Europe continues push for iTunes interoperability

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10368/53/
European pressure on DRM schemes that restrict the use of purchased music to particular types of player (think iTunes and iPod) has stepped up a notch.

EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva has been quoted as saying "Do you think it's fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don't. Something has to change."
While this overlooks the fact that tracks purchased from the iTunes Store can legitimately be transferred to audio CD - Apple's iTunes software will do this for you - going from protected AAC to CD to MP3 (or some other format supported by other mobile players) does result in some loss of quality, much like photocopying a photocopy.
Scandinavian countries, led by Norway, have been pressing Apple to provide interoperability between iTunes tracks and other manufacturers' players. Apple has until 1 October 2007 to bring the iTunes store into line with Norwegian law.
It remains to be seen how Apple will respond, but one possibility is that it will close the iTunes store to countries where its current business model is considered illegal.
For its part, Apple has been trying to deflect criticism onto the record companies. It was largely Apple's success in persuading those companies that its DRM was sufficiently secure that attracted them to the iTunes Store.
It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Apple could - with the labels' cooperation - use the Norwegian situation to test market reaction to DRM-free music. If sales hold up and there's no corresponding drop in sales of the same titles in other geographies, the sale of unprotected content could spread.
Apple does seem to be strongly against the alternative, which is to allow other companies to use its DRM scheme as mandated by recent French legislation.
The EU is know to be working towards unifying member nations' consumer protection laws, and several countries have expressed concern that there is not the same degree of interoperability between music sold online and portable players from different manufacturers as there is between CDs and CD players, or DVDs and DVD players.
The heart of the issue is the 'lock in' problem - to keep using their libraries of purchased content on portable players, iPod owners must keep buying iPods, Zune owners must keep buying Zunes, and so on.

S.Korea chip makers up anew on NAND memory hopes

S.Korea chip makers up anew on NAND memory hopes
Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:17 AM IST

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-03-12T111028Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-290615-1.xml&archived=False

By Rafael Nam
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean chip makers including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. extended this month's gains on Monday as prices of NAND flash memory chips used in digital gadgets are expected to rebound, pulling up earnings.
Easing worries about the global economy, following well received jobs data in the United States and solid economic growth in Japan, also boosted the export-oriented sector.
Valuations are playing a role as well, after shares in South Korean chip makers had tumbled for several months on worries about falling prices of memory chips, which threatened to worsen first half earnings that are traditionally marked by weak demand.
"The bottom for memory chip prices is not too far away. Flash memory is close to hitting a bottom, although DRAM prices could continue on a downward trend," said Chung Chan-won, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.
"We do think the earnings trends in Korean chip makers is softening, but share prices are reflecting a hard landing scenario. They are quite low compared to their long-term earnings valuations," he added.
Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest maker of memory chips, rose as much as 2.6 percent. Shares were up 2.39 percent at 600,000 won as of 0438 GMT, marking its fifth day of gains. That compared with a 0.95 percent gain in the main index.
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. advanced 1.08 percent to 32,850 won, its third consecutive daily gain.
Analysts have cut earnings forecasts for Samsung Electronics and Hynix as NAND flash memory chip prices have fallen, while those for DRAM chips, used in computers, have peaked after gaining strongly through the end of last year.
Despite the estimate cuts, investors appear to be increasingly optimistic about the sector.
Goldman Sachs on Monday cut its 2007 earnings-per-share forecast for Samsung Electronics by 11 percent citing lower memory chip prices, but maintained its buy rating on the stock and said it could gain as much as 25 percent from current levels given its low valuations and cost reduction efforts.
The U.S. investment house said Samsung was trading at a price to book ratio of 1.75 times 2007 earnings, a measure some analysts prefer to determine a company's valuations, close to the chip maker's historic low of 1.5 times. Its five year trading range has been 1.5 times to 2.5 times.
Last week Merrill Lynch cut its target prices on South Korean chip makers Samsung and Hynix but reiterated its buy rating on both, saying the risk to flash memory chip prices would decrease in the second quarter, which would be followed by a sales recovery in the third quarter.
"We expect NAND to lead the recovery in 2H (second half) and growth in 2008, resulting from a superior pricing environment coupled with global capacity constraints to meet the demand from new applications," Merrill said in its report.
Some investors are banking on new applications to drive shares, with speculation last week that Apple Inc. may sell small computers powered by flash memory chips helping give a bounce to chip maker shares.
Samsung shares have gained 3.3 percent so far in March as of Friday, heading to its first monthly rise in four months. Hynix shares have gained 4.3 percent, en route to its first monthly rise in three months.

