NEW NET Weekly List for 23 Apr 2013

Below is the final list of technology news and issues for the Tuesday, 23 April 2013, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at Sergio's Restaurant, 2639 South Oneida Street, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1.        Google Fiber—on the Silicon Prairie, the Silicon Hills and now the Silicon Slopes (Provo)  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/google-fiberon-silicon-prairie-silicon.html  “…the Google Fiber team is in Provo, Utah, where Mayor John Curtis just announced that we intend to make Provo our third Google Fiber City. Utah is already home to hundreds of tech companies and startups, and many of them are based in Provo…the Provo area ranks second in the nation in patent growth, and is consistently ranked as one of the top places to live…the future of the Internet will be built on gigabit speeds, and we’re sure the businesses and residents of Provo already have some good ideas for what they’d build with a gig…we’ve signed an agreement to purchase iProvo, an existing fiber-optic network owned by the city. As a part of the acquisition, we would commit to upgrade the network to gigabit technology and finish network construction so that every home along the existing iProvo network would have the opportunity to connect to Google Fiber…”  http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2013/04/20/provo-utahs-response-to-google-fiber-1/

2.       The Digital Public Library of America!  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/now-with-no-further-ado-we-present-the-digital-public-library-of-america/274963/  “Two-and-a-half years ago, at a meeting in Cambridge, leaders of 42 of America's top libraries and research institutions decided that the time had come to build something together…the group was able to agree on a single sentence: "It's a worthy effort, and we are willing to work together toward it." The "it" in question: a national, digital public library…The idea behind the Digital Public Library of America is fairly simple actually -- it is the attempt, really a large-scale attempt, to knit together America's archives, libraries, and museums, which have a tremendous amount of content -- all forms of human expression, from images and photographs, to artwork, to published material and unpublished material, like archival and special collections. We want to bring that all together in one place…”

3.       The simple, practical way to share a Dropbox folder  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2032507/the-simple-practical-way-to-share-a-dropbox-folder.html  “Almost everyone who uses Dropbox knows that they can share files and folders through it. Yet a great many of them, perhaps the majority, do it the wrong way. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone erroneously claim that someone else needed a Dropbox account to access shared files. That just isn't so…All they need is a browser and an Internet connection. Dropbox offers two approaches to sharing: a regular share and a share link. The regular share is the best known, but in most cases a share link makes more sense. When you invite someone to share a folder the regular way…This requires everyone to get their own Dropbox account. And a free account may not be sufficient if the folder you're sharing contains many large files…A relative recently invited me to share a folder that contained almost 2GB of data. That would have nearly filled a new, free account…in most cases, I prefer using a shared link. This makes your files accessible on the Web to anyone who has the URL. All they have to do is click the link and download the files…”

4.       Become an Evernote power user: 10 must-know tips  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033479/become-an-evernote-power-user-10-must-know-tips.html  “…Evernote is friendly when you’re getting started with it, but the more you use it, the more your notes can pile up, threatening your productivity. Now…it’s time to dig into Evernote’s arsenal and charge ahead like a true note-taking, to-do-list-tackling warrior…Use checkboxes in notes…Save frequently used searches…Clip Web pages with Evernote Mobile…Archive webpages, in whole or in part…Master Evernote’s search tool…Learn advanced email syntax…Transcribe voice notes…Pick up keyboard shortcuts…”

5.        How to record a Skype call for free  http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2013/04/09/how-to-record-a-skype-call-for-free/  “Recording a Skype call is much easier than recording a regular telephone conversation, which requires…specialist equipment. Better still, you can do it for free. For this method, you’ll need to install the Skype Windows desktop client (the Windows 8 app won’t work), and a piece of free software called MP3 Skype Recorder. If you install both these pieces of software at the same time, you may need to restart your PC before MP3 Skype Recorder recognises the Skype installation…Once you’ve completed these steps, everything is automatically set up to record your conversations. In fact, you might want to press the big Stop button and prevent Skype Recorder from automatically recording all your conversations…”

6.       Rural California ISP launches white spaces broadband for remote customers  http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/rural-california-isp-launches-white-spaces-broadband-for-remote-customers/  “An Internet service provider in California…has deployed one of "the first commercial application[s] of TV White-Space broadband" to a rural area where many people lack strong Internet access. The ISP, Cal.net, said…that "[o]ver 59,000 residents in our rural service area have had little or no quality Internet access." Many of those could be served with Cal.net's new white spaces network, which uses empty TV channels to send long-range wireless signals. Cal.net built the service using RuralConnect, a set of base station antennas and white space broadband radios made by a manufacturer called Carlson. The latest version of RuralConnect unveiled last month promises speeds of up to 16Mbps, although Cal.net's website promises wireless service of up to just 6Mbps. Cal.net's white space service is available to businesses and residents in the Gold Country region in central and northeastern California…”

7.        How to become a LinkedIn power user in a few easy steps  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2032927/how-to-become-a-linkedin-power-user-in-five-easy-steps.html  “…Our five-step guide will make you a LinkedIn power user, so you can land your next job opportunity, promotion, or business deal…Step 1: Polish your profile…Step 2: Get connected—and stay connected…Step 3: Be search-savvy…Step 4: Join groups…”

8.       The Death of Upcoming.org  http://waxy.org/2013/04/the_death_of_upcomingorg/  “…Yahoo's finally decided to close Upcoming.org, the events community I started nearly ten years ago…they're doing it with 11 days notice, no on-site announcement, and no way to back up past events…The last five years were hard on Upcoming. After Gordon Luk, Leonard Lin, and I left at the end of 2007, the site quickly started to fall apart. The social features that made Upcoming unique were minimized, or removed entirely, by a series of redesigns. Spam, like creeping kudzu, was left unchecked and spread across the site. Fortunately, the final catastrophic redesign never made its way out of beta. By 2009, the only people using Upcoming were event promoters and spammers…depressing considering self-promotion was banned entirely for its first two years…Frustratingly, nothing's come to take its place. Potential competitors like Plancast and Going closed their doors, while others never grew an organic community. Some sites carved off a piece of Upcoming: Facebook's private events, Songkick's concerts, and Lanyrd's fantastic conference coverage. But, for me, finding events I care about feels like 2002 again. I'm missing geeky events I'd love, and when I travel to a new city, I'm back to digging through the calendar listings of my local weekly newspapers. It blows my mind that the problem Upcoming solved — surfacing interesting events in a city, driven by public social activity — is an unsolved problem again…”

