NEW NET Remote Participation

At the NEW NET meeting this week, it was decided to spend some time working on making remote participation in the NEW NET meetings a more polished and worthwhile aspect of the group.

NEW NET is a weekly gathering of tech enthusiasts in northeast Wisconsin (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology issues). Because most of the people who participate in the meetings on a regular basis are from the Appleton area, the meetings have almost always been held in Appleton. Connecting people from several remote locations (see above sketch) will allow more people to participate in the meetings without having to drive 45 minutes through a winter storm or even 5 minutes on a pleasant summer evening. It will also allow the group to become more skilled at using the cool new collaborative tools that Moore's Law and the knowledge economy are bringing to us. While an important facet of NEW NET will always be providing face-to-face interaction between tech enthusiasts, this new focus on remote interaction will be fun and useful.

On this past Tuesday evening, 29 February 2008, a blustery winter squall made traveling conditions dicey. Several tech enthusiasts wisely chose not to make the trek from Oshkosh to participate in the NEW NET meeting, held this week at the Cambria Suites Hotel in Appleton. They instead chose to connect to the meeting via their computers, using a highspeed internet connection and Skype, a popular internet tool for phone calls and videoconferences.

One of the people who connected from Oshkosh had to sign up for a Skype account and download the application onto his computer, but within less than half an hour he finished the set-up work and was connected to us via Skype.

We spent part of the time on Skype discussing tech topics which were in the news over the past seven days. This is one of the activities which often happens at NEW NET meetings. The rest of the Skype call was spent talking about different ways to make remote participation in NEW NET meetings more worthwhile to all the people at the various connected locations.

Our default tool for connecting NEW NET meeting participants will be Skype. This VoIP (voice over internet protocol) tool is a mature and reliable product, at least in terms of internet services. The free version of Skype can be used to connect up to ten computers in a teleconference. It also does excellent free videoconferencing between two people (computers). Skype has many associated tools and add-ons, such as chat and whiteboards. One of the NEW NET regulars uses Skype every day to do business in England and other places around the world. When I logged in just now to check on the usage levels, the Skype counter said 6.5+ million people were currently using the service. Often when I'm on Skype that number is between 8 and 12 million people.

In addition to using the free phone calls and videoconferencing of Skype, we'll try out the service's other features to see which ones remotely connect NEW NET tech enthusiasts in ways that are enjoyable and effective.

Other telecollaboration tools we'll be using or experimenting with include Oovoo, a free web service that does videoconferencing between more than two people at the same time (Skype currently can't do that), Yahoo Instant Messenger, which one of the NEW NET regulars uses daily for webcams around the world, Yugma, a web service for connecting one-to-one and one-to-many, video services such as YouTube, Revver and Ustream, free VPN (virtual private network) programs like Hamachi, an IRC channel and whatever other tools NEW NET members read about or hear about from others.

If you'd like to be part of this expanded version of NEW NET, we invite you to join us in person at the 'central' location as posted weekly on this blog, or you can log on from wherever you happen to be located. We highly encourage you to have at least one other person with you if you connect remotely because building face-to-face relationships between geeks is a highly valuable benefit of participating in NEW NET meetings. If you want to connect to NEW NET meetings remotely and don't know any other tech enthusiasts, put some energy into finding one or two people who live in your city or within a few miles of you. Invite people you know to come to your house on Tuesdays or to meet you at a coffeeshop with free wifi. When you see someone using a laptop or iPhone at a public location, strike up a conversation with them, and ask if they'd be interested in connecting to a NEW NET meeting with you.

Above all, try out some of these new technologies and suggest new ones for the rest of us to check out. You'll be glad you did!

*****

NEW NET Issues List for 29 Jan 2008

Below is the final list of issues for the Thursday, 29 January 2008, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering at Cambria Suites Hotel, 3940 N. Gateway Drive, Appleton Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. IgnoreAll: The One-Click Facebook Cleanup Tool http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ignoreall_on_facebook.php
2. Gickr does software-free animated GIF creation http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9858406-2.html
3. Worm Fears Shut down Skype Video Feature http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080123/tc_pcworld/141674
4. SmugMug’s Private Pics Are Public http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-28-n59.html

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

1. Charter accidently deletes 14,000 e-mail accounts http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9857697-7.html?tag=newsmap
2. Drive-by pharming attack hits home http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9855195-57.html
3. Best Buy sells infected digital photo frames http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=825
4. Bush Order Expands Network Monitoring http://tinyurl.com/2avcq2 (Washington Post)
5. What Our Top Spy Doesn't Get: Security and Privacy Aren't Opposites http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/01/securitymatters_0124

Mobile Computing & Communicating

1. AT&T Says SIM Contract Fiasco a Mistake http://gigaom.com/2008/01/22/att-says-sim-contract-fiasco-a-mistake/
2. Verizon Wireless: Calling all iPhone killers http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9855369-7.html
3. AT&T Broadband Customers Get Free Hotspot Wi-Fi http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006358.html
4. Everything You Want to Know About 700-MHz Auction http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4246037.html
5. Palm Closing Stores, Settles Treo Suit http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2008/1/2008-1-25-Palm-to-Close.html
6. Slow Start for 700MHz Auction http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205918217
7. Jobs, iPhone have Skyhook pointed in right direction http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-01-22-skyhook_N.htm
8. Livescribe Digit Pen http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/17607 http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9858330-56.html
9. Skype On the Go http://gigaom.com/2008/01/28/skype-on-the-go/

