Asia's shoppers go online as Internet barriers fall (Reuters)

SINGAPORE/TAIWAN (Reuters) - From dresses, to handbags, diamonds and music downloads, consumers in Asia are taking to Internet shopping like never before as the region becomes one of the world's fastest growing e-commerce markets.

"I like to shop for clothes online because no sales girls will pester me," said Cecelia Wang, a 23-year-old university student in Taipei, who spends about T$1,500 ($44) each month on Internet purchases.

"For online shopping, all I need to do is sit in my room and shop, which is great."

Internet retailing is increasingly making its presence felt in Asiabecause telecommunications infrastructure has improved, and payment modes, a major obstacle to online shopping, are now more secure, analysts say.

Internet penetration rates, the percent of the population that has Internet access, is about 17 percent in Asia versus 73 percent inNorth America and almost 50 percent in Europe, according towww.internetworldstats.com.

As more people in Asian countries such as China and India get hooked up to the Internet, online sales are expected to rise by an average of 20 percent a year. In some markets, such as Japan, they are expected to increase by as much as 40 percent annually.

"There is a huge opportunity for retailers in Asia-Pacific to benefit from the cost-savings of operating online," said Sandra Hanchard, a senior analyst at online intelligence service Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian Group.

"Surfing the Internet is now a mainstream lifestyle activity. More and more traditional retailers are realizing that this is an opportunity to connect directly with consumers."

Although the global economic downturn has affected both traditional and online retailers, analysts say the gloomy economic outlook is actually encouraging consumers to hunt for second-hand goods online or make greater use of auction and rental websites such as http://www.thatbagiwant.com.

Asia's tech-savvy online shoppers buy everything from furniture and flowers to airline tickets and iPods. Online games such as mahjong are gaining popularity in Taiwan. In Hong Kong andAustralia, shoppers are drawn to overseas retail websites.

Amazon.com and eBay are among the most popular sites in Asia. In China, e-commerce firm Alibaba.com operates an online site connecting importers and exporters of Chinese goods.

ONLINE GEMS

On eBay India, which has more than 2 million registered users, top purchases in 2008 included gemstones, mobile handsets, MP3 players, women's apparel and Indian stamps and coins, said Deepa Thomas, eBay India's senior manager of pop culture.

The company's sales show that despite relatively low Internet penetration, Indians have readily embraced online shopping.

"Earlier, people only bought easily affordable items, but now they're also buying more high-value items and unusual items as they have more confidence shopping online," said Thomas.

Market research firm Euromonitor International forecasts Internet retail sales in the Asia-Pacific region will reach in excess of $71 billion by 2012, almost doubling that of 2007.

Asia still lags behind the United States, where Forrester Research projects online spending in 2009 to reach about $156 billion, up from $141 billion last year.

In the recession-hit U.S., online sales at retailers such as Best Buy Co Inc and Macy's Inc continue to grow despite weaker store sales.

Hanchard, the analyst at Hitwise, says that online retail in the Asia-Pacific region has been slow to develop compared toEurope and the United States, partly because retailers haven't put as much money into their online channels.

In Australia, broadband speed and worries about payment security have also acted as deterrents.

Improvements in Internet technology and signs that more consumers are shopping online in Asia is encouraging retailers to take advantage of online distribution channels.

RR Australia Ltd, owner of Australia's largest household appliances rental company Radio Rentals, launched online electrical store Big Brown Box in November 2008, partly because Australians can't order electronics from websites abroad due to voltage and electrical socket differences.

"We know that the appetite for consumers purchasing online is growing by the day. There are many people who are very time poor, relative to their ability to actually get out there and shop," RR Australia Managing Director John Hughes said.

EXPANDING SALES

What's interesting, say analysts at KPMG, is that the online retail sales market is expanding in more mature markets such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. These are countries that possess some of the world's most effective communication services and penetration rates for broadband Internet access.

In Taiwan, online shopping transactions rose 32.3 percent to T$243 billion ($7.1 billion) last year, with most people buying clothes, accessories, beauty and health products on the Internet, the Institute for Information Industry said.

A Visa e-Commerce Tracking survey of 3,000 Internet users in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong found they spent an average of $3,000 shopping online over a 12 month period ending in March-April 2008.

The biggest benefit of Internet shopping for many Asian consumers is that it gives them access to goods they simply cannot buy at home, or can find cheaper abroad.

However, there are drawbacks to Internet shopping, users say.

"Despite the convenience in all the clickings, online shopping has its own set of problems," said Annabelle Aw, a 30-year-old events organizer in Singapore.

"The last thing I bought was a watch. It took me almost three months to sort out the delivery."

