LOTD for August 20

DoE scientists set a solar cell efficiency world record by converting 40.8% of light hitting the device into electricity:
http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2008/625.html

Article link

Oklahoma inventor says that by using our existing offshore oil and gas platforms we could cheaply harness wave power for electricity and hydrogen. Many of those platforms are being retired since the gas/oil there is depleted, so they could be hydrogen generators and use the already-existing pipelines connected to them to transport the energy:
http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2008/08/03/news/news478.txt

The military is apparently 2-3 years away from making an invisibility cloak (via metamaterials) that will also deflect radar signals:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/army-eyes-invis.html

Interesting 400-page declassified document about Bin Laden. Very interesting tidbit that the Clinton Administration thought that its 1998 missile strikes would convince the Taliban to give up Bin Laden but instead it drove the Taliban and Bin Laden closer together:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/newly-declassif.html

Interesting to read about how Russia’s planes were shot down by Georgia due to mistakes Russia made:
Article link

WALL-E Look-a-Like won the British robot Grand Challenge:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/british-robot-s.html

Apple released a fix for the 3G iPhone that is supposed to help with its dropped call problem:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080819/ap_on_hi_te/apple_iphone_fix;_ylt=AoauKd6392WHPZGI5jKKNV4jtBAF

Cox Communications (the cable company) is looking to use the 700 MHz spectrum it won in the recent auction to offer a wireless service that integrates all of its offerings into one device. Cox spent $304 mil for 22 licenses in the 700 MHz spectrum, so they clearly had a plan for that spectrum:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328383,00.asp

HSBC denied that it was considering switching from their Blackberries to the iPhone:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/33133.php

Online newspaper reading declined *significantly* over the past year:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003840682

Study of Americans shows that the decline of readership for newspapers and viewers of TV news broadcasts is expected to get much, much worse:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43717&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news

Lori found this cute Lego version of the Olympics!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1046255/On-marks-set-Lego-Welcome-Olympics-everyones-quick-blocks.html

LOTD for August 19

It is even more shameful now to me that Federal inspectors blamed tomatoes for the salmonella outbreak…since we already had known about the salmonella-infected peppers coming from Mexico! Given that information, shouldn’t they have looked into peppers earlier instead of ruining the tomato industry? If 10% of the peppers and chiles from Mexico tested positive for a year for salmonella, I’d say that is a high-risk food category!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080819/news_1n19peppers.html

We are creating a new National Research Lab: the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies:
http://www.fas.org/press/faq/nationalcenter.html

Iran is working on the capability to launch satellites into space:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

The Pentagon says that we will send between 12k and 15k more troops to Afghanistan, possibly by the end of this year!
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/08/19/pentagon-plans-to-send-more-than-12000-additional-troops-to-afghanistan.html

One major reason why we will send the additional troops now (which will probably require a troop reduction in Iraq) when the Pentagon said that we couldn’t do so earlier when both Obama and McCain were calling for an introduction: the situation is getting more and more difficult there. 10 French soldiers were killed in a “complex” ambush by the Taliban and a squad of suicide bombers targeted a US base today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080819/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan

Russia is upset that Israel armed and trained Georgia’s army. Interesting that Georgia’s Defense Minister is a former Israeli who is fluent in Hebrew:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/did-israel-trai.html

Livermore researchers are developing a machine that can simultaneously detect explosive, biological, and chemical agents:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1525584/national_lab_hits_sensing_trifecta/

Scientists have found a way to create blood from stem cells–they might actually be able to use stem cells to generate an endless supply of O- blood, the rare blood type that can be used for anyone! Right now there are no stem cell lines that are O-, but they can create versatile type O blood:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/universal-blood.html

Boeing got a $36 mil contract to continue their development of a truck-mounted laser weapon system that will destroy things like artillery:
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q3/080819a_nr.html

Is the terrorist-sponsoring group Hezbollah using submarines to transport drugs to Central and South America?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/wtf-hez-sails-s.html

Rocket scientists say that even our most theoretical of technologies will not be adequate for humans to reach the nearest star outside of our Solar System:
http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/space_limits

Interesting rant on the way that the US went after the anthrax incidents in 2001:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174966

The University of Kansas and Sprint are studying millimeter wave wireless systems:
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/08/18/daily9.html

