1:16 PM
Navy SEALs are using a variety of robotic vehicles, including robotic subs and UAVs, that have been deployed on naval vessels:
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2009/07/us-navy-irregular-warfare.html
Grandparents in Texas were bankrupt, more than $260k in debt...until they landed a $8.4 million noncompete contract for security services in Afghanistan. Instead of being happy with their good fortune, they decided to defraud the government by filing phony receipts and billing the government for ghost employees. Instead of the money going to rebuild Afghanistan, it went straight into their pockets...and now they are on trial for their alleged crimes:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/cowboys-of-kabul?page=1
Study found that texting while driving increases the chance of an accident by 23 times! One scary stat is that half of drivers 16 to 24 years old have texted while driving:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/technology/28texting.html?_r=2&hp
New home sales rose last month at a faster rate than anytime since the year 2000. Sales of existing homes have risen for three straight months, so it looks like the housing sector is on a (slow) recovery path:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/28/1b28homes195322-big-jolt-new-home-sales-seen-huge-/?uniontrib
BTG claims that Samsung's Nand flash-memory chips violates 5 of their patents and seeks to stop imports of Samsung chips and products that use them...if this lawsuit succeeds, products from 8 companies including Apple and RIM will be blocked from being imported into the US. That would mean no iPhones, BlackBerry Storms, Sony digital cameras or computers, etc.:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aQtlrHyiyucY
The Canadian government is under pressure to block the sale of Nortel's CDMA/LTE assets to Ericsson. The Canadian government apparently has the power to block the deal, and having RIM as an alternative Canadian purchaser makes this a political issue:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ontario-urges-pm-to-block-foreign-nortel-sale/article1233034/
Flextronics withdrew its opposition to Ericsson's purchase of Nortel's CDMA/LTE assets...after Ericsson agreed to pay Flextronics the $8 million Nortel owed it and after they agreed to negotiate an agreement for Flextronics to be a supplier to Ericsson after the Nortel deal closes:
http://www.reuters.com/article/americasMergersNews/idUSN2811749820090728
Sprint is buying Virgin Mobile for $483 million. This makes sense to me because Sprint already owned 13.1% of Virgin Mobile and Virgin Mobile used Sprint's network for all of its wireless traffic:
http://www.cedmagazine.com/News-Sprint-Virgin-Mobile-USA-072809.aspx
Qualcomm and Verizon announced a joint venture to create advanced machine-to-machine wireless communications. I like that the joint venture will be based in San Diego (with offices in New Jersey too--it is always good to add those types of jobs to our economy here:
Press release
Lawsuit between Verizon and AT&T over AT&T's objection to Verizon's claim to have the most reliable 3G network. AT&T says that the data rate is key for reliability so Verizon is being misleading. I agree with Verizon's position that speed is not the way to measure reliability:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aurVg4Jm1ItU
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN27261820090728
Google Voice has client devices developed for BlackBerry and Android phones, but it has been banned from the iPhone:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45299&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#
Four key public-safety organizations have backed LTE for public safety in the 700 MHz band:
http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/commentary/psst-endorsement-lte-20090728/index.html
One-third of all mobile phones sold next year are expected to include accelerometers, up from 20% this year and 9% last year, with MEMS for mobile phonesexpected to go from $460.9 mil in 2009 to $1.6 bil in 2013:
http://mobiledevdesign.com/hardware_news/accelerometers-mobile-phones-0727/
Man came home and discovered someone was robbing him...so he tackled him and held him down while talking to a 911 operator:
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/glendale_robbery_911_call_07_26_2009
Thief in the Bay Area confessed to his priest that he robbed a Credit Union, turned over $1200 to the priest, and then left. The priest called the police and the Credit Union will get that money back (which may or may not be all that was stolen), but the bank robber has not been found:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32182102/ns/us_news-weird_news/
Study found that the average text message user sends 3 texts per day, but people involved in extra-marital affairs send 9 texts per day to the person they are having an affair with:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45266&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2009/07/us-navy-irregular-warfare.html