9.       The Internet Archive aggressively expands its software collection  http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/14/the-internet-archive-aggressively-expands-its-software-collection-now-the-largest-of-its-kind/  “Because the Web was created in such a rapid and decentralized manner, the history of the Internet could have been lost completely, had it not been for organizations like the Internet Archive…the Internet Archive is now greatly expanding its collection of historic software. According to the Internet Archive’s Jason Scott, the organization now hosts “the largest collection of historical software online in the world.”…This rapid expansion came in part through partnerships with many independent archives, including the Shareware CD Archive, the TOSEC archive, the FTP site boneyard, and the Disk Drives collection. In addition to actual software, documentation is also being invested in, like this Apple I manual…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

10.     The 5 biggest online privacy threats of 2013  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031908/the-5-biggest-online-privacy-threats-of-2013.html  “…Efforts to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) aim to make your online data harder to collect and share. Meanwhile, proposed legislation called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) could make it easier to obtain. As you watch your privacy being kicked around like a football in a scrum, pay close attention to the following five major threats. #1: Cookie proliferation…#2: Seizing cloud data…#3: Location data betrayal…#4: Data never forgets a face…#5: Scanning in the name of cybersecurity…”

11.      Ex-Googler releases update to Disconnect, a data-blocking tool  http://gigaom.com/2013/04/15/ex-googler-releases-big-update-to-disconnect-a-data-blocking-tool/  “As sites like Facebook work with data companies and advertisers to collect more of our personal information, tools like Disconnect may be our best hope of preserving privacy…The rise of social media means companies are collecting more and more of our personal data every time we go online. The government has been slow to respond — or even understand — the issue, leading some people to adopt technology tools as a way to protect their privacy. Disconnect.me…provides “Facebook Disconnect” and other tools to stop the “Like” button and other widgets from siphoning data about your web browsing habits. On Monday, Disconnect launched a major update that not only provides a better picture of which companies want to track you, but also improves web speed…”

12.     Fox Shuts Down Cory Doctorow’s Homeland Book In Overzealous DMCA takedown  http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/21/fox-shuts-down-cory-doctorows-homeland-book-in-overzealous-dmca-shutdown/  “…links to Cory Doctorow’s book, Homeland, are being shut down after a DMCA request by Fox. Why is Cory’s Creative Commons licensed book that is available for free being attacked? It kind of sounds like it could be a copy of Homeland, the TV series, so they shut it down. Homeland is available on multiple sites, including Doctorow’s own, and is also available on some torrent sites. The takedown notice names a number of Fox’s own properties, including Homeland…Apparently Cory himself replied to the DMCA takedown, saying to TorrentFreak: “I think you can safely say I’m incandescent with rage. BRING ME THE SEVERED HEAD OF RUPERT MURDOCH!…”

13.     OK Glass, RIP Privacy: The Democratization Of Surveillance  http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/20/ok-glass-rip-privacy-the-democratization-of-surveillance/  “…Google Glass started shipping on the same week that CISPA passed the House, 3DRobotics unveiled their new site, and 4chan and Reddit pored over surveillance photos trying to crowdsource the identity of the Boston bombers. Cameras on phones. Cameras on drones. Cameras on glasses. Cameras atop stores, in ATMs, on the street…Modern cars log detailed data their manufacturers can access if they so desire. Oh, and “if you carry a phone, your location is being recorded every minute of every day.”…I’ve been arguing for years that “Soon enough, pseudonymity and anonymity will only exist online; in the real world…they’ll be more or less extinct.”…Facial recognition, gait recognition, drones the size of dragonflies — all here already. Just imagine twenty years from now. Every step you take outside will automatically be tracked, indexed, and correlated to all of your previous activity ever…”

14.     Foxconn must pay Microsoft for EVERY Android thing it makes  http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/17/foxconn-becomes-largest-microsoft-patent-licensee/  “Microsoft just scored a coup on the patent royalty front, with a new deal with Taiwanese phone maker, Hon Hai, which owns Foxconn…Microsoft will get paid a flat fee per Android and Chrome-based device that Foxconn makes. And there are a lot of those. A whopping 40 percent of the world’s phones come from the firm’s China-based factories. Foxconn is an ODM, or “original design manufacturer”, and makes Android devices for clients like Acer and Amazon (it makes the Kindle Fire…”

15.     EFF To Challenge Six Innovation-Stifling 3D-Printing Patents  http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/15/eff-to-challenge-six-innovation-stifling-3d-printing-patents/  “As 3D printers become more ubiquitous, small manufacturers have two choices – build and hope for the best or cede to patent trolls who own a number of basic patents around extrusion and additive manufacturing. Sadly, more of those patents are being filed daily and many have plenty of prior art available that would make them unwelcome at the Patent Office. Formlabs, for example, is facing this issue with their unique additive printer. Luckily, the EFF is currently challenging six of those early patents including one that deals with the creation of confections using extruders full of chocolate…Documents the EFF is filing are essentially examples of prior art that would invalidate these patents…”

16.     Comcast confirms: Yes, we’re encrypting basic cable now  http://gigaom.com/2013/04/15/comcast-basic-cable-encryption/  “Comcast customers, get ready for yet another TV transition: The cable provider has started to alert its customers in some markets that it is about to encrypt their basic cable signals, forcing them to order a digital adapter if they want to continue to receive basic programming through the service. Comcast is making adapters available for free in select markets, and the company even has a model that works with third-party set-top boxes — but some users could still be left in the dark. Consumers who already use a Comcast-provided set-top box on all of their TV sets don’t have to worry, their service will continue to work as before. But if you have a TV in your den that’s hooked up to your cable outlet without a set-top box, then you’re going to have to get an adapter to keep it working…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