The Mayor of a city in the Australian Outback got into trouble when he talked about how they needed ugly women to move to their area:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/weird_news/27083864.html

This man appears to have gotten a NINE FOOT tapeworm due to eating an undercooked salmon!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26290797/

A stillborn baby (delivered at 23 weeks due to internal bleeding by the mother) in Israel was pronounced dead and placed in a hospital refrigerator…and several hours later she started moving around! The low temperature in the refrigerator apparently slowed her metabolism down and helped her survive. The baby weighed just 1.3 pounds!
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSLI23405020080819?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

LOTD for August 18

This reporter in Georgia was shot in the arm…and continued with her report on the Russia-Georgia conflict! That is an amazingly tough lady!
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/08/stud-reporter.html

Recommendation is for the NRO to be eliminated!
article

Looks like the US has 190,000 contractors in Iraq…we have about the same number of contractors as troops in Iraq!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0818/p02s01-usmi.html

Since we are running short on UAVs, we might actually used “manned UAVs” in Afghanistan:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/manned-uavs-for.html

Pakistan’s President Musharraf resigned today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/world/asia/19pstan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Drug smugglers have apparently been using a lot of mini-submarines to smuggle things into the US…and the worry is that terrorists might start to use them also since they are so hard to detect:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/17/for_us_a_terror_threat_lurks_in_drug_smuggling_subs/

UC-Irvine scientists got $4 mil from the Army to study “synthetic telepathy”…in other words, someone would think of something and a computer’s speech-recognition system would translate the brain waves and do what was suggested:
http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1808

Japan uses about 7600 tons of uranium each year for their nuclear power plants. They are talking about getting 195 million tons of uranium from genetically engineered seaweed and from sea water:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/japans-large-scal-uranium-from-seawater.html

Interesting article on Dr. Roubini, who predicted year ago much of what has happened to the US economy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17pessimist-t.html?ref=magazine

The FCC just gave their approval for the HTC Dream Android-based phone:
http://gizmodo.com/5038201/htc-dream-gets-the-fcc-stamp-of-approval

Nice summary article about the techniques for handling MIMO requirements for platforms that are shrinking in size:
http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/pdfs/2008/wd85_components.pdf

Pretty funny that there was a 10-story-high Microsoft XP “Blue Screen of Death” displayed during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. The XP error message was displayed for *2 hours* during the televised ceremony:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2008/08/geek_week_tk_tk_1.html?source=NLC-NOTES&cgd=2008-08-18

LOTD for August 17

There was another gruesome detail released during the trial of the man who beheaded the other man on a Canadian bus…he actually was seen eating some of the body parts of the guy that he was cutting up!
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/story/4208709p-4801221c.html

It is sad that after 42 years of helping strangers on San Diego freeways, high gas prices have forced the “San Diego Highwayman” to cut back to 2-3 days per week:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-highwayangel24-2008jul24,0,1806510,full.story

More than 1,300 Catholic schools have closed in our country since 1990. Part of the problem is the decreasing numbers of priests, nuns, and brothers (who all work for little or no pay), which forces the schools to hire outsiders at teacher’s salaries that result in painful tuition increases. I know that I attended a week-long Jesuit retreat while I was at SCU and there were significant problems for the church due to the declining numbers of Jesuits:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/11/crisis-with-loss-of-catholic-schools/

Interesting how some conservative sportsmen’s groups have joined the fight against global warming. I didn’t realize that the Wildlife Management Institute published a report that said that by the end of this century global warming could wipe out all of the elk and deer in the West, trout from Appalachian streams, and most of the nation’s waterfowl:
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/05/14/in-colorado-an-unlikely-alliance-against-drilling/

http://www.fishingbuddy.com/forums/topic.php?fid=669755&tid=29332

It is amazing to read about the rapid increase in text messaging use–and even more interesting to me that the use of text messaging by the 45-54 age group has been growing faster (130 percent) than the 13-17 age group (41 percent) for each of the past 2 years:
http://www.timeswv.com/business/local_story_167003009.html

I didn’t realize that 53% of Americans think that they are in the middle class. 40% of people with incomes below $20k and 1/3 of people with incomes above $150k consider themselves in the middle class:
http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/706/middle-class-poll

