NEW NET Weekly List for 22 Mar 2011

Below is the final list of issues for the Tuesday, 22 March 2011, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering at Sergio's Restaurant, 2639 South Oneida Street, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. As AT&T Introduces Caps, BT Removes Them; Says Investing In Network Is Smarter http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110314/08473413487/as-att-introduces-caps-bt-removes-them-says-investing-network-is-smarter.shtml “…BT's CTO…admitted that there weren't any congestion issues that required traffic shaping or other limitations on the network, just so long as they continued to do basic investments in network infrastructure…just as AT&T is introducing broadband caps, BT has announced that it's removing them, because there's no need thanks to infrastructure investments. BT will remove the FUP controls currently applied to customers with ‘atypical’ usage. Today atypical users are restricted at 300GB usage and account for less than 0.5% of the BT customer base…As BT continues to invest in the network and network bandwidth we can now remove these restrictions …”

2. Dropbox forms http://lifehacker.com/#!5782180/dropbox-forms-is-the-easiest-way-to-let-anyone-send-a-file-to-your-dropbox-account “Dropbox Forms is a free service (built into web form creation tool, JotForm) that creates a web-based form that anyone can use to upload files directly to your Dropbox folder…When someone uploads a file to your account using Dropbox Forms, it automatically syncs to your Dropbox under Dropbox\JotForm\Send a File\. If the person who sent the file filled out the accompanying form, the synced folder will also contain a PDF listing the submission date, person's name, email address, and a note…Whether you work in a field where you need clients to send you occasional files or you just want to give friends a quick shortcut to send you files, this is a really clever solution.”

3. Xobni for Gmail, Android & iPhone coming soon http://blog.xobni.com/2011/03/18/xobni-for-gmail-android-iphone-coming-soon-testers-wanted/ “Not a day goes by at Xobni, without hearing “When will Xobni work on Gmail, Android or iPhone?”. This is truly the #1 request from Xobni users, and we’ve been listening. Last week, we deployed a new service called Xobni Pro…Previously, Xobni users could only unite their Xobni Contacts and rich profiles across Outlook and BlackBerry. Now, with the Xobni Cloud, we can extend this further. The Xobni Cloud is the foundation that will enable us to support new products…Xobni is coming to Gmail, Android and iPhone…we have been in Private Alpha mode with Xobni for Gmail with some of the most amazing Alpha testers in the world…if you’re one of those really early adopters, and like to get an early peek at these products, or if you’re one of the thousands that has written us asking for Xobni in Gmail, iPhone and Android—we’d love to have you on our Alpha (or Beta) tester team…”

4. How to Turn Bargain Hunters into Loyal Customers http://technologyreview.com/communications/35081/ “A new service called LevelUp aims to combine several online business trends—game dynamics, social media, and location-based services—not just to win new customers for local businesses but to turn them into regulars. LevelUp is…a hybrid of…Groupon, which offers steep discounts at local businesses, and the location-based game Foursquare, which encourages users to share their location to earn points and kudos. LevelUp offers users a deal per day and also rewards customers with additional, even bigger discounts when they follow up by revisiting the location. The service was launched…by SCVNGR…This is all about one word: loyalty…Priebatsch has designed LevelUp to address some of the criticisms of social-media promotions websites and location-based services…experts have suggested that discount services like Groupon attract bargain hunters who are unlikely to return to a business…We want to do what 500 knockoffs in the daily-deal space, and millions of dollars in the location-based-services space, haven't been able to do: to get customers actually coming back…Every promotion that LevelUp offers has three levels: "Try it," "Like it," and "Love it." Typically, the initial "Try it" deal is about 50 percent off, and the subsequent deals progress to deeper discounts…"The number three is a really valuable tipping point," Priebatsch says. Data collected through SCVNGR suggests that a customer who returns three times is much more likely to keep coming back after that…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

5. Microsoft and feds bring down spam giant Rustock http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20044480-75.html “Rustock, purveyor of more e-mail spam than any other network in the world, was felled last week by Microsoft and federal law enforcement agents…This botnet is estimated to have approximately a million infected computers operating under its control and has been known to be capable of sending billions of spam mails every day…Microsoft's digital crimes unit, working in concert with U.S. marshals…raided seven hosting facilities across the country and seized the command-and-control machines that ran the network…Shutting down Rustock could put a huge dent in spam worldwide. Tech security giant Symantec estimated last year that Rustock was responsible for 39 percent of the world's spam…”

6. RSA Cyberattack could put customers at risk http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20044455-245.html “…our security systems identified an extremely sophisticated cyberattack in progress being mounted against RSA," Executive Chairman Art Coviello, wrote in an open letter to customers…the attack resulted in certain information being extracted…related to RSA's SecurID two-factor authentication products…The tokens, of which 40 million have been deployed, and 250 million mobile software versions, are the market leader for two-factor authentication…The tokens are commonly used in financial transactions and government agencies…Any time a security company gets broken into, it reminds you that it could happen to anybody…SecurID is a token authenticator device that flashes a new number every 60 seconds. The number is calculated from two things, a 'secret seed' unique to that device and the time of day…”

7. US military launches Operation Sock Puppet, pays contractor $2.76m for social media ops http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/17/us-military-launches.html “…the US military's Central Command…has awarded a $2.7 million contract to Ntrepid, a newly-formed Los Angeles-based startup, to create fake online "personae" for the purpose of manipulating online conversations and spreading pro-American, pro-military propaganda in social media. The "online persona management service"…would permit one US serviceman or woman to manage up to 10 separate sock puppets…Snip from Guardian: The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries"…The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."…none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology…The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto…the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated Facebook messages, blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

8. In AT&T & T-Mobile Merger, Everybody Loses http://gigaom.com/2011/03/20/in-att-t-mobile-merger-everybody-loses/ “…AT&T plans to acquire T-Mobile USA for a whopping $39 billion…Here is a list of who loses, in my opinion, in this deal…The biggest losers of this deal are going to be the consumers…T-Mobile USA has been fairly aggressive in offering cheaper voice and data plans as it has tried to compete with its larger brethren. The competition has kept the prices in the market low enough…Before the merger was announced, the handset makers such as HTC and Motorola had two major carriers who could buy their GSM-based phones. They just lost any ability to control price and profits on handsets because now there is a single buyer that can dictate what GSM phones come to market…AT&T’s offer has now pushed Sprint to the bottom of the pile in terms of size and potentially spectrum assets…Sprint and T-Mobile often stood against AT&T and Verizon on a variety of regulatory issues, so if AT&T succeeds, Sprint will stand alone on special access and other issues…the biggest loser in this could be Google. In T-Mobile, it has a great partner for its Android OS-based devices…Don’t be surprised if you see AT&T impose its own will on what apps and service are put on its Android smartphones. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the worst phone company in the U.S…create its own app store and force everyone to buy apps through it…this is just bad for wireless innovation, which means bad news for consumers. T-Mobile has been pretty experimental and innovative…generally been a more consumer-centric company. AT&T, on the other hand, has the innovation of a lead pencil and has the mentality more suited to a monopoly: a position it wants to regain.” http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/7-implications-of-an-at-t-and-t-mobile-merger “…Prices Will Probably Go Up…It Will Present An Opportunity For Prepaid Carriers…The Whole Concept of an "Unlocked" Phone Becomes Moot Within the U.S…T-Mobile's 4G Network Will Get An Upgrade…This May Create A Monopoly…There Will Be Pressure On Both Verizon and Sprint To Merge…”

