SDRNews Podcast Transcript

~SDR2008-05-13~

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:25:39 GMT

This is SDR News for May 13, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by Blockbuster Total Access, where you can select from over 80,000 DVD's online, and Nozbe, web based tools to get things done.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

Air Force Colonel Wants to Build a Military Botnet

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:25:25 GMT

The U.S. military is pondering creating its own zombie army to flood enemies with junk packets. Can Air Force phishing attacks and 4-19 scams be far behind. While most government agencies are struggling to keep their computers out of the latest Russian botnets, Col. Charles W. Williamson III is proposing that the Air Force build its own zombie network, so it can launch distributed denial of service attacks on foreign enemies.

Wired hates it, and calls it the" most stupid idea since the Gay Bomb." Williamson writes in the Armed Force Journal that the Air Force should deliberately install DDoS code on its unclassified computers, as well as civilian government machines. He even wants to rescue old machines from the junk yard to enlist in the .mil botnet army.

The U.S. would not, and need not, infect unwitting computers as zombies. We can build enough power over time from our own resources. Wired goes on to say the Internet is a community venture, and DDoS is vandalism against the community. There's no such thing as pinpoint targeting in a DDoS attack; civilian infrastructure is impacted every time.

Sailing Robots To Attempt Atlantic Crossing

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:25:03 GMT

The Times of London reports that seven robotic craft will compete in a race across the Atlantic Ocean in October 2008. One of them, 'Pinta the robot sailing boat,' has been designed at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Pinta is expected to sail for three months at a maximum speed of four knots, about 7.4 kph. Its designers hope the Pinta will become the first robot to cross an ocean using only wind power. It will cost about $5000.

The race across the Atlantic, which starts in October, pits Pinta against seven other robot craft from six countries. The boat uses solar panels to provide the power to operate a robot arm on the tiller and a pulley system to change the angle of the sail. Solar panels would provide too little power to run an engine and batteries would run out in days or maybe even in hours.

The transatlantic race will start between September 29 and October 5, 2008 from Portugal. The winner will be the first boat to reach a finishing line between the northern tip of St. Lucia and the southern tip of Martinique in the Caribbean. The boat is a smaller, cheaper version of a more elaborate robot sailing boat, Beagle B, and is being used to prove that the onboard technology works. If it does manage to cross from the Portuguese coast to the Caribbean, the scientists who built it hope to risk Beagle B, which cost £40,000, on a long-distance journey.

===== GoToMeeting =====

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:24:39 GMT

Here’s the problem. You can’t always meeting with clients or colleagues in person. And conference calls just aren’t enough! Your solution – meet online with GoToMeeting. Everyone can see YOUR computer desktop on THEIR computer screen. It’s just like meeting in person but far less expensive and time-consuming. The best part is you can try GoToMeeting FREE right now for 30 days! For this special offer, you must visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE trial.

SMS 4x More Expensive Than Data From Hubble

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:24:24 GMT

Physorg has a paper comparing the cost of text messaging versus the cost of getting data from Hubble Space Telescope. The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only 7 bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is 5p. That means 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 5p each, that's $732.95 per MB, or about 4.4 times more expensive than the 'most pessimistic' estimate for Hubble Space Telescope transmission costs."

Screen With 180 Degree Field of View

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:23:52 GMT

Gamers may get this. Project jDome has started actively soliciting consumer feedback and, of course, donations. They are currently promising to deliver their "180 degree FOV monitor" this year for a price point of around $200.

It looks to be some sort of scheme with a dome structure, pointing with a conventional DLP projector. Not clear what software magic has to be performed. I think $200 must be minus projector.

===== You Tube =====

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:22:56 GMT

You Tube today concerns SPAM - not the email variety, but the web page type. The speaker is from Google - Matt Cutts. He has eight years with Google and offers some tips from the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

=====31 Days=====

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:22:42 GMT

07 May - 14 May www.bostonpocketpc.com and www.techronical.com
08 May - 15 May www.the-gadgeteer.com
09 May - 16 May www.thedigitallifestyle.com
10 May - 17 May www.digitalhomethoughts.com
11 May - 18 May www.windows-now.com
12 May - 19 May www.windowsconnected.com
13 May - 20 May www.geekstogo.com

Nanoworms Find, Treat Cancer Tumors Much Better

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:22:29 GMT

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can travel through the bloodstream and like tiny anti-cancer missiles zero in on tumors. These can circulate in the body for hours since they don't trigger the immune system.

These nanoworms, composed of magnetic iron oxide and coated with a polymer, are able to find and attach to tumors. The nanoworms are superparamagnetic and show up very well on MRI scans. Using these nanoworms, doctors could eventually be able to target and reveal the location of developing tumors that are too small to detect by conventional methods.

Sad Truth: Hydrogen Cars Won't Make a Difference for 40 Years

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:22:07 GMT

President Bush, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the big automakers agree that hydrogen-powered fuel cell technology will be wonderful; zero-emission, petroleum-free. Unfortunately, it will take about 40 years or more to get to it.

Congress appropriated $283.5 million for the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative this year. That's means its investment is $1.16 billion since 2004. California's "Hydrogen Highway" may be floundering, but the Air Resources Board is handing out $7.7 million to build hydrogen stations even though the last three agencies to receive state funding gave it back.

The timeline, 40 years, has more to do with economics than science. There are roughly 240 million vehicles in America and about 16 million new vehicles sold each year. That means it takes about 15 years to turn over the fleet. But it takes even longer for new technologies to penetrate the market. For example, if you look at hybrids, they may seem ubiquitous, but after 10 years, hybrids accounted for just 2.2 percent of domestic auto sales last year. Run the numbers and fuel cell vehicles will need 25 years to make up 35 percent of new vehicle sales and 20 years beyond that to get to 35 percent of the U.S. fleet.

Microsoft 'Shared Source' Attempts to Hijack FOSS

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:21:23 GMT

This goes back 25 years -- confuse people with the term "free", saying "free as in freedom," or "free as in 'free speech', even with Richard Stallman. But no matter how hard he tried, Stallman was faced with the reality that most people thought of "free software" as programs for which you didn't have to pay money.

The term "open source" was supposed to remove that confusion, and was deliberately chosen to emphasize what the software is, rather than what it isn't. The term "open source" was coined, just 10 years ago, the world was ready to listen, and incorporated this term into its vocabulary. The problem is that the open source world has so many licenses and commercial interests involved, that it is often hard to know whether a program is truly available on an open source basis until you read the fine print.

Microsoft has 'Shared Source' licenses, and Open Source licenses have become so much more confusing. The confusion stems from the fact that Microsoft's 'shared source' program includes three proprietary licenses as well, whose names are similar in some ways to the open-source licenses. Thus, while the Microsoft Reciprocal License has been approved by OSI, the Microsoft Limited Reciprocal License (Ms-LRL) is not, because it allows users to modify and redistribute the software only on the Windows platform.

The 'shared source' program was and is Microsoft's way of fighting the open source world, allowing customers to inspect Microsoft source code without giving those customers the right to modify or redistribute the code. In other words, "shared source" is not open source, and shouldn't be confused with it.

===== Nozbe =====

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:20:27 GMT

How many projects are on your plate? If you have a gnawing sense of anxiety that something you should have done slipped by, the free Web application Nozbe could give you one of the most valuable things in the world - peace of mind. David Allen's famous book talks about the freedom that you will experience when you have system that you can trust to keep track of all the projects, tasks, appointments and obligations in your life - personal and professional. He calls it simply, getting things done or GTD.

You can learn more about GTD and sign up for a free Nozbe account. Click on the Nozbe link at Slashdotreview.com

80 Gbps Deep Packet Inspection Hardware Announced

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:20:15 GMT

A company called Procera Networks is launching one serious packet inspector, and you need big money to play. At $800,000 these 80 Gbps tanks aren't going to be sitting in everyone's closet, but it could mean that more traffic shaping is on the way. "The PL10000 can handle up to 5 million subscribers and can track 48 million real-time data flows. That's certainly a potent piece of hardware, but larger ISPs will need more. That's why Procera designed the new machines with full support for synchronizing traffic flows where return traffic might be routed to a different PacketLogic machine. The machine receiving the return traffic can make the machine monitoring the outbound traffic aware that it sees the other half of a TCP/IP conversation, for example, giving the devices more accuracy than those which might only have access to one side."

In their view, DPI is a competitive tool for ISPs in several ways. First, it allows ISPs to set charge for "services" like faster VoIP or gaming. Second, it can speed up the network by shaping P2P and other high-bandwidth applications at peak times, or enforce user quotas and bandwidth limits. Finally, DPI can be a security tool that gives ISPs a way to shut down DDoS attacks and viruses propagating through the network.

80Gbps is an entirely new level of speed. And because this box doesn't use custom ASICs to get the job done, protocol identifications can be updated in software just as fast as Procera can issue them. P2P coders are likely to put this updating capacity to the test, doing whatever they can to avoid detection. It's kind of a cat-and-mouse and Procera's execs sound confident in their ability to identify at least the top applications on a consistent basis.

Progress, I Think: First Space Lawyer Graduates

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:19:53 GMT

Space.com hass an interesting article about the first space lawyer. He graduated from the University of Mississippi. Any future space lawyer might have to deal with issues ranging from the fallout over satellite shoot-downs to legal disputes between astronauts onboard the International Space Station.

The expanding privatization of the space sector may also pose new legal challenges. "We are particularly proud to be offering these space law certificates for the first time, since ours is the only program of its kind in the U.S. and only one of two in North America," said Samuel Davis, law dean at the University of Mississippi.'"

_SDR2008-05-13_

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:19:33 GMT

That's this episode of SDR News. My name is Andy McCaskey. I have no relationship to Slashdot, Digg, or Reddit other than a regular reader. Comments and suggestions to slashdotreview@gmail.com. SDRNews is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks for listening -- see you tomorrow.

~SDR2008-05-12~

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:19:22 GMT

This is SDR News of May 12, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by GoToMeeting - featuring affordable online business meetings, and our new sponsor, EVault - EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

NSA Takes On West Point In Security Exercise

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:19:07 GMT

The NSA attacked networks set up by various US military academies, all part of the seventh annual Cyber Defense Exercise, a training event for future military IT specialists. It's a rare look into the NSA's toolkit for infiltrating, corrupting or destroying computer networks.

