NEW NET Issues List for 18 Mar 2008

Drew F recently suggested that NEW NET participants should visit other innovation or tech group meetings to see how they conduct their meetings, to make new tech and innovation personal connections, to find out how those groups 'recruit' new members.

One group he suggested visiting is the Web414 group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, and I hope to participate in one of their meetings in the next couple months. Other NEW NET members are encouraged to go to tech or innovation group meetings they are aware of and bring back ideas that will make NEW NET better.

Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 18 March 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. Drop It Like It’s DropBox http://gigaom.com/2008/03/11/drop-it-like-its-drop-box/
2. Bringing OpenID To The Masses http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/11/clickpass-could-change-the-way-you-surf-the-web/
3. Optimize Local Events With hCalendar Microformat http://searchengineland.com/080311-104251.php
4. Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web http://tinyurl.com/28kofz (TechCrunch)
5. Second Life creator steps down at Linden Lab http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/14/BU39VK8FC.DTL
6. Best Tools for Visualization (allow an hour) http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_best_tools_for_visualization.php
7. Verizon embraces P4P, a more efficient peer-to-peer tech http://tinyurl.com/yolusf (Ars technica)
8. Team Whiteboarding with Twiddla http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/team_whiteboarding_with_twiddla.php
9. Martian Headsets (and browser standards) http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/03/17.html

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

10. Password-stealing hackers infect thousands of Web pages http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080313/tc_infoworld/95949
11. Winny copiers to be cut off from Internet http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080315TDY01305.htm
12. Hackers Attack Trend Micro http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080314/tc_pcworld/143445
13. Some viruses come pre-installed http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/ap_on_hi_te/factory_installed_viruses
14. Security futurists shun perimeter, anti-virus systems http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080313/tc_infoworld/95957
15. An overview of the NSA's domestic spying program http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080316-an-overview-of-the-nsas-domestic-spying-program.html
16. Botnet scams are exploding http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080317/tc_usatoday/botnetscamsareexploding
17. Ongoing IFrame attack proving difficult to kill http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080318-ongoing-iframe-attack-proving-difficult-to-kill.html

Mobile Computing & Communicating

18. Satellite And WiMax Spectrum Sharing Not Compatible Report Finds http://tinyurl.com/2dr9hb (SpaceMart)
19. Asustek says two-thirds of Eee PCs will have Windows XP http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080313/tc_nm/asustek_dc
20. Microsoft to license Adobe's Flash Lite http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9894639-37.html
21. iPhone users do more with their phones http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=25012

Open Source

22. How to back up your Gmail on Linux in four easy steps http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/backup-gmail-in-linux-with-getmail/
23. Robotics start-up believes open source will soon put robots in our homes http://tinyurl.com/3dlvlm (VentureBeat)
24. WordPress is open source http://ma.tt/2008/03/wordpress-is-open-source/
25. Firefox 3 Nears Release with New Features http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080312/bs_nf/58771

SkyNet

26. Ad Wars: Google's Green Light http://tinyurl.com/32hj6w (BusinessWeek)
27. Google Sky: hands on, plus Top 10 uncommonly cool sights http://tinyurl.com/yofccf (Ars technica)
28. Google Makes DoubleClick Employees Apply To Keep Their Jobs http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/google_makes_doubleclick_employees_apply_to_keep_their_jobs
29. Ex-Google Employee on Scaling an Organization http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-18-n20.html
30. Google Maps Opens Up Editing To Everyone http://searchengineland.com/080318-084141.php

General Technology

31. User Interfaces & Information Overload http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/user_interfaces_information_overload.php
32. SSDs in 2008: fast speeds (200MB/sec) over price cuts http://tinyurl.com/2fylb5 (Ars technica)
33. Bringing Second Life To Life http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2222807.html
34. Toshiba will ship notebook with 128GB SSD http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895678-7.html?tag=newsmap
35. Returns, technical problems high with flash-based notebooks http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895986-7.html
36. Mac sales up 60% in February http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/17/report-mac-sales-up-60-in-february/
37. Vista SP1 ready for download http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9896820-56.html
38. Tesla Motors Kicks Off "Regular Production" of 2008 Roadster http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=125232
39. Intel moving to six-cores this year; What will you do with them? http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8245
40. Does More Than One Monitor Improve Productivity? http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001076.html
41. USPS Pilot Program Offers Free Mail-in Electronics Recycling http://www.dailytech.com/USPS+Pilot+Program+Offers+Free+Mailin+Electronics+Recycling/article11125.htm