Digital data will increase sixfold by 2010: study
8 Mar 2007 10

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/03/08/digital_data_explosion/

Imagine 12 stacks of Harry Potter books reaching from Earth to the Sun - that's equivalent to the amount of data stored on digital devices within three years.

New research suggests digital information will occupy a staggering 988 billion gigabytes of storage space in 2010 - more than six times its current quantity.

It seems that all of our digital activity is adding up, particularly data heavy applications such as video downloads from YouTube and digital music from sites like iTunes.

According to a new IDC report, the digital universe measured 161 billion gigabytes (or 161 exabytes) in 2006. This is approximately more than three million times the information in all the books ever written - a staggering amount of detail to accumulate in a such short space of time.

The EMC-sponsored study measured and forecast the amounts and types of digital information created and copied in the world up until 2010. This includes digital images, video, email, music and other types of information.

It seems that snap-happy digital camera owners are making up a large proportion of the digital universe, with images being captured by more than 1 billion devices, from cameras and phones to medical scanners and security cameras.

More than 150 billion images were captured on digital cameras in 2006, with a further 100 billion captured on mobile phones. According to IDC, more than 500 billion images will be captured by 2010.

Meanwhile, more people are regularly getting online than ever before. In 1996, when the web as we know it was a mere two years old, only 48 million people used the internet on a regular basis. By 2006, however, this figure had grown to 1.1 billion, a figure that IDC expects to rise by another 500 million users by 2010.

Email usage has also surged, with the number of email mailboxes growing from 253 million in 1998 to almost 1.6 billion in 2006. The popular communication method has grown three times faster than the number of people actually using it.

Internet instant messaging (IM) is also expected to grow in popularity, with 250 million accounts predicted by 2010.

"The incredible growth and sheer amount of the different types of information being generated from so many different places represents more than just a worldwide information explosion of unprecedented scale," said John Gantz, chief research officer and senior vice president at IDC. "It represents an entire shift in how information has moved from analogue form, where it was finite, to digital form, where it's infinite."

Although almost 70 per cent of the digital universe will be generated by individuals by 2010, the study found organisations will be responsible for the security, privacy, reliability and compliance of at least 85 per cent of it, through data centres, telephone and hosting switches, or data back-up depositories.

"This explosive growth will change the way organisations and IT professionals do their jobs, and the way we consumers use information," said Mark Lewis, EMC executive vice president and chief development officer.

"Given that 85 per cent per cent of the information created and copied will be the responsibility of organisations and businesses, we must take steps as an industry to ensure we develop flexible, reliable and secure information infrastructures to handle the deluge."

Sony to cut costs for European PlayStation 3 by removing chip

Sony to cut costs for European PlayStation 3 by removing chip

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2007-03-09-ps3-chip-cut_N.htm


