NEW NET Weekly List for 13 Sep 2011

Below is the final list of issues for the Tuesday, 13 September 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. Google, Microsoft Weather Cloud Computing Outages http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Google-Microsoft-Weather-Cloud-Computing-Outages-779302/ “Google and Microsoft both watched their cloud computing systems choke this past week, with Google Docs going dark for an hour and Microsoft Hotmail, Office 365 and SkyDrive knocked offline for three hours…Google Sept. 7 saw its Google Docs word collaboration application cramp up for one hour, shutting out millions of users from their document lists, documents, drawings…Microsoft, meanwhile, watched its online services, including Hotmail, SkyDrive and Office 365 software, go kaput for three hours Sept. 8. Google's outage was caused by a memory management bug software engineers triggered in a change designed to "improve real time collaboration within the document list,"…Microsoft's outage was more serious. Beginning around 9:30 PDT Sept. 8, the company's Hotmail, SkyDrive and Office 365 services went down, owing to a Domain Name System (DNS) issue…”

2. WeVideo brings collaborative video editing to the cloud http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/12/demo-wevideo-brings-collaborative-video-editing-to-the-cloud/ “…WeVideo, which debuts at the DEMO Fall 2011 conference Tuesday, offers up a powerful Flash-based video editing application accessible from any browser, and soon, will be adding native applications on all manner of mobile devices. Because it is in the cloud, it lets several people access and collaborate on projects…we wanted to emphasize that this is about sharing and editing video projects in groups…Svendsen said that its closest competitor was JayCut, but he said the company has gone silent since it was acquired by Research in Motion back in July. Now, the company says it will compete with online video editor Animoto and YouTube’s free video editor. Svendson said what makes WeVideo better is its depth of tools, the amount of devices it can be accessed though and its ability to support most digital video formats. The service offers several levels of pricing, with a free tier focused on low-demanding consumers all the way up to $79.99/month tier that focuses on professional-grade editing…”

3. How many pages are on the internet? http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/09/12/web.index/ “…no one really knows how many websites or individual Web pages make up this seemingly infinite digital universe that is the internet. Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine, has written that there are at least a trillion Web pages in existence, which means the internet's collective brain has more neurons than our actual gray matter that's stuffed between our ears. "The Web holds about a trillion pages. The human brain holds about 100 billion neurons," Kelly writes in his 2010 book "What Technology Wants." "Each biological neuron sprouts synaptic links to thousands of other neurons, while each Web page on average links to 60 other pages. That adds up to a trillion 'synapses' between the static pages on the Web. The human brain has about 100 times that number of links -- but brains are not doubling in size every few years. The global machine is."…A group called the World Wide Web Foundation -- appropriately founded by Tim Berners-Lee, who pretty much created the internet -- is on a quest to figure out, with some degree certainty, how big the internet really is. With a $1 million grant from Google, the foundation plans to release the results of its online forensic search, called the World Wide Web Index, early next year…"The Web Index will be the world's first multi-dimensional measure of the Web and its impact on people and nations. It will cover a large number of developed and developing countries, allowing for comparisons of trends over time and benchmarking performance across countries…We want to be really careful about what will happen (as a result of the Web Index) because we just don't know," he said. "But this will be probably the best opportunity to quantify" the Web…”

4. With Bitcasa, The Entire Cloud Is Your Hard Drive For Only $10 Per Month http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/with-bitcasa-the-entire-cloud-is-your-hard-drive-for-only-10-per-month/ “The cloud is now your hard drive. And not just a few dozen Gigabytes, Terabytes or even Petabytes, but all of it – infinite storage – for only $10 per month…Bitcasa...is launching a new cloud storage, syncing and sharing service that blows away its competitors, including hard drive manufacturers and online services like DropBox and SkyDrive, with ease. In fact, beyond the pricing and limitless storage, the most disruptive thing about the service is its complete integration with your device. You don’t see it, it’s not an icon on your desktop, you don’t drag-and-drop files or folders into it. Instead, you write to the cloud when you save a file on your computer. The cloud is your hard drive, and your actual hard drive is just the cache…”

Gigabit Internet

5. The elephant in the gigabit network room http://gigaom.com/broadband/the-elephant-in-the-gigabit-network-room/ “…gigabit networks…generally cost more than the average person can afford…a gigabit connection in Chattanooga, Tenn…costs more than $300 a month. Even if one can’t get a gig, even a 100 Mbps connection or so can cost about $120…Why spend that much, when for today’s applications, a cable modem offering 12-14 Mbps down will do just fine? It’s a question that analysts posed of Verizon, when…the company…deployed the nation’s largest fiber-to-home network…It’s a question Google seeks to answer with its own plans to build out a gigabit network in Kansas City…the most compelling use case I can think if right now is if you wanted to subscribe to a new online backup service and upload your images, music and movies all at once. A gigabit could help you complete the task in minutes as opposed to hours or days. But that’s a one-time kind of benefit…a gigabit — or even 100 Mbps – sounds awesome, but it’s not exactly worth the prices most companies want (or need to charge)…“If every consumer has 100 Mbps, we’d have some better applications,” Jasper said. ” At 100 Mbps, high-def video conferencing becomes a reality and you don’t need local storage anymore. You don’t even need local computing…”