Open Source

1. Move over, Red Hat. Open source ain't what it used to be http://tinyurl.com/2de5hw (InfoWorld)
2. Advice on keeping your Linux desktop secure http://www.linux.com/feature/124994
3. Mystery infestation strikes Linux/Apache Web sites http://www.linux.com/feature/125548
4. BitNami serves ready-to-roll CMS stacks http://www.linux.com/feature/125126
5. Nokia acquires Trolltech: no open-source companies to change the world http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9859276-7.html

SkyNet

1. NTT DoCoMo in talks on Google Android-based cell phone http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080124/tc_infoworld/94810
2. Databases are hammers; Google MapReduce is a screwdriver http://tinyurl.com/yshm3c (Science Blogs)
3. Google Takes Aim At Domain Tasting Profiteers http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080126/tc_cmp/205918984
4. 11 Power Tips for Gmail http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/9-power-tips-for-gmail/

General Technology

1. Via Bets Future on Upcoming Isaiah Processor http://tinyurl.com/33spz6 (PC World)
2. MST helps extend Moore's Law for another 15 years http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080125_004032.html
3. Reinventing the Clipboard http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001041.html
4. Microscopic Electronics Printing, Nanotechnology http://www.physorg.com/news120474778.html
5. MEMS: A Taste Of Microscopic Machines To Come http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071221215230.htm
6. How to get Windows XP after June 30, 2008 http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080128/tc_infoworld/94803
7. Hey HD DVD: It's Not Just a Flesh Wound (looks like we finally have Jim B’s answer…) http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080129-consumers-analysts-retailers-give-hd-dvd-the-cold-shoulder.html

Leisure & Entertainment

1. EA Leaps into Free Video Games http://tinyurl.com/3234cr (Business Week)
2. Microsoft Xbox 360 Sales Fall 2.3% As 'Halo Effect' Fizzles http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080126/tc_cmp/205918713
3. Wii: Psychotic bunnies are back http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080125/ap_en_ot/games_rayman_raving_rabbids2
4. Wii VC game additions for week ending Jan 25 http://tinyurl.com/2jmb5o (Monsters and Critics: Gaming)
5. Download 25 million songs legally http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3261591.ece
6. Labels deny deals on file sharing http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7213112.stm

Economy and Technology

1. The "Work From Home" Generation http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_work_from_home_generation.php
2. IPod Slowing, Apple's Focus Forced To Shift http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20080123/bs_ibd_ibd/20080123tech01
3. Apple 4Q profits record: $1.58B http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080123/tc_afp/technologyusitinternetearningscompanyapple
4. Nintendo earnings nearly double on Wii http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080124/ap_on_hi_te/earns_japan_nintendo
5. Microsoft $16.4B Record Revenues Surprise Wall Street http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080125/bs_nf/58041
6. Is the Tipping Point Toast? http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/122/is-the-tipping-point-toast.html

Civilian Aerospace

1. Virgin Galactic Unveils Suborbital Spaceliner http://www.space.com/news/080123-virgingalactic-ss2-design.html
2. Richard Branson Shares Eco-Vision of IT in Space http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/richard-branson.html
3. SpaceShipTwo unveiled with "open architecture like Linux" http://tinyurl.com/yrm2xv (Ars technica)
4. First Look at SpaceShipTwo http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/23/601315.aspx
5. Next Space Tourist Begins Training for Spaceflight http://www.space.com/news/080121-garriott-training.html
6. Purdue wind tunnel key for 'hypersonic vehicles,' future space planes http://www.physorg.com/news118511612.html

Supercomputing & GPUs

1. An Alternative Approach to NSF Funding of HPC http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2059714.html
2. Matching Simulation to Reality in the Life of the Universe http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2065136.html
3. Toward GPU-accelerated N-body simulations [PDF] http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyMASM08_1065/PV2008_608.pdf
4. Acceleration using commodity GPU [PDF] http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~gp10006/research/Brandvik_Pullan_2008a_DRAFT.pdf
5. Nvidia Mac GPGPUs? http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/24/nvidia_working_on_first_gpgpus_for_apple_macs.html
6. ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Reviews http://www.extremetech.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=223850,00.asp http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/28/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/ http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ1NCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA

*****

Encryption / FDLLUG

Everyone who uses digital communications or stores information in digital form in today's world should have a good working knowledge of encryption.

According to Wikipedia, "encryption is the process of transforming information (referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key."

Two primary reasons to have a good working knowledge of encryption are:

1. To avoid problems if you lose private or sensitive digitally-stored information, such as medical records, confidential company documents or personal finances.
2. To maintain privacy for digital communications, such as email, which, if not encrypted, can quite easily be read by others.

In the case of digitally stored information, encryption has become much more important than it was ten or twenty years ago. This is because quite a bit more of our lives are stored on digital media than was ten or twenty years ago and because of the proliferation of portable computing devices. Computers and digital information have become an essential part of everyday life for most Americans. Moving a person's information from hardcopy to digital format means that thousands of times more information can easily be carried around by one person (or sent over the internet) than could have been done in the past. People never used to carry around on a daily basis their music collections, photo albums, correspondence with 100 people for the past three years, address books, and hundreds of memos and reports from work. With smartphones, 8 GB USB flash drives and 160 GB iPods, people have the capability to carry the above list of items and more. All this information, if not encrypted securely, can easily be viewed by strangers when you forget your flash drive on a computer you borrowed for a few minutes, when your iPod is stolen by someone when you're not watching, or when you forget your cell phone at the airport security check, like thousands of people do each year.

