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A Look Inside Comdex Tech Show; Meet Real-Life "James Bond Q"; Military Uses Technology To Diffuse Improvised Explosive Devices

Aired November 22, 2003 - 15:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on a special edition of NEXT@CNN we'll be coming to you from Las Vegas to bring you some of the best, brainiest and barest of this week's Comdex Technology Trade Show has to offer.
We'll also more weighty news from the hunt for road side bombs in Iraq to threats to chemical plants in the U.S.

And we'll show you the American Q. a real-life gadget guy in charge of James Bond-like gadgets for the CIA.

All that and more on NEXT.

Believe it or not, this is the 23rd annual digital gala known as Comdex. While this computer trade show has been, well, glitzier and even busier in years past, in fact, it used to take about an hour just to get a bottle of water back then.

It did manage to ride out the dotcom bubble and subsequent burst and there are still plenty of cool things to show you as we found out roaming the halls this past week. And, for the next hour, we'll give you some high-tech highlights.

We'll also tell you what's been happening on the si-tech feed (ph) outside this exhibit hall.

In Iraq you've no doubt heard how some homemade roadside bombs have killed or wounded a lot of coalition troops in months since the major combat ended. Well, U.S. soldiers are learning to discover and detonate more of these low-tech devices with high-tech help as Mark Phillips report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A commandship of 2 goes out in search of a deadly enemy. Heavily armed and supported by tanks, they have the dangerous task of looking for IETs or improvised explosive devices, a military term for what are really roadside booby traps.

STAFF SGT. ARMANDO SALDANA, ARMY: We're just providing the security measure rolling the platoon, making sure there are no side bombs, side road bombs, as they call them, are in place around here letting us know we're here.

PHILLIPS: They move slowly, checking the side of the road with spotlights. IEDs have been amongst the most lethal and frequently used weapons against U.S. troop in post-war Iraq. The road is blocked and a security cordon is placed around the scene.

SALDANA: By now, one of the guys seen a wire hanging out of a little metal box over here. They're going to check it out and make sure it isn't one of those improvised explosive devices.

PHILLIPS: The patrols are routine, but it's always a test of will and nerve for these soldiers.

SALDANA: It's an adrenaline rush also, but it does drain us a lot, just keep your mind off of it and on the big picture, make sure we get back home safely after we accomplish our mission. It drains us a lot.

PHILLIPS: The explosives disposal robot is called in to fire a blast of high pressure water that blows the suspect device apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire in the hole!

PHILLIPS: It turns out to be nothing more than a wire hanging out of a box. But U.S. forces can't underestimate the threat of these homemade but devastating effective bombs. The challenge is not just finding them, but preventing the enemy from planting more of them. As the Americans have tragically found, once an IED is discovered and removed, there's no guarantee it won't be replaced within hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, as you just saw, robots play a big role in protecting U.S. troops in Iraq. David Ensor reports on technology used by the more secretive side of the U.S. government, the CIA. Some of it isn't too far off what you might see in the movies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fictional British version of the role, Q in the James Bond movies, is well known.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, 007, do please try and return some -- do try to return some of this equipment in pristine order.

Don't touch that! It's my lunch.

ENSOR: But at the CIA, Donald Kerr is the real thing for American spies. In charge of finding technology that helps them do their jobs.

(on camera): Is real life at all like the movies?

DAVID KERR, CIA: Actually real life is better, because we are developing and employing new capabilities all the time.

ENSOR (voice-over): An exhibit as the CIA shows some of the old tricks of the trade, like a pipe that can listen in. KERR: When you put the pipe in your mouth, the amplifier is convert converting the radio signal to an audio signal that's transmitted via your jaw bone so you can hear it.

ENSOR: This one is Charlie the Catfish. Look closely. He's a spy fish.

KERR: It's just one of the kinds of approaches we might make to a target if we wanted to get a sensor up close to it.

ENSOR: And these aren't really dragonflies, they are UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles with microphone.

ENSOR: Does this fly like a dragonfly?

KERR: It does.

ENSOR: They were tested, but not used because any kind of breeze was enough to push them off course.

(on camera): What is the growth area, in terms of science or technology, to assist with intelligence gathering, espionage.

KERR: Smart dust. The size of it may be a cubic millimeter. Something that, the head of a pin or smaller. And so with functionality to measure something, record something and communicate something all built into this this very tiny device.

ENSOR (voice-over): Nanotechnology not in use yet, but Kerr says it will be. How much does reality imitate fiction?

(on camera): Here's a car that has surface to air missiles in it. A watch that has a grappling hook in it.

KERR: Those are more fanciful, because if you think about it, we'd like to have our agents conduct their operations unseen. And these things tend to be a bit showy and spectacular.

ENSOR (voice-over): That is the problem with James Bond's car. It blows its cover.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, back here at Comdex, things are shaken, if not stirred and maybe not quite as spectacular as the world of James Bond, but as NEXT@CNN continues, we'll show you some of the highlights, including new devices to help you at work, home and play.

Also still to come, we'll show you some turkeys in Pennsylvania that have a rather different idea for hunting season this Thanksgiving.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: To put it bluntly, it was sink or swim for the Comdex organizers this year. It's a bit of a different show owned by a different company. It's owned by Media Live International. I'm joined right now by Eric Faurot, the vice president and general manager of Comdex.

Eric, first of all, the show a little different this year in terms of the focus. Not quite a glitzy glamorous party as in years past. Why is that?

ERIC FAUROT, VP COMDEX: Well, as you know, this is year 1 of the new Comdex. The focused, global, IT, media event. And it really needed a change to focus on how to help companies use technology to solve real business problems. It had to be more relevant and appropriate for today's economy.

SIEBERG: So a little more on the practical side versus the party side. The numbers this year down from past years, about 250,000 was the height. This year about 50,000. Is that going to be enough for you to sustain the show in the future?

FAUROT: The thing we want to do is get back to basics. Put the right buyers and sellers together and have the companies that are here, the Microsofts the Dells, AT&T Wirelesses, see a return in their investments, have a really strong show. And everything we're hearing from them is they are thrilled. The quality of attendees is up. So, the 50,000 is actually great. And as you can see on the last day we've got a great number of people walking around.

SIEBERG: All right. Eric Faurot, vice president, general manager of Comdex. People will call it Comdex 2.0 next year. Thanks so much for joining us.

Well, Nextel pioneered the idea of push to talk on your cell phone, kind of like a walkie talkie. Here at the Comdex tech show some phone companies and some carriers are expanding that idea. Joining me right is Suzanne Kantra, the technology editor of "Popular Science" magazine to talk about this. Suzanne, can you hear me now?

SUZANNE KANTRA, "POPULAR SCIENCE": I sure can.

SIEBERG: These are some Motorola phones already on the market, what can you tell me about that?

KANTRA: Well, they are on the Verizon network. And you can call anyone on your phone address book and actually see whether they are available for that call. Now the benefit of using the walkie talkie style mode of talking is that you are not paying for every phone call. It's a huge cost savings.

SIEBERG: OK. Well, a couple of the ones that are out there from Motorola already, but here at the Comdex show there was a new announcement from Sprint, they put out some more phones as well.

KANTRA: They certainly do. They have a ruggedized version, which is really geared more for the construction worker or someone out in the field. But you can imagine this to be perfect for someone engaged in sports. If you are on the mountain, you want to meet your friends at the lodge, you can just push to talk and say, hey, meet me down there.

SIEBERG: All right. These other two look a little different because they are the flip style, little more compact.

KANTRA: They are. And this is more for the mobile professional. These phones will cost about $300. This is perfect if you are working in a work group you can talk to up to five people at the same time. And this model, which is coming along a little bit later this year, actually has a camera built into the back of it.

SIEBERG: Of course it does. All these things in one.

There are so many types of cell phones to choose from. The type of cell phone you get it one thing the other is the service you get is another. And this next story is all about choice. On Monday people in the 100 biggest US. cities will be able to keep their same cell phone number, even if they switch carriers.