TOKYO (Reuters) — Sony is removing a chip from the European version of its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console, a move that cuts costs but means users cannot play some of their old games.Sony shares rose nearly 3% after the news, which is expected to expedite efforts by the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment conglomerate to turn its PS3 operations profitable — a focus for investors.
Sony, locked in a three-way battle with Microsoft and Nintendo for dominance of the $30 billion video game industry, now makes a loss for each PS3 it sells.
Both Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are cheaper than Sony's latest PlayStation and have been outselling it, although the Xbox 360 has been on the market longer.
The PS3 is to go on sale in Europe on March 23, following its North American and Japanese launches late last year.
Unlike the PS3 being sold in the United States and Japan, the European version will not carry a Sony-made microchip that offers graphic- and data-processing functions for PS2 games, cutting production costs, said a spokesman for game unit Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE).
The console will still be equipped with a different chip that processes graphics for PS2 games, but the backward compatibility of the machine will be lessened, the spokesman said.
Sony packs the PS3 with its cutting-edge technology such as a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player and the Cell microchip, dubbed a "supercomputer on a chip", which provides lifelike graphics and high-speed downloading of game software and video clips.
But they have driven up production costs, dragging Sony's game operations into a deep loss for the business year ending March 31.
Sony said in January it expected losses in its game unit to exceed its previous estimate of 200 billion yen this business year, but would aim to break even on games in the year starting April 1.
In another cost-cutting measure, Sony is planning to introduce Cell chips with circuitry width of 65 nanometres this year, replacing the current 90-nanometre ones.
Narrower circuitry makes microchips smaller, cutting per-chip production costs. A nanometre is one billionth of a metre.
The basic model of the PS3 sells for 49,980 yen ($426.5) in Japan and $499 in the United States, double the price of Nintendo's Wii.
Sony saw its television business posting a profit for the first time in two years in October-December, making its game division's profitability the biggest concern for investors.
Shares in Sony closed up 2.8% at 6,160 yen, outpacing the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index IELEC, which rose 1.22%. ($1=117.17 Yen)

Starting Right Away!

You guys probably know that everytime you run the program, there'll be like "RadioButton1," "RadioButton2," etc. To get into the "game," you'd need to click the "Next" button. This is a fix so that you can start the game straightaway.

Under Form1_Load(), add at the very bottom:

NextRecord()

So that it'll look like:

m_aAllRecordsArray = Split(m_sAllRecords, vbNewLine)
NextRecord()
End Sub

Next, cut all contents from the function, Button1_Click and paste it in a new function called, NextRecord().

Finally, in the "command-less" Button1_Click function, add:

NextRecord()

So it looks like:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
NextRecord()
End Sub

Done.

New technology helps catch child predators
March 10, 2007 07:46 AM
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=6206122&nav=0hBE

Class is in session for your children, sure, but also for authorities trying to stop child predators on-line.

The experts say technology is changing crime.

What one can do with a computer is bound only by the imagination.

We've been following the efforts to keep up with technologically advanced crimes.

Stepping up the effort is the focus of this WAFF 48 Investigators Report. In July we told you about a new cyber crime fighting tool coming to town

In January we introduced you to that tool, an Alabama computer forensics lab here in Huntsville.

It's one of three labs across the state and Alabama is one of only two states in the country to implement such a program.

Two weeks ago, we told you about a Vernon man, arrested on 149 counts of child porn. He was busted by the ACFL, a group set to expand by building a national computer forensics institute about a hundred miles away in Hoover Alabama.

Thousands of investigators from across the world will converge on that institute, training how to combat all types of cyber crime, from homicide, to identity theft, to kiddie porn.

Center directors say it'll be many months before that institute opens, but in the meantime, interim training courses will be underway in temporary facilities.

EU Consumer Chief Kuneva Criticizes iTunes iPod Combo

http://www.playfuls.com/news_06487_EU_Consumer_Chief_Kuneva_Criticizes_iTunes_iPod_Combo.html

European Union consumer chief Meglena Kuneva has expressed her opinion about Apple’s policy to allow iTunes’ songs to be played only on iPods. “Do you think it’s fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don’t. Something has to change,” said EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Kuneva, according to Reuters. It’s still unclear if Kuneva’s remark is an official position or just a personal opinon, but Apple is facing a lot of pressure in Europe to make iTunes interoperable.
In January this year, the Norwegian government declared iTunes illegal and gave Apple until Oct. 1 to let competitor devices play songs downloaded from the iTunes music store. Also, consumer rights groups in Finland, France and Germany filed similar complaints and issued a joint statement with their counterparts in Norway criticizing Apple.
The problems for Apple in Europe have begun last year when France threatened to pass a law forcing the company to make iTunes tracks compatible with all devices. After Apple called the law state-sponsored piracy and have threatened that will close its iTunes store in France, the French senate softened the law. The French senate has added language to the bill so that a company that agrees to provide its proprietary codes to rivals will receive a license fee along with guarantees that the transfer of information will not weaken its copyright protection measures.
iTunes Store was launched initially to promote iPod player, but in three years Apple has managed to transform into the biggest online music download service. In February 2006, Apple has celebrated the 1 billionth download from iTunes. According to Nielsen NetRatings, a provider of Internet media and market research, traffic to Apple's iTunes Web site and use of the iTunes application has spectacularly increased in the last two years, reaching nearly 14 percent of the active Internet population.
Last month in an open letter, Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, expressed his opinion about the issues in Europe. “Those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.” wrote Steve Jobs.

