NEW NET Weekly List for 06 Aug 2013

Below is the final list of technology news and issues for the Tuesday, 06 August 2013, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at Pizza King, 800 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The Weekly Top Ten, (pre-NEW NET, based on potential or immediate impact and/or general tech interestingness)

1.        If Facebook Can Profit from Your Data, Why Can’t You? (# 14)

2.       Justice Department Seeks Oversight of Apple’s iTunes Store (# 17)

3.       Chinese Hacking Team Caught Taking Over Water Plant Honeypot (# 18)

4.       Scientific Breakthrough Lets SnappyCam App Take 20 Full-Res Photos Per Second (# 29)

5.        10 ways to better use the Google Maps app (# 33)

6.       Google is taking a profoundly new direction with hardware (# 35)

7.        Belkin Gadget Will Reveal How Much Energy Your Devices Use (# 39)

8.       Crossbar says it will explode the $60B flash memory market with Resistive RAM (# 43)

9.       Fuel3D Is A Handheld, High Resolution 3D Scanner For Sub-$1,000 (# 56)

10.     You Dream It & They Print It (# 60)

The ‘net

11.      Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/starbucks-wifi-goes-google.html  “Coffee shop + Internet—it’s a pairing that many us have come to rely on. WiFi access makes work time, downtime, travel time and lots of in-between times more enjoyable and productive. That’s why we’re teaming up with Starbucks to bring faster, free WiFi connections to all 7,000 company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States over the next 18 months. When your local Starbucks WiFi network goes Google, you’ll be able to surf the web at speeds up to 10x faster than before…We’ll start rolling out the new networks this August…”

12.     The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources  http://moz.com/blog/100-free-seo-tools  “…Below you'll find an interactive list of 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid options, and free trials. Simply select the checkbox for the area you're working in, and view the tools for that category…1. Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool…6. BuiltWith…7. Buzzstream Tools Suite…10. Content Strategy Generator Tool…11. Convert Word Documents to Clean HTML…12. Copyscape…13. Domain Hunter Plus…18. GetListed…19. Google Keyword Planner…22. Google Map Maker…23. Google PageSpeed Insights…25. Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool…28. Google Webmaster…31. Internet Marketing Ninjas SEO Tools…32. Linkstant…33. Linksy.me Email Guesser…38. Pingdom…43. Robots.txt Checker…46. Seer Toolbox…47. SEO Toolbar…49. SEOgadget Links API…54. Similar Page Checker…60. Ubersuggest…62. Virante SEO Tools…64. WebPagetest…65. Wordle…66. Wordstream Free Keyword Tools…67. Xenu's Link Sleuth…”

13.     Hipmunk Adds Last-Minute Hotel Deals With Its New ‘Tonight Only’ Feature  http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/hipmunk-tonight-only/  “Travelers who are looking to book a hotel at the last-minute should be able to find better deals with travel startup Hipmunk starting today, thanks to the launch of a new feature called Tonight Only. The feature, which is available in Hipmunk’s mobile app only, will include hotel deals that offer rooms with as much as a 60 percent discount on standard rates. Those deals can be viewed as part of Hipmunk’s general hotel search results (where you should also see slightly-less-last-minute discounts for hotels that are available up to 72 hours in advance), or in the separate Tonight Only section…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

14.     If Facebook Can Profit from Your Data, Why Can’t You?  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517356/if-facebook-can-profit-from-your-data-why-cant-you/  “It has become the Internet’s defining business model: free online services make their money by feeding on all the personal data generated by their users. Think Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, and how they serve targeted ads based on your preferences and interests, or make deals to share collected data with other companies…Before the end of this year, Web users should be able to take a more active role in monetizing their personal data…Reputation.com…will launch a feature that lets users share certain personal information with other companies in return for discounts or other perks…The idea that individuals might personally take charge of extracting value from their own data has been discussed for years…but it hasn’t yet been put to the test…“The basic business model of the Internet today is that we’re going to take your data without your knowledge and permission and give it to people that you can’t identify for purposes you’ll never know…”

15.     XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data  “A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals…The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet…US officials vehemently denied this specific claim…But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed…One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata…”

16.     Ars speaks with vocal NSA critic Sen. Ron Wyden  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/two-years-later-senators-criticism-of-nsa-spying-sinks-in/  “As a series of top-secret NSA documents have been leaked over the past several weeks, the issue of widespread government surveillance has been front-and-center in the public eye. For some, those documents were shocking revelations; for privacy activists and digerati who have followed cases like Jewel v. NSA, they were less surprising than they were useful. The documents leaked by a former NSA contractor offered solid confirmation of what had long been suspected—that the NSA had created a giant information vacuum, sucking up all manner of data. Another group that couldn't have been surprised: politicians in Congress' top intelligence committees. But few had complained publicly about overbroad surveillance. Two exceptions are Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO), both of whom sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I want to deliver a warning this afternoon," Wyden said in 2011. "When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry…”

17.     Justice Department Seeks Oversight of Apple’s iTunes Store  http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-292933/  “…After winning last month an e-books antitrust suit against Apple, the Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to limit Apple’s influence in the publishing market and give the government oversight of the iTunes Store and App Store. The government proposals, if accepted, could give music, television-show and content owners more leverage in negotiations with a company that has been an aggressive bargainer in opening up traditional media to digital distribution…The government seeks to prohibit Apple from reaching agreements with media companies that increase the prices at which Apple’s rivals sell e-books, music, TV shows or movies…”

18.     Chinese Hacking Team Caught Taking Over Water Plant Honeypot  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517786/chinese-hacking-team-caught-taking-over-decoy-water-plant/  “A Chinese hacking group accused this February of being tied to the Chinese army was caught last December infiltrating a decoy water control system for a U.S. municipality…The group, known as APT1, was caught by a research project that provides the most significant proof yet that people are actively trying to exploit the vulnerabilities in industrial control systems. Many of these systems are connected to the Internet to allow remote access…“You would think that Comment Crew wouldn’t come after a local water authority,” Wilhoit told MIT Technology Review…“I actually watched the attacker interface with the machine,” says Wilhoit. “It was 100 percent clear they knew what they were doing.” Wilhoit went on to show evidence that other hacking groups besides APT1 intentionally seek out and compromise water plant systems…”