In many cases, customers can also keep their numbers when they switch between cell phones and LAN lines. On Tuesday, though, the U.S. Telecom Association asked the FCC to delay the new rules for moving home numbers to mobile phones, saying that's a lot harder to do than a cell phone to cell phone transfer. But FCC Chairman Michael Powell says a delay is not likely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL POWELL, FCC CHAIRMAN: We just made a decision so there would have to be a pretty compelling case to reconsider any aspect of it. I think in many ways the inequity arguments are exaggerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: Powell also says, the phone companies have known for years this was coming.

Well, I'm just taking a break here from my desk at the Comdex tech show. Actually it's not my desk and it's not Dave Rosenberg's desk either, although he may wish it was. Dave is the executive director of Comdex. But Dave, what is this setup meant to illustrate?

DAVE ROSENBERG, COMDEX: Well, what we're showing here is the fully integrated wireless way of life. The day and life of a normal professional. So, from your hand-held device, your able to surf the web. From your phone you'll get access to corporate e-mail. You do all this through a secure wireless network, through a sonicwall, firewall. We're using Aruba to do the wi-fi access. And, the idea is that, as we move about our day, we need access to everything at all times. That's the way life is going.

SIEBERG: And we get to top it off with a pretty cool plasma screen.

ROSENBERG: Indeed.

SIEBERG: All right, Dave. So that was the virtual home setup. And this is the virtual corporate office that's set up here. Both very tidy work spaces, right? Impressive.

ROSENBERG: Just like my life.

SIEBERG: Right. Now, what is the difference between the two things?

ROSENBERG: Well, what we did it picked up our laptop, our wirelessly enabled laptop. We picked up our wirelessly enabled Palm. We're on the corporate network now, so we have a whole new set of challenges in terms of security and access to information we're getting to. Because of all these products I can get my information anywhere at any time, be it in my home office or corporate office or out on the golf course.

SIEBERG: It's funny you should mention a golf course, Dave. Because it so happens that we've got a virtual golf course set up here now. Let's be honest, a lot of professionals go out on the golf course to take a break. What if they want to stay in touch with what's going on at the office?

ROSENBERG: Well, that's what really all of the products are all about. A mobile device that has access to my corporate network as well as things like spreadsheet software. I go over here, I have my PDA. It has my cell phone in it and I have a camera. I can take pictures of you putting later on and send it home to mom.

SIEBERG: And maybe I'll even make the putt.

Let's go play golf later. Dave Rosenberg, executive director, Comdex, thanks so much for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: When NEXT@CNN returns, raccoons in the Appalachians get a special treat that's good for them and their human neighbors. And we'll show you a new way to get your head into the game, along with your hands and your feet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to Comdex here in Las Vegas. Well, the latest Kasparov versus computer chess match end ended in a draw again. The human world chess champ Gary Kasparov started a 4 game series last week with X-3D Fritz, the 12 year-old computer program that's tops in the digital word. Kasparov drew the first game, lost the second, won the third and drew the fourth. So it was a draw overall.

The Fritz program was converted into a virtual reality game. That allowing Kasparov to play the computer using 3-D glasses. No physical chessboard was involved and Kasparov actually spoke his moves into a microphone.

Well, chess is a rather static game, but earlier this week at Comdex, I found another unique way for players to interact with video games. Well, if you want to get in on the action with your favorite video game, there's something here at the Comdex tech show that lets you literally do that. It's called the action stick from a company BestSoft. I'm now joined by Brian Pyon to talk about this. Brian it uses infrared sensors to interact with the game?

BRIAN PYON, BESTSOFT: It has 18 sensors that are built into the stick. Each sensor is correspondent to each sensors to the character, so whichever sense you hit it, the character actually corresponds that.

SIEBERG: It's meant to replace your typical controller. So I'm going to drop this and we're going to do a demonstration here. We've got a game loaded up here on the Playstation 2. Does it work with every game?

PYON: Work with every game. This is a replacement of a joystick.

SIEBERG: It also works with PCs?

PYON: It also works with the PC with the USB port. It's also available for X-Box and interfaces, too.

SIEBERG: It's coming out in December for $100 is that correct?

PYON: That is correct.

SIEBERG: I'm getting a bit of a workout here. I think I'm breaking out in a sweat. This is actually physical interaction.

PYON: Actually, Daniel, we did a statistic test. If you play this for half an hour it's better than swimming or jogging. Can you believe that?

SIEBERG: Well, I'm beginning to believe that, the amount of sweat that's breaking out right now on my forehead. Well, Brian Pyon from Bestsoft, thanks for joining us to talk about the Action Stick and I think that's a K.O.

PYON: I think I lost.

SIEBERG: Next time Brian, rematch.

Oh, we had a little fun there. And incidentally, Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates dropped by just before we started shooting and tried it out himself and hinted that there might be an X-box version as well.

Speaking of fights, there's a different type of battle going on as new housing developments go up in what used to be rural areas. The fight to stop the spread of rabies. The government programs are trying to stem the migration of rabies spread by raccoons. Sean Callebs reports from the foothills of the Appalachians.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are cute, even comical, but raccoons are also a chief way rabies are spread way in the wild. Since raccoons won't line up for vaccines, there is now an effort to take treatment to the animals. These squares are fish meal. Inside genetically manufactured rabies vaccine.

DR. CARTER BLACK, GEORGIA ASSOCIATE: Raccoons are not real particular. They'll chew on most anything that they think might be food.

CALLEBS: The bait is dropped from low-flying planes over the corners of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee by the USDA, state wildlife agencies and the Centers for Disease Control Raccoon rabies has long been a problem all along the east coast from New York to Florida. The bait is to combat new cases cropping up further west.

BLACK: I think it will spread further and further if we don't accomplish what we're trying to do here today. Is try and develop an immunity barrier to keep this movement down.

CALLEBS: Nearly a quarter of a million blocks of bait will be scattered over the Appalachian foothills. People shouldn't touch it, it could make them sick. And authorities say, they are often asked, is this necessary?

FRANK BOYD, ALABAMA DIR. USDA: It's a disease that's universally fatal, if you get it without getting post exposure treatment.

CALLEBS: The aerial assault has worked in other parts of the nation. And if the bait ends up the right paws, they are confident it will stem the spread of the killer disease.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it's not raccoons they are concerned about, but turkeys. It seems that 2 wild turkeys recently took to attacking cars. Residents caught some of the action on home video. If you are wondering how the gobblers managed not to get hit by the cars, well, one of them didn't. Now there's only one of the barbarian birds.

ANNOUNCER: Ahead in the next half hour of NEXT@CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we have that, we have a catastrophic event. September 11 would pale in comparison.

ANNOUNCER: A look at the potential perils that face millions of Americans who live near chemical plants.

And later, more on Comdex, including a look at what goes on at the tech show after dark.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN, this week from the COMDEX Tech Show in Las Vegas. Well, millions of Americans live near factories and plants that use toxic chemicals. Those plants play a crucial role in the U.S. economy. But how safe are they? Are those facilities vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Since 1996, a string of government reports has warned of possible catastrophic events at those chemical plants and since 9/11, those warnings have grown more urgent. Yet, there is no federal law mandating minimum levels of security. So are chemical plants a tragedy waiting to happen? Well, we asked Jeanne Meserve to take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This chemical plant outside New York City is a potential weapon of mass destruction. 12 million people live within a 14-mile radius of the plant. Frank Ferreira is one of them. Is he scared?

FRANK FERREIRA, NEW YORK RESIDENT: How's the word "petrified?" Petrified is probably a way of describing my reaction.

MESERVE: It is one of 15,000 facilities across the U.S. which produce, use, or store toxic chemicals. Facilities which have been identified in report, after government report, as possible terrorist targets. Ferreira began videotaping the plant's security a year ago. He found gates unpadlocked and unguarded. No one challenged his presence.

FERREIRA: Still, no padlock on this gate.

