away from the computer and start to associate with its friend. Or except that, they can sleep earlier.

IIT Mumbai is one among seven IIT campus which exist in India region. IIT known as one of best technic university in the world. But because the intense of emulation and difficulty of curriculum, IIT student often experience of the depresion and abnormal life style. In the last two year, two student of IIT Mumbai is reported being suicide. Not to mention, some other attempt suicide.

New policy of ITT Mumbai direct protested by the student. " Wait until they oblige student to hear the "sleep baby"song before sleep,"said Rajiv, one of the IIT student.

Anyway, protest which emerge do not make the IIT manager backward. Oppositely,they also had a plan to apply the same order in other IIT hostel in India.

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UUSee distributes live and on-demand TV from CCTV, China's largest TV broadcaster; CSAT, China's largest satellite TV company; and Beijing TV. The content includes subtitled U.S. shows like "CSI: Miami" and "24."

The investment round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Highland Capital Partners. It included Steamboat Ventures, the venture-capital vehicle of The Walt Disney Co. Two other firms, Sequoia Capital and Susquehanna International Group, invested in UUSee in a previous round and joined in this one.

The site has 36 million registered users, making it China's largest Web TV operator, according to Dan Nova of Highland.

"It really is the country's and the world's largest Web TV operator," Nova said. He will join UUSee's board along with DFJ's Barry Schuler, the former chief executive of America Online.

There's no close equivalent to UUSee in the U.S., where the TV shows and movies that are available online are spread out among several sites owned by TV networks and online titans like Google Inc.

"There's no one leading Web TV operator here in the United States," Nova said. "In many ways I think China is a lot more advanced, when it comes to the organization and distribution of video content."

UUSee distributes the videos from servers, but to reduce long-distance Internet traffic, it also has a feature that uses viewers' computers to distribute video to other, nearby viewers. It's the only peer-to-peer network approved by Chinese telecom regulators, Nova said.

"When you look at the government approval, the content relationships, the management team, and the growth and acceptance by the Chinese community, one could conclude that they're in a pole position to capture the Web TV market," Nova said.

UUSee makes money from ads and from premium text-messaging services used to vote in contests.

Nova expects UUSee to have revenue of at least $10 million this year, and to become profitable on a quarterly basis by the end of the year.

PETER SVENSSON
www.ap.org

The report by US market research firm comScore Networks found that 747 million people aged 15 and up used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10 percent increase from January 2006.

The United States still held the largest number of users with 153 million, but growth was just two percent, comScore found.

China was second overall with 86.7 million, according to comScore, but growth was 20 percent. The figure differs from the official Chinese estimate of 137 million, which includes users in cybercafes and other public locations.

The strongest growth was seen in India, where the number of users increased 33 percent to 21.1 million. That placed India with the eighth largest Internet population, just behind France.

Russia saw its number of users up 21 percent to 12.7 million.

In terms of overall Internet users, the highest numbers after the United States and China were, in order, Japan, Germany, Britain, South Korea, France, India, Canada and Italy.

"The importance of the worldwide Internet population continues to grow," said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.

"Internet users outside the US now account for 80 percent of the world's online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year."

Canadians spent the most time online, with the average user on the Web for 39.6 hours each month. That was followed by Israel, South Korea, the United States and Britain, which all have high broadband penetration.

www.afp.com

The PC maker said it received more than 100,000 customer requests for Linux in a "suggestion box" posted on Dell's Web site less than three weeks ago.

"We are listening to what customers are saying about Linux and taking it into consideration," said Dell spokesman David Lord. "We are going forward. Let's say, 'Certainly stay tuned."'

Linux is an open-source operating system that is generally available for free and can be used to run most computers, including Dell's PCs.

Dell does not break out how much it charges for Windows when it calculates the cost of a computer system, but a basic upgrade version of the software generally retails for $99.

The only operating system that Dell currently offers on its PCs is Windows, with one exception, Lord said. It sells high-end Linux desktops designed specifically for use in oil and gas exploration, he said.

Making Linux available on other Dell PCs has been the top request since the Web site was launched on February 16, according to data posted on the site, as of Tuesday evening.

The second most popular request was that Dell offer another popular free software title, OpenOffice, which competes with Microsoft Office programs including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

www.reuters.com

Minister for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng said the government has investigated "a few" Singaporeans who have been influenced by radical Islamic ideas they read from the Internet, local media quoted him as saying in parliament on Friday.