19.     'Backpacks,' 'Pressure Cookers' Internet Searches Lead to Terrorism Squad Visit  http://www.newsmax.com/thewire/backpacks-pressure-cookers-google-searches/2013/08/02/id/518406  “A New York family claims a federal terrorism task force visited them this week because their past Google searches included queries on "backpacks" and "pressure cookers."…six armed agents just showed up at their house and asked to search it. Catalano…said she had probably researched pressure cookers…and her husband had been online looking at backpacks a few weeks prior…they were peppering my husband with questions. Where is he from? Where are his parents from?...Do you have any bombs, they asked. Do you own a pressure cooker? My husband said no, but we have a rice cooker. Can you make a bomb with that? My husband said no, my wife uses it to make quinoa. What the hell is quinoa, they asked…The Suffolk County Police Department claims the search was ordered after they received a tip from a Long Island-based computer company saying that a recently terminated employee's computer contained suspicious inquiries…the searches involved also things my husband looked up at his old job," Catalano wrote…the fact that someone's Google history could warrant a visit from the feds is either alarming or comforting, depending on how one looks at it…”

20.    Feds are Suspects in New Malware That Attacks Tor Anonymity  http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/freedom-hosting/  “Security researchers tonight are poring over a piece of malicious software that takes advantage of a Firefox security vulnerability to identify some users of the privacy-protecting Tor anonymity network. The malware showed up Sunday morning on multiple websites hosted by the anonymous hosting company Freedom Hosting. That would normally be considered a blatantly criminal “drive-by” hack attack, but nobody’s calling in the FBI this time. The FBI is the prime suspect. “It just sends identifying information to some IP in Reston, Virginia,” says reverse-engineer Vlad Tsrklevich. “It’s pretty clear that it’s FBI or it’s some other law enforcement agency that’s U.S.-based…”

21.     Obama Administration Vetoes Apple Product Ban  http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/us-govt-overturns-iphone-ipad-import-ban-s-korea-reaction/1/197507.html  “In a setback to South Korean giant Samsung Electronics, US President Barack Obama's trade representative last week vetoed a ban on imports of some Apple iPads and older iPhones. US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman overruled a June decision by the US International Trade Commission (ITC), which had banned imports of the iPhone 4 and some variations of the iPad 2. The commission had ruled that the Chinese-made Apple devices violated a patent held by Samsung and couldn't be imported…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

22.    Moto X: Can Google deliver the Android-supercharger it promised  http://www.zdnet.com/moto-x-can-google-deliver-the-android-supercharger-it-promised-and-does-it-need-to-7000018726/  “…in August 2011 when Google first revealed its plan to buy Motorola Mobility, it promised the acquisition would "supercharge the entire Android ecosystem"…Motorola is on the brink of unveiling its new flagship smartphone, the Moto X: is it a concrete attempt to deliver on that promise, or something else entirely?...Motorola…claims the Moto X will be the "first smartphone that you can design yourself"…this is thought to mean that buyers can choose colours and engravings rather than have any say over the internals…Motorola has always been really good at managing the power on the device. Motorola's also been really good at managing ultra low-power sensors, the gyroscope and the accelerometer and keeping those on all the time so that the device knows different use states…"Imagine you are in the car the device will know whether its on or off that it's travelling at 60 miles an hour and it's going to act differently so you can interact with it safely."…in May this year Motorola was the brand of choice for just 7.8 percent of US smartphone subscribers, down from 8.4 percent in February, and down from 12 percent back in May 2012 when the Google acquisition closed…Apple has 39.2 percent of the market, and Samsung 23 percent…having Motorola on side gives Google a hedge against any of its other handset partners choosing another operating system…Google is well known for playing the long game when it comes to technology, which means the success or failure of one handset is less relevant — as Larry Page said when the Motorola acquisition closed: "It's a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound.”

23.    HP launches Android-based SlateBook 'PC'  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57596068-94/hp-launches-android-based-slatebook-pc/  “HP's Android 'PC' has arrived. It packs Nvidia's latest Tegra 4 processor and can be used as either a tablet or a laptop. The SlateBook x2…tablet-laptop hybrid…is branded as a "PC," even though it runs Android Jelly Bean…The specs are pretty impressive. A 10.1-inch 1,920x1,200-pixel display (with a respectable 224 pixels per inch pixel density), a Tegra 4 quad-core processor (Nvidia's latest ARM processor), a 16GB SATA solid-state drive…2GB of system memory…Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, a magnetic docking mechanism to switch from tablet to laptop mode, and a full-size keyboard. It sells for $480 and runs Android 4.2…”

24.    The Moto X proves Google still needs the Nexus program  http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/2/4580184/why-google-still-needs-the-nexus-program  “The Moto X has finally been revealed and although it’s the first phone that truly reflects the new company’s post-Google philosophies, it’s thoroughly a Motorola phone, not a Google phone. It’s not running the latest version of Android, it’s being sold in partnership with the carriers, and it’s priced like a traditional smartphone instead of as a low-cost Nexus. It could be disruptive, but it’s more likely to stake out a middle road. Motorola insists that it’s just another phone maker to Google. Now that we know what the Moto X is — and more importantly what it isn’t — we can say pretty definitively that for the time being, the job of pushing Android forward falls to the same people it always has: Google’s Android team and the Nexus program…”

25.    Samsung Files Trademark and Patents for Galaxy Gear Smartwatch  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/samsung-files-trademark-patents-smartwatch/storynew?id=19881800  “Samsung appears to have thrown its hat into the smartwatch ring with the Samsung Galaxy Gear, a "wearable digital electronic device in the form of a wristwatch,"…The electronics company filed for a U.S. trademark late last month and for patents with the Korean Intellectual Property Office earlier this year for the wristwatch device…the device offers Internet and email access, and can make and receive phone calls. The Korean blog MovePlayer posted several of the patents' technical drawings…the Galaxy Gear is expected to act as a companion device to the Galaxy S family of tablets and smartphones. Unlike Pebble's smartwatch, which works with both iOS and Android devices through its app, the Galaxy Gear will likely come preloaded with Android …”

