Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/

GrandBanks Beams Toronto Virtualization Startup to Beantown; Its Fourth Canadian Transplant Since 2001

Virtualization is all about breaking down artificial boundaries. Typically, the boundaries involved are those between machines such as business servers—and Xkoto, a virtualization startup that announced a $7.5 million Series B funding round yesterday, fits that mold perfectly. It’s one of many companies these days looking at corporate data centers and trying to figure out … Continue reading “GrandBanks Beams Toronto Virtualization Startup to Beantown; Its Fourth Canadian Transplant Since 2001”

Cilk Arts Completes Funding Round

Cilk Arts, a Lexington, MA, startup that is creating a commercial version of MIT professor Charles Leiserson’s Cilk parallel programming language, said yesterday that it had closed a Series A funding round led by Stata Venture Partners and a network of software industry executives. The amount raised was not disclosed. The company also said it … Continue reading “Cilk Arts Completes Funding Round”

Floating All Boats: Local Companies Have Their Own Reasons for Joining Google’s Open Source Handset Alliance

Google may be the instigator behind the new Open Handset Alliance, which plans to create an open-source operating system and application software for mobile phones, but alliance members contributing to the so-called Android platform have their own futures in mind, not necessarily Google’s. After yesterday’s official launch of the alliance, I spoke with representatives of … Continue reading “Floating All Boats: Local Companies Have Their Own Reasons for Joining Google’s Open Source Handset Alliance”

Dell to Buy Nashua’s EqualLogic for $1.4 Billion—History’s Largest Cash Payout for a Venture-Backed Firm

Nashua, NH-based EqualLogic, a fast-growing maker of network storage devices that was, until today, on the verge of going public, will instead be acquired by Dell Computer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DELL]]) for an eyebrow-raising $1.4 billion in cash, the two companies announced today. The deal—to be completed sometime next year, subject to regulatory approval—would be the largest … Continue reading “Dell to Buy Nashua’s EqualLogic for $1.4 Billion—History’s Largest Cash Payout for a Venture-Backed Firm”

Numbers Game: IBM’s “Many Eyes” Portal Turns Data Visualization into Community Art

With the wrong visualization tools, data can be deathly boring—just think of all the dry, meaningless PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets you’ve endured in darkened lecture halls and conference rooms. But with the right tools and context, data can come alive, as Yale information designer Edward Tufte has famously argued and you’ll understand yourself if … Continue reading “Numbers Game: IBM’s “Many Eyes” Portal Turns Data Visualization into Community Art”

Saying Ahed’s Destruction of Evidence “Profoundly Undermines” His Credibility, Judge Issues Partial Injunction Against Robotic FX—Much of Record Sealed

UPDATED (Nov. 2, 2007, 8:45 pm): In a federal district court ruling issued tonight, Burlington, MA-based iRobot has won a limited victory over Robotic FX, the Illinois-based maker of the Negotiator bomb-detection robot. The company secured a partial injunction that an iRobot attorney says effectively prevents Robotic FX from delivering on a $279.9 million contract … Continue reading “Saying Ahed’s Destruction of Evidence “Profoundly Undermines” His Credibility, Judge Issues Partial Injunction Against Robotic FX—Much of Record Sealed”

Where Do You Want to Go Today? uLocate Can Help You Decide

Though it was more or less accidental, it’s been Location-Based Computing Week at Xconomy. We kicked off the week with a story Monday about EveryScape, which has introduced a database of amazing 360-degree views of streetscapes and building interiors from four U.S. cities. On Wednesday we told you about Untravel Media, which sells a series … Continue reading “Where Do You Want to Go Today? uLocate Can Help You Decide”

Team MIT Squeaks Into Robot Car Finals

It wasn’t a shoo-in, according to MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics Jonathan How. But Team MIT learned this afternoon that it has won a qualifying berth in the DARPA Urban Challenge finals on Saturday, when observers will learn which competing institution’s autonomous vehicle is best at navigating a complex mock-city environment replete with moving … Continue reading “Team MIT Squeaks Into Robot Car Finals”

