St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page 6

Business editor, Rene Kaluza, 25S8761 fXl ST. CLOUD Times i6A Monday, May 22, 2000 Techcetera A site to see: www.ifccfbi.gov The FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center have formed an Internet fraud complaint site. 7 Birders flock to the Web to follow migrations Marian Rengel TIMES COUJMNIST about which Saturday to spray the trees. The pilot program focuses on Baltimore orioles, wood warblers, scarlet tanagers, rose-' breasted grosbeaks, among 100 or so species in the region Some stay, some continue on to east-'. ern Canada.

Check back this summer, when the migration south is the focus. But the five national science and education organizations collaborating on the site also hope BirdCast will get a wealth of information from bird-watchers, who can log local sightings into a central migration database called BirdSource, maintained by Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Web users can click on "Results" to find out which species have been spotted nearby and get rare-bird alerts. The site also is a reminder of how hazardous humans can be to these delicate travelers. Cats.

Pesticides. TV towers. Bright lights that disorient and cause crash landings. Scientists say migrating flocks have decreased 50 percent since the 1960s; they hope BirdCast inspires folks to think twice two hours, the picture is modified; users can see the birds over time as they move. The site plans to add other regions soon.

For serious birders, the information helps determine when to be perched in wait, binoculars in hand, for the first waterfowl landing, and it takes the guesswork out of when to expect a sunrise wake-up call from a just-arrived flock of songbirds. storm on TV weather, wwwJBirdCast up since April 1, allows users to follow migrating flocks across the nation to their breeding grounds. Migration season in the mid-Atlantic region peaks this month, and every morning and evening the site offers an updated image of the area, with interpretation and predictions. Every Web project combines Audubon Society, Doppler radar GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Turbo-charged bird-watching that's the potential of a Web project that combines the Audubon Society with Doppler radar. like watching an approaching Solar power fuels battery life in hand-held gadgets Me inniEdleinni Wegraiplhijf No film.

No developing. No waiting. And the cost is down. Digital photo-op Diqital cameras have several advantages over standard film-shootina cameras. Most come with a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen that enables the photographer to look at the picture seconds after it's shot.

Unwanted pictures can be deleted and resnot witnout any additional cost. A Digital cameras diner from their traditional turn counterparts in that they record light as data rather than a chemical reaction. Instead of the light hitting tiny grains of silver halide on the film, it strikes an array of photoreceptors or pixels arranged on a plate called a Charged Coupled Device, or CCD (See below). The light signals are converted to digital data those electronic 1s and Os- then stored on an internal cnip or memory pm Charaed CouDled card. 11 L.J ST v- 'J VrZI 35mn! I compared to a negativeyfD I 35mmim size, not i Digital 1 The "keepers" can be transferred as digital data onto a PC and then edited using "darkroom" computer programs.

and other personal communica--' tions services subscribers world-1 wide will grow from 400 million in 1999 to 13 billion in 2004. I Capturing just a fraction of that market would be good news for AstroPower, which makes solar cells and panels for use in commercial and residential buildings. "We fully expect that this will be a significant part of our business in future years," Barnett said. "Anything where you use battery and carry it around con-; ceivably could be enhanced by a device like this," said Kevin Alli- son, AstroPower's director of materials technology. Stewart Wolpin, founder of etown.com, which provides con-1 sumer electronics news, agreed.

I He said the day when consumers will be able to use one device as a cell phone, pager and hand-; held computer isn't far off "People don't want to carry" multiple devices that have overlapping capabilities," he said Yet the technological revolution has been threatened by that most mundane technology: the rechargeable battery. Scientists have struggled to advance the battery since' Alessandro Volta unveiled the first one 200 years ago. And the lithium-polymer versions used in cell phones and other gadgets are certainly more powerful than the nickel cadmium used only a -few years ago. But Kaushik Roy, an associate professor of electri- cal and computer engineering at Purdue University, said the power capability of rechargeable batteries is not keeping pace with other advances. Robert Savinell, associate dean of the School of Engineer-" ing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said the 1 1 1 1 CCD IMj 1- 0i I rSmallesti CCD! GANNETT NEWS SERVICE NEWARK, DeL About five years ago, Allen Barnett was lying on the sand at nearby Dewey Beach with a "dead" cell phone by bis side.

It didn't make sense to the chief executive officer of solar-cell maker AstroPower Inc. "I thought, "Why am I sitting out on the beach with this beautiful sunlight and a dead he said. Barnett issued a challenge to AstroPower's employees: Come up with a way to harness the stars power to operate cell phones. Instead, AstroPower developed a solar-powered charger that can be used to extend the length of operating time for batteries in cell phones, laptop computers, Palm Pilots and other electronic gadgets between charges. Here's how it works: Consumers use their Palm Pilot or other device as they usually do.

AstroPower's built-in charger gobbles up available light, converting it into electricity to power the gadget's battery. In some cases, it may be able to double how long the battery can go between charges. Prototypes of the chargers lightweight, blue-striped, wafer-thin squares of plastic are being tested by nearly 20 makers of consumer electronic devices, Barnett said. He would not identify any of the companies involved in the testing, but said he expects AstroPower to net at least one "significant" order for the chargers during the next few months. If that happens, consumers could start seeing hand held electronic gadgets with the solar-powered chargers embedded in them on store shelves next year.

