Fusion: Turner Classics, Tech on Mend

4/29/2005

TURNER CLASSICS

The company that helped revive old films is hoping to bring classic video games out of the vault. Turner Broadcasting System, operator of Turner Classic Movies, will let game aficionados get their fix on hundreds of older games, including classics like Pac-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog. The GameTap service will also have such newer titles as Tony Hawk and Splinter Cell, but not games from the current lineup of titles for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. The on-demand service will require high-speed Internet connections and Windows PCs with at least 256 megabytes of memory and a 3D video card. The system will not work on consoles or Macintosh computers. Gamers will likely pay monthly subscriptions of $10 to $20 to download an unlimited number of games, said Blake Lewin, vice president of product invention at TBS. The games will stop working once the subscription expires.

TECH ON MEND

The nation s high-tech industry is healing after a severe four-year downturn, with job losses leveling off and exports and investments on the rise, according to a trade group report. The industry lost 25,000 jobs last year, compared with 333,000 job losses in 2003 and 612,000 in 2002, according to AeA, which represents 2,500 American high-tech companies. The industry has lost about 1 million jobs since 2001, when there were 6.6 million jobs. U.S. high-tech exports increased 12 percent last year, and venture capital investments in new technology companies went up for the first time in five years. Some segments of the industry are starting to see job gains, according to the report.

AOL AND IM

America Online is preparing to ditch its decade-old instant messaging platform, building a replacement from scratch that s designed to integrate text, audio, video and future forms of communication. AOL has released an early, limited-feature preview of its next-generation IM software, called Triton, and hopes to complete it by year s end. AOL plans only one more update to the existing AIM software, now at version 5.9. The key difference will be the use of tabs to manage a growing list of contacts. Currently, chats with different contacts occur in separate windows, quickly cluttering the computer desktop. Add to that ways to communicate beyond text, including audio, video and file transfers. Triton will also incorporate IM Catcher, IM s version of a spam folder. The tool collects all messages from those not on your buddy list.

VIDEO STARTUP

Two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who helped ignite the dot-com boom in the late 90s have launched a startup that aims to let independent film makers, public television broadcasters and anyone else distribute video over the Internet. Open Media Network is meant to help broaden the audience for any amateur or professional producer of video or audio clips. The nonprofit behind it also hopes to cultivate a following for cutting-edge clips produced specifically for the Internet, much like the podcasts that allow anyone to host a radio program. The peer-to-peer network, launched this week, is the brainchild of Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen, veterans of Netscape Communications Corp., the developer of the first major commercial Web browser. A free version of Open Media Network, still in a beta test phase, lets users play clips on desktop computers, laptops and iPod music players.

CAMP FIREWALL

Twenty-eight high school students spent their week off at cybersecurity camp, looking for vulnerabilities in a wireless network. The camp, at Mohawk Valley Community College in upstate New York, was run in collaboration with The Griffiss Institute for Information Assurance and the Cyber Operations Branch of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. It was funded with a federal grant. The thinking behind the weeklong program, held this month for the first time, is that 80 percent of hackers are under 18 so high school is the perfect time to recruit them to the security side. A two-week camp for high school students is planned for this summer. The curriculum, modeled on a 10-week course given to college ROTC students, included lessons on encryption and digital forensics.

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