NEW NET Issues List for 30 Jun 2009

Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 30 June 2009, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering. This week we're upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. Declaration of Health Data Rights http://adambosworth.net/2009/06/22/declaration-of-health-data-rights/ “…In almost every field today, the power of online communities, online tools, and online data has been revolutionary, whether it be finance, travel, purchasing goods, books, getting the news, or entertainment. If, for example, we want to plan a trip, we can search online, book online, print out our boarding pass online, and see what others have thought online. Our schedule is clearly there and usually, if the site is well designed, it is there in a form where we can effortlessly digitally update our online calendars as well. This revolution has led to far better information, far more freedom to plan and organize things and usually a far better experience. No more waiting in line at the counter at the airport or at the bank or at the store…Yet, in the area where it matters most, our health, virtually none of this is true. It is as though the revolution never occurred. We cannot easily see what our data is online (e.g. our labs, our prescriptions, our problem list, our images)…Further, we cannot easily take the time online to understand what this data means for us and harness the online power of experts or the opinion of others to best understand our health and where we stand…” [ http://www.techflash.com/Ignition_backs_Adam_Bosworths_latest_health_startup_Keas_49035896.html ]

2. Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On http://www.web2summit.com/web2009/public/schedule/detail/10194 “…Ever since we first introduced the term "Web 2.0," people have been asking, "What’s next?" Assuming that Web 2.0 was meant to be a kind of software version number (rather than a statement about the second coming of the Web after the dotcom bust), we’re constantly asked about "Web 3.0." Is it the semantic web? The sentient web? Is it the social web? The mobile web? Is it some form of virtual reality?...Increasingly, the Web is the world – everything and everyone in the world casts an "information shadow," an aura of data which, when captured and processed intelligently, offers extraordinary opportunity and mind bending implications. Web Squared is our way of exploring this phenomenon and giving it a name…successful network applications are systems for harnessing collective intelligence…”

3. Mozilla Confirms Tuesday Release for Firefox 3.5 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349445,00.asp “Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 3.5 on Tuesday morning. "The Mozilla team is mobilizing to ship Firefox 3.5 and it's looking like Tuesday morning," a Mozilla spokeswoman said…”

4. MSN Web Messenger dies on June 30, 2009 http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/06/msn-web-messenger-dies-on-june-30-2009.ars “…On June 30, MSN Web Messenger will close; however, customers will continue to have the opportunity to connect with each other using Windows Live Hotmail's web-based IM, a version of Windows Live Messenger which is accessible through your Windows Live Hotmail account," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars via e-mail. "We made the decision to retire MSN Web Messenger as part of our overall investment in updating and re-aligning our online services under the Windows Live brand…”

5. DARPA Hires Company to Build a Machine Reader That Scours the Web http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10274435-42.html “…DARPA has hired a company to develop a reading machine to reduce the gap between the ever increasing mountain of digitized text and the intelligence community's insatiable appetite for data input. BBN Technologies was awarded the $29.7 million contract to develop a universal text engine capable of capturing knowledge from written matter and rendering it into a format that artificial intelligence systems (AI) and human analysts can work with. The military will use the Machine Reading Program, as it's officially called, to automatically monitor the technological and political activities of nation states and transnational organizations-which could mean everything from al-Qaeda to the U.N….It should also be able to crank out one a heck of a term paper.”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

6. Microsoft security beta download hits limit http://www.crn.com/security/218101208 “If you want to download a free copy of Microsoft Security Essentials, you might have to wait until the full version is released. Or until Redmond decides to up the 75,000-download limit for its beta testers. Less than 24 hours after it launched MSE, Microsoft has reached the maximum 75,000 downloads for its MSE free antivirus product, released Tuesday…”

7. Google access disrupted in China http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8118055.stm “Access to Google has been disrupted in some parts of China, amid a row over what Chinese citizens should be allowed to view over the internet. Users reported they could not access either Google's search engine or its Chinese-language version. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang accused Google of spreading pornography and breaking Chinese law…”

8. Bing Filters out Sensitive Results for Chinese Searches http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/167337/bing_filters_out_sensitive_results_for_chinese_searches.html “Microsoft's Bing search engine filters out some sensitive results from searches made in simplified Chinese, the script used to write the language in China, searches revealed Thursday. The filtering appeared to occur for searches done both in and outside of China. A search for "Tiananmen" returned images of tanks rolling into Beijing's central square in 1989 to crush pro-democracy protests if the search was written in English or in traditional Chinese characters, which are used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. But those images did not appear for the same search done in simplified Chinese. Stately photos of the Tiananmen gate leading to Beijing's old imperial city instead filled the page…”

9. China throttles Google, U.S. ratchets up trade war over Green Dam http://www.moneymorning.com/2009/06/26/google-china/ “…China’s war on the search engine has only intensified. That has led some analysts to believe that the communist government is acting on behalf of Baidu Inc., or perhaps as part of a smear campaign to drum up support for its latest attempt to tighten its grip on Internet content that is becoming harder to control. Google’s word association feature – a drop-down box that offers suggestions based on the terms typed into the search engine – was disabled last week after a report on China Central Television (CCTV), the state television network, showed how typing the Chinese word for son could solicit terms that have lewd connotations. However, it has since been revealed that a Chinese youth, depicted in the television segment as a university student who had started an anti-Google campaign, was actually an intern at television station. Coincidentally, the lion’s share of Baidu’s first-quarter advertising budget – about $5.6 million – went to the state-owned CCTV…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

10. AOL's AIM iPhone App Is Getting Awesome, Disruptive http://www.businessinsider.com/aols-aim-iphone-app-is-getting-awesome-disruptive-to-att-2009-6 “…Apple's new "push notifications" system -- and others like it -- could start the disruption process that could force wireless carriers to price text messages far cheaper than they are today. AOL's new AIM app for the iPhone -- available now in free, ad-supported, and $2.99, no-ad flavors -- is the start. It's the first major IM app for the iPhone's new 3.0 software that includes push notifications…It means that when you receive an IM, no matter what you're doing…Just the way text messages show up on the iPhone…soon, iPhone users will be able to get instant messages as quickly and reliably as text messages, all the time…We expect IM software companies like Meebo or eBuddy to release IM apps with push notifications that connect to all major services, including AIM, Google chat, Facebook chat, Yahoo and MSN Messenger, etc., within weeks…”

