"When you have multiple eyes in the sky, what you're doing is creating a transparent globe where anyone can get basic information about anyone else," said Mr. Gupta, the Sandia analyst. His recommendation to the Indian government, he said, would be to accept the new reality: "Times are changing, and the best thing to do is adapt to the advances in technology."

Governments Tremble at Google's Bird's-Eye View

oracleOracle has switched to a new method of charging for its software, responding to growing criticism from customers that the sector has been slow to adapt to technologies that are changing the face of corporate computing.

Why don't they just go back to the good old Xerox solution to this: bolt a counter on the side of your server that ticks up the number of queries processed and you pay by the query. Even better: why not just make your server coin-op -- your ops people would have a huge bucket of quarters that they'd feed into it all day long!

Oracle revamps its software pricing

Pennsylvania -- A Pennsylvania school district cannot teach in science classes a concept that says some aspects of science were created by a supernatural being, a federal judge has ruled.

In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled that teaching "intelligent design" would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state.

Judge rules against 'intelligent design' in science class

A new proposal in Congress could please Hollywood studios, which are increasingly worried about Internet piracy, by embedding anticopying technology into the next generation of digital video products.

If the legislation were enacted, one year later it would outlaw the manufacture or sale of electronic devices that convert analog video signals into digital ones--unless those encoders honor an anticopying plan designed to curb redistribution. Affected devices would include PC-based tuners and digital video recorders.

*sigh* ... I hope the electronics and computer industries will dig in their heels and stop this.

Pro-Hollywood bill aims to restrict digital tuners

Galileo, Europe's global navigation satellite system, will start becoming concrete reality the day after Christmas with the launch of Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element GIOVE-A on top of a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The complete constellation of 30 satellites, specifically designed for civil use, will eventually offer European citizens and institutional users state-of-the-art global positioning and timing services with outstanding accuracy, availability, integrity and a guaranteed signal. Galileo is a joint initiative being taken by the European Commission and ESA.

EU doesn't want to be beholden to DoD for GPS.

First member of Galileo satellite family to be launched on 26 December

Senate Democrats joined by some libertarian-leaning Republicans want to extend the expiring provisions of the law by three months to give Congress time to add more protections against what they say are excessive police powers.

''There's no reason to compromise right to due process, the right to a judicial review, fair and reasonable standards of evidence in the pursuit of our security,'' said Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., one of several senators urging Congress to move the expiration date to March 31.

Renewal of Antiterror Law May Face Hurdles in the Senate

Once again, Apple's iPod is expected to be the hottest gift of the holiday season. That should be great news for the recording industry, right? After all, many of the 10 million or so new iPod owners surely will rush to Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL ) iTunes Music Store to load up on songs.

I think Apple has done far more than anyone else in the last few years to make the whole "content valuation" issue more confused. Not only do I have to pay $0.99 for a track no matter whether I listen to it once or every day but I have to pay $0.99 for it no matter if it was recorded in 1955 or 2005.

Everyone's asking the wrong question: "how can we force people to pay for music?" having missed the bigger, fundamental question: "what's a sensible system for valuing music?"

Apple May Be Holding Back The Music Biz

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday copy protection issues would delay the Japan launch of the first players supporting its HD DVD format, the latest development in the high-stakes battle for the next generation of video discs.

The electronics industry needs to realize that copy protection breeds FUD spontaneously and it is strangling them.

Toshiba to Delay HD DVD Player Launch

In the latest move in the battle between publishers and search engines, HarperCollins Publishers said yesterday it would create its own digital library of all of its book and audio content and make it searchable by consumers on the Internet. Web users will be able to search the HarperCollins archive via search engines like Google and Yahoo or the specialized programs of retailers like Amazon.com.

HarperCollins Will Create a Searchable Digital Library

The IPA is the major as well as the oldest representative organisation for phoneticians. It was established in 1886 in Paris.

The aim of the IPA is to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science.

In furtherance of this aim, the IPA provides the academic community world-wide with a notational standard for the phonetic representation of all languages - the International Phonetic Alphabet (also IPA).

The latest version of the IPA Alphabet was published in 1993 (updated in 1996).

International Phonetic Association Homepage