MESERVE: This October, a different picture when Ferreira took CNN to the plant. We found television cameras, barbed wire and barricades. Armed security guards checked us out and called local police to question our crew. The plant president refused to talk on camera, ordering his trucks to block our shots. That was in front.

In back, from across the river, no one questioned our videotaping of the plant, even though we were right next door to the county sheriff's department. From that vantage point we could clearly see the plant's proximity to Newark Airport and its location smack underneath a major highway.

FERREIRA: What's there to stop anyone from dropping some sort of projectile right onto the plant and not to mention, look at the planes that are landing. 9/11 is a prime example of how an airplane becomes a deadly weapon. What's there to stop anyone from using a plane just to access the plant right from the air.

MESERVE: The American chemistry council is a trade group representing some of the largest chemical companies in the United States. It says the industry has made big strides in security since 9/11 by imposing guidelines on itself.

MARTY DURBIN, AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL: Everything from adding a gate to having security guards to having biometric -- you know, identification, tightening up of their computer systems.

MESERVE: But council members own or operate only 1,000 of the 15,000 facilities identified as potential terrorist targets. The Department of Homeland Security working with industry has begun vulnerability assessments of plants that pose the greatest potential risk.

BOB LISCOUSKI, HOMELAND SECURITY DEPT: You look at the location of the plant. How -- as I indicated, how accessible it is. And then -- you know, we have a variety of scenarios that we run, that we think are likely scenarios, and then based upon those scenarios, we'll examine the security capabilities and then make recommendations for enhancement.

MESERVE: But a quick tour of a handful of other plants showed little security. Where there were guards, they were unarmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN?

MESERVE: Nice to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice seeing you.

MESERVE: In one case, a hole under a fence, photographed unchallenged.

SAL DEPASQUALE, INDUSTRIAL SECURITY EXPERT: It causes me to lie awake at night.

MESERVE: Sal Depasquale worked in industrial security for more than 15 years. He says the latest industry and government security improvements are not nearly enough.

DEPASQUALE: I have a fair idea to what's been done. In my view, it's mostly been window dressing. An adversary can easily drive up, shoot the guard, go on to the facility, place a bomb, rupture a vessel, and release all of the material, and if we have that, we have a catastrophic event. September 11th would pale in comparison.

MESERVE: August 2002, rural Festus Missouri. 48,000 pounds of chlorine, about half a rail car, accidentally released because of the failure of a small hose. Hundreds were evacuated, more than 60 went to the emergency room. But, hundreds of thousands of people could die with the release of a single rail car of chlorine in an urban setting. According to the U.S. Naval Research Lab which created this computer simulation of a worst-case toxic release scenario.

Remember this plant where we started next to the highway, next to the airport? It uses chlorine rail car after rail car full to make bleach, and it is just a few miles from New York City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, to protect the public, critics say that government must take a more forceful approach to chemical plant security. But, more than two years after 9/11, congress has not passed a law demanding such measures.

ANNOUNCER: Still to come: Look out for "phishing" when you check your e-mail. We'll tell you how not to get hooked.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Her name is Parro. She's one of ten winners at the Best of COMDEX Awards from the "PC" magazine this year, and I'm joined right now by Michael Miller, he's the editor-in-chief of PC magazine to talk about some of the winners.

Let's start with Parro (PH), here. Now, she is more than just cute. She also serves a therapeutic purpose.

MICHAEL MILLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF "PC" MAGAZINE: That's correct. This is a robot that was designed in Japan by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, designed for therapeutic healing for people in hospitals, things like that. Moves around, does things. But for people who can't have a real pet, helps, particularly for children, and things like that...

SIEBERG: Right.

MILLER: Very nice technology.

SIEBERG: And, this is just a prototype, right.

MILLER: Just a prototype, done -- you know, as a science project, really, but very cool stuff.

SIEBERG: Right, now if it's charging, it looks like it's asleep with a little soother in it's mouth.

MILLER: It absolutely does, isn't it so cute?

SIEBERG: Right. Now, from cute and cuddly to this wireless TV, what can you tell me about this?

MILLER: Well, this is from VisArt, this is a LCD panel, but what's interesting about it, if you charge this, then you pick it up and you can movie it anywhere. You have a little device that attaches to your TV set and you can play back a DVD, or anything else. You can do it on -- anywhere in the house, anywhere within like a 30-feet distance. So, you can bring it out to the porch, you can bring it in the backyard. It's got a battery in it, so you don't even have to plug it in A/C power.

SIEBERG: Wow, TV on the go. Now, from one screen to other here, this is -- a lot of technology in a little space, here. But, this is a -- what can you tell me about this? This is the HP multimedia?

MILLER: It's the HP Media Center PC. And, what it lets you do is you can capture TV, record it, just like a personal video recorder. You can also do things like -- you can put on -- it has a little remote, you can up in all your music, all of the things that you want. Just pick a song and just hit one button and play it.

SIEBERG: All right.

MILLER: Very cool. All sorts of things, it's a great PC and does all this other stuff as well.

SIEBERG: Our thanks to Michael Miller from "PC" magazine. You helped us fish for gadgets here on the show floor. The idea of fishing in a rushing trout stream or a choppy ocean sounds pretty wholesome. But phishing on the internet is anything but. As Kristie Lu Stout reports, a new high-tech swindle aims to hook netizens and reel in their money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks real enough, An e-mail from eBay looking to verify your password, but it's a fake. Follow the link and you'll get phished. Phishing is an e- mail scam that tricks customers into giving away their personal data. The term is inspired by the hacker community's frequent use of "ph" instead of "f." And unsuspecting net users are led to phony websites that ask for their passwords and pin numbers which phishing thieves can then use.

To find out the extent of the problem, I talked to Symantec's chief technology officer, Rob Clyde.

ROB CLYDE, CTO, SYMANTEC: In the U.S. over the last five years, there were 27 million Americans affected by identity theft at a cost of $48 billion. And so it's not surprising that identity theft has moved into the electronic world.

STOUT (on camera): And phishing is a subset of identity theft?

CLYDE: It is. It's a way to spam users and trick them into providing their personal information and then, of course, for the purposes of stealing money from them.

STOUT: And, who's at danger here?

CLYDE: Basically all of us. Because, we all have credit cards, we all have national I.D. cards and passwords and the kind of personal information that phishers are after.

STOUT: Now, we could try to ignore the scam e-mails or the phising e-mails that we see coming into our inboxes. But, what else can be done.

CLYDE: Well, first of all, you can put in technological methods to block most of those e-mails from coming in in the first place, so that we see very few of them to begin with. And then, of course, you do try to ignore them. There are legislative actions that might be taken, although frankly, I'm rather dubious of the chance of success for those.

STOUT: So, right now obviously as CTO of Symantec, you're pushing for the technology solution. But, I mean, how effective is that? Technology these days may be smart enough to play chess against the chess champion of the world, but is it smart enough to have the street smarts to find and to fight online scam artists.

CLYDE: Well, fortunately phishing relies upon a spam technique that is very similar to all the other types of junk e-mails that you get today, and so the same techniques for blocking those junk e-mails are, in fact, quite effective in blocking these phishing messages.

STOUT: And, do you think phishing will ever go away or is it going to be like spamming where it's so lucrative there'll always be the phisher out there?

CLYDE: Well, I think we're likely to have it with us for quite some time. The fact is if they can send millions -- tens of millions of these scamming e-mails and just get a few hits, the phisher has a chance to make a pretty good living.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: In case you're wondering, there are website out there that can tell you more about phishing and how to avoid getting hooked. You can get there from our website, that's at cnn.com/next.

ANNOUCER: Next up on NEXT@CNN, Spain's worst ecological disaster one year later.

And later, a trip to the robot petting zoo and the COMDEX trade show.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE SENIOR EDITOR: It use to be that services had to be performed at the spot where the service was needed. But, in a globally interconnected era, that's no longer true.