Interesting study on why alligators never get sick found that alligator blood destroyed all 23 types of bacteria that they were exposed to while human blood destroyed just 8 types of bacteria. The proteins in alligator blood appear to be the key, so researchers are studying them to see if it could benefit humans:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-04-08-gator-blood_N.htm

LOTD for August 16

NBC says that it cannot remove the “LIVE” graphic from its Olympic coverage in time zones (Pacific, Mountain, Hawaii) that it is not actually broadcast live:
http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/is-it-live-or-taped-pay-very-close-attention/

The City of Milwaukee gave this guy a $50 ticket for not having a license plate on a van in his driveway, but the van was unlicensed because it was broken and he couldn’t gave a license plate until it could run and pass an emissions test. After repeated tickets for the problem and late fees, the city said he owed $2600 so they seized his home!
http://blogs.jsonline.com/mcilheran/archive/2008/08/04/also-needed-a-city-with-a-sense-of-proportion.aspx

Study says that Oprah’s endorsement of Obama gave him a boost of slightly more than 1 million votes during the primaries:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/business/11oprah.php

Celebrity chef Antony Thompson recommended henbane for salads…only to have to apologize later because it turns out that henbane is poisonous
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7540648.stm

Florida man called 911 *twice* after Subway forgot to put the sauce on his spicy Italian sandwich. His second 911 call was to complain that the police weren’t arriving fast enough to tell Subway to make his sandwich to his specifications, and after refusing to calm down when the police showed up he was arrested for making false 911 calls:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080308/met_312931891.shtml

12-year-old girl fell 14 stories down a chimney…and survived with only minor injuries!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25989486/wid/7/

Golden retriever adopts 3 tiger cubs at a Kansas zoo. Cute photo!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-07-30-dog-cubs_N.htm

Texas high school student was suspended (2 days!) for answering a phone call from his Dad in Iraq. I *cannot* believe that the school will not remove the black mark from this student’s record!
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=8165144

Researchers discovered that the Titanic might not have sunk if the builders had not used faulty materials (low quality rivets):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html

85-year-old blind World War II vet made a hole-in-one!
http://www.bva.org/spr08bulletin/around.html

This Lonely Planet travel guide author created quite a controversy when he made certain comments in interviews, but he tried to clarify things in this interview:
http://www.worldhum.com/qanda/item/thomas_kohnstamm_the_firestorm_around_do_travel_writers_go_to_hell_20080414/

LOTD for August 15

Interesting (especially to those of us in small businesses!) to read about the overhaul of the SBIR program that was passed by the Senate Committee:
http://www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/sb-insider07-31-08.htm

Russia apparently used cluster bombs (banned by over 100 countries) in their conflict with Georgia. One journalist was killed by a cluster bomb, another was seriously injured, and a Reuters vehicle was perforated with shrapnel from a cluster bomb, so the evidence is pretty strong:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/14/georgi19625.htm

This Slate journalist found that Russia made it very easy for civilians like him to join Russia in their cyberwar vs. Georgia:
http://www.slate.com/id/2197514/

Pretty cool that farmers get paid for using practices that reduce carbon emissions:
http://nfu.org/issues/environment/carbon-credits

Remember that analyst who published a report (mentioned in the LOTD) last week saying that the HTC Android phone had problems and wouldn’t be out until next year? It appears that T-Mobile will have the HTC Android-based phone as early as October! Touch screen *and* full keyboard with a lot of applications available to download could make things interesting for Apple. Unfortunately, the phone will be a T-Mobile exclusive in the US, and T-Mobile is #4 in the US so unless people switch to T-Mobile most won’t be able to get this phone:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/technology/15google.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Apple now has a market cap higher than Google!
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080813/boom-apple-worth-more-than-google/

Apple expects to sell 4.5 mil 3G iPhones this quarter:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/iphone/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210004153

AT&T and Apple are working to fix the problem with the 3G iPhone’s repeated dropped calls. The Infineon chip is being blamed and if they cannot fix the problem via software they will have to do a recall for the 3G iPhone:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080815/tc_usatoday/droppedcallsplagueiphone3gandnotjustinus;_ylt=ArK2vB.mTyHCNnxtmtOCfkMjtBAF