6. What's So Special About 1 Gigabit? http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/09/12/12780-whats-so-special-about-1-gigabit/ “…What's so special about a 1 gigabit-per-second hook-up, the standard to which Hawaii now strives?...the Internet that we know, the broadband that we know, runs at something approaching three megabits-per-second…"The difference here is that with the kind of ultra-broadband that Hawaii is planning to implement, they will be setting up capacity to really do never-before-seen high definition video," Gonick said. "It really makes the Skype experience look like the difference between standard-definition TV and high-definition TV."…"Both internationally and in the serious high-tech world in the United States, there's not a lot of disagreement about the fact that a gigabit-per-second is the emerging standard," said Joanne Hovis, president of the Maryland-based Columbia Telecommunications Corp., a national public interest communications firm that specializes in community broadband. "It is now available in many of the countries that have shot ahead of the Untied States in broadband availability…It is the target to which all of our competitor nations in Europe and the Pacific Rim are building…One of the top goals of the federal government's National Broadband Plan of 2010 is for every community in the U.S. to have affordable access to 1 gigabit-per-second connections in so-called anchor institutions: universities, hospitals, government buildings…Heartier connections aren't only about faster Internet…increased bandwidth — a network's capacity for handling data — will change the way we do just about everything we do online. Abercrombie touted his plan as a way to allow students and teachers to collaborate with one another all over the world…"This kind of speed enables the kinds of applications that we increasingly consider to be fundamental, such as sharing of large data sets, research, collaboration among developers, students, professors, very high-end video conferencing with multiple locations on the same video conference and so on," she said…”

7. How fast an Internet? “Nearly every Internet user wants faster access. The richness of the information now available requires faster speed. The advent of HD programming and Internet-ready televisions do warrant faster speeds. Will faster Internet speed make me more productive or just make more entertainment available?...I have migrated from DSL at 700Kbps to FiOS business class operating at 25Mbps for Internet access. My Internet downloads, especially videos, are far faster but the response times from nearly all the sites I access appear nearly as slow as with the DSL service…It doesn't matter whether I am reading an e-mail or making travel reservations. So when I read an article about increasing Internet access 1,000-fold, I wondered how many of us would want this speed and could afford the connection charge…I see several issues that will influence the deployment of 1Gbps service: The Internet backbone transmission facilities will need a major bandwidth boost…The switching systems in the network will also need to be improved. This is a major capital investment that has to be recovered in Internet access fees…If movie downloads take only a minute or two, what will be the bandwidth that companies like Netflix will have support at their server sites?...What will be the cost of endpoint devices that can support streaming 1Gbps?…”

8. Ethernet Rules! http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ethernet_rules/ “…When we did a major renovation of our house back in 2005…the…(pricey) electrician wanted around $1000 to install an Ethernet system. I smugly said “No thanks.”…My Mac Pro was located so close to my AirPort Extreme Base Station that I could run a short Ethernet cable directly between them. Same with my laser printer. For everything else, it was Wi-Fi all the way. Back then, the only regular use of my Wi-Fi network was to permit my MacBook Pro to remain connected to the Internet as I moved the laptop around the house. For this function, Wi-Fi was more than adequate. Flash-forward 6 years…here’s how I would now summarize my decision to forgo Ethernet: “Big mistake. Big. Huge.”…Today, televisions and virtually every device that works via a television (e.g., Apple TV, Blu-ray player, TiVo, Nintendo Wii, A/V receiver and even some cable boxes) require or at least benefit from a network connection…A primary activity of most of these devices is to stream video — which is probably the most demanding bandwidth-sucking task facing a home network…my Wi-Fi network was not up to the challenge…All of these hassles would disappear if I had an Ethernet network…The installer I hired was able to wire 5 of the 6 desired outlets, without making any holes in any walls or ceilings. For this, he charged only $400…there was that one location where the installer could not run the Ethernet cable…So I took a chance and purchased a Netgear 85 Mbps Powerline Ethernet Switch (XEB 1004)…I now have a strong and reliable network connection at all the remote locations of my house…If I had thought about it, I would have insisted on the more expensive CAT-6, which supposedly does a better job of dealing with Gigabit Ethernet…For a total a total cost of about $550 and with no need to make any holes in walls, I now have Ethernet cabling running throughout my house. More importantly, I have a faster and more reliable network than when I had been totally dependent on Wi-Fi. If you are in a situation similar to mine, or if you have a house under construction, my advice to you is simple: Get Ethernet. You won’t regret it…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

9. Authors' Guild sues universities over book digitization project http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/13/tech/web/authors-guild-book-digitization/ “With the planned settlement between Google and book publishers still on indefinite hold, a legal battle by proxy has started. Google partnered with many libraries at US universities in order to gain access to the works it wants to digitize. Now, several groups that represent book authors have filed suit against those universities, attempting to block both digital lending and an orphaned works project. The suit is being brought by the Authors' Guild, its equivalents in Australia, Quebec, and the UK, and a large group of individual authors. Its target: some major US universities, including Michigan, the University of California system, and Cornell. These libraries partnered with Google to get their book digitization efforts off the ground and, in return, Google has provided them with digital copies of the works. These and many other universities have also become involved with the HathiTrust, an organization set up to help them archive and distribute digital works; the HathiTrust is also named as a defendant…”

10. Banks 'fail to provide online customers with proper protection from hi-tech fraud' http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2027514/Banks-failing-provide-online-customers-proper-protection-hi-tech-fraud.html “A report by consumer watchdog Which? has revealed that customers with online accounts are failing to receive proper protection from big banks…The watchdog used 12 volunteers, each banking with a different institution, to log into their current account using a special computer…Bottom of the survey was Norwich and Peterborough Building Society with a security rating of only 35 per cent. Halifax was the second worst on 38 per cent, with the Which? report concluding: 'For such a significant brand, security was surprisingly poor.'…One of the major threats to online banking users is keylogging, when a computer user's keystrokes are recorded by a virus or device and sent straight to a hacker. Which? also revealed that the 'man-in-the browser' (MitB) attack had become increasingly common. MitB is a type of Trojan virus that infects the web browser and can alter transactions, so online banking customers may think they are paying a bill as normal, but the destination bank and account, and even the amount, have been changed.”

