It seems that Silverlight, a new web streaming technology from Microsoft, will finally allow us to provide customers with video solutions for the web - something that was not really possible with just Windows Media.

Basically, with Silverlight we can build YouTube-like web sites hosted both on Linux and Windows, and viewable on both Windows and Mac.

Sean Alexander comments on this in the June/July edition of Streaming Media: "We're admitting that we kind of screwed up. We didn't have the true cross-platform support and interactivity. We're now going after that very aggressively." Sean also emphasizes Silverlight's ability to do true streaming, as opposed to progressive download: "People sometimes only watch twenty seconds of a clip, but they end up downloading the whole thing. That's not very efficient in terms of user experience and bandwidth usage. Users should be able to go to whatever part in the video they want to watch without having to wait for the entire thing to download."

For more information please take a look at the wiki page and shoot us an email if you are interested.

NAT Expo to take place in Moscow on 19-22 November, 2007. I guess it is not as hot as IBC – but might be interesting if you are targeting the Russian market.

He spent almost 7 days playing online games. A 26 year old man from China died after engaging in a 7 day online gaming marathon. The 330 pound 26 year old collapsed after spending almost all the seven days playing online games. China has 20 million Internet users, 2.6 million of them are considered addicts.

Western Europe became the biggest notebook market in the world in fourth quarter of 2006, accounting for 34% of worldwide shipments and beating out United States. In 2005, Western Europe accounted 35% of worldwide notebook sales, compared to 31% with the U.S.

In 2006 more than 10 million Sony-manufacturered notebook batteries were recalled -- an error that cost Sony more than $444 million dollars to correct. Lenovo has issued a recall on 9-cell lithium-ion batteries. Lenovo insiders stress to DailyTech that this recall is not due to the same conditions as the Sony battery recall from 2006; the batteries are of Sanyo manufacture and the hazard occurs when the battery has undergone considerable abuse. "Lenovo has confirmed that notebook computers containing the recalled battery packs may overheat, posing a potential safety hazard to users if the battery pack experiences a strong external impact," the company stated in a press release. All affected batteries will be replaced free of charge. Lenovo suggests removing the battery from defective units and using the AC adaptor until a replacement has arrived.

Sony said Monday it is bringing out a cheaper player for Blu-ray discs early this summer, a crucial step in its battle to make the high-definition format the replacement for DVDs. The BDP-S300 will cost $599, yet will have the same capabilities as the $999 BDP-S1 Sony is currently selling, said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the home products division of Sony Electronics. Sony and Samsung, which also makes a Blu-ray player, have been undersold by Toshiba's players for the rival HD DVD format. Toshiba has a model on the market for $499.

Most people buying high-definition discs are apparently doing so to play them on PlayStation 3 game consoles. There are two versions of the console, for $499 and $599, and Sony sold 1.8 million units last year. The BDP-S300 is a smaller unit than the BDP-S1, and is about the same size as a DVD player. Like the current model, it will be able to output a signal in the highest high-definition format (1080p) through an HDMI connection. The player supports various video formats, including MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC and VC1. It will also be able to play CDs, which the BDP-S1 does not.

Sony has previously complained that DVD players became a commodity product too soon, and that it was hard to make a profit in a market dominated by $50 units. Glasgow predicted that Blu-ray players would take the same route.

Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire -- Microsoft Corp. -- by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source software. Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code. Other countries have tried similar moves. China, Brazil and Norway have encouraged the development of Linux for a variety of reasons: Microsoft's near-monopoly over operating systems, the high cost of proprietary software and security problems.

Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, an old comrade-in-arms of President Fidel Castro, raised suspicions about Microsoft's cooperation with U.S. military and intelligence agencies as he opened a technology conference this week. He called the world's information systems a "battlefield" where Cuba is fighting against imperialism. Valdes is a hard-liner who favors uniforms and military haircuts, but the biggest splash at the conference was made by Richard Stallman, whose Free Software Foundation created the license used by many open-source programs, including Linux. Richard Stallman said that copyright laws violate basic morality; he compared them to laws that would threaten people with jail for sharing or modifying kitchen recipes.

Abdel Kareem Soliman, aka Kareen Amer, has been sentenced to four years' prison for insulting various things bloggers are prone to insult. (Bite me, Tony Blair!) Soliman had some choice words about Islam, the president of Egypt, and called his alma mater al-Azhar "the university of terrorism". He was expelled last year and his school pushed for him to be arrested for being mouthy. Visit Free Kareem to get in on doing something to support his human right to speak his mind and be free.

The software behemoth is giving away 50 Zune media players as part of a "Make MSN Your Homepage" promotion. Read the rules, though, and you'll see you don't actually have to make MSN your homepage to enter. You do have to agree to "hold harmless Microsoft Corporation" and its affiliates "from any and all liability or any injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with this sweepstakes or acceptance or use of any prize won." This could turn out to be a rather large concession given the nature of the "prize." But we mention all this merely to make the following old-fashioned, hand-crafted joke: What's second prize -- two Zunes?

http://homepage.msn.com/zune

Promotion is only open until February 28, 2007. This is for US residents only.

Enter eNECESSITIES, a company that will brand your slogan or message to their line of products so you can hand them out as company Christmas gifts to the employees or tech swag to clients that visit your firm's convention booth. eNECESSITIES' latest novelty is the USB Sound Flash Drive, a little innovation that could drive you insane if it falls into the wrong hands. Plug this USB into your computer and an audio message (up to 20 seconds) is played from the unit's integrated speaker. Some people will load on their favorite song or a cute message and for pranksters there's suddenly a new way to embarrass your co-workers ("I'm looking at porn!") but for companies that are always looking for new ways to market their wares, this is gold. eNECESSITIES offers a few suggestions to their prospective customers like "Deliver a short audible commercial or advertisement" or "Call 1-800-you-win1 to reclaim your prize!" Uh oh. Listening to a commercial while your data downloads to your desktop may be just around the corner.