Microsoft’s chief strategic thinker, Craig Mundie, believes the United States’ situation with broadband access represents a “total policy failure.” In an interview with the Washington Post, Mundie decries the fact that, by some measures, the U.S. ranks 14th in the world when it comes to rolling out broadband Internet service. He says Internet access in … Continue reading “Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on U.S. Broadband Efforts”
Author: Neil Savage
Daily TIPs: Hydrogen Sponge, Coke Contraception, High-Speed Wireless, & More
Millimeter Waves Promise Faster Wireless While fiberoptic cables can carry data at speeds of 10 gigabits per second, or even higher, the fastest wireless communications top out at a few hundred megabits. But engineers at Battelle, an R&D firm in Columbus, OH, have demonstrated a system that transmits at 10 gigs, based on millimeter waves, … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Hydrogen Sponge, Coke Contraception, High-Speed Wireless, & More”
Daily TIPs: Tree Power, Special Delivery, Dead Zones, & More
Technique Predicts Wi-Fi Dead Zones A graduate student at Rice University has developed a technique to predict holes in a city’s Wi-Fi coverage. Ars Technica reports that Joshua Robinson found that dead zones could be as small as 10 meters in diameter. He also found that adding more access nodes doesn’t necessarily fill in all … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Tree Power, Special Delivery, Dead Zones, & More”
Daily TIPs: Greener Buildings, Faster Flu Tests, Deadly Voting, & More
DOE Plan Would Cut Emissions from Buildings The U.S. Department of Energy says that, with proper building techniques and renewable energy installations, a majority of commercial buildings could reach zero emissions of greenhouse gases within 20 years. Now the DOE is kicking in $15 million to give companies access to its scientists and engineers to … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Greener Buildings, Faster Flu Tests, Deadly Voting, & More”
Daily TIPs: Stupid Cloud Computing, Lying E-mail, Laughable Politics, & More
Cloud Computing: Stupid or Genius? Richard Stallman, a computing expert and founder of the Free Software Foundation, thinks that cloud computing—running applications over the Internet using distant machines—is a lot of hype and poses a serious risk to privacy. Others, such as tech publisher Tim O’Reilly, however, acknowledge some challenges but see cloud computing as … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Stupid Cloud Computing, Lying E-mail, Laughable Politics, & More”
Daily TIPs: Downtown Farms, Invisible Islands, Water from Air, & More
Doubts Raised About Broadband Competition The Federal Communications Commission is in the midst of figuring out how to allocate spectrum for wireless broadband transmissions, while Google and M2Z Networks push for regulations to allow an alternative broadband service. A columnist at GigaOm argues that indecisiveness at the FCC could wind up delaying any competition, which … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Downtown Farms, Invisible Islands, Water from Air, & More”
Daily TIPs: Obama’s Science Plan, Boeing’s Fuel Search, World’s Malaria Effort, & More
Boeing Begins Jet Biofuel Initiative Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has teamed up with 10 airlines, including Air France, Continental, and Virgin Atlantic, to form a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group. Flightglobal reports that the group will look for ways to make renewable jet fuel, with the goal of at least partially replacing fossil fuel used in … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Obama’s Science Plan, Boeing’s Fuel Search, World’s Malaria Effort, & More”
Daily TIPs: Cash for Ideas, Hydrogen for Cars, Internet for Everything, & More
Obama Addresses Questions About Science The British science journal Nature posed 18 questions related to science and policy to the two presidential candidates, but received written answers only from Democrat Barack Obama. Nature prints his answers, along with statements on the topics from Republican John McCain when they could be found from other sources. Among … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Cash for Ideas, Hydrogen for Cars, Internet for Everything, & More”
Daily TIPs, Online Egotists, Cloud Collaboration, Gaming the Future, & More
Narcissists Easy to Spot on Facebook Psychologists at the University of Georgia wondered if they could use online profiles to identify the personality traits of the people who posted them and found that, for narcissism at least, it wasn’t hard to do. As Ars Technica explains, the researchers had students take a personality test to … Continue reading “Daily TIPs, Online Egotists, Cloud Collaboration, Gaming the Future, & More”
Daily TIPs: Blogging for Bucks, Power Waves, Core Strength, & More
Suniva Promises Cheap, Efficient Solar Cells An Atlanta, Ga-based startup, Suniva, says it can make solar cells that are more efficient than existing devices and do it much more inexpensively. Technology Review says the company’s solar cells convert about 20 percent of sunlight into electricity, almost as much as the best solar cells on the … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Blogging for Bucks, Power Waves, Core Strength, & More”
Daily TIPs: Hungry Microbes, War of AdWords, Scarless Surgery, & More