(Additional reporting by Simone Giuliani in Melbourne and Rina Chandran in Mumbai; Graphic by Catherine Trevethan; Editing by Megan Goldin)

Hundreds of television stations cut analog signals (AP)

NEW YORK - About a quarter of the nation's TV stations cut off their analog signals Tuesday, causing sets to go dark in households that were not prepared for digital television despite two years of warnings about the transition.

Though most viewers were ready — and people with cable or satellite service were unaffected — some stations and call centers reported a steady stream of questions from frustrated callers. Many wondered how to get coupons for converter boxes that translate digital signals for older TVs — or how to get the devices working.

"It's kind of an irritation, but I understand that everyone will have a much better picture. As far as I was concerned, they could have left things the way they were," said Dorothy Delegard, 67, of Minneapolis, who bought a converter box because a friend gave her a coupon that expires Tuesday.

Phones were ringing off the hook at a walk-in information center set up by stations in Providence, R.I.

A volunteer at the center, Jeremy Taylor, said he tried to calm agitated callers and explain the reasons for the disappearance of analog signals, which have remained largely unchanged since the 1950s.

"I try to explain that the digital switch is not something we're doing to extort them of money," Taylor said.

The federal government mandated the end of analog broadcasts to make room on those frequencies for wireless Internet service, emergency radio traffic and other uses. Digital TV broadcasts, which began several years ago, take up much less of the wireless spectrum.

Originally, all U.S. stations were to cut their analog signals on Tuesday, but at the urging of the Obama administration, Congress voted this month to give broadcasters more time.

Most stations, particularly those in big cities, accepted the offer to wait until June 12. Others wanted to stick to Feb. 17, a date they had spent much airtime advertising. Many of them had also booked engineering work on their antennas for that day.

The Federal Communications Commission, which wanted to ensure that no one would be entirely deprived of analog signals, cleared 421 stations to go all-digital this week. Another 220 stations have already made the switch, including all stations in Hawaii.

The most populous places where many or all major-network stations are cutting analog this week include San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.; La Crosse and Madison, Wis.; Rockford and Peoria, Ill.; Sioux City, Iowa; Waco, Texas; Macon, Ga.; Scranton, Pa.; Rhode Island and Vermont.

In most cases, one station in each of those markets will continue sending analog signals until June or will offer a so-called "analog nightlight" for a few months, with limited local news and emergency broadcasts, as well as information about the digital TV transition.

The back-and-forth over the cutoff date threw both TV stations and viewers for a loop.

Jeff Long, manager of WHKY-TV, an independent station in Hickory, N.C., said the company's analog shutdown went smoothly on Saturday, but some viewers complained that they thought it had been postponed until June 12.

RadioShack Corp. circulars in newspapers this weekend had the opposite message, saying Feb. 17 was still the date for the end of analog TV. Spokeswoman Mary Delagarza said the fliers had been prepared two months in advance and could not be pulled.

Congress delayed the cutoff in large part because the fund that pays for $40 converter-box coupons had reached its spending limit. Coupons are now being issued only as fast as old ones expire unused.

The stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday contains $650 million in additional funding. Once that money becomes available, it can clear the backlog of 4 million coupons in a few weeks. Without a coupon, a converter box costs $45 to $80.

Joe Glynn, vice president of engineering at PBS affiliate WVIA-TV near Scranton, Pa., said the station got a dozen calls in the past two days about its planned changeover at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The converter boxes have been a frequent subject.

"Unfortunately, some of them have asked how you get the coupons for the converter box. Some of them have called asking us if we sell converter boxes. Others are calling and saying 'I got the converter, but I'm not getting anything on it' — I'm assuming because they don't have it hooked up right," he said.

He said most callers acknowledge that they only have themselves to blame for procrastinating.

"Everybody admits it's their fault. They knew it was coming," he said. "Some people seemed to be mad at themselves for not doing something sooner."

Even converter boxes that are correctly installed may drop some channels. That's because apart from killing analog, many stations are also changing to new digital frequencies. Viewers who were already watching the digital signal, either through a converter box or a digital TV set, will lose the channel until they force the device to "rescan" the airwaves.

In addition, many households will find that they need new antennas. Digital signals generally come in better than analog ones, but they are not received well by some older antennas. Spokeswoman Lea Sloan at PBS said that a rising number of calls to member stations are from people who are getting digital signals, but not all the ones they want.

Charge Dropped Against Pirate Bay Four (PC World)

A Swedish prosecutor on Tuesday dropped a charge levied against four men on trial for running The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular BitTorrent search engines and trackers on the Internet.