Sony unveils virtual PlayStation world

Sony unveils virtual PlayStation world
By ASHER MOSES - SMH Monday, 12 March 2007

http://www.stuff.co.nz/3988670a28.html

Sony pulled another rabbit out of its hat when it revealed a new freebie for PlayStation 3 owners - an online, 3D virtual world in which gamers can hang out and communicate with each other.
The announcement almost created a public relations disaster for the games console market leader, which went to enormous lengths last week to keep it under wraps.
Demonstrating the service - dubbed PlayStation Home - at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, Sony worldwide studios president Phil Harrison said he expected the free download for the PS3 to be available from August.
The virtual world, which is uncannily similar to Second Life, will help take the sting out of the PS3's $1200 price and delayed March 23 release date.
Sony said in a statement that Home "allows PS3 users to interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share private content and even build and show off their own personal spaces to others in real time".
Last week, popular gaming blog Kotaku killed Sony's surprise by leaking extensive details about Home and predicting the GDC announcement. It led Sony to cut off all communications with the blog, but that decision was reversed after a huge public uproar by the gaming community and journalists.
Those who attended Harrison's Home demonstrations today described it as drawing inspiration from Second Life, the social networking site MySpace and the video sharing service YouTube.
Each user is represented in the virtual world by a fully customisable 3D character called an "avatar", which has its own private space or "apartment".
From their apartments, inhabitants can launch straight into multiplayer games or share their photos, video and music content.
In addition to the private apartments, there are also various common areas where users can interact and compete with each other in arcade games such as pool or bowling.
It is unclear whether third parties will be allowed to set up bases within the virtual world or sell products to its inhabitants - a hallmark feature of the Second Life economy - but Sony does plan to commercialise Home with in-world ads.
Sony is also expected to sell clothing for avatars and apartment furniture, but details on this are sparse.
Home is the latest in a series of freebies Sony is offering prospective PS3 buyers; late last month, its managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Michael Ephraim, announced that the first 20,000 people to register their PS3 online would receive a free copy of the James Bond film Casino Royale.
Further, all PS3 buyers will be offered the game Gran Turismo: HD as a free download from the PlayStation Network.
Sony hopes these incentives, coupled with the PS3's ability to play Blu-ray movies and act as a multimedia hub, will convince Australians to choose the PS3 over the cheaper Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360.
The Wii and Xbox 360 can be had for $399.95 and $650 respectively, but it appears that neither can compete with the PS3 as an all-round entertainment system.
In fact, the PS3's photo, music and movie viewing capabilities, as well as the built-in internet browser, are being marketed just as heavily as the gaming features.

Digital universe 'infinite'
10/03/2007 18:26 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,9294,2-13-1443_2081420,00.html

Johannesburg - Just how big is the digital universe? About 161 billion gigabytes and growing fast, according to new research.

EMC Corporation, an information infrastructure solutions business, said the research it sponsored found that "the 2006 digital universe was 161 billion gigabytes, or 161 exabytes, in size" and a six-fold growth to 988 exabytes was predicted by 2010.

"This digital universe equals approximately three million times the information in all the books ever written - or the equivalent of 12 stacks of books, each extending more than 93 million miles from the earth to the sun," said EMC.

"It represents an entire shift in how information has moved from analogue form, where it was finite, to digital form, where it's infinite," said chief research officer and senior vice-president of IDC, John Gantz. IDC did the research.