17.     Smartphone innovation: Where we're going next  http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-57578982-85/smartphone-innovation-where-were-going-next-smartphones-unlocked/  “…the Samsung's Galaxy S4 pauses and unpauses video when you avert your gaze, and in the Lumia 920, Nokia was one of the first to introduce wireless charging and an ultrasensitive screen you can control while wearing gloves. Yet compared with the real meat of what you do with a phone -- things like communicating with people, browsing the Internet, snapping photos, and playing games -- today's top phones are mostly all on par…All of today's technology will certainly improve: cameras will get sharper and clearer, processors faster, screens stronger, and batteries longer-lived. But in tomorrow's tech world, that "filler" may be the more compelling story…smartphones will become increasingly impactful in interacting with our surrounding world, but more as one smaller piece of a much large, interconnected puzzle abuzz with data transfer and information…Sensitive sensors track the world in real time…'Appcessories'…Rise of gestures and touch-free input…The larger ecosystem…Wearable tech and you…”

18.     Fujitsu Technology Turns Paper Into Touchscreen  http://mashable.com/2013/04/16/fujitsu-paper-touchscreen/  “…Fujitsu has developed a technology that detects objects your finger is touching in the real world, effectively turning any surface — a piece of paper, for example — into a touchscreen…"This system doesn't use any special hardware; it consists of just a device like an ordinary webcam, plus a commercial projector. Its capabilities are achieved by image processing technology,"…In a video presentation (above), we see how one can manipulate data on a piece of paper: by using finger gestures, you can copy an image or a text excerpt and store it into memory. Besides flat surfaces, the technology also works on curved or uneven ones, so one can easily manipulate data from a book…researchers at Fujitsu plan to develop a commercial version of the system by fiscal 2014…”

19.     Dell XPS 13 Linux Ultrabook  http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/it-just-works-dell-xps-13-developer-edition-linux-ultrabook-review/  “…the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition…comes preloaded with Ubuntu Linux, and Dell has spent a substantial amount of time and effort in ensuring that it works—and works well. In an effort originally known as Project Sputnik, Dell dedicated resources into doing Linux on an Ultrabook "right"—writing code where necessary (and contributing that code back upstream like a good FOSS citizen) and paying attention to the entire user experience rather than merely working on components in a vacuum. The result is a perfectly functional Ultrabook…I've struggled before with using Linux as my full-time operating environment both at work and at home. I did it for years at work, but it was never quite as easy as I wanted it to be…The remarkable thing about the XPS 13 Developer Edition is that it's so unremarkable—it has Ubuntu 12.04 LTS installed out of the box, and it simply works. The trackpad does two-finger scrolling (with inertia!) without having to add some random crazy guy's PPA and install extra packages. It picked up my Wi-Fi network and joined it without requiring me to do anything other than supply the passkey. It just worked…”

Apps

20.    TextMe tries to recreate Skype as a mobile-first app  http://gigaom.com/2013/03/19/textme-tries-to-recreate-skype-as-a-mobile-first-app/  “…Skype, Pinger, WhatsApp, Tango and Viber — are all great apps, said Julien Decot, the new VP of business development and monetization at TextMe. The problem…is they’re five separate apps, each specializing in a different set of features. TextMe, however, has a plan to combine the best aspects of each of those services into a single multidimensional communications tool. Decot spent the last five years at Skype tailoring the VoIP giant’s corporate strategy, and while he believes Skype has designed a juggernaut of a communication platform, it was one that was always optimized for a PC environment. The hole Skype left in mobile was filled led by numerous mobile over-the-top (OTT) communications apps like WhatsApp. What the market needed…is a made-for-mobile Skype incorporating the new features of the emerging class of OTT apps…”

21.     Treatment of mental health needs a sound application  http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/treatment-of-mental-health-needs-a-sound-application-20130406-2hdp8.html  “Sarah Faithfull recorded hundreds of meals with her smartphone last year. But she wasn't bragging on social media about the deliciousness of her food. She was fighting anorexia. Faithfull used the mobile app Recovery Record to note what she ate and how she felt, whether she had restricted her intake, and if she wanted to purge or binge. These details, and many more, were sent automatically to her psychologist. ''Every time you put in your data after a meal, the screen comes up with a positive affirmation,'' says Faithfull…''Each time you record a meal, you earn puzzle pieces and rewards,'' she says. ''It also offers a whole lot of different coping strategies.''…Recovery Record is one of hundreds of new mental health programs designed for mobiles and tablets, targeting disorders from social anxiety to schizophrenia…''We found just in the Apple app store there were 700 for mental health conditions, which is astounding,''…Proudfoot, a director of e-health at the Black Dog Institute, led the development of myCompass, a free web program aimed at stress, anxiety and depression…Clinicians have warned in recent years, however, that an overreliance on internet technology can cause mental health problems such as attention-deficit disorder, narcissism, anxiety and even internet addiction…other research suggests the right technology allows people to better connect with their thoughts and feelings…One app with a strong focus on prevention is Smiling Mind, a mindfulness meditation program co-founded by James Tutton…He describes it as ''a pre-emptive tool'' for everyone to use against stress…Smiling Mind, which has been downloaded 30,000 times since last October and trialled in 20 schools, will undergo thorough testing by Monash University. But Tutton warns that ''there are lots of programs out there, particularly going into schools'', that aren't being subjected to testing…”

SkyNet

22.    Google Quick View  http://googlesystem.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/google-quick-view.html  “Google Search for mobile has a new feature called "Quick View". Right now, it only shows up for Wikipedia results and it allows users to load search results almost instantly. "Quick view is an experimental project and is currently enabled for pages from Wikipedia when you search in English on Google.com. We are working to expand this to additional websites," explains Google. There's a form for getting updates "about participating in the mobile quick view field trial"…Quick View loads pages in less than 100 milliseconds…”