Tuesday's proceedings saw Swedish prosecutor Håkan Roswall drop a charge of aiding in the making of copies of works under copyright, said Peter Sunde, one of the four on trial. The charge was dropped due to the inability of the prosecution to prove copies of content were made, he said.

"We have definitely won this round," Sunde said.

One charge -- essentially aiding the making of material under copyright available -- remains. Sunde and the other three defendants, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Carl Lundström, could face prison time. Swedish authorities want them to forfeit 1.2 million Swedish kronor (US$140,000) in advertising revenue generated from the site.

A lawyer for the music industry, Peter Danowsky, denied that dropping the charge hurt the overall case.

"It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay," Danowsky said in a statementpublished by The Local, a Swedish newspaper published in English. "In fact it simplifies the prosecutor's case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works," he said in a statement.

The Motion Picture Association is seeking 93 million Swedish kronor in damages, and the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) is seeking €1.6 million (US$2.06 million) in damages.

Evidence presented by Roswall on Tuesday included screenshots showing computers were connected to The Pirate Bay's tracker, or software that coordinates P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file sharing.

But a majority of the screenshots show that The Pirate Bay was actually down at the time and that the client connections timed out, Sunde said. The clients, or peers, were still connecting with each other, but through a distributed hash table, another protocol for coordinating downloads unrelated to The Pirate Bay.

The schedule for Wednesday includes testimony from a Swedish antipiracy agency as well as the Motion Picture Association, Sunde said.

Samsung asks U.S. panel to ban Kodak camera imports (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean electronic giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Wednesday it had asked a U.S. trade panel to block imports of Eastman Kodak Co's digital cameras in an ongoing patent row.

Kodak in November filed a complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging mobile phones and other wireless devices by Samsung and home rival LG Electronics Incinfringed on patented Kodak technology.

ITC voted in December to investigate the case.

Samsung this week filed its own complaint with the ITC, saying some Kodak cameras infringed on Samsung technology.

"Samsung Electronics plans to respond actively to this litigation (by Kodak)," said Lee Eun-hee, a company spokeswoman.

Details on the Samsung patents or Kodak products mentioned in the complaint were not available.

The ITC is a popular venue for patent infringement cases since it can stop imports of items made with infringing technology.

(Reporting by Rhee So-eui; edited by Marie-France Han and Jacqueline Wong)

Universal charger for phones plan

The world's biggest mobile phone makers and network operators have backed plans to create a universal phone recharger.

Most manufacturers now produce chargers which work only with their own devices.

The re-charger will consume 50% less stand-by energy than today's cables, the GSM Association (GSMA), an umbrella group for the industry, said.

Firms to back the plan include Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Orange, 3, AT&T and Vodafone.

The majority of new handsets will support the re-charger by 2012.

"This is a broad agreement that will move the industry to a single, energy-efficient charger for all mobile phones," said Michael O'Hara, marketing director for the GSMA.

In a statement, Mitti Storckovius, director of environment, devices at Nokia said: "By supporting this industry initiative on common charging solutions, and enabling consumers to choose if they need a charger with every new device or can re-use existing ones, we can contribute further in improving the industry's environmental footprint."

The micro-USB connector will be used as the common charging interface.

Manufacturers had been under pressure from the European Commission to produce a standardised charger.

EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told German radio station Deutsche Welle last week that there were more than 30 different kinds of charger in use across the 27-nation European Union.

The GSMA estimates the new charger will mean the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

Second 'Google phone' is unveiled

The touchscreen HTC Magic will feature a 3.2 Megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and GPS, but no slide-out keyboard.

The first "Google phone", called the G1, was launched in September by HTC and is exclusive to T-mobile.

The Magic will feature new Android firmware, known as "Cupcake", with changes based on G1 user suggestions.

The Magic will go on sale to Vodafone customers in the UK, Germany, Spain and France, and non-exclusively in Italy.

Android phone users will be able to access the Android Market, a storefront for applications that already boasts 800 offerings.

That number that is sure to grow with more Android handsets on the market.

The Congress was expected to see the launch of a number of Android-based phones from several manufacturers, but the Magic is as yet the only confirmed release.

Speaking at the product launch, Vodafone and HTC representatives stressed that the ethos in producing the Magic was on form as well as function, and that the thinness and "feel in the hand" had been an important consideration.

"We are paying particular attention to style and design; I'm practically obsessed with it. We are extremely careful not to produce products for a niche of geeks, but bring out a proper mass-market consumer device with a lot of attention to design and functionality," said Patrick Chomet, global director of terminals for Vodafone Group.