And, that's creating a huge challenge for the economy of the United States and Europe. You're seeing literally millions of jobs migrate outside the U.S., particularly less skilled jobs, but not only less skilled jobs. You're going to start to see more and more softwar programming jobs, which have been going for some time, but you're even starting to see medical analysis jobs, like analyzing x-rays or legal work, all these things are now being done in India for consumption in the United State. Those are jobs that we don't have here anymore.

Why India? They have a terrific educational system. So, they are turning out people with extraordinary skills, who speak English, who are willing to work for one-tenth what an American would expect to receive. That's the reason.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: This week marks one year since the oil tanker, Prestige, sank off the Northwest coast of Spain. While the huge oil slicks have largely disappeared, experts say the threat of pollution remains and court battles loom. Al Goodman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The end of the oil tanker, Prestige, the beginning of Spain's worst ecological disaster. The single hulled ship split in two last November 19. Six days earlier, in storms and high winds, it had started to leak near Northwest Spain. The government ordered the stricken ship out to the open sea where it sank. The Prestige carried 77,000 tons or 20 million gallons of fuel oil. The government says 80 percent of it spilled. Nearly twice as much as the oil that spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989 off Alaska.

JUAN ANDRADE, ADENA ENVIRONMENTALIST (through translator): It could take 10 years for the marine and costal ecosystems to fully recover depending on the areas affected and the degree of damage.

GOODMAN: The spill initially affected Northwest Spain, later spreading to Spain's Northern beaches and France. One study says up to 250,000 birds may have died. Thousands of volunteers and soldiers helped in the cleanup. Despite the effort, scientists are worried.

JUAN FREIRE, UNIVERSITY OF CORONA (through translator): Our hypothesis is that the contamination come from the sediment and move right up through the food chain.

GOODMAN: Several thousand fishermen were idled initially, but they're back at work making mussels, clams and other seafood. There were leaks from the sunken ship for months, documented by a French submarine. But, the Spanish government says the cracks have been sealed and the leaks nearly stopped.

JAVIER ARENAS, DEP. PRIME MINISTER OF STAIN (through translator): Many of the negative effect of the spill have disappeared and no effort was spared to mitigate the damage from the catastrophe.

GOODMAN: The Greek captain of the Prestige, Apostolos Mangouras is free on $3 million bail, charged with an environmental crime and disobeying Spanish authorities.

The government estimates the spill cost nearly $1 billion. Opposition parties accuse it of mismanaging the crisis. Many critics and one lawsuit against the government charge that instead of pushing the ship out to sea it should have been brought in to a safe port to confine the spill.

(on camera): Other legal battles loom, the Spanish government wants compensation from a U.S. organization that certified the ship as seaworthy. It's not known exactly what caused the ship to start leaking One year on, calm waters have not fully returned after the sinking of the Prestige.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, from the ocean to the air, and now a look at what might then plane of the future. Boeing has unveiled an interior mock- up of its planned 7E7 Dreamliner, and the emphasis is on passenger comfort, as you might think from the name. The plane features wider seats and aisles, along with arches and lighted ceilings that make the plane feel more spacious. The luggage bins are larger and easier to use, even the windows are bigger, so passengers don't have to contort themselves to see the horizon. Boeing is pitching the plane to airlines and there's no need to buy your ticket just yet, the company hopes the planes will start flying in 2008.

More futuristic stuff now, at the world's largest exhibition of industrial robots, this week, in Tokyo. Some might all these creations high or robot in the sky. This is the micro flying robot. Its propellers are powered by an ultra thin, ultra sonic motor. It's designed to search in areas where humans can't go, like many robots, such as earthquake rubble.

Among other exhibits, a muscle shirt designed to help weakened or paralyzed people move their limbs, and a robotic suit programmed to help people walk. But, there are also robots here at COMDEX.

Well, welcome to the robotics petting zoo here at the COMDEX Tech Show, and I think we're playing sort of virtual zookeeper, in a sense today, and we're talking about some of the new robots that are either on the market already or some prototypes of ones that are going to be out soon. And, I'm joined right now by Lance Ulanoff, he's the executive editor at "PC" magazine.

And Lance, what exactly powers all of these robots, first of all. I mean, they're -- they seem to be very compact.

LANCE ULANOFF, EXECUTIVE EDITOR "PC" MAGAZINE: Yeah well, at the heart of every single one of them is this VIA Mini-itx motherboard. And, the great thing about this is that it integrates the CPU, the graphics, and the sound chips all into one board. It's low cost, it's low power, which is great for robots and hobbyists were using it to build computers and they migrated into building robots.

SIEBERG: OK now, some people might be familiar with say, the Roomba, which helps you vacuum or ones that help you mow your lawn. What is the purpose of a lot of these robots and why would someone want to have one?

ULANOFF: I would sat that you've go a combination of security and telepresence. You can have this -- like for example, this one you can remote control it around your house and have it check from room to room, make sure there's no intruders, make sure the dog's not getting into the garbage again. And for telepresence, you could say, for example, this -- the RoboDynamix -- this is just a prototype, but the idea is that maybe we'll have this going through the rooms of a hospital checking on patients so a doctor doesn't have to go up and down, from room to room, and they can feel like someone's checking on them.

SIEBERG: Right. Now, if that robot was checking in on a patient, it doesn't look like a human at all, is that intentional?

ULANOFF: Yeah, that's inten -- well, there's two things here: one is it's incredibly difficult to make a robot look like a human and actually act like a human. But, the other part is that you don't want people to fall into a false sense of security and say, this robot looks just like aunt May and it can take care of the children. It's going to be a long time before robots can be left alone with the kids.

SIEBERG: All right, well I think that one's about to attack you. So, we're going to have to control some of these. Maybe feed them, keep them happy.

ANNOUNCER: Still to come: We'll show you what happens when the geeks come out at night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: And finally, well, what technology trade show or technology TV show, for that matter, would be complete without, and I have to apologize for being slightly politically incorrect here -- scantily clad babes.

Well, it's after hours here at COMDEX in Las Vegas, and everybody's lost their mind. It's just craziness here at the COMDEX show. Actually I'm joined by David Rosenberg, executive director at COMDEX.

Dave, what was tonight all about?

DAVE ROSENBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMDEX: Yeah, I can't possibly explain to you what happened there. As we often say, the I.T. industry, being a leading event we need to be celebration of the industry, and therefore, we saw some exciting after-dark activities.

ANNOUNCER: All right, let's take a look at some of the hottest digital wearable products from the COMDEX show floor. This (UNINTELLIGIBLE) industrial uniform is both practical and fashion oriented.

SIEBERG: The show, you're talk about this year being a little more serious, a little more focused on the practical side. This everybody kind of let their hair down a little bit.

ROSENBERG: Right. Yeah, well I mean -- you know, we talk about applying technology to business problems and tonight we applied fun to technology professionals. How's that?

ANNOUNCER: The MSN Direct wristwatch from Fossil is a new way to stay in the know.

Wireless productivity lets you communicate, access and manage information where you want it and when you want it.

SIEBERG: And, we saw some -- a combination of fashion. COMDEX has been around for many years and some of the new technology.

ROSENBERG: Yeah, so 23 years of COMDEX and we saw some exciting new hand-held mobile devices. Some of the technology of the future and I think we'll get to see more as time goes on.

SIEBERG: More COMDEX in the future?

ROSENBERG: Absolutely. We're booked for 2004.

SIEBERG: All right. Dave Rosenberg, executive director at COMDEX.

Thanks so much for joining us.

ROSENBERG: Thanks. SIEBERG: Ah, the sights and sounds of COMDEX. You just never know what to expect.

Well, that's about all the time we have for this week. But, before we go, here's a peek at what's coming up next week.

What is it that's so fascinates us about large predators? The animals that could eat us for breakfast. On a special edition of NEXT, we'll look at a lot of different aspect of the relationship between people and predators. "Fierce Fascination" airs in our regular timeslots next weekend.

And of course we hope you'll join us for that. Until then, let us hear from you. You can e-mail us at Next@cnn.com.

Thanks so much for joining us this week for our COMDEX show. And thnks to all the folks who helped us our here, as well. For everyone on the SciTech beat I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.