9. Complete Integration Of Google Voice And 50 Million Sprint Customers, Plus 4G Nexus S http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/21/complete-integration-of-google-voice-and-50-million-sprint-customers-plus-4g-nexus-s/ “This is the biggest news about Google Voice since the company behind it, previously called Grand Central, was acquired by Google in 2007…if you are one of Sprint’s 50 million U.S. customers, your Sprint phone number is now also a Google Voice number…If you’re already a Google Voice subscriber, you can use that number on your Sprint phone without the need for any software…In other words, if you have a Sprint phone you can choose to make that a Google Voice phone as well. And get all the benefits of Google Voice, like having it ring to any phone you control, initiating and receiving calls from Gmail, hilarious voicemail transcriptions, etc…This kind of integration is far more useful to users, and far less painful to set up, than number porting, which Google launched earlier this year…Google is also announcing today the availability of its first 4G and CDMA version of the Nexus S Android phone…Sprint users…can now have the benefits of Google Voice and use their phone number anywhere they want…” http://gigaom.com/mobile/google-voice-sprint-integration/ “…I find the Google Voice service invaluable and due to native integration, it’s a key reason why I’ve used both Google’s Android mobile platform and its Gmail services for the past several years. For those not familiar, Google Voice allows free calls and texts in the U.S. and Canada, can ring multiple handsets for incoming calls and supports voicemail transcription which forwards messages via email or SMS. In short, it’s an intelligent way to manage voice communications; especially for those with multiple phones or phone numbers…”

10. Mobile headset maker Jawbone raises $49M http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/16/mobile-headset-maker-jawbone-raises-49m/ “…Jawbone, the maker of smart wireless headsets…raised $49 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz…The company makes wireless Bluetooth headsets for cell phones, but its latest devices are more like motion-sensitive computers that you wear in your ear…Jawbone is selling a “mobile lifestyle” to discerning consumers…the company used advanced noise cancellation technology as the defining feature for its first headset launched in 2006. Touting “military grade” voice clarity, it sold the device at the hefty price of $120 when competing products sold for $40…The better sound came from having three microphones built into the device. It also had a sensor that felt the movement of your jawbone and correlated that with your speech…the fourth-generation Icon…debuted in January 2010 with a web site where you could customize the device. The most recent version was the Jawbone Era with motion-sensing controls, multiple processors, and a free voice communication service…The Jawbone Jambox wireless speaker is an example of the company’s move into a new but related category, as is its Jawbone Thoughts voice-driven communication service…”

11. Has AR reached the tipping point with the iPad 2? http://www.fastcompany.com/1738956/augmented-reality-possibly-the-ipad-2s-secret-killer-app “The iPad 2…Are its light weight, large screen and twin cameras perfectly positioned to make the iPad an Augmented Reality giant?...Metaio is a big name in AR on the iPhone--back in 2009 we wrote about its interesting AR experiment to "tag" the real world--and it's already been experimenting with the AR opportunities afforded by the new iPad. Check out the video…One of the counter-arguments repeatedly mounted against the progression of AR on smartphones is the need to hold a phone up in front of a user's field of vision--a tiring act that can't be kept up for long. Tablets by their very nature are heavier…But the most convincing thinking about the use of tablets for AR is their larger screens are much better for delivering rich media content--think of how much more attractive an interactive ad is on a 10-inch screen versus a four-inch one…All the tests of the iPad 2's graphics powers place them well above its peer devices--excellently placed to deliver near-real-time video processing and 3-D graphics overlays of the sort Metaio is testing out…”

12. Nvidia chief explains his strategy for winning in mobile computing http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/04/idUS1863188220110304 “…Analysts have long predicted that Nvidia would be squeezed out of the PC market as its rivals created combo chips that put graphics and microprocessor on a single piece of silicon…To prepare for this day, Nvidia added programmability to its graphics chips as far back as 2001, with the introduction of the GeForce 3…getting graphics chips to do non-graphics computing tasks…to get into a wider range of devices, from video servers to supercomputers…now the company is in the midst of a new transition to mobile computing…spearheaded by the company’s Tegra and Tegra 2 mobile processors…Nvidia 1.0 was PC graphics. Nvidia 2.0 was the creation of this process that we call the GPU (graphics processing unit)…it extended the reach of our market from PCs to all kinds of computing devices, anything that has visually rich expression…That was the invention of programmable shader…Nvidia 3.0 is about reinventing Nvidia so that we are able to address a much larger part of the computing market…Nvidia 3.0 inside the company is really a parallel processor company with several specializations. One of them is visual computing…the second thing is energy-efficient computing. Energy efficient computing has two elements to it and one side of it is mobile. We think that in the future…the most desired personal computing device will be a mobile device. And the second aspect of it is the cloud. If you have millions and millions of processors in the cloud surely you would want it to be energy-efficient…so we invented this technology called CUDA which is at this point probably the world’s most pervasive parallel processing architecture. It powers the fastest supercomputer in Japan, the fastest supercomputer in China and many of the fastest supercomputers in the United States and around the world…we distilled Nvidia 3.0 down into…go parallel, go mobile and go ARM…the volume of mobile devices phones — one billion going to four — is so large it would attract developers. They would create applications that make these mobile devices more wonderful. This virtuous positive feedback system would happen for the mobile devices as it did for PCs, except it’s an order of magnitude larger. Instead of hundreds of millions of devices, it’s several billion…that would make the ARM processor the most valuable instruction set architecture (or chip processing architecture) in the world…We needed a really good operating system to expose the benefits of Tegra..finally it came along with Android 3.0…it has hardware acceleration, video hardware acceleration for graphics, has a rich applications programming interfaces (APIs) just like Direct X has for Windows…We’ve been working on a CPU internally for about three and half years or so. It takes about five years to build any full custom CPU…Project Denver has a few hundred engineers working on it for this period of time and our strategy with Project Denver was to extend the reach of ARM beyond the mobile…space. To take the ARM processor, partner with them to develop a next-generation 64 bit processor…backward-compatible with today’s ARM processors…we felt that we could bring the ARM processor into the PC…but retain the energy-efficient characteristic of ARM and would enable a new class of personal computers that has many times less power consumption than today’s PCs but has the performance of today’s PCs…we intend to take the ARM for mobile devices all the way to supercomputers. ARM is now the only CPU in the world that will have deep penetration in the mobile devices, the PC, servers and supercomputers…a modern version of a computer technology company…There are two reasons why we decided not to do x86…The first reason is…The world’s not waiting for us to build yet another x86 and…Intel has got every single price point covered from $10 all the way up to $1000…if you go into the ARM world, there are more competitors…but…we’re all using TSMC for manufacturing. It’s an equal playing field for everyone…we have to go choose the different types of markets where we could add a lot value…Media computing is something that we’re really good at it…I think…mobile devices are still in ancient times…this is…like Windows 2.0. We’re going to look back at these phones and…go; I can’t believe I used that…Our priorities are Windows first, Android second…Does Apple have to lose market share for your market opportunity to get bigger? No. Apple has to get to a point where the number of projects that they have in the company exceeds their capacity as a company to build internally…there are still a ton of content creation opportunities for those supercomputing workstations. But for most of our normal computing average computing needs, I think a mobile device with a couple of watts of power consumption, which is 50 times less than the power consumed by your desktop today, is going to be enough. So my imagination tells me that the mobile computing market is going to become unquestionably the most important computer in the world. Mobile processors will address a very large part of the market…”