11. Ars reviews the Palm Pre, part 2: the webOS experience http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/06/ars-palm-pre-review.ars “…I've seen the experience of information discovery and management move back and forth between two distinct paradigms. The first of these paradigms is exemplified by the early Yahoo! directory, and I'll call it the structure-and-browse paradigm. The idea here is that with a small enough data flow, you can manage incoming information by structuring it yourself, the way that Yahoo! used humans to sort newly created webpages into categories, creating a kind of giant card catalog for the Internet. You then browse the resulting structure in order to find what you're looking for. There's a threshold, though, beyond which the volume of data is so high that structure-and-browse becomes a losing battle. It's at this point that the second paradigm, which I'll call collect-and-query, becomes the best way to deal with the mass of unstructured data. This latter paradigm is exemplified by Google's approach to information discovery…the iPhone—and, indeed, the entire Apple ecosystem—presumes that your contacts exist as an information repository, the canonical copy of which exists either on your Mac or on the company's MobileMe servers. It's up to you to actively curate this repository, adding structure to it by putting contacts into groups and generally organizing the repository so that it's easily browsable…Browsing structured data is, in fact, the default mode of interaction with every single Apple product—from the Finder to iTunes to the iPod and iPhone. Palm's webOS, in contrast, is built around the collect-and-query paradigm…While Apple's phone may finally have official (albeit limited) support for multitasking, the webOS card metaphor gives users a workable way to actually manage multiple open apps…”

12. MetroPCS offers $5 unlimited international calling http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10271939-94.html “Regional prepaid cell phone carrier MetroPCS announced Wednesday a new plan that allows its customers to make unlimited international calls to over 100 different countries for only $5 extra a month. To be eligible for the $5 unlimited international calling plan, users must already be signed up to an unlimited national calling plan that costs $40, $45, or $50 a month. Making international phone calls from a cell phone has typically been rather expensive with major carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. For example, AT&T offers its WorldConnect service for $3.99 extra a month, which gives subscribers lower rates on international calls. This means that a call to France still costs 22 cents a minute even with the $3.99 a month WorldConnect plan. By contrast a call to France using MetroPCS' new $5 unlimited international plan is free…”

13. Know Your Smartphones http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/06/wireds-smart-guide-for-know-your-smartphones/ “…each major U.S. carrier has a device that can legitimately compete with the iPhone. To help you make sense of it, we took three major upstarts and stacked them up against the great white hype from Cupertino. Sprint with its Pre, T-Mobile with its G1, and Verizon with its Storm. So have a gander at how the specs from these four devices compare to one another…”

14. Palm Pre Sales Topped 300,000 In June, Analyst Says http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/06/30/palm-pre-sales-topped-300000-in-june-analyst-says/ “…Pre sales into the channel in June were above 300,000 units…He says start-up problems with manufacturing and uncertainty about initial demand limited the number of phones in stock at launch to about 120,000 units - and that the inventory was sold in a matter of days. Snyder contends the company is now producing about 15,000 units a day, and likely will ship nearly 1 million phones to Sprint in the first quarter of production…”

Open Source

15. Open government advocates map out future of citizen governance http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43054&dcn=todaysnews “…Technology enthusiasts on Monday gathered at a jazz concert hall in Manhattan to plot ways to increase government transparency and accountability. The young and technocratic audience at the sixth annual Personal Democracy Forum -- virtually every participant was working on a laptop or iPhone or Tweeting -- generally gave the Obama administration credit for moving the transparency ball forward with sites such as Recovery.gov and Data.gov. The speakers, however, agreed that the new platforms are only the first step in a revolutionary change that will sweep across government in much the same way Craigslist and Wikipedia changed the private sector. "We need for transparency to be the default government," said Jeff Jarvis, a columnist and blogger and the author of What Would Google Do? (Collins Business, 2009). "We need a government that is searchable, clickable and linkable…”

16. Ohio Linux Fest [September 25-26] http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/122418/ “The Ohio Linux community continues its forward march and is gaining momentum every year. Each year brings a new group of speakers and generates more excitement—2009 will be no exception! The seventh annual Ohio LinuxFest will be on September 25-26, 2009 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, in downtown Columbus, Ohio...”

17. Wireshark 1.2 Released With a Bundle of New Features http://ostatic.com/blog/wireshark-1-2-released-with-a-bundle-of-new-features “Popular network protocol analyzer Wireshark released a major update recently that's chock full of new features. Wireshark 2.1.0 now has OpenStreetMap + GeoIP integration, a 64-bit Windows installer, improved support for Mac OS X, and more…”

18. Never reboot again with Linux and Ksplice http://blogs.computerworld.com/never_reboot_again_with_linux_and_ksplice “I usually have to reboot my Linux systems about once every six months. Linux is as stable as a rock. Windows, while it's gotten better, is another story entirely. While I no longer need to reboot Windows on a daily basis, I still must reboot my Windows PC at least twice a month-one "what the heck was that" problem and Patch Tuesday. For some users, telecommunication server/carrier grade administrators in particular even twice-a-year reboots is twice a year too often and that's where Ksplice comes in. Ksplice, according to its developers, "enables running systems to stay secure without the disruption of re-booting. Specifically, Ksplice creates re-bootless updates that are based on traditional source code patches…”

SkyNet

19. Google Voice takes a step toward launch http://www.pcworld.com/article/167449/hands_on_with_google_voice_this_is_really_cool.html “…Google is opening up the service to a limited number of new users, many of whom I'm sure will be as impressed as I am with Google Voice's power and elegance. Even better, Google Voice is free -- at least for now…”

20. Google Wants You To Become A Gmail Ninja http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/23/googles-wants-you-to-become-a-gmail-ninja-or-look-like-a-huge-nerd/ “…Gmail is far and away the best online email management system out there right now. But a lot of people still use it like a regular email service, never touching some of its power-features that can really help with email overload. So Google launched a new Tips area of the site today to serve as a reference point for how to become what it calls a “Gmail Ninja.”…”

21. Google Tourism: City Tours Experiment http://searchengineland.com/google-city-tours-takes-on-tourism-21513 “City Tours is a new addition to Google Labs that puts Google squarely in the tourism business: Give it a city name, and Google not only suggests sites to see, but it also maps out a multi-day itinerary and proposes a minute-by-minute travel schedule for you to follow. And what’s really impressive is that City Tours doesn’t only cover the standard travel hot spots like New York, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. You’ve probably never heard of Kennewick, Washington, but Google has a three-day tour in mind if you ever want to visit my neck of the woods…”

22. Google thought Michael Jackson traffic was attack http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10274137-2.html “…Google News was inaccessible for some people Thursday afternoon right as rumors of Jackson's death began to circulate, replaced by an error message reading "We're sorry, but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now…The spike in queries began at about 2:45 p.m. PDT Thursday, and Google thought the traffic was an attack for about 25 minutes before realizing what was going on…”

23. WSJ publisher calls Google ‘digital vampire’ http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090624/FREE/906249985 “…Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton raised the rhetoric a notch, calling the Internet search giant a vampire “sucking the blood” out of the newspaper business, and promised that new developments would level the playing field…Newspaper publishers have been growing increasingly vocal about Google’s profiting from content it doesn’t produce, and have been searching for ways to begin charging for news stories that are now given away free on the Web. The Wall Street Journal has been one of the few major news organizations to successfully charge for access to its Web site…”