And AstroPower which has spent about $2 million developing the product, with support from the U.S. Department of Defense would be on its way to establishing a new market for its solar technology. Strategies Unlimited of Mountain View, recently projected that the number of cellular CCDs can be as small as 18 the size of a frame of 35mm film or as large as 35mm film. World Wide Web nnm The pictures can be stored as data in a virtual photo album, pnnted using a high-resolution ink-jet printer or sent out over the Internet as e-mail. Printer 3M sets good precedent ivith decision on chemicals i Ending Scotchgard production shows foresight, responsibility You cannot tell today what may prove to be a problem tomorrow.

That could and perhaps should be the motto of all business in our technological age If a lesson that 3M Co. seems to have learned and taken to heart. To ward off what may prove to be a problem tomorrow, one of Minnesota's leading businesses announced Tuesday it is removing from the market a very popular chemical of its own invention. The reason? That chemical doesn't seem to break down over a brief time and remains in the environment for years, perhaps decades. In numerous studies during the past 40 years, 3M has detected no danger to life from the minute amounts of the chemical in the earth's system, but, 3M admits, you never know what the future will teach us.

We know that product as Scotchgard The scientists at 3M, and elsewhere, know it as per-fluorooctanyl chemistry. Developed by 3M scientists in the 1950s, die product has gained wide use and popularity among manufacturers and consumers alike. In the late 1990s, high-tech developments in scientific testing equipment allowed those 3M scientists to detect even smaller quantities of PFOS in the blood stream than they had been able to detect. New high-tech machines for analyzing blood helped 3M learn that PFOS persist in the environment. They also learned that people around the world have minute traces of this chemical in their blood.

"Persistent" and "pervasive" describe the characteristics of perfluorooctanyl chemicals that concern the scientists at 3M and at the Environmental Protection Agency. Persistency in a pollutant represents its greatest danger. The pollutants remain in the environment, in the blood, to do their work or to remain dormant until they break down or another chemical enters the system to react to the first and cause previously unforeseen hazardous circumstances. To protect against the mysteries of the future, 3M decided to remove this chemical from the market. Do not add more, they seem to reason, and eventually that which is in the blood, in the environment will break down and diminish.

3M detected no harm from PFOS in small doses, yet the company took the significant moral and ethical step of announcing that it would remove this persistent chemical from the market during 2000. The company will not be hurt financially by the decision, because Scotchgard products represent about 2 percent of 3Ms business. Consumers will have other products to turn to, such as DuPont's Teflon fabric protector and a new product called Fiber-Gard. 3M will reap many accolades from the environmental, scientific, ethical and moralistic communities for having and maintaining a commitment to the environment That company's decision now becomes a role model for all of us, but particularly big business, to follow. Protect the future, now, even though our current warning systems report no danger.

Eventually we will develop warning systems that can detect the harm we did in the past, but then it may too late to solve the problem. This column is the opinion of staff writer Marian Rengel. She can be reached by calling 255-8769 or by e-mail at GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Has the Internet with its blink-of-an-eye access to vast kingdoms of information turned you into a connoisseur, or junkie, of immediate digital gratification? Then consider further feeding your habit with digital photography, which eliminates the lag time between shooting pictures and enjoying them. With digital cameras, you snap a shot, store it as data on a chip and look at it a few seconds later on a saltine-sized screen on the back of the camera. Like it? Keep it Hate it? Spike it, and shoot again.

No film. No developing. No waiting. What's more, you can electronically transfer the pictures as data onto your PC and send them anywhere the Internet goes again almost instantly. The catch here used to be cost.

Indeed, it wasn't long ago that digital cameras, costing a whopping $35,000 apiece, were only for the pros. But as with most things digital, the prices have dropped precipitously. Now some go for as little as $99, with most models selling for about comparable to high-quahty film-shooting 35 millimeter models. And photographers have taken notice. In 1999, they bought 5.1 million digital cameras worldwide, 1.7 million in the United States, according to Newton, Lyra Research.

In three years, sales are expected to jump to 22 million worldwide. "The growth of digital photography has been nothing short of astounding," said Gregory Georges, author of the recently published book Digital Camera Solutions. "It took me four months to write my book, and when I had finished, I had to rewrite the first chapter because so much had changed" High resolution Leading factors driving the popularity include: Price. Not only have digital camera prices dropped, but the cost of the PCs and the high-resolution printers needed to process the images have fallen as well. Ink-jet printers now capable of producing film-quality reproductions run Resolution.

Image clarity is rapidly improving without driving up the cost On small-to-medium sized shots, digital image quality is distinguish- Source: GNS research GANNETT NEWS SERVICE GRAPHIC Features to consider in a digital camera odvious soiunon is to maice Dat- teries bigger, thus increasing their power. But he said that isn't practical for hand-held electronic devices. 1 Manufacturers want to make batteries smaller and lighter. Features to consider in a digital camera: An LCD (liquid crystal display) viewfinder on the back for looking at the picture instantly. Some models don't have them.