There are about 6,000 websites in cyberspace promoting militant ideologies, a situation that is breeding a group of "self-radicalised individuals" who can pose a danger to their societies, said Wong, one of two deputy prime ministers.

"The Internal Security Department has investigated a few Singaporeans who had become attracted to terrorist and radical ideas purveyed in the mass media, particularly the Internet," he said.

One of them was a young Muslim who came to believe that it was permissible to wage a "holy war" in the name of religion regardless of the origin of the fatwa, or Islamic decree, the Straits Times quoted the minister as saying.

The young man even grew to admire Osama bin Laden, leader of the Al-Qaeda militancy blamed for the September 2001 attacks on the United States.

Another Singaporean was investigated after he developed an interest in radical ideology while studying overseas.

When he returned to Singapore, he was in contact with other like-minded persons on the Internet, "eventually even communicating with foreign individuals involved in terrorist recruitment and financing," Wong said.

The report did not say what the conclusion of the investigations were.

With the help of local religious leaders, the government is also going online to counter these ideas on the Internet, the minister said.

"Taking the counter-ideology effort online is a significant direction since it is impractical to try to shut down all terrorist websites," he said.

As part of Singapore's ideological battle, Wong cited Muhammad Haniff Hassan, a research analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies here who has created an Internet blog to refute extremist ideology and also published a book.

www.afp.com

What has not received much attention is the graphical user interface — the software that will be the face of the machine for the millions of children who will own it. In fact, the user interface, called Sugar, may turn out to be one of the more innovative aspects of a project that has already made breakthroughs in mesh networking and battery charging since Negroponte unveiled the concept two years ago.

Sugar offers a brand new approach to computing. Ever since the first Apple Macintosh was launched in 1984, the user interfaces of personal computers have been designed based on the same visual metaphor: the desktop. Sugar tosses out all of that like so much tattered baggage. Instead, an icon representing the individual occupies the center of the screen; "zoom" out like a telephoto lens and you see the user in relation to friends, and finally to all of the people in the village who are also on the network.

Child-centric

It's the first complete rethinking of the computer user interface in more than 30 years. "We're building something that's right for the audience," says Chris Blizzard, the engineering project leader for Sugar. "We don't just take what's already there and say it's good enough. You can do better."

The audience he and his colleagues have in mind is the hundreds of millions of poor kids all over the world. Negroponte came up with the nonprofit "one laptop per child" idea when he was chairman of the MIT Media Lab and observed the failure of standard attempts to use computers in education to improve the lives of underprivileged children.

Typically, a handful of computers, designed for business applications, are installed in schools; students only use them in special computer classes and are forced to share. Negroponte's idea was to give a laptop to each student that he or she could take to every class and bring home at the end of the day. "OLPC is child-centric, designed to be a seamless part of their lives at home, at school, and in play," he says.

Nearly a dozen countries, including Brazil and Thailand, have committed to buying the computer, now officially called XO. The UN Development Program will administer the program locally. About 2,500 beta test machines ran off assembly lines in Taiwan in February and are now being shipped to participating countries so they can kick the tires on the technology. The final version is supposed to be ready by August.

'You just do it right'

While XO has been greeted warmly by many, some technologists criticize Negroponte and his colleagues for not testing out their new ideas on underprivileged school children earlier in the process. And that goes for the user interface as well. Jakob Nielsen, a user interface designer and principal in the consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group, falls into the critical group. While familiar with the design of Sugar, Nielsen’s criticisms focus on the process. It’s only in the coming weeks that they’ll begin to get feedback from kids.

“It’s always dangerous to release any product without the safeguard of user testing,” says Nielsen. “But it’s outright reckless in a case like this.”

But XO developers defend their approach, which grew out of a core philosophy of the MIT Media Lab known as "demo or die." Researchers are encouraged to build new things, critique them, and then make improvements—rather than doing a lot of concept-testing up front. They're backed up by John Maeda, a user-interface design guru from the Media Lab who has been watching the XO development process from its beginnings. "They're using the Steve Jobs method," he says, referring to Apple's famous chief executive and design whiz. "You don't use focus groups. You just do it right."

www.businessweek.com

Then another robot on wheels delivered the cup of tea in an experimental room that has sensors embedded in the floor and sofa as well as cameras on the ceiling, to simulate life with robot technology.