E Ink’s Electronic Paper Displays See Gradual Growth, New Competition

The digital revolution hasn’t changed the fact that new printing technology spreads slowly. Johannes Gutenberg, for example, first used metal movable type to publish his famous Bible in 1455, but it wasn’t until 1480 or so that letterpress printing became widespread in Europe, and England didn’t get its first printing press until 1489. The folks … Continue reading “E Ink’s Electronic Paper Displays See Gradual Growth, New Competition”

Iron Mountain Buys Stratify for $158 Million

Stratify, which sells electronic discovery software to law firms and large corporations, has agreed to be purchased by Boston-based document storage and data protection company Iron Mountain for $158 million in cash, the two companies announced today. Founded in 1999, Stratify is based in Mountain View, CA, and has received venture funding from Mobious Venture … Continue reading “Iron Mountain Buys Stratify for $158 Million”

EMC and Voyence: Swallowing a Spider to Catch A Fly

EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), the Hopkinton, MA-based provider of networked storage hardware and software, needs to focus on internal innovation rather than acquiring outside companies to grow its product lines, insider Mark Lewis argued in a keynote speech at EMC’s inaugural innovation conference earlier this month. But as Lewis also informed his audience, EMC’s acquisition quest … Continue reading “EMC and Voyence: Swallowing a Spider to Catch A Fly”

MIT $100K Organizers Announce Mobile Prize

On Monday the organizers of MIT’s famous $100K business plan competition unveiled the M Prize, a new award specifically for teams submitting plans in the area of content or services for mobile devices. The amount of the prize hasn’t been announced, but teams (which must include at least one MIT student) can get a head … Continue reading “MIT $100K Organizers Announce Mobile Prize”

Mobile and Interactive in Boston: On the Run with Untravel and Urban Interactive

For a high-tech Halloween treat, check out three new multimedia walking tours of Boston and Salem, MA, set to be published today by Untravel Media. The “Creeping Through Boston” tours, which can be downloaded to iPhones, video iPods, and most smart phones, include a walk through the dark back alleys and hidden passageways of downtown … Continue reading “Mobile and Interactive in Boston: On the Run with Untravel and Urban Interactive”

MITX Awards Ceremony

The Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange hosts its 12th annual awards for the best Web and interactive media projects of 2007. Tickets $90 for members, $175 for non-members; information and registration here.

Dataupia Collects $16 Million Second Round

Fairhaven Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and Valhalla Partners have joined in a $16 million Series B funding round for Dataupia, according to a report yesterday at peHUB. The Somerville, MA, startup sells a data warehousing appliance—called “Satori,” from the Zen Buddhist term for deep or lasting satisfaction—that consists of an exandable rack of AMD … Continue reading “Dataupia Collects $16 Million Second Round”

OwnerIQ Raises $2 Million for User Manual Archive

Newton, MA-based OwnerIQ, formerly known as Most Effective Media, announced today that it has raised $2 million in venture backing from Atlas Venture, the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, and Common Angels. The company has built a network of websites containing user manuals for hundreds of brands and models of consumer devices, from microwave ovens to … Continue reading “OwnerIQ Raises $2 Million for User Manual Archive”

Virtual Iron “An Alternative to the Juggernaut Called VMware,” New CEO Says

Part of the investor optimism driving the stock price of VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]) ever higher since its August IPO is based on the size of the market yet to be tapped by it and other virtualization software makers. Analysts say that only 5 to 7 percent of business servers have been equipped to run virtualization … Continue reading “Virtual Iron “An Alternative to the Juggernaut Called VMware,” New CEO Says”

Startup Weekend Yields Desktop Yoga Site

Startup Weekend Boston, a three-day volunteer collaboration held October 19-21 and aimed at launching a new Web business from scratch, resulted in a website aimed at keeping weary knowledge workers limber at DeskHappy.com. At the site you can watch video demonstrations of easy exercises that don’t require getting up from your chair, or sign up … Continue reading “Startup Weekend Yields Desktop Yoga Site”

Dace Ventures Closes $70 Million Fund

Waltham, MA-based Dace Ventures, founded by former CMGI President and COO Dave Andonian, announced the closing today of its initial investment fund of over $70 million. The firm focuses on digital media, consumer marketing and mobile services companies whose products are approaching mass commercialization. Its portfolio companies include auctionPAL, CityVoter, Panraven, LocaModa, and (just announced … Continue reading “Dace Ventures Closes $70 Million Fund”