Apps

13. LinkedIn Teams Up With Snaptu To Launch App For Feature Phones http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/15/linkedin-teams-up-with-snaptu-to-launch-smartphone-like-app-for-feature-phones/ “…LinkedIn has a rapidly growing userbase outside of the U.S., and increasingly users want to access the network from their mobile phone…Feature phones actually represent 80% of the devices sold worldwide…LinkedIn is teaming up with mobile developer Snaptu to launch a rich application for feature phones…the app will work across 2,500 device models, including those from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and LG. Snaptu focused on bringing the most commonly used LinkedIn features in the new app…Facebook also made a similar move, partnering with Snaptu to launch a similar rich app for feature phones…” http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/facebook-reportedly-acquires-snaptu-for-an-estimated-60-70-million/ “…Facebook has acquired Snaptu…As part of our goal to offer people around the world the opportunity to connect and share on mobile devices, we’re excited to confirm that we recently signed an agreement to acquire Snaptu…”

14. Performance of Web Apps Throttled on iOS Devices http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/report_finds_performance_of_web_apps_throttled_on.php “…iOS devices run Web applications two-and-a-half times more slowly when they're launched from the home screen than when they're run from within the mobile Safari browser…when Web apps are saved to the home screen and launched this way, they aren't able to take advantage of Safari's recently updated Nitro JavaScript engine nor do they get to utilize some Web caching systems…poor performance of these Web apps could simply be a bug introduced in the most recent iOS. Or it could be an intentional move by Apple to make it more difficult for those who'd like to bypass its App Store…One way to avoid the new in-app purchase rules - and to avoid paying Apple its 30% share of app sales as well - is to build your app as a Web app…if these apps aren't fully functional, or aren't as functional as native apps, it may be a disincentive for developers and for users to go that route…If Apple is intentionally throttling the performance of Web apps, it does call into question the company's support for HTML5 and Web standards…”

15. Amazon Appstore Launches With 3,800 Apps for Android http://emoney.allthingsd.com/20110322/now-open-amazon-appstore-launches-with-3800-apps-for-android/ “…Amazon has officially launched the Android Appstore, a potential iTunes equivalent for Android…Amazon has been recruiting developers since at least January to convince them to get on board with the venture. Initially, users will have access to a catalog of 3,800 applications…At launch, apps will be available from dozens of developers, spanning big names like Gameloft, Handmark and Glu Mobile…To start, the store will be nowhere near the long tail of applications found on Android Market or Apple iTunes, which respectively have catalogs of roughly 150,000 and 350,000 applications. But Amazon is trying to make a big splash in terms of quality. The store launches today with an Angry Birds exclusive to its new hit game…”

16. 3 New Ways to Get Your App Noticed http://gigaom.com/mobile/one-in-a-million-3-new-ways-to-get-your-app-noticed/ “…Mobile apps, across all platforms, are already approaching the millions…once you create a great app and figure out how to monetize it, you still have get your app noticed and downloaded in the oversaturated app ecosystem…App discovery is tricky, both for users looking for new and interesting apps, and for developers who want to get their app the exposure they believe it deserves…Alan Warms, CEO and founder of Appolicious, talked to me about two key approaches his company is taking to solve the discovery problem…Appolicious uses people’s social graphs to help them discover new apps through both an app…and a series of websites, including Appolicious.com, AndroidApps.com, and AppVee.com. Its new Android app automatically imports apps into a user’s library and allows users to see what apps their Facebook friends have recently downloaded…Appolicious also has an algorithmic search and recommendation engine, as well as a lot of online content such as ratings, reviews, lists, likes, curated reviews, compilations, video reviews and industry news…Ouriel Ohayon, founder of Appsfire, told me…search…is practically irrelevant when it comes to apps…Appsfire is trying to personalize apps, much like Pandora has done for music. The UI shows personal app streams, which is a much more visual experience than the app stores. Continuing the music metaphor, users can create Appmixes and share them…The Appsfire mobile app connects to users’ Facebook accounts to tell them which apps their friends are using, and it also scans a user’s mobile device to recommend similar or related apps…Appboy…brings check-ins to the world of mobile apps…When a user opens an app, Appboy+ offers an option to check in to that app…Users now have a simple and effective way to tell friends what apps they use and like…Not only do developers gets exposure for their apps, but they can see the top users and reward them via badges, promotions and awards…to engage their audience and users…”

17. Specialty Android apps for business users http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=6E268E59-1A64-6A71-CE1DAB528BEB96F6 “Android smartphones are now the market leaders in terms of mobile sales, and more and more are finding their way into business…These 40 apps show that the Android platform can play a serious role in business…What follows is a category-by-category guide to the best Android specialty apps for business users…The categories are: Email and calendar…Notes and lists…Databases…Mind-mapping and whiteboarding…Conferencing…File management and printing…Cloud storage and FTP…Remote access…Business travel…Business miscellany…”

18. Application Stats on Android Market http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/application-stats-on-android-market.html “…new feature that we’ve added to Android Market…Application Statistics is a new type of dashboard in the Market Developer Console that gives you an overview of the installation performance of your apps. It provides charts and tables that summarize each app’s active installation trend over time, as well as its distribution across key dimensions such as Android platform versions, devices, user countries, and user languages…the dashboard also shows the comparable aggregate distribution for all app installs from Android Market…we’ve seeded the application Statistics dashboards with data going back to December 22, 2010. Going forward, we’ll be updating the data daily…”

