DECK THE MALL WITH SEASONAL TENANTS A YULETIDE TENURE BENEFITS PROPRIETORS AS WELL AS THE CENTERS WHERE THEY SET UP SHOP.(BUSINESS)

Byline: DAVID ORENSTEIN Business writer The holiday season is a powerful commercial magnet that is luring scores of small businesses out of seemingly every corner of the Capital Region and into the mall. -

Proprietors of such stores say their main goal is to take advantage of the season's heavy consumer activity, but they also say a yuletide tenure can also provide an artisan or traveling merchant with a host of other benefits.

And the seasonal tenants can in turn help the malls, adding greater variety and keeping them full and vibrant-looking during the crucial shopping season. Retailers will often post almost half of their annual sales in the last …

DirecTV clears iTV deck.(interactive)

DirecTV's dumping of Wink at the end of the year leaves the OpenTV interactive service with 10.4 million fewer users and opens the door for Canal Plus and NDS in the U.S. market,

"OpenTV has been a little cagey in telling the market where they stand in terms of combining Wink and OpenTV's platforms, as well as their future plans," says Yankee Group media analyst Adi Kishore. "Typically, if a company is cagey, it suggests they aren't very clear on their own strategy or where they're going."

OpenTV executives weren't available for comment.

The news came on the heels of OpenTV's third-quarter report, with earnings of $17.1 million, up 27% from third …

Pacino plays mentor to 'Dapper Don' in Gotti film

CANNES, France (AP) — Al Pacino is telling a new mob family story, joining John Travolta for the crime saga "Gotti: Three Generations."

Pacino will play Gambino crime family underboss Neil Dellacroce, an associate and mentor to John Gotti Sr. (Travolta), says the film's producer, Fiore Films.

"Gotti" reunites Pacino with Levinson, who directed the actor in his role as Dr. Jack Kevorkian in last year's TV movie "You Don't Know Jack," for which Pacino won an Emmy. Levinson also was a producer on Pacino's 1997 crime drama "Donnie Brasco" and co-wrote his 1979 court saga "... And Justice for All."

The cast also includes Lindsay Lohan, Joe Pesci and Travolta's wife, Kelly …

Knights: ; say 'aye'; to Logan

LIFE is filled with tough choices. Leno or Letterman?

Now, it's time to add another rugged choice to the list.

Logan or Jefferson?

Phew. Now, that is a toughie.

I can make an argument for picking either team to win when theyplay for the Class AAA championship at 8 tonight in the state highschool baseball tournament at Watt Powell Park. Jefferson? TheCougars could win simply because they have the best program in thestate, year-in and year-out. That's why Jefferson has won sevenstate championships. That's why Coach John Lowery has accumulated anextraordinary 800 wins. That's why Lowery is a living legend.

Logan? The Wildcats could win because they've …

Clip & save art notes.(introduction to the 2009-10 CLIP & SAVE art prints)(French painter Georges Seurat)(Biography)

ABOUT THE ARTIST The French painter Georges Seurat (pronounced ser-AH) is best known for the masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86), perhaps the most significant painting to celebrate leisure and recreation to ever be created. Born to a wealthy family, Seurat attended art school at the celebrated Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1878, studying under a former student of the great French Neoclassical painter, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

Although Seurat is considered a Post-Impressionist (a term used to describe a group of painters who challenged and moved beyond Impressionism while that movement was still relevant), his classical training would eventually bring him to a mature style that could be described as the polar opposite of Monet's. Indeed, Seurat has been referred to by art historians as a "counter-Impressionist."

After a year of military service in 1879, Seurat set up a studio in Paris and spent the next two years perfecting his drawing skills. Seurat was a meticulous …

NEED FOR SPEED SPURS RPI, IBM PARTNERSHIP.(MAIN)

Byline: KEVIN HARLIN Business writer

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and IBM Corp. are partnering on a $33 million research center in Troy to develop infrastructure for the next generation of high-speed, broadband data pipelines and computer networks that will be 1,000 times faster than today's.

IBM will provide the funding and other support over five years to the new Rensselaer Center for Broadband Data Transport Science, RPI announced Tuesday.

The college said the center will be unique because it will look at entire systems from the silicon up, rather than at individual chips or components.

``Currently we have PCs that run at the …

Vatavuk air pollution control cost indexes (VAPCCI).(Economic Indicators)

 VATAVUK AIR POLLUTION CONTROL COST INDEXES (VAPCCI) (1st Quarter 1994 = 100.0)  CONTROL                         2001      2002       2003 DEVICE (3)                      Avg.      Avg.     Avg. (1)  Carbon adsorbers               105.9     106.8      113.0 Catalytic incinerators         112.9     114.5      124.0 Electrostatic precipitators     98.5     101.7      102.9 Flares                         100.8     101.7      105.2 Gas absorbers                  114.4     115.6      117.3 Refrigeration systems          105.8     106.6      108.8 Regenerative thermal   oxidizers                    110.7     111.9      113.9 Thermal incinerators           107.9     108.6 …