END

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

Q"; Military Uses Technology To Diffuse Improvised Explosive Devices>

Aired November 22, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on a special edition of NEXT@CNN we'll be coming to you from Las Vegas to bring you some of the best, brainiest and barest of this week's Comdex Technology Trade Show has to offer.
We'll also more weighty news from the hunt for road side bombs in Iraq to threats to chemical plants in the U.S.

And we'll show you the American Q. a real-life gadget guy in charge of James Bond-like gadgets for the CIA.

All that and more on NEXT.

Believe it or not, this is the 23rd annual digital gala known as Comdex. While this computer trade show has been, well, glitzier and even busier in years past, in fact, it used to take about an hour just to get a bottle of water back then.

It did manage to ride out the dotcom bubble and subsequent burst and there are still plenty of cool things to show you as we found out roaming the halls this past week. And, for the next hour, we'll give you some high-tech highlights.

We'll also tell you what's been happening on the si-tech feed (ph) outside this exhibit hall.

In Iraq you've no doubt heard how some homemade roadside bombs have killed or wounded a lot of coalition troops in months since the major combat ended. Well, U.S. soldiers are learning to discover and detonate more of these low-tech devices with high-tech help as Mark Phillips report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A commandship of 2 goes out in search of a deadly enemy. Heavily armed and supported by tanks, they have the dangerous task of looking for IETs or improvised explosive devices, a military term for what are really roadside booby traps.

STAFF SGT. ARMANDO SALDANA, ARMY: We're just providing the security measure rolling the platoon, making sure there are no side bombs, side road bombs, as they call them, are in place around here letting us know we're here.

PHILLIPS: They move slowly, checking the side of the road with spotlights. IEDs have been amongst the most lethal and frequently used weapons against U.S. troop in post-war Iraq. The road is blocked and a security cordon is placed around the scene.

SALDANA: By now, one of the guys seen a wire hanging out of a little metal box over here. They're going to check it out and make sure it isn't one of those improvised explosive devices.

PHILLIPS: The patrols are routine, but it's always a test of will and nerve for these soldiers.

SALDANA: It's an adrenaline rush also, but it does drain us a lot, just keep your mind off of it and on the big picture, make sure we get back home safely after we accomplish our mission. It drains us a lot.

PHILLIPS: The explosives disposal robot is called in to fire a blast of high pressure water that blows the suspect device apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire in the hole!

PHILLIPS: It turns out to be nothing more than a wire hanging out of a box. But U.S. forces can't underestimate the threat of these homemade but devastating effective bombs. The challenge is not just finding them, but preventing the enemy from planting more of them. As the Americans have tragically found, once an IED is discovered and removed, there's no guarantee it won't be replaced within hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, as you just saw, robots play a big role in protecting U.S. troops in Iraq. David Ensor reports on technology used by the more secretive side of the U.S. government, the CIA. Some of it isn't too far off what you might see in the movies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fictional British version of the role, Q in the James Bond movies, is well known.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, 007, do please try and return some -- do try to return some of this equipment in pristine order.

Don't touch that! It's my lunch.

ENSOR: But at the CIA, Donald Kerr is the real thing for American spies. In charge of finding technology that helps them do their jobs.

(on camera): Is real life at all like the movies?

DAVID KERR, CIA: Actually real life is better, because we are developing and employing new capabilities all the time.

ENSOR (voice-over): An exhibit as the CIA shows some of the old tricks of the trade, like a pipe that can listen in. KERR: When you put the pipe in your mouth, the amplifier is convert converting the radio signal to an audio signal that's transmitted via your jaw bone so you can hear it.

ENSOR: This one is Charlie the Catfish. Look closely. He's a spy fish.

KERR: It's just one of the kinds of approaches we might make to a target if we wanted to get a sensor up close to it.

ENSOR: And these aren't really dragonflies, they are UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles with microphone.

ENSOR: Does this fly like a dragonfly?

KERR: It does.

ENSOR: They were tested, but not used because any kind of breeze was enough to push them off course.

(on camera): What is the growth area, in terms of science or technology, to assist with intelligence gathering, espionage.

KERR: Smart dust. The size of it may be a cubic millimeter. Something that, the head of a pin or smaller. And so with functionality to measure something, record something and communicate something all built into this this very tiny device.

ENSOR (voice-over): Nanotechnology not in use yet, but Kerr says it will be. How much does reality imitate fiction?

(on camera): Here's a car that has surface to air missiles in it. A watch that has a grappling hook in it.

KERR: Those are more fanciful, because if you think about it, we'd like to have our agents conduct their operations unseen. And these things tend to be a bit showy and spectacular.

ENSOR (voice-over): That is the problem with James Bond's car. It blows its cover.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, back here at Comdex, things are shaken, if not stirred and maybe not quite as spectacular as the world of James Bond, but as NEXT@CNN continues, we'll show you some of the highlights, including new devices to help you at work, home and play.

Also still to come, we'll show you some turkeys in Pennsylvania that have a rather different idea for hunting season this Thanksgiving.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: To put it bluntly, it was sink or swim for the Comdex organizers this year. It's a bit of a different show owned by a different company. It's owned by Media Live International. I'm joined right now by Eric Faurot, the vice president and general manager of Comdex.

Eric, first of all, the show a little different this year in terms of the focus. Not quite a glitzy glamorous party as in years past. Why is that?

ERIC FAUROT, VP COMDEX: Well, as you know, this is year 1 of the new Comdex. The focused, global, IT, media event. And it really needed a change to focus on how to help companies use technology to solve real business problems. It had to be more relevant and appropriate for today's economy.

SIEBERG: So a little more on the practical side versus the party side. The numbers this year down from past years, about 250,000 was the height. This year about 50,000. Is that going to be enough for you to sustain the show in the future?

FAUROT: The thing we want to do is get back to basics. Put the right buyers and sellers together and have the companies that are here, the Microsofts the Dells, AT&T Wirelesses, see a return in their investments, have a really strong show. And everything we're hearing from them is they are thrilled. The quality of attendees is up. So, the 50,000 is actually great. And as you can see on the last day we've got a great number of people walking around.

SIEBERG: All right. Eric Faurot, vice president, general manager of Comdex. People will call it Comdex 2.0 next year. Thanks so much for joining us.

Well, Nextel pioneered the idea of push to talk on your cell phone, kind of like a walkie talkie. Here at the Comdex tech show some phone companies and some carriers are expanding that idea. Joining me right is Suzanne Kantra, the technology editor of "Popular Science" magazine to talk about this. Suzanne, can you hear me now?

SUZANNE KANTRA, "POPULAR SCIENCE": I sure can.

SIEBERG: These are some Motorola phones already on the market, what can you tell me about that?

KANTRA: Well, they are on the Verizon network. And you can call anyone on your phone address book and actually see whether they are available for that call. Now the benefit of using the walkie talkie style mode of talking is that you are not paying for every phone call. It's a huge cost savings.

SIEBERG: OK. Well, a couple of the ones that are out there from Motorola already, but here at the Comdex show there was a new announcement from Sprint, they put out some more phones as well.

KANTRA: They certainly do. They have a ruggedized version, which is really geared more for the construction worker or someone out in the field. But you can imagine this to be perfect for someone engaged in sports. If you are on the mountain, you want to meet your friends at the lodge, you can just push to talk and say, hey, meet me down there.

SIEBERG: All right. These other two look a little different because they are the flip style, little more compact.

KANTRA: They are. And this is more for the mobile professional. These phones will cost about $300. This is perfect if you are working in a work group you can talk to up to five people at the same time. And this model, which is coming along a little bit later this year, actually has a camera built into the back of it.

SIEBERG: Of course it does. All these things in one.

There are so many types of cell phones to choose from. The type of cell phone you get it one thing the other is the service you get is another. And this next story is all about choice. On Monday people in the 100 biggest US. cities will be able to keep their same cell phone number, even if they switch carriers.

