Sony Launching Internet-Based TV Service for PS3
Sony Computer Entertainment Korea and KT, Korea’s big telecom operator, will be joining forces to bring internet-based TV service to the PS3 in November.
KT’s Internet Protocol TV service, called Mega TV, allows viewers to download shows from the Internet and watch them whenever they like.
Microsoft announced it was working on its own IPTV service earlier this year, but has yet to follow through.
KT already provides IPTV services in Korea. Lee Young-hee, chief of the Media Center at KT, sees great potential in his company’s alliance with SCEK:
With this partnership, Mega TV will include high-definition games and Blue-Ray media in its periphery. We will seek more cooperation with SCEK to create synergy.
The PlayStation series is the world’s best-selling video game platform, however the PS3 has been struggling in the U.S. and Japanese markets while its rival Nintendo is faring well with the cheaper Wii game machine.
Source: Korea Times
Insect Drones ‘Spotted’ on U.S. Streets
Sightings of robotic-looking insects — combined with reports that the Pentagon is working on cyborg insects — is prompting people to speculate that the government has perhaps already deployed this super-cool technology.
The Washington Post reports in an article that truly made my day:
“I heard someone say, ‘Oh my god, look at those,’ ” the college senior from New York recalled. “I look up and I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’ They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects.”
Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.
“I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” the Washington lawyer said. “They were large for dragonflies. I thought, ‘Is that mechanical, or is that alive?’ ”
That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Of course, as the article notes, no agency admits to actually deploying insect bugs, but hey, why would they?
Female Ninjas Attack
No, it’s not a joke. Female Ninjas really did attack.
Police in Pennsylvania are searching for two women disguised as ninjas - both clad in black, with one brandishing a samurai sword and the other a dagger.
Apparently they held up a Richland gas station:
Anyone with information about the robbery should call the Northern Regional Police Department at 724-625-3157.
Coca-Cola to Open Largest Plastic Recycling Plant
In other Coke news, the soda company recently announced it was putting down $60 million to build the world’s largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant.
The company plans to recycle or reuse 100 percent of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles in the U.S.
The 30-acre plant will be built in Spartanburg, South Carolina and is expected to produce the equivalent of nearly two billion 20-ounce Coca-Cola bottles via recycled PET when it opens in 2009.
Over the next decade the plant will eliminate the production of one million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s like taking over 200,000 cars off the road.
No word on how they’re going to sift through people’s recyclables looking for Coca-Cola affiliated bottles.
Maybe they’ll hire all the homeless people that already go through blue garbage cans on trash day to help out?
Photo Credit: MSNBC
Wikipedia Publishes 2-Millionth Article In English
Wikipedia published its 2-millionth article in the English language version of the anyone-can-edit encyclopedia, a symbolic milestone for the world’s largest user-generated Web publishing site.
Wikipedia, the sixth most visited network of Web sites worldwide behind commercial operators Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and eBay, is available in 250 languages. Combined, Wikipedia has published more than eight million articles.
On September 10, an article on “El Hormiguero,” a popular Spanish TV show, was created by Wikipedia contributor Zzxc to become the 2 millionth article in the English Wikipedia. The article is at http://en.wikipedia..org/wiki/El_Hormiguero/
Since the reference project started in 2001, more than 100,000 registered users have made at least 10 edits each to Wikipedia articles, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organization that operates Wikipedia.
The English version of Wikipedia alone has signed up 3.4 million volunteer contributors. The German and French editions of the Wikipedia, the next two largest sites, each have more than half a million articles.
Nine other language sites each have more than 100,000 articles. It has also offers versions in less common languages ranging from South Africa’s Xhosa language to the hybrid Esperanto.
Wikipedia articles can be constantly improved upon because they are based on group-editing “wiki” software.
A study this year by the Hewlett Packard (HP) Information Dynamics Laboratory found that the best articles on Wikipedia are those that have been edited most frequently, by the largest number of people.
Source: Reuters
Canada Says Google Map Could Break Privacy Law
The Street View feature of Google Maps, with its close-up views of city streets and recognizable shots of people, could violate a Canadian law protecting individual privacy, officials said earlier today.
Google introduced street-level map views in May, giving Web users a series of panoramic, 360-degree images of nine U.S. cities. Some of the random pictures feature people in informal poses who can clearly be identified.
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart wrote to Google in early August asking for more details. She said if the Street View product were expanded to Canada without being amended, it could well violate privacy laws.
The images were produced in partnership with Canadian firm Immersive Media Corp, which says it has taken similar street level pictures of major Canadian cities.
Canadian law obliges businesses wishing to disclose personal information about individuals to first obtain their consent. Stoddart said pictures of people on Street View were clear enough to be considered personal information.
The images appear to have been collected largely without the consent and knowledge of the individuals who appear in the images.
I am concerned that, if the Street View application were deployed in Canada, it might not comply with our federal privacy legislation. In particular, it does not appear to meet the basic requirements of (the law).
Stoddart sent a similar letter to Immersive Media and the documents were posted on her website.
A spokeswoman for Google said the company abides by the local laws of the countries it operates in.
Source: Reuters