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Today's Topics:
1. NASA to Announce Winner of Space Station Student Naming
Contest (Greg Williams)
2. Satellite repair robot faces orbital field test (George Antunes)
3. Satellite repair robot launches from Florida (George Antunes)
4. Atlas 5 Rocket Launches Six Military Research Satellites into
Orbit (Dishnut)
5. DIRECTV's Baseball Deal: The HDTV Impact (George Antunes)
6. As Power Shifts, AT&T May Alter Yahoo Pact (George Antunes)
7. Music's New Gatekeeper (George Antunes)
8. Using RSS Feeds Is Much Simpler Than You Think (George Antunes)
9. APPLE-SA-2007-03-08 AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002
(Monty Solomon)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:47:55 -0500
From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] NASA to Announce Winner of Space Station Student
Naming Contest
To: medianews@twiar.org
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
NASA to Announce Winner of Space Station Student Naming Contest
From PR News-wire:
NASA's newest module for the International Space Station is about to be
given a new name. NASA's Kennedy Space Center hosts a media event on
Thursday, March 15, at noon EDT to unveil the Node 2 module's new name.
The name was chosen from an academic competition involving thousands of
students in kindergarten through high school. The Node 2 Challenge
required students to learn about the International Space Station, build
a scale model of the module, and write an essay explaining their
proposed name. This will be the first U.S. piece of the space station
named by someone other than a NASA official.
Media planning to attend the event should arrive at Kennedy's Press Site
by 11 a.m. for transportation to the Space Station Processing Facility.
Node 2 is being prepared there for its space shuttle Atlantis flight,
designated STS- 120, which is targeted for launch later this year. Media
without permanent Kennedy credentials should submit their request online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Node 2 is a pressurized module that will act as a connecting port and
passageway to additional international science labs and supply
spacecraft. It also will be a work platform for the station's robotic
arm. For more information on the station and Node 2, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Contact: Allard Beutel, Headquarters, Washington, +1-202-358-4769, or
Tracy Young, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, +1-321-867-2468, both of NASA
--
Greg Williams
K4HSM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:04:13 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Satellite repair robot faces orbital field test
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Satellite repair robot faces orbital field test
By Irene Klotz
Reuters
Last updated: 08-Mar-07 21:06 GMT
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=375242007
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A prototype satellite repair robot that
can refuel, upgrade and repair satellites is slated to begin a three-month
orbital field test after its launch from Florida on Thursday.
The two-satellite system, called Orbital Express, was developed by the U.S.
military in cooperation with NASA to extend the lives of spy satellites and
lay the groundwork for servicing and repair of government-owned spacecraft
and telescopes after the space shuttle fleet is retired.
Launch is scheduled between 9:37 and 11:42 p.m. EST (2:37 a.m. and 4:42
a.m. British time) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
"What we're really trying to do with Orbital Express is to change the
paradigm of how we operate in space," said programme manager Fred Kennedy,
with the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
With few exceptions, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which was designed
for in-flight servicing by space shuttle crews, spacecraft need to have
everything aboard at the time they are launched. Once a key component
breaks down, or when manoeuvring fuel runs out, the satellites are dead.
Officials hope the repair robot will be able to refuel a satellite, replace
faulty components and install equipment upgrades.
The two satellites which comprise Orbital Express are among six
experimental spacecraft being carried into orbit aboard an unmanned Atlas 5
rocket.
The U.S. Air Force bought the launch service from Atlas manufacturer
Lockheed Martin, which in December began sales of its boosters along with
Boeing's Delta rockets through a Denver-based joint-venture called United
Launch Alliance.
FIELD TESTS IN SPACE
Once in space, Orbital Express will go through a week-long systems test
period ahead of demonstrations expected to last at least three months.
The servicing craft, called ASTRO -- an acronym for Autonomous Space
Transport Robotic Operations -- is filled with about 300 pounds (136 kg) of
hydrazine propellant and includes a small robotic arm to latch onto or pass
equipment to its partner spacecraft, known as NextSat.
The first tests involve fuel transfers and will take place while the two
vehicles are attached to each other. After that, ASTRO will separate from
NextSat.
Among the tasks the Orbital Express will attempt during the mission are
transferring and hooking up a 53-pound (24-kg) battery, switching between a
primary and backup computer and testing rendezvous and capture techniques.
"We're trying out brand new technology," said Carol Welsch, a U.S. Air
Force officer who helped put together the Orbital Express. "Quite honestly,
some of these are very challenging technologies and they may not work."
Boeing is the prime contractor for the mission, which cost about $300
million (155 million pounds). Partners include Ball Corp., Northrop
Grumman, Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Canada-based
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=375242007
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:09:25 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Satellite repair robot launches from Florida
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Satellite repair robot launches from Florida
Thu Mar 8, 2007 10:59PM EST
By Irene Klotz
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN0838578420070309
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A prototype satellite repair robot that
can refuel, upgrade and repair satellites was launched from Florida on
Thursday night to begin a three-month orbital field test.
The two-satellite system, called Orbital Express, was developed by the U.S.
military in cooperation with NASA to extend the lives of spy satellites and
lay the groundwork for the servicing and repair of government-owned
spacecraft and telescopes after the space shuttle fleet is retired.
The unmanned Atlas 5 rocket carrying Orbital Express and four other small
research satellites lifted off at 10:10 p.m. (0310 GMT on Friday) from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, soaring through clear skies to place its
clutch of payloads into their proper positions.
