Writeup for news summaries presented on Thursday October 12, 2006 by Waqas ur Rehman

1. “Software Companies Bicker Over How To Stop Hackers” -- (WSJ, Page B1 )
Summary:-
To cater for increased concerns over hacking companies are rushing to build products that are less vulnerable to attacks. To tackle this Microsoft has decided to close off access to inner working of Windows Vista software that will limit the ability of some of the most popular security products to protect the computers. 
Implications + Research Idea:-
Though the devision taken by Microsoft is very fair to protect users from hacking but previously build security products were relying on some of the hidden API of Microsoft. So the idea is to build a security product that does not reply on such hidden APIs and still protect users against hacking.

2. “Palm Adds a Branch to Treo Line” -- (WSJ, Page B3)
Summary:-
Palm Inc. has unveiled a smart phone for general public breaking out its image as a maker  of  smart phones for corporations. Big name rival, including Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. have already entered the market indicating that there is an increasing demand for smart phones. According to IDC research there are around two billion potential buyers.
Implications + Research Idea:-
Build services those provide information to mobile users based on their location (location aware services). That also require building a system that could accurately identify users location, GPS through provides such facility but is not accurate in downtown and indoor so look for alternatives.

3. “Finding Tom Cruise (Not Cruise Missiles)” -- (WSJ, Page D1)
Summary:- 
The trend of Web Videos is growing and search engines are in a race to solve problems of locating contents that have no text. Currently If you search a video you can't get the video without also getting an irrelevant array of skits, celebrity interviews and home-movie bloggers. A host of new search services have taken aim at this problem e.g. Blinkx.tv has launched a web site that refines the search results using speech recognition and visual analysis. The marriage of Google and YouTube is also likely to spur even more innovation that will yield more accurate and relevant results.
Implications + Research Idea:-
Build a search engine that provide users with videos they are most likely to watch based on their demographics and interest matching patterns with other users.