General Technology

24. Wind-Powered Drive-in Movie Theater http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/wind-powered-movie-theater.php “…The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in Theater takes to the forefront in new technologies by installing two residential wind turbines at the theater. The turbines, a Southwest Windpower Skystream 3.7 and a Mariah Power Windspire will provide the theater with approximately 30% of its energy needs this season and the possibility of 100% by the 2010 season. Both turbines sit in the front acreage of the drive-in theatre in perfect view of route 47 just outside the Gibson City limits. With this installation, the theater will be the first movie theater in the world to use wind power as an energy source…”

25. Tesla gets $465 million gov’t loan for its electric sedan http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/23/the-government-comes-through-for-tesla-with-a-465-million-loan-for-its-electric-sedan/ “…Tesla Motors, Silicon Valley’s electric car manufacturer, is receiving $465 million from the program. The money will go towards completing the development of its Modern S sedan and its electric power trains, which are being licensed by other car makers such as Mercedes. Last month, Mercedes’ parent company Daimler also invested $50 million for a 10 percent stake in Tesla…”

26. Microsoft wants your Hohm to use the smart grid http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/06/microsoft-wants-your-hohm-to-use-the-smart-grid.ars “…Microsoft took the wraps off a new Web service dedicated to managing energy use. Called "Hohm" (presumably, a play on the combination of "home and "Ohm"), the product will take advantage of smart grid data on energy use when it's available. Even when it's not, however, Hohm will allow users to input their own details and share the results of their efficiency efforts, adding a bit of a Web 2.0 sheen to matters. The move comes after a number of other major IT powers, including Google and Cisco, have announced their own efforts in the area, suggesting that a lot of people think this market is about to take off…” [ http://www.reuters.com/article/earth2Tech/idUS148240668020090625 ]

27. $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22919/ “The open-source education software developed for the "$100 laptop" can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to run aging PCs and Macs with a new interface and custom educational software. "What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost…”

28. Toyota thinks up mind-reading wheelchair http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10275267-1.html “…Toyota has developed the wheelchair in collaboration with researchers in Japan. The system analyzes brain wave data using signal-processing technology and delivers neuro-feedback to the driver…Toyota's mind-controlled wheelchair, however, has what appears to be the quickest response time yet: 125 milliseconds, or 125 thousandths of a second. The user can almost instantly steer right, left, and forward. To stop, the person in the chair must puff up a cheek, a motion that's then detected by the headpiece…”

Leisure & Entertainment

29. ZeniMax Media buys Id Software http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-id25-2009jun25,0,2375198.story “Id Software, creator of the Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Quake games, has been sold to ZeniMax Media for an undisclosed amount. ZeniMax's Bethesda Softworks studio created the popular Elder Scrolls series of role-playing games…Id will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of founder John Carmack. No changes will be made in the operations of Id's game development. All the Id principals have signed long-term employment contracts, ensuring that they will continue in their roles developing games at the studio…”

30. Cable Companies Want to Control Online TV http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cable_companies_want_to_control_online_tv.php “…Just as the newspaper industry doesn't know how to react to the new challenges posed by the Internet, the cable industry, too, is trying to remain relevant in a world where appointment TV is a thing of the past. This is due to the proliferation of DVRs where TV networks and producers can just put their content on the web and users can watch these shows on their TVs and in their living rooms thanks to cheap hardware devices from Apple and Roku, and software like Boxee. Currently, only a few households have abandoned their cable TV in favor of going online only, but this number is probably growing and looking forward. The cable industry is surely seeing this as a threat---the real test here is not whether the cable companies can deliver online TV over their networks, but whether they can figure out a good way to 'authenticate' households that have a cable subscription…”

Economy and Technology

31. Blue Nile joins Amazon in cutting ties with North Carolina affiliates http://www.techflash.com/Blue_Nile_49460322.html “Amazon.com isn't the only ecommerce company cutting ties to affiliates over state sales tax legislation. Online diamond and jewelry retailer Blue Nile has ended its North Carolina affiliate program over pending legislation there…Amazon and Blue Nile are seeking to avoid efforts by states to classify them as a physical retailer -- and require them to pay sales tax -- through their relationship to locally-based affiliate websites…” [ http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/06/29/amazon-pulls-the-plug-on-rhode-island-affiliates/ ]

32. Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/technology/companies/28acer.html “…This year, Acer appears poised to overtake Dell as the world’s second-largest seller of personal computers, which would put a real dent into one of America’s favorite dorm-to-empire business stories. And if this comes to pass, Acer would trail only Hewlett-Packard; no computer company based outside the United States has ever climbed so high…Giants like Foxconn and Quanta have turned this island into a manufacturing hub, producing most of the music players, video game consoles, cellphones and computers bought by consumers and businesses. But the companies that sell these products — H.P., Dell, Apple and others — have put immense pressure on these manufacturers to keep prices low…”

33. Jobs back at Apple after 5 1/2-month leave http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/30/BU0018FQK2.DTL “…Jobs, 54, is still in recovery after a liver transplant in Memphis. Apple representatives said he will split his time between work and home for now…Jobs stepped away in mid-January after he reported that his health issues were more complex than first imagined. Nine days earlier, he had attributed weight loss to a hormonal imbalance…Jobs underwent treatment in 2004 for a rare form of pancreatic cancer, which some medical observers had feared may have spread to Jobs' liver, prompting the transplant…the company fared well in the hands of Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who handled day-to-day operations in Jobs' absence. Apple's stock has jumped 67 percent since Jobs stepped away. The company's revenue and profit in the first quarter of this year grew despite a tough economy that has slowed competitors…”

34. MagicJack Will Top $100 Million In Sales This Year http://www.businessinsider.com/magicjack-will-top-100-million-in-sales-this-year-2009-6 “…MagicJack, the super-cheap Internet phone gadget, is flying off the shelves. And parent company YMax Communications, founded by telecom veteran Daniel Borislow, is raking in big money…The company is selling about 9,000 to 10,000 MagicJacks a day, according to Borislow, and customers are using about 500 million minutes a month…”

Civilian Aerospace

35. SpacePort Indiana: Real Launches, Real Space Data, Real Time http://www.midwestbusiness.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=19684 “…SpacePort Indiana (SPI) expects to complete more than 130 rocket and high-altitude balloon launches during 2009, according to SPI CEO Brian Tanner…He opened SPI in March 2008. The space company also is working with Raytheon to develop a 3-D infrastructure to track high-altitude aircraft and spacecraft for the FAA in preparation for what Tanner calls “the new era of commercialization in space…Aside from the high-altitude balloons, how big are the rockets actually being launched out of Columbus? Tanned said: “We launch rockets in the ‘sounding’ class that are generally 15 to 20 feet tall and eight to 11 inches in diameter.” These rockets carry commercial payloads that transmit data to ground stations in the region. He added: “Our engineering staff builds rockets here and uses rockets and rocket engines supplied by customers. The rockets supplied by customers tend to be design platforms that are evaluating a proprietary technology…”

