Techno-News Blog

April 16, 2011

Technology transfer: From the lab to the marketplace

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by Arizona State University

Fluoride toothpaste. Rocket fuel. The cancer drug Taxol. LCD displays. Seat belts. Gatorade. Penicillin. What do all of these things have in common? They are certainly useful. Some of them save lives. But the one thing that connects them all is that they were developed through research at universities. Academic researchers are continually developing technologies, products and processes that improve our lives and stimulate the economy.

http://asunews.asu.edu/20110404_techtransferazte

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Stretching IT Budgets with Open Source and Virtualization

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By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Jeremy Fluhmann knows how to stretch a dollar. The technology director for Winters Independent School District in Winters, TX had a budget that would allow him to refresh about 50 computers a year. That’s just a fraction of the 650 to 670 end user devices he estimated his two-person IT team supports in the district. At that rate, it would take about 13 years to replace the entire population of PCs. And long before then, he pointed out, “We’d have old machines we still have to maintain.” Rather than bemoaning the slow speed of the refresh treadmill, Fluhmann has decided to step off and has begun implementing a mix of open source software and virtual desktops to extend the life of district equipment.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/04/07/stretching-it-budgets-with-open-source-and-virtualization.aspx

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IT & Network Infrastructure : IBM`s Watson Takes College Kids to School

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By Darryl K. Taft, eWeek

IBM recently hosted a Watson symposium with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, bringing together a group of academic minds to share ideas about the possibilities of Watson technology in the areas of medicine, law, business, computer science, engineering and more. IBM’s Watson computer is a breakthrough in the field of question and answering, also known as “QA.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/IBMs-Watson-Takes-College-Kids-to-School-183059/

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April 15, 2011

Intel launches Oak Trail tablet processor

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by the BBC

Intel has formally launched its Oak Trail processor, designed for use in tablet computers. The new microchip is smaller and uses less power than other models in its Atom range. Despite being the world’s largest manufacturer of microprocessors, Intel has been largely pushed out of the growing tablet market. Until now, most devices have used chips designed by Apple and Cambridge-based Arm Holdings. Announcing Oak Trail’s retail name – the Z670 – Intel conceded that it was currently lagging behind the competition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13038481

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Cisco shuts down Flip video camera business

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by the BBC

Cisco Systems has said it is shutting down its Flip video camera business and cutting 550 jobs as it overhauls its consumer products unit. In recent years, Cisco, the world’s largest maker of computer networking gear, has sought to diversify and move into the consumer market. Analysts criticised the group for trying to do too much. Last week, Cisco chief John Chambers admitted the firm had lost its way and vowed to take “bold steps” to refocus. “We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy,” Mr Chambers said in a statement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13052370

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Berners-Lee calls for higher purpose of Web

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by Martin LaMonica, CNET

Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the underpinnings of the World Wide Web, isn’t just concerned about getting browsers on more mobile devices. Architects of the Web need to consider how it will affect all humanity as it evolves. Berners-Lee was one of the speakers here this afternoon at Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything, a conference organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-20053249-76.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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April 14, 2011

Why did LOL infiltrate the language?

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By James Morgan, BBC News 

The internet slang term “LOL” (laughing out loud) has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, to the mild dismay of language purists. But where did the term originate? And is it really a threat to our lexicon? “OMG! LOL’s in the OED. LMAO!” If you find the above string of letters utterly unintelligible, you are clearly an internet “noob”. Let me start again. Golly gosh! The popular initialism LOL (laughing out loud) has been inducted into the canon of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary. Blimey! What is going on?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12893416

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US government developing activist technology

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by the BBC

The United States government is spending millions of dollars developing technology to help pro-democracy activists in the Middle East and China. Washington has begun to open-up about the projects which include a “panic button” that lets protesters wipe their mobile phones if they are arrested. State department official Michael Posner said that the US was investing money “like venture capitalists”. He also revealed that it was providing campaigners with technology training.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13010760