23.    Google On Earnings: Our Future Lies in Hardware Too  http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/04/19/google-to-world-our-future-lies-in-hardware/  “…Google’s revenues were slightly off expectations. And one of the reasons is the declining value of a mobile ad…The emphasis yesterday on its innovation projects, Glass and automated vehicles in particular, is new for Google…Page is lining them up as a serious part of Google’s future. And what is telling about that, is the future looks like hardware. To be very precise their future has the look of integration – infrastructure, hardware, software, services…To date, Google, in hardware, has relied on tweaking other people’s products – tablets, laptops and phones. But Page made reference to upcoming opportunities in unbreakable displays as well as improved battery life, as opportunities for Motorola Mobility. However, the new Google Glass is a stand for something distinctly Google…They need urgently to get momentum behind Glass before the new generation of flexible, unbreakable displays transforms the smartphone sector. And for that reason Glass is going to test Google like nothing before. They have a window of, at best, 18 months…”  http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/18/larry-page-its-important-for-google-to-focus-on-future-big-bets-not-just-incremental-changes/  “…Page discussed Google’s current “big bets,” which are Chrome, YouTube and Android as the mature products that are important to continue innovating on. However, Page made it clear…it’s his job to focus on the future…future big bets are Google Fiber…Google Glass…“I get chills when I use technology of the future, and that happens with Glass.” Page reminded us that it’s “early days” for the product, saying that he finds the directions, messaging…and photo-taking as great core functionality…”

24.    Google Launches Google+ Commenting System For Blogger  http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/18/google-launches-google-commenting-system-for-blogger/  “Google today announced that bloggers on its Blogger publishing platform can now enable a new Google+-powered commenting system for their sites. This means Blogger users can now use Google+ as a commenting platform for their blogs and comments from Google+ will automatically appear on their blogs, too. Google has already enabled this new system on all of its official blogs. This new commenting widget, Google says, will enable bloggers to “see activity from direct visitors, and from people talking about your content on Google+.” This, the company argues, will make it easier to engage with commenters…”

General Technology

25.    North Korean missile test delayed by Windows 8  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/04/north-korean-missile-test-delayed-by-windows-8.html  “North Korea’s official news agency announced today that the military’s planned missile test had been put on hold because of “problems with Windows 8.” Intelligence analysts said that the announcement gave rare insight into the inner workings of North Korea’s missile program, which until last year had been running on Windows 95…the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not indicate a new scheduled time for a missile test, saying only that it was “working with Windows 8 support to resolve the issue…”

26.    Microsoft updates Windows 8 News, Maps, other apps  http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57579591-75/microsoft-updates-windows-8-news-maps-other-apps/  “Microsoft has updated its various Bing apps for Windows 8 in a move designed to make them quicker to use and easier to customize. The News app now lets you manage the different news categories that appear in the app. You can add or remove categories for world news, technology, politics, business, and entertainment, and sort the order in which they appear. You can also add a particular news source or RSS feed to your featured sources and to the Windows Start screen so that you can more quickly access their stories. The News app's app bar has also been enhanced. You can now more easily view all of your featured news categories, favorite topics, and even top video clips…”

27.    Hawaii Approves Project to Build World’s Largest Optical Telescope  http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/6230/20130413/hawaii-approves-project-build-world-s-largest-optical-telescope.htm  “…Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources has given green light to one of the most daring scientific projects the paradise archipelago has undertaken. The Mauna Kea volcano…welcomes the project to build the world's largest optical telescope…The star-gazing device, which at completion will boast a breathtaking 30 meter long, will observe planets that orbit stars other than the Sun and would enable astronomers to watch new planets and stars being formed. It's expected that it also help astronomers see about 13 billion light-years away for a glimpse of the early years of the universe…a machine like this doesn't come cheap. It is estimated that the project will swallow up a good $1 billion…”

28.    A file system for SSDs  http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2463636  “In the past five years, flash memory has progressed from a promising accelerator…to an established enterprise component for storing performance-critical data. It's rise to prominence followed its proliferation in the consumer world and the volume economics that followed…With SSDs (solid-state devices), flash arrived in a form optimized for compatibility—just replace a hard drive with an SSD for radically better performance. But the properties of the NAND flash memory used by SSDs differ significantly from those of the magnetic media in the hard drives they often displace…the industry has only just started to design storage systems that embrace the nuances of flash memory…The native operations of NAND flash memory are quite different from those required of a traditional block device. The FTL (flash translation layer), as the name suggests, translates the block-device commands into operations on flash memory…SSD controllers compete in subspecialties such as garbage collection, write amplification, wear leveling, and error correction…There's nothing innate about file-system operations that makes them well served by the block interface; it's just the dominant standard for persistent storage, and it has existed for decades. Layering the file system translation on top of the flash translation is inefficient and impedes performance…File systems also optimize for the physical realities of a spinning disk, but placing data on the sectors that spin the fastest doesn't make sense when they don't spin at all…For many years SSDs were almost exclusively built to seamlessly replace hard drives; they not only supported the same block-device interface, but also had the same form factor (e.g., a 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drive) and communicated using the same protocols (e.g., SATA, SAS, or FC). This is a bit like connecting an iPod to a car stereo using a tape adapter…Recently SSDs have started to break away from the old constraints on compatibility: some laptops now use a custom form-factor SSD for compactness, and many vendors produce PCI-attached SSDs for lower latency…For both performance and redundancy, almost all SSDs "overprovision." They include more flash memory capacity than the advertised capacity of the SSD by anywhere from 10 to 100 percent…While many companies participate in incremental improvements, the most likely candidates to create a flash-optimized file system are those that build both SSDs and software that runs on the host…”

29.    In-wheel technology could mean increased fuel efficiency for future hybrids  http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/new-in-wheel-technology-could-mean-increased-fuel-efficiency-for-future-hybrids/  “A new high-tech wheel rolled out by Protean Electric could help increase the fuel efficiency of hybrids by as much as 30 percent.

The advanced system…features in-wheel electric motors that help to power a hybrid and improve the vehicle’s overall drive system. The electric motors, which are stored in space behind the wheel, can deliver 1,000 Nm (735 lb.-ft.) of torque and 75 kW (100 hp). Developed with test vehicles like a BRABUS full electric and hybrid, the wheels are said to improve fuel economy by 30 percent, depending on battery size.  The regenerative braking system allows up to 85 percent of the available kinetic energy to be recovered during braking. When equipped on the BRABUS Hybrid, Protean’s pre-production electric in-wheel motors each added 80 kW (110 hp) and 800 Nm (590 ft.-lbs.) of peak torque to power the car’s rear wheels in combination with the internal combustion engine. The technology gave the car a combined electric motor and internal combustion engine acceleration of 0-100 km/hr (0-62 mph) in 7.4 seconds and a combined electric motor and internal combustion engine acceleration of 60-120 km/hr (37-75 mph) of 5.6 seconds. The fact that the in-wheel motors don’t require gearboxes, driveshafts or differentials, is also said to give carmakers more flexibility…”