The Army's network scored the highest, and was put together using Linux and FreeBSD by cadets at West Point. From the article: "Even with a solid network design and passable software choices, there was an element of intuitiveness required to defend against the NSA, especially once it became clear the agency was using minor, and perhaps somewhat obvious, attacks to screen for sneakier, more serious ones.

Legal limitations were a surprising obstacle to a realistic exercise. Ideally, the teams would be allowed to attack other schools' networks while also defending their own. But only the NSA, with its arsenal of waivers, loopholes, special authorizations (and heaven knows what else) is allowed to take down a U.S. network.

Nokia aiming to reinvent itself as an "Internet company"

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:18:39 GMT

It's not good enough to be the clear leader in a mature market sector like cell phones. To stay youthfully vibrant, Nokia is embracing a new set of competitors and is repackaging itself as an "Internet company." Their goal is to act less like a traditional manufacturer, and more like an Internet company, Companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft are not our traditional competitors, but they are major forces that must be reckoned with.

The pending acquisition of the GPS specialist Navteq promises to take Nokia into new markets, with things such as navigation systems for pedestrians and location-based mobile advertising.

Gmail As Open-Relay Spam Server

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:18:18 GMT

Expect to have some more problems if you depend on Gmail. Google's finding out that Gmail acting like an open relay. Compounding the issue is the fact that services such as Hotmail and Yahoo trust Gmail as a source of mail. A recently-discovered flaw in Gmail is capable of turning Google's e-mail service into a highly effective spam machine.

According to the Information Security Research Team (INSERT), Gmail is susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack that allows a spammer to send thousands of bulk e-mails through Google's SMTP service without fear of detection. This attack will bypass both Google's identity fraud protection mechanisms and the current 500-address limit on bulk e-mail.

As the volume of spam has risen—it currently accounts for 95 percent of all e-mail traffic—many e-mail providers have adopted whitelists and blacklists as a first line of defense against the flood. An e-mail from johdoe@awinnerisyou.com (or the corresponding IP address block) may be automatically blocked by any given e-mail service, while an e-mail from a trusted, authenticated source such as Gmail is automatically allowed through the gateway. Problem is the high level of trust between Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail.

===== EVault =====

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:17:52 GMT

Today's program brought to you in part by EVault, the trusted expert in complete data protection. People tell us that world class offsite security and data recovery are only part of the reason that they entrust their most valuable business asset to EVault. They see that regulatory compliance is a big part of their business. Over 20,000 major business clients depend on EVault to protect their client, technical, and financial data, and provide compliance with regulatory requirements such as SAS70 from the Auditing Standards Board, Sarbanes-Oxley, or HIPAA.

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IE8 to boost ActiveX security on Vista

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:17:34 GMT

ActiveX has long been regarded as a hole big enough to drive a truck through, where spyware and viruses can contaminate your PC and compromise your data. In Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft's forthcoming version of its embattled browser, steps will be taken to reduce the exposure caused by ActiveX.

The biggest of these changes is that Administrator rights will no longer be required to install ActiveX controls. With this feature, regular user accounts will be able to install ActiveX controls privately, using their own profile. Although the control may still be bad and exploitable, it will only be able to harm the user who has it installed. This is in contrast to the current situation, where ActiveX controls must be installed globally, and would therefore compromise any user.

The other significant ActiveX security change is that it will be possible to restrict ActiveX controls to specific domains. Right now, most ActiveX controls are global in nature and any web page can make use of them. This increases security exposure. An ActiveX control that has a security bug might be "safe" in the confines of the corporate intranet site that used the control, because the intranet site might not do anything to exploit that particular bug.

================= 31 Days/YouTube==============

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:17:06 GMT

================= 31 Days/YouTube==============
Today's UPS delivery brought a fresh set of software and movie titles that will be a part of the give-away under the HP and BuzzCorps promotion - 31 DAYS OF THE DRAGON. Here's a partial list of what's in the box:

PaintShop Pro Photo X2
ULead VideoStudio 11.5
MS Fight Simulator
Gears of War
Corel Painter 4 Essentials
Norton Internet Security 2008
Viva Pinata games for kids
Three Pirates of the Carribean Blu-Ray - 2 Disk sets
and Flight Simulator Accelerator Expansion Pack

Please go to these sites, look up their contest info and register
05 May - 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May - 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com
07 May - 14 May www.bostonpocketpc.com and www.techronical.com
08 May - 15 May www.the-gadgeteer.com
09 May - 16 May www.thedigitallifestyle.com
10 May - 17 May www.digitalhomethoughts.com
11 May - 18 May www.windows-now.com

I'll be updating each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration and maximize your chances to win. Check out the unpacking of the box as our YouTube today.

WSJ: Tiny Fish Cleans the Pools of Foreclosed Homes

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:16:50 GMT

Wall Street Journal had a report concerning all these house that are being foreclosed, many of which are also being abandoned. Lawmakers in Washington struggle to solve the nation's foreclosure crisis, but officials in parts of California and Florida are using a small fish to clean up some of the real-world mess.

It's called the "mosquito fish" because of its healthy appetite for the larvae of the irritating and disease-spreading insects, and is being pressed into service in California, Arizona, Florida and other areas struggling with a soaring number of foreclosures. The fish can contain the mosquito problem, while a bank hires a caretaker to drain the pool or restart the filtration system. The fish are more actually more environmentally friendly than constant spraying with pesticides. You could put a cover on the pool, but the cover's exterior can collect water and breed mosquitoes, and the cycle starts all over again.

OLEDs, e-paper encroach on LCDs

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:16:11 GMT

LCDs and plasma screens may be the dominant choice for TVs today, and LCDs the displays of choice for almost every other application, but organic LEDs, which have already made inroads in the portable display market, are threatening to move into the living room as a new TV display. Electronic paper, meanwhile, is carving out a share in portable devices, consumer electronics and electronic signs that demand particularly low power consumption and long battery life.

There's a show called Display 2008 where E-Ink, Fujitsu and Bridgestone independently exhibited advances of their e-paper displays, which are characteristically thin, light in weight and power stingy. For its part, Sony exhibited a prototype of a 0.3-mm-thick OLED display—more commonly known as an OEL organic electroluminescent display in Asia— which is a reduced-profile version of the 1.4-mm OLED the company designed into its OLED TV monitor, the XEL-1, launched in December. The company also demonstrated a 0.2-mm prototype, the thinnest OLED yet.

Thinness is not the only strength of an OLED display, whose screen size can be as large as 30 inches on the diagonal. OLEDs offer many other features that suit them for TV receivers, including color reproduction that exceeds the NTSC specification and a quick response time, of several microseconds. The displays also have outstanding peak brightness and contrast display ratios. Samsung is already jumping on the OLED bandwagon. They will be producing 40- or 42-inch TVs with organic-electroluminescence displays by 2010.

===== GoToMeeting =====

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:15:46 GMT

Here’s a way to improve your bottom line. Work smarter, save time and save money. You can meet clients or co-workers online with GoToMeeting. So you can do more and travel less. It’s just like meeting in person! Use GoToMeeting to conduct presentations, demos, training – right from your desk. The best part is you can try GoToMeeting FREE right now for 30 days! For this special offer, you must visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE trial.

Driving While Distracted More Dangerous Than Supposed

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:15:29 GMT

Science News reports on recent research indicating that any kind of task while driving is dangerous. Not just the obvious distraction of juggling a cell phone, but even talking to a passenger or listening to a book on tape. The researchers used a driving simulator inside an MRI machine to measure brain activations.

Attending to what someone says galvanizes language-related brain areas while simultaneously reducing activity in spatial regions that coordinate driving behavior. This finding suggests that people who combine relatively automatic tasks, such as speech comprehension and driving a car, exceed a biological limit on the amount of systematic brain activity they can accommodate at one time, the researchers propose.

As a result, the less-ingrained skill — in this case, driving, which is learned long after a person grasps a native language — takes a neural hit. Cell phones stand out as particularly problematic for drivers. Cell phone conversations require a driver’s constant attention in order not to appear rude or insulting to an unseen partner. In contrast, a talking passenger can cut off conversation upon spying an approaching ambulance or some other demand on a driver’s attention.

Follow-up: The Car of the Future Will Know You Can't Drive

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:15:07 GMT

A Stanford University professor wants to make cars that know what you're up to. The technology will make it easier for your car to protect you -- and for insurers and advertisers to hassle you. Stanford professor Clifford Nass and his colleagues at the university's CarLab are figuring how to make vehicles collect information on where you drive, how fast you go, your preferences and more importantly, how you react when somebody cuts you off on the freeway.

The insurance company could say you're been parking in high-risk areas. I'm going to raise your collision insurance, or they've detected that you've been driving at 80 miles per hour; that will affect your liability rates. So there are huge social issues about the car," he says. Make you a better driver and even save you time and money - but it also could let insurers keep tabs on you and help advertisers reach right into your car. Nass, who's being funded in part by automakers, is not the only guy working on this. Microsoft wants to bring Google-style advertising to your dashboard.

A large part of his research focuses on how a car’s voice can influence your emotional state. He believes that as the car of the future studies the driver’s voice, facial expressions and emotional state using a camera and even blood pressure monitors in the steering wheel, it could change its tone to match your mood. In other words, it'll know when you're about to blow your top because someone cut you off, and soothe your nerves with a friendly voice. They did a study where we used a subdued voice and showed they can reduce the accident rate of angry drivers by up to 15% simply by changing the tone of the voice in the car.

_SDR2008-05-12_

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:14:25 GMT

~SDR2008-05-09~

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:56:39 GMT

This is SDR News for May 9, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by GotoMeeting - Affordable Business Meetings that work and by Blockbuster Total Access, where you can select from over 80,000 DVD's online.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

Now Vonage Will Have A New Business: Selling Broadband

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:56:31 GMT

After a really rough 2007, Vonage, the independent voice-over-IP service provider, seems to be having a better 2008. The company plans to sell Covad DSL services, rebranded as Vonage Broadband and tightly coupled with its VoIP service. The company is looking to diversify its business, and today said it’s going to start selling broadband service. It will be available to both residential and small business customers. The company expects the new service to be available by the end of this year.

