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Pastimes : A New Era - Consider the Possibilities -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don S.Boller who wrote (75)	5/12/1998 2:49:00 PM
From: IPOJunkie	Respond to of 272

Hi Don, From what I've learned thus far, various forms of GTL have existed for years, but various companies are making new strides in improving the technology and making it more cost-effective. What these companies are currently achieving paves the way for widespread use, effectively doubling or tripling our liquid fuel supplies. Companies "refining" the technology include Shell, Exxon, RNTK, Sasol, and Syntroleum. RNTK and Syntroleum, in particular, are developing some interesting approaches. Somebody on the Sasol thread gave me a pretty good synopsis of where everybody is at. exchange2000.com The thing that really interests me, though, is that I'm aware of a company that has a process of "cleaning" natural gas (separating out the unwanted gases). This can significantly improve the performance of these processes. Unfortunately, the company is private so there is no stock play in them directly, but it could potentially help GTL become a widely-accepted method of saving our precious resources. RS

To: Don S.Boller who wrote (75)	5/18/1998 3:24:00 PM
From: IPOJunkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 272

OK, maybe this sounds a little more exciting: We all know that the world is moving to optical media for everything - software, movies, music, data, video games, etc, even keys! A major problem has been piracy in all these areas. There is casual piracy - lending a copy to a friend - but there is also professional piracy where the discs are used as masters for volume duplication. Current copy protection can be circumvented - software can be hacked by software; the key to decryption can be solved and replicated. There is an interesting private company that has developed a polymer to be applied to discs. The polymer can darken in places after the laser hits it. This technology can be used for - Copy protection - load it, darkens, can't load it anywhere else Disposable movies - play it, darkens, throw it away (don't have to return it) Video games - play them a few times, darkens, throw away Trial software - load demo version, try it, if you like it you then load full version, if you don't like it you then return it (sales person can see if an area has darkened whether full version has been loaded or not) Internet transactions - disc with unique darkened areas becomes your "credit card" that has to be in machine (like a smart card) Can you imagine the possibilities for the future? Even though it's currently a private company, there is discussion at - Subject 19938