Spectators of the US-lead attack on Iraq are being offered an extraordinary virtual coverage from breaking e-mail news flashes to an interactive Internet "control room."
Heavyweight US television networks such as ABC, CNN and CBS, and magazines such as Newsweek are joining battle with Yahoo, America Online/Netscape and MSN.com to bring frontline action to the Internet.
Users pay about US$10 a month for ABCnews.com's premium service, with an interactive control room linked to four cameras: one trained permanently to the destruction in Baghdad.
The other cameras pan across news events from demonstrations in Washington to live news conferences in Doha, Qatar.
It also offers a link to the ABC television news coverage.
CNN.com matches ABC with a free live link to a camera in Baghdad and a "War Tracker" with a scorecard of battles, stikes, casualties and a day-by-day graph of Iraqi troop surrenders.
War protesters' and supporters' comments are provided side by side on the CNN site.
"This massive destruction of Iraq is wrong. Killing is wrong. Listen to the millions of people outcry to stop this killing," wrote Laura Castleman of Alaska.
"The war on Iraq is a necessary first strike event to defend the United States against a terrorist sponsor nation -- our enemy," said Russ Hamilton of Phoenix, Arizona.
CBSnews.com delivers the live Baghdad skyline pictures, and an interactive map of the battlefield. All three networks include a sign-up to receive alerts on war developments via email.
Newsweek goes a step further.
Under a special feature "Targeting Baghdad," Internet browsers are invited to "choose a destroyed site to locate," from a menu. Each choice, from "Saddam's Residence" to "Baath Party headquarters" zooms in on the stop on a satellite picture.
Yaho's yahoo.com homepage has been redesigned with box, headlined in white on black background: "Yahoo News -- War with Iraq."
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people