Industry Announcements
Last Updated May, 2003

Kortrijk, Belgium -- May 29, 2003 --  Whirling Dervishes Releases Namespace Extension Library Software That Unlocks Hidden Microsoft Windows Explorer Applications (http://www.whirlingdervishes.com/nselib).

The Namespace Extension Library makes it possible to create applications that reside in Microsoft's Windows Explorer and makes many features available to developers that were up to now only available to Microsoft developers.

A namespace extension is a virtual folder in Windows Explorer, such as Control Panel. Microsoft uses this technology in the ftp client that ships with Internet Explorer, in the Compressed folders application (used to display the contents of ZIP files) that ships with Windows XP and in other applications.

Whirling Dervishes founder Henk Devos said, "During the development of this product, Whirling Dervishes revealed hidden Windows' interfaces that are crucial to the development of such applications but which the existence of was denied by Microsoft. An example of such interfaces is the way these applications can manipulate the 'tasks pane', a section that is displayed on the left in Windows XP and contains items like 'Folder Tasks'."

In August 2002, Microsoft was forced to disclose a number of hidden interfaces as part of the settlement for the anti-trust case. Many of these hidden interfaces had been previously disclosed in documents written by Whirling Dervishes founder Henk Devos.

In the opinion of Devos, other interfaces that were uncovered by Whirling Dervishes should have been part of the settlement as well but are now available to the larger development community through NSELib.

Whirling Dervishes plans to write extensive documentation on how to use these interfaces, as they have always done in the past, even for developers who do not purchase NSELib.

NSELib is available for Delphi and Visual C++, and costs $799 USD. The library itself comes with full source code and with a wizard that generates the skeleton of the application.

http://www.whirlingdervishes.com/nselib

Yardley, PA -- May 27, 2003 -- Premier Math Curriculum Provider Releases New Algebra Curriculum and Management System. The networked-based system provides an effective and affordable solution for educators seeking to customize their local curriculum to meet their state standards and improve student test scores.

The new Algebra 1 curriculum will help teachers meet the needs of each algebra student. Featuring hands-on interactive, research-based lessons, graphing tools, practice and enrichment activities, MathRealm's Algebra 1 curriculum encourages students to explore algebra and the relationships between equations and graphs.

The MathRealm Management System combines state-of-the-art multimedia instruction and activities with a powerful network management system. The system allows educators to customize multimedia instruction, easily correlate curriculum to state standards, effortlessly create lesson plans with pre-built syllabi, monitor student performance and automatically generate student performance reports. The system saves educators time by reducing paperwork and providing an easy way to individualize learning for every student.

MathRealm has developed a proprietary mechanism that facilitates the correlation of every lesson, activity and practice unit with a particular state standard. Educators can create a customized syllabus, drawing on the multimedia content available in the MathRealm System, and instantly view the corresponding state correlations for each lesson and activity. Go to http://www.mathrealm.com/standards/ to see the standards.

MathRealm's mathematics content has received outstanding reviews from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and won numerous awards, including a Technology & Learning Excellence Award. Curriculum for the MathRealm Management System is available in topics ranging from fractions to trigonometry.

For more information visit http://www.mathrealm.com.

WASHINGTON -- May 2, 2003 -- Three respected consumer advocate organizations today endorsed the Trusted Email Open Standard proposed by ePrivacy Group at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Spam Forum. The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE), CAUCE Canada and the SpamCon Foundation all support the proposed open standard as a way to help consumers and email providers reliably separate legitimate email from spam, and to help bulk email senders comply with current and proposed anti-spam legislation.

The Trusted Email Open Standard (TEOS) is based on technology developed and in use by ePrivacy Group that allows senders of email to make verifiable assertions in the header of a message regarding their identity and the content of the message. ISPs and consumers can then use those assertions to manage their incoming email traffic as they see fit, for example sorting, filtering or whitelisting by sender, content or other assertions (for complete standard see http://eprivacygroup.net/teos).

"The SpamCon Foundation believes that an open standard such as this will benefit the entire international Internet community by creating an environment in which email senders can voluntarily decide to provide trustworthy identification about who they are and what their messages say," said SpamCon Foundation President Laura Atkins. "These assertions will help users and ISPs make informed choices about what email they will accept." At this week's high-profile FTC Spam Forum, marketers, ISPs, consumer advocates and technology companies have all called for a consensus-based effort to deploy tools that email senders can use to add verifiability to their messages. Voluntary certified trustworthiness tools, panelists argued, can provide enormous benefits to marketers, ISPs and consumers by reliably separating legitimate messages from spam, enabling automated compliance with message labeling laws, and reducing the spoofing of sender identity.

In addition to describing how such tools work, the Trusted Email Open Standard provides plans for an independent, nonprofit board to oversee their rapid deployment. The proposed Trusted Email Oversight Board gives multiple organizations the authority to create programs that "certify" email based on a set of standards that program participants then agree to meet. Individual programs, and ultimately the oversight board, ensure compliance by senders with those standards.

"CAUCE Canada believes that the concept of creating multiple authorities which may set their own standards for appropriate behavior by senders of email will give consumers the most power to decide which certified email to accept and which to reject," said CAUCE Canada Chairman Neil Schwartzman. "Consumers can decide which certified email programs meet their personal standards for their inboxes and make their decisions accordingly."

Right now, sorting legitimate messages from spam without verified identity and trusted assertions creates significant costs for ISPs and situations where requested, legitimate messages are deleted as spam by automated tools.