EveryScape: Street-Level Views That Go Behind Closed Doors

The race is on to create an immersive, photorealistic online model of the real world. Such an environment could ultimately serve not just as navigation tool or a kind of 3-D yellow pages, but as a canvas for an endless variety of advertising, business intelligence, scientific and environmental data, and user-generated content such as photographs, … Continue reading “EveryScape: Street-Level Views That Go Behind Closed Doors”

Boston Blogtoberfest 2007—Beer, Bloggers, and Community-Building

Boston-area bloggers met up to celebrate their craft and watch Game 2 of the World Series (or rather, the endless pre-game show) last night in The Pour House’s basement “dungeon” on Boylston Street. It was the second annual Boston Blogtoberfest, expertly organized by local Web designer Jenny Frazier. From culture pundits to experts on identify-theft … Continue reading “Boston Blogtoberfest 2007—Beer, Bloggers, and Community-Building”

GreatPoint Previews Demo Facility for Coal-to-Gas Technology

In the shadow of the New England’s largest coal-fired power plant, the Brayton Point station in Somerset, MA, Governor Deval Patrick presided yesterday over a ceremony heralding a future in which coal can be inexpensively converted into cleaner-burning natural gas before being used to generate electricity. The ceremony marked an agreement between Cambridge-based clean-energy startup … Continue reading “GreatPoint Previews Demo Facility for Coal-to-Gas Technology”

Big Gains for Akamai, EMC, Monster, VMware

Investors responded to rosy earnings reports from Cambridge networking leader Akamai, Hopkinton-based storage giant EMC, and EMC subsidiary VMware with rare enthusiasm today. All three companies saw gains of at least 8 percent in their share values, with Akamai soaring more than 12 percent. Job site Monster (which has offices in Maynard) was also a … Continue reading “Big Gains for Akamai, EMC, Monster, VMware”

One Laptop Organization to World: Chill!

If you aren’t on a schedule, you can’t be late. That was the gist of a conversation I had last night with Mary Lou Jepsen, chief technology officer at the One Laptop Per Child organization here in Cambridge. Jepsen says that a Reuters report yesterday asserting that production delays will cause the organization to miss … Continue reading “One Laptop Organization to World: Chill!”

A Pair of $20 Million Research Initiatives

How much does it take to jumpstart a serious academic research initiative these days? Apparently the answer is $20 million. That’s the amount pledged for two different projects announced this week. One is an initiative at MIT to study major psychiatric diseases including bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia, and the other is an agreement between … Continue reading “A Pair of $20 Million Research Initiatives”

Vertica: Getting Its Ducks in a Column

At Vertica, the company blog has a plain, seemingly straightforward name: The Database Column. But it’s actually an inside joke—and one that hints at the fundamental innovation that the Andover, MA, startup hopes will catapult it into the ranks of established database makers like Oracle, IBM, and Sybase. Vertica’s software stores data in the form … Continue reading “Vertica: Getting Its Ducks in a Column”

Deshpande Center Backs 10 Big Ideas for the Developing World

Today MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation announced grants totaling $1.03 million to MIT researchers working on ten different projects with potential repercussions for the developing world, ranging from “nanosprings” that could store power without batteries to ways of making clean-burning propane from cellulose and other forms of biomass. The center’s semiannual Ignition Grants and … Continue reading “Deshpande Center Backs 10 Big Ideas for the Developing World”

HBS Energy Symposium

The Energy Club of Harvard Business School presents its annual energy symposium — an afternoon of discussions with thought leaders in the energy industry, hitting on topics from clean energy to carbon emissions trading, with sponsorship from McKinsey & Co., Schlumberger, Cameron Corporation, Boston Consulting Group, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the Northbridge Group, and Kleiner … Continue reading “HBS Energy Symposium”

Boston: The Hidden Hub of Music and Technology

It’s one of Boston’s best-kept secrets, but the city is a mecca—perhaps the mecca—for entrepreneurs who understand both music and technology. As Xconomy has spun up over the last three-and-a-half months, we’ve been intrigued to learn about one company after another that specializes either in music production and distribution or in helping musicians network with … Continue reading “Boston: The Hidden Hub of Music and Technology”

Woburn Startup Extrudes Diesel Filters Like Pasta; The Way to Cleaner Cars?