Leisure & Entertainment

30.    Amazon Studios debuts 14 pilots for free viewing  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57580146-93/amazon-studios-debuts-14-pilots-for-free-viewing/  “After evaluating more than 4,000 submissions and commissioning more than a dozen half-hour pilots, Amazon Studios is ready to roll. The "Hollywood" division of the online shopping giant is making 14 pilots available on Amazon Instant Video…to watch for free and rate and review them. The pilots include shows from established talent and studios, as well as up and comers who cut their teeth online. The lineup includes a big slate of comedies, led by "Alpha House," starring John Goodman with cameos by Bill Murray and Stephen Colbert and "Onion News Empire," with Jeffrey Tambor, as well as a musical "Browsers" starring Bebe Neuwirth. "Big Bang Theory" co-stars Kevin Sussman and John Ross Bowie are behind a comedy, "Dark Minions," and Ed Begley Jr. and Jon Daly star in "Betas," which has some Silicon Valley flavor. In addition, the pilots include an animated comedy, "Supanatural"; "Zombieland," based on the hit movie; and "Those Who Can't," which was submitted and developed by team online with no previous Hollywood experience…”

31.     #WAYWIRE gets new video tools, partners with CollegeHumor  http://www.fastcompany.com/3008369/tech-forecast/cory-bookers-waywire-gets-new-video-tools-partners-collegehumor-huffpost-live  “About 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Some of it is compelling, informative content that could enrich one’s personal and professional life. Lots of it is completely useless. Enter #waywire, a curated video sharing service launched last year…With it come tools that make it easier to pull individual videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and other social sharing sites--plus every video you have on Facebook, Twitter, and Vine--and organize them into single channels, or “wires.” Wires can then be shared with others…Today’s beta launch also includes new “content collaborators” who program their own wires on the site as a way to share video with their own audience…”

32.    Funny or Die's Steve Jobs Movie 'iSteve' Now Available Online  http://www.macrumors.com/2013/04/16/funny-or-dies-steve-jobs-movie-isteve-now-available-online/  “…Funny Or Die's Steve Jobs movie "iSteve" has now been released online. The movie stars Justin Long as Steve Jobs and Lost's Jorge Garcia as Steve Wozniak. The film is the longest video produced by the humor site and runs nearly 80 minutes long. The script for the film was written in three days and filmed in five…”

33.    Netflix Cracking Down on Sharing to Bolster Profit  http://www.slashgear.com/password-sharing-not-a-problem-says-netflix-ceo-but-adds-family-plans-anyway-23278866/  “…Netflix announced that is also going to be instituting a new $12 per month family plan. The new streaming family plan will allow users to stream Netflix to up to four devices at the same time within the same home. Currently the standard eight dollar per month plan for Netflix allows two simultaneous streams. However, in my own house of been able to stream to three devices at the same time on occasion without issues. Netflix…expects less than 1% of its members to opt for that plan…analysts have been calling for Netflix to crack down on account sharing. Reports indicate that as many as 10 million people are watching Netflix without paying for it by getting the password from friends or family members. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings isn’t worried about password sharing, he says that Netflix doesn’t believe there is much of that going on. However, Hastings does say that sharing passwords with extended family “[is] not what we would consider appropriate…”

34.    Oculus Rift 3D Headset and Treadmill Combo Make Video Games Feel Real  http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/21/virtuix-omni-treadmill-oculus-rift-demo/    “…Omni-directional treadmills are nothing new, but Virtuix's take is worth a mention now that it's been shown off working in conjunction with the Oculus Rift. The company's been posting videos of its Omni treadmill working with Kinect for months, but last Thursday it upped the ante by adding the Rift. All told, it makes for what looks to be an intense VR session of Team Fortress 2 -- one-upping SixSenses' Razer Hydra demo for the VR headset. The company's been working on this unit as an affordable solution for households, aiming to eventually try for funding via Kickstarter…”

35.    Black Annex is the best QBASIC game you've ever seen  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033318/black-annex-is-the-best-qbasic-game-youve-ever-seen.html  “What's the most difficult thing you did in the last year?...can it compare to creating a full-fledged indie game—slated to be approved on Steam—created entirely with QBASIC? Probably not…Here's a little video of a game created by IBM to show off the awesome power of QBASIC when it first launched…Now, over 20 years later—but with the exact same programming tools—we have Black Annex. Check out this trailer with actual gameplay…Not only are the simple visuals awesome, but the gameplay actually looks complex and tough to master—not something you'd expect from a programming language with simple loops and statements. It's an isometric corporate sabotage and infiltration game. What that means exactly I'm not sure…”

Entrepreneurism and Technology

36.    Start-ups founded by immigrants are creating jobs all over America  http://www.economist.com/news/business/21576101-start-ups-founded-immigrants-are-creating-jobs-all-over-america-jobs-machine  “…the governor of Delaware, is due to visit a new factory being built in his state by Bloom Energy, a start-up based in Silicon Valley. Bloom makes clean power-generation systems using a novel fuel-cell technology. It is investing over $40m in its facility in Newark and plans to hire hundreds of people. Some will be carworkers who lost their jobs in 2008 when Chrysler shuttered a factory that once stood on the same site. Gary Convis, Bloom’s chief operations officer, says that the company has already hired over 100 former carworkers at its existing site in Silicon Valley. They used to work at a Toyota factory in the Bay Area, which closed in 2010. K.R. Sridhar, Bloom’s boss, says auto workers make good hires. His firm’s products have some systems in them similar to ones found in car engines. Bloom is also hiring military veterans used to tinkering with motors. “We are creating the next generation of jobs for middle-class Americans,” says Mr Sridhar, an immigrant from India…”