Regarding the second reason listed above for having encryption, an unfortunate result of using the term email for early internet communications was that people in the US associate the relative security of snailmail with communications they send via email. Such is not the case. Most people assume their email cannot easily be read by others, partly because they themselves don't know how to read other people's email. Many governments and hackers would be able to demonstrate the fallacy of thinking your email is secure. Unencrypted email can be quite easily intercepted and read. To understand this point, consider that "...in a Jan. 21 [2008] New Yorker article, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell discusses a proposed plan to monitor all -- that's right, all -- internet communications for security purposes..." The US federal agencies wouldn't dream of proposing they be given carte blanche for opening all US snailmail in order to keep us safe and "stop terrorists". Yet they are more than willing to repeatedly request the legal right to monitor all phone calls and email/internet communications for that same reason. Some people think these agencies already have programs and equipment in place to do this type of monitoring, regardless of the legal issues involved... Maybe they should also be given the legal right to open all snailmail to keep us safe. After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, why would you object to some government agency opening and reading all your snailmail??

At the 6 PM, 13 February 2008 Fond du Lac Linux Users Group (FDLLUG) meeting, encryption will be the topic of the month. The speaker will be Jim Leinweber from Madison, Wisconsin, USA, a speaker who was both knowledgeable and entertaining as a speaker at an FDLLUG meeting several months ago. When I asked him to bring Bruce Schneier along to the FDLLUG meeting for a panel discussion, Jim said I'd have to settle for a panel of one (meaning Jim), although he has been at presentations Bruce has given and has several of Bruce's books. If you're interested in encryption and can make it to the FDLLUG meeting at Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac on 13 February, you can learn about PGP, GPG, other basics about encryption and get most of your encryption questions answered.

*****

Lifelogging and MEMS

Thinking about two recently-read webpages' implications as relates to the extended cold/flu I've had for several weeks caused me to wonder how long it will be until common illnesses and/or severe illnesses and diseases are monitored, studied and prevented or quickly cured with the help of the emerging technologies of lifelogging and MEMS.

The aforementioned webpages are:

1. Kevin Kelly, of Wired and The Long Now Foundation fame, wrote a post about lifelogging, which is recording and archiving all the information in one's life.
2. Science Daily had an article about advances in MEMS, which are microelectromechanical systems, tiny devices which can do cool stuff like monitor the pressure in a car's tires, such as the ones on my friend's Nissan 350Z.

The question triggered in my mind as a result of the confluence of the above three factors was, "How long will it be before implanted MEMS for monitoring daily health are a cost-effective and commonly accepted means of minimizing the length and impact of illnesses and diseases?"

In some ways it would be interesting and cool to be able to look at my body temperature and maybe one or two other health measurements to see the onset and changes in the cold/flu bug I've been dealing with for the past several weeks. After all, I'm an engineer and a tech enthusiast, so I like data and new technologies. On the other hand, my paranoiac tendencies lead me to worry about the abuses of such technologies. Carried to extremes, people could be legally confined to their homes, or even a room within their homes, because their body temperature indicated they were in the infectious state of some illness. And extensive research has clearly shown that allowing people in an infectious stage of a disease causes $279 billion in economic losses in the US every year. We need to be protected from ourselves whether or not we want to be. It's for our own good.

An interesting part of the webpage post about lifelogging was the point about legal and cultural questions that will pop up as parts of lifelogging become more prevalent. Kevin Kelly mentions the following questions:

* What part of your life is someone else’s privacy?
* Is remembering a scene with your brain different from remembering with a camera?
* Can the government subpoena your lifelog?
* Is total recall fair?
* Can I take back a conversation I had with you?
* Is it a lie if a single word is different from the record?
* How accurate do our biological memories have to be?
* Can you lifelog children without their “permission”?

These questions prompted a discussion today about what portion of my daily activities are fair game for other people or organizations to monitor and/or record. Luke W. mentioned the concept of reasonable expectation of privacy which was discussed in one of his college courses with regard to someone videotaping or photographing people in public. I'm ok with people I know casually photographing or videotaping me in public settings, but today's technology and tomorrow's technological innovations guarantee significant invasion of people's privacy will occur. GPS, high resolution satellites, micro and nano scale audio and video monitors, RFID, digitizing all transactions and records, data-mining, DHS laws that put government and telecom monitoring outside the reach of the legal system, and other aluminum-foil hat topics best left unmentioned make me question where technology, the US and the world are headed. They also make me want to watch Enemy of The State, Conspiracy Theory, or Mercury Rising. ...and to think that all I really wanted to do was to get rid of my cold more quickly ;-)

Taking into account the increasing rate of technological innovations over the past twenty years and extrapolating that into the future leads me to three conclusions:

1. Lifelogging and MEMS will lead to some pretty cool and, potentially, highly beneficial personal health tools.
2. There will be lots of dialogue, turmoil and disagreement about the proper use of data related to our personal lives, including what should be required and what should be prohibited.
3. The best way to maximize the benefits of these types of technologies and minimize the damage they do to our lives will be to keep informed about those technologies and to make intelligent conscious choices on how we interact with them...or don't interact with them...

*****

Part I: Benefits of Research Universities to Regional Innovation

This is the first post of a multi-part look at the mutual benefits between a research university and the region 'around' that university.

The reason there are quotes accompanying the word 'around' is because part of this topic relates to whether and how a research university can have an effective 'virtual' presence in a region which is geographically remote from the university, e.g. 200 miles away.

The general premise being examined here is that a research university is a primary driver of innovation for the region around that university.

That premise has been mentioned often in articles and posts I've read about innovation and regional economies, but I can't remember the specific ways in which a research university contributes to innovation. As part of this series of blog posts I'll do online research and get feedback from people who are knowledgeable about or involved in innovation.

My reason for pursuing this topic is that I'm involved in defining and building 'virtual research university' resources for a geographic region that doesn't have a research university within its physical boundaries.