19. How DrChrono brings “hacker culture” to health care http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/21/drchrono-ipad-health-care/ “DrChrono…moves many of a doctor’s basic bookkeeping tasks onto Apple’s device…The DrChrono app…allows doctors to do things like take notes, write prescriptions, and access patient records on their iPad…the company charged a $2,500 set-up fee — after all this was a professional app providing real value to doctors…after joining YC, Kivatinos and his co-founder Michael Nusimow…made the app free…more than 1,500 doctors have signed up to use the product, where less than 100 had signed up before…DrChrono is now based on a “freemium” model, where doctors get the basic app for free, then pay extra for features like speech-to-text conversion (so a doctor could just talk into their iPad, and the app would convert their words into written notes) and electronic billing. Pricing starts at $99 per month…when he first started the company, he tried to work with hospitals but found that the sales process just took way too long…DrChrono is working with small, private practices that have one to five doctors. Those doctors are often eager to switch to an electronic system (the financial incentives offered by the Obama administration for doctors to switch to electronic records help), but they can’t afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars…”

Open Source

20. Experimenting with Dropbox in Debian Squeeze http://www.insidesocal.com/click/2011/03/experimenting-with-dropbox-in.html “I've been getting closer and closer to needing a Dropbox-like utility on my Linux, Windows and Mac machines (one of each, really). I need access to a certain subset of my files on more than one computer…I heard about SugarSync, which offers a free 5 GB of space, but SugarSync doesn't offer a Linux client…I could have used JungleDisk, and I may still explore that option…Due to licensing issues, Dropbox has fallen out of the Debian non-free repository…I did a bit of searching around and came up with Yeri Tiete's excellent solution: Use the Linux Mint Debian Edition packages for nautilus-dropbox and dropbox. I downloaded the Mint packages, followed the instructions, then installed the client in Windows. In about 5 minutes time, I was using Dropbox. While I was initially not terribly happy about having to drop things into my Dropbox folder in order to have them sync, as opposed to the Ubuntu One/SugarSync…method of allowing any folder/file to be synced, I'm surprisingly OK with Dropbox's method because it allows me to easily keep track of what exactly I have shared between my various desktops…”

21. Aligning SSD Partitions http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8397/ “…I just bought a new 64GB SSD…But…I need to think about configuring the SSD…partitions happen on cylinder boundaries…If this cylinder boundary is not aligned with the “page” of an SSD, then the SSD can easily undergo extra work during a read/modify/write cycle, perhaps causing…performance to be reduced…Linux fdisk uses a default geometry of 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, and,. still currently, 512-byte sectors…This is definitely not aligned on 4KB pages. So we need to adjust the geometry to align the cylinder boundaries…Theodore Ts’o, the ext4 leader, has a blog about this very subject. His recommendation is the following: 224 heads (32*7)…56 sectors per track (8*7)…This results in 12,544 sectors per cylinder (256 * 49). Using 56 sectors per track gives 56*512 bytes or 28,762 bytes per track. This is the same as seven blocks of 4KB in each cylinder so you have an integer number of 4KB pages per cylinder. Therefore any partition will be aligned…If you aren’t going to partition your SSD, then you don’t need to worry about these steps – just use the whole device, /dev/sdd for example, and you should be fine…”

22. Bug Labs: Modular, Mobile Device Development Platform http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110314005381/en/Bug-Labs-Pitney-Bowes-Announce-Modular-Mobile “Bug Labs, an open source hardware and software provider that gives companies the tools and support needed to prototype, pilot and produce innovative networked devices with ease, and Pitney Bowes Inc…announced the industry’s first modular, mobile device development platform incorporating hardware-level security and security life-cycle management services…BUGsecure offers enterprises a flexible, trusted platform with the highest level of data protection and encryption available. Current devices on the market rely on software security, making them more vulnerable to breaches. BUGsecure provides a deeper level of security by fully protecting the device’s hardware and operating system, not just its application software…”