11. Apple asks courts to stay two Motorola Mobility lawsuits until Google has acquired the company http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/09/apple-asks-courts-to-stay-two-motorola.html “…Apple filed motions to stay in two of its various lawsuits with Motorola, arguing that the pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility (MMI) by Google has resulted in "a fundamental loss of Motorola's patent rights"…Under the merger agreement with Google, MMI is severely restricted in its ability to enforce its patents and negotiate settlements…[W]ere Apple to prevail in this case, it risks an attack on its victory on appeal by a third party, whether Google or another Android smartphone manufacturer, contending that the judgment should be overturned due to a lack of prudential standing."…In fact, a key motivation on Google's part may have been to acquire MMI before it might, for example, have agreed to pay royalties to Microsoft, considering that MMI is in serious trouble against Microsoft…MMI's patents aren't as strong as many people believe, but it's much stronger than most of the other Android device makers…The problem with MMI's need to obtain Google's consent for the aforementioned types of patent-related actions and agreements is that Google's hands are also tied before the merger is closed…Therefore, Google wouldn't be allowed at this stage to order MMI to negotiate a cross-license with a third party that also benefits Google in one way or another. That's why Google would like those lawsuits to continue and take its seat at the negotiating table if and when it's really in charge. Apple's lawyers describe MMI's settlement-related restrictions as enough of a reason in and of itself to stay the case. Courts usually want litigants to settle…”

12. SpyEye hacking kit adds Android infection to bag of tricks http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219963/SpyEye_hacking_kit_adds_Android_infection_to_bag_of_tricks “The SpyEye hacking toolkit has added an Android component that collects the text messages some banks use as an extra security precaution…"The standard SpyEye now also entices a user to download an Android app, which is actually a component that's Android-specific malware," said Amit Klein, the chief technology officer of Boston-based Trusteer, a security firm that specializes in online anti-cybercrime defenses. The Android app poses as a security program -- ironically, one that's supposed to protect a user's text messages from being intercepted -- required to use a bank's online services from a mobile device. Many banks now send customers a one-time code, usually a series of numbers, to their mobile phone. To access the account, a user must enter not only the traditional username and password, but also the just-received passcode…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

13. 500 days with the iPad http://www.splatf.com/2011/09/ipad-fivehundred/ “It has now been 500 days since my iPad 3G arrived at the end of April, 2010. So, as I did after 100 days — when it was my “favorite” computer — and after 300 days — when I barely used it anymore — I’m going to write a bit about how it fits into my life…After almost a year and a half with the iPad, I now consider my usage at “normal everyday” levels…Specifically, I use the iPad for about 30 to 60 minutes per day, almost entirely at home. At home, about 75% of the time I spend on the iPad is in the Safari browser, reading a few aviation websites for fun before I fall asleep every night. I have a lot of apps — dozens — but I generally don’t use them often, or for very much time…I spent the month of July watching NBC’s Tour de France live streaming TV coverage on the iPad for a few hours a day, and it was great. There were some technical/design issues to conquer, but in general, it was better than watching on TV, and easily worth the $15…I haven’t played an iPad game in months. It’s too heavy to hold up for very long, which makes many games tedious. Are there even any great iPad games?...I never felt comfortable using my iPad on the subway…But whenever I have a few hours on a train or airplane, I find myself watching video on the iPad…The iPad is also a much better device for airplane wifi than a laptop, because you can actually use it comfortably in an economy-class seat…I got rid of my iPad 3G data plan. I had kept it for more than a year, billing $30 every month, to stay grandfathered into AT&T’s unlimited data plan. But whenever I tried to use it — to stream video at the gym, or something — the service was so bad that it didn’t work, anyway…”

14. HTC boss on Windows Phone 7, patent wars and why iPhones aren’t cool anymore http://www.geekwire.com/2011/htc-boss-windows-phone-7-patents-iphones-cool-anymore “Martin Fichter, the acting president of HTC America…shared some interesting insights on everything from Windows Phone 7 to the ongoing wireless patent wars to why college kids — at least in his recent survey at Reed College — don’t think iPhones are cool anymore…Here are some excerpts from the talk…“It is good for the whole ecosystem that Google owns IP that they didn’t own before. That’s very good for the Android ecosystem because maybe everyone was going into this starry-eyed and happy (saying): ‘Ok, there’s a free operating system that we can all work with.’ And we all believed it. We all launched lots of phones, and all of a sudden it turns out that there are forces in the market who just don’t want something free for the consumer…We will see how that pans out…The problem we are having as an industry, from a very broad perspective, is that energy that should go into developing new technologies and new user experiences goes into fighting off patent wars…“We all talk a lot about the cloud…. If we change the way we behave and have all of our music — not on our phones anymore but only in the cloud — I can tell you that networks will have problems.”…I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor…none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were carrying HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacture’s devices. If you look at a college campus, Mac Book Airs are cool. iPhones are not that cool anymore…”

15. Verizon intros $50 unlimited plan, takes a swing at pre-paid operators http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/13/verizon-intros-50-unlimited-plan-takes-a-swing-at-pre-paid-ope/ “…Verizon Wireless announced today the launch of a new $50 unlimited plan for pre-paid customers. Available starting this Thursday, the unlimited talk, text and web option'll rollout to all of the operator's retail locations, in addition to Walmart, Best Buy and Target. Users who opt for the plan won't get their pick of high-end smartphones, and will, instead, have to choose from a selection of four feature phones from LG, Samsung and Pantech. The move could seriously undercut growth for Sprint -- which operates Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile -- as well as smaller operators, like MetroPCS, that count pre-paid users as the majority of their customer base…”