Action items for this series of posts is as follows:

1. Do online and library research re: ways in which research universities are thought to contribute to innovation in the region where they are located; write up summary of regional innovation benefits from research universities.
   
2. Get input from people involved with innovation regarding my synopsis of regional innovation benefits from research universities.
3. Based on results of the above two activities, develop additional action items to identify or create virtual research university resources for the New North and the virtual organization needed to effectively enable and manage those resources.

If you have experience with or knowledge relevant to the above three action items, please comment on this post or contact me via email. Thanks!

(As additional posts are written in this multi-part series, this initial post will be updated to provide links to those additional posts.)

*****

NSF and the FireSeed Streaming Supercomputer Project

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the FireSeed Streaming Supercomputer (FS3) Project are an excellent fit for many reasons.

The challenge for me is to connect with the 'right' people and present those reasons for a good NSF fit with FS3 in a way that inspires them to support the project with the grant money necessary to move the project forward.

Primary reasons for a good fit between NSF and FS3 are:

1. There is a critical and basic scientific research need to develop new parallel programming paradigms for many-core processors. The FS3 project will help develop these paradigms.
2. There is strong demand for improved effectiveness of virtual organizations in scientific research, as well as in other areas of human endeavors. The FS3 project is creating a global virtual organization and provides opportunities to research and document what makes a virtual organizations effective.
3. Scientific research in emerging technologies, such as biomedical and nanotechnology, will benefit greatly from the low-cost supercomputing power provided by the FS3 systems.
4. The FS3 project aligns well with the recent proposal by Vijay Agarwala, Director, Research Computing and Cyberinfrastructure Information Technology Services at Penn State University for the NSF to fund 20 to 25 university-based Tier 3 computing centers.
5. The FS3 combination of flat world, open source concepts and knowledge economy practices will put the project at the frontiers of collaborative e-Research.

To move the FS3 project ahead with the NSF, follow up work is being done with new contacts from the recent NSF workshop on "Building Effective Virtual Organizations" and possibilities for NSF grant collaboration are being explored with several universities. If a clear and persuasive picture of the FS3 project can be put in front of the necessary people and the timing is right, the FS3 project could well become a fantastically fun and absolutely critical project funded by the NSF.

Time will tell.

*****

NEW NET Issues List for 22 January 2008

Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 22 January 2008, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. Yahoo Travel FareChase Chases Kayak http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/yahoo-travel-chases-kayak-with-farechase/
2. Geotagging puts photos in useful new perspective http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/260126.html
3. LinkedIn founder has golden touch http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_hi_te/mr_linkedin
4. Wordpress free upload space increase 60X to 3 GB http://wordpress.com/blog/2008/01/21/three-gigabytes/
5. Yahoo, Please Put Up A Fight http://gigaom.com/2008/01/22/yahoo-please-put-up-a-fight/

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

1. Hackers Shook Up Power Grids http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/hackers-take-do.html
2. Metcalfe's Law + Real ID = more crime, less safety http://tinyurl.com/23h88d (Ars Technica)
3. Nat’l Intell. Director Wants To Monitor All Net Communications http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080119/tc_cmp/205901409
4. Jihadi software promises secure Web contacts http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080118/wr_nm/internet_islamists_software_dc

Mobile Computing & Communicating

1. IBM to Sully iPhones and iPod Touches with Lotus Notes http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/01/ibm-to-sully-ip.html
2. How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone
3. iPhone spurs Web traffic, if not music sales http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080119/wr_nm/iphone_dc
4. The invisible computer revolution http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7106998.stm
5. AT&T: iPhone business plan http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/21/iphone-goes-corporate-atandt-announces-business-plan/
6. Readius Ebook Phone Hybrid to Finally Launch http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/readius-ebook-p.html
7. HTC sold 2 million of its iPhone-rival handset last year http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080122/tc_infoworld/94724

Open Source

1. MySQL: Sun's Billion-Dollar Baby http://tinyurl.com/yns9qs http://tinyurl.com/2o3x8e
2. Mozilla browser interface to get 'humanized' http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080118/tc_infoworld/94690
3. Build a faster desktop with RAID http://www.linux.com/feature/124256

SkyNet

1. Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/google-to-provi.html
2. Google.org expands focus with new philanthropic initiatives http://tinyurl.com/2yul4p (Ars Technica)
3. Google not serious about spectrum auction http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/01/analyst_google.html

General Technology

1. Tata Nano, the world’s least expensive car http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/01/10/tata-nano-the-worlds-least-expensive-car/
2. Apple unveils world's thinnest notebook http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080116/tc_afp/lifestyleitinternetcomputercompanyapple
3. Breakthrough Could Mean 40-Hour Laptop Batteries http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080116/tc_nf/57832
4. CSIRO UltraBattery http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080118093341.htm http://www.csiro.au/science/ps15a.html
5. Bug Labs Store Grand Opening http://www.bugblogger.com/2008/01/announcing-the.html
6. Why XP must be saved http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/14/02FE-why-save-xp_1.html

Leisure & Entertainment

1. "Rock Band," "Guitar Hero" drive digital song sales http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080120/wr_nm/videogames_dc
2. Nintendo tops video game sales in 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080118/ap_on_hi_te/video_game_sales
3. Wi-Fi music polling device takes heat off the DJ http://technology.newscientist.com/article/mg19726395.700-wifi-music-polling-device-takes-heat-off-the-dj.html