Simple Process Converts Biomass to Gasoline Several companies are trying to engineer microbes that will turn biomass into hydrocarbon-based fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Now scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they’ve come up with a process that sidesteps the microbes. Technology Review reports that the researchers use catalysts at high temperatures to … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Hungry Microbes, War of AdWords, Scarless Surgery, & More”
Daily TIPs: Intelligent Clouds, Ultracapacitors, Adopter Shortage, & More
Chicago Plans to Cut Greenhouse Gases The City of Chicago wants to cut its emission of greenhouse gases to three-quarters of 1990 levels by 2020, and one-fifth of 1990 levels by 2050. The Associated Press reports that the plan includes updating the city’s building code to improve insulation and heating and cooling systems in all … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Intelligent Clouds, Ultracapacitors, Adopter Shortage, & More”
Daily TIPs: Spin Detector, Science Advice, Designer Pigs, & More
National Academy Advises Candidates on Science The National Academy of Sciences has issued a report advising the presidential candidates on how to deal with science-related issues. According to Ars Technica, the NAS says that most major issues for government, including climate, healthcare, and intelligence gathering, have some science and technology components. The group is calling … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Spin Detector, Science Advice, Designer Pigs, & More”
Daily TIPs: Porn Decline, Powdered Gas, Open Arms, & More
The Internet is For…Facebook? More people are using the Internet for social networking than are surfing for porn, says the author of a new book that analyzes the type of Web searches users are doing. Porn, which accounted for 20 percent of searches a decade ago, has dropped to 10 percent, says Bill Trancer, author … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Porn Decline, Powdered Gas, Open Arms, & More”
Daily TIPs: DNA for Doctors, Self-driving Prius, Google High on the Seas, & More
Berners-Lee Creates Web Foundation The man who invented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has launched a new foundation to promote open and expanded access to the Web. Ars Technica reports that the World Wide Web Foundation has $1 million in seed funding from the Knight Foundation. Specific goals of the project have not yet … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: DNA for Doctors, Self-driving Prius, Google High on the Seas, & More”
Daily TIPs: Broadband Bottleneck, Green Chemistry, Spammer Freed, & More
Most Countries Unready for Future Broadband Needs A group of MBA students has developed a Broadband Quality Score for 42 countries and found that the only country with enough bandwidth capacity to meet its needs in the next three to five years is Japan. Ars Technica reports that the score includes upload and download speeds … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Broadband Bottleneck, Green Chemistry, Spammer Freed, & More”
Daily TIPs: Pot vs. MRSA, Wine vs. Heart Trouble, Podcars, & More
Marijuana Could Fight Resistant Staph Substances found in marijuana plants may provide a new weapon to fight drug-resistant bacteria, Technology Review reports. Scientists in England and Italy discovered antibacterial compounds in the plants and tested them against six strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which causes hard-to-treat skin infections that can be fatal in … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Pot vs. MRSA, Wine vs. Heart Trouble, Podcars, & More”
Daily TIPs: Wind Bubble, Stronger Steel, Climate Cooperation, & More
Is There a Wind Bubble Coming? Wind power is booming, with capacity last year growing by 45 percent and wind power companies being bought and sold. The Atlantic displays an interesting map showing where the wind and the windmills are, but worries that the current optimism in the wind market may turn sour. It cites … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Wind Bubble, Stronger Steel, Climate Cooperation, & More”
Daily TIPs: Hurricane Software, Stem Cell Fights, Animal Dating, & More
Software Could Aid in Hurricane Evacuations Researchers at MIT are testing new software that uses vast amounts of information to guide officials in planning how and when to evacuate a city if a hurricane is coming. After Katrina, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency started using software that estimates how long it would take … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Hurricane Software, Stem Cell Fights, Animal Dating, & More”
Daily TIPs: New Bugs for Ethanol, Satellite Internet, Cloud-Spewing Ships, & More
Debate Continues on Biofuels Versus Food Some critics of biofuels contend that the growing demand for ethanol made from corn is helping to drive up food prices and could divert farmland from growing food to growing fuel. Others argue that much of the recent spike in food prices was caused by soaring oil costs and … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: New Bugs for Ethanol, Satellite Internet, Cloud-Spewing Ships, & More”
Daily TIPs: Sunlight for Everyone, Happy Birthday Google, Facebook for Spies, & More
