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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The television industry is near agreement on a major issue that has hindered the transition to all-digital TV, several executives said Thursday. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology]

``This process is rapidly moving to a conclusion,'' Paul Liao, chief technology officer of Matsushita Electric Corp. of America, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Isn't this the domain of the FCC?

But Lawrence Blanford, chief executive officer of Philips Consumer Electronics North America, complained that decisions were being made by a small, closed group. He also said the emerging technology could harm consumers' ``fair use'' rights to record or download movies, shows or music for their personal use.

``We do not believe we are anywhere close to a consensus agreement,'' Blanford said.

I think my next TV will be a Phillips. besides which, if the TV industry cannot agree to standards for maintaining copyright protection, how are computer/tech companies going to do it, where the standards are even more varied?

A new Gartner study indicates that despite compulsory sign-up programs, consumers aren't interested in online identity and authentication accounts--and they won't be anytime soon. [CNET News.com]

I've got a problem with the MS Passport system, as I have a Hotmail account, but cannot remember the password. Since it's tied into my Outlook Express, I can still get my email with the client, but I cannot log into the system via a web page. Since they have no way of sending me the account password, I can't log into the Passport system even if I wanted to.

indolent [Dictionary.com Word of the Day]