37.    Building a Better Tech School  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/education/edlife/cornell-nyc-tech-planned-for-roosevelt-island-starts-up-in-chelsea.html?hp&_r=0  “…a nondescript third-floor loft in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan offers a glimpse of the future, for New York City and for Cornell University…just cubicles and meeting rooms in space donated by Google. But…here, with little fanfare, Cornell’s new graduate school of applied sciences is being rolled out…Eight students enrolled in January in what is being called the beta class, a one-year master’s program in computer science…this is not the usual university program. Not long ago, three young high-tech entrepreneurs sat with the students, talking about failure. They talked about questionable technical, financial or personnel decisions in start-up businesses they had created or worked in… “It’s a miracle if a start-up gets off the ground,” he said. “The last six months I’ve had no income, I have no health insurance…The visitors urged the students to take risks but to expect, at least at first, a precarious existence, riddled with setbacks, that will require obsessiveness and a thick skin — and they made it sound like the grandest of adventures…at Cornell Tech…an unorthodox curriculum designed to eschew the traditional detached, highly academic approach to learning. Instead…real-world experience is baked into the coursework…the students are required, in each semester, to work with mentors from the private sector to design and create new products. Two of the students…are working with a Google engineer on open-source software that predicts the severity of weather events…Information technology is the common thread through the eight degrees the school plans to offer…One hub program, “connective media,”…will deal with designing the mobile, fragmented and endlessly malleable technology that makes everyone a media creator as well as consumer. The other hubs…are…“healthier life” (systems to improve health care delivery as well as personal technology) and “built environment” (computing applied to the physical world around us, from robotic devices to smart building design to real-time traffic information)…“I’m going to ask you questions,” he said…“The most important thing to know is I don’t care about your answer. It’s to get you to think…”

38.    Piggybackr Gives Kids a Kickstarter of Their Own  http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/04/17/piggybackr-gives-kids-a-kickstarter-of-their-own/  “…students with little to no entrepreneurial experience are perfectly capable of both fundraising and selling–at least in the analog world. But doing it online proves more of a challenge. A new crowdfunding platform built just for students–Piggybackr–has raised $325,000 in seed funding…Why do kids need a Kickstarter of their own? Most young students in the U.S. lack an online bank account, or credit card of their own. Few have experience using email lists, Web analytics or customer relationship management tools. And creating a professional-quality video to pitch projects to possible backers isn’t quite the same as delivering a book report. Then there’s the privacy issue…Existing crowdfunding sites, like pioneers Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and Fundly (all venture backed) disallow minors from starting campaigns or setting up accounts, generally due to privacy concerns and strict federal regulations…”

39.    Internet Ad Revenues Again Hit Record-Breaking Double-Digit Annual Growth  http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab/recent_press_releases/press_release_archive/press_release/pr-041613  “Digital advertising revenues climbed to a milestone high of $36.6 billion in 2012, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year of 2012…2011’s full-year number…had been…$31.7 billion…mobile achieved triple-digit growth year-over-year. The past year saw the mobile category surge 111 percent to $3.4 billion, pivoting off of 2011’s record-breaking 149 percent year-over-year rise to $1.6 billion. Mobile accounted for 9 percent of total internet ad revenue in 2012…Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, brought in $2.3 billion, marking a significant year-over-year increase of 29 percent in 2012…Search revenues in 2012 totaled $16.9 billion or 46 percent of 2012 revenues, up 14.5 percent from $14.8 billion in 2011…Display-related advertising revenues in 2012 totaled $12 billion or 33 percent of 2012 revenues, up…from $11 billion in 2011…Retail advertisers continue to represent the largest category of internet ad spending, accounting for 20 percent in 2012, followed by financial services, which is responsible for 13 percent of the year’s revenues…”

Design / DEMO

40.    Ziba’s Fanciful Design Projects Allow Innovation Even When No One Pays  http://www.wired.com/design/2013/04/ziba-portland-design/  “Portland-based design firm Ziba is adding a new name to its already impressive list of clients: itself. After 30 years at the helm, founder Sohrab Vossoughi is turning his team’s energy towards self-directed projects. He’s set up a skunkworks group called Ziba Labs that brings members of the company’s cross functional teams together to work on speculative projects that run the gamut from topographically inspired whiskey flasks to Gehry-esqe bird houses, and some of the results are already helping make life easier for all of us. It’s an open endeavor — anyone in the company can propose an idea, no matter how crazy, but Vossoughi is adamant that there are rules and rigor for any internal project just like for client work. Each project needs a passionate sponsor, has to provide some tangible benefit to the user, and ideally should have a great story behind it…“We ideate and prototype and test the same way as with client projects, but much more quickly,” says Vossoughi. “We don’t have to prove to that the client that our methods are rigorous, or that we talked to 50 people about the idea, or impress each other with super duper renderings or a beautiful presentation.”…Ziba Labs is also important to the design firm because it helps preserve traditional design skills. In a world where there is no shortage of stories about makers and DIY projects, Vossoughi says makers are hard to come by. ”Companies are asking us to work on the strategy and much of the traditional design work has moved away,”…Many of the great thinkers are great makers.” The lab gives designers an avenue to keep their hand skills sharp while renting their brains to clients…”

41.     Design in Milan | Nike’s Natural Motion  http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/design-in-milan-nike/?src=recg  “Embracing a philosophy of “less is more,” Nike introduced its latest line of lightweight, limited-edition footwear today at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. The barely there running kicks include the latest installment of the brand’s HTM collection..as well as a new Flyknit Racer and the Nike Inneva Woven, a running shoe designed to mimic the feel of running barefoot…Nike also unveiled at the Salone an installation featuring pieces by three cutting-edge digital artists based on the integration of nature, technology, design, art and sport reflected in the company’s new shoes. The exhibit, “The Art + Science of Super Natural Motion,” includes works by the Britain-based multimedia studio Universal Everything, the architect and designer Daniel Widrig, and the team of visual and sound artists Davide Quayola and Natan Sinigaglia…”

42.    Design Firm Creates a Composite Wooden Material That Flexes Like Skin  http://www.wired.com/design/2013/04/woodskin/  “WoodSkin is a fascinating new composite material created by the Milan design studio Mamma Fotogramma that looks like lovely patterned wood, but moves with the flexibility of a sheet blowing in the breeze. Its plastic nature allows it to function as a stylish, organic-looking skin for projects that might otherwise be built with standard, flat materials. The creation started as an entry to the open-source design competition Autoprogettazione 2.0 in 2012…For two months the team lived and worked in Montreal next to the sugar silos where the gym was to be installed and invented the entire process to make WoodSkin. Since the undertaking of combining a rigid substance like wood with a malleable textile was completely new to them, they even created three-meter long wheeled presses to experiment with hybrid materials that would be flexible yet sturdy… “What we created was a skin that would allow us to focus on the structure and would adapt to it, leaving the builder the total control with the flexibility to change the forms at any moment during the whole process.” Their final result is made from Russian plywood and vinyl mesh, CNC-routing a pattern of triangles into the plywood’s rigid surface to give it flexibility. The malleable yet durable material can be used to create a variety of elegant, functional structures…”

