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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) FILE - In this Wednesday, April 1, 2009 file photo, a prototype satellite phone is shown at the SkyTerra booth at the International CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. The world's largest commercial satellite, owned by TerreStar Corp. of Reston, Va., was launched into space Wednesday, July 1, 2009, with a mission to provide phone service to cellular "dead zones" in North America. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file)   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, July 5, 2009 Technology notebook Web service will deliver daily goods If shopping for household essentials such as toilet paper and soap isn't your favorite activity, a new Web site might eliminate the task while saving you cash. The recently launched Alice.com lets people buy all manner of necessities from different manufacturers. There are about 6,000 items to choose from so far. The site keeps an eye on the products you use, and reminds you when it's time to replenish your stock. Because Alice is run as a platform for manufacturers to connect directly to consumers, rather than as a traditional online retailer, founders Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire say they can keep prices low and ship all items for free. Of course, Alice benefits, too. Manufacturers pay the company for prime placement on Alice.com or to have samples, coupons and other marketing pitches offered to customers. Wiegand and McGuire's last startup, comparison shopping site Jellyfish.com, was bought by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 and has since been incorporated into its new search engine, Bing. Their idea for Alice sprung from what Wiegand and McGuire saw as the lack of easy ways to buy household necessities online. As McGuire jokingly tells it, "we really wanted to sell toilet paper on the Internet." Satellite to serve phone 'dead zones' in America The world's largest commercial satellite was launched into space Wednesday, with a mission to provide phone service to cellular "dead zones" in North America. The satellite, owned by TerreStar Corp. of Reston, Va., blasted off from Kourou in the South American territory of French Guiana, on its way to an orbit 22,000 miles above the Earth. There, the satellite is designed to unfurl an umbrellalike antenna of gold mesh 60 feet across, so it can pick up and relay signals from phones that are not much larger than regular cell phones. TerreStar has shown prototypes of the phones, which are similar to BlackBerrys, and like them, would have access to data and e-mail. The phones aren't on sale yet. TerreStar plans to have the system running before the end of the year. To connect to the satellite, the handsets will need a clear view of the southern sky, just like a satellite dish. When that's not available, the sets will be able to connect to regular ground-based cellular networks. TerreStar has a roaming agreement with AT&T Inc. Group close to winning Netflix match challenge A multinational group of researchers, scientists and engineers are close to winning a $1 million challenge to improve Netflix Inc.'s system of recommending movies that its subscribers might like. The online movie rental company had launched the Netflix Prize contest in 2006 to improve its predictions by at least 10 percent. The idea was to farm out valuable research to thousands of enthusiastic participants. A team called BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos submitted its solution last week, saying it has improved the predictions for what movies people will enjoy by 10.05 percent. But the group must wait before being declared winners. The team's solution kicked off a 30-day period during which other contestants can enter their best work and possibly beat the BellKor team's threshold. Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said, however, that the company had yet to receive any other submission breaking the 10 percent threshold. There are currently 49,430 participants from 184 countries taking part in what Swasey called a "fierce global competition." If BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos wins, each of the seven members will get $142,857. Chris Volinsky, director of statistics research and a member of the team, said Netflix has presented a really interesting analytic problem that's couched in something everyone can relate to: movies. And, he adds, it's not about the money, rather, it's an academic pursuit that's also been "a lot of fun" in the competitive sense. The Associated Press READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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