"This is the thinnest, nicest Android-powered device on the market."

The lack of a slide-out handset made for a thinner device, as did a comparatively low-resolution camera and lack of flash, according to Mr Chomet.

"This is all about stylish design for the mass market, it's a very compact style. We have all this great touch experience, it's extremely responsive," said Peter Chou, president and chief executive of HTC.

Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices, Gartner analysts, said: "We are expecting more Android products but this is a good product for Vodafone, for a European audience; the form factor is more in line with European tastes. The platform is more stable and is more a device that exploits the full touch screen."

If the device hits an anticipated price point of between 99 and 199 euros, Ms Milenesi said it would be pitched at the broader phone market.

"With that range of prices, it's not aimed at the same audience as, say, the iPhone, it's looking more at a broader appeal for people.

"It will attract a bigger audience who's not just hooked on Google but interested in exploiting the usability of the touch interface and exploiting the internet offering as a whole."

Pricing will be done locally in each territory and Vodafone has opened pre-registration the device.

The HTC Magic has a proprietary headphone jack, and so will not accept many standard headphones.

The device comes pre-loaded with Google applications, such as Maps, Mail, Search and You Tube.

Pirate Bay joy at charge change

Half of the charges levelled at the founders of the Pirate Bay file-sharing site have been dropped.

Swedish prosecutors dropped charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement" leaving the lesser charges of "assisting making available copyright material" on trial day two.

Pirate Bay co-founder Frederik Neik said it showed prosecutors had misunderstood the technology.

The music industry played down the changes as "simplifying the charges".

Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies in the case, said: "It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay.

"In fact it simplifies the prosecutor's case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works."

The Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 and quickly established itself as the world's most high profile file-sharing website. In February 2009, it reported 22 million simultaneous users.

At the start of the trial in Stockholm, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi and Carl Lundstorm were facing a large fine and up to two years in prison, if convicted.

"This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor took strong note of what we said yesterday," defence lawyer Per E Samuelson told the TorrentFreak website, which reports on developments in the BitTorrent file-sharing community.

BitTorrent is a legal application used by many file-shares to swap content because of the fast and efficient manner it distributes files.

No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users computers.

Ford to launch electric van in the US next year

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ford's first all-electric vehicle in the US will be a commercial van that gets a range of 100 miles per charge with a top speed of 70 mph. The van, called the Ford Transit Connect, should be available in the US in 2010, although the price has not yet been announced.
The electric van will precede Ford's small electric passenger sedan, which will hit US dealerships in 2011, followed by a plug-in hybrid in 2012.
The Transit Connect is based on a gasoline-powered model that has proven successful in Europe and that Ford is also preparing to release in the US shortly. The van will be converted to battery power by Smith Electric Vehicles, which already offers a similar battery-powered Ford Transit model to customers in some European markets.
Ford is aiming the vehicle at commercial industries as an alternative to a full-size cargo van for package delivery. The van, which can carry about 1800 pounds, would be ideal for fleets that cover regular routes and return to a central location for recharging overnight.
The electric van will be built in Turkey and imported to the US.

IBM climbs further into the computing cloud

A fairgoer speaking on his mobile phone in front of a giant IBM logo in Hanover. IBM on Tuesday went deeper into cloud computing, expanding offerings aimed at businesses interested in taking advantage of software managed online as services.
IBM on Tuesday went deeper into cloud computing, expanding offerings aimed at businesses interested in taking advantage of software managed online as services.
US-based IBM announced new products, partnerships and clients for a Blue Cloud Initiative it launched slightly more than a year ago.
"Enterprise clients need economically compelling solutions that help them run their businesses in smarter ways, while never taking their eyes off of security, resiliency and compliance," said IBM enterprise initiatives general manager Erich Clementi.
"Cloud computing leverages many of IBM's core strength ... and gives clients the opportunity to leverage cloud computing's considerable cost advantages, while maintaining the highest levels of integrity, responsibility and control."
Industry-tracker IDC projects that the cloud computing market will grow to 42 billion dollars in the next three years.
Cloud computing refers to computer applications or data storage offered online as services hosted online by technology firms instead of being installed and maintained on users' machines.
The economic meltdown is being credited with fueling a shift to cloud computing because it lets businesses cut costs by essentially renting networks instead of having to buy them.
New cloud computing customers announced by IBM included Elizabeth Arden, Indigo Bio Systems, Nexxera, and the US Golf Association.
IBM said it is offering Global Services data protection software as a service "through the cloud" as well as providing businesses online arenas to safely test applications.
IBM also unveiled an "overflow cloud" that can act as a computing safety net in instances when business networks are overwhelmed.
"Enterprises are now facing a breaking point with their IT systems," IBM said in a release.
"Some systems can't share information and workloads, servers are highly underutilized and the cost of energy is becoming greater than the value of the systems the energy powers. Cloud computing changes these economics dramatically."