"A human being may be faster, but you'd have to say 'Thank you,'" said University of Tokyo professor Tomomasa Sato. "That's the best part about a robot. You don't have to feel bad about asking it to do things."

Sato believes Japan, a rapidly aging society where more than a fifth of the population is 65 or older, will lead the world in designing robots to care for the elderly, sick and bedridden.

Already, monitoring technologies, such as sensors that automatically turn on lights when people enter a room, are becoming widespread in Japan. The walking, child-size Asimo from Honda Motor Co. greets people at showrooms. NEC Corp. has developed a smaller companion robot-on-wheels called Papero. A seal robot available since 2004 can entertain the elderly and others in need of fuzzy companionship.

Sato says his experimental room is raising awareness about privacy questions that may arise when electronic devices monitor a person's movements down to the smallest detail. On the bright side, the tea-pouring humanoid has been programmed to do the dishes.

www.ap.org

In an agreement that analysts described as a key step for both the BBC and YouTube, the British broadcaster is offering three branded channels on the site, including one showing up to 30 news clips a day. The deal gives the BBC access to millions more viewers and gives YouTube the credibility of the venerable British broadcaster.

“It’s an easy win-win,” said Chris Lake, an editor at E-consultancy, an Internet marketing firm.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson said the broadcaster hopes to drive extra traffic to its own Web site and bring in commercial revenue to supplement the license fee levied on British taxpayers.

“It’s essential that the BBC embraces new ways of reaching wider audiences with non-exclusive partnerships such as these,” he said.

Datamonitor analyst Chris Khouri said that the move showed the BBC was becoming “a more commercially focused organization.” Lake added that the deal would provide the BBC with crucial information about viewer habits that it could then use on its own Web site. The BBC has already announced plans to set up its own video player on a new international portal.

One of the new YouTube channels, “BBC Worldwide,” will show clips from hit BBC programs including motor show “Top Gear,” spy drama “Spooks” and nature documentaries presented by David Attenborough.

A second entertainment channel, simply called “BBC,” will show clips like trailers and short features such as video diaries of actors on the popular “Dr. Who” TV series or blogs from reporters working abroad.

The third channel, “BBC News,” will show snippets from the BBC’s commercially operated international news channel of the same name.

The deal is also well-timed for YouTube and may ease the company’s prickly relationship with large entertainment companies that allege that YouTube violates their copyright.

The site is filled with film and music clips uploaded by individual members. Viacom Inc. recently forced the company to take down more than 100,000 video clips and instead set up a distribution arrangement with a new video service, Joost.

“As the BBC has acknowledged, I think it’s better to embrace it and jump in,” Lake said. “That way you can monitor the quality and the content.”

Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of future media and technology, said the BBC would not hunt down all BBC-copyrighted clips already uploaded by YouTube members, but would reserve the right to swap poor-quality clips with the real thing, or to have content removed that had been edited or altered in a way that would damage the BBC’s brand.

“We don’t want to be overzealous,” he said. “A lot of the material on YouTube is good promotional content for us.”

But the arrangement is also likely to raise political concerns in Britain because two of the channels, BBC News and BBC Worldwide, will carry advertising. Advertising remains a thorny issue for the taxpayer-funded BBC, and the YouTube deal comes as the BBC Trust, the corporation’s new governance body, debates whether to allow the broadcaster to carry ads on its own international Web sites.

The BBC separates its commercial activities, such as its international broadcasting operations, from its domestic, license fee-funded services, but a series of government-commissioned reports have urged the corporation to separate those activities more clearly.

The BBC News channel will not be available to British viewers because of the commercials, but BBC Worldwide will be available in the United Kingdom, advertising and all.

The broadcaster insisted that was not a departure, pointing out that BBC magazines like “Top Gear,” and TV channels like “BBC World” and “UK Living” already carry advertising.

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Victoria, Australia's second most populous state, banned the popular video-sharing site from its 1,600 government schools after a gang of male school students videotaped their assault on a 17-year-old girl on the outskirts of Melbourne.

The assault, which is being investigated by police, was uploaded on YouTube late last year.

Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said the schools and their Internet service providers already filtered the Web sites that were available to students, and YouTube had been added to a list of blocked sites.

The state government "has never tolerated bullying in schools and this zero tolerance approach extends to the online world," Allan said.

"All students have the right to learn in a safe and supportive learning environment — this includes making students' experience of the virtual world of learning as safe and productive as possible," she said.

YouTube is a free video-sharing site that lets users upload, view, and share video clips.

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