Economy and Technology

1. AMD's earnings: off life support and headed back to black http://tinyurl.com/2bpwgt (Ars Technica)
2. Slide: The $500 Million Widget http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc20080118_811726.htm
3. Wal-Mart Gets Tough On RFID http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205900561
4. Viral + Monetizable = StartUp Magic Quadrant http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/viral_marketing_startup_magic_quadrant.php
5. Microsoft Startup Accelerator Fuels Startup Success http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2008/01/microsoft-start.html

Civilian Aerospace

1. ETC Announces Launch of New Air and Space Adventure Programs http://www.etcusa.com/corp/pressreleases/NR011608.htm
2. NASA Picks Finalists for Space Station Resupply Demonstrations http://www.space.com/news/080118-nasa-cots-finalists.html
3. NASA MMO game http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2008/01/nasa-to-create-its-own-version.html
4. Report Cites Rocketship Builder in Explosion Inquiry http://www.space.com/news/080118-scaled-accident-citations.html

Supercomputing & GPUs

1. Larrabee becomes Laterbee: first Intel GPU not due until 2010 http://tinyurl.com/27hy8g (Ars Technica)
2. New PC platforms from Intel will face hurdles http://ces.cnet.com/8301-13855_1-9843883-67.html
3. A sub-$4,000 supercomputer? http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/news-by-subject/technologies/?i=51668
4. The Software That Will Take Digital F/X to the Next Level of Awesome http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/16-01/ff_animation

*****

NSF Workshop Summary: Building Effective Virtual Organizations

The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored a workshop on Building Effective Virtual Organizations (EVOs) in Washington, DC, 14 - 16 January 2008.

The workshop was primarily focused on virtual organizations as they impact science and engineering projects funded by the NSF. With the expanding reach of the internet and the growing capability of and need for scientific researchers to work in geographically dispersed collaborative teams, the NSF recognized a need for focusing on improved effectiveness of these virtual organizations. The workshop was designed to bring together 'virtual organization veterans' and 'social scientists with years of experience studying what makes virtual organizations succeed (and fail)' with others in the scientific research community who have a strong interest in learning more about how to build EVOs and an equally strong interest in expanding the knowledge base about the effectiveness of virtual organizations, especially with respect to e-Research or e-Science. A stated goal was for event attendees to "learn what is required to make virtual organizations successful, and to establish new connections that will help you succeed in your research and education projects in the future."

Although my attendance at the event was a bit misplaced due to my current focus being more on entrepreneurial activities and regional economic improvement than on scientific research, the event was highly worthwhile for me in terms of making valuable new contacts and highlighting interesting new directions and possibilities. One project benefiting from the workshop is the FireSeed Streaming Supercomputer ad hoc tech project (FS3). As a result of discussions and connections at the workshop, we will be exploring options for NSF involvement in the basic science research aspects of FS3 such as many-core parallel processing and the dynamics of a virtual organizations involving 'open source' and informal 'flat world' concepts. Another example of workshop attendance benefits are some great new connections and opportunities for the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Women Soar program focusing on STEM opportunities (science, technology engineering, math) for high school girls.

The workshop started with an evening reception on 14 January which gave people a chance to meet new people or talk with acquaintances, colleagues and friends. Because I received a list of workshop participants on 9 January, I had developed a list of people I wanted to connect with during the event and had contacted a number of them via email to initiate the connection. As a result of those emails, on 14 January I met three of the targeted contacts -- a person heavily involved with and knowledgeable about Internet2, a researcher from University of New Mexico involved with ecoinformatics and biodiversity, and an Indiana University researcher heavily involved with telecollaboration tools.

A full slate of activities began bright and early on 15 January with the 7 AM continental breakfast, followed by a good mix of informative presentations, panel discussions, multi-track interest group sessions and several break periods which allowed time for making more of my targeted attendee connections. The conference organizers did an especially helpful job of facilitating connections by providing a packet with 150-word bios, pictures and contact info for each of the workshop attendees. This packet made it much easier to know which attendees it would be beneficial to meet and also made it easier to find them in the midst of a couple hundred unfamiliar faces. Scheduled workshop activities for the day concluded with a poster session where many attendees displayed posters detailing their activities related to virtual organizations. By the end of the day my head was buzzing with new ideas and info about EVOs, new names and faces, and a few more items on my to-do list.

The agenda for 16 January started with breakfast at 7:30 AM, giving attendees an additional half-hour of either sleep or time to work on some of the tasks they were trying to accomplish in addition to attending the workshop. Activities for the day included a good mix of presentations and discussion sessions with two additional highlights. The first highlight was a talk by Dan Atkins, Director of the NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure, presenting his suggestion that a new NSF initiative be considered which will address the critical need for High Performance Collaboration. See an earlier post on this blog for more details regarding that initiative. The other highlight was a working session which divided the workshop attendees into small groups to address four issues related to EVOs, such as how would the attendees define a virtual organization and what should be done to continue the 'conversation' about EVOs after the workshop was over. The workshop wrapped up at 3:30 PM on 16 January. On the second and third days of the workshop, I met 24 new people. Following up with all these new contacts will keep me busy for the next couple weeks.

For a detailed workshop agenda, check out the official online agenda.

For anyone interested in the new world of work and how geographically-scattered people from multiple organizations should work together to most effectively achieve their goals, this was an interesting and highly useful workshop. It would takes months or years of networking independently to make the same connections one could make in the two and a half days of the workshop among people who are highly involved in utilizing EVOs to pursue e-Research.

Three suggestions should be considered by NSF for the next workshop they organize which is focused on virtual organizations.

