Eclectic Views

    

   Wireless World

According to an article at
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/technology/21intel.html>
Intel is about to demonstrate a mechanism for the cordless recharging of
electrical devices, using "a magnetic field to broadcast up to 60 watts of
power two to three feet. It says it can do that losing only 25 percent of
the power in transmission." Previous technologies like those for recharging
cordless toothbrushes require the unit to touch the source of the charge.
The technology is said to be an outgrowth of MIT's "WiTricity" project
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witricity>), which is in turn based on the
work of Nikola Tesla dating back to the 19th-century.
  

    

Solar power from an ink-jet printer and a pizza oven might not be
that far away:

What started off as a brainstorming session has resulted in the iJET cell
concept that uses low-cost and low-temperature processes, such as ink-jet
printing and pizza ovens, to manufacture solar cells."

While it could take five years to commercialise the patented technology...

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/energy-smart/thinking-outside-the-square-finds-light-in-oven/2008/08/19/1218911717526.html>
http://tinyurl.com/67m7rh
  

    

   This Just In: Steve Jobs Not Dead

Oops. From <http://www.crn.com/software/210201244>:

"an obituary of Apple of Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs was
accidentally published on Bloomberg's wire service on Wednesday. The
premature obituary was in the process of being updated and was marked as
'hold, not for release'".
  

    

   What's In A Name(tm)?

Megabucks, according to a story at
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/technology/01copyright.html>.
Patent squabbles have diminished, it says, once courts came to realize that
"patents on software and business methods have become counterproductive,
inhibiting innovation". And cybersquatting was sat on heavily by a 1999 law
which penalized its misuse. But "trademark is the sleeping giant of
intellectual property", according to a Stanford law professor: Dell just
tried unsuccessfully to own the term "cloud computing" and Microsoft is
seeking rights to "Live Mesh" for a synchronizing technology.

Laws vary by country: in the US but not in France, "[court] rulings have
tended to allow companies to buy the trademarked brand names of rivals as
keywords in search. Ford, for example, can bid on and buy 'Toyota,' so that
a person typing Toyota as a search term would see a link to Ford's Web site
in the paid-for links on the right hand side of Google's Web page."

A bit of recent history; as late as 1979 at the USPTO, "trademarked images
were kept in separate drawers and grouped into visual categories ... like
'grotesque humans' (the Pillsbury doughboy) and 'human body parts' (the
Yellow Pages' walking fingers)."
  

    
An interesting article on Microsoft's Windows Vista in Saturday's NY Times,
complete with photo of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld flexing shoes (for
reasons not entirely clear to me):
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/technology/06soft.html>
  

    
   AMD Exits Chip-making Business

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/technology/business-computing/08chip.html
or <http://tinyurl.com/4x8h53>

The company will concentrate on chip design and leave the expensive factory
stuff (as TI and Sony do) to another company, in this case a spinoff called
Foundry owned by Abu Dhabi's "Advanced Technology Investment Company".
  

    

  The Ultimate Encryption?

From <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/7661311.stm>:

"Perfect secrecy has come a step closer with the launch of the world's first
computer network protected by unbreakable quantum encryption at a scientific
conference in Vienna. ... Quantum cryptography is completely different from
the kinds of security schemes used on computer networks today. These are
typically based on complex mathematical procedures which are extremely hard
for outsiders to crack, but not impossible given sufficient computing
resources or time. But quantum systems use the laws of quantum theory, which
have been shown to be inherently unbreakable. ... All quantum security
schemes are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, on the fact that
you cannot measure quantum information without disturbing it."
  

    

   Why We Are So Wise

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/health/7667610.stm>

"For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost
brain power, research suggests. A University of California Los Angeles team
found searching the web stimulates centres in the brain that control
decision-making and complex reasoning."
  

    
thank  you
for the licence to silver surf :-)
  

    
Thanks for making me feel more optimistic!
  

    
my mother played club bridge until she was 91
  

    

   Watch your Hands

From <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/technology/7681534.stm>:

"By analysing the signals produced by keystrokes, Swiss researchers have
reproduced what a target typed. The security researchers have developed four
attacks that work on a wide variety of computer keyboards. The results led
the researchers to declare keyboards were 'not safe to transmit sensitive
information'. Every keyboard tested was vulnerable to at least one of the
four attacks the researchers used. One attack was shown to work over a
distance of 20 metres."
  

    
So, Van Eck phreaking can be done against keyboards.  Should we be
surprised?

  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking>
  

    
Not really business, but too interesting to pass up:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7687286.stm>

"Team records 'music' from stars: scientists have recorded the sound of
three stars similar to our Sun using France's Corot space telescope."

There's an Olaf Stapledon novel from 1937 where that happens, but I never
expected to see it as a news story.
  

    

   Good News, Bad News

In <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/technology/companies/03security.html>

" On Security, Microsoft Reports Progress and Alarm
Microsoft plans to report on Monday [in its twice-a-year 'Security
Intelligence Report'] that the security of its Windows operating system has
significantly improved, while at the same time the threat of computer
viruses, frauds and other online scourges has become much more serious."

(More at
<http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/nov08/11-03SIRv5PR.mspx>).
  

    

   High-speed Internet Access Over Power Lines, Back in the News

From <http://tinyurl.com/5ef9sc> or if you prefer
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h34ExZwCNNQ6JAorv-5jiHL3l_TwD94D69O80>,

  "IBM to help build broadband network in power lines

NEW YORK (AP) - IBM Corp. is throwing its considerable weight behind an idea
that seemed to have faded: broadband Internet access delivered over ordinary
power lines. The technology has been around for decades, but most efforts to
implement the idea on a broad scale have failed to live up to expectations."
 ..and so on.

Targeted at rural customers, this one may succeed where others have failed.
Time will tell.
  

    

   Save A Tree

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/business/media/20mag.html>

PC Magazine will cease to appear in paper form after 27 years, according to
publisher Ziff Davis. It joins a list that includes the Christian Science
Monitor, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and CosmoGirl.
  

    

   Guild Master of the Unemployable

According to a story in today's paper (<http://tinyurl.com/7lwdtq>),
"employers specifically instruct [recruiters] not to send them World of
Warcraft players. ... there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100
percent because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often
not great ... Whether or not battling with a level 70 night elf hunter
through dungeons in Outland translates to real-world talents is debatable,
but with the popularity of multiplayer online games surging, it also may be
unrealistic for employers to screen for applicants who participate in them.
... the number of subscribers to the title [exceeds] 11 million players
worldwide. ... As one commenter put it rather bluntly, 'It's like telling
them you’re into BDSM or something - once they know they’ll always look at
you differently.'"
  

    
I wonder what the people in <wow.ind.> would say about that item.
  

    
Funny. Obsession during worktime fuels all websites.  

Gaming, news, conversation, hobbies, shopping... The chart for unique
readers of Salon runs high from 9:00 am Eastern to 5:00 pm Pacific, then
tapers off overnight, for example.  Stolen time from employers keeps 
the 'net economy going, seems to me!

We once had an employer call us asking us to block an employee from 
logging in to the WELL from work! Then-manager Maurice told him he had 
to control his own employee. Everybody wants somebody else to play bad 
cop but that was hilarious!   

Thanks for a great round of news tidbits for 2008, Ron.
  

    
> We once had an employer call us asking us to block an employee
> from logging in to the WELL from work

Somebody named Joan Walsh, I think.
  

    
And with that bit of japery I declare 2008 over; at least as far as Business
& Technology News, anyway. 2009 has already reached Paris and Barcelona, and
I predict with a high degree of confidence it will reach California around
the end of the day. Time to roll this topic over. Happy New Year, everyone!