I think this helps Vonage overcome all the problems created by broadband providers and their networks. The question is, will consumers buy DSL service from a company with a checkered record when it comes to service and customer satisfaction?

Techcrunch: Early Adopters Still Spend More Time With Microsoft Than Google, Facebook, or Skype. But For How Long?

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:56:13 GMT

When early adopters sit at their computers, the applications and websites that they use the most look just like most everyone else. Early adopters use Outlook, Microsoft Office, and MSN Messenger. The data came from RescueTime, the productivity app that monitors the amount of time a user spends on every application on his desktop. The startup give an exclusive look at the usage data they’ve compiled from over 30,000 users, most of whom are early adopters. It represents real-life usage on a tremendous scale, over 475,000 man-hours.

Gmail, Facebook, and Skype make strong showings, but still lag behind Microsoft’s desktop applications. All of this suggests that among early adopters, desktop apps still rule, but Web-based apps are gaining ground in terms of what they use every day. After Outlook and Word, Gmail is the third most-used application, Facebook is No. 6, Google search is No. 10, iTunes is No. 11, and Skype is No. 16. If you add up all of Google’s applications and sites, they take up 17 percent of the time this group spends on their computers. But Microsoft’s apps collectively take up 41 percent of their time, so Google still has some catch-up work to do.

The data also is slanted internationally. Only 40% of users were in the US (a total of 60% are English-speaking). 35% of the users are on Macs, a rate over three times higher than the international estimate of 10% Mac market-share. The top of the list is dull. Outlook stands tall with 12.4% of all the time spent on a computer, with MS Word(9.4%) and Gmail(6.6%) rounding out the top three.

Facebook holds a surprisingly strong lead over other websites, with nearly three times as much usage as Wikipedia’s English site. Also notable is Twitter.com’s usage (this is the site itself, not the API). Digg is more popular among this group than the NYTimes.com,

===Blockbuster====

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:55:50 GMT

Today's podcast brought to you in part by Blockbuster Total Access. It's a flexible way to choose from over 80,000 titles and rent DVDs online. BLOCKBUSTER Total Access gives the convenience of renting movies online with a choice of how to return them: send them back by mail or exchange them for new movies or discounted game rentals at participating BLOCKBUSTER® stores (up to five in-store exchanges per month). You can keep 3 DVD's out at a time, with no late fees or due dates. It is regularly $19.99 per month - but if you go to slashdotreview.com and sign up today, you can save $10 off the regular price for your first month. It's a great family value! Blockbuster Total Access.

DOE Pumps $126.6 Million Into Carbon Sequestration

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:55:25 GMT

The DOE awarded that sum in grants today to projects that will pump 1 million tons of CO2 into underground caverns at sites in California and Ohio. The DOE has identified enough underground "sinks" to store 1000 years of storage capacity. Pumping CO2 can also aid in extraction more from oil and gas wells.

Environmental groups call carbon sequestration "a scam", claiming that it is too expensive and uncertain to be competitive with non-coal alternatives such as wind and solar.

Other Gov't: Declassified NSA Document Reveals the Secret History of TEMPEST

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:55:00 GMT

The secret history of how the nation's spies discovered that their elaborate, expensive equipment that they were working on was leaking data has never been told before. But now a declassified NSA document tells how a Bell Telephone engineer stumbled onto a problem that vexes the agency to this day.

"There has always been speculation about TEMPEST coming out of the Cold War period," according to Joel McNamara, author of Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures, who maintained for years the best compilation of public information on TEMPEST. But he said that the 1943 Bell Labs discovery is roughly ten years earlier than I would have expected."

The U.S. developed and refined the science in an attempt to spy on the Soviets during the Cold War. And it issued strict standards for shielding sensitive buildings and equipment. Those rules are now known to government agencies and defense contractors as TEMPEST certification, and they apply to everything from computer monitors to encrypted cell phones that handle classified information.

Outside of the government, almost nothing was known about how such eavesdropping worked until 1985, when a computer researcher named Wim van Eck published a paper explaining how cheap equipment could be used to pick up and redisplay information from a distant computer monitor.

===== You Tube =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:54:34 GMT

NETL's Carbon Sequestration Program is helping to develop technologies to capture, purify, and store carbon dioxide in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without adversely influencing energy use or hindering economic growth. Carbon sequestration technologies capture and store CO2 that would otherwise reside in the atmosphere for long periods of time.

================= 31 Days==============

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:54:26 GMT

Today's UPS delivery brought a fresh set of software and movie titles that will be a part of the give-away under the HP and BuzzCorps promotion called - 31 DAYS OF THE DRAGON -

Here's a partial list of what's in the box

PaintShop Pro Photo X2
ULead VideoStudio 11.5
MS Flight Simulator
Gears of War
Corel Painter 4 Essentials
Norton Internet Security 2008
Viva Pinata games for kids
Three Pirates of the Carribean Blu-Ray - 2-disc sets
and Flight Simulator Accelerator Expansion Pack

Please go to these sites, look up their contest info and register. Some of these end this weekend.

02 May - 09 May www.absolutevista.com
03 May - 10 May www.arstechnica.com
04 May - 11 May www.osnn.net
05 May - 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May - 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com
07 May - 14 May www.bostonpocketpc.com and www.techronical.com
08 May - 15 May www.the-gadgeteer.com
09 May - 16 May www.thedigitallifestyle.com
10 May - 17 May www.digitalhomethoughts.com
11 May - 18 May www.windows-now.com

Each of the sites run their own independent contest. I've talked to some folks and it seems like some of the sites have pretty elaborate contests that have a lot of requirements for you to meet. Others are less strict, so we'll see how that all works out. There's over 200 chances to register if you go to all the sites in the 31 days.

I'll be updating each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration and maximize your chance to win.

Xerox Demos Self-Erasing, Eco-Friendly Paper

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:54:12 GMT

The same Xerox lab that brought us Ethernet, the GUI, and the mouse has demonstrated paper that can be reused after printed text automatically deletes itself from its surface in 24 hours. Instead of trashing or recycling after one use, a single piece of paper can be reused up to 100 times.

The paper contains specially coded molecules that create a print after being exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from a thin bar in a printer. The ultraviolet bar itself is very small, so it can be used in mobile printers. The technology could also be useful for network printing. That article comes from Computerworld.

China about to Deploy Secure GPS; be operational by 2010

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:53:56 GMT

Unsatisfied by the reliance on American GPS navigation systems and not feeling much security from joining the European Galileo system, China will expand its 4-satellite Beidou navigation system to a full-fledged, competitive, and encrypted system by 2010. Like GPS, Galileo and Glonass -- the Russian system, Beidou/Compass would be free of direct user charges but also feature an encrypted signal for authorized users only, presumably including the Chinese military.

China wants to ensure that the growing population of GPS users in China will have a smooth transition from GPS-only devices to devices that receive both GPS and Beidou/Compass signals. The market for GPS gear in China is expected to reach around $5 billion in 2010.

===== GoToMeeting =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:53:39 GMT

If you’ve tried Web conferencing, you’ve probably realized how expensive it can be and difficult to use. There’s an easier, more affordable way. GoToMeeting. Setup takes 2 minutes, and meeting attendees don’t need the software installed. Start meetings with a click. And hold as many meetings as you want for one low flat rate. The best part is you can try GoToMeeting FREE right now for 30 days! Visit GoToMeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE trial.

Exercise care: Alluring MP3s, movies hit LimeWire, install malware instead

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:53:28 GMT

McAfee reports that a new trojan is racking up infections with surprising speed. Known as Downloader-UA.h, it masquerades initially as an MP3 player before installing adware goodies all over a PC.

When a user attempts to load one of these MP3 and MPG files, they don’t get the music/video they were hoping for; instead they’re directed to download a file named PLAY_MP3.exe. It should be a tip-off. In fact, the file is completely fake, playing no media clip what so ever. But it does install malware.

Comcast Floats a 250GB Monthly Bandwidth Limit

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:53:12 GMT

Comcast is considering the imposition of bandwidth caps and reductions in network bandwidth to customers who, while paying for the use of a certain amount of bandwidth, but actually dare to use it! Gizmodo has more on the subject.

A Comcast insider tells me the company is considering implementing very clear monthly caps, and may begin charging overage fees for customers who cross them. The plan would work something like this: all users get a 250GB per month cap. Users would get one free "slip up" in a twelve month period, after which users would pay a $15 charge for each 10 GB over the cap they travel. According to the source, the plan has a lot of momentum behind it, and initial testing is slated to begin in a month or two.

It would take some pretty heavy usage by current standards to hit the cap described. According to this source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of Comcast's 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%)

_SDR2008-05-09_

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:52:43 GMT

~SDR2008-05-08~

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:53:33 GMT

This is SDR News for May 08, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by EVault - EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection; and by GoDaddy.com - your #1 source for Internet needs.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

Twitter Starting to Blacklisting Spammers

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:53:24 GMT

You know you've made it as a communications medium when you start attracting spammers. On Twitter, the problem is getting bad enough that the service is starting to blacklist people who spam other members. There is already an unofficial site called The twitterblacklist.com that has 329 known spammers on the service. That site has nothing to do with Twitter officially. But Twitter also has its own official blacklist. It is not clear how you get on it, but perhaps if you are blocked by enough members you get inducted. Before today, Twitter would mark accounts as “spam”, but not tell the owners of the accounts they marked them as spam. Those owners of the accounts could follow others, but no one was able to follow them, and there was no way for the owners of those accounts to know they had been blacklisted. But now Twitter is simply suspending the accounts of people it considers spammers.

Flogos: Company Floats Ads in 'Clouds' Shaped Like Logos

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:53:06 GMT

A special-effects entrepreneur has come up with a method of creating three-dimensional, lighter-than-air shapes that can float towards the heavens. Corporate America is starting to see marketing potential of these flying logos, or "Flogos," and Disney will use one of these machines to send clouds shaped like Mickey Mouse into the air at Walt Disney World next month.