1. Consider inviting 10 - 15 people outside the scientific research field who are knowledgeable about and involved in issues highly relevant to EVOs. Although the focus of NSF is on scientific research and education, input from a few people outside the NSF 'regulars' could bring in some new blood and useful ideas because of the different perspective of the non-research world.
2. Involve a few college freshmen, some college seniors who are planning on grad school research, and a significant number of grad students. This demographic will undoubtedly have some worthwhile suggestions for building communities, networks and virtual organizations which operate in ways that make sense to the next generation of researchers. This generation was conspicuous by its absence at the NSF workshop. Strategies which produce effective organizations for 40 - 60 year old researchers might not be the only strategies which should be used or considered when dealing with 20 - 30 year old science research students.
3. Incorporate more remote participation components in future workshops. In-person participation in workshops and meetings is invaluable for making new connections and building relationships, but there will be many benefits to having significant components of workshops involving remote participation. Some options to consider are small groups (10 - 20 people) meeting at several remote locations, having audio or webcasts available for all sessions along with online remote text input relayed to all participants by several moderators, having blogging and podcast interviews during the workshop, have a wiki set up to which workshop participants can contribute and have a Flickr tag designated and publicized for workshop pictures. Lots of other possibilities... The January 2008 workshop was in no way diminished by not having more remote components, but future events should consider more online activity.

Options will be followed up on regarding involving NSF in some of my projects which have a significant need for effective virtual organizations. However, even if none of these projects make it to the NSF grant stage, this workshop was still highly worthwhile and will, I hope, result in improved effectiveness of the virtual organization component of these projects.

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DrupalCampWI Overview

On 19 January 2008, more than forty people interested in Drupal gathered in the Multipurpose Room at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) to share what they know about Drupal and to learn more about the topic from others at the event.

Drupal is a framework for building and maintaining websites. Although it is often referred to as a content management system (CMS), it has broadened over time to become a content management platform, which is more flexible and powerful than many CMSs.

The forty-plus people participating today in DrupalCampWI ranged from people totally new to Drupal (have never built a website with Drupal and have never maintained a Drupal site) to individuals who are Drupal ninjas (write or maintain modules, are hardcore coders or are on the Drupal Association General Assembly). Two tracks of sessions were set up, with one track for newbies/users and the other for ninjas/developers. The wide range of skill and familiarity with Drupal made it difficult to have sessions highly applicable to any one participant, but if someone was out of their depth in a session, participation in the session let them meet people with whom they could talk after the session or after the camp.

I fall into the category of zero experience with Drupal. My reason for participating in the camp is to learn some basics about Drupal from people who are using it and to make some connections with those people. After this camp I'll have some personal contacts in case of difficult questions I run into that I can't figure out myself and can't get answers via drupal.org forums or via Google. It would also be nice to walk away from the camp with my first few Drupal beta site pages, but if I don't accomplish that before I leave here tonight, it has still been worth participating in the sessions and connecting with some of the people at the camp. Especially useful so far were the sessions about CCK, Views, YUI and Podcasting.

Serendipty, as usual, played a significant role in creating value for me participating in this camp. One of the people I connected with today is Jeff Blessing, an MSOE instructor who is doing some cool things with innovation and entrepreneurism. He has an event called the Innovation Chase being planned for Spring 2008 -- stay tuned for more details on this event. After talking for a while with Jeff, it was clear he needed to connect with Justin Kruger/Fireseed and James Carlson/Bucketworks, both of whom happened to also be participating in DrupalCampWI. When Justin and James showed up, I connected Jeff with them, and some fun things should flow from those new relationships. When I mentioned the Fireseed/NVIDIA event being organized for Milwaukee in February 2008, Jeff mentioned an MSOE grad he knows who works for NVIDIA full-time from Brookfield, WI. Jeff is going to connect with that MSOE grad to see if he will participate in the Fireseed event and/or the FS3 project. I'm also going to connect Jeff with some people who are doing things in the Appleton, Wisconsin, area with innovation and entrepreneurism. Expanding the tech community in Wisconsin and the Midwest is always an agenda item for me when meeting new people at events like this camp.

Thanks to Blake Hall, Jeramey Jannene, Web414, the event sponsors and everyone else who made DrupalCampWI happen. Now it's time to sit down and get my first Drupal site built and launched...

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DrupalCampWI is tomorrow (19 Jan 2008)

This is a last minute post to encourage all Drupal fans and those interested in new web CMS tools (content management systems) to show up for at least part of DrupalCampWI on 19 January 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

There are about 40 people signed up at the moment for this event. That's a pretty good number, because it means there will be a core of at least 20 people with a strong interest in Drupal, yet there will also be plenty of room for additional drop-in people who find out about the event at the last moment or who knew about it but didn't want to commit to definitely showing up.

I just looked at the main Drupal site and noticed that the page calls Drupal a 'content management platform' (CMP?). I'll ask around tomorrow at the camp to find out if it is no longer considered CMS but has evolved to a differentiated web tool which is more appropriately called CMP. As always, it can be challenging to keep up with acronyms... ;-)

The event will be fun, informative and either free or nearly free (as in both speech and beer). I just realized today that in the flurry of activities and projects that absorbed my time during a recent three week coast-to-coast-to-coast trip, I forgot to order a DrupalCampWI shirt. That oversight will be corrected later tonight, although I won't have the shirt to wear at the event.

Hope to see you in Milwaukee tomorrow (19 Jan 2008). If you can't make it to the event but have a strong interest in Drupal, feel free to connect with me or others listed on the event webpage.

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HPC Initiative

Dan Atkins, Director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently suggested a bold new NSF venture – the High Performance Collaboration (HPC) Initiative.

Dan’s suggested initiative is timely, perceptive and vital for continued US participation in and contributions toward groundbreaking scientific discoveries and innovation. I spoke with Dan on 16 Jan 2008 after he presented the concept of the HPC Initiative at the NSF workshop on “Building Effective Virtual Organizations” and encouraged him to vigorously pursue the development and launch of his initiative.