HSBC is considering dumping their Blackberries for the iPhone. This would be a HUGE win for Apple and would give them Enterprise credibility. However, it will be hard to beat out Blackberry’s position with large businesses:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/33074.php

Interesting that the multimedia capabilities of the iPhone could mean that UK workers who get an iPhone from their companies will have to pay a tax:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/25156.php

Quantas is having a LOT of problems with their planes lately–5 incidents within a month is a lot more than I can remember any airline having!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/08/14/australia.qantas.ap/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Very positive article on the Blackberry Bold. It should be available to AT&T customers soon (it was reviewed a month ago and some AT&T customers, probably business customers, already have had it since last month) and should be available on Verizon in September or October according to the rumors:
http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/32075

Palm appears to have accidentally put photos of their new Treo phone on their website. Of course somebody grabbed the images before Palm could remove the photos:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/15/palm_leaks_treo_pro/

The FCC completed testing of the white-spaces devices:
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/news/fcc-white-space-testing-finished-0814/

This woman is selling evidence of her husband’s adultery on eBay. She will also be putting his Harley up for auction with a starting bid of 99 cents!
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSSP4651220080813?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

UK man has been banned from visiting his girlfriend’s apartment because they were too noisy:
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/26959999.html

LOTD for August 14

Apparently there is a design flaw in the 3G iPhone, as published tests show that its sensitivity to 3G network signals is well below the level specified in the 3G standard:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26187370/

Brutal pictures have emerged from the Russia-Georgia conflict. And the people in the field seem to indicate that Russia exaggerated the death levels that they were using to justify their military response:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/brutal-pictures.html

The Russia-Georgia conflict provided interesting matchups in the field. It sure looks like the anti-tank missiles (allegedly made by the Israelis) were effective against Russian tanks!
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4277747.html

Interesting ABC poll of Americans shows what people think about global warming, solar power, nuclear power, and other issues:
http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/story?id=5525064&page=1

University of Cincinnati researchers designed their “solar house” using hot water, not solar cells, to provide electricity. Interesting idea to use hot water-derived energy!
Article link

University of Reading scientists are actually growing rat brain neurons to use for robot control:
Article link

Amazing that at the end of last year there were already 1 million industrial robots in use in factories:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/over-1-million-industrial-robots.html

GPS technology is increasingly becoming a useful tool for police:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081203275.html?hpid=topnews

AT&T’s objection to the Sprint/Clearwire merger states that Sprint/Clearwire told the FCC that they would control 55.5 MHz of spectrum after the merger, but Sprint/Clearwire told investors and the SEC that they would control over 165 MHz of spectrum after the merger!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20080812/tc_zd/230819;_ylt=AhhYcMsM5oEgri63y1EFE8sjtBAF

Siemens has left the telecom sector. When I was a professor I had a number of students at Santa Clara who worked for Siemens or got internships there…hard to believe things have changed so much so quickly!
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43685&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Interesting to see what the wireless companies, computer companies, and retail stores spent on advertising last year:
http://www.rcrnews.com/article/20080813/WIRELESS/624776919/1078/Ad-spending-in-wireless

Google says that they will not sell ads on their homepage. They also feel that mobile search will bring in more revenue than that they now with regular search:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/08/google-ads-emph.html

Wi-LAN and RIM signed a patent deal:
http://www.mobile-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0310031QUD7A

The problems with Apple and Amazon’s cloud computing have given a big boost to Microsoft:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/08/microsoftas_new.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-08-14

Facebook passed MySpace to be the biggest social networking site in the world, with 132 million users!
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080812_853725.htm

This 79-year-old man REALLY wants his driver’s license. He’s taken the written test 72 times recently without passing it!
http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article768761.ece

Article on 14-year-old Ali Lohan and how badly she wants fame:
http://www.usmagazine.com/ali-lohan-flaunts-a-fuller-chest

The city of Baltimore is offering free trips to journalists and/or bloggers who will write positive articles on the public transit projects in LA, Portland, Seattle, or Phoenix:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.vozzella13aug13,0,2276639.column?track=rss

Who knew that famous chef Julia Childs was a spy for the US during World War II? 24,000 mostly secret names were just released:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/spies.revealed.ap/index.html