DHMN Technology

43.    Where Are the Women?  http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/07/where-are-the-women/  “If you’ve been to your local hacker/makerspace and there weren’t many women, did you stop and wonder about that? I hope so, but unfortunately a common reaction is to think, “I guess women just aren’t into building stuff.” As one of the few women directors of a U.S. makerspace, I know that this just isn’t true…I’d like to share my perspective on the problem…At The Hacktory in Philadelphia, Pa., getting more women involved in our organization and creating a welcoming environment for everyone has become one of our defining strengths. When I was nominated to be the director of The Hacktory a few years ago, I doubted that I had enough technical expertise, but I decided to give it a try because it seemed like a huge opportunity to make the organization as inclusive as possible. Today The Hacktory has more female-bodied organizers than male-bodied ones, and everyone continues to develop and reveal technical skills that are really amazing…”

44.    Tor calls for help as its supply of bridges falters  http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/tor-calls-for-help-as-its-supply-of-bridges-falters/  “…Tor needs new bridges. The encrypted anonymizing "darknet" that allows activists, journalists, and others to access the Internet without fear of censorship or monitoring…is having increasing difficulty serving its users in countries that have blocked access to Tor's entry points. Tor bridges are computers that act as hidden gateways to Tor's darknet of relays…fresh ones are needed more than ever," Kadiankakis wrote in an e-mail, "since obfuscated bridges are the only way for people to access Tor in some areas of the world (like China, Iran, and Syria)." Obfuscated bridges allow users to connect to the Tor network without using one of the network's known public bridges or relays as an initial entry point. Obfuscated bridges have become a necessity for Tor users in countries with networks guarded by various forms of deep packet inspection technology, where censors have put in place filters that spot traffic matching the signature of a Tor-protected connection…”

45.    Phone (Android) to Car Stereo WIFI Connection using a Raspberry Pi  http://hsnnotes.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/phone-android-to-car-stereo-wifi.html  “The original idea behind this project was to be able to play the contents of my Android phone over my car stereo without any wires. As an added bonus I wanted to be able to control the car stereo from the phone with a nice interface. The best way to understand the goal of the project is to watch the following video…”

46.    47 Raspberry Pi Projects to Inspire  http://blog.makezine.com/2013/04/14/47-raspberry-pi-projects-to-inspire-your-next-build/  “If you’re looking for inspiration for your first Raspberry Pi project, look no further than the several dozen projects entered in the first ever Raspberry Pi Design Contest, sponsored by MCM Electronics. All the projects were entered into one of four categories – Artistic, Educational, Enclosure, and Utility – and are now competing for five prize packs, including a Printrbot Jr. 3D printer to be awarded to the grand prize winner. It’s been just over one year since the initial release of this single-board computer, and already makers have made some incredible projects with it. The Pi is the brain behind multiple home security systems; it is responsible for collecting and displaying data; the Pi has been used as an educational tool for music, mathematics, and geography, among other subjects; artists are building interactive and crowd-sourced installations; enclosures for the Pi range from simple to complex, with all-in-ones emerging as a sub-genre all their own; the Pi can control and automate various systems around the home or office…”

Open Source Hardware

47.    Android Linux Arduino in a tiny single-board computer  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/435742530/udoo-android-linux-arduino-in-a-tiny-single-board  “UDOO is a mini PC that could run either Android or Linux, with an Arduino-compatible board embedded. UDOO is a powerful prototyping board for software development and design, it’s easy to use and with a few steps you can start using it and creating your projects with minimum knowledge. UDOO merges different computing worlds in one; each world has its strengths and weaknesses, and all of them are useful today in education as well as Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and rapid prototyping endeavours. UDOO is an open hardware, low-cost computer equipped with an ARM i.MX6 Freescale processor for Android and Linux, alongside  Arduino DUE’s ARM SAM3X, both CPU integrated on the same board…”

48.    Open source cola and the 'Napster moment' for the food business  http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/15/trade-secrets-open-source-cola  “The revolution in 3D printing is seeing enthusiasts sharing designs for everything from chairs to guns to faces. With small steps, it's even making its way into the world of food…Food is a social thing, from the sharing of recipes to the sharing of a meal. But it's a different kind of sharing to that we associate with other arts. Sharing a recipe isn't an economic issue for the food industry like sharing a song is to the music industry -- but what if you could print off not just a hamburger, but a Big Mac? For a look at how this future might turn out, let's look at the Coca-Cola recipe…Coca-Cola is easily available. The contents of the bottle you buy in Botswana or Bolivia has the same ingredients (give or take the odd regional variation such as cane sugar versus corn syrup) as the contents of the bottle you buy in China or Chile. Or you can even take a seat in my kitchen and wait for me to cook you some. Caveat: It isn't Coca-Cola, quite. I can offer you two batches of flavoured sugar-water, both almost-but-not-quite the same as the most famous brand. One is made from a recipe that is purportedly the "real" recipe, and the other is an open-source imitation available online under the GNU General Purpose License. It's called Open Cola, a product first produced by now-defunct Toronto software company Opencola…”

Open Source

49.    Listen to your Word documents with AudioDocs  http://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/14/listen-to-your-word-documents-with-audiodocs/  “What if…you could listen to your Word document being read to you from your phone or tablet? Though it may not be a need for many people, I am sure it would be handy for some, and its also quite possible thanks to a Word app called AudioDocs, which records the text and makes it available as an audio file. AudioDocs is a free open source project available from the wonderful SourceForge web site. It is currently at version 2.2.1 and is a 50.5 MB download in ZIP format. This is a stand-alone app, as opposed to being a plugin for Word. Office previously contained speech to text (OneNote still does), though it is now built right into Windows 8 and can be used with several apps. However, this does not provide the ability to read a document back to you or to save it as an audio file…”

