tion the client sent out with the software allows downloaders to recover interrupted downloads and packages can be sent with electronic commerce wrappers to complete payment at the point of download.

The patent covers V-Cast's file delivery system including the recoverable download feature, background delivery scheme, and scheduling and confirmation systems, as well as element of the system's graphical user interface. The patents could put V-Cast on a collision course with several push industry leaders. "We're going to send them a letter, and let them know this patent has been issued and let them go from there," said Friedler, who is structuring licensing agreements and fees. "It's going to be a lot more reasonable for any company to license rather than litigate," he said.

Although Friedler anticipates licensing to add a nice new revenue stream his company's mix, he said the core focus of the company remains building Gigex. The success of Gigex 2.0, launched this spring, and the awarding of the patents, marks a happy chapter in the rocky development of V-Cast as a company. Founded in 1995 as Digital Delivery, the company struggled as a push pioneer, wrestling with failed business models for delivering audio, video, and text content over the Web -- essentially creating a solution for a problem the market didn't care to solve. But the company found a market for a FedEx-type online delivery service in games developers. In fact, Friedler said, this week Panasonic Games agreed to move its entire online games delivery operation over to Gigex, helping the company actually become profitable next month.

INDEX STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY ACQUIRES SHOPS . . . Index Stock Photography, the stock-house turned Internet image retailer, is making moves to bulk up the number of images it offers, and increase the reach of its traditional business base. In the last two weeks the company has acquired two stock houses -- The Picture Cube in Boston, and Denver's Stock Imagery. The acquisitions will increase the numbers of images Index Stock offers both online through its Photos To Go service, and offline through its traditional stock photography business. In addition it will give its existing photographers access to a wider traditional client base in New England, Colorado, and internationally through Stock Imagery's network of 50 international affiliates.

Photos To Go is a Web-based business that offers Index Stock's collection of downloadable images for Websties and presentations being built by large and small corporations and Web self-publishers. It's a tough market in which Index Stock competes with West Coast giant PhotoDisc and, to a lesser extent, Bill Gate's Corbis library of digital images.

WEB SITE AIMS AT RAIL COMMUTERS . . . Remember the bar car? In the old days, you'd head for the train car for a Scotch and cigar was you rode home to the house in Connecticut after a long day as the man in the grey-flannel suit. Those days are gone, but one Silicon Alley company is trying to recapture the social scene of the old bar cars - and capture a pretty good demographic in the process. Touch Media Group has created The Bar Car and is promoting it as "first and only site dedicated to the social phenomenon that exists in limbo between work and home," according to executive producer Tom Skinner. Obviously, New York's net-savvy commuters - most of Silicon Alley's VCs ride the rails from suburbia each day - are the perfect target, but there has been interest from Japan, London, Chicago and San Francisco. The free site features multiple posting areas, billboards, a 'free drinks' section where visitors can send animated cocktails to friends, and a special petition area designed to help unite riders around the world on a variety of commuter issues. And there's already been a bit of fireworks between people who want alcohol banned from rail service and those who don't. Skinner, a Manhattan commuter from Westport, Connecticut, says that it's the camaraderie that matters most on the barcar, explaining "to purchase a beverage and a snack on the train, interacting with people you have been commuting with for years, is a quality of life issue."

1-0-1-0 -- ChannelSeven.com -- The Silicon Alley marketing publisher has teamed with The WebService Group of Denmark to create Ad-Guide.Com, new Web site directory and search engine devoted to advertising and marketing services and resources.

http://www.ad-guide.com

1-0-1-0 -- Vanguard Media - The Silicon Alley tech shop is helping the Wildlife Conservation Society (of Bronx Zoo fame) put their academic conference, The Second Pam American Congress on Wildlife Conservation through Education, online this year. To bring the conference to life Vanguard Media created bulletin boards, real time chats, an interactive directory, and wildlife e-mail postcards. The site also features RealVideo and academic papers that can be downloaded.

http://www.panam.wcs.org

1-0-1-0 -- MethodFive - The local tech company received a big contract from Journal Register Company to publish 43 weekly newspapers online, as the firm's proprietary Volume Publisher tool continues to grow in use by newspaper companies. The company already serves 19 daily and 11 weekly online newspapers in eight states. "You can edit and maintain hundreds of publications and content areas as easily as you could a handful using the traditional techniques," said technical director Steven Turoff.

http://www.methodfive.com

1-0-1-0 -- Razorfish - The Alley-based interactive firm has launched the new Web site for auction house Christie's. The new site allows visitors to search world-wide auction calendars, retrieve global sales results by lot, submit absentee bids and object appraisal requests, and purchase a broad selection of Christie's auction catalogues, books, and periodicals. "Christie's site will help introduce art collecting to a much broader audience than ever before, extending the auction house's leadership position well into the 21st century," said Razorfish chairman Craig Kanarick.

http://www.christies.com

1-0-1-0 -- Interactive Connection - The Silicon Alley content streaming firm announced a deal with The Sports Network, an online streaming wire service. They're codeveloping "Sports Sream" a customized package catering to a Web site's local market by a home team's content delivered to the Web site's server.

http://www.interactive.line.com

1-0-1-0 -- E-Pub -- Silicion Alley online gaming company that produces UPROAR has signed a deal to produce custom online tennis trivia games called Wimbledon Trivia Blitz and Pick the Draw for the Wimbledon and Perrier Websites in conjunction with The All England Lawn Tennis Club and Wimbledon sponsor Perrier. Financial terms were not announced.

http://www.e-pub.com

CORRECTION: Last week @NY was misinformed about the size of layoffs at Silicon Alley startup Classified Warehouse. In fact, the staff has been trimmed by one-third, according to CEO David Lalich, who declined to specific the exact number of staffers let go. As we reported last week, the staff reductions come as part of a reallocation of business resources. The company, which maintains a national online classified advertising database by selling online classifieds to local newspaper, built its network by focusing on selling services to hundreds of smaller, community newspapers. With that network built, Lalich said he is not turning the company's focus to papers in a dozen or so major metro markets and so requires fewer staffers.