36. SpaceX raising another $60M http://deals.venturebeat.com/2009/06/29/spacex-raising-another-60m-for-private-space-travel/ “…SpaceX, has raised $15 million of a new funding round…The round may eventually grow to $60 million…aerospace companies and public agencies are hiring SpaceX to deliver satellites into orbit — for example, it’s scheduled to launch a Malaysian satellite in July. SpaceX’s press materials also say it plans to deliver cargo back-and-forth from Low Earth orbit (such as resupplying the International Space Station) starting next year…”

37. Skies not the limit for Canadian space elevator proponent http://www.canada.com/Skies+limit+Canadian+space+elevator+proponent/1725198/story.html “…A Canadian technology company has a futuristic idea: a free-standing elevator that stops 20 kilometres above the Earth, is capable of launching satellites into space and could be used for communications networks around the world…The space elevator concept is being commercialized by Thoth Technologies Inc. , a Canadian company led by St. John's, N.L. native Caroline Roberts and her husband, Brendan Quine, an associate professor at Toronto's York University…”

38. Backup Space Tourist Begins Training http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090626-backup-space-tourist-barrett.html “…American attorney Barbara Barrett is training as a backup crew member for a Russian Soyuz flight slated to deliver Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte to the International Space Station for a 12-day stay this fall, according to Space Adventures Ltd., the Vienna, Va.-based firm that organized the training and flight…An aviation attorney who became the FAA's first female deputy in 1988, Barrett is an instrument-rated pilot and has served on the boards of a number of aerospace companies, including Raytheon, the Space Foundation and The Aerospace Corp…”

39. Geeks in Space http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/06/24/geeks-space “…Richard Garriott is a geek. He loves fantasy; he has two thin braids running down his back that, for pictures, he swings over onto his chest for maximum effect. Back in the 1980s, he developed a series of fantasy role-playing video games under the Ultima umbrella, making him, perhaps, the Henry Ford of gaming…because Garriott is a geek, he has also used his millions to pursue his love of space. In 2000, he shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to be the very first self-funded tourist in space. But then the dot-com bubble burst, and he lost most of his money and had to sell his seat on the rocket. But Garriott loves space so much that, once he regained his financial footing, he decided to buy back that trip rather than resume construction on the still half-finished Britannia Manor Mark 3, the other casualty of the bust…He says he has also noticed a pattern: All those other tech geeks thirsting for the same view. For instance, when Garriott finally went up, in October of last year, he was already Space Tourist No. 6. But Nos. 1 through 5 were all tech geeks, too…”

40. More WhiteKnight Two testing details after Oshkosh http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/06/26/328834/more-whiteknight-two-testing-details-after-oshkosh.html “…Details of future WhiteKnight Two testing and an evaluation of its Pratt & Whitney Canada 308A engines should emerge after July's Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Virgin Galactic's prototype mothership, named Eve, will make its public debut at Oshkosh on 27 July…”

41. Space Frontier Foundation's Heinlein Business Plan Competition http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=28615 “…These companies will not only compete for the $5000 prize courtesy of the Heinlein Foundation, but also the opportunity to present their business plan to dedicated space investors at Space Investment Summit 7 and an invitation to Aerospace Venture Forum hosted by the Space Angels Network. To prepare for the final competition, the businesses will participate in preparatory workshops and will present their business plans at practice sessions on Saturday, July 18th. The final presentations will take place Sunday morning as part of The Business of NewSpace Day…”

42. German Team Enters Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=97953 “…Team Part-Time-Scientists, headquartered in Berlin, Germany has seven team members and is among 19 teams from 42 countries that are competing for their share of the multi-million dollar prize purse. The Part-Time-Scientists are not only the first German team to join the competition but also one of the youngest as the vast majority of team members are in the 20’s. In addition, this is the first team made up entirely of non-space professionals. The seven members are scattered across northern Germany and welcome everyone who wants to join their efforts…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

43. AMD to support Nvidia's CUDA technology? http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/graphics-cards/amd-to-support-nvidia-s-cuda-technology--612041 “Nvidia has hinted that it has a project in the works that will enable Nvidia's CUDA technology on AMD GPUs…In the future you'll be able to run C with CUDA extensions on a broader range of platforms," stated Dally, "so I don't think that will be a fundamental limitation." Although Dally didn't name AMD outright, he added: "I'm familiar with some projects that are underway to enable CUDA on other platforms." While both Nvidia and AMD have announced support for open GPGPU standards such as OpenCL and Microsoft's DirectX Compute, both companies also have their own GPGPU technologies… OpenCL is really a driver interface. It's an API and a set of calls. With a kernel, you basically make an API call with the code for that kernel as a string, and the compilation actually happens in the driver on the fly. "Being able to write in C for CUDA and running NVCC and pre-compiling your kernel seems to be a more efficient way of operating…”

44. University of Delaware GPU supercomputer http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/06/prweb2592404.htm “…University of Delaware Global Computing Laboratory has deployed the university's largest supercomputer, code-named "Geronimo", based on a custom GPGPU design utilizing NVIDIA Tesla GPU computing technology coupled with Intel 5400 series processors. The cluster, funded by the University in conjunction with the NVIDIA University Partnership Program, will be used to support the research goals of the Global Computing Laboratory headed by Assistant Professor Michela Taufer. The University of Delaware's team including Dr. Taufer and key collaborators Dr. Sandeep Patel from the Chemistry Department and Dr. Dionisios G. Vlachos from the Chemical Engineering Department is targeting the enhanced performance of large-scale simulations of molecular systems based on Monte Carlo (MC) and Molecular Dynamics (MD) methods…”

45. Numerical Precision: How Much is Enough? http://www.scientificcomputing.com/article-hpc-Numerical-Precision-How-Much-is-Enough-063009.aspx “The advent of petascale computers and teraflop-per-board graphics processors has raised the question of "how do we know that anything we compute is correct?" Numerical errors can quickly accumulate when performing a trillion to thousands of trillions of floating-point operations per second due to approximations, rounding, truncation errors and other concerns…While not many people will gain access to a petascale supercomputer in the next few years, GPU computing is becoming ever more ubiquitous. NVIDIA states they now have an installed base of over 100 million CUDA-capable graphics processors. With teraflop-per-board capability, graphics processors have dramatically increased the computational capabilities available for scientific calculations — and at a commodity price-point…Numerical accuracy is one of those opaque areas of scientific computing that people try to solve by using the hammer of 64-bit arithmetic to fix the problem. Generally, the problem is caused by thinking that more bits of precision are better and acknowledging that, unfortunately, any number of bits of precision is never really quite enough…”