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It is Frighteningly Easy for a Country to Cut Off the Internet

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by Bill Thompson, BBC Click

In a bid to stifle protests one option some governments have turned to is to switch off the internet. Click’s Spencer Kelly and Bill Thompson discuss whether it’s possible for a government to cut off communications without crippling its own economy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9451427.stm

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April 13, 2011

Bing for iPad Includes Voice Search, Trending Topics, Maps

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By: Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek

For decades, Microsoft and Apple have engaged in the oddest of rivalries. Ostensibly at each other’s throats over operating systems and smartphones, the pair nonetheless offers a version of Office for Mac, and Microsoft once famously invested $150 million in Apple to keep it operating during the dark years. Microsoft knows a market when it sees one, in other words, and Apple seems disinclined to reject many things that would bring customers into its fold. Hence, the new appearance of Bing for iPad: Microsoft’s search engine on the one device that threatens, if not the PC-centric paradigm on which Microsoft built its business, certainly Redmond’s attempts to make a name for itself in the tablet market.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Bing-for-iPad-Includes-Voice-Search-Trending-Topics-Maps-480292/?kc=rss

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YouTube Live Streaming Underscores Google Broadcasting Plan

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By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

YouTube is becoming a massively scaling broadcast platform, with YouTube Live as the latest effort to showcase original broadcast content to consumers from partners. YouTube officially turned on YouTube Live, the Google video-sharing unit’s bid to stream concerts, sporting events and interviews with local celebrities and the like. Consumers will access YouTube Live on its own Web page, and can subscribe to YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams on a customized homepage. YouTube partners in good standing will be able to access the YouTube Live streaming platform to begin broadcasting content.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/YouTube-Live-Streaming-Underscores-Google-Broadcasting-Plan-170669/?kc=rss

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Google Chrome OS Tablet Evolving in Open Source

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By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google is baking specifications for a tablet based on its Chrome operating system tablet in its open-source code. With Android Honeycomb tablets marching, a Chrome OS tablet is curious. A tablet computer based on Google’s Chrome operating system is wending its way through the search engine’s open-source pipeline, the company confirmed. Chrome OS is Google’s lightweight, Web-based operating system, a departure from Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac platforms. Google gave away a CR-48 test notebook last winter, and the company said Chrome OS would appear on notebooks from Samsung and Acer later this year. Pictures and a demo video of what a tablet computer running Chrome OS looks like surfaced on Google’s Chromium open-source Website in February 2010, just days after the original Apple iPad was introduced.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Google-Chrome-OS-Tablet-Evolving-in-Open-Source-281995/?kc=rss

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April 12, 2011

Buildings Made with a Printer

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By Kevin Bullis, Technology Review

In conventional construction, workers piece together buildings from mass-produced, prefabricated bricks, I-beams, concrete columns, plates of glass and so on. Neri Oxman, an architect and a professor at MIT’s Media Lab, intends to print them instead—essentially using concrete, polymers, and other materials in the place of ink. Oxman is developing a new way of designing buildings to take advantage of the flexibility that printing can provide. If she’s successful, her approach could lead to designs that are impossible with today’s construction methods. Existing 3-D printers, also called rapid prototyping machines, build structures layer by layer. So far these machines have been used mainly to make detailed plastic models based on computer designs. But as such printers improve and become capable of using more durable materials, including metals, they’ve become a potentially interesting way to make working products.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/37218/?p1=BI&a=f

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A Browser that Speaks Your Language

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By David Zax, Technology Review

Early adopters can now get a sneak peek at the future of the Web by downloading the latest prerelease, or “beta,” version of Chrome, Google’s Web browser. One of the most interesting new features is an ability to translate speech to text—entirely via the Web. The feature is the result of work Google has been doing with the World Wide Web Consortium’s HTML Speech Incubator Group, the mission of which is “to determine the feasibility of integrating speech technology in HTML5,” the Web’s new, emerging standard language.