Apps

16. AllFacebook Founder Launches Holler to Help People Connect Offline http://allthingsd.com/20110909/allfacebook-founder-launches-holler-to-help-people-connect-offline/ “After years of writing about social Web companies, Nick O’Neill has now started one of his own. O’Neill, the founder of AllFacebook…developed an app called Holler to facilitate spontaneous meet-ups between friends and people with common interests. Holler falls somewhere between group messaging apps, event planning tools and “social discovery” sites…O’Neill, who is funding the four-person, San Francisco-based Holler himself, said in an interview today that he thought he knew what he was getting into but really, start-ups are way harder than they look. After some setbacks, he taught himself how to make an iOS app…”

17. Top 20 Android Apps in the US: Women Like Facebook, Men Love Maps and Mail http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/top-20-android-apps-in-the-us-women-like-facebook-men-love-maps-and-mail/ “…While many of the top 20 apps, including the streaming music service Pandora and two versions of the popular game Angry Birds, showed similar usage by both men and women, there were notable differences in active reach for social apps. Facebook’s mobile app saw an active reach of 81 percent for women compared to 69 percent for male Android users. Twitter also had slightly higher active reach among women (16.5%) than men (13.4%). However, Google+, Google’s new social network, had more than twice the active reach among men (15.8%) than women (7.2%)…apps like Amazon’s Kindle and Words With Friends showed higher active reach among women, while apps like Quickoffice Pro and the Amazon Appstore had higher active reach among male Android smartphone owners. And despite the stereotype that men don’t like asking for directions, they seemed pretty comfortable using Google Maps, which has 77 percent active reach among men compared to 71.8 percent among women…”

18. Quest.li: If Life Is A Game, This Is How You Play It http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/quest-li/ “Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, the audience winner was Quest.li. It’s a mobile application that turns real life goals into a game. Founder Danil Kozyatnikov traveled from Siberia to present. In the game you create different goals that earn you points. For example, Kozyatnikov said that he created a game to make it to TechCrunch Disrupt. Along the way, he had different goals to get Quest.li ready that he had to hit…Users create their own tasks, but Kozyatnikov says that eventually he envisions others paying to opt-in to other quests. The winner would take some money in return…“I wanted to build a company that would change the world,” Kozyatnikov continued…”

Open Source

19. Ford unveils OpenXC, invites open-source applications http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20104962-52/ford-unveils-openxc-invites-open-source-applications/ “Ford wants developers to create a broad array of connectivity applications that can be used in conjunction with its cars, and it launched its OpenXC platform Monday to promote that effort…Ford and its partner Bug Labs unveiled OpenXC, a platform designed to allow third-party developers to create any number of open-source hardware or software products that will interact with Ford's Sync system. The idea, said K. Venkatesh Prasad, the senior technical leader of Infotronics at Ford Research and Innovation, is to make it possible for outside developers to design new ways to extend the usefulness of the Sync system, which today is installed in more than 3 million Ford vehicles…Bug Labs CEO Peter Semmelhack suggested on stage at Disrupt, OpenXC is a plug-and-play system that will bring the power of Sync application development to anyone. Ford will soon be making development kits publicly available. As an example, Semmelhack pointed to a system that can let anyone record and share their fuel efficiency with others in real time. Using an open-source hardware box that connects via Bluetooth to the car's internal systems, the device can create a heads-up display on the windshield that shows drivers their fuel efficiency…”

20. element14 Supports Open Source Community at Second Annual Open Hardware Summit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/element14-supports-open-source-community-at-second-annual-open-hardware-summit-2011-09-09 “element14, the first community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, today announced it is an official sponsor of the Open Hardware Summit on Sept. 15 at The New York Hall of Science in Queens, helping unite individuals and companies playing an integral role in defining and leading the Open Source Movement. "We are thrilled to participate again in this year's Open Hardware Summit where the impact of open hardware on engineers and their design processes is brought to center stage,"…Summit attendees will have the opportunity to meet Jeremy Blum, an electrical and computer engineering student at Cornell University with an extensive background in the Arduino programming environment, as well as an active member of element14's "Ask an Expert" panel. Blum will demo his SudoGlove Hardware Controller, designed using open hardware and open software, which interprets gestures and uses the recorded data to drive Radio Control Cars, synthesize music, manipulate videos…”

21. Diaspora still trying to reinvent social networks with open source http://news.techeye.net/internet/diaspora-still-trying-to-reinvent-social-networks-with-open-source “Most people won't have even heard of it. Diaspora is an up and coming social network which is getting a lot more attention in some circles in the wake of Google+'s 'real names' policy. Users are climbing on board after being tipped off that there's a network just like Google+, only without having anything to do with Google, where you can be who you want to be, how you want to be, and still retain full ownership of everything you put there. Currently invite-only and in alpha, preparing to roll out beta, Diaspora is an open-source social network. It's run on free software that anyone with a little bit of coding know-how can get involved in developing. The community involvement in running the site is huge. From spreading the word to community support, it's all open for volunteering…”

SkyNet

22. Android, Chrome Can Push Google Past $600 http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/09/13/android-chrome-can-push-google-past-600/ “…Growing adoption of Android operating system for mobile devices, quicker searches through Google Instant, and increasing use of Google Chrome browser have all aided in maintaining Google’s leadership in the global online search space…we estimate Google’s search market share will increase from 69.5% in 2012 to 72.8% by the end of our forecast period…Google’s growth in the mobile search market is much faster than the overall search market. It unequivocally leads the mobile search market with a share of 97%...Google has mainly Android OS to thank for this success which has brought a significant rise in advertising revenues for the firm…Google is trying to repeat the success it has had with Android OS now with Chrome, which is slowly gaining ground in the browser market that is dominated by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer followed by Firefox. According to Pingdom’s analysis using StatCounter data, between June 2010 and July 2011, Chrome’s market share doubled from 10% to 20%, while IE’s share declined by 20% and Firefox saw a slight decline…The analysis further forecasts that Chrome will outperform IE and Firefox in June 2012 and will lead the browser market with 50% share in November 2012. This prediction bodes well for Google’s overall search business…”