More power from bumps in the road: Energy-harvesting shock absorbers

Senior Shakeel Avadhany and his teammates say they can produce up to a 10 percent improvement in overall vehicle fuel efficiency by using the regenerative shock absorbers. The company that produces Humvees for the army, and is currently working on development of the next-generation version of the all-purpose vehicle, is interested enough to have loaned them a vehicle for testing purposes.
The project came about because "we wanted to figure out where energy is being wasted in a vehicle," senior Zack Anderson explains. Some hybrid cars already do a good job of recovering the energy from braking, so the team looked elsewhere, and quickly homed in on the suspension.
Enlarge
Zack Anderson , senior in elecrical engineering and computer sciences, holds a GenShock prototype up to a Humvee coil spring where it is installed. Photo / Donna Coveney They began by renting a variety of different car models, outfitting the suspension with sensors to determine the energy potential, and driving around with a laptop computer recording the sensor data. Their tests showed "a significant amount of energy" was being wasted in conventional suspension systems, Anderson says, "especially for heavy vehicles."
Once they realized the possibilities, the students set about building a prototype system to harness the wasted power. Their prototype shock absorbers use a hydraulic system that forces fluid through a turbine attached to a generator. The system is controlled by an active electronic system that optimizes the damping, providing a smoother ride than conventional shocks while generating electricity to recharge the batteries or operate electrical equipment.
In their testing so far, the students found that in a 6-shock heavy truck, each shock absorber could generate up to an average of 1 kW on a standard road -- enough power to completely displace the large alternator load in heavy trucks and military vehicles, and in some cases even run accessory devices such as hybrid trailer refrigeration units.
They filed for a patent last year and formed a company, called Levant Power Corp., to develop and commercialize the product. They are currently doing a series of tests with their converted Humvee to optimize the system's efficiency. They hope their technology will help give an edge to the military vehicle company in securing the expected $40 billion contract for the new army vehicle called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV.


"They see it as something that's going to be a differentiator" in the quest for that lucrative contract, says Avadhany. He adds, "it is a completely new paradigm of damping."
"This is a disruptive technology," Anderson says. "It's a game-changer."
"Simply put -- we want this technology on every heavy-truck, military vehicle and consumer hybrid on the road," Avadhany says.
The team has received help from MIT's Venture Mentoring Service, and has been advised by Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and founder of A123 Systems, a supplier of high-power lithium-ion batteries.
Not only would improved fuel efficiency be a big plus for the army by requiring less stockpiling and transportation of fuel into the war zone, but the better ride produced by the actively controlled shock absorbers make for safer handling, the students say. "If it's a smoother ride, you can go over the terrain faster," says Anderson.
The new shocks also have a fail-safe feature: If the electronics fail for any reason, the system simply acts like a regular shock absorber.
The group, which also includes senior Zachary Jackowski and alumni Paul Abel '08, Ryan Bavetta '07 and Vladimir Tarasov '08, plans to have a final, fine-tuned version of the device ready this summer. Then they will start talking to potential big customers. For example, they have calculated that a company such as Wal-Mart could save $13 million a year in fuel costs by converting its fleet of trucks.