SkyNet

23. Larry Page & Google http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1739013/print “…The company line on Page's ascension is that it does not mark any effort to "fix something" at Google. After all, the company…generated more than $29 billion in revenue in 2010 and 24% annual growth…And yet Page is becoming CEO at a crucial inflection point in Google's history. The company is beset by rivals everywhere…Page might seem an odd choice to be CEO. He's personally reserved, unabashedly geeky…Here's our seven-part guide to the Google of today -- and tomorrow…For much of its early life, Google reveled in its bottom-up culture. The governing philosophy was "Let's hire lots of really smart people and let them do whatever they want…This system worked really well until the company reached about 10,000 workers…Google now has 24,000 employees and plans to hire another 6,000 in 2011…Page and Brin pushed Google into mobile, buying Android when the project was an eight-person startup in 2005…Google made Android free and allowed phone manufacturers and carriers to tinker with the software. Critics carp that this strategy hurts Android's usability…this is true, but it misses the point. Android isn't about getting lots of people to use Google phones. The mission is to get lots of people to use smartphones…Android's earliest phones were panned, but with each new version, it has come closer to matching the panache of the iPhone. Its newest incarnations offer…an almost magical capacity to decipher speech commands -- that Apple's devices can't match…by 2012, there will be more than 130 million Android users around the world…Android's triumph should serve as a sweet reminder of the value in imposing just enough discipline before letting the kids chase the ice-cream truck…if you've ever wondered why Google needed its own web browser, called Chrome, here's why: It needed Chrome to goad Microsoft, Apple, and other browser makers into reigniting innovation in what had become a moribund market…Expect Page to launch even more initiatives that may seem futile when considered alone but that are, in fact, designed to wake up drowsy competitors. Think about…Google…releasing its own branded phones…Or about Google's initiative to wire America with fiber-optic lines…Google really wants Verizon and others to pick up the pace…Larry would wander around the engineers…and sometimes he would say, 'Oh, I don't like that,' …But the engineers would get some data to back up their idea, and the amazing thing was that Larry was fine to be wrong. As long as the data supported them, he was okay with it. And that was such an incredibly morale-boosting interaction for engineers…Larry Page isn't on Facebook, he doesn't trade one-liners on Twitter…Google insists that social-networking sites do not constitute a major threat to its advertising businesses…Google isn't planning a Facebook clone but rather it intends to roll out new social features across all its products…If Google can't compete with Facebook directly, perhaps it can render Facebook moot by making everything else on the web feel like Facebook…with brand advertising, the company's resistance has been deeply cultural. Persuasion offends…Page's …meritocratic beliefs. The company became the biggest search engine in the world because it built a better product, not because it created better TV ads than Yahoo…Franz Och…oversees Google's machine-translation system…that can transform one language into another…Google's project…has succeeded far beyond what most experts thought possible…Google spent a year trying to recruit him; each time, he explained to Page and other execs that what they were asking for couldn't be done…That audaciousness -- the ambition to tackle a seemingly unsolvable problem with deep reservoirs of money and data -- is the ultimate insight into what makes Google Googley. "When people come to Larry with ideas, he always wants it bigger," says one ex-Googler. "His whole point is that only Google has the kind of resources to make big bets…today, machine translation (along with speech recognition) is…a key competitive advantage. Even on the iPhone, you'll use Google's software to help you read that French road sign or to transform your voice commands into text searches. Och now seems bemused by this success. Google, he says, simply had far more resources -- more data, more computing power, more money -- than he ever thought possible…Page and Brin's stated mission has been to catalog and analyze all of the world's information, and their larger, unstated aim is to reform all of the globe's inefficiencies…Page and Brin's big bets don't always work…Focus on the misses, though, and you risk overlooking its remarkable successes. Google persists in reforming modern communications networks…While tech wags slagged Google for losing to Facebook, almost none of us saw it turning into the world's largest phone company…More than anything else during my interviews with people who know Page, one comment stands out…says David Lawee, Google's head of acquisitions…Larry is a truly awesome inventor-entrepreneur. My aspiration for him is that he becomes one of the greatest inventors-entrepreneurs in history, in the realm of the Thomas Edisons of the world."…He truly believes Larry Page's Google will change the world. Should we believe it too?…” http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/mf_larrypage/all/1 “…As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, he became obsessed with transportation and drew up plans to replace the school’s mundane bus network with an elaborate monorail system, providing a “futuristic” commute between the dorms and the classrooms. Page’s ideas may have been fantastic, but his vision always extended to the commercial. “From when I was 12, I knew I was going to start a company,” he says. In 1995, he went to Stanford to pursue his graduate degree. It was not only the best place to study computer science but, because of the Internet boom, was also the world capital of entrepreneurial ambition…I didn’t want to just invent things, I also wanted to make the world better.”…When someone pitched an idea, Page would invariably counter with a variation that was an order of magnitude more ambitious. In 2003, when executives met to consider opening engineering offices overseas, Schmidt asked Page how quickly he would like to grow. “How many engineers does Microsoft have?” Page asked. About 25,000, he was told. “We should have a million,” Page said, in all seriousness…In 2008, Google participated in an FCC auction for radio spectrum to be used for mobile broadband…if the spectrum was sold above a certain price, the winner would have to allow other companies to run devices on their networks…Google would bid on the spectrum, high enough to get it over the threshold, and then bow out…Verizon did top its bid, and the company was off the hook…It turns out, though, that…Page urged Google to consider topping the Verizon bid…In the early 2000s, Veach worked on what would become the company’s advertising system…Veach pointed out that not all countries commonly used credit cards. Page proposed taking payments appropriate to the home country—in Uzbekistan, he suggested, Google could take its payment in goats. “Maybe we can get to that,” Veach responded, “but first let’s make sure we can take Visa and MasterCard.”…One way Page tries to keep his finger on Google’s pulse is his insistence on signing off on every new hire—so far he’s vetted well over 30,000…He gets a set every week and usually returns them with his approvals—or in some cases bounces—in three or four days. “It helps me to know what’s really going on,” he says…”

24. Google Apps Love Story http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229301131 “After exiting from bankruptcy last year, BI-LO got serious about saving some money on information technology. The grocery retail chain…needed a new e-mail system to replace…Lotus Notes…There were concerns about security, at least initially. BI-LO has pharmacies, so it has to maintain HIPAA compliance. It's a tier one credit card merchant, so it has to maintain PCI compliance. And the company tries to maintain SOX compliance, even though it's a privately-held company…we found out that Google was actually more secure than we were," said Dewitt. "We just thought we were secure."…Gmail would save…$200,000, and the company might be able to derive some benefit from other Google services…the company only trained a few power users but found usage soaring almost as soon as Google Apps became available…I was just astounded at how quickly people stopped using desktop office productivity tools and started using Docs, just because it made their lives easier. They could share their information and track the changes. And it was that easy. No training. They just started using it…Microsoft may still dominate large enterprise accounts, but its popularity appears to be shakier among smaller organizations like BI-LO. Office 2003 is still being used at BI-LO but…I don't have any plans to upgrade…except for a small group of people…”

25. Google offers help for U.S. nonprofits https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/google-for-nonprofits/announcement-blogpost “…With today’s launch of the Google for Nonprofits program, which provides exclusive product offerings and enhanced online resources, we’ll be able to help U.S.-based nonprofits reach more donors, improve operations and raise awareness for their cause. If you work for a nonprofit, this program provides you with several new benefits. Instead of applying to each Google product individually, you can sign up through a one-stop shop application process. If approved, you can access our suite of product offerings designed for nonprofits: up to $10,000 a month in advertising on Google AdWords to reach more donors, free or discounted Google Apps to cut IT costs and operate more efficiently…We’ve also developed other online resources such as educational videos, case studies and better ways for you to connect with other nonprofits…”

26. New Google Apps feature release process http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-google-apps-feature-release-process.html “…With Google Apps, new features are available with a refresh of the web browser. There’s no need to wait years for the next big software release or manage a complex set of installers, software patches, and hardware upgrades…we’ve heard from some customers with complex IT environments that they’d like more notice before new features are deployed to their users…we’re happy to announce a new feature release process aimed at helping you balance the benefits of accessing improvements as soon as they're ready with the task of integrating the changes into your organization. Our new process has two release tracks…Rapid Release: Customers on the Rapid Release track have access to new features as soon as the features have completed testing and quality assurance…Scheduled Release: Customers on the Scheduled Release track gain access to new features on a regular, weekly release schedule following the initial release of those features. This delay allows time for administrators to familiarize themselves with new features using a test domain, educate support staff, and communicate any changes to their users…New features for Gmail, Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites will be following this new release process going forward…You can always change your selection by choosing how you would like to receive new features in the Google Apps control panel…”