46. Video Game Tools Used For Defense Needs http://www.huliq.com/11/82678/video-game-tools-used-defense-needs “Video gaming computers and video game consoles available today typically contain a graphics processing unit (GPU), which is very efficient at manipulating and displaying computer graphics. However, the unit's highly parallel structure also makes it more efficient than a general-purpose central processing unit for a range of complex calculations important to defense applications…As radar systems and other sensor systems get more complicated, the computational requirements are becoming a bottleneck," said GTRI senior research engineer Daniel Campbell. "We are capitalizing on the ability of GPUs to process radar, infrared sensor and video data faster than a typical computer and at a much lower cost and power than a computing cluster…”

*****

NEW NET Issues List for 23 Jun 2009

Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 23 June 2009, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering. This week we're upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. Opera Unite, Makes Every Computer a Server http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/opera_reinvents_the_web_with_unite_makes_every_com.php “…Opera Unite, "turns any computer into both a client and a server, allowing it to interact with and serve content to other computers directly across the Web, without the need for third-party servers." Opera Unite aims to make hosting and sharing data as simple as navigating around the Internet. It purports to give users greater control of their data while still allowing for easy sharing of files and information between all web-enabled devices. The Unite services are based on open web standards to permit developers to design cutting-edge applications with ease. Opera even claims that creating a full-service application will now be as easy as coding a web page…”

2. Schools out, but Hong Kong teachers stay online http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090619/tc_afp/healthfluhongkongeducationtechnology “The closure of dozens of Hong Kong schools to try to halt the spread of swine flu has kept thousands of children at home, but new technology has meant they can no longer escape their teachers…many schools in the southern Chinese city have implemented online instruction programmes so students can keep up with the curriculum from home…Pupils there are even offered physical education classes through printable handouts illustrating step-by-step guides to playing select games, although the government has discouraged children meeting up outside school…”

3. US broadband usage rises sharply http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8105726.stm “Some 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, according to the Pew Internet Project. The results surprised researchers, showing a 15% increase from a year earlier. Net services seem to have escaped the recession with Americans more willing to cut back on mobile phone usage or cable TV than broadband…”

4. FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6DZ0gpsCSwquntzof4FR4yfqYXwD98V7B880 “…Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services…What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post…the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

5. How good is Microsoft's free antivirus software? http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1067 “…Microsoft Security Essentials…will enter public beta testing next week. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or above), Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you’ll be able to download and install the software at no additional charge. No subscription is required for ongoing definition updates, either…The public beta will be limited to 75,000 downloads…Microsoft Security Essentials requires validation, which means it won’t be available to anyone using a pirated copy of Windows. But it won’t require registration or personal information of any kind. In an interview last week, Theresa Burch, director of product management for Microsoft Security Essentials, confirmed that decision in no uncertain terms: “We collect no information from you at all,” she told me. No Windows Live ID, nothing. You agree to the EULA, validate, download, and you’re done… The cleanup process is designed to get rid of the immediate thread and then to immediately run a more detailed scan. As Packer explained, “Malware travels in packs, so we look for other stuff when we detect a problem…Microsoft’s technology scored second in the accuracy ratings, behind AVIRA but ahead of AVG, Symantec, McAfee, and a dozen other products. And on the crucial measure of delivering the fewest false positives, Microsoft stood far ahead of the pack, delivering the fewest false positives of any program tested…” [ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10268040-83.html ]

6. Microsoft Security Essentials Beta Now Available http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218100915 “Microsoft on Tuesday released a beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials, the company's new free consumer security software. Formerly known as "Morro," Microsoft Security Essentials is essentially the anti-malware component of Microsoft's subscription security service, Windows Live OneCare, without the utility applications and the $50 annual fee…”

7. Canada seeks easier police access to internet records http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tories-seek-to-widen-police-access-to-online-communications/article1187507/ “Police will have sweeping new powers to collect information about Canadian Internet users without a warrant, and activate tracking devices in their cellphones and cars under legislation proposed by the Conservative government yesterday and criticized by privacy advocates as excessive…”

8. Want to Work for the City of Bozeman, MT? Hand Over Your Social Network Logins and Passwords http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/want_to_work_for_the_city_of_bozeman_mt_hand_over_passwords_login_info.php “…The city of Bozeman, Montana, however, is taking this to a new level by actually asking prospective employees to disclose not just that they have profiles on Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, Google, and YouTube, but by also asking for the usernames and passwords for these profiles…”

9. City stops asking for Internet passwords http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/06/20/news/10cityapology.txt “The city of Bozeman has stopped asking job applicants for their log-in information to online groups and social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace…News of the hiring practice this week was picked up by media outlets and bloggers around the world, triggering an outpouring of e-mails and phone calls to the city…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

10. Ready to Swap your Laptop for a Smartphone? http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/166981/ready_to_swap_your_laptop_for_a_smartphone.html “…As smartphones grow in functionality (the iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0), you might be able to forego the laptop in favor of a smartphone. Imagine the freedom that comes with a computer on your hip, not strapped to your back…"Smartphones are still content consumption devices, not content creation ones," says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. "Every knowledge worker has to do content creation, so you've got to have a desktop or a laptop to do it…”

11. Bigger Than The New iPhone http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/18/apple-iphone-os-technology-personal-3g.html “…the iPhone OS 3.0 software update Apple released for the iPhone and iPod Touch this week--not the launch of the iPhone 3G S Friday--could be the most important technology event of the year…Basically when we look at the iPhone we don't see a mobile phone, we see a computing platform," says Shervin Pishevar, chief executive of Social Gaming Network (SGN). For example, SGN's game "Agency Wars" allows players to compete by tapping away at the iPhone or while logged onto Facebook on their computer. They will even be able to use the iPhone's GPS capability to perform real-world missions and leave virtual booby traps for other players. Plenty of other smart phones have the GPS hardware to make that happen. Apple's software. however, allows developers to weave those capabilities into applications that knit virtual and real-world geographies together. Now add the ability to turn the iPhone into a kind of skeleton key for all kinds of other devices. Apple will now let developers turn the iPhone into a control panel for practically any piece of electronics you can plug it into…”

12. 5 Reasons Android Is Changing The Smartphone Game http://www.crn.com/mobile/218100828;jsessionid=UO02VSZNFG0V0QSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN “T-Mobile this week unveiled its second Google Android-powered smartphone, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. The new offering has a 3.5-inch touch screen along with a 3.5-megapixel camera and a preinstalled 4-GB microSD memory card. The myTouch, the successor to the T-Mobile G1, is one of a number of new or upcoming smartphones to take advantage of Google's Android platform. Here are five reasons why Android is changing the face of the smartphone market…”