A Laser That Heals Surgeons' Incisions

Despite medicine's inestimable progress over the past century, surgery can still leave scars that look more appropriate to Frankenstein's monster than to the beneficiary of a precise, modern operation. But in the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Irene Kochevar and Robert Redmond have developed a method that has the potential to replace the surgeon's needle and thread. Using surgical lasers and a light-activated dye, the researchers are prompting tissue to heal itself.
Laser-bonded healing is not a new idea. For years, scientists have been trying to find ways to use the heat generated by lasers to weld skin back together. But they've had a difficult time finding the right balance. Too little heat and a wound won't heal; too much and the tissue dies. Eight years ago, one of Kochevar and Redmond's colleagues was examining pathology slides of cells killed by this kind of thermal healing when it occurred to him that it might be possible to use just the light of a laser, rather than its heat.
While the idea of skin weaving itself back together may sound more like superhero lore than surgical skill, the science is startlingly simple. The team took advantage of the fact that a number of dyes are activated in the presence of light. In the case of Rose Bengal--a stain used in just about every ophthalmologist's office to detect corneal lesions--the researchers believe that light helps transfer electrons between the dye molecule and collagen, the major structural component of tissue. This produces highly reactive free radicals that cause the molecular chains of collagen to chemically bond to each other, or "cross-link." Paint two sides of a wound with Rose Benga­l, illuminate it with intense light, and the sides will knit themselves back together. "We call this nano suturing," Kochevar says, "because what you're doing is linking together the little collagen fibers. It's way beyond anything that a thread of any kind can do."
The benefits of such nano suturing are manifold. In just about every case, it appears to result in faster procedures, less scarring, and possibly fewer infections, since it seals openings completely and leaves no gap through which bacteria can penetrate. This makes it particularly well suited for closing not only superficial skin incisions but also those made in eye and nerve operations. In eye surgeries, such as corneal replacement, stitches that can cause irritation and infection must sometimes be left in place for months, which can aggravate complications. In nerve surgeries, damage from scar tissue can decrease the conduction of neural impulses. "If you put a needle through skin, it's not a big deal," says Redmon­d. "But if you put it through a nerve it's a big deal, because you're destroying part of the nerve."
Light WorkThe operations take place in a surgical suite of tile and stainless steel. Min Yao, a surgeon on Kochevar and Redmond's team, has carted a medical laser up from the lab downstairs. The instrument is already used for eye, ear, nose, and throat procedures, and its green light has just the right wavelength for maximum absorption by the pink Rose Bengal stain. The better the light is absorbed, the more it activates the dye and the more complete the collagen cross-linking. The box that generates the laser light is barely larger than a stere­o receiver; a thin fiber-optic cable snakes out of its side, and it gives off an appletini-green glow.
For this particular test surgery, on the skin of an anesthetized rabbit, surgeon Ying Wang measures and marks a patch of skin to be removed, an elliptical, leaf-shaped patch 1.5 centimeters wide by 3.5 centi­meters long. After removing the tissue, Wang begins closing the wound. Surgical cuts typically require two layers of suturing: buried, or subcutaneous, stitches to bring deep tissu­e together, and superficial ones to close up the skin itself. Wang moves her needle and thread through the subcutaneous layer, working her way deftly from one end of the incision to the other. Then she moves on to the epidermal layer.

Wang closes up the right half of the cut with three stitches, black thread standing out against the rabbit's pink skin. Then she takes a vial of Rose Bengal and drips the neon-pink dye onto either side of the unclosed portion of the wound. She threads the laser's fiber-optic cable into a metal stand, which maintains a set distance between laser and tissue while holding the light steady; a lens focuses the beam into a sharp, straight line that can be aligned with the incision. Wang positions the stand on the rabbit's flank, dons a pair of orange safety glasses, sets a timer, and steps down on the pedal that activates the laser. A green glow washes over the room.
Three minutes later, the timer beeps and Wang releases the pedal. She removes her safety glasses, moves the laser stand away, and inspects her handiwork. A small line is visible--a remnant of theRose Benga­l stain and of the black marker used to trace the location of the incision prior to surgery. But when she tugs on the wound, using a pair of forceps in each hand to pull the skin apart, the skin holds taut, and there's little visible evidence of the cut itself.
A Bright Future"It's a very interesting technology, which would be useful to anyone who does any kind of skin surgery--plastic surgeons, d­ermatologists," says Robert Stern, a professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and chief of dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Bosto­n. He notes that the technology must still prove itself, and he isn't yet convinced that the benefits will offset the costs of photochemical dyes and laser equipment, which are far pricier than a needle and thread. But, he says, the potential to minimize scarring and perhaps speed healing "could be nice for patients and improve outcomes [too]."
So far, use of the technique in humans has been limited to skin surgeries: in a clinical trial, 31 patients with skin cancers and suspicious moles had their three-to-five-centimeter excisions closed with sutures on one side and photo­chemical tissue bonding on the other. The dermatological procedure will be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval, which the researchers are awaiting before beginning additional human trials. Animal experiments have already shown the technique to be useful in nerve, eye, and blood vessel surgeries, among others--so useful, in fact, that Kocheva­r and Redmond have surgeons ready and waiting to start human trials the moment the hospital approves them.
"Talk to just about any physician about this, and they have an idea for how it could be used," Kochevar says. The technology is limited by tissue depth: it works only where light will penetrate, so it could never replace subcutaneous sutures or be effective on dark or opaque tissue like liver and bone. The scientists have licensed the technology to a brand-new startup, still in stealth mode, which plans to commercialize the tech­nology once it receives FDA approval. The company has just begun seeking its first round of funding.

Google brings e-books to mobiles

Google is making its vast online library of books available for mobile phones. Google is making its vast online library of books available for mobile phones. "We are excited to announce the launch of a mobile version of Google Book Search, opening up over 1.5 million mobile public domain books in the US (and over half a million outside the US) for you to browse," the company said.