In many cases, customers can also keep their numbers when they switch between cell phones and LAN lines. On Tuesday, though, the U.S. Telecom Association asked the FCC to delay the new rules for moving home numbers to mobile phones, saying that's a lot harder to do than a cell phone to cell phone transfer. But FCC Chairman Michael Powell says a delay is not likely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL POWELL, FCC CHAIRMAN: We just made a decision so there would have to be a pretty compelling case to reconsider any aspect of it. I think in many ways the inequity arguments are exaggerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: Powell also says, the phone companies have known for years this was coming.

Well, I'm just taking a break here from my desk at the Comdex tech show. Actually it's not my desk and it's not Dave Rosenberg's desk either, although he may wish it was. Dave is the executive director of Comdex. But Dave, what is this setup meant to illustrate?

DAVE ROSENBERG, COMDEX: Well, what we're showing here is the fully integrated wireless way of life. The day and life of a normal professional. So, from your hand-held device, your able to surf the web. From your phone you'll get access to corporate e-mail. You do all this through a secure wireless network, through a sonicwall, firewall. We're using Aruba to do the wi-fi access. And, the idea is that, as we move about our day, we need access to everything at all times. That's the way life is going.

SIEBERG: And we get to top it off with a pretty cool plasma screen.

ROSENBERG: Indeed.

SIEBERG: All right, Dave. So that was the virtual home setup. And this is the virtual corporate office that's set up here. Both very tidy work spaces, right? Impressive.

ROSENBERG: Just like my life.

SIEBERG: Right. Now, what is the difference between the two things?

ROSENBERG: Well, what we did it picked up our laptop, our wirelessly enabled laptop. We picked up our wirelessly enabled Palm. We're on the corporate network now, so we have a whole new set of challenges in terms of security and access to information we're getting to. Because of all these products I can get my information anywhere at any time, be it in my home office or corporate office or out on the golf course.

SIEBERG: It's funny you should mention a golf course, Dave. Because it so happens that we've got a virtual golf course set up here now. Let's be honest, a lot of professionals go out on the golf course to take a break. What if they want to stay in touch with what's going on at the office?

ROSENBERG: Well, that's what really all of the products are all about. A mobile device that has access to my corporate network as well as things like spreadsheet software. I go over here, I have my PDA. It has my cell phone in it and I have a camera. I can take pictures of you putting later on and send it home to mom.

SIEBERG: And maybe I'll even make the putt.

Let's go play golf later. Dave Rosenberg, executive director, Comdex, thanks so much for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: When NEXT@CNN returns, raccoons in the Appalachians get a special treat that's good for them and their human neighbors. And we'll show you a new way to get your head into the game, along with your hands and your feet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to Comdex here in Las Vegas. Well, the latest Kasparov versus computer chess match end ended in a draw again. The human world chess champ Gary Kasparov started a 4 game series last week with X-3D Fritz, the 12 year-old computer program that's tops in the digital word. Kasparov drew the first game, lost the second, won the third and drew the fourth. So it was a draw overall.

The Fritz program was converted into a virtual reality game. That allowing Kasparov to play the computer using 3-D glasses. No physical chessboard was involved and Kasparov actually spoke his moves into a microphone.

Well, chess is a rather static game, but earlier this week at Comdex, I found another unique way for players to interact with video games. Well, if you want to get in on the action with your favorite video game, there's something here at the Comdex tech show that lets you literally do that. It's called the action stick from a company BestSoft. I'm now joined by Brian Pyon to talk about this. Brian it uses infrared sensors to interact with the game?

BRIAN PYON, BESTSOFT: It has 18 sensors that are built into the stick. Each sensor is correspondent to each sensors to the character, so whichever sense you hit it, the character actually corresponds that.

SIEBERG: It's meant to replace your typical controller. So I'm going to drop this and we're going to do a demonstration here. We've got a game loaded up here on the Playstation 2. Does it work with every game?

PYON: Work with every game. This is a replacement of a joystick.

SIEBERG: It also works with PCs?

PYON: It also works with the PC with the USB port. It's also available for X-Box and interfaces, too.

SIEBERG: It's coming out in December for $100 is that correct?

PYON: That is correct.

SIEBERG: I'm getting a bit of a workout here. I think I'm breaking out in a sweat. This is actually physical interaction.

PYON: Actually, Daniel, we did a statistic test. If you play this for half an hour it's better than swimming or jogging. Can you believe that?

SIEBERG: Well, I'm beginning to believe that, the amount of sweat that's breaking out right now on my forehead. Well, Brian Pyon from Bestsoft, thanks for joining us to talk about the Action Stick and I think that's a K.O.

PYON: I think I lost.

SIEBERG: Next time Brian, rematch.

Oh, we had a little fun there. And incidentally, Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates dropped by just before we started shooting and tried it out himself and hinted that there might be an X-box version as well.

Speaking of fights, there's a different type of battle going on as new housing developments go up in what used to be rural areas. The fight to stop the spread of rabies. The government programs are trying to stem the migration of rabies spread by raccoons. Sean Callebs reports from the foothills of the Appalachians.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are cute, even comical, but raccoons are also a chief way rabies are spread way in the wild. Since raccoons won't line up for vaccines, there is now an effort to take treatment to the animals. These squares are fish meal. Inside genetically manufactured rabies vaccine.

DR. CARTER BLACK, GEORGIA ASSOCIATE: Raccoons are not real particular. They'll chew on most anything that they think might be food.

CALLEBS: The bait is dropped from low-flying planes over the corners of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee by the USDA, state wildlife agencies and the Centers for Disease Control Raccoon rabies has long been a problem all along the east coast from New York to Florida. The bait is to combat new cases cropping up further west.

BLACK: I think it will spread further and further if we don't accomplish what we're trying to do here today. Is try and develop an immunity barrier to keep this movement down.

CALLEBS: Nearly a quarter of a million blocks of bait will be scattered over the Appalachian foothills. People shouldn't touch it, it could make them sick. And authorities say, they are often asked, is this necessary?

FRANK BOYD, ALABAMA DIR. USDA: It's a disease that's universally fatal, if you get it without getting post exposure treatment.

CALLEBS: The aerial assault has worked in other parts of the nation. And if the bait ends up the right paws, they are confident it will stem the spread of the killer disease.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it's not raccoons they are concerned about, but turkeys. It seems that 2 wild turkeys recently took to attacking cars. Residents caught some of the action on home video. If you are wondering how the gobblers managed not to get hit by the cars, well, one of them didn't. Now there's only one of the barbarian birds.

ANNOUNCER: Ahead in the next half hour of NEXT@CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we have that, we have a catastrophic event. September 11 would pale in comparison.

ANNOUNCER: A look at the potential perils that face millions of Americans who live near chemical plants.

And later, more on Comdex, including a look at what goes on at the tech show after dark.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN, this week from the COMDEX Tech Show in Las Vegas. Well, millions of Americans live near factories and plants that use toxic chemicals. Those plants play a crucial role in the U.S. economy. But how safe are they? Are those facilities vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Since 1996, a string of government reports has warned of possible catastrophic events at those chemical plants and since 9/11, those warnings have grown more urgent. Yet, there is no federal law mandating minimum levels of security. So are chemical plants a tragedy waiting to happen? Well, we asked Jeanne Meserve to take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This chemical plant outside New York City is a potential weapon of mass destruction. 12 million people live within a 14-mile radius of the plant. Frank Ferreira is one of them. Is he scared?

FRANK FERREIRA, NEW YORK RESIDENT: How's the word "petrified?" Petrified is probably a way of describing my reaction.

MESERVE: It is one of 15,000 facilities across the U.S. which produce, use, or store toxic chemicals. Facilities which have been identified in report, after government report, as possible terrorist targets. Ferreira began videotaping the plant's security a year ago. He found gates unpadlocked and unguarded. No one challenged his presence.

FERREIRA: Still, no padlock on this gate.

MESERVE: This October, a different picture when Ferreira took CNN to the plant. We found television cameras, barbed wire and barricades. Armed security guards checked us out and called local police to question our crew. The plant president refused to talk on camera, ordering his trucks to block our shots. That was in front.