"What we're really trying to do with Orbital Express is to change the
paradigm of how we operate in space," said program manager Fred Kennedy
with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
With few exceptions, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which was designed
for in-flight servicing by space shuttle crews, spacecraft need to have
everything aboard at the time they are launched. Once a key component
breaks down, or when maneuvering fuel runs out, the satellites are dead.
Officials hope the repair robot will be able to refuel a satellite, replace
faulty components and install equipment upgrades.
The U.S. Air Force bought the launch service from Atlas manufacturer
Lockheed Martin Corp., which in December began sales of its boosters along
with Boeing Co.'s Delta rockets through a Denver-based joint-venture called
United Launch Alliance.
FIELD TESTS IN SPACE
Orbital Express will undergo a thorough systems test period, which could
last several weeks, ahead of flight demonstrations slated to run for at
least three months.
The servicing craft, called ASTRO -- an acronym for Autonomous Space
Transport Robotic Operations -- is filled with about 300 pounds (136 kg) of
hydrazine propellant and includes a small robotic arm to latch onto or pass
equipment to its partner spacecraft, known as NextSat.
The first tests involve fuel transfers and will take place while the two
vehicles are attached to each other. After that, ASTRO will separate from
NextSat.
Among the tasks the Orbital Express will attempt during the mission are
transferring and hooking up a 53-pound (24-kg) battery, switching between a
primary and backup computer and testing rendezvous and capture techniques.
"We're trying out brand-new technology," said Carol Welsch, a U.S. Air
Force officer who helped put together the Orbital Express. "Quite honestly,
some of these are very challenging technologies and they may not work."
Boeing is the prime contractor for the mission, which cost about $300 million.
Partners include Ball Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Draper Laboratory of
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Canada-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:48:50 -0800
From: Dishnut <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Atlas 5 Rocket Launches Six Military Research
Satellites into Orbit
To: Medianews <medianews@twiar.org>, news-4-us@cband.info
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Atlas 5 Rocket Launches Six Military Research Satellites into Orbit
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
Space.com
posted: 8 March 2007
12:45 a.m. ET
An Atlas 5 rocket launched spaceward late Thursday, hauling a clutch of
six military research satellites into orbit for the U.S. Air Force.
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) booster shot into the night sky above
Florida?s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:10 p.m. EST (0310 March
9 GMT) carrying two Orbital Express spacecraft refueling demonstrators
and four experimental microsatellites under the Air Force?s Space Test
Program-1 (STP-1) mission.
"This is a proud moment in our company's history and a significant step
forward in providing our nation assured access to space using the most
cost-effective means possible,? Michael Gass, ULA president and CEO,
said in a post-launch statement, adding that the space shot marked the
first launch of an expendable Atlas booster for the U.S. Air Force.
Thursday?s space shot occurred about a half hour later than planned due
to launch range radio interference and booster vent valve issues, though
both proved only short delays.
Orbital Express, microsatellites reach orbit
The flagship of the STP-1 mission is Orbital Express, a two-spacecraft
mission to demonstrate the feasibility of autonomously servicing a
satellite in space.
Built for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the
$300 million vehicles include the 2,100-pound (952-kilogram) ASTRO
servicing satellite and its 500-pound (226-kilogram) target NextSat. The
spacecraft are expected to spend about three months testing autonomous
satellite rendezvous, refueling and component replacement in Earth orbit.
?We?re very proud to be at this point,? USAF Lt. Col. Fred Kennedy,
project manager for Orbital Express, said in a telephone interview
before launch. ?We?ve been working a long time to be at this stage.?
Shortly after the Orbital Express spacecraft were deployed at 10:28 p.m.
EST (0328 March 9 GMT), the MidStar-1 microsatellite -- built by
midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy -- successfully reached orbit.
The 265-pound (116-kilogram) satellite carries a series of experiments,
including a pair of space computer payloads, the Eclipse experiment to
examine electrochemical membranes in space for NASA and Eclipse Energy
Systems, and a prototype microdosimeter sponsored by the National Space
Biological Research Institute.
The ULA Atlas 5 rocket also orbited three other small spacecraft:
* STPsat-1: A 343-pound (156-kilogram) satellite carrying two
experiments to collect atmospheric data and demonstrate spacecraft
technologies for the U.S. Air Force?s Space Test Program.
* Cibola Flight Experiment (CFEsat): A 350-pound (159-kilogram)
satellite built for the Los Alamos National Laboratory to test a series
of new technologies, including inflatable boom antennas, a new power
supply and a prototype supercomputer designed to process data onboard
rather than sending raw information directly to Earth.
* FalconSat-3: Built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the
small, 119-pound (54-kilogram) satellite carries five experiments to
study the near-Earth space plasma environment, test new hardware and
demonstrate a Micropropulsion Attitude Control System.
?STP-1 required an extraordinary level of coordination and innovation to
achieve the mission requirements,? Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president of
Atlas programs, said in a statement. ?One of those innovations was the
mission design to achieve the two mission orbits, which was enabled by
the development of a very flexible new guidance design.?
Thursday?s launch marked the 80th consecutive successful space shot for
an Atlas rocket and the ninth flight of the booster family?s Atlas 5
variant.
