Techno-News Blog Ray Schroeder, editor, OTEL - University of Illinois at Springfield |
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Saturday, September 27, 2003
The Nanotechnology Revolution - Adam Keiper, the New Atlantis
Today, in the young field of nanotechnology, scientists and engineers are taking control of atoms and molecules individually, manipulating them and putting them to use with an extraordinary degree of precision. Word of the promise of nanotechnology is spreading rapidly, and the air is thick with news of nanotech breakthroughs. Governments and businesses are investing billions of dollars in nanotechnology R&D, and political alliances and battle lines are starting to form. Public awareness of nanotech is clearly on the rise, too, partly because references to it are becoming more common in popular culture—with mentions in movies (like The Hulk and The Tuxedo), books (including last year’s Michael Crichton bestseller, Prey), video games (such as the “Metal Gear Solid” series), and television (most notably in various incarnations of Star Trek).
Octopus as Eyewitness - Michelle Delio, Wired
Robots and people may soon be looking at the world through octopus eyes. Albert Titus, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo, New York, has created a silicon chip that mimics the structure and functionality of an octopus retina. His "o-retina" chip can process images just like an octopus eye does. The chip could give sight to rescue or research robots, allowing them to see more clearly than human eyes can in dark or murky conditions. But Titus isn't content to merely replicate the functioning of a specific retina. His ultimate goal is to build a complete artificial vision system, including a brain that mimics the visual systems of various animals, so humans can look at the world differently.
The holy grail of machine talk - Nick Easen, CNN
The concept of machines talking to machines without any human interaction has long been a holy grail for the technology and commercial world. It is called Web services -- but it has nothing to do with the Internet directly -- instead it is the name given to the universal language that computers around the globe may one day use to describe each object in our physical world. This "meta-language" will allow computers to tell the difference between pens and pencils, strip lights and light bulbs, as well make intelligent, informed decisions and act on them. Friday, September 26, 2003
Oracle's Grid Is About Less, Rather Than More - Lucas van Grinsven, Reuters
....The new 10g grid software due later this year will be given away to existing Oracle customers. It lets them use their computers more efficiently, so they can delay buying new ones, Executive Vice President Charles Phillips said in an interview.... Grid software will knit together separate server computers that run business planning applications and databases and look for computing power anywhere on the grid network. Some 40 to 60 percent of computing capacity remains unused, according to market researchers. "Such a percentage would be unacceptable in any other industry. Imagine airlines working with 50 percent capacity," Phillips said. The grid software is designed to work on cheap servers that run on standard Intel processors and the Linux operating system, making it easy for a company to first share computers and then add cheap servers if they need them, rather than buying big new systems.
Electronic paper prepares for video - Ivan Noble, BBC News Online
Flexible paper-like colour computer displays that can show moving video are under development by the Dutch electronics giant Philips. Two scientists at the company's research facility in Eindhoven describe the latest step forward in e-paper technology in the journal Nature. Philips - and other firms like E Ink in the US - have already succeeded in making prototype flexible displays, but their refresh rates - the speed at which they can turn a single dot on or off - have been slow. These previous prototypes have used a principle called electrophoresis to switch pixels on or off. But now the Philips team says its new technology can significantly improve the refresh rate using a faster effect called electrowetting.
Toward a Weblogging Empire - Daniel Terdiman, Wired
Jason Calacanis is back. The former editor of the Silicon Alley Reporter, the once high-flying chronicle of Manhattan's high-tech mania, plans this week to launch a new venture, Weblogsinc, that intends to make a go of publishing business-to-business blogs. Essentially, Calacanis' goal is to turn Weblogsinc into an umbrella for blogs, a for-profit center that dishes daily on as many as 300 topics and scores revenue from sources like advertising, events and classified listings. He expects the topics to fall under four main categories: media, finance, technology and life sciences. Calacanis is new to blogging, which may be an issue since blogging cred comes largely with experience. Thursday, September 25, 2003
Dell: Home is where the PC is - John G. Spooner, CNET News.com
Michael Dell elaborated Wednesday on his vision of the PC becoming the nerve center of home entertainment, but he was vague about how the company plans to achieve that goal. Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Emerging Technology Conference, the Dell CEO hinted that the company is working with wireless technology for home networks and is seeking to license content such as movies and music. "The PC is becoming more and more the center of the entertainment experience," Dell said during a 45-minute question-and-answer session at the conference. "The PC is not just a computing device--it's entertainment, it's music, it's videos and it's television."
