In another milestone for Internet video, nearly 433,000 people simultaneously watched NASA’s Webcast of this week’s space shuttle launch.
That’s more than twice the 175,000 streams that America Online Inc. had at its peak July 2 for the Live 8 concerts, an event widely cited as a coming-of-age moment for online video. It also nearly quadrupled a record for NASA set three weeks ago during Deep Impact’s encounter with the comet Tempel 1.
Yahoo Inc., in a partnership with NASA, sent out 335,000 streams in Windows Media format, while Akamai Technologies Inc. sent the rest in RealMedia format.
Next up: Internet phone eavesdroppers: The creator of a well-known tool for keeping e-mail safe from prying eyes is now working on a program that he says will help stop eavesdroppers from listening in on Internet-based phone calls.
Phil Zimmermann, who created the Pretty Good Privacy program for encrypting e-mail traffic, planned to demonstrate a prototype of his Voice over Internet Protocol security program Thursday during the Black Hat Briefings security conference in Las Vegas.
Most Internet-based phone calls are sent unscrambled, meaning it’s possible for anyone to intercept the traffic and eavesdrop. Zimmermann’s application scrambles the data until it reaches its destination. The recipient must be running a program using the same protocols.
“If you want to have an encrypted call, then you have to call someone running the same software at the other end,” Zimmermann said Wednesday. “Eventually, I’m hoping companies that make VoIP phones will incorporate this protocol into their phones.”
The program should be ready for broad deployment within a year. Zimmermann said he will make the underlying code available for peer review, though he has not yet decided on whether he will make it available as a formal open-source project.
A digital dilemma: After three years of study, Hollywood studios have agreed on a technical specification to deliver digital movies to theaters.
The big question now is: Who will pay for it?
Digital cinema promises crisper, clearer films for theatergoers. A digital “print” of a film is pristine no matter how many times it is shown, unlike traditional 35mm film prints, which develop pops, crackles and other blemishes over time.
Going digital also promises millions of dollars in savings for the studios, which would no longer have to make and distribute the costly prints.
Digital Cinema Initiatives, a joint venture created by studios, said Wednesday that it had completed final requirements and specifications that can now be used by equipment makers to manufacture compatible systems. A uniform specification levels the playing field for manufacturers, which should encourage competition and make the systems more affordable, according to DCI.
Digital projection systems are expensive. A projector alone can range from $75,000 to $120,000. Then there’s the server to store the files and a software system to compress and encrypt the files to protect them from piracy.
Have you seen that face on the kiosk?: Public Internet kiosks are being used as modern-day milk cartons in an effort to find missing children.
SurferQuest, a Philipsburg, Pa.-based supplier of about 1,000 computer kiosks throughout the United States, is donating screen space to disseminate photos and information provided by the National Center for Missing &Exploited Children.
The kiosks provide public access to the Internet for a fee at places such as hotels and cafes. When a kiosk is unoccupied, pictures of missing children appear on the screen in space normally reserved for advertising. Passersby can request more information about a missing child or report a sighting without charge.
“It is really important to give a missing child as much exposure as we can after their abduction,” said SurferQuest president Kathryn Koning, a mother of four.
Smut law reaffirmed: A special three-judge federal panel in New York has kept intact a federal law making it a crime to send obscenity over the Internet.
Although obscenity is already illegal, what counts as obscenity can vary from community to community. Thus, the 1996 Communications Decency Act was challenged on grounds it is overly broad such that it can ban materials that are obscene in some communities but not others, violating First Amendment protections.
But a judge from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and two district judges ruled that the plaintiffs had provided insufficient evidence to prove the law was unconstitutional.
Barbara Nitke, a photographer who specializes in pictures of sadomasochistic sexual behavior, plans to appeal Monday’s ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a provision of the 1996 law that made it a crime to put adult-oriented material online where children can find it. The high court ruled that the law was too vague and trampled on adults’ rights.
Venture capitalists could get a boost: The biotechnology industry’s recent full-court press to let firms owned by venture capitalists qualify for federal small-business grants has found an ally in Dr. Elias Zerhouni, head of the National Institutes of Health.
The NIH doles out about $600 million annually under the Small Business Innovation Research program, which is overseen by the Small Business Administration. Nine other agencies award another $1.4 billion combined.
Most of the NIH awards go to small biotechnology companies. But under a 2003 ruling by an SBA judge, companies controlled by venture capital firms are disqualified. Thus, many biotech companies cannot get grants because they tend to be majority owned by such venture capital firms.
From Herald news services
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