23. Dart: Google secret plan to improve web apps http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392791,00.asp “Buzz and speculation is building around a new and as-yet-unreleased programming language from Google called Dart. The new language, which is billed as "for structured Web programming," will be officially revealed in an opening keynote presentation at the software development conference GoTo in Aarhus, Denmark, on October 10. The two presenters slated to make the announcement are no small potatoes in the programming world—Lars Bak (right), best known for his work on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine (in layman's terms, V8 is what makes the Chrome browser fast), and Gilad Bracha (left), who created the programming language Newspeak and is the primary author of the Java Language Specification (JLS), 3rd Edition. Both men are currently employed as engineers at Google, although they have also both spent considerable time at Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle in January 2010). Not much at all is known about Dart, and mum's the word from Bracha, who posted to his Google+ and Twitter streams "all will be clear" next month after the keynote. But some intelligent guesswork (notably by sister site ExtremeTech's Sebastian Anthony) is pointing to the likelihood that Dart will be more like Java (an object-oriented language) than, say, C. Additionally, because Google already has one programming language, called Go, which is similar to C in some ways, it's likely that Dart will not try to cover the same ground…”

24. Google challenges Kayak, Bing Travel with new flight search tool http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/13/google-flight-search-bing-kayak/ “Google on Tuesday launched a new flight search tool that integrates with Google search and will challenge Bing Travel and travel-intensive sites like Kayak and Orbitz. The new flight search tool is powered by ITA Software, which Google finished acquiring in April. When Google announced its intention to purchase ITA in July 2010, it said it wanted to “create a new, easier way for users to find better flight information online.” Since that time, travel sites and Bing’s search engine have improved and offer a lot of features. But of course, Google has the advantage of being the number one search engine and one of the most used sites on the Web. Google said that starting today people searching for flight information on Google will now have a “Flights” tab that appears on the left-hand side of the screen. At present, I couldn’t get the Flights tab to come up in general searches, but www.google.com/flights works just fine. With help from ITA’s software, Google boasted that its flight results are fast, easy to scan and sort, and helpful at parsing possible destinations and prices…”

25. Google, Intel team up on future Android phones, tablets http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/09/google-intel-team-up-on-future-android-phones-tablets.html “…Google Inc. said it was teaming up with Intel Corp. to develop software aimed at running on the chipmaker's next generation mobile microchips…the two companies said Tuesday that Google's Android software would be optimized for Intel's Atom processors. Atom chips are designed to require half as much power as earlier Intel models, so are better suited for portable, battery-powered devices. Atom chips now run in laptops and tablets from Sony, Dell, Acer and Lenovo -- but have only been used in a handful of smartphones…Last month Google agreed to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion, the company's largest acquisition effort to date. Motorola is one of the primary makers of Android phones, and if cleared by regulators, the purchase would allow Google to design and build its own phones. That could include the use of Intel chips…”

General Technology

26. Evolving technology might leave PC in the dust http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_756086.html “Steve Jobs' bombshell resignation as CEO. Hewlett-Packard's abdication of its multibillion-dollar PC group. Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. Dell's wobbly sales forecast. The whipsaw sequence of recent events in the technology industry highlighted what many are calling the rise of mobility and the marginalization of the PC…The shift from PCs to mobile devices and so-called cloud-based computing has sent ripples throughout the high-tech industry…Google Chairman Eric Schmidt put it bluntly at a recent conference: He said tech had exhausted the limits of the PC as a platform, and the future would center on mobile devices…the PC isn't necessarily going the way of the dinosaur, pay phones and space shuttle missions. But "personal computer" isn't necessarily the first thing most people think of when they talk computers. For many, it's iPhone, Android phone, iPad, Kindle…”

27. AMD breaks Guinness World Record for fastest processor frequency at 8.429 gigahertz http://www.pcworld.com/article/239858/amd_breaks_overclocking_record_leaves_the_competition_in_the_dust.html “…If you’re at all serious about smashing the world record for the highest recorded clock speed on a processor, you’re going to need cutting edge hardware, loads of ingenuity, and the experience of world class overclockers…With a bit of persistence they managed to wrangle a hit a whopping 8.429GHz…AMD’s upcoming FX processor--codenamed Bulldozer--is poised to be their most impressive hardware to date…while I was in Austin a few weeks ago being made privy to all manner of top-secret data points, AMD’s overclocking-sideshow gave us a taste of what the new CPUs are capable of…This little experiment is well out of the realm of we mere mortals. As with any manufacturing process, there’s a bit of variation between individual CPUs. Pro-overclockers Brian Mchlachlan and Sami Maekinen spent the week prior sampling a large batch of Bulldozer processors, looking for chips that performed amicably at increased voltages…”

28. Wacom debuts futuristic 24HD Cintiq interactive pen tablet http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20105128-1/wacom-debuts-futuristic-cintiq-interactive-pen-tablet/ “I have just one word for Wacom's new interactive pen display, the Cintiq 24HD: WANT. "Expensive" would be my alternative selection…For those unfamiliar with the Cintiq line, they're displays with integrated pen tablets; in other words, they're the pen tablet equivalent of touch screens, so you can draw right on them…The base looks especially clever. It's counterweighted so that you can not only tilt the display to multiple angles, but you can pull it forward to rest over the keyboard. And it uses the same ambidextrous ExpressKeys and Touch Rings that greatly improved the usability of the Intuos4 over earlier models…with its 16:10 aspect ratio and 1920 x 1200 resolution, the 24-inch 24HD targets video editors and animators. Like its pen tablet kin, the display supports 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, but it offers a greater range of tilt--40 degrees, compared to 20 for the Intuos4 line…”

