Thursday Tech News

Quote

On the one hand, single-lens reflex engineers, now unleashed from the constraints of 35mm film, can match the image sensors at the heart of digital SLRs to different cost and engineering priorities. On the other hand, because the size of those sensors therefore varies, the same type of lens often produces different results when comparing one digital SLR to another--or to 35mm film SLRs. In one situation, lenses are not just different, but actually incompatible as well.

Quote

Just as in the 1980s, when the Betamax and VHS video formats were battling it out for supremacy, the pornography industry will likely play a big role in determining which of the two blue-laser DVD formats--Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD--will be the winner in the battle to replace current DVDs for high-definition content. Ron Wagner, director of IT operations at E! Entertainment Television, in Los Angeles, said his company has already chosen the Blu-ray Disc format, in large part because of talk in the porn industry favoring it over rival HD-DVD.

Quote

The WCIT gathers every two years to debate what it considers the most pressing technology issues that affect the entire globe. This year, it and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) chose access to technology, IT in heath care, and privacy and security as the hot-button issues of the conference. On Thursday, the 2,000-plus delegates from 80 different countries will vote on various proposals made during the conference. The results of that vote, which will be announced Friday, will be implemented as official recommendations of the WCIT and the WITSA. Delegates can then go back to their home countries with official recommendations on what needs to be done to improve IT in their home countries.