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To: Road Walker who wrote (20054)	4/10/2001 11:11:22 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 60323

Ten O'Clock Tech: Big Pictures, Small Packages By Arik Hesseldahl There's something about small cameras that grabs people. Tiny handheld cameras that can be easily concealed and that capture images of top secret documents are always a favorite prop in spy movies. Soon you'll be able to join in on the fun with your own tiny camera. SMaL Camera Technologies, of Cambridge, Mass., has created its Ultra Pocket compact and affordable entry-level camera. The first thing you'll notice about the device is its size: about as big as the credit card you'll use to pay for it. Only two-tenths of an inch thick, it can take pictures of 3,640 pixels by 480 pixels--less than a top-of-the-line digital camera, but perfect for quick snapshots when image quality isn't as important. The camera also boasts the ability to cope with difficult lighting conditions. Its Autobrite technology adapts to its environment, ensuring that bright regions of the image never become saturated, while keeping dark details in focus. It can store up to 40 images on the included MultiMedia removable flash memory card, and connects to your PC via the universal serial bus port. You can also store more pictures on bigger cards, which are sold separately. And each time you connect the camera to a PC, its lithium-ion battery is recharged. The company is working with a handful of major camera manufacturers to bring the camera to market in time for Christmas. But it will probably show up on store shelves under the brand name of the manufacturer, not SMaL. The expected price is about $130. Initially, it will be PC-compatible only, but the company says there's a good chance that a version for the Mac and Linux may follow soon after.

To: Road Walker who wrote (20054)	4/11/2001 8:42:38 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

John, there's good news this morning. One of those ill-trained, inexperienced analysts has decided it's time to upgrade the whole semiconductor group. Since SNDK is viewed by many analysts as a semiconductor stock, it will benefit. The upgrade came from none other than Jonathon Joseph, who earlier had bashed the entire group, causing SNDK to travel with the rest into a black hole which appeared to have no bottom. Suddenly he's decided that it can't be all that bad, since semiconductors are the engines that drive economic and productivity gains throughout the world. Do you think that the portfolio managers who rely on these analysts have already added semiconductors to their accounts? Do you think that the opinion just made public will help protect those accounts? All I'm saying is that you can depend on analyst comments to be short on logical content and long on expediency. You express some skepticism about lowering the cost of chip production without corresponding improvements in technology, such as going to .18 or .13, and moving from 200 to 300 mm wafer size. While these new technologies represent quantum leaps in productivity, they are not the only source of improvements. What I was referring to was the concept of "yield," which Harari has mentioned often in his conference calls. You open a new factory and you're lucky if you can use even 10 percent of the wafers. As things get under control, there is a learning process resulting in fewer blemished wafers. As yield goes up, the average unit cost goes down. This alone has reduced chip cost more than anything else, since there are so many new fabricating facilities that have begun production within just the last two years. Finally, there are two other favorable news events this morning -- the apparent resolution of the China diplomatic incident surrounding the plane collision and the appointment of a Lucent executive as president of Kodak, indicating a renewed emphasis on digital imaging at Kodak. Since Kodak's CEO Dan Carp is a marketing person, with little training in technology, the appointment of Patricia Russo seems logical. I don't see much emphasis on an entrepreneurial attitude at Kodak, but at least they are beginning to get the significance of digital technology in their future. Art