29. A New and Improved Moore's Law http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38548/?p1=A1 “Researchers have, for the first time, shown that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months. The conclusion, backed up by six decades of data, mirrors Moore's law, the observation from Intel founder Gordon Moore that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months. But the power-consumption trend might have even greater relevance than Moore's law as battery-powered devices—phones, tablets, and sensors—proliferate. "The idea is that at a fixed computing load, the amount of battery you need will fall by a factor of two every year and a half…”

30. Supercomputer predicts revolution http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14841018 “…A study, based on millions of articles, charted deteriorating national sentiment ahead of the recent revolutions in Libya and Egypt. While the analysis was carried out retrospectively, scientists say the same processes could be used to anticipate upcoming conflict. The system also picked up early clues about Osama Bin Laden's location…The study's information was taken from a range of sources including the US government-run Open Source Centre and BBC Monitoring, both of which monitor local media output around the world…In total, Mr Leetaru gathered more than 100 million articles. Reports were analysed for two main types of information: mood - whether the article represented good news or bad news, and location - where events were happening and the location of other participants in the story…Mood detection, or "automated sentiment mining" searched for words such as "terrible", "horrific" or "nice". Location, or "geocoding" took mentions of specific places, such as "Cairo" and converted them in to coordinates that could be plotted on a map. Analysis of story elements was used to create an interconnected web of 100 trillion relationships…”

DHMN Technology

31. DIY flying robo hacker threatens wireless networks http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20103599-1/diy-flying-robo-hacker-threatens-wireless-networks/ “With a name like SkyNET, it's got to be scary. This flying robo-hacker deserves its "Terminator"-inspired moniker: Although it stops short of actually hunting humans, it's a potential nightmare for anyone with a wireless home network…it's a DIYer's dream: cheap and easy to build and fun to operate. SkyNET combines a toy helicopter and a computer configured to attack Wi-Fi networks…The nasty little device can compromise computers on wireless networks…The prototype SkyNET drone is a Parrot AR.Drone quadrocopter modded with a lightweight Linux computer, 3G mobile broadband connection, GPS receiver, and a pair of Wi-Fi cards--one for controlling the drone and one for attacking wireless networks. The whole thing can be built for less than $600…SkyNET was developed by researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology…They're working to make the system even less expensive…they recommend defenses against the attack, most of which involve shoring up wireless home networks by detecting new connections. No, setting a password on your router is not enough…”

32. On Your Mark, Get Set, Hack! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903532804576566930629307852.html “During a "hackathon" last year, GroupMe co-founders Steve Martocci and Jared Hecht built a group text-messaging service in one 24-hour stretch. In August, the co-founders sold GroupMe to Skype for around $80 million. Hackathons, once an obscure corner of the computer-programming world, are becoming more mainstream. The contests, which bring together computer programmers for a few days to cook up applications on the fly, are being used by entrepreneurs as a launchpad for their start-ups. Companies and other organizations also see them as a fun and cheap tool to spur innovation…The winners of a widely followed hackathon hosted by TechCrunch will be noted at its Disrupt conference this week in San Francisco. About 700 people registered for the hackathon, which took place last weekend. That's up from more than 300 at the TechCrunch hackathon in New York last year, where the GroupMe founders developed their software. Hackathons, which first appeared in the late 1990s as a vehicle for open-source software developers to organize their collective computer-coding efforts, started to get more notice when Yahoo Inc. launched its Hack Day in December 2005…”

33. Teague's User-Friendly Kit For Young Hackers http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664981/wanted-teagues-user-friendly-kit-for-young-hackers “…Two designers at Seattle-based Teague, Matt Wolfe and Adam Kumpf, think their open-source electronics kit called Teagueduino can go one step further--turning anyone into a machine-creating, robot-making, game-designing whiz. They wanted to lower Arduino's barriers to entry, opening it up to youngsters.Teagueduino is based on Arduino, a widely-used open-source electronics prototyping platform with its own hardware and software. While Arduino seems simple--a tiny circuit board uses programming commands or sensors to prompt actions like turning on lights or starting motors--it definitely requires some level of hacking expertise. As fans and users of the platform, Wolfe and Kumpf wanted to bring Arduino's barrier of entry even further down, so someone without any electronics or programming knowledge could be comfortable using the boards and the software. According to Tad Toulis, a creative director at Teague, their goal is to bring the concepts of hacking and prototyping to people who don't consider themselves designers or engineers. "Our hope is that the device will not only get picked up within the prototyping and the design communities but that we'll be able to get it into the hands of grade-schoolers and high school students as well…”

34. Gigapixel Hack Makes Photos More Interactive http://www.pcworld.com/article/239627/gigapixel_hack_makes_photos_more_interactive.html “Have you ever looked at a particulalry stunning photograph and wished you could really immerse yourself in it? A recent project attempts to do just that, with the help of a good camera, a hacked Kinect, and an Arduino board. Samuel Cox, a university collegue of mine, recently held an exhibition for his postgraduate project, based on interactive photography. Sam invited the public to really explore the UK city of Lincoln and surrounding areas on a gigapixel picture (that's 1,000 megapixels), and see if he could immerse more of people's senses when looking at photographs…The project, called GigaLinc, encourages people to step in front of a Kinect and a large screen, and get immersed in massive photos of the city of Lincoln, UK. Users have three photo options to chose from, and after standing on a footpad to choose the image, the person would then make certain arm movements in order to move around and zoom in and out of the photo. As you view a particular photo, audio clips recorded from that location will play as well. If a person finds a certain part of the image, interesting they can take a screenshot…”