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/37166/?p1=A5&a=f

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A Desktop for Web Computing

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By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Personal computing is steadily migrating to the Web, as people use sites like Facebook and Flickr to store photos, videos, and other files they previously would have stored on a PC. A startup called ZeroPC hopes to provide the desktop for the Web computing revolution–a page that looks and acts like a desktop interface, from which users can access all of their content wherever it is stored online. A user logging in to ZeroPC is presented with an interface much like Microsoft Windows: icons on a desktop that provide access to files stored in folders and to applications for e-mailing, document editing, and more. But the desktop is delivered using the same technologies used to build interactive Web applications.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37289/?p1=A3&a=f

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April 11, 2011

DoD sees “disruptive” cyber threats

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by Trent Nouveau, TG Daily

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III believes the U.S. is facing a new generation of “disruptive” cyber attacks. “The cyber threat is moving up the ladder from exploitation to disruption,” Lynnn explained in comments quoted by the DoD’s official website. “[True], we have not seen much destruction in terms of cyber threats, but we will.” According to Lynn, cyber warfare capabilities are currently in the hands hands of “sophisticated” countries, but could shift to rogue states and terrorist organizations in the future. “We have a window at this point where the most malicious threats haven’t been joined with the most malicious actors, but that will happen. “[So we need to establish defenses that will] prevent [such a] union from having an effect on the security and the economy of this country.”

http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/55060-us-dod-sees-disruptive-cyber-threats?quicktabs_1=1

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Android Malware Threat Highlights Risks to All Smartphones

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By: Wayne Rash, eWeek

The recent revelation in Wired News of a new Android malware application highlights the risk that comes with getting your applications from unknown sources. However, that same ability to get mobile applications from some place besides the Android Market is one of the things that users really like about Android devices. Besides that, the Android Market itself isn’t exactly devoid of malware issues, and while Google gets rid of malware-laden applications when it discovers them in the store, sometimes they can stick around for a while.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Android-Malware-Threat-Highlights-Risks-to-All-Smartphones-526196/?kc=rss

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Could roaming rates be about to fall?

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By Dan Simmons, BBC Click

Travelling abroad can be a great time to relax, enjoy the view, and switch off. But many people want to use their smartphones, tablets and laptops overseas to stay connected – and the price of doing so is still very high. Matthew Bath is the technology editor for Which? magazine and says many consumers are shocked to receive huge phone bills when returning from holiday or business abroad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9442175.stm

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April 10, 2011

Google Goggles Facial Recognition Possible, but Not Imminent

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By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google is not building a separate facial recognition application, but you can expect to see it as a Google Goggles feature. How soon is anyone’s guess, as privacy details need to be worked out. The blogosphere was set ablaze this week with the report that Google was building a facial recognition application that would let users take pictures of people and identify them within seconds. Not true, or at least not yet. The real story is more nuanced than that, sources familiar with Google’s thinking claim.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-Goggles-Facial-Recognition-Possible-but-Not-Imminent-514381/?kc=rss

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Google’s Chrome Web browser on the Rise

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:19 am

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google’s Chrome Web browser garnered 11.5 percent market share through March, gaining at the expense of Microsoft Internet Explorer. IE, far and away the market leader with 15 years of legacy use behind it, commands 55.9 percent share but fell from last month’s tally of 56.77 percent, according to researcher Net Applications. Mozilla Firefox share ticked up slightly to 21.8 percent from 21.7 percent. Firefox has struggled to return to the 25 percent mark since the advent of Chrome in September 2008, but the company behind it just launched a snappy Firefox 4 that holds promise.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Google-Chrome-Nibbles-at-IE-to-Grab-115-Share-584922/?kc=rss

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UK radio pushes online listening

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by the BBC

Many of the UK’s biggest radio broadcasters have joined forces to launch a system for listening to their stations over the internet. UK Radioplayer brings together commercial outlets alongside BBC stations in an attempt to boost online listening. Only 3% of people access radio via the web and growth has been sluggish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12909733

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