A Flogo machine works a little like a Play-Doh Fun Factory. A boxlike contraption produces a specially formulated white foam in a big round tub and forces it upward through a stencil. Once the foam is several inches thick, a metal cutter slices it and a faux cloud floats into the sky.

You want some wind because you want them to travel. The foam is environmentally safe because it's mostly water, air and a soapy agent that creates bubbles. Flogos pop just like bubbles and disappear when they hit a tree or building, sometimes leaving a powdery residue that blows away. A single Flogo can travel as far as 30 miles and as high as 20,000 feet, and a machine can produce one every 15 seconds.

CCTVs Don't Work in the UK

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:52:37 GMT

People who give up a little bit of liberty for a little bit of security deserve neither, the saying goes. That's what is happening in the United Kingdom today.

Billions of pounds spent on Britain’s 4.2 million closed-circuit television cameras has not had a significant impact on crime, according to the senior police officer piloting a new database. Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville said it was a “fiasco” that only 3 per cent of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV. “Billions of pounds have been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court,” he told the conference.

While the Guardian tries to put a good spin on the entire fiasco, the fact remains that CCTVs only help with 3% of all street robberies. Of course, those were the very crimes they were supposed to be best at protecting.

===== EVault =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:52:19 GMT

Today's program brought to you in part by EVault, the trusted expert in complete data protection. The combinations of human error throw sand into the gears. The hardware might catch the blame but human errors - ranging from accidentally deleting an email to crashing a server from overfilling a disk drive represent some 32% of application downtime and data loss, according to a Merrill Lynch/McKinsey report in 2002. Do you think humans have improved much in the six intervening years? Probably not, and that's why EVault's ability to systematically wring human errors out of your backup and restoration plan has over 20,000 major clients renewing EVault each year.

The first step to get your organization into professional grade Online Backup and see how EVault has helped businesses just like yours is a Toll-Free phone call: 1-866-928-0735. That is not a far-off call center. You will be connected with Therese Cullen in Chicago or Matt Johnson, an EVault Application Engineer. You can get started right now, in just a few minutes time. 1-866-928-0735.

EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Hard drive data recovered from Columbia disaster

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:52:00 GMT

The drive was onboard when the shuttle disintegrated 39 miles up, while traveling at a speed of 12,500mph. That was February 2003. The drive was found and 99 percent of the data has now been recovered and processed by Ontrack Data Recovery in Minneapolis.

Data recovery specialists are becoming increasingly adept at finding and collating data from seemingly wiped hard drives. Many hard drives are only reformatted once; that leaves nearly all the data intact. Experts now recommend physically destroying the drive platters as the only way to ensure that data cannot be accessed.

MPAA is Awarded $110 million in TorrentSpy Case

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:51:43 GMT

The MPAA was awarded a staggering judgment in its case against the BitTorrent indexing site TorrentSpy. According to Slyck.com, a judge in California rendered a $110 million victory for the MPAA and a permanent injunction against TorrentSpy. TorrentSpy was sued by the MPAA in February 2006 and fought back with a countersuit of its own three months later. But even as the torrent tracker accused the MPAA of invasion of privacy, conspiracy, and unlawful business practices, TorrentSpy's admins were desperately trying to cover their tracks.

The $110 million award falls just short of the $115 million settlement between KaZaA and the MPAA, RIAA, and IFPI.

Looks Like Global Telcos Plotting a Skype Rival

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:51:25 GMT

AT&T, in conjunction with some 10-15 incumbent telecom carriers — British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and NTT among them — is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued this morning by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman.

Wahlman is saying is that incumbents are going to offer a VoIP client that will work on the incumbent broadband/3G wireless pipe, and will use a backend platform that will allow folks to make free voice calls to anyone who’s logged into it.

Wahlman’s theory for now, but his track record is full of theories that have eventually been proven right. Om Malick says that the carriers are in a race against time — these line losses basically make their plans to sell other services such as broadband and video impossible, thereby risking their future plans all together. The costs of winning back the customer who switches to, say, cable, VoIP, or a rival’s wireless service are just too high. Wahlman noted, “Robust data connection is the most valuable service the carriers sell.”

===== You Tube =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:51:03 GMT

Today's video is the Flogo system for flying logos - In this case a 24 inch Peace Symbol. This seems to combine both a fun product and elegant design. Makes you wonder why it was not invented forty years ago or more.

31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:50:53 GMT

We had some major luck today, with a mention in the UK Guardian - and hope that at least some of you are checking out the podcast for the first time. Welcome.

The 31 days are in full swing, with contests in progress now. Each of the 31 sites has an award date, and can begin their contest seven days prior to the award date.

Here's the ones that are in play right now.

02 May - 09 May www.absolutevista.com
03 May - 10 May www.arstechnica.com
04 May - 11 May www.osnn.net
05 May - 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May - 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com
07 May - 14 May www.bostonpocketpc.com and www.techronical.com
08 May - 15 May www.the-gadgeteer.com

I'll be updating the list each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration in hand and maximize your chances to win.

Internet2 and You

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:50:38 GMT

As we recently reported, the Internet's backbone should be able to scale to handle the sheer volume of traffic that it's expected to face in the foreseeable future. But a number of factors complicate any analysis based on the simple volume figures. Many services, such as VoIP and streaming video, create expectations of guaranteed bandwidth that may be tough to maintain in the face of vast volumes of spam and P2P traffic; everything may get there, but not necessarily when we'd like it to. Meanwhile, problems with the "last mile" networks can obscure the capacity of the network backbone.

In the academic world, the activation of the Large Hadron Collider will require sustained transfers well in excess of 10 Gigabits per second. Ars Technica concludes, "The Internet as we now know it is anything but obsolete."

===== GoDaddy =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:50:12 GMT

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First Town In US To Become 100% Wind Powered

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:49:58 GMT

Rockport, Missouri, population 1,300, is the first 100% wind powered city in the US. Loess Hill Wind Farm, with four 1.25-MW wind turbines, is estimated to generate 16 gigawatt hours (16 million kilowatt hours) of electricity annually. 13 gigawatts hours of electricity have historically been consumed annually by the residents and businesses of this town.

The local electric company, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, will purchase excess electricity when available. They will then supply power when there is not enough wind energy available. Excess wind energy will not be stored but rather fed into the city’s high voltage line, making it an intermittent source of power. John Deere’s Wind Energy financing the project, and also there's a bluff within the city limits that has good resources where a lot of wind apparently blows.

Prison Finds New Way to Deter Escapes: a Bear on the Grounds

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:49:40 GMT

The warden says, "I love that bear being right where it is. I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."

The way the warden sees it, the more than 400-pound (180-kilogram) black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary is an extra layer of security.

The prison, known as Angola, is isolated and has plenty of other kinds of dangerous wildlife, including alligators, rattlesnakes and wild pigs.

_SDR2008-05-08_

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:49:21 GMT

~SDR2008-05-07~

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:49:11 GMT

This is SDR News for May 07, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by GoToMeeting - featuring affordable online business meetings - and our new sponsor, EVault - EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

Here Comes Trouble: Conversation Threading

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:49:01 GMT

With all the hard disks, it may be able to store every song ever recorded, at least by, say, 1950. A 4 terabyte drive holds 1 million, 4-megabyte song files ; the equivalent of 20,000 recorded songs each year since the arrival of record labels in the 1950s.

There's some implications, though, if you think about email, where the retention of messages enables the threading of conversations by recipient, subject and date. And then extend that to disk capacity, a communication archive from an end user's perspective is something you might want to think about.

Few people over the age of 25 will like the idea of creating a permanent record of telephone calls. Communication archives will require strong privacy tools and a reliable delete function, but an argument against a permanent record is an argument against communicationa. Some people avoid email in some contexts, but no one is proposing to eliminate email archives.

The retention of telephone numbers for calls dialed and answered represents an important feature of cell phones, and a record of the content of a call could provide a similarly rich resource. Voice conversations might get forwarded or included with a reply. An accumulated body of communication would represent an important source of information and a treasured asset in the same manner as email and traditional letter writing.

How recording might alter communication behavior remains to be seen. There are laws regarding the recording of telephone calls, but the extension of off-line laws to an Internet context can prove hazardous. And of course, the utility of conversation threading may prove greater than the discomfort associated with recording telephone calls.

Microsoft Adds TV Shows to the Zune Marketplace

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:48:37 GMT

They've also added an instant messaging component in version 2.5 of the Zune desktop application and tighter integration between the recommendation database and Zune's online music store. The other big news is that NBC is among the broadcasters supplying videos for the service through the Zune store. Apple said NBC wanted to increase its wholesale price of each episode by so much that Apple would have to charge $4.99 per episode. Apple said it wouldn't agree to that price change, and they parted ways last fall.

Sprint-ClearWire WiMax deal looks like it may happen

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:48:21 GMT

There's been ups and downs in this story, but it looks like they're about to close the deal, and it looks like they have some deep-pocket backers as well.

Sprint is a little bit closer to fulfilling its plans to blanket the nation in wireless broadband signals, with the help of WiMax specialist ClearWire and a consortium of big-time financial backers. There's $1.05 billion from cable giant Comcast, $1 billion from Intel, $650 million from Time Warner Cable, and $500 million from Google. That's a grand total of $3.2 billion of outside investments, plus whatever cash Clearwire and Sprint might put into the deal.

WiMAX has had some problem. Sprint had planned to launch its Xohm WiMAX network by now, but there were some backhaul issues, as we spoke about a day or two ago. LTE is the 4G wireless tech favored by rivals AT&T and Verizon. Fortunately for Sprint, LTE is still in development and the first commercial deployments are at least two years out.

===== EVault =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:48:02 GMT

Today's program brought to you in part by EVault, the trusted expert in complete data protection. People tell us that world class offsite security and data recovery are only part of the reason that they entrust their most valuable business asset to EVault. They see that regulatory compliance is a big part of their business. Over 20,000 major business clients depend on EVault to protect their client, technical, and financial data, and provide compliance with regulatory requirements such as SAS70 from the Auditing Standards Board, Sarbanes-Oxley, or HIPAA.

You may not have heard that EVault offers encrypted Online Backup for small and medium sized business, in addition to Enterprise level clients. The first step to get your organization into professional grade Online Backup and see how EVault has helped businesses just like yours is a Toll-Free phone call: 1-866-928-0735. It's not a far-off call center. You will be connected with Therese Cullen in Chicago or Matt Johnson, an EVault Application Engineer. You can get started right now. 1-866-928-0735.

EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

LED Light Bulbs in Position to Take Over?

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:47:50 GMT

The Lighting Science Group (LSG) has announced the launch of its new line of LED light bulbs. Consumers have been slow to pick up on LED light sources because of strange or disturbing colors, and because they are significantly more expensive than traditional incandescent bulbs. LSG says its new LED product line has about 50,000 hours. These lamps are also said to consume 80 percent less energy than common light sources, whilst keeping up the equivalent light output. LSG’s new line is 100 percent recyclable and unlike compact fluorescent bulbs, contains no hazardous materials such as mercury and lead. The downside, though: the prices are at $40 to $110.

The Optoelectronics Industry Development Association concluded that by the year 2025, rapid adoption of LEDs in the United States alone can eliminate a cumulative 258 million metric tons of carbon emissions, save $115 billion in total electricity costs, and avoid the construction of 133 new power plants. Such a scenario is an idealized back-of-the-envelope calculation. There is increasing pressure to establish legislation that would completely outlaw the use of incandescent bulbs.

===== You Tube =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:47:32 GMT

Telephone world -- actually the wireless headset world -- is full of the HTC TouchFLO, on the Diamond Phone. Our video is from Horace Luke, Chief Innovation Officer for HTC, presents their new Touch Flow 3D User Interface, part of the HTC Diamond device announced today.

31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:47:23 GMT

The 31 days are in full swing, with contests in progress now. Each of the 31 sites has an award date, and each of them can begin their contest seven days prior to the award date.

Register at:

02 May - 09 May www.absolutevista.com
03 May - 10 May www.arstechnica.com
04 May - 11 May www.osnn.net
05 May - 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May - 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com
07 May - 14 May www.bostonpocketpc.com and www.techronical.com
08 May - 15 May www.the-gadgeteer.com

As I've said, I'll be updating each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration and maximize your chances to win.

Way To Extend Moore's Law Melting Microchip Defects

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:46:57 GMT

It's research out of Princeton on melting away defects on microchips using a new technique, called Self-Perfection by Liquefaction (SPEL). It enables more precise shaping of microchip components than what is possible with current technology. More precise component shapes could help manufacturers build smaller and better microchips, the key to more powerful computers and other devices.

This is possible because natural forces acting on the molten structures, such as surface tension -- the force that allows some insects to walk on water -- smooth the structures into geometrically more accurate shapes. Lines, for instance, become straighter, and dots become rounder.

By focusing on fixing defects, the new method enables more precise shaping of microchip components, the engineers expect to dramatically improve chip quality without increasing fabrication cost. Using a light pulse from a so-called excimer laser, similar to those used in laser eye surgery, because it heats only a very thin surface layer of a material and causes no damage to the structures underneath.

===== GoToMeeting =====

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:46:37 GMT

Here’s a way to improve your bottom line. Work smarter, save time and save money. Meet clients or co-workers on line with GoToMeeting. So you can do more and travel less. It’s just like meeting in person! Use GoToMeeting to conduct presentations, demos, training – right from your desk. The best part is you can try GoToMeeting FREE right now for 30 days! For this special offer, you must visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE trial.

Malware vs. Anti-Malware

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:46:20 GMT

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols considers the dissimilarities between malware of years ago and current infiltrations. As it turned out, the William Morris worm wasn't a deliberate attack. It was a self-replicating program with a bug that caused it to reproduce at a rate so fast that it brought down the (then much smaller) Internet.

In contrast, today's malware causes less overt havoc but far more deliberate harm. Most 21st-century crackers aren't making malware to show off their skills or wreck systems for fun. They're making malware that hides in your system so they can use your personal information and PC resources to make money. Think of it as capitalist hacking.

Modern malware apps curl up and make themselves at home in your system, where they wait for a chance to snatch an important password or a credit card number. Welcome to the era of capitalist hacking. Any self-respecting malware program today is polymorphic to make signature-based antivirus approaches difficult. Heuristics and virtual sandboxes offer alternatives, but all such methods are reactive. Unfortunately, monitoring lists and networks is about the only current alternative.

Computerworlds summary is exhaustive - but there's a sobering conclusion: Twenty-first century malware doesn't hurt you or your company by trying to wreck your systems with one massive attack. Instead, it seeks your ruin with the death of a thousand small cuts -- here, an important password, there a vital account number. But at the end of it all, today's malware is far more dangerous and more deadly than such historically more dramatic events as the Morris worm of almost twenty years ago.

Warning to all cannonball collectors: 150-year-old Civil War ordnance may still be live

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:45:57 GMT

From the AP. Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown.

As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms.

Union and Confederate troops lobbed an estimated 1.5 million artillery shells and cannonballs at each other from 1861 to 1865. As many as one in five were duds. White estimated he had worked on about 1,600 shells for collectors and museums. On the day he died, he had 18 cannonballs lined up in his driveway to restore.

Experts suspect White was killed while trying to disarm a 9-inch, 75-pound naval cannonball, a particularly potent explosive with a more complex fuse and many times the destructive power of those used by infantry artillery. Biemeck and Peter George, co-author of a book on Civil War ordnance, believe White was using either a drill or a grinder attached to a drill to remove grit from the cannonball, causing a shower of sparks.

_SDR2008-05-07_

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:45:34 GMT

~SDR2008-05-06~

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:55:10 GMT

This is SDR News for May 6, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by GoDaddy.com - your #1 source for Internet needs. And Blockbuster Total Access, where you can select from over 80,000 DVD's online.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

ISPs & P2P Can Get Along Without Getting Cozy

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:54:58 GMT

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a way to ease the tension between ISPs and P2P users. Of course, there's been a growing tension between ISPs and P2P file-sharing services, and this has driven them to forcefully reduce P2P traffic, making subscribers unhappy and also risk government investigation.

Some ISPs have tried to fix the problem through partnerships with certain P2P applications. There's a project called Ono, which represents an alternative solution: a software service that allows P2P clients to efficiently identify nearby peers, without requiring any kind of cozy relationship between ISPs and P2P users.

Ono is Hawaiian for "delicious”, and relies on a clever trick based on observations of Internet companies like Akamai. Akamai is a content-distribution network which offloads data traffic from Web sites onto their proprietary network of more than 10,000 servers worldwide. CDNs such as Akamai and Limelight power some of the most popular Web sites worldwide and enable higher performance for Web clients by sending them to one of those servers that are nearby. They use the assumption that two computers sent to the same CDN server are likely close to each other. So Ono allows P2P users to quickly identify nearby users.

They've collected results from over 150,000 users and have found that their system locates peers along paths that have two orders of magnitude lower latency and 30% lower loss rates than those picked at random by BitTorrent, and that these high-quality paths can lead to significant improvements in transfer rates.

Ono provides a 31% average download-rate improvement; and in environments with large available bandwidth, Ono can increase download rates by 207% on average and improves median rates by 883%. Ono is available as a plugin for the Azureus BitTorrent client, an open tracker and a standalone service you can integrate into any P2P system.

Creative Clones the Flip, a Popular $100 Camcorder

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:54:28 GMT

An online retailer has inadvertently leaked details on the Creative Vado, an upcoming clone of the popular handheld Flip camcorder. Called the Vado, which promises to be very similar to the super successful Flip.

You remember the FlipCam was an integral part of the coverage for CES - and probably will be again this coming year.

===== Blockbuster =====

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:54:11 GMT

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War Brewing on the Inexpensive Laptop Front

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:53:59 GMT

The Christian Science Monitor has quite a series looking at things from the Eee PC to the OLPC, the trend-slimming down and trimming seems to be continuing.

Asus was the first last year with its Eee PC, priced at $299 (with the Linux operating system) and $399 (with Windows XP). Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, and others should have similar machines coming out soon.

They can't even decide what to call this market segment. Intel calls the category "netbooks". They recognize that much of what people do on their laptops involves going on the Net. The new machines are also being called ultra-low-cost PCs, mininotebooks, or even mobile Internet gadgets. They have the familiar clamshell design, but they're smaller, with seven- to 10-inch screens. They offer full keyboards with smaller keys and most importantly, they weigh less than three pounds. Perhaps most important, the majority cost less than $500. Intel says it expects more than 50 million of these netbooks to be sold by 2011.

Meanwhile Ncomputing in Redwood City, Calif., may be the current price leader for student sales; its product isn't a laptop, it's dumb terminals. And if you've been around the IT world through the last 30 years, it's interesting to see it come around again. The company's device connects "dumb" terminals to a central computer. That core machine then shares its processing power with each of the networked computers.

This idea of "desktop virtualization" is not new. But what's changed is the mushrooming power of even a single PC. One bottom-of-the-line $350 workstation can act as a server for a half-dozen workstations, or more, and the workstation cost as low as $70 per terminal. And each student gets his or her own keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

Ncomputing has sold 600,000 of its devices. The largest buyer has been the country of Macedonia, which bought 180,000 units for schoolchildren. They made sales in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Brazil, and a few African countries. The "dumb" devices use only about 1 watt of power each, compared with many times that much for PCs. That's especially important in remote areas where electricity is at a premium.

FCC struggling to fix USF: Fewer phones, more broadband

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:53:35 GMT

There's a growing consensus that it's time to begin using the USF to extend broadband service to rural and low-income areas, but it's kind of hard to bring this program into the 21st century.

The USF puts a levy on interstate phone bills to subsidize telecom service for poor and rural Americans, as well as broadband for libraries, health care facilities, and schools.

This has resulted in a dramatic rise in USF payments from $2.6 billion in 2001 to $4.3 billion last year. They're trying to force a general transition to VoIP telephony that would save consumers billions of dollars in the long and even short run. This would be similar to the impending DTV transition deadline of February 17, 2009.

Startup Makes Cheap Solar Film Cells With Inkjet Printer

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:53:19 GMT

Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company was first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an inkjet printer.

Compared to current PV technologies, the Power Plastic has an advantage in flexibility, greater sensitivity to low light and versatility," Konarka president and CEO Rick Hess says of the film cells are fused from liquid containing semiconducting polymers. Two year time frame for all this is commercially viable.