26.    Will a fingerprint sensor be Apple’s next hit?  http://weblog.invasivecode.com/post/57447455012/will-a-fingerprint-sensor-be-apples-next-hit  “…rumors on a fingerprint sensor embedded in the next iPhone generation have been increasing…Fingerprint recognition is part of a science called biometrics that uses the unique physical and behavioral characteristics to recognize individual people. Face, palm-print, voice, iris, retina, blood vessel shape, ear shape, gait and other physical and behavioral characteristics are examples of biometrics traits that can be used to recognize individuals…we need to make a clear distinction between identification and verification…Identification or 1-to-many recognition is used to compare a fingerprint against a (large) set of fingerprints…Verification or 1-to-1 recognition is used to check if you are really who you claim to be when you try to access a system or a device…verification is much easier to perform than identification and allows less constraint during the recognition and the use of lower quality fingerprint sensors. Verification requires a reference fingerprint…that you have to provide the first time you use the system…every time you try to access that same system…you will need to provide the same fingerprint to be compared …There are 2 kinds of fingerprint capture methods: touchless and touch-based…the first…capture technique requires a camera with very sophisticated optical lenses and a complex lighting system. The…advantage of the touchless fingerprint devices compared to the touch-based ones is that…the skin does not deform and the image captures very rich details that can make the recognition more accurate…touchless fingerprint devices are not suitable for cellphones…There are two main types of touch-based technologies: optical sensors and IC’s or CMOS sensors. Optical sensors are more accurate than IC’s, but they have the similar disadvantages of costs and form factor as the touchless devices…IC or CMOS…fingerprint devices…are made in Silicon in a very similar way to a chip or any other integrated electronic circuit…you should expect this kind of sensor in your next iOS device…When you touch the sensing surface of a fingerprint sensor, the electrons move from your finger to the sensor surface…Constant usage of the sensor starts to destroy the capacitors and over time, the fingerprint sensor stops to work…When you touch the surface of a fingerprint sensor, the mix of the sweat, sebum and any substance accumulate during your daily activities…speeds up the destruction of its surface. Fingerprint sensor manufacturers…never achieved great success in this issue which is why it is not common to see fingerprint CMOS devices on laptops, cars, building front doors or credit cards…Companies like Motorola, Fujitsu, Siemens, and Samsung have tried to integrate fingerprints in their laptops and handheld devices, but they have all failed because of the poor durability of the sensing surface…” [the technology and accuracy of fingerprint recognition is interesting, but to me the larger issue is how deeply you want biometric verification integrated into your life – ed.]

27.    TextNow goes from messaging app to dirt cheap mobile service for $19 a month  http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/06/textnow-goes-from-messaging-app-to-dirt-cheap-mobile-service-for-19-a-month/  “…Enflick, the parent company of free messaging and Wi-Fi calling app TextNow, announced a low-cost mobile phone service that starts at just $19 a month. The catch? You’re stuck with aging Android hardware and Sprint’s WiMax 4G network…TextNow’s…Mi-Fi…$40 device allows TextNow users to access Sprint’s 3G network with data plans starting at just $15 a month…TextNow’s $19 phone plan gives you 500 megabytes of data, unlimited texting, unlimited incoming calls, and 750 minutes of outgoing call time. FreedomPop recently announced a similar service on top of Sprint’s network, except it will offer 500MB of data for free…Your phone choices for TextNow’s service are pretty slim at this point: $90 gets you a Nexus S, while you can get a Galaxy S II for $120. Both phones run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich…”

Apps

28.    Quip Is A Beautiful New Mobile-First Word Processor  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/30/quip-mobile-word-processor/  “30 years later and our word processing software hasn’t evolved, not even to adapt to mobile. That changes tonight with the launch of Quip, a freemium new word processing app from former Facebook CTO Bret Taylor’s new startup. Quip works on desktop but is designed for mobile. It automatically formats documents to the size of your screen, offers in-app collaboration and messaging, and even works offline. “Quip is a modern word processor optimized for the era of tablets and phones”, Taylor tells me. We’re in the middle of a transition away from the desktop computer, yet word processors have stagnated…”

29.    Scientific Breakthrough Lets SnappyCam App Take 20 Full-Res Photos Per Second  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/31/fastest-iphone-camera/  “Your standard iPhone camera app is actually pretty slow, able to take just three to six photos per second at 8 megapixels each. But with SnappyCam 3.0, you can shoot 20 full-resolution photos per second thanks to a breakthrough in discrete cosine transform JPG science…Twenty frames per second is fast enough to capture shot-by-shot animations or every gruesome detail of an extreme sports crash. SnappyCam…lets you hold down your finger to take a constant stream of photos. You can then pick your favorites from a burst you shot, or view them as a “living photo” slideshow you can scrub back and forth through, kind of like collaborative photo sharing app Everlapse…”

30.    Top 10 most used smartphone apps  http://ibnlive.in.com/news/top-10-most-used-smartphone-apps-google-maps-beats-facebook-by-a-mile/412243-11.html  “…GlobalWebIndex has listed the top 10 apps most actively used by the 969.49 million strong global smartphone population…Google Maps is the most used smartphone app, with over 54 per cent of the global smartphone population using the app in the last month…the Facebook mobile app…is ranked…number 2. The app is used by 44 per cent of global smartphone users…Google also takes number 3 with YouTube (35 per cent) and number 4 with the Google+ Mobile App (30 per cent)…Weixin/WeChat makes it to number 5 and…is being actively used by the 27 per cent of the global smartphone population…At number 6 is Twitter's mobile App with a 22 per cent active usage, closely followed by Skype and Facebook Messenger, with both scoring 22 per cent…WhatsApp is used by 17 per cent of the global smartphone population and takes the number 9 spot…At number 10 is Facebook-owned picture app Instagram, which has been actively used by the 11 per cent of the global online population in the last month…”

SkyNet

31.     Google Recruiting “City Experts” To Get More Local Reviews  http://marketingland.com/google-recruiting-city-experts-to-duplicate-yelp-elite-squad-53876  “Google appears to be trying to create its own version of Yelp’s Elite Squad, a community of trusted high-volume review generators. A solicitation appeared in Google+ asking people to become “City Experts.”…Our new Google City Experts program gives top reviewers (users with at least 50 high quality reviews, and at least 5 reviews in the current month) special perks…To qualify as a City Expert you have to be among “the most active users on Google Maps who write reviews and upload photos of local places”…The following cities are currently available: Austin, Birmingham (UK), Bristol (UK), Chicago, Edinburgh, London, New York, Portland (OR), Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and Sydney. Google says on its City Experts page that it hope to add more places soon…”

32.    Google launches Android Device Manager for tracking lost and stolen smartphones  http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-map-ring-wipe-lost-stolen-android-20130802,0,5382535.story  “Four years after the app Where’s My Droid started helping people find their lost Android smartphones, Google has finally introduced its own service to track down lost or stolen devices. Android Device Manager will let users go online to spot devices on a map or ring their phone at maximum level, regardless of the current setting. If the phone might be lost for good, phone owners can remotely erase all of the data on the device…”

33.    10 ways to better use the Google Maps app  http://gigaom.com/2013/08/05/10-ways-to-better-use-the-google-maps-app/  “…Google Maps is constantly changing, and keeping up with the latest features can save you lots of time in the long run. Here are our 10 favorite shortcuts for the latest version…Save addresses for faster directions…Drop a pin to see the street…Start GPS navigation in seconds…More ways to zoom…See a list instead of a map…Get more information about a business…Save a place for later…Let Google figure out what you should do…Rate your favorite spots…Go offline…”