Leisure & Entertainment

35. Festival promotes self-publishing for struggling writers http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/86/article/55785/ “…annual AJC Decatur Book Festival…brings together book lovers, authors and literary organizations to promote new works, learn about the publishing business…Self-publishing companies such as BookLogix and Bookbaby were also promoting their services to those who wish to start selling their books through online vendors…I was able to attend the workshop "How to Make Self-Publishing Work for You," hosted by the president and CEO of BookLogix, Ahmed Meradji. Since self-publishing companies were prevalent among the festival's displays this year, it was insightful to see why so many would-be writers are opting to go this route as opposed to traditional publishing…the downside is that the author is the one who must…arrange all the marketing for his work. This requires an excellent savvy in networking and advertising. "You have to become a businessman as well as an author,"…it may become necessary within the upcoming decades to focus on online publishing. As of today, e-books cover 16 percent of the book market…Within the next 20 years…it is projected that e-books will have 89 percent of the market, and printed books will only have 11 percent. As e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad grow in popularity, mainstream book retailers increasingly suffer…Whatever the format, whether it is traditional print or e-book, the aspirations of potential writers continue to blossom with exuberance, even in this difficult economy…” http://host.madison.com/entertainment/arts_and_theatre/books/article_704a4468-db12-11e0-94fb-001cc4c03286.html “……”

36. Idle Games Wants To Be The Pixar Of Social Gaming; In Their First Game, You Play God http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/idle-games/ “If you were into PC gaming in the early 2000s, you know what Black & White is. Peter Molyneux’s 2001 classic published by EA gave every gamer the role they wanted: God. A new startup is aiming to bring that style of game into the social space. And more broadly, they aim to be the “Pixar of casual games”. Idle Games is launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt. Their first title is Idle Worship, a Black & White-esque game for Facebook. You play the role of a god, controlling villagers on an island to do certain tasks for you. While that may sound ominous, you can choose to be either good or bad in your actions. And overall, the game is light-hearted and fun…This first title by Idle Games, a startup founded by Rick Thompson (a co-founder of Playdom) and Jeffrey Hyman, aims to disrupt the casual gaming market by being an “anti-Zynga” of sorts. They believe social gaming is more about entertainment, interaction, and quality — not just button-mashing or mindless clicking. In many ways, they’re also going after the MMO market too. While the games will start on Facebook, you can imagine that they could quickly spread to other platforms as well. Like other casual games and MMOs, the emphasis for the business will be on virtual goods. But again, the Idle Games team is determined to create goods of the utmost quality so that users feel compelled to buy them and happy when they do…”

37. Angry Birds hits 350M downloads, more films and media coming http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/12/angry-birds-films-media/ “Gamers have downloaded game developer Rovio’s Angry Birds, a popular iPhone slingshot-style game franchise, more than 350 million times…Mobile device users play the game for more than 300 million minutes each day collectively, Stalbow said. But on top of being a popular game, it’s also becoming a massive entertainment franchise that spans multiple media forms. The company’s short films on YouTube, for example, have picked up more than 170 million views. Stalbow, a former Fox Entertainment executive, joined the company to expand Angry Birds from a game to a multimedia franchise. That included deals like the one Rovio secured with 20th Century Fox, the producer of animated film Rio. Rovio released a “Rio” version of its game alongside the movie to piggyback on the buzz surrounding the movie…Rovio is currently raising a round of funding that might value the company at more than $1.2 billion…”

38. Songza Launches Mobile, Sharable Music Collections In The Cloud http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/13/songza-raises-seven-figure-round-launches-mobile-sharable-music-collections-in-the-cloud/ “…Amie Street…in 2006…was targeting a new music model, which allowed musicians to upload their songs to Amie Street’s platform, offering those tracks to listeners for free. The more downloads the songs attracted, the price would slowly increase — the price then indicating the song’s popularity. In what now looks like a savvy decision, Amie Street sold to Amazon last September for an undisclosed amount, deciding to focus its efforts on Songza: The social Internet radio service it acquired in 2008…after much iterating and tinkering, Songza is launching free mobile apps for iOS and Android that allow users to create and share personalized music collections — in the comfort of the cloud. Songza Co-founder and CEO Elias Roman likens the service to a “music concierge”, in that it serves users with playlists created by experts (and friends) for whatever mood or musical experience you could possible want. “The future of music will be driven by the convergence of expert and social curation”, the co-founder said. While iTunes, Google Music, and beyond offer some neat customizable playlist options, Roman has a point. We are more likely to go in for playlists created by musicians, critics, and DJs we trust — as well as those created by friends…Today, listeners want big, free music collections that are easy to build, easy to keep fresh, accessible anywhere and sharable with their friends. Roman said that he thinks Songza offers just that kind of solution…”

Economy and Technology

39. TechStars Launches Cloud Startup Accelerator http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/13/techstars-launches-cloud-startup-accelerator-bonus-new-trailer-of-its-reality-tv-show/ “Startup accelerator TechStars, arguably one of the best of its genre in the world, is today announcing the launch of its first thematically focused business kickstarter. Dubbed TechStars Cloud, the sub-accelerator will focus exclusively on backing cloud computing and infrastructure startups, and companies that work with OpenStack…The inaugural TechStars Cloud program will run from January to April 2012 in San Antonio, Texas, and will be co-organized with Rackspace Hosting. TechStars will select roughly ten companies – evidently focused on cloud computing and infrastructure – to participate. They will receive seed funding, mentorship from people like the aforementioned, and benefit from a number of perks available only to TechStars startups and alumni…”

40. Apsalar Mobile Analytics And Behavioral Targeting Platform http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/13/apsalar-raises-5-million-for-mobile-analytics-and-behavioral-targeting-platform/ “Apsalar, a San Francisco startup that offers mobile analytics, behavioral targeting and optimization solutions to iOS and Android app developers and publishers, has raised $5 million in funding in a round led by Thomvest Ventures…Apsalar’s set of tools helps app developers and publishers gain insights on how their apps are used through a self-service SDK or API, in order for them to identify and deliver personalized content and offers to users…”