===== You Tube =====

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:53:00 GMT

You Tube today comes from listener Jake Justice, bringing us up to date on the bumptop.com desk project - a user interface that emulates a 3D desktop and the physics of stacks and piles of documents -- minus the dust that accumulates that a real desktop pile situation includes.

First of all, some words on the 31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:52:49 GMT

We had some major luck today, with a mention in the UK Guardian - and hope that at least some of you are checking out the podcast for the first time. Welcome. The 31 days are in full swing, with contests in progress now. Each of the 31 sites has an award date, and can begin their contest seven days prior to the award date.

Please go to these sites, look up their contest info and register

May 02-09 www.absolutevista.com
May 03-10 www.arstechnica.com
May 04-11 www.osnn.net
May 05-12 www.jkontherun.com
May 06-13 digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

I'll be updating each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration and maximize your chanced to win.

02 May - 09 May www.absolutevista.com
03 May - 10 May www.arstechnica.com
04 May - 11 May www.osnn.net
05 May - 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May - 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

I think our award date is the 25th of May. Our contest will begin on the 19th.

Google Moves To Block Verizon 700MHz Bid — Claim Planning to Dodge Open Access Rules

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:52:33 GMT

Verizon may have some tricks up its sleeve; Google wants to keep them honest. On Friday, Google urged the FCC to block Verizon Wireless' $4.7 billion successful bid for the C Block band of spectrum in the recently completed 700 MHz auction.

Verizon has taken the public position that it may exclude its handsets from the open access condition. Verizon believes it may force customers who want to access the open platform using a device not purchased from Verizon to go through “Door No. 1,” but customers who obtain their device from Verizon access through “Door No. 2.” In other words, two classes of customers, which doesn't exactly sound like open access.

Question: Why the government Is Spending More on TV Switch than LITERACY?

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:52:14 GMT

21% of Americans, according to a recent survey, have no clue that the country is about to go through a wrenching technological change with its most massive of mass mediums, the switch from analog to digital signals. All this despite a huge information campaign and an incentive program that amounts to an investment by American taxpayers of up to $1.5 billion, and 33 million coupons at $40 each from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of the Department of Commerce.

According to Nielsen Media Research, 98.2 percent of American households have a television and it's the sheer number of people who have access to television that makes it such a powerful technology. That even beats the penetration rate of basic adult literacy skills, which was last pegged in 2003 at 86 percent. So if you're trying to get the word out, whether it's emergency alerts, public service announcements, news, election information and educational programming, there's no more effective distribution method than television.

It makes me wonder if our elected officials are as concerned about ensuring that we all have access to broadband Internet. There is a massive federal program to stimulate the growth of broadband. It's administered by the Department of Agriculture, which through its Rural Development program has approved 85 loans totaling $1.68 billion since 2002 to help fund broadband infrastructure rollout in underserved areas.

===== GoDaddy =====

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:51:52 GMT

GoDaddy offers a variety of hosting plans, one of the most intriguing being a virtual dedicated server. You can choose from three popular plans, or build a completely customized server with all the options that you need.

Code SLASH will bring additional savings at your one stop shop - GoDaddy.com.

GoDaddy Codes

TECH 2 = $6.95 Domain Names
TECH 3 = Save 10% on Any Order
TODD20 = Save 20% on Shared Hosting 1 yr or more
SDR530 = $5 off any order of $30 or more
SDR2012 = Additional 20% on 12, 24, or 36 month hosting

Not Reassuring: China Wants US-Owned Hotels to Censor Internet

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:51:41 GMT

US Senator Sam Brownback has alleged the Chinese government is demanding that US-owned hotels there filter Internet service during the upcoming Olympic Games.

They have asked hotels to install Internet filters to 'monitor and restrict information coming in and out of China. A State Department spokesman said he wasn't aware of those specific requests from the Chinese government, but Brownback said he got the information on Internet filtering from 'two different reliable but confidential sources.'

Smarter Electric Grid Could Save Power

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:50:57 GMT

Wired has a story about putting more of the automated and non-automated decisions behind the use of electrical power into and around households.

The summary is if the electric grid stops being just a passive supplier of juice, consumers could make choices about how and when to consume; similar to congestion pricing for tolls. Power providers and tech companies are working to redesign the grid so you can switch off your house when high demand strains the system, or program your house or appliances to make that move.

It should save consumers money in the long run by reducing the need for new power plants. However, if people fail to react properly to conservation signals, their bills could spike.

_SDR2008-05-06_

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:50:37 GMT

~SDR2008-05-05~

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:50:28 GMT

This is SDR News of May 5, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by GoToMeeting - featuring affordable online business meetings, and our new sponsor, EVault - EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

Data Centers Are Expected to Pollute More Than Airlines by 2020

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:50:17 GMT

A New York Times story on a source of pollution -- the world's data centers are projected to surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter by 2020, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co. In the old mainframe days, data centers were far more efficient but inflexible. Modern data centers use standardized technology from the personal computer industry; things are flexible but uncontrolled. The solution is to bring some of the mainframe-style management disciplines back into modern data centers.

The McKinsey study used data from the Uptime Institute, a research and advisory organization for data center users. They said corporations should set the goal of doubling the efficiency of their data centers by 2012. One of the metrics is called CADE, for Corporate Average Data Efficiency. It’s miles per gallon for data centers. Computer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities as a whole are used at 56 percent of peak performance. Data centers, though, might have more options for going green than airlines do, given present technology.

Robobug goes to war: Troops to use electronic insects to spot enemy 'by end of the year'

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:49:57 GMT

The story comes from the UK Daily Mail. You might remember in Minority Report, Tom Cruise battling against an army of robotic spiders intent on hunting him down. That's not as far fetched as it sounds. British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects, and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives. They'll send the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets.

The idea is they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers' hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside. A £19million contract was awarded to BAE Systems for developing robots for the US Army. The five-year program, despite the high-tech gadgetry involved, BAE Systems insists once production is in full swing, each bug will cost no more than $100 to produce.

===== EVault =====

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:49:41 GMT

\Today's program brought to you in part by EVault, the trusted expert in complete data protection. People tell us that world class offsite security and data recovery are only part of the reason that they entrust their most valuable business asset to EVault. They see that regulatory compliance is a big part of their business -- compliance with regulatory requirements such as SAS70 from the Auditing Standards Board, Sarbanes-Oxley, or HIPAA.

You may not have heard that EVault offers encrypted Online Backup for small and medium sized business, in addition to Enterprise level clients. The first step to get your organization into professional grade Online Backup and see how EVault has helped businesses just like yours is a Toll-Free phone call: 1-866-928-0735. That is not a far-off call center. You will be connected with Therese Cullen in Chicago or Matt Johnson, an EVault Application Engineer. You can get started right now, in just a few minutes time. 1-866-928-0735.

EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Hackers change grades at Texas high school

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:49:16 GMT

In fact, four high school students are being investigated on suspicion of breaking into the Fort Bend Independent School District's computer network and changing the grades of at least 60 students. Investigators estimated the financial loss to the school district at more than $190,000. That makes the case a possible felony.

School officials did not say if all the grades were improved or if the hackers gave some students better grades and others, lower grades. Investigators said the changed grades would have been recorded on report cards and other academic records. Two of the students at the center of the probe had grades that seemed to have changed to higher scores.

Sony Unveils Ultrasmall Hybrid Fuel Cell for phones

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:49:02 GMT

It's small enough to fit in one hand (50x30mm). It works by combining a fuel cell, a Li-polymer secondary battery, a control circuit and so forth together to output up to 3W of power. Its use efficiency of energy is high enough that 14 hours of 1seg movie can be continuously played by general mobile phones.

The new fuel-cell system is a direct methanol type and uses methanol as fuel. Also, it is an active fuel-cell system, which controls fuel supply with a pump. The system is hybrid type with the output supplemented by a Li-polymer secondary battery. And it can deal with steeply rising peak powers by mobile devices.

MIT's Intelligent Sticky Notes==== You Tube =====

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:48:44 GMT

MIT researchers have made their first pass at bringing the common yellow post-it note into the digital age, using a combination of artificial intelligence, RFID, and ink recognition.

The Quickie application not only allows users to browse their notes, but also lets users search for specific information or keywords. The commonsense knowledge engine and computational AI techniques processes the written text and determines the relevant context of the notes.

It provides an understanding of the user's intentions, content, and the context of the notes to provide the user with reminders, alerts, messages, and just-in-time information" - said the inventors. In addition, with a unique RFID tag, it can be easily located around the house or office. Therefore, users can be sure never to lose a bookmarked book.

One of the most useful inventions of the 20th century into the digital age: the ubiquitous sticky notes.

======== 31 Days of the Dragon=======

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:48:25 GMT

This week:

May 02-09 www.absolutevista.com
May 03-10 www.arstechnica.com
May 04-11 www.osnn.net
May 05-12 www.jkontherun.com
May 06-13 digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com
May 07-14 www.bostonpocketpc.com and www.techronical.com

AT&T Accidentally Provides Free Wi-Fi To All

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:48:14 GMT

MacOSRumors had information about the hack. You can get free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and other AT&T hotspots if you know how to set your browser's user agent string, which apparently on Safari is just trivial. That, and a valid iPhone phone number will get you into the system. The comment on ZDNet was "This can't last."

Normally, you would be redirected to an AT&T wireless services page, where normally you’d pay $9.95 for a day of Internet access. Well, the way they are determining if you should be free or not is by inspecting the user agent that your browser sends. The user agent is an HTTP header that is sent by browsers so that web pages can modify their presentation and control to best suit the needs of their browser. But it was never intended to be an access control.

Open-Source Multitouch Display

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:47:59 GMT

Engineers at Eyebeam, which is an art and technology center based in New York, have created a scaled-down open-source version of the Microsoft Surface, called Cubit.

By sharing the Cubit's hardware schematics and software source code, the engineers are significantly reducing the cost of owning a multitouch table. Multitouch displays are not new technology; in fact, they've been built in research labs for decades. Mitsubishi has one called DiamondTouch; more recently, Jeff Han, founder of Perceptive Pixel, based in New York, developed wall-sized multitouch screens that he sells to corporations and major government agencies.