27. How This 19-Year-Old Is Taking On Google http://www.inc.com/articles/2011/03/how-19-year-old-daniel-gross-is-taking-on-google-with-greplin.html “…I was in Israel and had graduated high school, and I was all set to go into the Israeli Army. I applied to Y Combinator. And not thinking I'd get in, I was invited to an interview…they didn't quite like what I was working on, but I guess they liked me. They wanted me to come back, so I hopped back on a plane. In my three months there, I built several things, none of which caught on. Right at the end of Y Combinator, you get a cool opportunity to get up on a stage and show your project to the world…our project had just got shut down, so this was 48 hours before the end of the program. I went over to [Y Combinator co-founder] Paul Graham's house, and he said, "Just build something that you'd want to use today…So I created a very, very, very basic demo in that 48 hours…But the idea had support. So I spent the next months building a workable product by night and raising $780,000 in angel funding. It was from a pretty cool team, the guy who made Gmail, Paul Buchheit, and Chris Dixon, and the guy who did Square. Also the CTO of Facebook, Bret Taylor…It's also very hard to make a product when you're not the target audience…Greplin was the one project idea I had for which I was the target audience…The idea was in a sense a headline: A search engine that lets you find all of your stuff online…we had this weird problem where we didn't know so many people would use it…the code I'd written at 4 a.m. trying to get onto stage didn't scale very well…At that point you can either monkey-patch everything, or you can start from scratch. We chose to do the latter…You say you're not trying to compete with Google, but what you've created seems a lot like Google for social media and cloud-computing. What portion of your data lives, personally, is in the cloud?...I don't think I have a single piece of information that's solely on my laptop. I think I'm indicitive of a future generation…regardless of how successful Greplin is…my parents won't be satisfied unless I get a degree. They won't speak to me. But, really, I've been completely focused on the company, and haven't given it too much thought…”

General Technology

28. Pepsi bottles: only plants, no more oil? http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0315/Pepsi-bottles-no-more-plastic “PepsiCo Inc. unveiled a new bottle Tuesday made entirely of plant material…The bottle is made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials. Ultimately, Pepsi plans to also use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers from its food business…Coca-Cola Co. currently produces a bottle using 30 percent plant-based materials…it plans to test the product in 2012 in a few hundred thousand bottles. Once the company is sure it can successfully produce the bottle at that scale, it will begin converting all its products over…Coca-Cola said it welcomed other advances in packaging, but noted that it has scaled up use of its own plant-based bottle since introducing it in 2009. It also says it has demonstrated a 100 percent plant bottle in the lab and is still working to ensure it is commercially viable…Pepsi…has had dozens of people working on the process for years…”

29. Adobe Prepares For A Possible Future Without Flash http://www.businessinsider.com/adobe-medialets-2011-3 “Give Adobe credit: While it's still trying to make a version of its Flash software that is acceptable for tablets and smartphones, it's also preparing for a digital publishing future that may not revolve around Flash. Adobe's latest move is to integrate Medialets' advertising platform into its Digital Publishing Suite for iPad and tablet publishers. (Medialets is a mobile/rich media ad startup in New York.)…Adobe's core business is selling software tools and services to publishers, whether it's Flash, this Digital Publishing Suite, Photoshop, Omniture analytics…This new integration with Medialets could help publishers generate ad revenue from their Adobe-produced iPad and tablet content…don't be surprised to see Adobe as a potential acquirer for Medialets…”

30. Calxeda's ARM chips designed for 480-core servers http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/379549/calxeda_arm_chips_designed_480-core_servers/ “Calxeda…revealed initial details about its first ARM-based server chip, designed to let companies build low-power servers with up to 480 cores. The Calxeda chip is built on a quad-core ARM processor, and low-power servers could have 120 ARM processing nodes…The chips will be based on ARM's Cortex-A9 processor architecture. With the inclusion of DRAM, each ARM node will consume an average 5 watts of power during operation…Calxeda will compete with companies such as Nvidia, which is developing its first ARM CPU, code-named Project Denver, for PCs, servers and supercomputers. Marvell has already announced the quad-core Armada XP server chip…Low-power servers are also being built around selected netbook chips based on the x86 architecture, such as Intel's Atom processor. SeaMicro last month announced the SM10000-64 server, which incorporates 256 Intel Atom N570 dual-core processors. Dell also offers low-power servers based on Via's Nano chip. Advanced Micro Devices is looking to put its low-power Bobcat chips on servers. Servers mostly come with x86 chips, which could be a barrier as chip makers try to push ARM processors into data centers. There are also concerns about the weak server software ecosystem surrounding ARM. Dell this week said companies may find it challenging to maintain separate software stacks, and may be unwilling to port software from x86 to ARM, which have separate instruction sets…”

31. Intel plans Atom server chips to target fast-growing “micro servers” http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/15/intel-plans-atom-server-chips-to-target-fast-growing-micro-servers/ “…a new category of “micro servers” is growing fast as power efficiency and density of computing rise to the forefront…micro servers…try to pack a lot more single-chip boards into a smaller space with much lower power levels and a smaller overall footprint. If these micro servers take off, Intel may be able to stave off low-power rivals such as ARM from taking a chunk of the server business…Intel plans to create micro server chips that consume as little as 10 watts by 2012. Today, Intel’s Xeon server chips run at 45 or 30 watts.In the coming months, it will offer a 20-watt Xeon chip and a 10-watt Atom chip designed for servers…The idea is that certain applications will work better on many low-power dense servers than on a handful of more powerful but power-hungry servers…Intel said that the micro servers will be appealing to web site hosting companies that have lots of customers with relatively low-traffic web sites..SeaMicro feels that the opportunity for low-power, purpose-optimized servers is well above the 10 percent of the total server market in the four to five year timeframe that Intel has suggested…”

DHMN Technology

32. CustomCTRL: An Open Source Home Automation Hardware Controller http://www.cocoontech.com/portal/articles/news/34-hardware/457-customctrl-an-open-source-home-automation-hardware-controller “CustomCTRL is an Arduino based open source home automation hardware controller, supporting some of the more popular home automation protocols. The controller will be accessible via an internet based server…It will also support most smartphone platforms, including iPhone and Android…The controller supports 4 major interfaces: Z-Wave (via a serial interface)…ZigBee (onboard XB24 Series 2)…IR (onboard IR receiver, jack for IR emitters)…X10/INSTEON (via SmartHome Dual Band PowerLinc Modem)…The project was recently posted on Kickstarter with the goal of raising enough money ($33,000) to start production. Currently they are at $3,943, has 34 backers, and have 47 days to go…”

33. Local robotics teams set sights on World Championships http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20110320/APC0101/103200627/1036/APC06/Robotics-teams-set-sights-World-Championships “…the Menasha Gearheads Blue team…was one of 53 participating in the VEX Robotics Competition's Upper Midwest Regional at Xavier. "This is the largest robotics tournament ever in Wisconsin," said Ron Lohse, a Xavier teacher and robotics club adviser…"Last year there were 26 Vex teams in the state. This year there are 113. Internationally, last year there were 2,500 teams. This year there are 4,000," he said. The impact this kind of competition has had on interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education has also been dramatic, he said. "It's a great program for kids. They have fun and don't even realize they're learning something."…The powerhouse team from this area is St. Mary Central High School, Town of Menasha. Five of its six teams had already qualified for Worlds; the sixth made it Saturday…Konetzke can't say enough about robotics and its impact on his career choice. "I'm going into mechanical engineering and Vex Robotics played a huge role in that. It made me see creativity in science and engineering. It's been the highlight of my high school career," he said. Menasha coach Isaac Zimmermann said he started five years ago with five kids and now has eight teams and 45 kids. "It is cool to see them excited about science and technology and using it…”