Four primary concepts which contribute to the importance of the HPC Initiative at this time are:

1. Capabilities for scientific research and progress outside traditional institutions and programs are increasing rapidly.
2. Capabilities for scientific research and progress outside the US are increasing rapidly.
3. Nontraditional collaborations play a growing part in knowledge generation, knowledge management and innovation.
4. Effective virtual organizations (EVO) with improved social and organizational management methods and transparent cyberinfrastructure are needed to support these new collaborations and methods of scientific research.

The above four concepts emerged from national and global changes over the past ten years. Some of those changes are listed and discussed briefly below:

1. Emergence of the knowledge economy and knowledge workers.
1. As discussed extensively in "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, knowledge workers can contribute to science, progress and the global economy from almost anywhere in the world.
2. The knowledge economy impact has been most discussed with respect to the corporate world, but is becoming equally important to the scientific research world.
3. Knowledge workers have a strong tendency to have several areas of focus or several organizations within which they work, rather than dedicating their entire focus to a single career area. This results in many of them spending a surprising amount of personal energy on topics about which they are passionate, e.g. open source projects.
   
4. The emergence of a large number of knowledge workers, if leveraged appropriately, will result in significant contributions from 'part-time' scientific researchers.
   
2. The “Got Game” or ‘connected’ generation
1. Has always been ‘connected’ – internet, computers, cell phones, video games.
2. Views education, research and careers differently from previous generations.
3. Expects rewards based on results; views seniority rewards as inappropriate.
4. Is unlikely or less likely to engage with or benefit from traditional educational instructional methods and ‘rewards.’
5. Uses and views communication and collaboration tools totally differently from previous generations.
6. Views rapid change as a norm rather than as a highly stressful undesirable situation to which they must adapt
7. Must be understood and engaged to enable continued scientific progress if the concept is correct that a high percentage of the world’s scientific progress and breakthroughs have been made by young people (under 25 or 30 years old).
3. Open source philosophy and ‘flat world’ connections.
1. Sharing and collaboratively improving knowledge are extremely important to a large number of intelligent, passionate and dedicated individuals.
2. Open source concepts and tools are in their infancy. Huge strides in efficiency and areas of application will emerge in the next ten years, driven by those who engage in the open source world.
   
3. Individuals are connecting and collaborating on significant ventures on a one-on-one basis outside traditional government, company, national or cultural boundaries.
4. Serendipitous global connections constitute a surprising amount of highly worthwhile personal relationships, including those between scientific researchers.
   
4. Economic and scientific research capability growth outside the US, e.g.
   
1. China
2. India
3. Brazil (biofuels)
4. Ireland (high tech industry)
5. Japan and Korea (very high speed internet public access, e.g. median download speed of 40+ Mbps)
6. Finland and Taiwan (cell phone/mobile web devices and access)
   
5. Education system and scientific research system changes.
1. World-class courses free online from MIT, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and other universities.
2. Highly collaborative web/internet tools, with a combination of open, proprietary, free, high-cost, relatively mature and continually-developing beta-status services and applications.
   
3. A potpourri of approaches to incorporating new tools and educational/research methods, many of which are low in effectiveness due to being shaped primarily by conservative institutions or those who are less than totally immersed in the new technologies. Some (many?) of these approaches are more frustrating or annoying to the Got Game generation than they are enabling or engaging.
4. Highly-scalable web services including those available through SDSC, NCSA, nanoHUB, Amazon Web Services and many other organizations.
   
6. New types of collaborations involving universities, corporations, governments, non-profits and individuals.
1. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center -- University of Wisconsin Madison, Michigan State University, other universities, Lucigen Corporation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US DOE, others.
   
2. X Prizes -- Ansari X Prize, Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize, Google Lunar X Prize.
3. Netflix Prize -- open to individuals and teams throughout the world.
   
4. FireSeed Streaming Supercomputer (FS3) -- ad hoc tech project engaging organizations, corporations and individuals globally to develop new many-core programming paradigms and low-cost COTS GPU-cluster supercomputers.
   
7. Dichotomy of decreasing cost of some science research-enabling technologies and increasing cost and complexity of other enabling technologies.
1. GPU supercomputers -- 1000+ processor cores, fit on a desktop, used and 'managed' by one person, < $10,000 for the hardware
2. Large Hadron Collider -- 26+ kilometers in circumference, crosses French/Swiss border at four points, being built and managed by thousands of scientists from more than 30 countries, > $1,000,000,000 for the equipment
   
8. Increasing capabilities and timeframes of remote data gathering and access.
1. Mars Rovers
2. Hubble Telescope
   
3. Earth Observatory
4. The Long Now Foundation

The High Performance Collaboration Initiative proposed by Dan Atkins could very well end up having world-changing positive impacts in scientific knowledge. One statement often heard from dedicated, smart, passionate people in today's world is that they want to work on something that will 'change the world.' If you are interested in this initiative, contact me at bwaldron [att] gmail dott com, or contact Dan or others within NSF.