"While nearly 70% of the digital universe will be generated by individuals by 2010, most of this content will be touched by an organisation along the way - on a network, in a data centre, at a hosting site, at a telephone or internet switch, or in a backup system.

Organisations in control

"Organisations - including businesses of all sizes, agencies, governments and associations - will be responsible for the security, privacy, reliability and compliance of at least 85 percent of the information," said EMC.

"This ever-growing mass of information is putting a considerable strain on the IT infrastructures we have in place today," said CEO of EMC South Africa Frank Touwen.

He said it would change the way organisations and IT professionals worked and the way consumers used information.

Most of the digital information is images, captured by more than one billion devices around the world, including digital cameras and cellphones.

The information includes e-mails generated from 1.6 billion e-mail boxes last year and 1.1 billion internet users.

New device 'uses emotions to play games'

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/New-device-uses-emotions-to-play-games/2007/03/12/1173548082973.htmlEmail Print Normal font Large font March 12, 2007 - 2:29PM(By. Lily)

In a world where gamers can spend days on end intimately coupled to their PCs, one Australian company is seeking to intensify the relationship between man and machine.
Emotiv Systems has shifted its main headquarters from Sydney to San Francisco as it moves to secure support for a mind-reading device it believes will profoundly change the way humans interact with computers.
The fledgling business has secured about $6.3 million in venture capital and Australian government grants for the marketing of the Emotiv Development Kit (EDK), a product the company is initially pitching at game developers.
The kit, recently unveiled at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, includes the company's headset, dubbed Project Epoc, a device able to detect electrical activity in the brain.
The EDK reads these signals and interpolates them into meaningful information - in other words, it can read a limited vocabulary of thoughts and emotions.
The kit comprises three applications known as Expressiv, Affectiv and Cognitiv.
Expressiv can also work out a user's facial expression, recreating this on the face of an "avatar" - a graphical representation of a user.
The intent is to make the social networking experience in platforms such as Second Life more natural.
Emotiv chief product officer Randy Breen, previously product development head at LucasArts, says advances in the way the gaming industry currently works are driving the project.
"The problem is that graphics and sound have improved dramatically to a point where the improvements are becoming more subtle and the costs to support them are making it more difficult to find profit for the developers," Breen says.
"There's pressure on where the innovation is coming from.
"Historically, the game controller hasn't changed very much over a long period of time so that in recent years we've started to see more unusual hardware coming to market."
Breen describes Expressiv as a significantly more advanced take on "emotes", symbols that users employ to convey a feeling or action over the electronic written medium.
Users will be able to communicate not just conscious intent but more immediate non-conscious responses such as laughter, smiling or wincing.
"Emotes do that to some extent now but it's really different when there's a barrier that requires you to consciously think about communicating laughing," Breen says.
"Communicating that text and then sending it off and the other person reads it - the reaction to that is not as immediate, not as real."