--
Dishnut-P
====================================================================
Operator of RadioFree Dishnuts - Producer of The Dishnut News
heard Saturdays at 10pm EST. on
RFD, W0KIE Satellite Radio Network Galaxy 26 (T6) Transponder 1 / 6.2 &
6.8Mhz
(4DTV T6-999) WTND-LP 106.3, and many micro LPFM stations.
http://dishnuts.net
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Show Archives: (Partly Up) http://dishnuts.net/archive/
**In Loving Memory of Mom (Dishnut Gerry)**
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:07:09 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] DIRECTV's Baseball Deal: The HDTV Impact
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
DIRECTV's Baseball Deal: The HDTV Impact
The satcaster will use high-def sports to expand its audience.
By Phillip Swann
TV Predictions.com
http://www.tvpredictions.com/dbaseball030807.htm
Washington, D.C. (March 8, 2007) -- DIRECTV's new deal to carry Major
League Baseball's 'Extra Innings' is part of an ambitious plan to capture
the growing High-Definition audience, particularly sports fans.
But before we take a swing at the HD angle, let's take a closer look at the
deal itself.
MLB and DIRECTV today announced a seven-year agreement for the satcaster to
carry the Extra Innings package, which includes dozens of out of market
baseball games each week.
The final deal allows MLB to offer the same package to DIRECTV's cable and
satellite rivals such as EchoStar and In Demand, a cable-owned company that
has provided Extra Innings to cable operators in the past.
But the agreement adds that cable and satellite operators must match the
terms of the DIRECTV deal before the beginning of the 2007 season,
including carriage rates and requirements.
Those requirements would likely force DIRECTV's rivals to carry MLB's new
Baseball Channel on their basic tiers when it's launched in 2009. (DIRECTV
has agreed to do so.) Due to various pricing issues, that's highly unlikely
and it could torpedo any chance that cable and EchoStar have of getting the
Extra Innings package. (See statements from EchoStar and In Demand below.)
While DIRECTV and MLB did not disclose the full terms of their agreement,
it will be tough for EchoStar and cable to match the deal in the short time
span.
With the Baseball Channel requirement (and perhaps a few other tricks),
it's also not inconceivable that the DIRECTV deal was crafted in a way to
make it more difficult for EchoStar and the cable operators to match it.
Major League Baseball was under great pressure from lawmakers such as Sen.
John Kerry (D-Mass.) to not give DIRECTV an exclusive.
So the "non-exclusive" provision, which apparently was added at the last
minute, could be just an appeasement of the congressional critics (and
media commentators who also blasted the deal.)
We won't know for sure until later this month. However, sources told
TVPredictions.com a few weeks ago that the league was desperately looking
for a way to quiet the lawmakers while still giving DIRECTV the exclusive
rights.
Late Thursday night, it appeared that EchoStar and the cable industry
viewed the deal as a smokescreen to pacify Congress.
The satcaster said in a statement: "DIRECTV and MLB, as owners of the
package, should not be able to line their pockets at the expense of
consumers who don't want and won't watch([baseball) content."
Rob Jacobson, president of iNDemand, added: "Major League Baseball has
chosen to cut a de facto exclusive deal, which include conditions for
carriage that MLB and DIRECTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish
to meet. This decision represents the height of disrespect and disregard
for their loyal baseball fans."
High-Def Jewel
But whether the exclusive holds or not, the real jewel in the deal is the
high-def broadcasts.
DIRECTV is planning to launch two new satellites this year to dramatically
expand its high-def capacity. With the MLB deal, DIRECTV in 2008 will have
a HD sports offering that will tempt millions of cable and EchoStar viewers
to switch providers. For instance:
* DIRECTV will broadcast most of the MLB 'Extra Innings' out of market
games in high-def by 2008.(And as part of today's deal, in 2009, DIRECTV
will carry the new Baseball Channel from MLB, which will assuredly be in
high-def as well.)
* DIRECTV already carries every NFL regular season high-def broadcast as
part of its NFL Sunday Ticket plan.
* Starting this season, DIRECTV will air every NCAA college basketball
tournament game in HD as part of its Mega March Madness package.
* Starting next year, DIRECTV will offer its NASCAR HotPass feature, which
offers individual channels for five different drivers, in high-def.
Baseball. Football. College Basketball. NASCAR.
If you're a sports fan -- and a high-def owner -- it will be hard to ignore
that lineup.
While cable and EchoStar will continue to expand their HD sports coverage,
it won't come to close to what DIRECTV will offer in the sheer number of hours.
As the HDTV audience continues to grow -- perhaps reaching more than 50
million homes next year -- DIRECTV will be in a strong position to expand
its current audience of nearly 16 million subscribers.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:21:01 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] As Power Shifts, AT&T May Alter Yahoo Pact
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1
As Power Shifts, AT&T May Alter Yahoo Pact
Telecom Can Now Lure Broadband Customers Without Paying Others
By DIONNE SEARCEY, KEVIN J. DELANEY and DENNIS K. BERMAN
Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2007; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117340663471431826.html?mod=hps_us_pageone
? The Situation: Changing economics could prompt revisions in pact between
AT&T and Yahoo.
? What's at Stake: How revenue from Internet subscriptions and ads are shared.
? What's Next: Yahoo may have to sweeten its deal with AT&T, up for renewal
in April 2008.
In November 2001, Yahoo Inc. and AT&T Inc.'s predecessor, SBC
Communications Inc., announced a partnership they touted as a "landmark
strategic alliance" that would link the telecom and Internet worlds. SBC
showcased the relationship by painting field-crew vans with Yahoo's logo
and brash purple color.
Under the deal, the companies successfully sold Internet access together to
millions of U.S. consumers. The partnership offered a way for the stodgy
phone company to tap into Yahoo's Internet aura. For Yahoo, it provided
extra revenue and access to AT&T's big customer base.