This is a sad story about a police officer breaking the jaw of a 16-year-old high school QB when he mistook the high school student for a suspect:
http://www.thesportspoint.net/2008/08/cop-breaks-jaw-of-quarterback.html

LOTD for August 13

Interesting that global warming will significantly benefit one region of the world–the Middle East will get more rain in places that really do not get much rain now:
http://waterbusinesswire.com/single.php?id=24

Over 33,000 people have signed up for GM’s electric car. The Chevy Volt will have a 40-mile range and will be able to be plugged into a standard electrical outlet:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1251261520080813

Russia apparently broke the cease-fire with Georgia and invaded Gori and another strategic city. Bush gave a speech demanding Russia withdraw, and talked about how the US is sending humanitarian aid to Georgia. Georgia’s President seemed to claim this was military aid while the US claimed it was not:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/europe/14georgia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

ITT (since they bought EDO) won a CREW 2.1 contract worth up to $1 bil for counter-IED jammers:
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/edo-wins-88m-contract-for-land-mine-jammers-03196/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

The Army plans to have a new JTRS radio by 2011 that its infantry can wear. It will use the SRW waveform and have a longer range than current devices:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/jtrs_for_infantry_0813/index.html

The Air Force plans to use the Reaper UAV to keep the peace in Iraq when the US ground troops leave the country:
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/uav_keeps_peace_0813/index.html

This UAV weighs just 3 grams!
http://rfdesign.com/military_defense_electronics/news/lead-story/uav_weighs_3g_0813/index.html

About how the cyber attacks that Russia did to Georgia exposed a significant flaw in Internet security for 100+ countries. The lack of Internet exchange points is a problem for many countries!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0813/p01s05-usmi.html

The Air Force suspended its Cyber Command:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/air-force-suspe.html

The Air Force likes their new laser weapon, and is touting its plausible deniability–we could attack a country and they wouldn’t be able to prove that we actually were responsible for the attack:
Article link

Prediction is that global warming will reduce the number of hurricanes, but the hurricanes that we have will be stronger:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=6656

Best Buy will get the 3G iPhone on September 7, giving them a significant bragging point over their retail competitors:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121859577176435755.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news

China Unicom will spend $14.6 bil over the next 2 years on equipment for their 3G network. Looks like Qualcomm and ZTE could be the big winners of those contracts:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/china-unicom-unveils-146-billion/story.aspx?guid={D31570AA-985F-4441-AED2-A19304AFBFC0}&dist=msr_1

Sprint may drop the price of a wireless modem from $40 to $15…if Verizon matches that price drop, that will significantly affect which phone I buy next!
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/08/11/sprint-planning-to-reduce-wireless-modem-data-rates.html

Google’s *big* increase in market share meant big drops in market share for both MSN and Yahoo–amazingly, Microsoft’s share of the search market is about half of what they had in January last year!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/13/MSN_taking_the_brunt_of_Googles_US_search_blitz_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-08-13

It is good that the “precycling” trend is catching on. I know that my family does several of these things already:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/packaged-goods/e3ib795ce2f70633fae9a7c054a1f22340e

81% of college students say that when considering career choices it is important to work for a green company:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/technology-finance/e3ib795ce2f70633faeded95550ebeadd44

Pizza Hut is making a healthier pizza called “the Natural”:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/esearch/e3icf92cecfd0492dd8f838c162d9ccc03d

Safeway’s top marketer talked about trying to grow their Organic Food brand:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/packaged-goods/e3idfed28cc72bd8cb63493da345e8f1eae

Conservative talk radio stations are worried that the FCC’s attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine would require them to give equal time to radio speech and destroy their industry. Even more concerning is that the FCC might try to use the Fairness Doctrine on the Internet. It doesn’t appear that the FCC is doing this now, so this is just worry over what the FCC would do under the next President:
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080812160747.aspx

Article about how Google cannot really claim that it is not a content provider when it has knol, YouTube, Blogger, etc.:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43671&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Qualcomm says that the 3D GUIs will be the next battlefield between mobile phone designers:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43654&id=f7e62028-1ab4-490d-8adb-dfc93628f845&page=1

Burger King worker took a bubble bath in a store sink while other employees and a store manager watched. The video posted on MySpace got all of the employees fired:
http://www.wdtn.com/global/story.asp?s=8825514