The Internet search giant, in a post on Thursday on the Google Book Search blog, said mobile versions of the books could be read on devices such as the Apple iPhone or T-Mobile G1, which is powered by Google's Android software.

"These new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen," Google said. "With this launch, we believe that we've taken an important step toward more universal access to books."

To access the mobile version of Google Book Search a user needs to type http://books.google.com/m into the Web browser of their iPhone or Android phone.

Google's announcement comes just days ahead of the expected unveiling by Amazon of a new generation version of its popular electronic book reader, the Kindle, at a New York press conference on Monday.

Amazon is also planning to make its online store of e-books for the Kindle available on mobile phones, the New York Times reported on Friday.

"We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones," Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, told the Times. "We are working on that now."

The Amazon spokesman did not provide any further details.

Google will initially only be offering books in the public domain -- those which are not under copyright -- for mobile phones.

Amazon, on the other hand, offers the latest releases and 230,000 titles in all, including 103 of the 112 current New York Times bestsellers.

Latest scam: bogus emails offering stimulus payments

The US Department of Homeland Security warned that scammers were sending out bogus emails offering economic stimulus payments in an attempt to retrieve personal information. The US Department of Homeland Security warned Friday that scammers were sending out bogus emails offering economic stimulus payments in an attempt to retrieve personal information. US-CERT, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, said it had received reports of a "phishing" scam involving "fraudulent US Internal Revenue Service emails offering users stimulus package payments." "These emails include text that attempts to convince users to follow a link to a website or to complete an attached document," US-CERT said. "The website and document request the user to provide personal information."

In a statement on its website, us-cert.gov, US-CERT urged anyone who received one of the fraudulent emails to alert the authorities.

US-CERT was created in 2003 to defend the Internet infrastructure against cyberattack. It is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors.

Phishing is a common Internet fraud in which perpetrators attempt to steal IDs, passwords and other personal information in an attempt to swindle money.

The fraudsters behind the latest scam would appear to be a bit premature.

The US House of Representatives passed a giant economic stimulus package last week but it has yet to clear the Senate.

Unprecedented growth seen for solar energy

The head of the federal government's effort to promote solar technology told about 200 industry leaders yesterday that expanding the industry to the level needed by 2030 will require unprecedented levels of growth. "To go from the 1 gigawatt of generation capacity that we have now [in the United States] to the 170 to 200 gigawatts called for by 2030 amounts to a 26 percent compounded annual growth rate over the next 20 years," John Lushetsky explained. "That's a higher sustained growth rate than any industry has ever been asked to do before." Mr. Lushetsky is program manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technology Program for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. He was the keynote speaker at a day-long conference in the Dana Center at the University of Toledo's Health Science Campus called "Empowering Solar Energy in Ohio." The conference drew industry participants from Ohio and Michigan. Colleen LaChapelle, assistant director of the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization at the University of Toledo, said what started as a small conference grew over the last week in part because of the tremendous opportunity for growth in the industry.

"The resources of our area match up very well to what this industry needs," Ms. LaChapelle said.

Mr. Lushetsky predicted that the solar energy industry -- including manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors -- ultimately could employ 4 million people. But he noted tremendous challenges are involved as the public and private sectors work to incorporate solar energy into a national electrical grid that's in need of its own upgrade.

"We really can't wait for things to happen on their own," Mr. Lushetsky said, explaining how public and private efforts will have to cooperate to incorporate solar into the nation's energy portfolio, including provisions of the federal stimulus package making its way through Congress.

He complimented the efforts done locally and across Ohio to promote and encourage solar companies and their development, citing First Solar Inc. and Xunlight Corp., two solar-panel makers with plants in metro Toledo.

"You've got a very good environment here for startups," he said.

Japan's Pioneer to quit flat-panel TV business: report

Pioneer TVs. The company is to quit its loss-making flat-screen television business in a sweeping overhaul of its operations, the Nikkei business daily reported Japan's Pioneer Corp. is to quit its loss-making flat-screen television business in a sweeping overhaul of its operations, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday. The company had planned to end in-house production of plasma panels by the end of March and fit TVs with Panasonic Corp. panels instead. But, faced with worsening profit margins amid the global economic downturn and a stronger yen, which hurts exports, it has decided to end TV production altogether, the Nikkei newspaper said, without naming sources.

Pioneer had been restructuring its troubled plasma television operations, shedding hundreds of jobs and shutting a domestic plant last year.