Obsession with Internet endangers health, grades - Edie Hall, Kansas State Collegian
.... Internet addiction is a broad term encompassing a wide variety of behaviors and impulse-control problems. According to the Center for Online and Internet Addiction, there are five specific types of Internet addiction including addictions to online pornography, chat room relationships and online gambling or shopping. With the growing number of people getting online, a problem with Internet addiction has become more and more prevalent, said Gary Johnson, certified alcohol and drug counselor in Wichita.
BMG Offers Legal Song Sharing - Frank Ahrens, Washington Post
BMG Entertainment plans to release a compact disc today that allows consumers to download and copy a limited number of songs, the music industry's latest experiment to come up with a viable alternative to the free trading of music over the Internet.... When consumers pop Hamilton's CD into their stereos, they should notice no difference from any other CD. But when they load it into their computers, an interactive box will appear on the screen that shows Hamilton's picture, a list of 12 songs and several options for users to click on. Wednesday, September 24, 2003
PowerPoint, Robomanagers and You: The Growing Intimacy of Technology - Diane L. Coutu, Harvard Business Review
Even five years ago, technology seemed external, a servant. These days, what's so striking is not only technology's ubiquity but also its intimacy. On the Internet, people create imaginary identities in virtual worlds and spend hours playing out parallel lives. Children bond with artificial pets that ask for their care and affection. A new generation contemplates a life of wearable computing, finding it natural to think of their eyeglasses as screen monitors, their bodies as elements of cyborg selves. What will it mean to people when their primary daily companion is a robotic dog? Or to a hospital patient when her health care attendant is built in the form of a robot nurse? Both as consumers and as businesspeople, we need to take a closer look at the psychological effects of the technologies we're using today and of the innovations just around the corner.
Opera Unveils New Browser for Windows - Matt Hicks, eWeek
Opera Software ASA, one of the only commercial Web browser competitors to Microsoft Corp., rolled out its latest browser for Windows on Tuesday. With Opera 7.20 for Windows, Opera is promising improved performance and support for additional languages. The release follows by almost a month a beta of the browser. http://www.opera.com/
Sun presents chip-design breakthrough - Reuters
Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. researchers will report on Tuesday that they have devised a way to dramatically increase the speed at which semiconductors can talk to each other. By placing the chips edge to edge, directly touching, so data can flow freely, Sun has taken out the need for the tiny wires, pads and solder points that now connect chips on printed circuit boards that help make up computer systems, Sun said. The breakthrough could mean sending data among chips up to 100 times faster than current top transmission rates on traditional semiconductor-chip interconnects, Sun said. Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Is life the key to new tech? - Nick Easen, CNN
Years have been spent trying to crack life's genetic code with high-powered computers. Now scientists are looking at things from the opposite angle, and are harnessing life itself to generate a new strain of computer devices. Unleashing the activity and properties of DNA -- life's basic building block -- as well as biologically-inspired computing, could soon form the basis of new devices. "DNA computing has the potential to perform trillions of calculations at once," Peter Bentley from University College London, told CNN. "Life is massively more powerful, and able to compute far more than anything we have created," says Bentley.
Study: Net Piracy Has Five More Years of Growth - Reuters
The ever-expanding market for pirated music will continue to haunt music executives for at least another five years, outstripping growth for the industry's own fledgling online businesses, a new study said on Monday. The report by Informa Media said global Internet music sales, which includes sales of CDs from retail Web sites such as Amazon.com and song downloads from services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, will reach $3.9 billion by 2008, up from $1.1 billion in 2002. But the value of lost sales due to CD-burning and downloading free songs off so-called peer-to-peer networks such as Grokster and Kazaa will rise to $4.7 billion in the same period from $2.4 billion this year, the British research firm said.