Mobile phones are new frontier in advertising

Site: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/11/business/ad12.php
(by. Lily)
Eric Pfanner
Old media got left behind in the race to go online, in part because the prospects for advertising, traditionally the major revenue generator for newspapers, magazines and television, seemed unclear on the Internet. Then online advertising took off, and old media are still playing catch-up.
Now, with the next iteration of the Internet, the mobile Web, spreading around the world, publishers and other content providers are trying to keep up, lest they get in late on another advertising bonanza.
Last week in London, the Online Publishers Association released a study showing that use of the mobile Internet is on the rise, along with acceptance of mobile advertising.
Today in Technology & Media
Wireless: Operating systems present problems for mobile phone makers Telecoms fighting in tough TV arena French election could determine future of government-supported France 24 news channelThe survey, conducted by TNS Media and Entertainment in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, found that 76 percent of cellphone owners in those countries now have access to the Web from mobile devices. The researchers, who polled about 1,000 people in each country, found that more than a third of those with mobile Web access used such services. The Web-using population ranged from 34 percent in France to 54 percent in Britain.
Studies commissioned by trade organizations are sometimes just disguised marketing exercises, and indeed the publishers' group's numbers seem surprisingly high, compared with other recent surveys of Web access by mobile phone users. According to M:Metrics, a research firm based in Seattle, 14 percent of British cellphone users accessed the Web for news and information in the fourth quarter. In Germany, a mere 3.2 percent did so, according to the firm.
Still, even if the lower estimates are right, mobile marketing could be a big thing, simply because the numbers are enormous. Some oft-repeated measures: Around one billion mobile phones will be sold around the world this year. Globally, there are more cellphones than PCs.
"I always hear about the cellphone as being the 'third screen,' but I think about it as the first one," said Bob Greenberg, chief executive of R/GA, an agency based in New York that specializes in digital advertising, speaking at a conference sponsored by the publishers' association. "It's with me all the time."
In advertising terms, however, the mobile remains very much the third screen, behind television and the PC. Outside Asia, where mobile advertising has grown rapidly in markets like Japan, activity is still dominated by "text and response" campaigns that ask users to send text messages for more information on a product, or to enter a contest, for example.
The personal nature of the link between cellphones and their users has made marketers tread carefully. Some kinds of mobile advertising — unsolicited text-message spam, for instance — are illegal or against advertising regulatory codes in many countries.
The online publishers' survey indicated that consumers remain wary. Only 18 percent of respondents in the United States said they were receptive to the idea of watching ads in exchange for free mobile content. The percentage was higher in Europe, where 37 percent said they would do so.
But the study also showed how effective mobile advertising could be, if the personal space can be entered deftly. Sizable percentages of respondents said they had visited a Web site, for instance, or requested more information about a product, as a result of a mobile ad.
In an effort to get more marketers into mobile, Nokia last week announced two new services that aim to stimulate the development of mobile advertising. One of the new programs will help digital advertising specialists roll out campaigns for cellphone-based media applications like music players and navigation systems. The other will help agencies adapt digital campaigns for the mobile web.
"It was kind of natural for us to try to figure out how advertising will work inside these platforms," said Harry Santamaki, vice president for multimedia strategy and business development at Nokia.
With mobile media embracing an increasingly diverse array of devices and formats, from video game players to portable newspaper readers, that may be no easy task. But, if you believe the marketing, the payoff could be sizable.

Wikipedia Founder Plans To Launch Search Engine

David Hyun
URL:
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006697731

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on Thursday indicated his plans to launch an open source search engine early next year. According to Wales, the first test version of the search engine could be released sometime in 2007 so that programmers could spot and remove the bugs that only become visible with real-world usage.
Speaking at a news conference in Japan, Wales said the project being run by Wikia Inc. could snag as much as 5 percent of the search market.
Wales said that although the project is still in its preliminary phase, it has already started attracting attention from a community of engineers, programmers and developers.
"We are getting a lot of interest from second-tier search players who are really interested in some of the alternatives that might be available," he told Macworld.com.
The Wiki-founder went on to criticize Google and Yahoo! for keeping their search technologies under wraps and said that the technology used by Google should not necessarily be given the market edge it is receiving.
"The idea that Google has some edge because they've got super duper rocket scientists may be a little antiquated now," he said at the conference.
However, he acknowledged that publishing a search algorithm, which usually determines how a particular site is ranked, would make it too easy for spammers to "game the system...and my whole idea won't work," he told the Macworld.com.
Still Wales hopes that the search engine would ride on the success of the collaborative search technology currently enjoyed by his reader-edited Website Wikipedia and could transform the development of future search engines.