But today, the arrangement is looking like a relic of an earlier Internet
era. The companies are negotiating potentially sweeping changes that could
scale back their partnership, which expires in April 2008, says a person
familiar with the matter. AT&T has quietly painted over its colorful vans,
expunging the Yahoo logo; the vans now sport AT&T's new blue insignia
alone. The fraying of the alliance could be a blow to Yahoo, which gets
roughly $200 million to $250 million of revenue annually from AT&T,
according to two people familiar with the matter. It also shows how AT&T
itself is much stronger, and less reliant on Yahoo, than during the early
days of their alliance.
The potential unraveling illustrates how high-profile partnerships by
Internet companies to reach consumers can quickly become fragile: Big
alliances can rapidly fall apart as partners' interests diverge and the
Internet evolves. The shift in the relationship of AT&T and Yahoo is partly
a result of changes in the economic structure of the Internet industry.
Most significantly, Yahoo's rival Google Inc. has begun offering rich
payments -- approaching $1 billion in some cases -- to partners, causing
players such as AT&T to question their existing deals.
At the same time, AT&T no longer needs Yahoo the way it did nearly six
years ago, when it was struggling to coax consumers to sign up for
high-speed Internet service. Today, with the huge popularity of downloading
video and music and other services on the Web, broadband is in demand.
The partnership's troubles also underline the Web era's slowness to deliver
on one of its big promises: that, by working together, companies like AT&T
and Yahoo would be able to offer Internet services over a broader range of
tech gadgets -- not just over PCs but also through cellphones and TV sets.
After they announced their deal in 2001, both sides believed Yahoo could
play a big role alongside the phone company's wireless unit, as well as the
television service AT&T hoped to launch. But Yahoo's services for mobile
phones, such as Web search and a photo offering, have since had only
limited distribution on AT&T's cellular carrier.
AT&T now wants to overhaul its Yahoo deal, according to a person familiar
with the issue. Instead of paying Yahoo a percent of the revenue from its
broadband business, AT&T wants to offer Yahoo only a cut of revenue from
the sale of products Yahoo provides, such as from its music and photo
services, this person says.
One reason AT&T now believes it shouldn't have to share broadband
subscription revenue is that the phone company has been approached by other
Internet companies offering to pay to reach its broadband customers, says
the person. Google over the past year has played a high-profile role in
paying companies that help expand its online services and advertising.
Those offers, bankrolled by Google's Internet ad success, have roiled the
market for deals structured like Yahoo and AT&T's -- as Google pays
partners rather than charges them.
In a written response to questions, AT&T and Yahoo said they collaborate
frequently and have "the most successful partnership in the industry." The
statement added, "That success is rooted in the open and ongoing dialogue
we maintain." One person familiar with the matter says a renegotiated
partnership could potentially involve increased cooperation in areas such
as services or advertising for mobile phones.
When the two first struck their partnership, AT&T -- then the regional
Southwest phone company named SBC -- hoped Yahoo's Internet luster would
help it catch up with cable operators' broadband offerings and compete with
Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit. Before that, AT&T had faced
problems with its broadband rollout including regulatory hurdles that so
frustrated Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Whitacre he had said he was
reluctant to spend the money to expand high-speed Internet service
throughout the company's territory.
Now, in the wake of its December acquisition of BellSouth Corp., AT&T is
the country's largest phone company with more than 12 million high-speed
Internet subscribers and is outpacing some cable companies in signing up
broadband customers. Yahoo, meantime, has lost some of its buzz as it
operates in the shadow of Google and grapples with slowing revenue growth.
"It's fair to say that as the industry has evolved and as the company has
grown and the broadband marketplace has grown, AT&T shouldn't be in the
position of paying them for attracting [broadband] customers," says one
person familiar with AT&T's thinking. "It comes down to money."
The roughly $200 million to $250 million in annual payments from AT&T is a
small fraction of the $5 billion to $5.5 billion in revenue that Yahoo is
forecasting for 2007, when certain payments to partners are factored out.
But people familiar with the matter say the fees paid to Yahoo by AT&T have
profit margins as good or better than the rest of Yahoo's business, because
of the relatively minimal resources required of Yahoo under the deal.
Losing the revenue from AT&T's broadband access could dent Yahoo's net
income, which was $751 million in 2006.
The relationship currently directs millions of AT&T customers to Yahoo, and
changes could potentially reduce their usage of Yahoo's sites. That could
lower Yahoo's online ad revenue more broadly, including revenue related to
Web searches the AT&T customers conduct. The Internet company shares some
ecommerce and ad revenue with AT&T under their arrangement.
The roots of AT&T and Yahoo's partnership stretch back to a March 2001
state dinner for Mexican President Vicente Fox where AT&T's Mr. Whitacre
and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang were seated next to each other. After the
two companies announced an agreement in November 2001, Messrs. Whitacre and
Yang took some of their executives on a trip to Hawaii to celebrate.
AT&T, then known as SBC, began selling high-speed Internet access coupled
with Yahoo services such as email with extra storage. Subscribers to AT&T's
broadband service got Yahoo's Web search engine and other services on their
default AT&T Web site. The phone company back then bought a 3% stake in
Yahoo for $300 million.
At first, the highflying dot-com and the staid telephone company weren't an
obvious fit. But the two teams warmed up to each other. AT&T staff began
instant messaging with their Yahoo counterparts, and top AT&T executives
began leaving their ties at home when they traveled to Yahoo meetings. The
AT&T-Yahoo agreement quickly began helping AT&T make up for lost revenue
from its traditional phone business. The partnership became so successful
that the two sides explored numerous collaborations, including some never
made public.