Man on a Harley dropped a bag of cash on a LA-area freeway–setting off a mad dash by the other drivers to pick up his cash:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26134668/

Lots of celebrities have signed with Electronic Arts for their Wii Game “Celebrity Sports Showdown”. Fergie, LeAnn Rimes, Avril Lavigne, Keith Urban, Nelly Furtado, Reggie Bush, Paul Pierce, Mia Hamm, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Sugar Ray Leonard are some of the people involved:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/technology-finance/e3i0ecc4d65594512fa6d75ee04db19a3fe

Instead of hiring a handyman or plumber to take care of a few things around our home, we plan to hire an active duty soldier–this is a great way to support our troops who need the extra money:
http://www.hirepatriots.com/

LOTD for August 12

Major deal was made in the Senate yesterday regarding the future of the SBIR programs. In order to get the new SBIR bill passed, a compromise was made that allows VC-backed companies to get SBIR grants, especially in the biotech area. This could end the 5-year battle over the future of the SBIR program, but VCs aren’t happy that their biotech companies can get just 18% of the SBIR funds:
http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2008/08/11/bureau1.html?market=eastbay

It is pretty funny how the hackers were hacked at their DefCon gathering. Was it really a good idea for one of the other hackers to give a presentation on how to remotely turn off other people’s pacemakers?
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gCuPZI8ajyJTvNESYqCnxIjvIaiA

I cannot believe that about half of the 18-24 year olds in this country have texted while driving! I guess I’m an old fogie about this, as I just see it as being way too dangerous:
Press release

CVS is buying Longs for $2.9 bil:
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1252089620080812

Russia agreed to a cease-fire with Georgia:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/world/europe/13georgia.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

The Russia-Georgia conflict has directly affected operations in Iraq–2,000 Georgian troops left Iraq to get back to their country, leaving checkpoints unmanned. That means that nobody is stopping people from smuggling weapons or bombs across the Iraqi border:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080812/news_1n12troops.html

The US and UK embassies are on the target list for Russian hackers:
http://intelfusion.net/wordpress/?p=390

Article about how four countries will be battling over the Artic. The trade routes and oil rights alone will be worth billions to the country that wins out:
http://hstoday.us/content/view/4655/149/

The FBI apologized to the Washington Post and NY Times for illegally obtaining their reporter’s phone records:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080803603.html

The 3G iPhone apparently has a lot of complaints about dropped calls and short battery life:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/12/BU3M12941O.DTL

Rumor is that the 3G iPhone will soon get a VoIP application. Since the iTouch and iPhone most of the same Apps, that could mean that the iTouch could make phone calls soon. I’m sure that they will limit the VoIP flexibility in order to avoid AT&T losing business:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/iphone/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210002300

Last week the report was that the HTC Android-based phone was going to be delayed until next year due to problems. Yesterday HTC denied that. Now, a rumor is out that pre-orders of the HTC Android-based phone will be starting on 9/17 and that it will cost just $150. Another link has a video that supposedly shows the HTC Dream phone in operation:
http://gizmodo.com/5035952/htc-dream-presales-beginning-september-17th-on-t+mobile

Google has apparently made a lot of their Android developers unhappy…that is a REALLY bad idea for an open-source product:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/12/33NF-google-android-future_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-08-12

Ikea will be offering pay-as-you-go cell phone service to its employees and members of its loyalty program:
http://www.internetnews.com/mobility/article.php/3764636/Ikea+Sets+Up+Mobile+Shop+in+Britain.htm

Fiber optic cable between Hawaii and American Samoa was approved:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43663&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news

I’m seriously thinking that the Civic GX (the one that runs on natural gas) might be the next car I buy…it sounds so green and makes sense financially! It would be great to fill the car up at home!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,394341,00.html

The NASA Safety Advisory Panel criticized NASA’s moon ship plans:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oer/asap/documents/2007_ASAP_Annual_Report.pdf

The girl who sang during the Olympic opening ceremony was told just 15 minutes before the opening ceremony that China’s organizers had decided to use another girl’s voice instead and that she would just be lip-singing. They carefully arranged things so that the audience didn’t know that she was lip-singing:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/5938267.html

LOTD for August 11

Inexpensive infrared solar cells can collect energy even after the sun sets!
Article link

