Neowin.net

Researchers conducting the study of 1,000 mobile phone users for Woolworths, say that children's text messages could hold the key to their future careers.

The study examined how different professions wrote text messages and divided them into four groups: creatives, jugglers, controllers and facilitators.

Creatives (actors, designers, advertising executives and landscape gardeners, for example) used text abbreviations and slang, varied between using upper and lower case letters, and had phones with customised ring tones and screen settings.

Jugglers (teachers, office workers and emergency service workers) used capitals, lower case letters and punctuation correctly, never lost their phones and tended to grip their phone between their chin and shoulder while talking.

Controllers (armed forces, lawyers and sales reps) used capitals and never abbreviated but only sent short messages.

Facilitators (nurses, nannies, personal assistants) always used lower case and added characters like smiley faces.

Researchers were able to put children into these four groups too, possibly giving some indication of their future career path. For example, a controller was more likely to end up in senior management or the armed forces.

As psychologist Sidney Crown says "As fewer and fewer teens are using the written word nowadays, there is some validity in looking to other ways of determining the type of person they are, particularly with regards to what kind of job they are likely to be best suited to,". Sidney also points out that a text message style can be as individual and revealing as handwriting.

News source: vnunet

The ACCC had intervened to support Sydney PlayStation retailer Eddy Stevens after he was sued by Sony for installing code-breaking chips in consoles and selling them.

In a separate case that has yet to be judged, Sony has also accused Stevens of selling pirated PlayStation games.

PIRACY

The electronics giant argues that regional coding, under which it sells different consoles to three geographically exclusive zones, prevents piracy.

But Justice Ronald Sackville of the Federal Court said Sony failed to prove that the regional coding was simply aimed at copyright protection, and that mod chips were therefore in breach of copyright legislation.

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia said it had the right to appeal and was in discussions with its parent company.

"We're obviously very disappointed," managing director Michael Ephraim told Reuters.

Ephraim lashed out at the ACCC for what he said were "misleading" and "distorted" comments to Australian consumers about competition and regional coding.

He said PlayStation 2 games sold in Australia at the same price as in the United States and at up to 20 percent less than in Britain.

The court case was purely about piracy, he said.

"Piracy is a major problem," Ephraim said.

Citing independent surveys, he said the cost of piracy to Australia's A$680 million (US$367 million) a year computer games industry amounted to A$50 million per annum.

Pirated PlayStation 1 games sell on the black market for as little as A$5 compared to a retail price of up to A$49 while PlayStation 2 games can be bought for around A$30, against the normal retail price of around A$100.

The Sony executive said that rather than being designed for commercial motives, regional coding came about because of different television formats in Australia and the United States.

Furthermore, he said there was nothing in the court ruling that allowed consumers to legally play back-up copies, as suggested by ACCC chairman Fels.

"There is no such thing as an authorized back-up copy," Ephraim said. "The copyright act makes it clear that making back-up copies of games is illegal."