34.    Invite a friend to the Google Glass Explorer Program  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57596254-93/google-invite-a-friend-to-the-google-glass-explorer-program/  “The Google Glass proliferation is beginning. And, for those who want a piece of the action it's going to take knowing friends in high places. Google started sending out e-mails to some of the owners of the Google Glass Explorer Edition on Tuesday saying that these select few were allowed to invite one friend to join the program…To be eligible for an invitation, friends of Explorer owners have to be at least 18 years old, live in the U.S., and be able to pick up the device in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York…”

35.    Google is taking a profoundly new direction with hardware  http://qz.com/110559/google-is-taking-a-profoundly-new-direction-says-one-of-its-top-execs/  “…after the Nexus 7 launch event…Sundar Pichai of Google, head of both the Android and Chrome teams, dropped a particularly interesting aside…“Our goal is to put computing everywhere.” That’s a subtle but important additional goal for a company that is explicitly built to “organize the world’s information.” It indicates…that creating hardware, or at least partnering with companies that do, is now an essential part of gathering, processing and distributing that information….Google is a company that is already well aware that to survive the coming decade, it must outgrow the web. Pichai was answering a question about whether or not Google would ever create a super-phone that could replace a desktop PC, like Ubuntu’s Edge. And it was clear from his answer, not to mention the presentation…which included Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet and the Chromecast smart television device, that Google is pushing in the opposite direction: getting microprocessors into any place they might possibly be useful…”

36.    Google Hosts New York City's First 'Geek Street Fair'  http://mashable.com/2013/07/31/geek-street-fair/  “A "geek street fair" hosted by Google took over New York City's 14th Street Park with Lego robots, experiments and animal skulls…The idea behind the fair is to raise awareness about New York City’s tech community as well as promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics to young kids. Craig Nevill-Manning, an engineering director at Google's New York office, is one of the many people behind this geek street fair…it's important to inspire the tech entrepreneurs of tomorrow," he says. The fair was free and open to everyone, and kids from summer camps formed a big part of the curious brigade…The fair had stalls from the New York Hall of Science, Maker Camp, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, FIRST Robotics, Liberty Science Center, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of Mathematics and the What Is Missing Foundation…”

37.    Google Drive for Windows gets desktop shortcuts for speedier editing  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045808/google-drive-blurs-the-line-between-windows-and-the-web-with-new-desktop-shortcuts.html  “…A mere two weeks after the release of the Chrome App Launcher for Windows—Google's backdoor into the offline world, basically—the company has announced that when Windows users install the desktop version of Google Drive, it will automatically dump shortcuts for Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Drive on your desktop, along with one for your Drive-based online storage. Double-clicking on one of those icons opens up the associated web app. After signing in to your Google account you're free to powerhouse through your productivity tasks, and all your work will automatically save to the cloud…These simple desktop links could prove handy indeed for non-techies or people who chose to live their lives in Google's free, cloud-connected ecosystem…”

General Technology

38.    Max Levchin Wants Us To Mine Hurricanes For Energy  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/31/max-levchin-hurricane-wrestler/  “Health care, finance, education, food, and transportation are the five big tech opportunities that PayPal co-founder Max Levchin outlined today at Mixpanel’s Data Driven Conference. But perhaps the most interesting tidbit he dropped was his dream of harnessing hurricanes for energy. Hurricanes release as much energy as a “50-megaton nuclear bomb every 20 minutes,” Levchin said. Some quick research says it might be closer to 10 megatons in terms of heat energy released, but only 10 percent of that is converted to mechanical wind power. Still, there’s an immense amount of energy available if we could figure out how to mine it…”

39.    Belkin Gadget Will Reveal How Much Energy Your Devices Use  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517671/belkin-gadget-will-reveal-how-much-energy-your-devices-use/  “If you use a credit card or a cell phone, chances are you get a monthly statement detailing each purchase or call. This may soon expand to your utility bills, too: a project in the works at electronics company Belkin makes it possible to see how much electricity you’re spending on everything from the TV in your living room to the washing machine in your basement. Called Belkin Echo Electricity, it’s a small device that connects to your utility meter and pays attention to the electromagnetic interference, or “noise,” emitted by electrical appliances plugged in to wall outlets…Eventually, utilities could build the device into home meters or you could simply plug one into an outlet in your house…the device uses a sensor to track the electromagnetic interference “signatures” that different appliances emit over power lines when turned on, turned off, or changed from one state to another…”

40.    How to do citizen science research  http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/08/how-to-do-scientific-research-without-even-trying-much/  “To some extent, scientific research requires expensive or specialized equipment—some work just requires a particle accelerator or a virus containment facility. But plenty of other research has very simple requirements: a decent camera, a bit of patience, or being in the right place at the right time. Since that sort of work is open to anyone, getting the public involved can be a huge win for scientists, who can then obtain much more information than they could have gathered on their own. A group of Spanish researchers has now written an article that is a mixture of praise for this sort of citizen science, a resource list for people hoping to get involved, and a how-to guide for anyone inspired to join in…”

41.     10 Electric Planes to Watch  http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/10-electric-planes-to-watch  “…Electric flying has been a reality for quite some time, and it’s never been more practical. Aviation is a slow-moving industry, but the daring designers of electric aircraft have made a lot of progress recently. During the past two years, as a number of key technologies—batteries, controllers, motors, and materials—have neared maturity and become easier to source at more affordable prices, there has been a minor boom of sorts in the offering of electric drives for small planes. Because batteries still haven’t made the energy-density quantum leap that we all hoped for—gasoline’s energy density is still about 13 times that of the best lithium-ion batteries—most electric planes are self-launching gliders or motorized gliders. These have less stringent requirements in terms of range than standard aircraft, and their highly aerodynamically efficient airframes require less power to keep them airborne in all phases of flight. What follows is a sampling of the most innovative efforts…”

42.    Camping may help retrain your body rhythm  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/08/01/camping-may-help-retrain-your-body-rhythm/  “…a new study has found just how much electric lighting affects our sleep wake cycles…all it takes is a week of camping in the great outdoors to synch your body to the rising and setting of the sun…our bodies are most in synch with the environment when we’re exposed to a lot of natural light during the day and not exposed to artificial light at night. The daylight keeps our circadian rhythm “entrained” to the sun’s rhythms…Researchers…monitored eight adults for one week as they went about their normal lives. The subjects wore wrist monitors to record their light exposure and activity, as well as to show when they were sleeping…They then made the same measurements during a second week when the eight people went camping in Colorado. Campers were exposed only to sunlight and the glow of a campfire; no flashlights or personal devices were allowed. During the camping trip, subjects were exposed to four times the intensity of light than they were in their everyday lives.  That caused their “biological nighttime,” to begin near sunset and end near sunrise. They were perfectly in synch with nature, and that was true for both night owls and morning larks…”