Grandparents in Texas were bankrupt, more than $260k in debt...until they landed a $8.4 million noncompete contract for security services in Afghanistan. Instead of being happy with their good fortune, they decided to defraud the government by filing phony receipts and billing the government for ghost employees. Instead of the money going to rebuild Afghanistan, it went straight into their pockets...and now they are on trial for their alleged crimes:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/cowboys-of-kabul?page=1
Study found that texting while driving increases the chance of an accident by 23 times! One scary stat is that half of drivers 16 to 24 years old have texted while driving:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/technology/28texting.html?_r=2&hp
New home sales rose last month at a faster rate than anytime since the year 2000. Sales of existing homes have risen for three straight months, so it looks like the housing sector is on a (slow) recovery path:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/28/1b28homes195322-big-jolt-new-home-sales-seen-huge-/?uniontrib
BTG claims that Samsung's Nand flash-memory chips violates 5 of their patents and seeks to stop imports of Samsung chips and products that use them...if this lawsuit succeeds, products from 8 companies including Apple and RIM will be blocked from being imported into the US. That would mean no iPhones, BlackBerry Storms, Sony digital cameras or computers, etc.:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aQtlrHyiyucY
The Canadian government is under pressure to block the sale of Nortel's CDMA/LTE assets to Ericsson. The Canadian government apparently has the power to block the deal, and having RIM as an alternative Canadian purchaser makes this a political issue:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ontario-urges-pm-to-block-foreign-nortel-sale/article1233034/
Flextronics withdrew its opposition to Ericsson's purchase of Nortel's CDMA/LTE assets...after Ericsson agreed to pay Flextronics the $8 million Nortel owed it and after they agreed to negotiate an agreement for Flextronics to be a supplier to Ericsson after the Nortel deal closes:
http://www.reuters.com/article/americasMergersNews/idUSN2811749820090728
Sprint is buying Virgin Mobile for $483 million. This makes sense to me because Sprint already owned 13.1% of Virgin Mobile and Virgin Mobile used Sprint's network for all of its wireless traffic:
http://www.cedmagazine.com/News-Sprint-Virgin-Mobile-USA-072809.aspx
Qualcomm and Verizon announced a joint venture to create advanced machine-to-machine wireless communications. I like that the joint venture will be based in San Diego (with offices in New Jersey too--it is always good to add those types of jobs to our economy here:
Press release
Lawsuit between Verizon and AT&T over AT&T's objection to Verizon's claim to have the most reliable 3G network. AT&T says that the data rate is key for reliability so Verizon is being misleading. I agree with Verizon's position that speed is not the way to measure reliability:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aurVg4Jm1ItU
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN27261820090728
Google Voice has client devices developed for BlackBerry and Android phones, but it has been banned from the iPhone:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45299&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#
Four key public-safety organizations have backed LTE for public safety in the 700 MHz band:
http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/commentary/psst-endorsement-lte-20090728/index.html
One-third of all mobile phones sold next year are expected to include accelerometers, up from 20% this year and 9% last year, with MEMS for mobile phonesexpected to go from $460.9 mil in 2009 to $1.6 bil in 2013:
http://mobiledevdesign.com/hardware_news/accelerometers-mobile-phones-0727/
Man came home and discovered someone was robbing him...so he tackled him and held him down while talking to a 911 operator:
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/glendale_robbery_911_call_07_26_2009
Thief in the Bay Area confessed to his priest that he robbed a Credit Union, turned over $1200 to the priest, and then left. The priest called the police and the Credit Union will get that money back (which may or may not be all that was stolen), but the bank robber has not been found:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32182102/ns/us_news-weird_news/
Study found that the average text message user sends 3 texts per day, but people involved in extra-marital affairs send 9 texts per day to the person they are having an affair with:
http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45266&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#
2 Responses to "LOTD for July 28"
July 28, 2009 at 3:06 PM
July 28, 2009 at 8:55 PM