In 2004, Yahoo and AT&T plotted an acquisition of Walt Disney Co. after
Comcast Corp. launched an unsolicited Disney takeover plan, said two people
familiar with the matter. Microsoft Corp. was rumored to be entering the
contest and Yahoo wanted to block it, said the people familiar with the
discussions. Time Warner was also considering entering the fray, these
people said. Yahoo and AT&T went as far as lining up bankers to prepare the
joint bid. In the end Microsoft's move never materialized, AT&T and Yahoo
backed away and the Comcast deal collapsed.
Yahoo and AT&T in the past have seriously discussed making joint bids for
other major Internet assets, said another person familiar with the matter.
By winter 2004, Yahoo and AT&T staffers were working together on new
projects beyond the scope of their initial agreement. After several months
of negotiating, top executives from Yahoo and AT&T agreed on the outlines
of an expanded partnership agreement over lunch in a private suite at the
Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
The two companies announced their expanded tie-up in November 2004. The new
agreement gave Yahoo a central role in AT&T's plan to offer a range of new
features that combined voice, video and Internet services. Customers were
to be able to tap into a Yahoo portal via a cellphone, PC or TV to do
things such as route phone calls, check email, order TV programming and set
parental-content controls for the Internet or television. Yahoo also would
provide software for AT&T's planned TV service, as well as for cellphones
for AT&T's wireless unit.
But by early last year, many of the reasons AT&T and Yahoo came together in
the first place had changed or disappeared. The phone giant had amassed
roughly seven million broadband subscribers, and no longer faced intense
competition for Internet customers from AOL, which had made much of its
services freely available on the Web. Yahoo's popular email service was
still a core attraction for AT&T subscribers. But Google had started to
offer a competitive, free email service.
AT&T also saw that Google had started to pay companies, such as computer
maker Dell Inc., hundreds of millions of dollars over several years to
distribute Google software and set consumers' default settings to Google's
search engine. Google subsequently signed a deal under which it promised a
minimum of $900 million in advertising revenue to News Corp. sites
including MySpace for using Google search technology and carrying ads
brokered by Google. Among the companies getting checks for using Google's
search service were other broadband providers, such as cable giant Comcast.
Complicating matters, AT&T was getting offers from Internet companies to
put their search services on AT&T's Web sites and share in the advertising
revenue. Not only was AT&T paying Yahoo, under their exclusive deal, the
phone company also was precluded from pursuing these offers, according to a
person familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, efforts by AT&T and Yahoo to jointly provide Internet-based
services for devices such as TV sets and cellphones have been bumpy. Yahoo
had hoped that AT&T's wireless unit would push Yahoo's "Go for Mobile"
software, which links cellphone services such as photos and email with
consumers' Yahoo accounts. But AT&T has only shipped the software with one
device, which it no longer sells.
AT&T lets consumers access Yahoo's Web search on mobile phones, but it's
listed alongside four other search providers. Some of the original features
the two companies said they might offer to span devices have yet to
materialize. Customers can't, for example, route phone calls or set
parental controls for AT&T's TV service using the two companies' joint site.
Internet policy issues have pitted the two companies against each other.
AT&T's Mr. Whitacre a year-and-a-half ago said he wanted to charge Internet
companies to deliver content such as video clips to consumers at
higher-than-usual speeds. He named Yahoo as one such company. Since then,
Yahoo has attached its name to groups that lobby for so-called "net
neutrality" laws to preempt such fees. Their positions on opposite sides of
the issue were especially awkward last year when AT&T was trying to
persuade regulators to approve its takeover of BellSouth and net neutrality
emerged as a potential stumbling block to the deal.
People familiar with the matter say Mr. Whitacre has at least once raised
the idea of AT&T and Yahoo merging when Yahoo's stock has swooned. Last
summer, Mr. Whitacre pitched such a deal to executives at the Internet
company, according to one person familiar with the approach. But Yahoo
wasn't keen to do it, people say. Yahoo executives have subsequently
expressed confidence that the company would remain an independent concern.
"We and our board see tremendous opportunity for Yahoo as a public
company," Chief Executive Terry Semel said in an interview in January, when
asked about rumors that it could be acquired.
These days, AT&T's management is focusing more on other services, such as
its wireless company, which is the biggest in the U.S. in terms of
customers. And the company doesn't have trouble selling consumers on faster
Internet connections anymore.
AT&T's Mr. Whitacre has made no secret that he's on the prowl for another
acquisition. The company invested $500 million in EchoStar Communications
Corp. in 2003. Some industry executives think AT&T eventually could try to
acquire an international wireless carrier. AT&T had no comment on future
merger and acquisition activity.
While a change in its relationship with AT&T would likely hurt Yahoo
financially, the Internet company has been pursuing its own initiatives to
expand beyond the computer to cellphones and TV sets. In January, the
company unveiled a new version of its Yahoo Go software that it is
marketing to consumers to install on mobile phones themselves, even if AT&T
isn't doing that. Yahoo separately offers free software for PCs called "Go
for TV" that consumers can use to access Yahoo services such as photos and
music on their TV sets.
=================================================
George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923
Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:25:16 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Music's New Gatekeeper
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii
Music's New Gatekeeper
From their Silicon Valley cubicles, Apple staffers have become music's
unlikely power brokers. Our reporters on the horse-trading that can turn
unknowns into stars.