In back, from across the river, no one questioned our videotaping of the plant, even though we were right next door to the county sheriff's department. From that vantage point we could clearly see the plant's proximity to Newark Airport and its location smack underneath a major highway.

FERREIRA: What's there to stop anyone from dropping some sort of projectile right onto the plant and not to mention, look at the planes that are landing. 9/11 is a prime example of how an airplane becomes a deadly weapon. What's there to stop anyone from using a plane just to access the plant right from the air.

MESERVE: The American chemistry council is a trade group representing some of the largest chemical companies in the United States. It says the industry has made big strides in security since 9/11 by imposing guidelines on itself.

MARTY DURBIN, AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL: Everything from adding a gate to having security guards to having biometric -- you know, identification, tightening up of their computer systems.

MESERVE: But council members own or operate only 1,000 of the 15,000 facilities identified as potential terrorist targets. The Department of Homeland Security working with industry has begun vulnerability assessments of plants that pose the greatest potential risk.

BOB LISCOUSKI, HOMELAND SECURITY DEPT: You look at the location of the plant. How -- as I indicated, how accessible it is. And then -- you know, we have a variety of scenarios that we run, that we think are likely scenarios, and then based upon those scenarios, we'll examine the security capabilities and then make recommendations for enhancement.

MESERVE: But a quick tour of a handful of other plants showed little security. Where there were guards, they were unarmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN?

MESERVE: Nice to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice seeing you.

MESERVE: In one case, a hole under a fence, photographed unchallenged.

SAL DEPASQUALE, INDUSTRIAL SECURITY EXPERT: It causes me to lie awake at night.

MESERVE: Sal Depasquale worked in industrial security for more than 15 years. He says the latest industry and government security improvements are not nearly enough.

DEPASQUALE: I have a fair idea to what's been done. In my view, it's mostly been window dressing. An adversary can easily drive up, shoot the guard, go on to the facility, place a bomb, rupture a vessel, and release all of the material, and if we have that, we have a catastrophic event. September 11th would pale in comparison.

MESERVE: August 2002, rural Festus Missouri. 48,000 pounds of chlorine, about half a rail car, accidentally released because of the failure of a small hose. Hundreds were evacuated, more than 60 went to the emergency room. But, hundreds of thousands of people could die with the release of a single rail car of chlorine in an urban setting. According to the U.S. Naval Research Lab which created this computer simulation of a worst-case toxic release scenario.

Remember this plant where we started next to the highway, next to the airport? It uses chlorine rail car after rail car full to make bleach, and it is just a few miles from New York City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, to protect the public, critics say that government must take a more forceful approach to chemical plant security. But, more than two years after 9/11, congress has not passed a law demanding such measures.

ANNOUNCER: Still to come: Look out for "phishing" when you check your e-mail. We'll tell you how not to get hooked.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Her name is Parro. She's one of ten winners at the Best of COMDEX Awards from the "PC" magazine this year, and I'm joined right now by Michael Miller, he's the editor-in-chief of PC magazine to talk about some of the winners.

Let's start with Parro (PH), here. Now, she is more than just cute. She also serves a therapeutic purpose.

MICHAEL MILLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF "PC" MAGAZINE: That's correct. This is a robot that was designed in Japan by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, designed for therapeutic healing for people in hospitals, things like that. Moves around, does things. But for people who can't have a real pet, helps, particularly for children, and things like that...

SIEBERG: Right.

MILLER: Very nice technology.

SIEBERG: And, this is just a prototype, right.

MILLER: Just a prototype, done -- you know, as a science project, really, but very cool stuff.

SIEBERG: Right, now if it's charging, it looks like it's asleep with a little soother in it's mouth.

MILLER: It absolutely does, isn't it so cute?

SIEBERG: Right. Now, from cute and cuddly to this wireless TV, what can you tell me about this?

MILLER: Well, this is from VisArt, this is a LCD panel, but what's interesting about it, if you charge this, then you pick it up and you can movie it anywhere. You have a little device that attaches to your TV set and you can play back a DVD, or anything else. You can do it on -- anywhere in the house, anywhere within like a 30-feet distance. So, you can bring it out to the porch, you can bring it in the backyard. It's got a battery in it, so you don't even have to plug it in A/C power.

SIEBERG: Wow, TV on the go. Now, from one screen to other here, this is -- a lot of technology in a little space, here. But, this is a -- what can you tell me about this? This is the HP multimedia?

MILLER: It's the HP Media Center PC. And, what it lets you do is you can capture TV, record it, just like a personal video recorder. You can also do things like -- you can put on -- it has a little remote, you can up in all your music, all of the things that you want. Just pick a song and just hit one button and play it.

SIEBERG: All right.

MILLER: Very cool. All sorts of things, it's a great PC and does all this other stuff as well.

SIEBERG: Our thanks to Michael Miller from "PC" magazine. You helped us fish for gadgets here on the show floor. The idea of fishing in a rushing trout stream or a choppy ocean sounds pretty wholesome. But phishing on the internet is anything but. As Kristie Lu Stout reports, a new high-tech swindle aims to hook netizens and reel in their money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks real enough, An e-mail from eBay looking to verify your password, but it's a fake. Follow the link and you'll get phished. Phishing is an e- mail scam that tricks customers into giving away their personal data. The term is inspired by the hacker community's frequent use of "ph" instead of "f." And unsuspecting net users are led to phony websites that ask for their passwords and pin numbers which phishing thieves can then use.

To find out the extent of the problem, I talked to Symantec's chief technology officer, Rob Clyde.

ROB CLYDE, CTO, SYMANTEC: In the U.S. over the last five years, there were 27 million Americans affected by identity theft at a cost of $48 billion. And so it's not surprising that identity theft has moved into the electronic world.

STOUT (on camera): And phishing is a subset of identity theft?

CLYDE: It is. It's a way to spam users and trick them into providing their personal information and then, of course, for the purposes of stealing money from them.

STOUT: And, who's at danger here?

CLYDE: Basically all of us. Because, we all have credit cards, we all have national I.D. cards and passwords and the kind of personal information that phishers are after.

STOUT: Now, we could try to ignore the scam e-mails or the phising e-mails that we see coming into our inboxes. But, what else can be done.

CLYDE: Well, first of all, you can put in technological methods to block most of those e-mails from coming in in the first place, so that we see very few of them to begin with. And then, of course, you do try to ignore them. There are legislative actions that might be taken, although frankly, I'm rather dubious of the chance of success for those.

STOUT: So, right now obviously as CTO of Symantec, you're pushing for the technology solution. But, I mean, how effective is that? Technology these days may be smart enough to play chess against the chess champion of the world, but is it smart enough to have the street smarts to find and to fight online scam artists.

CLYDE: Well, fortunately phishing relies upon a spam technique that is very similar to all the other types of junk e-mails that you get today, and so the same techniques for blocking those junk e-mails are, in fact, quite effective in blocking these phishing messages.

STOUT: And, do you think phishing will ever go away or is it going to be like spamming where it's so lucrative there'll always be the phisher out there?

CLYDE: Well, I think we're likely to have it with us for quite some time. The fact is if they can send millions -- tens of millions of these scamming e-mails and just get a few hits, the phisher has a chance to make a pretty good living.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: In case you're wondering, there are website out there that can tell you more about phishing and how to avoid getting hooked. You can get there from our website, that's at cnn.com/next.

ANNOUCER: Next up on NEXT@CNN, Spain's worst ecological disaster one year later.

And later, a trip to the robot petting zoo and the COMDEX trade show.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE SENIOR EDITOR: It use to be that services had to be performed at the spot where the service was needed. But, in a globally interconnected era, that's no longer true.

And, that's creating a huge challenge for the economy of the United States and Europe. You're seeing literally millions of jobs migrate outside the U.S., particularly less skilled jobs, but not only less skilled jobs. You're going to start to see more and more softwar programming jobs, which have been going for some time, but you're even starting to see medical analysis jobs, like analyzing x-rays or legal work, all these things are now being done in India for consumption in the United State. Those are jobs that we don't have here anymore.