43.    Crossbar says it will explode the $60B flash memory market with Resistive RAM  http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/05/crossbar-says-it-will-explode-the-60b-flash-memory-market-with-resistive-ram-which-stores-a-terabyte-on-a-chip/  “Crossbar is announcing…a new kind of memory chip that can replace flash memory…The…chip startup is announcing Resistive RAM, a technology that can store a terabyte of data on a single chip that is smaller than a postage stamp. It can access that data 20 times faster than the best breed of flash memory. Those features could prove disruptive to the $60 billion dollar flash market…Crossbar says it will enable a new wave of electronics innovation for consumer, enterprise, mobile, industrial and connected device applications…It could also perform its storage functions at 20 times lower power, extending the battery life of devices using it to weeks, months, or years. Crossbar also says it has 10 times the endurance of NAND flash chips that it could replace…”

Leisure & Entertainment

44.    Fee Dispute With Time Warner Cable, CBS Goes Dark for Three Million Viewers  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/business/media/time-warner-cable-removes-cbs-in-3-big-markets.html?_r=0  “The war between CBS and Time Warner Cable intensified on Friday when the cable company withdrew the CBS stations of its three million customers…CBS stations went black just after 5 p.m. Eastern time. Both sides then issued statements blaming the other for being unreasonable in the negotiations, which were extended from Monday. The dispute centers on what are known as retransmission fees, which cable companies have increasingly been compelled to pay to broadcasters, despite vigorous protest…The decision to black out the stations means that Time Warner Cable subscribers will not be able to watch CBS programming until a deal is reached …”  http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/02/cbs-blocks-time-warner-cable-subscribers-from-watching-full-episodes-on-cbs-com/  “A dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable over retransmission fees for its broadcast content has spilled over onto the web, with a blackout of television programming also being extended to CBS’ online properties. In the wake of Time Warner Cable dropping the CBS and Showtime signals in most major markets, the broadcaster has decided to block access to full-episode viewing on CBS.com…”

45.    Gaming laptop Wi-Fi adapter shootout: Qualcomm versus Intel in an 802.11 battle  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045607/wi-fi-adapter-shootout-qualcomm-versus-intel-in-an-802-11-battle.html  “…folks at Bigfoot Networks—now a part of Qualcomm Atheros—have long promised to deliver network interface cards that perform better with online games and other latency-sensitive applications. To demonstrate its prowess in this area, the company sent me two identical Alienware notebooks, one equipped with Qualcomm’s Killer Wireless-N 1202 and the other with Intel’s Centrino Advanced-N 6230…Both NICs are dual-band adapters that can connect to an 802.11n router on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency band. Both also support two spatial streams for a maximum physical link rate of 300 megabits per second…You can also purchase one of these cards by itself and upgrade your existing notebook, provided that the system has an available Mini PCIe slot to host the card…Killer Wireless-N 1202 is certainly inexpensive enough: I’ve seen it selling online for as little as $35…The key selling point of Killer NIC technology is its ability to identify the types of traffic traveling over your network and to assign higher priority to latency-sensitive traffic, such as online games, HD video, and audio…”

46.    The best games of the year so far  http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/07/the-best-games-of-the-year-so-far/  “…we wanted to take a quick look back at five games that have made the beginning of the year a great one for gaming. These are the titles that we would recommend without reservation to anyone looking for something new to distract them from their dull and pointless lives…Tomb Raider…Antichamber…Guacamelee…Bioshock: Infinite…”

47.    Google Chromecast the best way to watch TV  http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/google-chromecast-the-best-way-to-watch-tv-20130801-2r0no.html  “Google's Chromecast doesn't do much. But what it does do, it does so consistently well, and so cheaply, that it's quickly became a primary part of my media-watching routine. Chromecast, a little USB-stick-sized device called a dongle, streams Netflix, YouTube and websites to your TV…Chromecast is fast, unbelievably easy to set up, and pretty much foolproof to use. And it's $US35, which makes it one of the best values in tech, ever…In the five days I've had it, Chromecast has become my go-to way for streaming shows to my TV…”

Entrepreneurism and Technology

48.    Fullscreen Gives Video Creators The Tools To Collaborate And Make More Money On YouTube  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/31/fullscreen-gives-video-creators-the-tools-to-collaborate-and-make-more-money-on-youtube/  “Fullscreen is one of the newer multichannel networks to appear on YouTube, and, unlike some others, it’s focused on providing technology tools for its creators to understand their audience and better monetize their videos…CEO George Strompolos…founded the startup with the vision of creating a global media company in partnership with thousands of creators all around the world. But in order to build the video network of the future, the company would have to build technology tools to help creators achieve their goals. The most recent incarnation of that is the Fullscreen Creator Platform, which it launched earlier this month to give creators a better way to understand their audience, while also providing better monetization tools…”

49.    A guess at why Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post  http://www.businessinsider.com/why-jeff-bezos-bought-washington-post-2013-8?op=1  “…First, I'd guess that Jeff Bezos thinks that owning the Washington Post will be interesting, fun, and cool…Second, I'd guess that Jeff Bezos thinks that there are some similarities between the digital news business and his business (ecommerce)…Lastly, I'd guess that Jeff Bezos thinks there are many ways in which the news business might be  complementary to Amazon. How might the news business be complementary?...1. Amazon is already in the content production and distribution business--and news is just another kind of content…2. Amazon is already in the subscription and media-gadget businesses…3. "News" is the digital equivalent of a high-traffic intersection: As people pass through to consume information they might also stop to do some shopping…4. Amazon is getting into the local physical delivery business--a business that the Washington Post is already in…”

50.    The Engagement Project: The VICE Guide to Engagement  http://www.google.com/think/articles/the-vice-guide-to-engagement.html  “VICE was a magazine with a cult following when a transformative chat with director Spike Jonze inspired their founders to plunge into the world of video. Their audience expanded exponentially as fans spread their video content across the internet. Soon VICE’s documentaries were being screened at international film festivals, and CNN and HBO wanted to collaborate on TV projects…As part of our Engagement Project series, we sat down with…Shane Smith to talk about breaking convention, making killer content and engaging the right audience. Smith is the co-founder and CEO of VICE, the global youth media company and an industry leader in producing and distributing some of the best original video on the web. Launched in 1994 as a “punk zine,” VICE has transformed into a multimedia brand valued by Forbes at $1 billion, and includes a network of digital channels — including a robust YouTube channel, a television production studio, a magazine, an in-house creative services agency, and a book-publishing division…Smith recently shared his thoughts on engagement, content and authenticity with us…”