By NICK WINGFIELD and ETHAN SMITH
Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2007; Page W1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117340340327331757.html?mod=hps_us_at_glance_wj
Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home
page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads
to consider buying -- out of the four million such goods the Apple site
offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the
checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of
Target's ad circular.
How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged
at the top of the iTunes site -- or whether Nickelback gets no mention?
Apple has jettisoned some of the conventions of traditional music retailing
-- notably, the practice of selling prime promotional spots to recording
companies willing to pay for better visibility for their acts. But behind
the scenes there's plenty of horse-trading going on that influences which
songs are seen and purchased by iTunes customers.
Apple -- now one of the largest sellers of music in the U.S. -- offers
home-page placement in exchange for things such as exclusive access to new
songs, special discount pricing or additional material such as interviews
with stars. Most other big retailers, digital and physical, also seek
exclusive offerings, but Apple is especially aggressive and has outsize
clout when it comes to the slightly out-of-mainstream music it often
emphasizes.
The decisions by the small group of Silicon Valley and music-industry
veterans running iTunes can help put an unknown band on the map, adding
millions of dollars in sales, while relegating others to the obscurity of
the site's virtual back bins.
Push for Exclusives
Apple's muscle-flexing has begun to rub some artists and music companies
the wrong way. During a recent radio interview, outspoken British pop
singer Lily Allen accused iTunes of "bullying" artists into supplying
exclusive content. There's a further worry among music executives that the
few spots available to promote artists on iTunes are dwindling as Apple
remakes the store into a broader entertainment destination for TV shows,
movies and games.
But so far, most labels comply because of the site's ability to drive
sales. During a week when an album is featured on the iTunes home page it
can sell about five times more copies on average through the site than it
does in the three to five weeks that follow, when the album isn't featured,
says one industry executive.
"The way MTV used to be the place where you had to have a video playing as
one of the key legs of the stool, iTunes is now one of the key legs of the
stool," says Chris Douridas, an influential deejay at public radio station
KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., and a former consultant to iTunes.
Not only does securing a spot on the iTunes home page require concessions
by music companies -- it also depends on having material that resonates
with the tastes of iTunes staffers. Three months before Warner Music
Group's Rhino Entertainment was gearing up to promote a handful of older
Prince titles, timed to coincide with the musician's recent performance at
the Super Bowl halftime show, the label entered into talks with iTunes. The
result: Four albums, including "Purple Rain," received prominent positions
in the store and were priced at $7.99 -- $2 less than Apple's standard
album price.
"They said, 'We'd like to be able to offer it at a special price,'" says
David Dorn, Rhino's senior vice president for digital strategy. "I said,
'We'd like to get in the New Music Tuesdays newsletter and home-page
placement.' I gave a little, they gave a little. But no cash changed hands."
After the prime display, digital sales of "Purple Rain" rose fivefold,
according to SoundScan, while sales of "The Very Best of Prince" more than
doubled. Three less-known albums in the promotion saw modest increases.
In January, iTunes executives approached several record labels to set up a
promotion in which they would slash the prices of 20 greatest-hits albums
to $7.99, and Apple in turn would flag the entire group on the home page.
The first album that came up, Queen's 34-song "Greatest Hits 1 & 2,"
originally released by Walt Disney's Hollywood Records in the mid 1990s and
normally sold on iTunes for nearly $34, zoomed to No. 1 on the site's
album-sales chart. It stayed in the top 10 for the entire 10 days of the
promotion.
Groups like Gnarls Barkley have enjoyed significant boosts from iTunes.
Last year, the alternative-soul duo's "Crazy" became the first song to hit
No. 1 on the British pop charts based solely on digital sales. When the
Shins' third album, "Wincing the Night Away," made its debut in January at
No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album-sales chart, nearly 30% of the first-week
sales were made online -- most on iTunes.
For consumers, Apple's growing influence means exposure to a wider range of
music. Apple has told some recording companies that music from independent
labels accounts for about 15% of iTunes sales, compared with about 5% for
physical retailers.
Mike Schiller, a management consultant in Cleveland, says the iTunes home
page, along with Apple's New Music Tuesday newsletter, has frequently
introduced him to music and movies that he later purchased, including an
album by a British act called Guillemots and a Mark Wahlberg football movie
called "Invincible." "It's pretty powerful," says Mr. Schiller, 48 years
old, who worked as a record-store clerk while a teenager in Omaha, Neb. "It
will give you exposure to stuff that you don't normally see."
Rare Growth Story
ITunes is housed at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters in a cluster of
nondescript cubicles that could easily be confused with a
software-development group but for a smattering of music posters on the
walls, according to people who have visited or worked there.
The iTunes staff includes people with music pedigrees, including Alex Luke,
a longtime deejay who is the director of music programming and label
relations. (Mr. Luke still sits in occasionally for stations like Los
Angeles's Indie 103.1 FM.) Bruno Ybarra, who co-founded a house-music
record label, manages relationships with independent music companies.
Denzyl Feigelson, a South African who was a manager for singer Paul Simon's
"Graceland" tour, is a music editor for iTunes in London. In all, dozens of
iTunes editors and label-relations staffers collaborate in meetings and
discussions throughout the week to determine what the home page of the
iTunes Store will look like when it is refreshed every Tuesday.