But because of the falling costs of components, such as infrared light sources and small cameras and projectors, it's now becoming feasible for people without access to a lab or venture-capital money to make their own multitouch displays. In fact, Bridger Maxwell, age 17 in Orem Utah, has come up with a homebrew system for under $300. That's what I have linked in the show notes.

===== GoToMeeting =====

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:47:38 GMT

Here’s a way to improve your bottom line. Work smarter, save time and save money. Meet clients or co-workers on line with GoToMeeting. So you can do more and travel less. It’s just like meeting in person! Use GoToMeeting to do presentations, demos, training – right from your desk. The best part is you can try GoToMeeting FREE right now for 30 days! For this special offer, you must visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE trial.

Backhaul Bottleneck in Sprint’s Xohm

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:47:22 GMT

Sprint’s delay in launching its Xohm WiMAX service will cause problems for the carrier, but it's not the demise of WiMAX as a 4G mobile broadband standard.

Sprint is blaming an undercapacity backhaul network and a paucity of backend bandwidth for some of the delays with its cursed, WiMAX technology-based Xohm network. It should offer broadband speeds over wireless when it goes live later this year. Carriers worldwide would have to deal with the problem of a T-1-based backhaul network. AT&T and Verizon say they;ll be fine, that they’ll have ample capacity, but then they aren’t likely to have a nationwide 4G network for some time.

After having a conversation with John Roese, chief technology officer of Nortel, about 4G Wireless, with the conclusion that as 4G wireless broadband spreads, the biggest bottleneck will be backhaul -- and thus the biggest opportunity. Roese pointed out that bandwidth demand per base station will be closer to 2 Gigabits/second. The solution, experts say, is running fiber to as many base stations as possible.

BusinessWeek: The Mac In the Gray Flannel Suit

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:47:01 GMT

It's about the increasing use of Apple products in the corporate sector. Many companies are finding that their employees are pushing for the transition more than Apple itself. Apple treats this vast market with utter indifference. After it tried in the 1980s and 1990s, Chief Executive Steve Jobs decided to focus squarely on consumers and education customers. As a result, the company doesn't have ranks of corporate salespeople or armies of repairmen waiting to respond every time a hard drive fails. He believes it's difficult for any company, including his, to be effective at satisfying both corporate buyers and consumers.

Story in Business Week opens with Michelle Goins, the CIO at Juniper Networks. She decided to respond to the growing chorus of Mac lovers among the networking company's 6,100 employees.

She thinks 25 percent of them would jump to Macs, and she's plans to open the floodgates. Funny thing is, she has never received a single sales call from Apple. The call is coming from mainstream users, people who may have started off with an iPod, then bought a Mac at home and no longer want a "Windows-by-day, Mac-by-night" experience.

_SDR2008-05-05_

Tue, 06 May 2008 05:46:37 GMT

~SDR2008-05-02~

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:51:23 GMT

This is SDR News for May 2, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by Blockbuster Total Access, where you can select from over 80,000 DVD's online, and our new sponsor, EVault - EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

AT&T Launching Mobile TV May 4th

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:51:10 GMT

The new video service for cell phones Sunday on two phone platforms, and will charge $15 per month for 10 channels; available in 58 markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. AT&T Mobile TV is almost identical to Verizon Wireless' VCast Mobile TV, and is operated by the same company, Qualcomm.

Few details -- you'll find Mobile TV running on LG's new $300 (2-year, after $100 rebate) Vu, one of just two Mobile TV compatible handsets launching on AT&T May 4th -- the other being the $200 Samsung Access. Verizon Wireless has been quiet about how many people subscribe to V Cast Mobile TV, which costs the same as AT&T's service. Some analysts are skeptical that consumers are eager to pay $15 per month to watch TV on small screens. But Qualcomm is confident in MediaFLO's prospects. They put down $554.6 million in a government spectrum auction in March.

Free AT&T Wi-Fi for iPhones at Starbucks, Barnes&Noble

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:50:50 GMT

Multiple individuals have reported that AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots at Barnes and Noble as well as Starbucks, and are now offering iPhone users a custom portal to access free Wi-Fi. There's a list of AT&T's 71,000 hotspots can be found on AT&T's site, places Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Airports, and certain McDonald's location.

A special iPhone formatted page asks for your mobile phone number. Once entered, you can access the Wi-Fi access for free. They certainly need something to bring people in - Starbucks, at least. A report linked from Reddit says those $4 lattes are not selling well in the present economy. You could get almost a gallon of gas for that!

People Can't Tell Diff b/t Blu-Ray and DVD, Sales Plummeting

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:49:31 GMT

NYT: "Blu-ray: The Future Has Been Delayed"

ABI Research noted that many consumers may not see the picture quality difference between Blu-ray and standard DVDs. According to NPD, sales of Blu-ray standalone players plummeted 40 percent from January to February, then recovered and rose about 2 percent. Sales of Blu-ray standalone players remain so low that NPD has not yet released actual numbers, for fear that it would be easy to identify individual retailers.

The price of upconverting players is hovering around $70. This week, Amazon is giving them away for free when consumers purchase certain Samsung TVs. The result is a 5 percent uptick in upconverting DVD player sales in the first quarter of 2008, compared to same quarter a year ago, and a 39 percent decline in players that don’t have that feature.

Unless, like me - you have a HD-DVD player that does an excellent job up upconverting DVD's, you just have to make lemonade out of the lemon.

===== EVault =====

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:49:03 GMT

Today's program brought to you in part by EVault, the trusted expert in complete data protection. People tell us that world class offsite security and data recovery are only part of the reason that they entrust their most valuable business asset to EVault. They see that regulatory compliance is a big part of their business. Over 20,000 major business clients depend on EVault to protect their client, technical, and financial data, and provide compliance with regulatory requirements such as SAS70 from the Auditing Standards Board, Sarbanes-Oxley, or HIPAA.

You may not have heard that EVault offers encrypted Online Backup for small and medium sized business, in addition to these enterprise level clients. The first step to get your organization into professional grade Online Backup and see how EVault has helped businesses just like yours is a Toll-Free phone call: 1-866-928-0735. You can get started right now, in just a few minutes time. 1-866-928-0735.

EVault is a Seagate company, the trusted expert in complete data protection.

Purdue Plans a 1-Day Supercomputer "Barnraising"

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:48:50 GMT

They say they will only need one day to install the largest supercomputer on a Big Ten campus. It will take place May 5 and involve more than 200 employees. The computer itself will be about the size of a semi trailer; 812 Dell dual quad-core computer nodes with a peak performance of more than 60 teraflops.

It will be built in a single day to keep science and engineering researchers from facing a lengthy downtime. To generate interest on campus, the organizers created a spoof movie trailer called 'Installation Day."

The world’s largest supercomputer is BlueGene/L, which is located at Lawrence Livermore (Calif.) National Laboratory.

Purdue has a long history of leadership in information technology. In 1962, they founded the first department of Computer Science. In 1967, Purdue became one of the first institutions to acquire a supercomputer, the Control Data Corp. 6500 -- that performance - one-third of a megaflop. In 1982, Purdue.edu was the second URL registered for the Internet.

Why AT&T May Deep-Discount the iPhone

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:48:26 GMT

AT&T's competitive pressures are mounting, and the phone company may cut the iPhone's price to boost demand—and cement its relationship with Apple.

Published reports that first appeared on the Web site of Fortune Magazine suggest that AT&T, which has an exclusive five-year deal to sell the iPhone in the U.S., is prepared to subsidize the device by as much as $200, slicing the purchase price as low as $199 for customers who sign a two-year service contract.

That would cause a surge in demand. At last count, Apple had sold some 5.4 million units, the vast majority of them for AT&T's network, even with price tags of $400 to $600. That's almost unheard of in the U.S. cellular market. AT&T says 40% of its iPhone users are new customers. Yet with rival smartphones like Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry and a new Palm (PALM) Treo selling for as little at $99 at some carriers, so competitive pressures are building.

===== You Tube =====

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:48:01 GMT

http://www.ted.com "Rock star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. A TED Conference talk, and always very good.

Note on Feedblitz e-mail subscription service

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:47:49 GMT

In other notes, those of you on Feedblitz - the email subscription service should find that restored- When we replaced our server April 12, the clock got set to the wrong time, just missing the script window at Feeedblitz who was also replacing servers about the same time. Feedblitz never saw a recent episode, just things a day old that it's script said had already been sent.

Three new 31 Days of the Dragon

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:47:26 GMT

The unit has arrived for our giveaway and it's still in the box. It's not going to stay there long, and the prospect of a rainy weekend makes it even sweeter.

The 31 Days of the Dragon is a promotion between 31 participating web sites, with the sponsorship of HP. HP is working with those websites offering 31 prize packages - one a day for 31 days during a period from 09 May through 08 June 2008.

Each participating website will have its own competition with its own prize, the HP HDX Dragon Entertainment Notebook absolutely loaded with features and software.

http://www.windows-now.com/ Absolutely a Vista lovers delight - talking today about how bad Nvidia drivers are. Better listen up, like it or not there is Vista somewhere in your future, unless you can hold you breath until Windows 7. Their contest starts May 11, award drawing May 18. No contest related stuff up yet.

In the same vein, http://windowsconnected.com/Default.aspx has the award May 19, contest starting May 12. They are all over the contest, easy to find on their page.

http://www.geekstogo.com/ has some great tech forums - Windows focused, and they are all over the contest as well.

THIS WEEKEND YOU MUST CHECK IN WITH

02 May - 09 May http://www.absolutevista.com/
03 May - 10 May http://www.arstechnica.com/
04 May - 11 May http://www.osnn.net/

Power strip monitors your usage, makes you feel bad

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:47:08 GMT

This is one of the novelty sort of items that might actually have some use. It comes from a site called ComputerGear. It's a power strip. Simply plug the easy-to-use Power Cost Controller with surge protection into the wall and connect your electronics to the power strip to see how efficient it really is. Large LCD display will count consumption and cost by the kilowatt-hour, same as your local utility.

Monitor your electric consumption by hour, day, week, month, even an entire year. Also check the quality of your power by monitoring voltage, line frequency, and power factor. Measures 8-1800W appliances. Now you'll know how much your computer network or home media center really costs!