51.     Fail Cheaper, Fail Better  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/fail-cheaper-fail-better/?_r=2&  “There are lots of reasons for the current boom…in data, including cheap computing, sensors everywhere and lots of new algorithms…perhaps we should add the rising likelihood of failure, both the expensive kind and the cheap kind. The expensive kind is when your business or employer gets wiped out. That is happening with greater frequency…the average tenure of a company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 is now about 16 years, down from 60 years in 1959. “The duration of your working life is now almost certainly greater than the lifespan of a company…That makes everyone more willing to accept that they will be disrupted.” When people know…their business will be blown up by new market developments…they’re more likely to seek data that helps them respond…It is also cheaper to take risks and fail…Computer hardware and software are now rented through cloud computing, social media is a proxy for much of marketing and…business applications are sold cheaply in Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS stores…companies focus less on costs, and more on experimentation about what is going to make their original idea work…Experimentation...involves a lot of failure, as failure is where most learning takes place. Data around the failures of others are collected and studied…people are more likely to make new and interesting mistakes, instead of the same old ones…One big result of this failure-driven world…is that organizational leadership is changing toward a more structured learning environment…”

52.    Chris Messina Leaves Google to Join Small Startup NeonMob  http://allthingsd.com/20130802/hashtag-inventor-chris-messina-leaves-google-to-join-small-startup-neonmob/  “An advocate of open social Web technologies, Messina had first joined Google to lead developer relations for the short-lived Google Buzz product. In recent years, he had worked on user experience design on the Google+ team…he’s famous to some for inventing the hashtag in August 2007…Messina said…he is taking a job at a small, bootstrapped San Francisco startup called NeonMob, which is trying to create a market for digital art…”  http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/06/amazon-launches-amazon-art-service-with-over-40-000-works/  “Amazon has just announced the Amazon Art marketplace, giving users access to 40,000 pieces of fine art from over 150 dealers and galleries. More than 4,500 artists will be represented at launch, making the site one of the largest online collections available…”

Design / DEMO

53.    Shopify Acquires Design Firm Jet Cooper To Help It Remake Ecommerce  http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/shopify-acquires-toronto-based-design-firm-jet-cooper-to-help-it-remake-ecommerce/  “…Shopify has acquired Jet Cooper, a…design agency founded in 2009…The acquisition brings together the Ottawa-based Shopify, which launched…with the aim of making online stores better design and usability, together with Jet Cooper, which has emerged as one of Canada’s top user experience and design firms…Design-focused talent acqui-hires are not quite as common as their engineering-focused equivalent, but companies like Facebook regularly pick up small agencies in moves like this one to boost their chops and inject some outside innovation into their in-house design team…”

54.    Can design rehabilitate the ailing health care industry?  http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/31/can-design-rehabilitate-the-ailing-healthcare-industry/  “…Within the tangled threads connecting government regulation, opaque insurance policies, and the actual work of patient care itself, there's…very little time for…the health care machine to…reflect on…what could be better if only someone would stop and think through certain problems…virtually nobody in the industry has the time or the inclination to dwell on the role of design…this lack of design-thinking is precisely why the health care industry struggles to deliver on so many levels…"We think that design has the power to revolutionize industries…But in health care we haven't tapped into that in a systematic way."…NXT Health got its start…via a Department of Defense grant…to lead a design collaboration in producing the hospital room of the future…Room 2020…was unveiled this month…what this…represents…is a wholesale rethinking of the patient environment, which has remained largely unchanged for decades…”

55.     14 Super Cheap but Brilliantly Designed Everyday Objects  http://www.wired.com/design/2013/08/sam-hecht-on-getting-back-to-simple-efficient-design/  “For more than a decade, Sam Hecht has been collecting stuff. Whistles, spray bottles, plastic cutlery…The objects in Hecht’s collection are simple, inexpensive, and sometimes a little bizarre…they also tend to be highly functional and generally well-made in the context of mass manufacturing…there is great beauty and great cleverness and intelligence in very, very low cost products…It’s part of the designer’s ongoing effort to reframe the conversation around design…he’d like it to be less about how things look and more about how things work…he began to notice that many of his students tended to favor over-designed concepts over basic, functional design…students were not particularly interested in the ordinary and the mundane,” he says. “But actually, that accounts for the majority of consumption that we do.”…Hecht and Colin’s designs…strive to achieve a balance between functionality and what Hecht calls persuasion, or the influence design has on a customer to buy a product…”

DHMN Technology

56.    Fuel3D Is A Handheld, High Resolution 3D Scanner For Sub-$1,000  http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/fuel3d/  “Makers and 3D designers who want to replicate the shape and colour of real-world objects in their creations clap your eyes on the above gizmo. The Fuel3D is a handheld, high resolution 3D scanner, which captures 3D photos of real-world objects/subjects and, in conjunction with its creators’ software, turns them into a 3D model with accurate geometry and colour. With 3D printers taking off, the demand for object scanners is likely to rise — especially affordable scanners, and the Fuel3D’s creators are aiming to ship this high resolution 3D scanner with a sub-$1,000 price-tag…”

57.     Arduino Workshop: Getting Started With Microcontrollers  http://www10.mcadcafe.com/blogs/jeffrowe/2013/07/16/arduino-workshop-getting-started-with-microcontrollers/  “Being a mechanical design kind of guy, I’ve had to pick up a lot of electrical/electronics information on my own over…I’ve worked with programmable logic controllers (PLCs), but wanted to get down to a more basic level of understanding, so I started thinking microcontrollers…the one that really intrigued me was the Arduino, an open-source, single-board microcontroller…I needed the hardware and software to get started, but I also needed a good educational resource…I’ve checked out several Arduino “primers,” and found the best one for my purposes to be Arduino Workshop: A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects by John Boxall. This well-written book is a comprehensive tutorial that will have even rank beginners (like me) quickly building devices that are actually functional…”