50.    Open source desktop developers meet at freedesktop Summit  http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Open-source-desktop-developers-meet-at-freedesktop-Summit-1844791.html  “…the first freedesktop Summit…took place from 11 to 16 April at the SUSE offices in Nuremberg, Germany. At the summit, developers from GNOME, KDE, Unity and Razor-qt discussed how to improve collaboration between their respective projects by creating new, and refining existing, cross-desktop specifications. The developers reached an agreement on how D-Bus will be implemented by applications across different desktops, talked about modifications to the trash specification and defined a new file format to cache and index .desktop files. The future of the accountsservice D-Bus interface was also discussed. The attending developers have agreed on a specification that will allow applications to be launched directly from D-Bus. Changes to the desktop entry specifications will then allow applications to advertise this capability to the desktop environment…”

Civilian Aerospace

51.     Astronaut recruitment for Mars colony project to begin in July  http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-mars-one-applications-20130416,0,2661649.story  “Aspiring astronauts and wannabe reality TV stars, take note: A nonprofit that aims to send the first human colonists to Mars by 2023 will start taking applications in July of this year. Mars One, the Netherlands-based organization that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a global reality television phenomenon, is encouraging anyone who is interested in space travel to apply. Previous training in space travel is not required, nor is a science degree of any sort, but applicants do need to be at least 18 years of age and willing to leave Earth forever…a flight back to Earth is not part of the Mars One business model…Monday at a news conference in New York…Mars One will officially launch its astronaut application program, but early reports suggest applicants will be asked to send in a one-minute video about why they should be selected to go to Mars…”

52.    Orbital's Antares rocket makes maiden test flight  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22193330  “A new rocket has launched from the US eastern seaboard to prove its readiness to help service the International Space Station (ISS). The 40m-tall Antares vehicle lifted clear of the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 1700 local time…The apparently flawless 10-minute ascent should lead to it being allowed to propel an unmanned cargo ship towards the ISS later this year. Antares has been developed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC)…A contract worth $1.9bn (£1.2bn), covering eight re-supply missions to the station, will be triggered once the company has satisfactorily demonstrated its designs…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

53.    Supercomputers Soar as PC Sales Decline  http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-04-19/supercomputers_soar_as_pc_sales_decline.html  “Mike Henderson knows trucks. He’s president of a company called Smart Truck, and he had a problem. "Trucks," he says, "are fairly unaerodynamic devices. Half their fuel goes to defeating aerodynamic drag.” But he needed to make his clients’ semi-trailers more fuel efficient to comply with California law — and fast. Trouble was, calculating airflow is crazy complicated. There are all kinds of vortices. "Almost every piece of a truck produces wake and they mix with other wakes," Henderson says. "It would take over a week to do a single calculation" to see how a single part would interact with a whole truck. And he’d need to do hundreds of calculations. So Henderson did what a growing number of businesses are doing: He managed to get access to a supercomputer…Titan, as the $100 million supercomputer is known, is nearly the size of a football field…Labs and businesses — even small businesses like Henderson’s — can apply to use it. It’s free if they make some of their results public, thereby fulfilling Oak Ridge’s goal of promoting advancement in science and engineering. Henderson was able to test prototype trucks that existed only inside the computer before going to the trouble of making real parts. His team saw air movements that would’ve been invisible in a wind tunnel. "It probably got us to market a year faster than we would have had we not used it," he says, adding that he improved trucks’ fuel efficiency by 14 percent by adding special airfoils…"The market has been growing at a rate we’ve never seen before,"…a medium size supercomputer costs $10 million, but they’ve been selling like hotcakes even through the recession…Another factor: Computers have become faster by incorporating processors known as GPUs that were developed for the gaming industry…”

54.    Big Red II Colors New Page for Hybrid Systems  http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-04-19/big_red_ii_colors_new_page_for_hybrid_systems.html  “…Indiana University will formally introduce the successor to the Big Red system, the aptly-named, Big Red II. The Cray-crafted and tuned system is 25 times faster than its baby brother (the 4100-core original Big Red from 2006) and sports some notable improvements across its 1,020 nodes. With some Kepler spice and the snappy Gemini interconnect to push its peak one teraflop performance to an expected top 30 range for June’s list, the system will aim its big guns at true "big data" problems…theoretical work on the “little” 210,000-core Big Red II can unleash some optimization dragons for systems like Titan and Blue Waters to ride, at least in theory. With a common, mixed-up architecture that is either homogeneous or heterogeneous, depending on how it’s feeling for particular applications, there are significant opportunities to fine-tune core operations to take best advantage of any configuration…the choice to snap in AMD Interlagos and Abu Dhabi processors wasn’t an Intel versus AMD decision, it was “purely generational” for this pre-Intel Cray design. The Kepler cores were a key investment since…there are “many science codes that, with sufficient refactoring, could take advantage of GPUS…It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but under the right circumstances, we’re looking at a 5x to 10x speedup.” This is going to boost their production capabilities to new levels, he notes, and is aided by the fact that Geoffrey Fox and other critical folks at IU were pushing fresh envelopes on the GPU and parallel computing fronts…”

Trends & Emerging Tech

55.     5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything  http://www.pcworld.com/article/173778/newt.html?page=0  “…That actor--who was he? My augmented-reality contact lenses pick up the unique eye motion I make when I have a query, which I then enter on a virtual keyboard that appears in the space in front of me. Suddenly my field of vision is covered with a Web page showing a list of the actor's movies, along with some embedded video clips. These technologies will come to life in the distant future, right? Future, yes. Distant, no…our preview of technologies that are well on their way to reality, we look at…USB 3.0…Video Streaming Over Wi-Fi…3D TV…"Augmented Reality" in Mobile Devices…HTML5…”

56.    Top technology trends for utilities sector in 2013  http://www.punchng.com/business/technology/top-technology-trends-for-utilities-sector-in-2013/  “A new report from Gartner Incorporated has identified the top technology trends affecting the global energy and utility markets in 2013…Social Media and Web 2.0…Big data…Mobile and location-aware technology…Cloud computing and SaaS…Sensor technology…In-memory computing…IT and OT convergence…Advanced metering infrastructure…Communication technology…Predictive analytics…”

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