Manual control. Some models have a heavyhanded autopilot The more control you have, the more you can adjust for poor lighting and shooting conditions. Burst modes. Cheaper cameras require 5-10 seconds between shots. For a few dollars more, the burst mode feature will let you shoot a couple frames per second great for sports shots.

Resolution. This is measured in dots (pixels) per picture frame; more pixels mean better resolution. Backyard photographers can do fine with cameras that shoot 640x480 pixels or 800x600. These run about $400 Ease of use. You'll want to get the photo data from camera to computer as easily as possible, so make sure the model has an "interface cradle" or a USB port Avoid models that have only a serial connection.

all of this adds up to better pictures, said Alexis Gerard, president of Future Image, which analyzes the digital imaging industry. "With digital photography you're going to shoot more and better pictures," he said. "You can keep shooting and deleting until you get the shot you're after without adding costs the way you would going through frame after frame of standard film. And once you get the shot you want, you can edit the picture on your computer like a pro." Digital cameras work by stituting digital signals those electronic Os and Is for film. Instead of the light hitting tiny grains of silver halide on a strip of film, it strikes a matrix of photoreceptors or pixels arranged on a plate called a Charged Coupled Device, or CCD.

Here, the light signals are converted to digital data, then stored on an internal chip or Please see DIGITAL, 7A Cyberbuzz Wedding Web sites can make you laugh, cry even elope able from film. Speed Digital pictures are ready seconds after they're shot High Internet bandwidth. Cramming data-dense photos through a pinhole modem to send diem to friends and relatives across the Internet was so timeonsuming it was pointless. But the expansion of broadband Internet service into American homes is making photo transfer fairly quick and easy. Digital editing tools.

These are the PC programs that allow photographers to edit their shots enhance colors, erase shadows, bring out foreground, eliminate glowing red eyes. Once complicated, they're now easy to use. For amateur photographers, www.vlsl.comdheatonbrlde 1 thebridewore.html. Brides-tobe in the 1800s shunned white dresses for colors that could be worn again. i www.vlntageweddlng.com hlstory.html.

Attack of bridezilla Real-life horror stories of bridal etiquette gone bad. www.thlnds. comJmhehellebridezilla.htm. i Internet advertising revenues climb 140 percent during 1999 Wedding shuffle Matrimony Mambo dances you through all the steps for getting the wedding you want with the money you have. houston.webpoint.com weddlnglndex.htm.

Traditions Jewish customs explained. members.xoom.commlovesm ewlshcustoms.html. Wedding customs from Eastern Europe, www.larelatlve. comwedding. More ethnic customs.

members.aol.comIVIjkarl thnlc.htm. Jumping the broom and other African-American customs. melanet.comawg. Very superstitious A bride should consider it a good omen if the sun shines on her or if she sees a rainbow on her wedding day. But it's not good luck to see a pig, lizard or an open grave, www.weddlngs.

co.uklnfbtradsupe.htm. Fashion aisle Scary examples of real wed ding fashions. ore ot moomin' iuck Before you consult with a florist, here are some things to consider in selecting flowers. www.wedday.comflorlst. Marriage music Need suggestions for classical music to be played at your wed- -i ding? www.llb.vlrglnla.edu MuslcUbcollectweddlng.html.

Viva Las Vegas All the facts you'll need for a quick Las Vegas wedding, www. 1 pcap.comweddlngs.htm. Butterflies i Forget rice. Forget birdseed. For a memorable sendoff, try butterflies, www.butterflyreleases.

comfragral.htm. GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Internet ad revenues last year rose more than 140 percent, to $4.6 billion, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. By comparison, the bureau said, television had $3.7 billion in revenues in its fifth year as a viable ad medium, with that figure adjusted for inflation. Banner ads were the most prevalent form of advertising, accounting for 56 percent of expenditures. Sponsorships were second, at 27 percent Sprint takes on cable Long-distance phone compa ny Sprint has rolled out a highspeed wireless Internet service in Phoenix designed to compete against cable-modem and digital subscriber line services, or to grab business where they aren't The service will cost $39.95 a month, but subscribers will need to fork over $299 for a wireless modem and a small transceiver that will need line-of-sight access to a Sprint transmission tower.

Those who sign a two-year contract can get the hardware for $99. Sprint says the service is 36 times faster than a dial-up modem and will be available in 60 percent of the country in two years. AOL goes to school America Online has introduced a free content service for K-12 students and teachers designed to provide them with information, e-mail, chat rooms and instant messaging in a closed online environment The site is www.school. aol.com. Users need to register with AOL to get access to the communications tools, which will be part of a service made available in the fall to 110,000 schools nationwide.

Each school will have to install the software on its computers and can decide which tools will be made available to students and faculty. The site has filtering technology built in, and the search engine can be set to block certain kinds of sites. On the marketing end of things, AOL and Coca-Cola have agreed to scratch each other's back, which is to say Coke will promote AOL and vice-versa, probably starting this summer. (Pepsi has teamed up with Internet portal Yahoo.).