58.    Tiny Tech Puts Satellites In Hands Of Homebrew Designers  http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/29/205822987/tiny-tech-puts-satellites-in-hands-of-homebrew-designers  “Two satellites set for launch Sunday will soon be in the hands of ordinary people because they run on a tiny microchip that anyone can program. The chip, known as Arduino, is cheap and easy to use. It is already popular among designers and artists, and it's increasingly gaining ground with everyday geeks seeking to insert a little technology into their lives. In addition to the satellites, Arduino processors now control homemade robots, desk lamps and air quality monitors…Gaitán led a course taught by HacDC, a local nonprofit that brings together artists and programmers. Sitting around tables are about a dozen people from all sorts of different backgrounds: lawyers, artists — even a trained philosopher. Each has his own reason for being here…Putting customers in control is exactly why the Arduino has ended up in satellites. The satellites about to be launched have been built by Nanosatisfi, a…startup that wants to put space at the fingertips of everyday people. For a few hundred bucks, artists, students or anyone can rent one of the company's satellites for a few days and program it to take pictures or broadcast a message — whatever they want…”

59.    Portable Brain-Scan Headsets: 4 Incredible Applications  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130801-tan-le-portable-brain-scanning-headsets-neuroscience/  “Emotiv Lifesciences…produces portable, high-resolution EEG  (electroencephalogram) brain-scanning headsets that Le hopes will open new windows on the complex functioning of our brain. On August 1, Emotiv unveiled Emotiv Insight, a faster, next-generation wireless brain scanner that collects real-time data on the wearer's thoughts and feelings and delivers it directly to a computer, phone, or other device through Android, iOS, OSX, Linux, and Windows platforms…the product, which costs $199, can further democratize brain research and help scientists gather more data…Emotiv hopes to help create a massive digital repository of brain-scan information, as well as a platform for sharing brain data with interested parties around the world…Here are four applications of the portable brain scanners that Le says are already beginning to take shape: 1. Moving Things With the Mind…2. Diagnosing Disease…3. Making Learning Easier…4. Organizing Data by Thoughts and Emotions…”

60.    You Dream It & They Print It  http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=265917&dfpPParams=ind_186,aid_265917&dfpLayout=article  “…Thanks to technology, scientists now have new tools and methods to monitor the brain and what goes on inside it…Most of the studies involve using EEGs (electroencephalographs)…EEGs provide a unique option for human-computer interaction…A few of the most common of these inputs for computer software include motor imagery; steady-state, visually evoked potentials…applications are beginning to emerge…One of the most recent integrates thought processing and 3D printing…Thinker Thing is a startup company focused on the design of software to print objects using a person's brain activities…The process is purely based on their emotional responses to changes being made to geometrical shapes…Using 14 sensors placed along the scalp, shapes are chosen and put together based on excitement and boredom generated in the brain. The idea of using evolving shapes to build an object comes from the notion that people are naturally better at critiquing the designs of others than coming up with new designs of their own. The first people who will…try out the new system…will be school children…the children will sit in front of computers and be guided through a process that will let them create their own monster character without moving a limb…”

61.     Quadcopter with GoPro Hero 3 camera above Niagara Falls  http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/quadcopter-with-gopro-captures-stunning-views-of-niagara-falls/  “For his entry into a quadcopter video contest, YouTube user Questpact had the idea to strap a GoPro Hero 3 camera to his DJI Phantom flyer and send it…above Niagara Falls…Questpact’s video goes some way to showing what the natural wonder looks like from an elevated position, as well as what you can do with a video camera and quadcopter…Though they’re not the highest in the world, Niagara Falls…does hold the record for the highest flow rate of any falls on the planet, with Questpact’s video managing to capture some of the incredible energy and power generated by the surging water. Strapping a Fat Shark radio-controlled first-person-view system to his head so he could see exactly what footage he was capturing, Questpact sent his quadcopter over the falls, shooting for 20 minutes in total…”

62.    Mini-camp aims to spark interest in robotics  http://www.gctelegram.com/news/robotics-camp-08-01-13  “A chorus of "oohs" and "ahhs" followed a remote controlled quad-copter…during a mini-robotics camp…it's an RC autonomous robot that's really difficult to crash. If you shut the remote off, it lands itself…Matt Seimears…said. The remote controlled, four-propeller copter…was one of the highlights for about 35 local students during the mini-camp…Drew Marwaha, 11…made a couple of robots this week, including one with his mom. He said the small one took about 15 minutes, while a larger one took about three days…The camp…was designed for students in sixth through 12th grades to learn more about robotics…At the end of the mini-camp, students took home a free solar-powered robotic vehicle that could fit in someone's palm…this gives students a chance to explore, pique their interest in something that may not be normally used in a standard classroom…The goal is to..improve…students' knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math, and also spark an interest in future careers in those areas…”

Open Source Hardware

63.    Intel's first 'open-source PC' on sale for $199  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045583/intels-first-opensource-pc-on-sale-for-199.html  “Intel has shipped its first “open-source PC,” a bare-bones computer aimed at software developers building x86 applications and hobbyists looking to construct their own computer. The PC, called the MinnowBoard…is…a motherboard with no casing around it. It was codeveloped by Intel and CircuitCo Electronics, a company that specializes in open-source motherboards, and went on sale this month for $199 from a handful of retailers. It’s the first open-source PC to be offered with an Intel x86 processor, and the board’s schematics and design files are published and can be replicated under a Creative Commons license…The MinnowBoard, which measures 4 inches (10.16 centimeters) by 4 inches, is Intel’s first open-source hardware design for enthusiasts and developers…”

64.    OpenPnP for SMT  http://pcdandf.com/cms/component/content/article/253-2013-articles/10169-caveat-lector  “…exhibitors had kits for building anything on earth, and in some cases, objects that were less terrestrial. KickSat and NanoSatisfi ArduSat, for example, were among the projects for designing space-ready satellites. Scores of these inventors have brought small-run inventions to market but lack the time, desire or dexterity to manually place scores of components in their garages or basement “labs.” So one particularly relevant development shown at Maker Faire was the DIY pick-and-place machine.  At the heart of the DIY placement world is a Seattle-based software engineer named Jason Von Nieda. Von Nieda is leader of a project called OpenPnP, which basically wants to develop open source plans, prototypes and software for an SMT placement machine…”

Open Source

65.    NoFlo Launches Kickstarter Campaign To Help Everyone To Understand And Visualize Code  http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/noflo-launches-kickstarter-campaign-to-provide-a-way-for-everyone-to-understand-and-visualize-code/  “NoFlo, a company that has built an open-source visual programming tool based on “flow-based programming,”…is launching a $100,000 Kickstarter campaign today to help build a mainstream version of its development environment and add new programming languages…NoFlo is…a sort of visual mechanism for helping people not necessarily familiar with code, like executives, managers and others who are increasingly asked to have some background in programming, be able to understand at a glance what developers are doing and become more involved in the process. “It’s a new kind of flow-based development environment for NoFlo, and…we’re attempting to…change the environment to be more collaborative,” he said. “We want to give companies and teams a map of how their software works, and now their software is connected, where things flow…”