"CAUCE supports this open standard for adding verifiability to email as a means of assisting legitimate marketers in their communications with consumers and decreasing the potential damage of blacklists and other such spam- filtering solutions to legitimate, opt-in communications," said John Levine, CAUCE Board member and FTC Spam Forum panelist.

About CAUCE:

CAUCE is the world's largest Internet-based advocacy organization, with more than 50,000 members across the United States with supporters worldwide. It supports and works toward passage of legislation prohibiting unsolicited email advertisements. CAUCE has no budget, no office and is run by an all- volunteer board using donated resources. For more information about CAUCE, visit its Web site at http://www.cauce.org .

About SpamCon Foundation:

The donation-supported, nonprofit SpamCon Foundation (http://www.spamcon.org) helps the Internet community protect email as a viable medium of communication and commerce.

About ePrivacy Group:

ePrivacy Group is working to end spam by adding trust, privacy, and intelligence to email through industry initiatives like the Trusted Email Open Standard and products like Postiva(TM), which makes possible the Trusted Sender program overseen by TRUSTe, and SpamSquelcher(TM), which dramatically reduces spam's impact on ISPs and enterprises. Founded by leading experts in privacy and security who provide education and consulting services to Global 1000 enterprises, ePrivacy Group is a privately held company based in Philadelphia, with offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. For more information visit the website at http://www.ePrivacyGroup.com .

NEW ORLEANS -- March 24, 2003 -- Chaoticom, Inc. announced today that the Chaoticom Mobile Music Solution has been selected by O2 to deliver high-quality mobile music to O2 subscribers in the U.K. and Germany. The trials, starting in May in the U.K. and Germany are expected to lead to the launch of a commercial service later this year.

"O2 has been very pleased with the performance of the Chaoticom mobile music solution," said Leslie Golding, Head of Music at O2. "We believe that mobile music is a key service for the youth market and the advanced media encoding engine from Chaoticom makes mobile music possible over today's GPRS networks."

Using the Chaoticom solution, O2 will trial the world's first 'music over mobile' service using existing GPRS networks.  The O2 music service will enable customers to select, retrieve and store the latest chart hits via their GPRS-enabled mobile handset onto a specially designed 'digital music player' - and start listening to high quality music in around 12 seconds.

"Response to the O2 music service based on Chaoticom technology has been very positive," said Chaoticom President and CEO, Lucy McQuilken. "The Chaoticom mobile music solution is an ideal solution for GSM operators, like O2, that are interested in offering media-rich mobile services to their subscribers."

"Our relationship with O2 is very strategic for Chaoticom," said Ms. McQuilken, "O2 was the first operator in the world to launch a commercial GPRS (or 2.5G) network. Using the Chaoticom technology, O2 can now deploy exciting mobile music services over their existing 2.5G networks  no need to wait for 3G networks to be deployed."

In addition to Chaoticom, O2 has partnered with the largest music providers in the world, who will provide track listings for new chart releases as well as pre-releases.

O2 customers attach the digital music player to their mobile, and select the 'get new music' option to view a comprehensive menu of track listings and charts. During the trial, these charts will include the U.K. or German top 20, the European top 20, top 10 pre-releases, top 10 dance chart, top 10 Hip-Hop and R&B, top 10 rock, top 10 pop and top 10 chill-out.

The O2 customer then selects a track and chooses either to hear a free 30-second clip or purchase the entire track. In either case, they can begin listening to the music of their choice in around 12 seconds.

http://www.chaoticom.com

TOKYO -- February 24, 2003 --  Pixelcraft Ltd. makes software and materials for use by VJs, video artists, post-production editors, multimedia, video presentations, and other similar customers. The company was established in 2002 and is based in Tokyo, Japan. 

It is now beginning sales overseas via http://www.pixdisc.com of the VJ application PixPlayer VJ and the CG animation loops collections that make up PixLibrary. This press release contains a brief introduction to these two products and the field of VJing.

Pixplayer VJ - Pro Performance VJing for Everyone

Pixplayer VJ by Pixelcraft Ltd. sets a new standard in VJ software for novice users, delivering professional response speed and foolproof ease of use for just USD$22.

The Pixplayer VJ Difference:

Various applications, about ten serious competitors, have come onto the market for VJs, but none matches the Pixplayer VJ combination of performance, ease of use, and low price - a very attractive deal for the novice or occasional user.

1. Performance

Pixplayer VJ features highly efficient programming that gives the user almost instantaneous response when switching motion graphics on and off. Pixplayer VJ is also powerful - playing up to three motion graphic clips and two effects at once with smooth playback.

2. Ease Of Use

Each graphics clip and effect corresponds to a keyboard key and is represented on screen by a small "thumbnail" image. Switching can be controlled via keyboard keys for rapid switching or locked on and clicked with the mouse, leaving hands free.

3. Low Price
US$22(only sold online)


PixLibrary - Cutting Edge CG Animation VJ Resource
Pixelcraft Ltd has begun sales of PixLibrary - a growing resource for VJs, currently consisting of three collections of CG motion graphic loops that are available for purchase and download from http://www.pixdisc.com.

About PixLibrary: 

Nightclub and event VJs are the primary customer base for PixLibrary.

Loops are cutting edge CG animation, the likes of which are unavailable from any other company worldwide.

The creators are some of Japan's most popular and most famous nightclub VJs and CG animation designers.

The loops are all royalty free, so in addition to being used at events, they may also be, for example, incorporated into broadband web content or presentations on CD ROM.

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