Apple is a rare growth story in the music business. It nearly monopolizes
digital-music sales, just about the only growth area for the beleaguered
industry, which saw CD sales fall for seven years running. ITunes sold 1.2
billion songs last year compared with 30 million in 2003, its first year in
operation, Apple says. The company says it passed Amazon.com last year to
become the fourth-largest music retailer in the U.S., behind Wal-Mart
Stores, Target and Best Buy, a claim that isn't disputed by music
companies. At the end of last year, Apple was selling five million songs a
day at 99 cents each.
Its growing clout has transformed Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs -- who
kick-started online music sales several years ago with a set of
breakthrough song-licensing deals with major recording companies -- into a
figure music executives alternately admire and grouse about. Mr. Jobs
recently caused a kerfuffle by urging music executives to consider dropping
their insistence on digital copy-protection software on songs, which Mr.
Jobs believes is holding back Internet music sales.
Label executives say that since Apple began selling TV shows and movies in
the past year, they must begin discussions with Apple three to six months
before a major music release if they want a shot at home-page promotion. In
physical stores, such prime real estate is typically for sale. To secure
prominent "end-cap" placement on CD racks near the ends of aisles at
national retail chains, major music labels can pay as much as $5 per disc
displayed in the form of discounts, "cooperative advertising" payments and
other fees, according to executives. That adds up to tens of thousands of
dollars for a major promotion involving 5,000 discs or more. Such hefty
payments can effectively erase any profit on the CDs on display in an end-cap.
Apple says it shunned pay-for-placement -- as have online rivals including
RealNetworks' Rhapsody -- to provide unbiased music recommendations. Eddy
Cue, the Apple vice president who oversees iTunes, says the company hopes
to recapture some of the spirit of independent record stores, when clerks
would give uncompromised tips on promising performers. "That for us was
kind of gone in the new retail environment," Mr. Cue says. Customers used
to believe that advice on music "was coming from someone who really liked
it versus someone who was paid to say they liked it."
Apple isn't under as much pressure to squeeze profits from iTunes because
of the money it makes on iPods. In fact, it earns little from iTunes after
paying fees for the music and credit-card processing. ITunes typically pays
major labels about 72 cents a track, while it pays most independent labels
around 62 cents.
Exclusive material greatly increases the likelihood that iTunes will turn
up its promotion machine. In some cases, that involves getting artists such
as Sting or Willie Nelson to record interviews and performances that Apple
sells as a package. The company recently struck up a relationship with the
Las Vegas casino the Palms to record live concerts by artists such as John
Legend, for which it pays production costs.
The Orchard, an online distributor of music from independent labels,
recently agreed to let Apple have an album of material by the artist G.
Love one week before other Internet retailers got it. Apple ran a promotion
on the front page of iTunes and the album reached No. 17 on the site's
album charts, says Greg Scholl, the distributor's CEO.
Yet Ms. Allen, the young British singer behind the hit "Smile," complained
during the recent radio interview about Apple's tactics. "They won't
advertise your album unless you give them extra material," Ms. Allen said.
She said iTunes pushed her to quickly turn out a version of a song, so she
planned to give them a "rubbish remix." Ms. Allen said she would offer a
better version free on her MySpace page. Apple declined to comment on Ms.
Allen's remarks, and a spokeswoman for her label, EMI Group's Capitol
Records, said the singer and her manager weren't available to elaborate.
And while Apple has made it a practice to seek out new artists, iTunes
still has glaring gaps in its inventory. The best known is the absence of
anything by the Beatles and much of the band members' subsequent solo
recordings -- a situation that stemmed partially from a trademark dispute
between Apple and the band's Apple Corps Ltd. record label. (Apple has said
it's hopeful it will get the Beatles on iTunes following a recent
settlement between the company and Apple Corps.) Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and
Radiohead, too, haven't licensed their music to the service. And due to
licensing issues, some albums are sold minus one or more songs. Elvis
Costello's "Spike," from 1989, is missing one track, while only three songs
from the J. Geils Band's 1972 "Full House 'Live'" are available on iTunes.
Still, Apple is being fawned over by much of the music industry. Digital
Music Group, a Sacramento, Calif., company that handles online distribution
for independent labels, has four people on staff who spend most of their
time chatting up iTunes editors and sending them CDs of bands in an attempt
to get promotion on the site. Tuhin Roy, the distributor's chief strategy
officer, is impressed by the knowledge of the Apple staffers. "Clearly,
they know the music they're dealing with," he says.
Josh Deutsch, chief executive of Downtown Records, went so far as to bring
urban artist Kevin Michael to Cupertino to perform for iTunes staffers.
Apparently impressed, iTunes executives committed to releasing an
Apple-only collection of tracks next month, in advance of Mr. Michael's
debut album. While some music executives are frustrated about what it takes
to woo Apple, "The flip side is, when they do step out on a new artist,
it's that much more meaningful," Mr. Deutsch says.
=================================================
George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923
Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:31:20 -0600
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Using RSS Feeds Is Much Simpler Than You Think
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii
Plumb Yourself In
Using RSS Feeds Is Much Simpler Than You Think
By JEREMY WAGSTAFF
Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117337605871631069.html?mod=technology_main_promo_left
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Confessing to a cocktail party acquaintance that
you're a technology columnist is always a mistake, I find. Their next
question, if it's not "would you excuse me, I need to find a pillar to talk
to," is always predictable: "OK, would you please explain to me what RSS
is, and why I should care?" It's usually at that point I feign food
poisoning to avoid the torture that follows.