Solar Power Provides Enough Energy for Everything, Expert Argues Solar power has the potential to provide for all the world’s energy needs, the research director of a Paris-based institute told a European energy conference, according to Agence France Presse. Daniel Lincot, research director for the Institute for Research and Development of Photovoltaic Energy, says solar … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Sunlight for Everyone, Happy Birthday Google, Facebook for Spies, & More”
Daily TIPs: Googling the Candidates, Power from Dirt, Greener PCs, & More
Comcast Sues FCC Over Bandwidth Cap Comcast is suing to overturn a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission, Ars Technica reports. The FCC ruled in July that Comcast could not slow down the Internet access of users who share files over peer-to-peer networks. The dispute is part of a growing controversy over whether the Internet … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Googling the Candidates, Power from Dirt, Greener PCs, & More”
Daily TIPs: Mobile Fish Farms, Cars of the Candidates, Eureka Grants, & More
Carriers Upgrading Long-Distance Networks Telecommunications carriers are upgrading their networks by replacing equipment designed to carry 10 gigabits of data per second with 40 gigabit equipment. GigaOm reports that 23 companies have purchased 40-Gb equipment since Nortel started selling it in April. The need to upgrade the core is being driven by the increase in … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Mobile Fish Farms, Cars of the Candidates, Eureka Grants, & More”
Daily TIPs: Bandwidth Limits, Lights Out Boston, Where are the Sunspots, & More
Conventions Draw Citizen Journalists It’s not just the presidential candidates who are taking advantage of new technologies in this year’s campaign. As CNET News tells us, citizen journalists are recording and broadcasting events in unprecedented numbers and formats. While some upload raw footage of protests and arrests to websites, others are using a cell phone … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Bandwidth Limits, Lights Out Boston, Where are the Sunspots, & More”
Daily TIPs: Science Answers, Face Transplants, Nasty Nitrogen, & More
Obama Answers Science Quiz Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has responded to 14 questions about science and technology policy, posed by a group that had been calling on candidates to debate science issues. Wired summarizes his answers, which include a promise to increase funding for basic research and to lift the Bush administration’s restrictions on … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Science Answers, Face Transplants, Nasty Nitrogen, & More”
Daily TIPs: Conventional Wisdom, Cyber Support, Greenhouse Gas Breakdown, & More
Was the Convention All That Green? Democrats had been boasting that the Denver convention would be the “most sustainable” in the history of conventions, and in some ways they may have accomplished their goal. CNET News says there were certainly separate trash containers for recycling waste, including biodegradable drinking straws. On the other hand, there … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Conventional Wisdom, Cyber Support, Greenhouse Gas Breakdown, & More”
Daily TIPs: Selling to Delegates, Tech Firms for Trade, Stem Cell Future, & More
New Services Target DNC Delegates With 50,000 people gathered in one auditorium in Denver, it must seem like a golden opportunity to push new apps for cell phones. Among the offerings being promoted, according to the Los Angeles Times: a service that has live people answering texted questions; an app that shows political TV shows … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Selling to Delegates, Tech Firms for Trade, Stem Cell Future, & More”
Daily TIPs: How Green is My Convention?, Twitter Over Science, Mobility Powers Mobiles, & More
Conventions Go Green The Democrats are committed to minimizing the environmental impact of bringing 50,000 people to Denver for their national convention. Agence France Presse reports that the DNC has a goal of diverting 85 percent of the waste those delegates produce to recycling or composting facilities, while delegates ride around on buses fueled by … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: How Green is My Convention?, Twitter Over Science, Mobility Powers Mobiles, & More”
Daily TIPs: High-Tech Candidates, Bat Killers, Viruses in Clouds and Bugs, & More
Nielsen Measures Obama’s Text Audience If the phone rings at 3 a.m., it’s probably Barack Obama texting you the late news of his vice presidential choice. Nielsen, which normally measures television audiences, said about 2.9 million people received the cell phone message, which had already been scooped by the more old-fashioned media. The Wall Street … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: High-Tech Candidates, Bat Killers, Viruses in Clouds and Bugs, & More”
Daily TIPs: Capturing Carbon, Signing on Cells, Wireless Power, & More
Technique Lets the Deaf Sign Through Cell Phones Voice communications don’t work for deaf people, and the quality of video carried by American cellular networks is generally too low to carry images of people signing. Now researchers at the University of Washington have overcome this problem by coming up with video-encoding algorithms that enhances only … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Capturing Carbon, Signing on Cells, Wireless Power, & More”
Daily TIPs: Mercury Wipe-Up, Faster Files, Sneaky Licenses, & More