What’s the common thread between the space shuttle’s thermal tiles, log-cabin mansions in Aspen, Play-Doh, pasta makers, and diesel engines? There is one—really—but to find out what it is, you have to pay a visit to GEO2 Technologies in Woburn. The clean-energy startup has turned an industrial warehouse just off I-95 into a giant kitchen-laboratory, … Continue reading “Woburn Startup Extrudes Diesel Filters Like Pasta; The Way to Cleaner Cars?”

VMware: The Stock That Won’t Stop

The virtualization software made by VMware (NYSE: VMW) and competitors like Microsoft, Virtual Iron, and XenSource is all about hiding the details: it can make a single computer server run multiple applications on multiple operating systems, or it can make multiple computer servers look like a single server running a single application. How many machines … Continue reading “VMware: The Stock That Won’t Stop”

Kiva’s Robots Bring New Meaning to Movable Shelves

News coming across the wire yesterday from Kiva Systems in Woburn caught my eye. Not so much for the news itself, which is about a routine corporate partnership, but because I had just learned about the company’s incredibly cool little robots the night before. Kiva is the best kind of startup: one built around soothing … Continue reading “Kiva’s Robots Bring New Meaning to Movable Shelves”

STEM Summit IV: Accelerating Forward

No, this isn’t another stem-cell conference. It’s a forum for leaders of K-12 and higher education institutions, businesses, community groups, and state and local policy makers to discuss the state of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Massachusetts. The state isn’t graduating enough students to fill the open STEM workforce positions, and the … Continue reading “STEM Summit IV: Accelerating Forward”

MIT $100K Competition, Ignite Clean Energy Prize Will Combine Resources

The leaders of two major New England business competitions announced today they will join forces and create a new prize to encourage faster development of the region’s clean-energy sector. Clark Waterfall, chair of the three-year-old Ignite Clean Energy Business Presentation Competition (ICE), and Jeffrey Sabados, lead organizer this year for the 18-year-old MIT $100K Entrepreneurship … Continue reading “MIT $100K Competition, Ignite Clean Energy Prize Will Combine Resources”

Bug Labs: The Open-Source Hardware Store

“We want to replace consumer electronics with community electronics.” That’s the kind of cocktail conversation we tech bloggers can’t pass up. And when I heard it from one of the folks at the bar last night, I knew I had stumbled into the right place—the Bug Labs happy hour at the Middlesex Lounge just off … Continue reading “Bug Labs: The Open-Source Hardware Store”

Akamai Rolls Out Service to Speed Internet-based Applications

Cambridge-based Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) is famous for building a global network of Web servers that cache clients’ content closer to users, speeding delivery of popular videos and other information. In the last two years, Akamai has built on that network to help speed all kinds of Web traffic, including the information exchanged via Web-based software … Continue reading “Akamai Rolls Out Service to Speed Internet-based Applications”

A Visit to Boston’s Own Robot-Plane Skunk Works

Unbeknownst to the lunch crowds who fill the streets around the Cambridge Marriott every weekday, Kendall Square has its very own Area 51: a mini-aircraft hangar on the fourteenth floor of One Broadway. Part of the newly opened R&D outpost of Manassas, VA-based Aurora Flight Sciences, the space is used to test unpiloted machines such … Continue reading “A Visit to Boston’s Own Robot-Plane Skunk Works”

MyPunchbowl, the Web 2.0 Route to Planning Your Next Party, Closes Seed Round

If you grew up on reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore show, as I did, you might remember the running joke about Mary’s parties, which always turned into disasters. Well, if Mary had had a tool like MyPunchbowl, she might have had better luck. This quintessential Web 2.0 service, launched in January by Natick, MA-based … Continue reading “MyPunchbowl, the Web 2.0 Route to Planning Your Next Party, Closes Seed Round”

Robots Drive Around Courtroom—But Still No Decision As Witness Testimony Ends in IRobot-Robotic FX Case

