Toshiba's decision to no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders will mean consumers can start feeling more confident about buying the victorious rival technology — a Blu-ray disc player.
The decision was relatively quick, coming just several years after the competing technologies arrived.
In the last video format battle, between VHS, backed by Matsushita, and Sony's Betamax in the 1980s, it took a decade before Sony stopped making new Betamax products.
Nishida, who stressed HD DVD was a good technology, tried to assure the estimated 1 million customers, including some 600,000 in North America, who already bought HD DVD machines, by promising that Toshiba will continue to provide product support for the technology.
Neither Sony or Matsushita would disclose the global sales numbers for Blu-ray machines. But the shift in Blu-ray's favor became more decisive during the critical holiday shopping season.
Nishida voluntarily brought up the possibility of class-action lawsuits in the U.S. as he fielded questions from reporters, acknowledging that the idea of disgruntled HD DVD owners had occurred to him.
Class-action lawsuits are fairly rare in Japan, and owners in Japan of HD DVD machines total just 30,000. Nishida denied the company shared in any liability as it had no say in the format of future movies.
Although the format defeat is an embarrassment to Toshiba's image, the quick exit is expected to lessen the potential damage in losses from HD DVD operations.
Goldman Sachs has said pulling out would improve Toshiba's profitability between $370 million and $460 million a year.
The 5 minute film tells the story of a couple who spot each other across a crowded street and fall in love. Although everyone else in the world around them moves backwards, the couple moves forward as they find each other.
-- Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chinese leader Mao Zedong made what U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.
Chinese leader Mao Zedong, here depicted in an Andy Warhol painting, offered women to the U.S.
"You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office.
"We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."
A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."
After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women. ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."
"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it.
Alt text = But seriously, there's loads of intelligent life. It's just not screaming constantly in all directions on the handful of frequencies we search.
NEW YORK - Comcast Corp. told the Federal Communications Commission in formal comments Tuesday that hampering some file-sharing by its subscribers was a justifiable way to keep Web traffic flowing for everyone.
The comments are the fullest accounting yet of how Comcast manages its network.
Comcast's network management is the subject of formal complaints to the FCC from consumer groups and law professors.
Comcast says it must curb some file-sharing traffic because some subscribers would otherwise hog the cables with their uploads and slow traffic in their neighborhood.
The company — the country's second-largest Internet service provider — also said it was justified in using "reset" packets to break off communications between two computers.
Comcast sometimes inserts these packets in the data stream to kill a file-sharing session. The move "fools" each computer into believing the other computer wants to end the connection.
The return addresses of Comcast's packets indicate they're from one of the file-sharing computers when they are in fact from Comcast.
An Associated Press story in October that brought attention to Comcast's practices likened its use of reset packets to an operator breaking into a telephone conversation and telling each participant in the voice of the other: "Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye."
In its comments Tuesday, Comcast called that analogy "inflammatory hyberbole" ...
In their complaint with the FCC, advocacy groups Free Press and Public Knowledge said Comcast was "forging" the return addresses of the reset packets.
The FCC's reaction to subscriber complaints will be an important test of how far the agency will let Web providers go to manage their traffic. Even Comcast's detractors generally agree proper traffic management can improve the Internet experience for everyone.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is supportive of network management, but has said providers like Comcast should be open about their practices.
Man convicted of sending penis photo by phone - Yahoo News
Topic: Crime
4:35 pm EST, Feb 7, 2008
BERLIN (Reuters) - A 21-year-old German man has been convicted of sending a photograph of his penis to an unknown woman via mobile phone, authorities said on Wednesday.
The woman reported the sender to police after receiving the photo attachment of the man's genitals, the court said. Officers found evidence he may have sent similar images to other women.
The man did not explain his motive but expressed remorse for the photo, Kropp said. He was fined 150 euros ($220) for distributing pornographic material.
This is interesting - it seems that a group of artists have celebrated 1-31-07 in their own way and have created a series of political themed LED art sculptures and (you guessed it) placed them all over Boston. Pictured here, Bush & Bin Laden... Click on through to see more images and if you're in Boston the locations are listed to go on an art tour. Get there before the robots do.