41. TalkTo Allows Consumers To SMS Any Local Business And Get A Quick Response http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/13/talkto-allows-consumers-to-sms-any-local-business-and-get-a-quick-response/ “Have you ever called a local restaurant, store or service professional and been put on hold…Or worse, you can’t get through to a representative and are left leaving a message on an answering machine with no assurance that you voicemail will be checked. The fact is it can be frustrating to communicate with local and general businesses via the phone. Enter TalkTo, a company launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt, which allows consumers to send text messages send messages to any business and get quick responses to questions, feedback, and more…what makes the platform so appealing is that a business doesn’t necessarily need to engage with TalkTo to receive the message. The company employs a call center that receives the message and will notify the business immediately of the request and will make sure the consumer receives an answer to the question…”

Civilian Aerospace

42. Cheaper satellite pictures http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?trid=1089&nlid=nldly&nld=2011-09-08 “Dan Berkenstock, cofounder and chief product officer of Skybox Imaging, wants to let "anyone know what's happening anywhere in the world at any time." Next year the company plans to launch the first of what it hopes will be a constellation of 12 to 24 satellites taking high-­resolution pictures of Earth. Each satellite should cost about a tenth as much as the $250 million to $500 million imaging satellites operated by companies like DigitalGlobe and GeoEye. Currently, so few commercial imaging satellites are in orbit that it can take days or even weeks to get pictures of a location—and there will be only one per day. By placing multiple satellites in multiple orbits for the cost of a single traditional satellite, Skybox plans to realize something closer to Berkenstock's vision of anywhere, anytime coverage: it could photograph nearly any spot on the planet up to three or four times a day, weather permitting…”

43. Hosted Payload Hailed For New Business Model http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/asd/2011/09/13/02.xml&headline=Hosted%20Payload%20Hailed%20For%20New%20Business%20Model&channel=defense “Though U.S. Air Force officials are hailing the forthcoming launch of a military payload hosted on a commercial satellite, funding could be an obstacle to a future Pentagon satellite infrastructure that relies heavily on hosted payloads for service. SES-2 is slated to launch Sept. 17 on an Ariane 5 rocket. The satellite, made by Orbital Sciences Corp., will carry the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (Chirp) made by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)…In total, the government spent about $216 million developing the sensors, readying the payload and integrating it onto the satellite, Loverro says. Originally, the sensor piece of the project was slated to cost $65 million. That changed to about $82.5 million owing to a one-year delay in the project, says Lt. Col. William McGuffey, director of SMC’s space projects division…Chirp is expected to reach orbit at about 15% of the typical cost for a government payload to be lofted…”

44. Ball, Lockheed Martin Space Systems picked for space refueling study http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/09/09/ball-lockheed-martin-space-systems.html?ana=yfcpc “Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. are among four companies selected…to study how to refuel exploration spacecraft in space…The studies are to cover the feasibility of storing cryogenic fuels space, refueling a space vehicle with them and also to begin outlining what technologies would be necessary to have the refueling capability…Being able to store fuel in space and have craft refuel beyond orbit could be a key capability for human exploration flights beyond the moon…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

45. NVIDIA's GPUDirect For Video Technology Loves That Parallel Processing http://hothardware.com/News/NVIDIAs-GPUDirect-For-Video-Technology-Loves-That-Parallel-Processing/ “…NVIDIA…just introduced GPUDirect for Video, a technology that enables application developers to deliver higher quality, more realistic on-air broadcoast graphics. Taking advantage of the parallel processing power of GPUs for image processing, GPUDirect allows industry-standard video I/O devices to communicate directly with NVIDIA professional Quadro and Tesla graphics cards at ultra-low latency…With GPUDirect for Video, the video I/O card is fully synchronized with the GPUs, eliminating CPU overhead and, most importantly, dramatically reducing latency. Historically, broadcasters and video production professionals had to contend with delays of as many as ten frames per second -- an amount easily visible to the eye -- when transferring video from a video I/O device to a GPU. This is because the two devices previously could not communicate directly with one another to ensure synchronization. This required application developers to manage complex buffering schemes, leading to unnecessary CPU overhead and increased latency…these delays in aggregate significantly raised the cost and complexity of larger broadcast productions. Might sound a little bit outside of the consumer space, but then again, you may well notice the benefits of the technology in your favorite TV program in the not so distant future…”

46. No end in sight for discrete GPU http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2011-09-12/no_end_in_sight_for_discrete_gpus.html “…Jon Peddie recently published an analysis of the GPU market, noting that the “discrete GPU is alive and thriving.”…He claims that “although the popular press and some analysts would like to believe otherwise, there’s a simple truth in the [GPU] business: You can’t get the same level of performance from integrated graphics as you can from a discrete GPU. It’s a matter of basic physics…how could a Fusion or Sandy Bridge CPU even come close to the performance of a discrete GPU?” His argument is that embedded graphics processors are highly unlikely to replace discrete GPUs anytime soon, noting that while integrated graphics are great for graphics-based applications, they are not able to deliver the power needed for heavier tools, including CAD rendering…while integrated graphics are fine for running graphics-based applications, too often people "leap to the conclusion that integrated graphics will surpass and replace discrete graphics as part of the natural evolution of Moore's Law."…Those who are concerned about graphics performance will buy discrete GPU systems…”

47. Asustek, NCHC to build super graphics processing unit http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110909PD211.html “Asustek Computer, on September 8, announced that the company has finished establishing the largest ever GPU supercomputer in Taiwan with cooperation from the Taiwan government-backed National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC)…The supercomputer has 88 built-in compute nodes with each node having two Intel Xeon X5670 processors and three Tesla M2070 graphics cards. The machine can provide 50 teraflops of double-precision floating-point calculations and fits into a 6.6 square meter room. It is capable of being used in several research industries such as earthquake analysis, weather science, bio-medical and aerial/space technology…”

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