11:02 PM
It is amazing to read how this 61-year-old captain of an oil supertanker took the BP oil leak as a personal challenge and invented the first device that has quickly, cheaply, and efficiently remove spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The device looks like a trash bag in a big crab trap, but it works like a sieve to snag sludge and oil while seawater passes through:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-skunk-works-20100722,0,4386413,full.story
Invisibility cloak made of *glass* uses metamaterials made of tiny galss resonators arranged in a concentric pattern in the shape of a cylinder. The configuration produces the magnetic resonance required to bend light waves around an object, making it invisible:
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2010/july/story29391.html
A new European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity has been developed that represents an agreement by 30 countries on a set of principles and priorities for self-regulation of the research community. They say that this is a possible model for a global code of conduct for research:
http://www.esf.org/media-centre/press-releases/ext-single-news.html?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=624&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7219&cHash=8d83899f66
Report concluded that the US does not have enough people with the technical skills necessary to secure cyberspace, with a significant skills gap that needs to be addressed. There is a shortage of people with the skills necessary to operate and support systems that are already deployed, and an even greater shortage of expects that can design secure systems, write secure code, and create tools needed to prevent, detect, and mitigate damage due to malicious acts:
http://www.scmagazineus.com/united-states-lacking-adequate-cyber-workforce/article/174885/
It is nice to hear that California foreclosure rates are at 3-year low, down 44% from last year:
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-foreclosures-20100722,0,5721319.story
Facebook now has 500 million users and at their current growth rate they could pass their goal of 1 billion users within a year:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-20100722,0,6548800.story
Article about how wireless technology is being rapidly integrated into health care. With national health care reform here and hospitals looking for cost-saving measures, wireless health care system developers are coming up with new ideas to improve operations while saving money. This article spotlights 3 San Diego-area companies that have each developed wireless technologies that can help hospitals save money by reducing costly hospital readmission of patients and providing remote health care:
http://www.sdbj.com/news/2010/jul/12/wireless-firms-reshape-medical-care-retooled-equip/
The objective of the Wear-a-BAN project (Unobtrusive wearable human to machine wireless interface) is to investigate and demonstrate ultra low-power wireless body-area-network technologies for enabling unobtrusive human to machine interfaces into market segments such as smart and interactive textiles, robotics for augmented reality assistance and rehabilitation and natural interfacing devices for video gaming. This 2-year project will be performed by a consortium of leading research organizations, Universities, and associations of SMEs and SME participants from all over Europe:
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/ShowPR~PUBCODE~055~ACCT~0000100~ISSUE~1007~RELTYPE~IN~PRODCODE~00000~PRODLETT~DE.html
AT&T's elimination of unlimited mobile data plans and increased charges for heavy data usage is a major problem for media providers who planned to push Internet TV. The worry is that streaming media will require *huge* increases in data usage that will cause other wireless and broadband carriers to follow AT&T's example. For example, a wireless device would hit AT&T's cap after just 3 hours of streaming low-quality video. Comcast cable data subscribers will hit their data caps by streaming HD videos for just 7 hours...that is a big problem if Internet TV providers want streaming video to replace cable and satellite TV:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20011171-94.html?tag=mncol;title
AT&T Mobility reported that it gained 1.6 million subscribers last quarter, helped by a their activating 3.2 million iPhones last quarter--their largest number of quarterly iPhone activations ever:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/ts-net-adds-soar-3-2m-iphone-activations/2010-07-22
This rumor (which I do not believe) states that there is an 80% chance that T-Mobile will have the iPhone in the fall. AT&T and T-Mobile are the big GSM carriers in the US and T-Mobile customers already use unlocked iPhones, so moving the iPhone to T-Mobile would avoid the hardware changes needed to get it on Verizon:
http://www.cultofmac.com/iphone-is-coming-to-t-mobile-usa-in-q3-exclusive/39870
Article about how some Android handset developers might want to differentiate their smartphones next year by releasing smartpones that can show *3D* images without needing 3D glasses. Nintendo is releasing a DS that has a 3D screen that does not require glasses, so if a low-cost consumer device like that can have a 3D screen (rumored release in time for this Christmas), then it may be feasible for smartphones to have the screens next year:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/3d-cell-phones-some-think-its-only-matter-time/2010-07-21
The Google Voice app for Android and BlackBerry phones was updated to make it much faster to place calls. Instead of having to send a request to the Google Voice server every time a person wanted to make a call, they will assign a unique phone number to every person you call so the data network will no longer need to be access the server when a person makes a call:
http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/faster-dialing-with-google-voice-on.html
Microsoft says that they will give all of their 90,000+ employees a free smartphone running Windows Phone 7:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/21/microsoft-to-employees-everybody-gets-a-windows-phone-7/
Article about the speculation over what Nokia Siemens (NSN) will do with Motorola's WiMAX business that it acquired as part of its $1.2 billion purchase. Motorola is a top WiMAX vendor while NSN has been shifting its resources away from WiMAX to focus on LTE. The article mentions that Nokia might push Motorola's solution that enables WiMAX operators to upgrade to TD-LTE or add LTE to their existing WiMAX networks. The single radio access network reuses most of the WiMAX base station and can reuse up to 100% of other major network components when an operator goes from 16e to LTE or 16m:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/nsn-buys-motorolas-wireless-infrastructure-biz-1-2b-whats-store-wimax/2010-07-19
Chris Isaak appears to be one of the favorites to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iabea5ee8f01f624a2cbbffd3d2b00c47
This bizarre case seems to be perfect for a Hollywood movie--the federal government flew a US Navy officer, his Samoan wife and her unemployed sister from Hawaii to Minnesota to appear in a small courtroom...over a case that involves an alleged extortion plot involving the Samoan mafia, an exotic dancer from Guam, her love child, a terrified farm family from Granite Falls, Minnesota, Mexican hit men hired by Wal-Mart, and a gang known as "Los Burritors" (the "Dreaded Burrito Gang").
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/Pearl_Harbor_officer_wife_accused_of_extortion.html
In the US, Pabst Blue Ribbon is a cheap beer...in China, their marketing people call it a "world-famous spirit" and it costs $44 a bottle! I searched online and some people say that it costs just $6 for a 12-pack...to be fair, it appears that the beer in China is different than the one sold in the US:
http://gawker.com/5592399/pabst-blue-ribbon-will-run-you-44-a-bottle-in-china