Open Source

13. The First Ever Entirely Volunteer Run Open Source Conference is a Huge Success http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_first_ever_entirely_volunteer_run_open_source_conference_is_a_huge_success.php “…When the open source convention OSCON decided to move from Portland, Oregon to San Jose last year, the open source citizens of Portland set about developing their own "conference for developers working with open source technologies and for people interested in learning the open source way". And since Portland is a hub of the open source community, an army of volunteers and organizers were able to put together its own three day conference called Open Source Bridge. With its focus on open source citizenship, its innovative track structure for sessions, an all-night hacker lounge and peer-produced conference software, Open Source Bridge was not only a success, but plans are already underway for next year's conference…”

14. Easy Video Chat with Skype 2.0 in Ubuntu 9.04 http://spiceminesofkessel.com/2009/06/18/video-chat-skype-ubuntu/ “…I needed a web camera that was fully supported in Ubuntu…The camera I purchased is a Logitech QuickCam Chat. This camera carried a $20 USD price tag (it’s $13.99 on Newegg.com at the time of this writing)…I picked up a Logitech ClearChat Stereo headset with microphone for about $18 USD ($16.99 on Newegg.com at the time of this writing). That’s all the hardware I needed for this job…Skype has the best web camera support and ease of use in Linux. Skype also has another benefit: it’s free. Installing Skype is also quite easy. You simply go to Skype.com and download the Ubuntu package and double-click the file to install it via GDebi Package Installer. This is the easy way to install Skype and I recommend this method for those of you who are not comfortable using the command line. However, an alternative installation is better in the long run. Adding a repository for Skype makes it easier to upgrade to future releases…”

15. Open-source Academic Publishing http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9158 “…Krause, a professor of English at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., will talk about the trend toward open-source academic publishing…"It seems inevitable to me that most textbooks are going to be available in some electronic form," says Krause, whose talk is titled "Fast, Free, and On the 'Net: The Story of a Self-Published Textbook." The trend raises thorny questions, including how authors will be compensated for their time and how open-source publications will be regarded in the academic tenure process…”

16. Using Ubuntu as your sole operating system in academia http://edtechdev.blogspot.com/2009/06/using-ubuntu-as-your-sole-operating.html “…I've been using Ubuntu Linux as my sole operating system for two years now, ever since before I became a professor. The switch was completely painless as I had already been using the same software on Windows and the Mac for years (such as OpenOffice, Firefox, VLC, Pidgin, Netbeans, Eclipse, JEdit, Inkscape, Gimp, etc.). I wrote about making the switch to Linux gradually over 6 years ago, and I dual-booted to Windows and Linux for a long time, but Windows was still my primary OS until 2 years ago…”

17. New Intel/Nokia partnership a huge win for mobile Linux http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/06/new-intelnokia-partnership-a-huge-win-for-mobile-linux.ars “Intel and Nokia are joining forces in an effort to reshape the boundaries of mobile computing. The two companies announced plans on Tuesday to collaborate on software and hardware through a new long-term strategic relationship. Advancing the open source Linux operating system and encouraging industry-wide participation in mobile Linux development is one of the pillars of the deal…Intel's Linux-based Moblin platform is positioned to become one of the most prominent on Atom-based netbook devices and it has attracted strong support from a large number of popular Linux distributors. Nokia's Linux-based Maemo platform, which powers the company's Internet Tablet devices, is a mature and highly-polished solution for handheld ARM devices…”

18. 64 Studio Has Speed and Elegance http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6782/1/ “…64 Studio is a highly-regarded Debian- and Ubuntu-compatible multimedia-creation distribution. It's rock-solid stable and usable out of the box, without any special tweaks…”

SkyNet

19. Google Maps: What’s Here? http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/19/google-maps-finally-gives-me-the-feature-ive-wanted-from-day-1-whats-here/ “…when I look at an online map and see outlines of buildings, I get a little frustrated. I want to be able to click somewhere, and find out exactly what’s there. And with a new feature in Google Maps, you can do just that. If you right-click somewhere on the map, it will bring up a menu with a bunch of options. The new last option allows you to select “What’s here?” And if Google knows — which it does for a lot of places — it will pop up information about what is actually at the location…”

20. Google grabs 1 million phone numbers for Google Voice http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/061809-google-voice.html “Google last month reserved 1 million phone numbers with Level 3, signaling that it may finally be ready to roll out its long-anticipated Google Voice service. The free service, announced in March, lets users unify their phone numbers, allowing them to have a single number through Google Voice that rings a call through to all their phones…” [http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/06/19/google-voice-to-offer-phone-and-messaging-services/ ]

21. Google's data sync tool breaks Windows tools http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10266978-2.html “Google is working on an update to its Google App Sync software, the latest version of which breaks Microsoft's Windows Desktop Search along with several plug-ins found in Outlook…While the plug-ins may not be as important to some users, the crux of the problem is that Google's add-on disables Windows Desktop Search, and some other third-party search tools. It's not doing this maliciously though; Google says it does it to keep them from endlessly attempting to index the sync files the special software creates. Getting those programs to stop doing that will take cooperation from the companies that make them (including Microsoft), which Google says it's working on…”

22. Google Adds Persian Translation Tool Amid Iran’s Political Unrest http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1708349/google_adds_persian_translation_tool_amid_irans_political_unrest/index.html “Google Inc has created a tool that converts blogs, news and text messages from English to Persian, in an attempt to "improve access to information" among the chaos and media restrictions after Iran's dubious election. The change shows the growing part the Internet is playing in politics and in the world…”

General Technology

23. Iceland's Geothermal Bailout http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-06/icelands-power-down-below “…Fridleifsson and his crew of geologists, engineers and roughnecks are attempting the Manhattan Project of geothermal energy. The two-mile-deep hole they've drilled into Krafla, an active volcanic crater, is twice as deep as any geothermal well in the world. It's the keystone in an effort to extract "supercritical" water, stuff so hot and under so much pressure that it exists somewhere between liquid and steam. If they can tame this fluid — if it doesn't blow up their drill or dissolve the well's steel lining — and turn it into electricity, it could yield a tenfold increase in the amount of power Iceland can wrest from the land…”

24. Rumble Robot Arduino Hack http://www.dinofab.com/rumblebot.html “Want to build your own Rumblebot? Great! Let's get started. First, find a Rumble Robot on eBay, a thrift store or a yard sale. You can get them for $5 - $20 each. You will also need an Arduino micro controller, a Parallax PING sensor, an LED, a micro switch and a 100 ohm resistor. You can buy an Arduino for about $30 from many suppliers…The Parallax PING sensor is an ultrasonic device that can sense distance…”