As 29-year-old Jameel Ahed steered from a remote control perched on the judge’s bench, the two-foot-long Negotiator robot careened across the olive-green carpet, swiveled its electronic eye around the courtroom, and reared up on its hind wheels. “This could get your exhibits for you,” Ahed remarked to the judge. “I’m sure it could,” Judge Nancy … Continue reading “Robots Drive Around Courtroom—But Still No Decision As Witness Testimony Ends in IRobot-Robotic FX Case”

CoreStreet Smarts: How to Put a Smart Card Lock on Every Office Door

Many modern office buildings have smart-card-based electronic locking systems, where users wave their cards over an RFID sensor panel that checks the IDs on the cards against a central database. But this security layer usually stops at the front entrance. Installing the wiring for the access-control panels needed to make individual offices secure can cost … Continue reading “CoreStreet Smarts: How to Put a Smart Card Lock on Every Office Door”

Cars Gone Wild: Acton Company Looks Beyond Cable, Puts Automotive Video on Internet, Mobile Phones

Say you’ve developed hundreds of hours of video content for a new cable TV channel about Americans’ love affair with their automobiles. Then one day the cable network calls up to say “Oops, we’re out of bandwidth—it’s been eaten up by high-definition and video-on-demand and we can’t add any more TV channels.” What do you … Continue reading “Cars Gone Wild: Acton Company Looks Beyond Cable, Puts Automotive Video on Internet, Mobile Phones”

Slow Progress But High Stakes in iRobot–Robotic FX Tangle

Hearings in iRobot‘s Massachusetts lawsuit against Illinois rival Robotic FX lurched forward a few steps today, with both sides scoring minor points. But key issues in the case—in which iRobot is accusing Robotic FX and its founder, Jameel Ahed, of misappropriation and misuse of confidential information related to iRobot’s Packbot military robot—remained undecided as Federal … Continue reading “Slow Progress But High Stakes in iRobot–Robotic FX Tangle”

Coalition of Boston Libraries Chooses the Un-Google Route to Digitization

If there’s one thing New England has in great supply, it’s books. And that makes the area one of the battlegrounds in the digital library wars—the competition between commercial entities such as Google and Microsoft and non-profit groups such as the Internet Archive to secure agreements to scan, digitize, and distribute the world’s print literature. … Continue reading “Coalition of Boston Libraries Chooses the Un-Google Route to Digitization”

Roomba With a View: iRobot Launches Webcam-Carrying Robot and $99 Gutter Cleaner

Recent headlines about Burlington, MA-based iRobot have all focused on the robot maker’s legal tangle with Robotic FX, which beat it out for a $279.9 million defense contract but is now in court defending against iRobot’s accusations of patent infringement and industrial espionage. Hearings in that case have been continued until Monday, when we’ll bring … Continue reading “Roomba With a View: iRobot Launches Webcam-Carrying Robot and $99 Gutter Cleaner”

As Facebook Becomes the New Face of the Web, Boston-Area Startups Pitch In

In three years, Facebook has grown from a project in a Harvard dorm room to the seventh-most-trafficked site on the Web. Three years from now, if the company succeeds with its strategy to cultivate Facebook versions of typical Internet applications from e-mail and photo-sharing to games and music playlists, Facebook will be the Web, or … Continue reading “As Facebook Becomes the New Face of the Web, Boston-Area Startups Pitch In”

From Patriots Football to Film Preferences: Kraft Group Spinout Matchmine Launches “Portable Personalization” Platform

Remember when computer scientists promised back in the 1990s that we’d all have artificially intelligent “personal agents” running cyberspace errands for us, booking travel, filtering the news, and finding things we like? A new widget for personal computers called a “MatchKey” doesn’t quite qualify as intelligent, but it does take a new approach to the … Continue reading “From Patriots Football to Film Preferences: Kraft Group Spinout Matchmine Launches “Portable Personalization” Platform”

Carbonite CEO Feeling Rosy about EMC Reportedly Buying Mozy

David Friend, CEO of Boston-based online backup company Carbonite, says the rumored acquisition of rival Mozy by Hopkinton storage giant EMC (NYSE: EMC) is great news for his company, too. Both companies launched in 2005 with bankrolls of around $2 million. Both provide software that automatically encrypts and copies the information on users’ hard drives … Continue reading “Carbonite CEO Feeling Rosy about EMC Reportedly Buying Mozy”