Insat-4B launched successfully

site: http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k7/mar/mar126.php#top
(by. Lily)
(12 March 2007 9:00 am)
Ariane 5, carrying Insat-4B and its co-passenger Skynet-5A, lifts off from the Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. MUMBAI: Isro's latest satellite, Insat-4B, was successfully launched early this morning by the European Ariane-5 ECA launch vehicle from Kourou in French Guiana.
The 3,025 kg Insat-4B is the second satellite in the Insat-4 series. An identical satellite, Insat-4A, was launched by Ariane-5 on 22 December, 2005.
The lift-off was earlier scheduled for the early hours of Sunday but due to a technical hitch, the launch was aborted just seven minutes before blast-off. There were no such problems today though and the mission went off with text book precision. With 12 high power Ku-band transponders and 12 C-band transponders, Insat-4B will further augment the Insat capacity for Direct-To-Home (DTH) television services and other communication and TV services.
The 31st flight in Ariane-5 series, carrying Isro's Insat-4B and its co-passenger, Skynet-5A of EADS Astrium, lifted off at 03:33 am Indian Standard Time (IST) from Kourou. About 30 minutes after lift-off, Insat-4B was placed in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) in 3-axis stabilised mode. Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair (at right) joins with Astrium CEO François Auque in the Spaceport's Jupiter control room to congratulate Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall (left) on Ariane 5's successful launch. Insat-4B is now orbiting the earth with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 243 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,876 km and an inclination of 4.52 deg with respect to the equator. The orbital period is about 10 hours 34 minutes.
The Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka acquired the first signals from Insat-4B at 4:02 am IST. The initial checks on the satellite have indicated normal health of the satellite. MCF subsequently issued commands to the satellite to make the earth viewing face to orient towards earth. The calibration of the gyros on board the satellite was also carried out.
Insat-4B is being tracked, monitored and controlled from MCF. During the initial phase operations, MCF also utilises Inmarsat Organisation's Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) ground stations at Beijing (China), Fucino (Italy) and Lake Cowichan (Canada) besides the Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command (Istrac) Network station at Biak in Indonesia. The satellite's orbit is being precisely determined by continuous ranging from the participating ground stations.
In the coming days, Insat-4B will be manoeuvred to its final geostationary orbit, which is about 36,000 km above the equator, by firing its 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM). When the satellite reaches near geosynchronous orbit, deployment of its solar panels and the two antennas will be carried out and the satellite put in its final 3-axis stabilised mode. This will be followed by trim manoeuvres to take the satellite to its designated orbital slot at 93.5 degree East longitude where it will be co-located with Insat-3A. The payloads will be checked out before the commissioning of the satellite.
Insat-4B carries the following payloads:
* 12 Ku- band 36 MHz and 27 MHz usable bandwidth Transponders (9 and 3 numbers respectively) employing 140 W TWTAs to provide an EIRP of 52 dBW over the footprint covering Indian main land.
* 12 C-band 36 MHz bandwidth transponders employing 63 W TWTA to provide an EIRP 39 dBW with expanded coverage encompassing Indian geographical boundary, area beyond India in southeast and northwest regions.
The satellite has two deployable antennas for various transmit and receive functions.

Duplicate bug fixed by Paul Lee

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Static lIndex As Long Dim aFields
If m_sSelectedCorrectDefinition <> m_sCorrectDefinition Then MsgBox("not") Exit Sub End If If lIndex > UBound(m_aAllRecordsArray) Then lIndex = 0
End If

aFields = Split(GetRecord(lIndex), "") lIndex = lIndex + 1
Place: If UBound(aFields) > 0 Then lblDef1.Text = aFields(0) m_sCorrectDefinition = aFields(1)
RadioButton1.Text = GetNewRandomDefinition() RadioButton2.Text = GetNewRandomDefinition() RadioButton3.Text = GetNewRandomDefinition() RadioButton4.Text = GetNewRandomDefinition() RadioButton5.Text = GetNewRandomDefinition()
WriteCorrectDefToRandomRadioButton()
RadioButton1.Checked = False RadioButton2.Checked = False RadioButton3.Checked = False RadioButton4.Checked = False RadioButton5.Checked = False
End If
If RadioButton1.Text = RadioButton2.Text Or RadioButton1.Text = RadioButton3.Text Or RadioButton1.Text = RadioButton4.Text Or RadioButton1.Text = RadioButton5.Text Or RadioButton2.Text = RadioButton3.Text or RadioButton2.Text = RadioButton4.Text or RadioButton2.Text = RadioButton5.Text or RadioButton3.Text = RadioButton4.Text or RadioButton3.Text = RadioButton5.Text or RadioButton4.Text = RadioButton5.Text Then
GoTo Place
End If
End Sub