"Torture" because it's an annoyingly simple concept that (a) is hard to
explain, and (b) should be a lot more popular among nongeeks than it is. I
first mentioned it in a column nearly four years ago but, if a recent
survey I conducted online is anything to go by, the world is still divided
between those people who are awash with RSS, and have been for years (15%
of respondents agreed that the answer to the question "How do you feel
about RSS in general?" was "It's transformed my life. I'm going to call my
kids R, S and S"), and those who still respond to questions like "How long
have you been using RSS?" with the answer "What is RSS?"
(The full details of the survey are here: tinyurl.com/3a2awf. The sample
was around 100 people and, while I tried to poll an even proportion of
nerds and nonnerds, it was hard to get the latter aboard. The survey
remains open; feel free to add your voice.)
So: For the benefit of those who asked, and those who didn't, here's what
RSS (which stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is,
and what it could be for you.
First, think of information as water. A library, therefore, is a lake. The
information is just poured in there, as books and periodicals. Those who
want to use it wander in and scoop the water out. There's water coming in
and going out, but most of it just sits there: still water, that we have to
go to in order to enjoy it.
Web pages are much the same. Information is added to the lake that already
exists, but for the most part it's a pretty static, if not stagnant affair.
Email is different. There the water comes to us in buckets. Much more
useful, because the water is no longer stagnant, and we don't have to go
and scoop it out ourselves. But we are still dependent on someone sending
the stuff to us -- filling the buckets, as it were -- and we also have
little control over when, how and what kind of information we receive. No
surprise, then, that one of the shortcomings of email is that we find
ourselves receiving lots of waste water -- spam -- along with the potable
stuff.
If information is water, surely there must be a way to pipe to our house
just the kind of water we need, when and where we want it? This is RSS: a
way to deliver information to us in a way that suits us. RSS is the piping
and the faucets that let us order and manage that information flow.
It's a simple enough thing once you understand it. And, to judge by the
plethora of feeds that are available now, RSS has quickly become hugely
popular. In my survey, a quarter of respondents subscribe to about 50
feeds; 17% subscribe to up to 200; and about 5% subscribe to more than 500.
(And this may not be the whole story: 3% selected the answer "Do I look
like I have time to count 'em?")
Indeed, if the last response is anything to go by, RSS may be a victim of
its own success. The more that adventurous types have embraced it, the more
online information is available as feeds. But this has created an irony: By
streamlining the way we get our information, we now have access to far more
of it than we can handle. Most of us sit with dozens of feeds in our reader
(the software we use to collect and read our RSS information -- think of it
as a storage tank where all your information/water ends up). But many of
the articles within them remain unread; more than 60% of the people in my
survey said that they read half or less of the articles in their feeds.
How to start with RSS and avoid these problems? It's best to start simply,
via your browser. Instead of downloading special software, use an online
reader like the Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) or Bloglines
(www.bloglines.com). Add feeds by looking for the orange button you'll see
on Web pages that offer feeds and following the instructions.
But here's the thing: Don't go crazy adding feeds. You'll quickly add more
than you can handle, and be convinced there are thousands more that you
should be reading. Be merciless about deleting feeds that don't really hold
your attention, or that you don't have time to read. Put feeds in folders
depending on whether it's stuff you have to read, you want to read, or feel
you should read for the good of your soul. (See the last question in my
survey for advice on how to use RSS, from RSS survivors.)
The truth is, RSS is going to be big, but it has to get smaller first. We
need to be able to forget it exists, and just turn on the faucets when we
need them. We shouldn't notice the piping. As Taka Muraoka, the
Thailand-based creator of RSS reader program Awasu (www.awasu.com), puts
it: "Right now we're just trying to figure everything out. What do people
actually want? What do they need? How do they want to use it?"
Of course, the idea that RSS needs to shrink isn't the answer I'll give you
at parties, but probably by then you'll have wandered off or fallen asleep
in the shrubbery anyway.
=================================================
George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923
Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 16:43:37 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] APPLE-SA-2007-03-08 AirPort Extreme Update
2007-002
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256
APPLE-SA-2007-03-08 AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002
AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002 is now available. It contains the
content of AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 plus an additional
non-security fix for a compatibility issue when using certain
third-party access points configured to use WEP. AirPort Extreme
Update 2007-001 contained a fix for the following security issue:
AirPort
CVE-ID: CVE-2006-6292
Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.8, Mac OS X Server v10.4.8
Impact: Attackers on the wireless network may cause system
crashes
Description: An out-of-bounds memory read may occur while
handling wireless frames. An attacker in local proximity may be
able to trigger a system crash by sending a maliciously-crafted
frame to an affected system. This issue affects the Core Duo
version of Mac mini, MacBook, and MacBook Pro computers equipped
with wireless. Other systems, including the Core 2 Duo versions
are not affected. This update addresses the issue by performing
additional validation of wireless frames. Credit to LMH for
reporting this issue.
Systems which installed AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 are correctly
patched for CVE-2006-6292. Installing AirPort Extreme Update
2007-002 is recommended to obtain the compatibility fix. Affected
systems that have not yet applied AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001
should apply AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002.
AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002 may be obtained from the Software
Update pane in System Preferences, or Apple's Software Downloads web
site: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/
The download file is named: "AirPortExtremeUpdate2007002.dmg"
Its SHA-1 digest is: ba20b5807dd99308ca2431c2e9a2b4e1b93bcbd1
Information will also be posted to the Apple Security Updates
web site:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798
This message is signed with Apple's Product Security PGP key,
and details are available at:
http://www.apple.com/support/security/pgp/
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------------------------------
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