66.    The OSCON 2013 experience  http://opensource.com/oscon-2013  “We're live blogging from OSCON 2013 in Portland, OR…The first plenary keynote speaker was Jeff Hawkins of Numenta, Inc. His talk was called: On Open Intelligence and provided a lesson on the subject of neuroscience. His goals are to discover the operating principles of the neocortex and then build systems based on these principles…Mark Hinkle, Director of Open Source at Citrix, gave a keynote called Creating Communities of Inclusion. How do we include more people in our communities to make the software we create, better? A few years ago, a lot of open source communities looked the same. But not every community should look the same…Hinkle shared some of the lessons that he learned over the years. Open source is not a zero sum gain and we work better when we collaborate across our communities. "We won. Open source is everywhere. It's time to take it to the next level and make the world a better place." It’s time to take it beyond software…”

67.    10 secrets to sustainable open source communities  http://opensource.com/life/13/7/10-secrets-open-source-communities  “Elizabeth Leddy gave the…talk I attended entitled, Wish I Knew How to Quit You: 10 Secrets to Sustainable Open Source Communities…#1 Make plans…#2 Break plans…#3 Think globally / Act locally…#4 Communicate…#5 Culture…#6 Stop recruiting developers…#7 Redefine 'participate'…#8 Governance…#9 Lose control…#10 Be awesome / Expect awesome…”

Civilian Aerospace

68.    XCOR-ULA Engine Project Taking Page from Auto Industry  http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/36548xcor-ula-engine-project-taking-page-from-auto-industry#.Ufp51Y3uLEl  “At first blush, there may not be too much in common between driving a car and maneuvering a satellite in orbit, but that may be changing…XCOR Aerospace is working on a type of piston engine for a prospective upper-stage rocket motor that is similar to what is used in cars and motorcycles.  “It’s a dramatically different kind of upper-stage engine…Instead of rotating turbo-machinery, it’s basically a piston-type engine, more like in a car, except operating with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. You gain some manufacturing efficiencies. The indications are that it would be a much simpler and less expensive engine to build,” he said. “The development is actually going well…”

69.    Next Round of Commercial Crew Round Likely To Support Only Two Competitors  http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/36559next-round-of-commercial-crew-round-likely-to-support-only-two-competitors  “NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will probably get a little thinner…“I don’t believe we are going to be able to carry three in the next round,”…NASA currently is carrying three teams under its effort to replace the space shuttle’s crew-carrying capacity to the international space station with privately designed spacecraft. Two of those teams, Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), were awarded $460 million and $440 million, respectively, last August to develop rival capsules. A third team, Sierra Nevada Corp., was awarded $212.5 million…The reason NASA only expects to carry two teams beyond next summer…is the budget. Congress to date has been unwilling to fund the program anywhere close to the roughly $800 million a year NASA says it needs to keep multiple teams on track…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

70.    Nvidia Boosts HPC Efforts by Buying Portland Group  http://www.eweek.com/servers/nvidia-boosts-hpc-efforts-by-buying-portland-group/  “Nvidia officials are making another move in the high-performance computing space, buying software compiler and toolmaker The Portland Group…The Oregon-based Portland Group (PGI) was founded in 1989 and offers compilers, debuggers and development tools for the increasingly competitive high-performance computing (HPC) industry, working in such languages as Fortran, C and C++. It has collaborated with Nvidia on Fortran and C/C++ for CUDA, the vendor's parallel computing platform…Nvidia has worked with PGI over the past five years in its push to have its graphics technologies used for general-purpose computing workloads…”

71.     Tegra 5's Kepler Demo Drops Jaws At Siggraph  http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1200097LNCEO  “…Nvidia is putting in a star performance this week at Siggraph…The company's demo spotlights its upcoming mobile…Tegra 5, code-named Project Logan. Due out in 2014…Tegra 5 is based on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture…high-end Tesla graphics chips based on Kepler are being used in some of the world's fastest supercomputers, and now similar features will be available in mobile devices…For the end user, expect Tegra 5 to provide better graphics performance at the same power consumption levels…Siggraph attendees…are getting a birds-eye view of the next-gen mobile technology using Kepler by way of Ira, the almost-human face. Ira is startlingly realistic. One of the most detailed models of the human face ever created, Ira is a 3-D model that shows facial gestures, light refraction, wrinkles on the skin…The demo is a wow factor not only because Ira is so realistic but because the mobile processor shows the lifelike human face while consuming just two to three watts of power…”

Trends & Emerging Tech

72.    Five Ways Retail Has Changed and How Businesses Can Adapt  http://www.google.com/think/articles/five-ways-retail-has-changed-and-how-businesses-can-adapt.html  “…These are my top five observations on how shopping has changed and suggestions for how marketers can adapt to join the retail revolution…1. Shoppers know as much as salespeople…2. Retailers can deliver personal, relevant suggestions at scale…3. Mobile devices drive foot traffic to stores…4. Opinions carry more weight than ever…5. Products can jump off the screen…”

73.    Top 5 Technology Trends in the Global Medical Devices Market  http://www.hitconsultant.net/2013/07/31/top-5-technology-trends-in-the-medical-devices-market/  “…2013 embarks the beginning of a new era in the medical device industry more sensitive to the value of care…Frost & Sullivan outlook study identified the following top 5 technology trends in the medical devices market: 1. Interoperability…2. Multi-functional…3. Big Data…4. Low-cost Alternates…5. Nano-technology…”

74.    Three big trends to replace the BRICS  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/three-big-trends-to-replace-the-brics-2013-07-31  “When Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neil coined the term BRICS back in 2001, he created one of the most powerful investment themes of the last decade. The group of countries he identified — Brazil, Russia, India and China, with the later addition of South Africa — were fast developing into major economies…however, the BRICS are not looking the sure bet they once were…So what might replace the BRICS? Technology, mega-caps, and Africa are the three most likely candidates…First, technology….Computing is about to transform some very big industries…Second, mega-caps. In the 1960s, the markets were obsessed with the Nifty Fifty — a small group of companies that could dominate the world. A new group of mega-caps is emerging. The likes of Apple…Amazon…Samsung…and Google…are acquiring a global reach and power that makes the General Motors…of the 1950s look like a corner-shop operation…Finally, Africa. A young, fast-growing population. Rising educational standards. Rapid industrialization. A generation ago, that was a description of much of Asia, but these days it applies to sub-Saharan Africa…”

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