New Nanomaterial Cleans Up Broken Bulbs Compact fluorescent bulbs are being touted as environmentally friendly, since they’re much more energy efficient than standard incandescents. Their only problem: Break them, and you spread poisonous mercury all over the place. Now, according to the Discovery Channel, a researcher at Brown University has developed a nanomaterial that absorbs … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Mercury Wipe-Up, Faster Files, Sneaky Licenses, & More”
Daily TIPs: Google Goes Geothermal, Demi-Disclosure Deleterious, Butterfly Ballots Back? & More
Best Energy May Be Under Our Feet Everybody talks about wind and sun as among the most promising new sources of energy the world can tap. But speaking at the National Energy Summit in Las Vegas this week, Dan Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives at Google, said the “killer app” of energy may … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Google Goes Geothermal, Demi-Disclosure Deleterious, Butterfly Ballots Back? & More”
Daily TIPs: Blood from Stem Cells, Dems on the Internet, Bright Lights and Windmills, & More
Website Seeks Credibility From Readers A new website is using a twist on popularity rankings by asking readers to score it on credibility. NewsCred, which just launched its beta version, lets users score its news stories by how credible they are, an attempt to add a new level of involvement to news sites, Reuters reports. … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Blood from Stem Cells, Dems on the Internet, Bright Lights and Windmills, & More”
Daily TIPs: Battery Virus, Asphalt Energy, New Source of Stem Cells, & More
Virus-Built Battery Nothing to Sneeze At A new type of microbattery could power implantable drug delivery devices or run tiny labs-on-a-chip, thanks to a technique that uses a virus to build the battery’s components. Nature News reports that scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used a genetically engineered virus as part of a template … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Battery Virus, Asphalt Energy, New Source of Stem Cells, & More”
Daily TIPs: Scanning Palms, Blogging Freely, Powering Down, & More
Political Blogging is Free Speech, FEC Rules A blogger can tout a particular political candidate, even coordinating with the campaign, without being subject to campaign finance restrictions, the Federal Elections Commission has ruled. A Hillary Clinton supported had alleged that Gordon Fischer, the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, had coordinated his criticism of … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Scanning Palms, Blogging Freely, Powering Down, & More”
Daily TIPs: Volt on Deck, McCain on Piracy, Google on My Mind, & More
McCain Would Attack Internet Piracy, Cut Taxes Republican presidential candidate John McCain recently issued a policy statement on various technology-related issues. He focuses on tax cuts, preventing new taxes on the Internet, and offering credits for research and development, according to a summary of the statement on Ars Technica. He’d also go after Internet piracy, … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Volt on Deck, McCain on Piracy, Google on My Mind, & More”
Daily TIPs: Military Mind Tech, Cellulosic Plans, Bugs in the Subway, & More
Cyber Command Offline for Now An Air Force project to coordinate the defense of military computer systems and launch offensives against enemy systems has been put on hold while higher-ups review the plan. The so-called Cyber Command was scheduled to go operational in less than two months before the Pentagon called a time out. InformationWeek … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Military Mind Tech, Cellulosic Plans, Bugs in the Subway, & More”
Daily TIPs: Gore-Tex for Platinum, Batteries From Waste Water, Low-Speed High-Speed, & More
California Considers Cyberbullying Law Using the Internet or text messages to harass one’s fellow students could become illegal under a bill making its way through the California legislature. The Associated Press reports that the cyberbullying bill passed the state Senate on a 21-11 vote and is headed to the Assembly. U.S. High-Speed Internet Not All … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Gore-Tex for Platinum, Batteries From Waste Water, Low-Speed High-Speed, & More”
Daily TIPs: Loose Lips, Virtual Housecalls, Humless Turbines, & More
Web Surfers Give Away Secrets Online Most Internet users—84 percent—say they don’t give out personal data online, but actually 89 percent of them do, according to a study done by AOL. ComputerWorld reports that the study found that, while people seem to be aware of the dangers of giving away data, they don’t actually take … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Loose Lips, Virtual Housecalls, Humless Turbines, & More”
Daily TIPs: Power from Heat, Robots Over Beijing, Watch Those Passports, & More
Car Exhaust Could Be Turned Back to Power Several cars companies, including General Motors, are looking for ways to turn the heat that comes out of a car’s tailpipe into electricity that can be used to power systems in the car and improve gas mileage. The Discovery Channel reports that researchers are working on thermoelectric … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Power from Heat, Robots Over Beijing, Watch Those Passports, & More”