Why Offices Are Now Open Secrets - Jane Black, Business Week
Wildly popular technologies like instant messaging and Wi-Fi make workers more productive -- and give hackers juicy opportunities Steve S. can't imagine his life without instant messenger. An employee of a second-tier brokerage in New York City, he uses IM to talk simultaneously with clients, colleagues, and friends -- and to help prioritize who needs his attention first. Sometimes it's a colleague with a question about the gold market, other times it's a client who needs fast advice on a stock trade. And when a friend messages him a hello, he can respond at a more convenient time, without interrupting a business transaction to answer the phone. "No matter how good you are on the phone, the best you can do is carry on two conversations at once," he says. "With IM, I can have six going at once.... That allows me to get my job done and serve clients better." Monday, September 22, 2003
Wireless 3G - Still Stuck at 2.5? - Jay Wrolstad, NewsFactor Network
When first proposed, amid much hoopla, third-generation wireless service (3G) was touted as the best of both worlds -- combining high-speed mobile access with Web-based services and delivering innovative methods to communicate, access information, do business, and be entertained. But 3G went through a series of fits and starts, with many carriers opting to roll out intermediate technologies -- "2.5G networks" -- in an effort to pacify an impatient customer base. As the wireless industry slumped, along with the rest of the economy, it seemed that it might be stuck at 2.5G for the foreseeable future. However, a recent burst of activity has convinced most analysts that -- at long last -- 3G wireless has arrived.
Firm bans e-mail at work - CNN
John Caudwell, the multi-millionaire owner of high street retailer Phones 4u, as banned staff from using e-mail, he has said. The tycoon -- who does not use e-mail -- told more than 2,500 employees Friday they would have to swap cyberspace for face-to-face. He estimates the ban will save staff three hours a day and his company at least £1 million a month in saved time. Caudwell, Britain's 26th richest man with a estimated personal fortune of £840 million, said: "I saw that e-mail was insidiously invading Phones 4u so I banned it immediately. "Management and staff at HQ and in the stores were beginning to show signs of being constrained by e-mail proliferation -- the ban brought an instant, dramatic and positive effect."
Microsoft goes after Google - Reuters
Microsoft, which is trying to drive growth by investing in everything from mall business software to video games, has quietly set its sights on a new industry -- searching the Web. Chairman Bill Gates, Chief Executive Steve allmer and a handful of other executives sat down in February to answer a question asked countless times before in the world's largest software maker's 8-year history. Should Microsoft build or buy? What they decided was to build technology that would eventually surpass Google Inc.'s ability to sift hrough the Web and return results relevant enough to make it the top Internet search destination. Sunday, September 21, 2003
If These Networks Get Hacked, Beware - Alex Salkever, Business Week
America's critical transportation, power, and communications systems remain quite vulnerable and lack funds to remedy that.... As America's infrastructure heads toward a future of standardization based on Microsoft (MSFT ) chronically insecure Windows operating systems, it's becoming more imperative than ever to secure the networks that run these facilities. And that isn't simple, even though protecting computer systems isn't a mystery, either. Like BART, critical infrastructure has for years run on two or more separate networks. And the ones that control trains or power plants are based on proprietary protocols that few programmers can use fluently.
Magnets attracting wireless attention - Ben Charny, CNET News.com
This week, Troy, Mich.-based manufacturer Fonegear began selling cordless cell phone headsets that use the properties of a magnetic field. The headsets, which cost between $60 and $80 each, are the first wave of mass-market electronic devices that use a new generation of magnet-powered wireless technology. The next to debut will likely be routers that let home stereos and televisions wirelessly connect with a personal computer to play songs or movies, sources said.
Security experts find open-source flaws - Ina Fried, CNET News.com
Although Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities get most of the headlines, researchers this week identified vulnerabilities in two commonly used open-source software products. The more serious of the vulnerabilities affects Sendmail, an open-source program for managing e-mail. The vulnerability lies in the way the e-mail server software parses e-mail headers, according to Dan Ingevaldson, engineering manager for Internet Security Systems in Atlanta. "It's an extremely serious vulnerability," Ingevaldson said, adding that computer attackers could probably exploit it. It is less clear, he said, whether a separate flaw in OpenSSH, also discovered this week, can be exploited. |