A ComputerGear exclusive. Item in stock unless noted above. $99 for now. By Christmas, be on the lookout for them at your bargain bin.

Tech Start-ups Aren't Just for Wunderkinds

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:46:45 GMT

The results of a new report from the Kauffman Foundation are contrary to what we usually hear about U.S. tech start-ups. Who are these entrepreneurs? Is the report in sync with what you're seeing?" Challenging the perception of American technology entrepreneurs as 20-something wunderkinds launching businesses from college dorm rooms," the new study "reveals most U.S.-born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, well-educated, and hold degrees from a wide assortment of universities."

Probably the most compelling fact in the study is that advanced education is critical to the success of tech startups, just not too much. The average and median age of U.S.-born founders was 39 when they started their companies. Only about 1 percent of U.S.-born founders of tech companies were teenagers.

The vast majority (92 percent) held bachelor's degrees, 31 percent held master's degrees, and 10 percent had completed PhDs.

===== Blockbuster =====

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:46:27 GMT

Today's podcast brought to you in part by Blockbuster Total Access. BLOCKBUSTER Total Access gives the convenience of renting movies online with a choice of how to return them: send them back by mail or exchange them for new movies or discounted game rentals at participating BLOCKBUSTER® stores and you can have up to five in-store exchanges per month. You can keep 3 DVD's out at a time, with no late fees or due dates. It is regularly $19.99 per month - but if you go to slashdotreview.com and sign up today, you can save $10 off the regular price for your first month. It's a great family value! Stop by the site and sign up for Blockbuster Total Access.

From Welding to Weddings, DIY Rules at Maker Faire

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:46:05 GMT

It's a huge, two-day gathering of people who love welding, soldering and sewing, and basically bending and making things.

With almost 500 exhibits of homemade arts, crafts and electronics, ranging from the klunky to the sublime, the Maker Faire is probably the largest gathering of hobbyists and do-it-yourselfers in the country. It draws more than 60,000 people in San Mateo, California.

It's sort of the engineering and art part of Burning Man, without the dust, raves and drugs. Maker Faire is put on by O'Reilly Media's popular magazine and is dedicated to the do-it-yourself ethic in all its forms. In the two years since its inception, Maker Faire has drawn up to 40,000 attendees to watch robots, play with fire, and basically hobnob with the tech-savvy weirdos.

On This Date in 1964, the First BASIC Program

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:45:45 GMT

From the Wired article: "Mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz had been trying to make computing more accessible to their undergraduate students. One problem was that available computing languages like Fortran and Algol were so complex that you really had to be a professional to use them.

The other problem Kemeny and Kurtz attacked was batch-processing, which made for long waits between the successive runs of a debugging process. BASIC is still alive and well these days, from Microsoft's VB.net to cross-platform variants like REALbasic. For the old-school among us, there's always Joshua Bell's Apple II BASIC emulator that's been implemented in Javascript.

_SDR2008-05-02_

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:45:24 GMT

That's SDR News for tonight, and for the week. My name is Andy McCaskey. I have no relationship to Slashdot, Digg, or Reddit other than a regular reader. Comments and suggestions to slashdotreview@gmail.com. SDRNews is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks for listening -- have a good weekend, and I will see you Sunday night.

~SDR2008-05-01~

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:15:28 GMT

This is SDR News for May 01, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. This podcast is brought to you in part by GoDaddy.com - your number one source for internet needs and by GoToMeeting - Affordable business meetings that work.

Here's what's new on SDR News.

HP's "memristor" - denser storage than a hard drive, as fast as RAM, and maintains state without power

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:15:15 GMT

Hewlett Packard announced a new electrical component, borne of theoretical physics. The device, a nanoscale component called a "memristor," It requires no power to retain data, which it can store more densely than a hard drive and access about as fast as a computer’s RAM memory. That potentially allows it to replace both components in the future.

Memristors can function in either a digital mode, in which a memory cell is “on” or “off,” or in analog mode, in which each cell holds some value in between. These values grow every time the cell receives an electrical signal, and mimics the way neurons in the brain build stronger memories the more they are stimulated.

The first applications will probably be for cache. The hard drive could load key data, like the instructions to start up Windows into the memristor cache, which can dump it into the DRAM far faster than transferring it straight from the hard drive. That results in lightning-fast boot-ups and quick opening of large files.

Like the Higgs-Boson “god particle,” the memristor made perfect sense on paper, but no one had ever seen one. Not until the late 1990s, when researchers at Hewlett Packard Labs were studying the electrical properties of different nanotech materials and found several that looked pretty similar to the hypothetical memristor. Suspecting that it in fact was real, HP researchers set out to invent one.

They're tiny, about 15 nanometers across. That allows them to store data about as densely as a hard drive—100 gigabits per square centimeter. But HP thinks it can get them far smaller—down to four or even two nanometers. Even at 4nm, a square centimeter of memristor can hold one terabit.

Buried Treasure from YouTube: Gold from sea water

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:14:50 GMT

Making the most of its riches will take a lot longer than Google expected. AdSense, which places text ads across several hundred thousand partner sites, and AdWords, which displays text ads beside search results—are both simple, easily automated, and can scale very, very well.

Video ads on YouTube, though, do not yet lend themselves to easy automation. They're also more expensive and still primarily the province of big-name advertisers. Selling them nearly always requires the participation of an ad agency and calls for more labor-intensive sales methods. There are high-level concerns inside Google that the excitement around YouTube—which continues to increase its share of the Web video universe—isn't readily translating into sales and ad dollars.

All the video, all the users, and all the data that YouTube can claim as the Web's biggest video depository means there's a lot of treasure buried there. I'm just not sure how fast Google -- or anyone else -- can dig it up.

18 Features Windows Should Have (but Doesn't)

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:14:28 GMT

Some of the coolest operating systme features are nowhere to be found in Windows XP or Vista. This list has 18 brilliant features that Microsoft should have--plus tips on how you can add many of them to your PC right now.

We took a good look at a variety of OSs, from the Mac to Linux to PC-BSD and beyond, and we rounded up a list of our favorite features-- and recalled a couple of cool features from the pastthat Microsoft has not yet offered in any operating system. But you can add most of them to XP or Vista with the help of third-party applications. Things like Application Dock, rotating cube workspace, and sixteen more.

===== GoDaddy =====

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:14:03 GMT

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Why Does the Brain Need So Much Power?

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:13:30 GMT

It is well established that the brain uses more energy than any other human organ, and accounts for up to 20 percent of the body's total haul. Of the National Academy of Sciences USA indicates that two thirds of the brain's energy budget is used to help neurons or nerve cells "fire'' or send signals. The remaining third, though, is used for what study co-author Wei Chen, a radiologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, refers to as "housekeeping," or cell-health maintenance.

He came to those conclusions after imaging the brain with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to measure its energy production during activity shifts. "Housekeeping power is important for keeping the brain tissue alive," Chen says, "and for the many biological processes in the brain," in addition to neuronal chats. Charged sodium, calcium and potassium atoms (or ions) are continuously passed through the membranes of cells, so that neurons can recharge to fire.

SDRNews Podcast Transcript

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Air Force Colonel Wants to Build a Military Botnet

Sailing Robots To Attempt Atlantic Crossing

===== GoToMeeting =====

SMS 4x More Expensive Than Data From Hubble

Screen With 180 Degree Field of View

===== You Tube =====

=====31 Days=====

Nanoworms Find, Treat Cancer Tumors Much Better

Sad Truth: Hydrogen Cars Won't Make a Difference for 40 Years

Microsoft 'Shared Source' Attempts to Hijack FOSS

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80 Gbps Deep Packet Inspection Hardware Announced

Progress, I Think: First Space Lawyer Graduates

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NSA Takes On West Point In Security Exercise

Nokia aiming to reinvent itself as an "Internet company"

Gmail As Open-Relay Spam Server

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IE8 to boost ActiveX security on Vista

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WSJ: Tiny Fish Cleans the Pools of Foreclosed Homes

OLEDs, e-paper encroach on LCDs

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Driving While Distracted More Dangerous Than Supposed

Follow-up: The Car of the Future Will Know You Can't Drive

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Now Vonage Will Have A New Business: Selling Broadband

Techcrunch: Early Adopters Still Spend More Time With Microsoft Than Google, Facebook, or Skype. But For How Long?

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DOE Pumps $126.6 Million Into Carbon Sequestration

Other Gov't: Declassified NSA Document Reveals the Secret History of TEMPEST

===== You Tube =====

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Xerox Demos Self-Erasing, Eco-Friendly Paper

China about to Deploy Secure GPS; be operational by 2010

===== GoToMeeting =====

Exercise care: Alluring MP3s, movies hit LimeWire, install malware instead

Comcast Floats a 250GB Monthly Bandwidth Limit

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Twitter Starting to Blacklisting Spammers

Flogos: Company Floats Ads in 'Clouds' Shaped Like Logos

CCTVs Don't Work in the UK

===== EVault =====

Hard drive data recovered from Columbia disaster

MPAA is Awarded $110 million in TorrentSpy Case

Looks Like Global Telcos Plotting a Skype Rival

===== You Tube =====

31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

Internet2 and You

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First Town In US To Become 100% Wind Powered

Prison Finds New Way to Deter Escapes: a Bear on the Grounds

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Here Comes Trouble: Conversation Threading

Microsoft Adds TV Shows to the Zune Marketplace

Sprint-ClearWire WiMax deal looks like it may happen

===== EVault =====

LED Light Bulbs in Position to Take Over?

===== You Tube =====

31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

Way To Extend Moore's Law Melting Microchip Defects

===== GoToMeeting =====

Malware vs. Anti-Malware

Warning to all cannonball collectors: 150-year-old Civil War ordnance may still be live

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ISPs & P2P Can Get Along Without Getting Cozy

Creative Clones the Flip, a Popular $100 Camcorder

===== Blockbuster =====

War Brewing on the Inexpensive Laptop Front

FCC struggling to fix USF: Fewer phones, more broadband

Startup Makes Cheap Solar Film Cells With Inkjet Printer

===== You Tube =====

First of all, some words on the 31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

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