Leisure & Entertainment

42. R.E.M. launching album on social networking site http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080311/wr_nm/rem_dc
43. More bands embrace the option of giving away music http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080315/wr_nm/free_dc
44. Review: Compelling strategy games http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080312/ap_en_ot/games_invasion

Economy and Technology

45. Online Business Networking: 2 Horse Globalization Race http://tinyurl.com/2jl45s (ReadWriteWeb)
46. Yahoo in informal talks with Microsoft http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120546367915835903.html
47. Prevent March Madness from sapping worker productivity http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/15/im-um-working/
48. No Bailout For Bear Stearns. Or For Any Homeowner. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-boyce/no-bailout-for-bear-stear_b_91818.html
49. Ozzie signals Microsoft’s surrender to the cloud http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=476
50. Yahoo Projects Growth, Lays Out Microsoft Rejection http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=an.rH6aDMJbA
51. Why bother having a resume? http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/03/why-bother-havi.html

Civilian Aerospace

52. Wanted: Student Experiment for Space Tourist's Trek http://www.space.com/news/080312-spacetourist-garriott-challenge.html
53. Next Space Tourist Takes Break from Spaceflight Training http://www.space.com/news/080314-spacetourist-garriott-break.html
54. Space Tourism: Risks and Rewards http://www.rocketeers.co.uk/?q=node/162
55. You may now float about the cabin... http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23356462-5013412,00.html

Supercomputing & GPUs

56. How The GPL Can Save Your Butt http://www.linux-mag.com/id/5379
57. Accelerating Desktop Imaging with Parallel Computation http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2204028.html
58. AMD, TopCoder Host 'Multicore Threadfest' Competitions http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2208452.html
59. Multicore Expo Announces Program http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2222253.html
60. The 411: Terascala http://insidehpc.com/2008/03/13/the-411-terascala/
61. NSF and COMPETES funding http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000663.html
62. Racing to Gain Edge On Multicore Chips http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120572280352740819.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
63. Build your own quad SLI: NVIDIA launches the 9800 GX2 http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080318-build-your-own-quad-sli-nvidia-launches-the-9800gx2.html

From the above “How the GPL can save your butt” -- “…It is time to get serious about this multi-core thing. For years, I have dreaded the day when the computing world hits the parallel wall. As I have said many times in the past, multi-core is parallel computing and parallel programming is hard, expensive, and in some cases non-portable. It adds another dimension of complexity to writing software. There is no quick fix and no solution on the horizon that addresses this issue. The computer industry is now facing a huge challenge -- how to transition software to multi-core platforms. No amount of marketing or wishful thinking will help. Trust me on this one. I have been neck deep in parallel computing for 20 years. The parallel software issue is real and it is standing in front of us. Before you throw me on the pile of doomsday lunatics, the polite experts are saying the same thing.

Of course there are methods to program parallel computers, but none of them really address the issue from a higher level. Indeed, they often drag the programmer down to the minutia of managing data and temporal issues that do not exist in the singe core paradigm. If we don't come up with high level methods to address this problem, writing parallel software will be an excruciating expensive process that will stifle much of the computer industry. In the absence of a real solution, non-portable ad-hoc approaches will be the norm. In an industry where past decisions seem to outlive their life expectancy this is a dangerous proposition.

I have always, bemoaned the "not my problem" attitude of all the major computing companies that are touched by parallel computing, which is now pretty much everybody. Since bemoaning seems little underpowered given the urgency of the current situation, I feel the need to elevate my position to a rant. But first, the all important car analogy will help set the stage.

Picture yourself a car company. So you have this new kind of super fast (yet safe) car. These cars can run on the existing roads, but only at a fraction of their top speeds. In order to run at full speed you need better roads. Without better roads customers have no reason to buy those new super cars you are building. Of course, it is not your problem, because you make the best damn car the world has ever seen, some one else should build the roads. As a captain of industry, you have a choice, either help build the roads for your new car or just push ahead and make as many cars as you can and hope that people buy them. What would you do?

If you are the multi-billion dollar IT industry you stick you head in the sand and just keep making cars. It is after all, not your problem. That seems to be the attitude of almost every company with a vested interest in the computing market. There was a recent announcement indicating Intel and Microsoft have put up $10 million to fund research in parallel software. Hah! I'm going to laugh harder this time HAH, HAH! Ever here the phase p*****g in the ocean, well this is more like throwing a match into the sun. We need more -- much more.…”

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