34. How Kickstarter Became a Lab for Daring Prototypes and Ingenious Products http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/ff_kickstarter/all/1 “…Build a better mousetrap and the world is supposed to beat a path to your door…some inventors are finding that promise rekindled, thanks to Kickstarter. The site launched in 2009 as a way to crowdsource the funding of idiosyncratic arts projects…Kickstarter empowered creators, who had a new, no-strings source of funding, as well as audiences, who had the opportunity to help realize the kind of art they wanted to see, rather than what some suit thought would be profitable. “It has changed who the gatekeepers are,”…More than 14,000 people have posted projects on Kickstarter, and more than 400,000 people have supported them, contributing a total of more than $35 million. Eighty new projects are launched every day, and $1 million is pledged every week. The site has tapped a source of patronage that was all but nonexistent before. The result…has been the realization of thousands of passion projects…If you think your invention will make you a millionaire, go the corporate route. If you think it’ll be fun, and you don’t want to compromise, stick with Kickstarter…48 percent of postings that include a personal video get funded, versus 30 percent of those without a video…Projects that raise funds for 30 days or less have the highest success rate…But now people are using Kickstarter for more than just quirky arts projects…Schuyler Towne, a competitive lock picker, raised $87,407 in preorders—15 times more than his goal—to launch a line of homemade tools. When a small footwear company called Vere Sandals wanted to develop its 2011 collection, it turned to Kickstarter to cover production costs and gauge demand for its designs. Ray Riley, the general manager of Microsoft’s design studio, says that every industrial designer is now watching the site because it offers so much insight about forging a “deeper connection to consumers.”…Kickstarter began much like one of its projects—bootstrapped with a series of small investments from fellow artists…even people who don’t need Kickstarter are turning to the site. Industrial designer Scott Wilson…had an idea to create a wristband that would convert an iPod nano into a watch…So he posted it on Kickstarter, asking for $15,000 to cover tooling costs for the parts. After 30 days, he had raised $941,778 from 13,512 people…Wilson has had to hire six people to answer the more than 40,000 Kickstarter-related emails he’s gotten, check message boards, and manage fulfillment and customer service.) He says the process helped shorten his production timeline from the typical year or so to 30 days…only 10 percent of Kickstarter funds have gone toward the creation of gadgets or other tech products, and they don’t seem eager to increase that number…if Kickstarter loses its personal touch, if it becomes little more than a corporate presales channel, things get more complicated…Right now, the site operates on the honor system. But if the stakes grow higher, it doesn’t take much imagination to foresee a morass of lawsuits, escrow accounts, and mellow-harshing rules and regulations…The Kickstarter guys are now getting phone calls—from big brands, rock stars, people with patents and NDAs, people who hope to sell their products at Walmart…just as Twitter outgrew its beginnings as a humble messaging system, Kickstarter may not be able to maintain its low profile much longer. “The most interesting companies demonstrate emergent behavior,” says Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist…People’s use of the service is never what the creators intended…”

Leisure & Entertainment

35. Netflix Original Content Could Shift An Industry, but will media companies cut off Netflix's content supply? http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/18/killing-cable/ “…Netflix has confirmed that they intend to pay for House of Cards…Netflix is not paying for the full production of it, but instead they’re paying for the first-rights access to air it. In other words, they get the first “window” to show it to viewers…until now Netflix has…focused on the second or third or even fourth window…For the first time, they’re going to get people signing up to Netflix to get first access to content. And if it’s as good as the talent behind it suggests, they might get a lot of people signing up for that very reason…In three years, we won’t be paying $75 a month to a giant cable conglomerate. We’ll be paying $8 to Netflix and other players that pop up — like HBO (by themselves)…there will still be the monthly fee for Internet…We’d just be removing the ridiculous $75 cable television fee that gives us thousands of channels with content only on at a certain time — and most of which we don’t want…The cable television model has been broken for far too long. For over a decade now we’ve heard the promises of a la carte content and pricing, but it never came because there was no real incentive for it to come…” http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20043850-261.html “If media companies won't sell content to Netflix, then Netflix will go acquire the content itself. That's the message Netflix is sending content suppliers and consumers…Netflix is in talks to acquire Media Rights Capital's drama series "House of Cards," produced and directed by David Fincher, who directed "Social Network." The show also stars Kevin Spacey…Netflix…outbid HBO and AMC with an offer in the area of $100 million…The move comes as several big media companies have predicted that Netflix's supply of top-quality content could soon slow to a trickle…The company's offer to stream tens of thousands of movies for $8 per month has TV and film sector honchos worried about their profit margins, the consumer trend of renting instead of buying, and the growing perception that their content can be had on the cheap…the message was that Netflix would receive access to mostly bottom-rung shows and films…"Retail is so big and diffuse, this strategy has never worked," Hastings said in 2009. "Four years ago, Blockbuster…paid the Weinstein Company to block all purchases of their films by Netflix…but we've never had a problem buying Weinstein DVDs." Netflix obtained the DVDs presumably from other rental stores. Licensing streaming rights can't be had from anyone else but the show's owners…it's hard to believe that Netflix can afford to acquire too many shows this way, or at least those of the caliber of "House of Cards."…But the "House of Cards" deal shows that Netflix is willing to do whatever it takes…”

36. Moki.TV Personalized Guide To What’s Streaming On The Web http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/17/moki-tv-is-the-ultimate-personalized-guide-to-whats-streaming-on-the-web/ “…TV shows and movies are spread across a variety of websites, and platforms, including iTunes, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix and others, and it can be difficult to sort through all this fragmented content…Moki.TV is launching today as a personalized guide to all TV, video and movie content on the web…the site has 40,000 movies, and 60,000 TV episodes indexed; and this number is growing daily…But the startup is much more than just a directory. Moki.TV will allow you to import your ratings from Netflix into its platform and will start serving you recommendations based on those preferences…Moki.TV will also send you weekly emails recommending titles you may like based on your preferences…the startup will email you when the content becomes available on Hulu, iTunes, Netflix etc…At first glance, Moki.TV reminds me a lot of Clicker…which was just acquired by CBS Interactive…“We think they solved the fragmentation problem,” says Huang of Clicker, “But we are closer to a guide [as opposed to a directory] and have more discovery features.”…As more and more consumers cut the cable cord, there is a need for a recommendations and personalization service that spreads across all of the web platforms where users are finding this content…”