Why India? They have a terrific educational system. So, they are turning out people with extraordinary skills, who speak English, who are willing to work for one-tenth what an American would expect to receive. That's the reason.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: This week marks one year since the oil tanker, Prestige, sank off the Northwest coast of Spain. While the huge oil slicks have largely disappeared, experts say the threat of pollution remains and court battles loom. Al Goodman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The end of the oil tanker, Prestige, the beginning of Spain's worst ecological disaster. The single hulled ship split in two last November 19. Six days earlier, in storms and high winds, it had started to leak near Northwest Spain. The government ordered the stricken ship out to the open sea where it sank. The Prestige carried 77,000 tons or 20 million gallons of fuel oil. The government says 80 percent of it spilled. Nearly twice as much as the oil that spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989 off Alaska.

JUAN ANDRADE, ADENA ENVIRONMENTALIST (through translator): It could take 10 years for the marine and costal ecosystems to fully recover depending on the areas affected and the degree of damage.

GOODMAN: The spill initially affected Northwest Spain, later spreading to Spain's Northern beaches and France. One study says up to 250,000 birds may have died. Thousands of volunteers and soldiers helped in the cleanup. Despite the effort, scientists are worried.

JUAN FREIRE, UNIVERSITY OF CORONA (through translator): Our hypothesis is that the contamination come from the sediment and move right up through the food chain.

GOODMAN: Several thousand fishermen were idled initially, but they're back at work making mussels, clams and other seafood. There were leaks from the sunken ship for months, documented by a French submarine. But, the Spanish government says the cracks have been sealed and the leaks nearly stopped.

JAVIER ARENAS, DEP. PRIME MINISTER OF STAIN (through translator): Many of the negative effect of the spill have disappeared and no effort was spared to mitigate the damage from the catastrophe.

GOODMAN: The Greek captain of the Prestige, Apostolos Mangouras is free on $3 million bail, charged with an environmental crime and disobeying Spanish authorities.

The government estimates the spill cost nearly $1 billion. Opposition parties accuse it of mismanaging the crisis. Many critics and one lawsuit against the government charge that instead of pushing the ship out to sea it should have been brought in to a safe port to confine the spill.

(on camera): Other legal battles loom, the Spanish government wants compensation from a U.S. organization that certified the ship as seaworthy. It's not known exactly what caused the ship to start leaking One year on, calm waters have not fully returned after the sinking of the Prestige.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, from the ocean to the air, and now a look at what might then plane of the future. Boeing has unveiled an interior mock- up of its planned 7E7 Dreamliner, and the emphasis is on passenger comfort, as you might think from the name. The plane features wider seats and aisles, along with arches and lighted ceilings that make the plane feel more spacious. The luggage bins are larger and easier to use, even the windows are bigger, so passengers don't have to contort themselves to see the horizon. Boeing is pitching the plane to airlines and there's no need to buy your ticket just yet, the company hopes the planes will start flying in 2008.

More futuristic stuff now, at the world's largest exhibition of industrial robots, this week, in Tokyo. Some might all these creations high or robot in the sky. This is the micro flying robot. Its propellers are powered by an ultra thin, ultra sonic motor. It's designed to search in areas where humans can't go, like many robots, such as earthquake rubble.

Among other exhibits, a muscle shirt designed to help weakened or paralyzed people move their limbs, and a robotic suit programmed to help people walk. But, there are also robots here at COMDEX.

Well, welcome to the robotics petting zoo here at the COMDEX Tech Show, and I think we're playing sort of virtual zookeeper, in a sense today, and we're talking about some of the new robots that are either on the market already or some prototypes of ones that are going to be out soon. And, I'm joined right now by Lance Ulanoff, he's the executive editor at "PC" magazine.

And Lance, what exactly powers all of these robots, first of all. I mean, they're -- they seem to be very compact.

LANCE ULANOFF, EXECUTIVE EDITOR "PC" MAGAZINE: Yeah well, at the heart of every single one of them is this VIA Mini-itx motherboard. And, the great thing about this is that it integrates the CPU, the graphics, and the sound chips all into one board. It's low cost, it's low power, which is great for robots and hobbyists were using it to build computers and they migrated into building robots.

SIEBERG: OK now, some people might be familiar with say, the Roomba, which helps you vacuum or ones that help you mow your lawn. What is the purpose of a lot of these robots and why would someone want to have one?

ULANOFF: I would sat that you've go a combination of security and telepresence. You can have this -- like for example, this one you can remote control it around your house and have it check from room to room, make sure there's no intruders, make sure the dog's not getting into the garbage again. And for telepresence, you could say, for example, this -- the RoboDynamix -- this is just a prototype, but the idea is that maybe we'll have this going through the rooms of a hospital checking on patients so a doctor doesn't have to go up and down, from room to room, and they can feel like someone's checking on them.

SIEBERG: Right. Now, if that robot was checking in on a patient, it doesn't look like a human at all, is that intentional?

ULANOFF: Yeah, that's inten -- well, there's two things here: one is it's incredibly difficult to make a robot look like a human and actually act like a human. But, the other part is that you don't want people to fall into a false sense of security and say, this robot looks just like aunt May and it can take care of the children. It's going to be a long time before robots can be left alone with the kids.

SIEBERG: All right, well I think that one's about to attack you. So, we're going to have to control some of these. Maybe feed them, keep them happy.

ANNOUNCER: Still to come: We'll show you what happens when the geeks come out at night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: And finally, well, what technology trade show or technology TV show, for that matter, would be complete without, and I have to apologize for being slightly politically incorrect here -- scantily clad babes.

Well, it's after hours here at COMDEX in Las Vegas, and everybody's lost their mind. It's just craziness here at the COMDEX show. Actually I'm joined by David Rosenberg, executive director at COMDEX.

Dave, what was tonight all about?

DAVE ROSENBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMDEX: Yeah, I can't possibly explain to you what happened there. As we often say, the I.T. industry, being a leading event we need to be celebration of the industry, and therefore, we saw some exciting after-dark activities.

ANNOUNCER: All right, let's take a look at some of the hottest digital wearable products from the COMDEX show floor. This (UNINTELLIGIBLE) industrial uniform is both practical and fashion oriented.

SIEBERG: The show, you're talk about this year being a little more serious, a little more focused on the practical side. This everybody kind of let their hair down a little bit.

ROSENBERG: Right. Yeah, well I mean -- you know, we talk about applying technology to business problems and tonight we applied fun to technology professionals. How's that?

ANNOUNCER: The MSN Direct wristwatch from Fossil is a new way to stay in the know.

Wireless productivity lets you communicate, access and manage information where you want it and when you want it.

SIEBERG: And, we saw some -- a combination of fashion. COMDEX has been around for many years and some of the new technology.

ROSENBERG: Yeah, so 23 years of COMDEX and we saw some exciting new hand-held mobile devices. Some of the technology of the future and I think we'll get to see more as time goes on.

SIEBERG: More COMDEX in the future?

ROSENBERG: Absolutely. We're booked for 2004.

SIEBERG: All right. Dave Rosenberg, executive director at COMDEX.

Thanks so much for joining us.

ROSENBERG: Thanks. SIEBERG: Ah, the sights and sounds of COMDEX. You just never know what to expect.

Well, that's about all the time we have for this week. But, before we go, here's a peek at what's coming up next week.

What is it that's so fascinates us about large predators? The animals that could eat us for breakfast. On a special edition of NEXT, we'll look at a lot of different aspect of the relationship between people and predators. "Fierce Fascination" airs in our regular timeslots next weekend.

And of course we hope you'll join us for that. Until then, let us hear from you. You can e-mail us at Next@cnn.com.

Thanks so much for joining us this week for our COMDEX show. And thnks to all the folks who helped us our here, as well. For everyone on the SciTech beat I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.

END

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