Paulo Rebêlo Wired News December 2002 In Brazil, physically disabled individuals may no longer need to buy expensive software to operate computers and surf the Web, thanks to a free application developed by programmers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. By downloading a program called Motrix, disabled people can read, write and interact with their computers using an embedded voice-recognition system. Motrix allows the user to perform nearly all computerized tasks, including playing games, and Motrix may be integrated with home automation services. It was created especially for quadriplegics,...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News September, 2002 Weblogs certainly have a worldwide audience. Still, no one's quite sure what makes them so hot in Brazil. One of the leading countries in registered blogs at Blogger, Brazil has recently gotten its own local version of Pyra Labs' creation -- translated into Portuguese and complete with additional features, such as file upload and drafting. Hosted by Globo.com, the Internet arm of Rede Globo -- Brazil's biggest TV and entertainment network -- the Brazilian Blogger registered 16,000 users in its first week in late August, Globo officials said. Although...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News August, 2002 Imagine a celebration of digital art that bans works focusing on anything related to computers and technology. This is the idea behind Art.Ficial Emotion, an international exposition featuring digitally produced art created at some of the leading media centers worldwide. The main objective of Art.Ficial Emotion is to provide an environment that breaks the old-fashioned notions that "digital" is something cold or inaccessible. In the month-long exposition that begins Sunday in São Paulo, technology is just the form in which emotion is expressed. Besides...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News July, 2002 In the eyes of many musicians and artists in Brazil, popular music as a form of pleasure and art ended in the Western world long ago. The mixing of music with commerce isn't a new concept, but the introduction of file-sharing on the Web has turned attention to the problems generated by this marriage in an unprecedented way. Now, a group of musicians, software engineers, DJs, professors, journalists and computer geeks -- who have named their cause Re:combo -- have decided to "call for noise" against the current rules of copyright established by the music industry. Re:combo...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News June, 2002 Few people enjoy taking medicine, but how about if it came packaged in candy or ice cream? That's what the Brazilian National Association of Magistral Pharmaceutics (Anfarmag) is bringing to Brazil this year. In an official note earlier this month, Anfarmag said that med-candies are the best solution for kids who face problems swallowing pills or just can't stand the taste of some medicine. "Children don't refuse medicine when they taste and are shaped like a lollipop, for example," says Marco Perino, Anfarmag's vice president. The idea of dispensing medicine...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News May 2002 In another attempt to close the gap between the wired and the unwired, Brazil will install computer kiosks in post offices around the country, where people will be able to log on to the Internet. Correios, Brazil's postal agency, hopes to have the kiosks up and running by the end of June, officials said. People will be able to surf the Web and retrieve e-mail. As a way of encouraging people to use the service, the first 10 minutes will be free. After that, the agency plans to charge what it calls a "popular fee." Payment will be made using an electronic card...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News May 2002 An illegal but well-known underground market for genetically modified crops is growing fast in Brazil. But oftentimes, farmers who bought the seeds with promises of better yields at lower costs have reaped financial disasters and plantation damages instead. The problem seems to stem not from defective genetically modified organism (GMO) crops, but from a lack of understanding by farmers who purchase the crops, which are supposedly imported from Argentina or from other regions of Brazil. The upshot is that crops that may work well in their native soils don't...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News March 2002 Frustrated by a government that either can't or won't address epidemic levels of commercial piracy, a broad coalition of Brazilian industry created an advertising campaign it hopes will appeal to Brazilians' sense of fair play and economic self-interest. The industries of software, music, clothes, toys, cable TV and movies have mounted a $1.5 million national campaign that will include ads in television, newspapers and online outlets. The message is that piracy that hurts Brazilian companies, in turn, hurts Brazilians in their own pocketbooks, both in higher...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News March 2002 In the United States, printer companies reap most of their profits by selling ink cartridges rather than the printers themselves. That's not necessarily true in Brazil, where remanufactured ink cartridges sell for less than half the price of the original. Despite efforts by big companies to convince consumers that retread cartridges might damage their printers, Brazilians continue flocking to the refills, apparently figuring that the risk is offset by the printers' relatively inexpensive cost. These "reconditioned" cartridges, as they are often called, are neither...

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Paulo Rebêlo Wired News February 2002 PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- The World Social Forum wrapped up several months of business with the usual proposals for making the world a better place, but the stark reality remains: All talk is meaningless unless the richest nations pitch in and help. The forum, founded as a kind of social riposte to the capitalists who make up the World Economic Forum, hosted 28 separate conferences and more than 700 seminars dedicated to a range of subjects. Among the themes touched upon in this southern Brazilian town: the production of wealth, dealing with unemployment,...

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