Economy and Technology

37. Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble over Android devices http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20045551-75.html “Microsoft filed suit today against Barnes & Noble as well as the makers of its Android-based e-reader and tablet devices for patent infringement, part of its broader campaign against Google's mobile operating system. The software giant alleges that its patents cover a range of functions "essential to the user experience." The company specifically cites the way users tab through various screens on the Nook e-reader and the Nook Color tablet, both of which run Android, to find the information they're after, as well as the way they interact with documents and e-books…Microsoft previously sued Motorola, alleging that several of its Android devices infringe on Microsoft patents. Microsoft would prefer that companies making Android devices follow the lead of its longtime partner HTC, which worked out a deal last year covering its own Android devices…”

38. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman’s 10 rules of entrepreneurship http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/15/reid-hoffman-10-rules-of-entrepreneurship/?source=facebook “LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman gave a speech today about how entrepreneurs can “invent the future”. Speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, he recited a list of 10 rules of entrepreneurship…Try to create “disruptive change…Aim big…Build a network to amplify your company…Plan for good luck…Maintain flexible persistence…Launch early enough that you’re embarrassed by your 1.0 product release…Always keep your aspirations and aim high, but don’t drink your own Kool Aid…Having a great idea for a product is important, but having a great idea for product distribution is even more important…Pay attention to your culture and your hires from the very beginning…These rules of entrepreneurship are not laws of nature. You can break them.…”

39. Tech Start-Up Bliss: Dogpatch Labs http://www.thestreet.com/story/11046151/1/tech-start-up-bliss-dogpatch-labs.html “…the Big Apple's start-up scene is blossoming…Taking advantage of the boom are more than a dozen Manhattan incubators, accelerators and so-called co-working spaces, which have emerged to foster entrepreneurs and their next great idea. Meet Dogpatch Labs, a 3,000 square-foot loft space in Manhattan's Union Square district that hosts 45 workers from 15 start-ups…Dogpatch provides companies with free office space for six months (after the allotted time, they're replaced with another firm), and hosts workshops, conferences and networking events that connect entrepreneurs…Dogpatch graduates include iPhone photo sharing service Instagram, which recently passed its 1 million user milestone, and Q&A website Formspring, which has raised $14 million in funding…the lab's focus on collaboration is tremendously helpful when trying to help a fledgling company off the ground…We try to round out the skill set and have a diverse group of people here who can help each other in unique ways." Start-ups that want to work at Dogpatch must apply on its Web site, and are selected in a competitive process that includes the evaluation of a team's vision and background. Read on for some of the emerging companies that currently call Dogpatch Labs home…”

40. Do startup weekends help create startups? http://sten.tamkivi.com/2011/03/do-startup-weekends-help-create-startups/ “The most recent Garage48 weekend event in Tallinn sparked some healthy discussion around the perceived and actually delivered value of this format towards the commonly accepted goal of creating more young, brave and hungry technology businesses in the country. The devoted fans of the time-constraint, playful and cutely random 48-hour hackathon were publicly questioned if their lack of attention to the big bad real world (business cases, marketing channels and Terms of Service legalese) were not accidentally misleading the youth to think that creating a real company is a joyride, lacking the need of solving the really hard problems…I created a subjective set of evaluation scales to judge the Garage48 events’ goals, benefits and strengths against as well as to compare those to the needs of building an actual business…As a next step I mapped these pairs on a radar graph, ending up with this template (click on any image to enlarge)…I am still a firm believer that crazy-fast hackathon events and Garage48 among them have a huge role to play still in their part of the circle: inspiring, boosting and motivating recruits before they enter the real battlefield and have to smell the gunpowder…At the same time, the Garage48 “training” doesn’t cover everything a budding company will need…there is clear opportunity for other groups, programs and events to come in here. And we know that many of those actually already exist…I am releasing the original quick-hack excel template for above graphs here if you want to play around: Garage48 vs real startups.xlsx…”

Civilian Aerospace

41. UK Space Agency's CubeSat http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2011/uk_cubesat_mission_takes_shape.htm “…the UKube-1 CubeSat…winning payloads from the UK Space Agency’s payload competition include the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather; a camera that will take images of the Earth and test the effect of radiation on space hardware, using a new generation of imaging sensor; an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems; and a payload made up of 5 experiments that UK students and the public can interact with. UKube-1…nanosatellite…collaboration between the UK Space Agency, industry and academia…is envisaged as the pilot for a full national CubeSat programme…CubeSat missions offer opportunities for a wide range of people to get involved in space activity, removing barriers and encouraging innovation…The spacecraft is being developed through an existing Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with innovative Scottish space company Clyde Space and the University of Strathclyde…Companies providing free support to UKube-1 include Isotron, Xilinx, Invotec and DS SolidWorks Corp…”

42. TripAlertz Offers Space Flight http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/03/14/out-of-this-world-deal-tripalertz-offers-space-flight/ “…TripAlertz Inc. emerges from stealth mode this week, promoting a flight to space which executives hope will launch the start-up to cosmic growth…TripAlertz is a Groupon for travel with a thick layer of social networking on top. The more people who sign up, the cheaper the hotel, cruise or other deal becomes. In the case of the space trip…for which XCOR Aersospace Inc. plans to charge $95,000 – the price drops to $85,000 once 10 or more people sign up…each trip includes a requisite five-day training course at a resort in Arizona where users will be physically and psychologically tested to verify they are fit for space travel…Each day-tripping cosmonaut will board a Lynx, a fully reusable, liquid rocket-powered vehicle which will be piloted by Rick Searfoss, a former NASA Astronaut…the Lynx takes off and lands much like a plane, but the two-seater hits supersonic speeds within 60 seconds of takeoff, achieves a 75% trajectory and then goes straight up…The rocket powered vehicle goes about 175,000 feet above earth, or 33 miles, where passengers then experience weightlessness for about 10 minutes before beginning the return flight home. Only one passenger can fly at a time…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

43. Nvidia targets enterprise supercomputing http://www.itnews.com.au/News/251305,nvidia-targets-enterprise-supercomputing.aspx “…With two large-scale GPU-based high performance computers (HPC) currently in Australia, and three more expected this year, Nvidia expected demand for its Tesla HPC brand to grow. The demand for large-scale HPCs was currently driven by research organisations like the CSIRO, which deployed a cluster containing 64 Tesla S1070 chips (256 GPUs) in November 2009. After being upgraded with newer Tesla s2050s, the cluster ranked 145 in the Top500 supercomputers list last November…Besides the Canberra-based GPU cluster, CSIRO also had a number of what Domanski called “desktop supercomputers” – individual, four-GPU workstations. The teraflop workstations were estimated to require 1,100 Watts and cost between $10,000 and $15,000…Eventually, Domanski hoped desktop supercomputers would be as common as today's off-the-shelf laptops, allowing researchers to consider scientific problems without computational limits…workstations with two to three Tesla GPUs would cost between $3,000 and $4,000. Besides CSIRO, Xenon counted the Department of Defence, Rio Tinto and Chevron among its Australian customers…”

*****