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NEW NET Issues List for 10 Jan 2008

First NEW NET meeting of the year tomorrow night! NEW NET will meet on Thursday at the Cambria Suites Hotel on the north side of Appleton. Cambria has friendly and helpful staff, reliable free wireless, tasty food and a varied selection of beverages. Below is the final list of issues for the Thursday, 10 January 2008, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering at Cambria Suites Hotel, 3940 N. Gateway Drive, Appleton Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. Wi-Fi Startup to Pick Up Where Google Left Off in SF http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141006-c,wireless/article.html
2. Google and Facebook Join DataPortability.org http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/goog-fb-data.php
3. Is Yahoo Gearing Up to Embrace OpenID? http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/01/is-yahoo-gearin.html
4. Yahoo Opens Mobile Web Platform http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJjylg3irERF8b-luelgkxOXs6pQD8U1B8T00
5. Google, IBM and VeriSign to join OpenID? http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/01/09/google-ibm-and-verisign-to-join-openid/

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

1. WiFi flu: viral router attack could hit whole cities http://tinyurl.com/27ya9w (Ars technica)
2. Sony Drops Music Copy Protection http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnhQjcNCWaOAYUw6hFqkMJthrPkgD8U1J8MO0
3. Despite Move to MP3s, DRM Will Haunt Record Labels http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2008/01/sony_drm
4. FCC to investigate Comcast BitTorrent blocking http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080108-fcc-to-investigate-comcast-bittorrent-blocking.html
5. AT&T and Other ISPs May Be Getting Ready to Filter http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/att-and-other-isps-may-be-getting-ready-to-filter/
6. Network Solutions Front Running? http://www.circleid.com/posts/81082_network_solutions_front_running/

Mobile Computing & Communicating

1. Voltaic's Solar-Powered Backpacks To Get Greener http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/ces-voltaics-so.html
2. IPhone's future intrigues observers http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080103/tc_usatoday/iphonesfutureintriguesobservers
3. IPhone Hurt Mobile Gaming, Expert Says http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141081/article.html
4. First iPhone Trojan horse reported http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9845266-57.html?tag=newsmap

Open Source

1. $200 Linux Desktop PC Gets OS Update http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/200-desktop-pc.html
2. OpenMoko Unveils Neo FreeRunner http://tinyurl.com/2bgbz3 (Forbes)
3. Silverstripe, Google team up for high school open source competition http://m-net.net.nz/2135/latest-news/latest-news/silverstripe-google-team-up-for-high-school-open-source-competi.php

SkyNet

1. 10 Ways to Webify Your Word Processing with Google Docs http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/01/07/10-gdocs-tips/
2. Google Docs: New features for 2008! http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-features-for-2008.html
3. Google Inks PPC Deal with ReachLocal for SMBs http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080108-094609
4. Jaiku users flee to Twitter as a result of Google's neglect http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080108-jaiku-users-flee-to-twitter-as-a-result-of-googles-neglect.html

General Technology

1. Hitachi announces 500GB laptop drive http://www.macworld.com/article/131372/2008/01/hitachi.html
2. Hitachi to phase out small hard drives http://tinyurl.com/2lqynq (Reuters)
3. Get Ready for the Terabyte Notebook http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=003000B2EOU0
4. Corsair rolls out 32 GB USB flash drives http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35470/145/

The above four news items help illustrate a classic example of disruptive technology or disruptive innovation, the computer “hard drive”. The following two links are useful reading background if you want to know a bit more about the “innovator’s dilemma.” http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/christensen.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology

5. MS Office 2003 abandons older file formats http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3719581
6. Microsoft Backs Down over Office 2003 SP3 File Blocking http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2243957,00.asp
7. Microsoft charges for free services http://windowssecrets.com/2008/01/03/01-Microsoft-charges-customers-for-free-services
8. Sony's Blu-ray seen winning DVD format war http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/ap_on_hi_te/dueling_dvd_formats
9. Intel In The 3-D Fast Lane http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2008/01/08/intel-3d-ces-tech-cx_de_0108techintel.html
10. New Linksys Designs & Lower Prices to Boost 802.11n Sales http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141083-c,wireless/article.html
11. Microsoft offers to buy FAST for $1.2 B; Likely to trigger enterprise search consolidation http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=7518
12. College for passionate programmers http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/01/08.html
13. Speed up Windows XP and Vista by turning off unnecessary services http://www.cnet.com/8301-13880_1-9845899-68.html

Leisure & Entertainment

1. Microsoft Gives Free Game To Frustrated Xbox Live Users http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080105/tc_cmp/205208575
2. LSU players use video games to prepare http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080106/ap_on_hi_te/fbc_bcs_video_game_playbook
3. Apple to cut UK prices for iTunes http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/54470504/

Economy and Technology

1. Becoming Compelling http://www.chrisg.com/becoming-compelling/
2. Monster.com Acquires Affinity Labs For Vocational Communities http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080105/tc_cmp/205208646
3. Frontline ‘closed for business’ http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/FREE/513209077/1005

Civilian Aerospace

1. NRC at Challenger Learning Ctr: Forging Future of Space Science http://www.challenger.org/media/release.cfm?release_id=36
2. COTS 1.5 Roundup http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=4127
3. Aerospace medicine gearing up for tourists in space http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/01/14/prse0114.htm
4. Andrews Space growing fast http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=133898
5. Eight-Year-Old is youngest person to experience zero gravity http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20080102/LAW07302012008-1.html
6. Do you want to join the 68 - mile high club with Richard Branson? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=506081&in_page_id=1889
7. Former astronaut quits Rocketplane http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/032008191665.htm

Supercomputing & GPUs

1. HPC Developments to Watch in 2008 http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1995912.html
2. Advanced Computing Institute Launches First Three Projects http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1995308.html
3. GPGPU and 3D luminaries join 3D graphics heavyweights http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/557
4. Worlds Fastest Personal workstation annouced at CES in Las Vagas http://www.mmdnewswire.com/persl-worksti-2742.html
5. Luxury Car Designed With NVIDIA Quadro Graphics http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQTH04003012008-1.htm
6. RapidMind Announces Multi-core Support for Mac OS X http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2003749.html

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