25. What is Tegra and why does it matter? http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/19/we-ask-what-is-tegra-and-why-does-it-matter/ “…Tegra is a mobile internet device platform that runs Windows Embedded CE, and devices will sell from carriers for as low as $99 USD. Tegra is an entire computer-on-a-chip, which includes 8 separate processors, including: a GPU, two video processors, and audio processor, two ARM core processor and more. This processor enables a low-cost, always-on, always-connected HD mobile Internet device (MID) that can go days between battery charges…”

26. Robot Voice Modulator http://www.instructables.com/id/Robot-Voice-Modulator/ “This is a simple to build device that converts your own human voice into a superior robot voice. It also includes a number of sweet features like an audio-in jack so that you can plug in all of your favorite instruments, microphones and music players, a vibrato mode and awesome pitch shifting buttons. It can be shifted two whole octaves in either direction. This provides for endless hours of fun…”

27. Windows 7 Release Candidate downloads will end August 15^th http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/springboard/archive/2009/06/23/windows-7-release-candidate-downloads-will-end-august-15th.aspx “Still on the Windows 7 Beta,? You need to move to the RC and fast. Starting July 1st, the Beta will start to reboot every 2 hrs and expire Aug 1st. Want to download the RC? The RC download program closes August 15. After that, you won’t be able to get the download, but you can still install the RC and get a key if you need one…”

Leisure & Entertainment

28. Dungeons & Dragons Files Suits For Illegal Posting Of Handbooks http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1708333/dungeons__dragons_files_suits_for_illegal_posting_of_handbooks/index.html “…Lawyers from the Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast LLC say the company is seeking unspecified damages in three separate copyright infringement lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleging that over 2,600 copies of “Player’s Handbook 2” were downloaded from the website Scribd.com while another 4,200 copiers were viewed online without authorization. With a retail value of about $40 a pop, the defendants could potentially be looking at hefty fines if the suits end up going before a court…”

29. Getting Computers Into the Song Groove http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22894/ “…researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), are using machine learning, in combination with a Facebook game, to classify music based on automated analysis of the songs. Gert Lanckriet, an assistant professor at UCSD, who is working on the project, says that the automated approach taken by his group's music search and recommendation engine means that it could analyze huge quantities of songs, potentially giving users recommendations from a much larger library of music…”

Economy and Technology

30. Steve Ballmer Is Making A Bad $10 Billion Bet http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-steve-ballmer-has-gone-bonkers-2009-6 “Steve Ballmer says he is willing to invest 5%-10% of Microsoft's operating income over the next five years on search…So, is Steve making a smart $5.5-$11 billion bet?... Bing was not a new company. Bing had been in business for about 15 years, during which time it had lost a cumulative $8 billion. But Bing had a new product--a search engine--and this product, unlike all of Bing's previous products, was going to be a huge success…Search just isn't strategic to Microsoft, no matter how obsessed Steve Ballmer is with beating Google. Microsoft can't do everything--no company can--and winning the search war is not critical to Microsoft's long-term survival. Protecting its operating system and office suite monopoly is critical, however, and that business is also under attack…”

31. Steve Jobs Had Liver Transplant http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12653039 “…Apple CEO Steve Jobs received a liver transplant about two months ago, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Friday night…The newspaper reported that some company directors knew that Jobs, 54, who was also treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004, had the surgery, which took place in Tennessee…William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, told the Journal that the type of slow-growing pancreatic tumor Jobs had will commonly metastasize in another organ during a patient's lifetime, and that the organ is usually the liver…”

32. YouTube Not Just A Massive Money Pit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20090617/bs_ibd_ibd/20090617tech01 “…Google is building a Trojan-horse business model that protects their long term interests against telecom, cable operators and content owners that is as good as anything I've ever seen," he said. The RampRate report, "YouTube: Google's Phantom Loss Leader," aims to reverse the perception that online video distribution is a money-losing business…many online video firms have closed shop over the last year. But he argues that online video viewing will continue to mushroom…Google, which declined to comment for this story, has strategic reasons for letting people think YouTube loses money, Greenberg says. For one, it deflects a legal feeding frenzy among copyright lawyers looking to grab a share of the profit…Google's approach to YouTube is similar to what Apple (NasdaqGS:AAPL - News) did with its iTunes music service, said Alex Veytsel, a RampRate analyst and co-author of the report. Apple downplayed the profitability of iTunes, getting music producers to reluctantly agree to its 99-cent-per-song price. "For years there was this perception that Apple was losing money hand over fist with iTunes," said Veytsel. "That kept a lot of negotiators in check…”

33. Whose Yahoo? http://online.barrons.com/article/SB124534330266928155.html “…After her two predecessors failed in recent years to counter Google 's conquest of Yahoo! 's once-dominant position in Internet search, or to win over investors, new CEO Bartz brings strong software-engineering and management skills to the job…Citicorp analyst Mark Mahaney, who upgraded his rating of Yahoo! to Buy last week, thinks the shares are worth 21 each, versus 15.61 now…Among Bartz's primary objectives are cleaning up the redundant legacy software codes inside Yahoo! that stymie innovation and prevent nimble execution of new products and services across the Website…Yahoo! uses more than 30 software base codes in its front page alone, making it more complicated than necessary to engineer features like social-networking elements that keep Yahoo! users glued to the site…Other changes in technology should help Bartz with one of her pet projects: making it easier for advertisers to buy ads from Yahoo! using its Website, a task she says is now far too difficult. The CEO is also very aware that Yahoo! Mail, the largest free e-mail site in the U.S. and a key driver of traffic, needs to be improved right away…organic traffic growth is driven by innovation. Already, there are signs of better cooperation. Mint.com, a personal-finance management site, recently launched a module on the Yahoo! Website that took only five weeks to conceive and install. "They were great to deal with," Mint.com CEO Aaron Patzer says…”

34. Seattle’s New High-Tech Hub http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/travel/21surfacing.html “Of all the neighborhoods that lie along Seattle’s Lake Union, the industrial district known as South Lake Union seems to have languished the longest…But that’s changing, thanks in part to the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen…Instead of letting the area lie fallow, his company, Vulcan, ultimately amassed 60 acres in a private push to convert South Lake Union into a biotech and residential hub…Five years later, the vision of a new South Lake Union is finally taking shape — from a drive-by no-man’s-land to a high-tech community dotted with gleaming office towers, cafes, a new farmers’ market and a lakefront park. Much of the progress can be gleaned from the growing directory of companies moving to South Lake Union (www.discoverslu.com). Amazon.com is developing an 11-building campus…Tommy Bahama moved into a new six-story headquarters in 2005. And a cluster of biotech and medical research centers, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, are already up and running. This being Seattle, the swell of new professionals can be spotted in the neighborhood’s many coffee shops…”