Pioneer will also spin off its loss-making DVD player operations to a new company to be set up with Sharp Corp. this year, the Nikkei said.

It plans to shed several thousand jobs from its 40,000-strong workforce by March 2010, the paper added.

Pioneer is expected to post a consolidated net loss of more than 100 billion yen (1.09 billion dollars) for the current year to March, up from the 78 billion yen loss it had earlier forecast, the report said.

AFP could not reach immediately reach the company for comment.

Prop 8 Donor Web Site Shows Disclosure Law Is 2-Edged Sword

FOR the backers of Proposition 8, the state ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California, victory has been soured by the ugly specter of intimidation.

A Web site takes names and ZIP codes of donors supporting the measure and overlays data on a map.

Some donors to groups supporting the measure have received death threats and envelopes containing a powdery white substance, and their businesses have been boycotted.

The targets of this harassment blame a controversial and provocative Web site, eightmaps.com.

The site takes the names and ZIP codes of people who donated to the ballot measure — information that California collects and makes public under state campaign finance disclosure laws — and overlays the data on a Google map.

Visitors can see markers indicating a contributor’s name, approximate location, amount donated and, if the donor listed it, employer. That is often enough information for interested parties to find the rest — like an e-mail or home address. The identity of the site’s creators, meanwhile, is unknown; they have maintained their anonymity.

Eightmaps.com is the latest, most striking example of how information collected through disclosure laws intended to increase the transparency of the political process, magnified by the powerful lens of the Web, may be undermining the same democratic values that the regulations were to promote.

With tools like eightmaps — and there are bound to be more of them — strident political partisans can challenge their opponents directly, one voter at a time. The results, some activists fear, could discourage people from participating in the political process altogether.

That is why the soundtrack to eightmaps.com is a loud gnashing of teeth among civil libertarians, privacy advocates and people supporting open government. The site pits their cherished values against each other: political transparency and untarnished democracy versus privacy and freedom of speech.

“When I see those maps, it does leave me with a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has advocated for open democracy. “This is not really the intention of voter disclosure laws. But that’s the thing about technology. You don’t really know where it is going to take you.”

Ms. Alexander and many Internet activists have good reason to be queasy. California’s Political Reform Act of 1974, and laws like it across the country, sought to cast disinfecting sunlight on the political process by requiring contributions of more than $100 to be made public.

Eightmaps takes that data, formerly of interest mainly to social scientists, pollsters and journalists, and publishes it in a way not foreseen when the open-government laws were passed. As a result, donors are exposed to a wide audience and, in some cases, to harassment or worse.

A college professor from the University of California, San Francisco, wrote a $100 check in support of Proposition 8 in August, because he said he supported civil unions for gay couples but did not want to change the traditional definition of marriage. He has received many confrontational e-mail messages, some anonymous, since eightmaps listed his donation and employer. One signed message blasted him for supporting the measure and was copied to a dozen of his colleagues and supervisors at the university, he said.

“I thought what the eightmaps creators did with the information was actually sort of neat,” the professor said, who asked that his name not be used to avoid becoming more of a target. “But people who use that site to send out intimidating or harassing messages cross the line.”

Joseph Clare, a San Francisco accountant who donated $500 to supporters of Proposition 8, said he had received several e-mail messages accusing him of “donating to hate.” Mr. Clare said the site perverts the meaning of disclosure laws that were originally intended to expose large corporate donors who might be seeking to influence big state projects.

“I don’t think the law was designed to identify people for direct feedback to them from others on the other side,” Mr. Clare said. “I think it’s been misused.”

Many civil liberties advocates, including those who disagree with his views on marriage, say he has a point. They wonder if open-government rules intended to protect political influence of the individual voter, combined with the power of the Internet, might be having the opposite effect on citizens.

“These are very small donations given by individuals, and now they are subject to harassment that ultimately makes them less able to engage in democratic decision making,” said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California.

THANKS to eightmaps.com, the Internet is abuzz with bloggers, academics and other pundits offering potential ways to resolve the tension between these competing principles. One idea is to raise the minimum donation that must be reported publicly from $100, to protect the anonymity of small donors.

Another idea, proposed by a Georgetown professor, is for the state Web sites that make donor information available to ask people who want to download and repurpose the data to provide some form of identification, like a name and credit card number.

“The key here is developing a process that balances the sometimes competing goals of transparency and privacy,” said the professor, Ned Moran, whose undergraduate class on information privacy spent a day discussing the eightmaps site last month.

“Both goals are essential for a healthy democracy,” he said, “and I think we are currently witnessing, as demonstrated by eightmaps, how the increased accessibility of personal information is disrupting the delicate balance between them.”