Neowin.net

Thailand is to impose a night curfew on online gaming to curb rising rates of addiction by young players, Information and Communications Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee said on Tuesday.

Game servers, both local and overseas, will be blocked from 10.00pm to 6.00am daily from July 15 to Sept 30, while Internet cafes will also have their hours curbed to those times, Mr Surapong told reporters.
Advertisement. Under particular attack is Korean role-playing game Ragnarok, which was introduced to Thailand seven months ago and reportedly now has more than 600,000 registered players here. Of particular concern is that children are becoming addicted to the game.

The minister said the effectiveness of the curfew would be evaluated after Sept 30. Additional measures will be considered if it is not effective. Other restrictions in the pipeline, according to the Nation newspaper, include mandatory player breaks every two hours and identification cards to ensure that players do not make profits from the games.

News source: The Straits Times?

About 7 million U.S. households have a quilter, said Don Meyer, director of consumer and public relations of the Hobby Industry Association.

Citing independent studies, Mahan estimated the total number of quilters at about 20 million.

The hobby association says there are about 20 million scrapbookmakers in the nation, which makes the pastime the third-most-popular craft, after cross- stitch and home decor painting. Meyer said 2002 sales estimates for scrapbooking supplies ranged between $2 billion and $2.5 billion.

No revenue estimates were available for quilting, but Meyer said the craft's popularity is growing.

Although other printer companies, such as Epson and Canon, have also gone after the arts and crafts market, HP has been more aggressive in this effort in the past few years.

Gayle Hillert, a vice president at Bernina of America, which makes sewing and embroidery machines, recalled how she was surprised to find HP represented at a quilting festival in Houston a few years ago.

"You'd be in a huge convention center, and there are booths for sewing machine companies, fabric companies, thread companies and button companies, and all of a sudden, you see printers and scanners and you think, 'What in the world are they doing here?' " she said.

She said quiltmakers have become more accustomed to using high-tech devices for their craft.

"When they are sewing, they want to take it a step further, so they get a scanner, they get software, and they may even get a PC," she said.

Hillert has personally used digital technology to print photos she took on a quilt she's been making for her daughter. Technology has allowed quilters to become more creative in personalizing their work.

"You can write a story, you can write what it's for," she said. "A quilt is something you pass on to generations. It's like a painting."

Mahan declined to provide revenue figures for HP's effort to tap the quilt- making market, but he said software sales and Web site hits "have been steadily growing" since the company introduced the site late last year.

"Without a big advertising budget, we expect to start small," he said in an e-mail. "The growth is what is important."

In an interview he also said of the scrapbooking campaign, "We're doing this in a very low-key way."

The key to HP's strategy, he said, was to go directly to the hobbyists. "Most people in crafts get their inspiration from their friends and the stores where they shop and less from advertising," he said.

Meyer said the craft and hobby industry has grown steadily the past few years, from $23 billion in revenue in 2000 to $29 billion last year. As a result, the industry has attracted the attention of companies not traditionally associated with crafts, such as HP, Adobe and Kodak.

HP is already exploring reaching out to other groups, including bird- watchers and genealogy enthusiasts.

The bid for more customers comes as HP seeks to strengthen its imaging and printing business, known as the company's crown jewel.

As of the first quarter of 2003, HP was the leading seller of printers and other output devices with 44.4 percent market share, followed by Epson with 18. 7 and Canon with 13.8, according to the International Data Corp.

But the company could face a threat from PC giant Dell Computer, which recently began selling its own printers.

Some analysts warn that Dell's bid to bring its highly successful direct- sales model to the printing industry could weaken HP's position.