35. Alice.com Is Your Housekeeper And Personal Shopper Rolled Into One http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/22/alicecom-is-your-housekeeper-and-personal-shopper-rolled-into-one-easy-to-use-site/ “…The basic idea behind Alice.com, which raised $4.3 million in funding last fall, is that the site is an open platform for consumer packaged goods manufacturers, like Procter & Gamble, to sell directly to consumers instead of going through retail channels like Target or Wal-Mart. On the consumer side, Alice.com lets users create a profile of their household (how many people, kids etc.) and then the site will keep track of items and reminds users with emails when they are running low and need to reorder. Each shipment is bundled together in a single ‘Alice’ box, delivered directly to the consumer’s door, with no shipping costs attached…” [http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db20090622_048199.htm ]

Civilian Aerospace

36. A 'Flying Launch Pad' Cruises New Mexico Skies http://www.space.com/news/090620-white-knight-flight.html “…The flying launch pad, WhiteKnightTwo, made three low level flyovers here today at the Las Cruces International Airport – a continuation of celebrations for the groundbreaking of nearby Spaceport America. WhiteKnightTwo is undergoing an extensive program of test flights, including long duration jaunts from its California home base at Mojave Air and Space Port…” [http://www.space.com/news/090618-spaceport-america.html http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/06/19/328596/actuator-forces-whiteknight-two-diversion-from-spaceport.html ]

37. The 5-year-old space age http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/19/1971623.aspx “Five years after the private-sector space age began, rocketeers are taking circuitous routes to turn their spaceship dreams into reality. And the pioneers of the age say that's just as it should be…The 5-year-old space age I'm talking about dates back to June 21, 2004, when the SpaceShipOne rocket plane became the first privately developed craft to carry a civilian astronaut into outer space…some observers thought regular folks would be going on day trips to outer space within just a year or two. Indian-American millionaire Chirinjeev Kathuria, who helped extend the life of Russia's Mir space station in 2000 and now serves as chairman of the PlanetSpace rocket venture, certainly thought so. "When the industry started out, I think everyone - including ourselves - were naive in saying we could do this in 12 months or 24 months," Kathuria acknowledged. "I think everyone's becoming more realistic. That's why no one is saying, 'OK, we're going to do it this year or next year' anymore…The most realistic time frame for suborbital space tourism seems to have come from aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, who famously designed SpaceShipOne on a restaurant napkin and is now leading the development effort for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif. "We at Scaled are very aware and proud of what we did five years ago," Rutan told me in an e-mail this week. "Memory fails me of what I was predicting would happen, so I did a Google search and came up with a podcast that had a prediction." Rutan pointed to a speech he gave at the Academy of Achievement in 2004, 10 days before SpaceShipOne's first sally into space. "At the end of the pitch I predicted that the public would be able to buy tickets for a spaceflight 'about 10 to 12 years from now…”

38. 105-Day Simulated Mars Mission To Be Complete July 14 http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMJTC0P0WF_index_0.html “On 14 July, a crew of six will leave their Mars mission simulator and see the Sun once again. The crew, which includes a French pilot and a German engineer selected by ESA, will have completed 105 days of confinement and numerous scientific experiment runs inside the isolation facility at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow. Their simulated mission will help understand the psychological and medical aspects of long-duration spaceflight…This initial 105-day study is the precursor to a complete simulation of a fully-fledged mission to Mars and back due to start in early 2010. That exercise will see another six-member crew sealed in the same chamber to experience a complete 520-day Mars mission…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

39. The End of Moore's Law in Five Years? http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/The-End-of-Moores-Law-in-Five-Years-48287682.html “…Moore's Law is going to run out of money before it runs out of technology. If true, this would be bad news indeed for the IT-industrial complex, since semiconductor components (CPUs, GPUs, memory devices, etc.) depend on Moore's Law for their roadmaps, and many businesses directly or indirectly count on the ensuing technological advancements to drive revenue growth and worker productivity…Moore's Law curve is running counter to the escalating costs of semiconductor manufacturing, which are rising exponentially as process technology shrinks…Globalfoundries, is constructing a 32nm fab in New York with a budget of $4.2 billion, and Intel has already committed $7 billion to upgrade its fabs to produce 32nm chips. You have to sell a lot of chips to recoup those kinds of costs…To a certain extent, this is already occurring in the high performance computing sector. Moore's Law is already too slow to keep up with the performance demand of HPC users, and the difference is being made up by aggregating more chips together and attaching accelerators like GPUs, Cell processors and FPGAs…”

40. NVIDIA Releases OpenCL Drivers for XP and Linux http://www.hpcwire.com/offthewire/NVIDIA-Releases-OpenCL-Drivers-for-XP-and-Linux-48258812.html “NVIDIA Corporation has released the world's first OpenCL 1.0 conformant drivers for Windows XP and Linux. These drivers are now available to all NVIDIA GPU Computing registered developers. NVIDIA's OpenCL 1.0 conformant drivers support all GPUs based on the CUDA parallel computing architecture…”

41. Allinea to Enhance DDT Debugging Tool http://www.hpcwire.com/offthewire/Allinea-to-Enhance-DDT-Debugging-Tool-Through-CEA-Collaboration-48256332.html “…Allinea's Distributed Debugging Tool (DDT) for next generation hybrid and "many-core" computer systems…Allinea and CEA will focus their collaboration on two primary projects. The first project is to enhance DDT to be able to debug hybrid GPGPU (general purpose computing on graphics processing units) systems, that transfer most of the intensive computational tasks from standard CPU servers to powerful multicore, parallel-processing graphics boards to make processing much faster and cost-efficient…”

42. TOP500 List Announced in Hamburg http://www.hpcwire.com/specialfeatures/isc09/offthewire/TOP500-List-Announced-in-Hamburg-48861302.html “…Holding onto the No. 1 spot with 1.105 petaflop/s (quadrillions of floating point operations per second) is the Roadrunner system at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) which was built by IBM and in June 2008 became the first system ever to break the petaflop/s Linpack barrier. It still is one of the most energy efficient systems on the TOP500…Another notable system is the Chinese-built Dawning 5000A at the Shanghai Supercomputer Center at No 15. It is the largest system which can be operated with the Windows HPC 2008 operating system. The U.S. is clearly the leading consumer of HPC systems with 291 of the 500 systems (unchanged from 291). The European share (145 systems -- down from 151) is settling down after having risen for some time, but is still substantially larger than the Asian share (49 systems -- up from 47)…” [http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10270334-76.html ]

43. AccelerEyes Updates Jacket MATLAB http://www.hpcwire.com/offthewire/AccelerEyes-Updates-Jacket-MATLAB-48738797.html “AccelerEyes is pleased to announce the release of Jacket v1.1 -- the GPU engine for MATLAB. Jacket enables standard MATLAB code to run on NVIDIA GPUs…”

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