Daily TIPs: Biking with Batteries, Tracking Your Cell, Tracking Stem Cells, & More
Electric Bikes Look More Appealing A new generation of electric bicycles hasn’t quite caught on yet, but if gas prices continue to rise, they just might, one dealer tells the Chicago Sun Times. This isn’t your father’s moped; the new bikes have smaller motors and batteries that can propel riders for 20 miles before recharging, … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Biking with Batteries, Tracking Your Cell, Tracking Stem Cells, & More”
Daily TIPs: Chertoff Chats, Scammers Scam Scammers, Cloud Consortium, & More
No Honor Among Internet Thieves Even phishers—people who fake legitimate-seeming sites to trick people out of their financial information—are subject to phishing attacks, according to the Wall Street Journal. Apparently more seasoned scam artists are targeting newbie hackers and stealing the same credit card numbers they steal. For instance, they’ll sell would-be criminals software to … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Chertoff Chats, Scammers Scam Scammers, Cloud Consortium, & More”
Daily TIPs: Noisier Hybrids, the MySpace Debates, Energy Bubble, & More
Internet Deluge Not Likely, Study Finds Some Internet service providers are worried that the growing demand for large files, such as videos, is going to produce more data traffic than the Internet can handle. But one Internet expert says traffic growth rates are actually falling. Ars Technica reports that Andrew Odlyzko of the University of … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Noisier Hybrids, the MySpace Debates, Energy Bubble, & More”
Daily TIPs: Hydrogen Sports Car, Broadband in Every Pot, Wi-Fi in Flight, & More
Hydrogen-powered Sports Car on the Way The prototype of a sports car that burns a mixture of gasoline and hydrogen should be ready by November, according to Earth2Tech. Ronn Motors, of Austin, TX, plans to unveil its Scorpion sports hybrid, with a body made of carbon fiber, in Las Vegas. The company is also working … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Hydrogen Sports Car, Broadband in Every Pot, Wi-Fi in Flight, & More”
Daily TIPs: Who’s Invading Your Privacy?, Bioterrorism, Building Green, & More
How Much Does Your ISP Know About You? One perhaps overlooked aspect of the Federal Communications Commission’s warning to Comcast to stop slowing down file-sharing traffic is the way Comcast went about its throttling. In order to figure out who was using peer-to-peer services to share files, Comcast had to study the data packets machines … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Who’s Invading Your Privacy?, Bioterrorism, Building Green, & More”
Daily TIPs: Texans Go Tiny, Borings Go to Court, Trolls Hit the Times, & More
Electric Cars Making Inroads In a sign that the era of gas guzzlers may be ending, the Wall Street Journal observes that even in Texas, people are leaving their SUVs in the garage in favor of smaller electric cars. As the paper puts it, “You Know Gas Prices Are High When Texans Start Driving Golf … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Texans Go Tiny, Borings Go to Court, Trolls Hit the Times, & More”
Daily TIPs: GENI Grant, Facebook for Nerds, Hacker Trial, & More
NSF Grant Supports Study of Next Generation Internet A project to re-think the Internet from the ground up has received $12 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. The Associated Press reports that the money will go toward developing prototypes for the Global Environment for Network Innovations, a testbed to try out new networking … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: GENI Grant, Facebook for Nerds, Hacker Trial, & More”
Daily TIPs: Will Wi-Fi Rule?, Blogging from the Top, Nanotech Safety, & More
AT&T to Shut Off Wireless Peer-to-Peer Users While the Federal Communications Commission is deciding whether to reprimand Comcast for slowing down the broadband service of customers sharing files over peer-to-peer networks, AT&T says it will completely shut off any of its wireless customers it catches sharing. IP Democracy says the company filed a letter with … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Will Wi-Fi Rule?, Blogging from the Top, Nanotech Safety, & More”
Daily TIPs: Carbon Bootprints, Wireless Smut, Cheaper Batteries, & More
Smaller Carbon Bootprint Could Save Soldiers’ Lives, Says Army The Army is looking for ways to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions, with a goal of reducing them by 30 percent by 2015. Reuters reports that steps to reduce the so-called “carbon bootprint” would not only reduce the Army’s contribution to global warming, it might also … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Carbon Bootprints, Wireless Smut, Cheaper Batteries, & More”
Daily TIPs: Activist Librarians, Hospitals Get Health Conscious, Frankie Valli versus McCain, & More
No Business Too Small for Hackers, Report Warns Small and medium-sized businesses don’t believe they’re much of a target for cybercriminals, according to a report from security software maker McAfee. The study found that 46 percent of those surveyed didn’t think they had enough assets to make their businesses interesting to criminals. McAfee disagrees, says … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Activist Librarians, Hospitals Get Health Conscious, Frankie Valli versus McCain, & More”