Giant kites can apparently produce enough electricity to power 100,000 homes!
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1972/86/

Russia has been able to bring down Georgia’s news and government sites, so Estonia and Google (via Blogspot) are helping them out:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/civilge-the-geo.html

Georgia wonders why NATO hasn’t stepped in to help them. Pres. Bush was incredibly popular in Georgia until this conflict erupted and the US did nothing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/europe/11scene.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Russia escalated its conflict with Georgia by pressing into Georgia proper, Pres. Bush criticized Russia much more strongly today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/world/europe/12georgia.html

The Russia-Georgia conflict is an example of a war where former Soviet Union equipment is being used against each other—for example, the Su-25 aircraft twice bombed the Su-25 production facility:
Article link

The US military launched a war that should be popular with just about everybody: a war against Global Warming:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn14498-us-military-launches-war-on-global-warming.html

Berkeley scientists demonstrated the first invisibility cloak that works for 3-D objects:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_sc/sci_invisibility_cloak

The iPhone App store averaged $1 mil a day in sales during their first month, totaling about $30 mil for the month. I’m interested in how the second month goes, as I’m sure there were a lot of purchases in the first few days…but as the number of iPhone owners continues to grow (each of whom will probably buy some applications at the App store), maybe that sales amount is sustainable:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121842341491928977.html

Article about the controversial “I Am Rich” application sold from the iPhone App store. I didn’t realize that several of the sales of the application were cancelled:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/technology/11apple.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

HTC denied the report that their Android phone will be delayed:
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/114096

US Cell phone shipments were up 5.3% last quarter, which surprised analysts that had predicted the slow economy would reduce cell phone sales. Motorola did better than expected and RIM broke into the double-digit market share level for the first time:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200808110115DOWJONESDJONLINE000015_FORTUNE5.htm

Wow, when you see a table that shows how the major US cellular carriers are doing, you see how Verizon and AT&T are increasing their lead and how Sprint is struggling:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/slideshow/charts-carrier-metrics-q2?img=2
http://www.fiercewireless.com/slideshow/charts-carrier-metrics-q2?img=3

Article about Sprint’s current problems:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43660&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news

A research firm wrote a report analyzing the prospects for China’s TD-SCDMA standard:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43659&id=d8b7e387-8211-420e-8218-ef2daf39b197&page=1

Portland might have to use taxpayer money to pay for the removal of the antennas from their shut down WiFi network:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/121824871892410.xml&coll=7

AMD is not releasing a chip for Netbooks…leaving that market open to Intel and others seems unwise to me:
Article link

Intel’s new high-end desktop chip will be called Core i7:
Article link

I normally am on the side of free speech and spreading information…but I think in this case I can agree with the court preventing the MIT students from letting everyone know how to hack Boston’s subway system, especially since the students say that some of their techniques are illegal:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10012612-83.html?hhTest=1

The New York Times is launching a social networking site–this seems like a good way for newspapers to make money, as they have the local subscribers and issues for them to talk about:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/esearch/e3if2241241bd80655436d4b6938d0ea4f3

I didn’t realize that Jamba Juice was doing so poorly that they were going to start closing stores. Having their top management bail out on them isn’t a good sign:
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/08/04/daily30.html?jst=b_ln_hl

The housing market woes and problems with the economy have significantly slowed the growth of energy drinks:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/packaged-goods/e3i47809d21d2ac68fbf915cafdff676cf0

The tough economy (especially with how higher gas prices is reducing discretionary income) is also forcing cigarette smokers to switch to “little cigars”:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i47809d21d2ac68fb85251a507a921885

Prediction that this is the last Olympics where the medal count will be in doubt–China is expected to easily dominate the Olympic medal count after this:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/last-summer-olympics-where-medal-count.html

Some of the fireworks during the opening ceremony of the Olympics were faked!
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Some-Opening-Ceremony-fireworks-were-faked?urn=oly,99745

One of my friends apparently had his e-mail account hacked and a bunch of this type of e-mail was sent to people on his contact list. Beware of this scam. The only change between this scam and the one I was e-mailed about today was that my friend was supposedly trapped in Malaysia instead of Nigeria:
http://www.topix.net/forum/world/nigeria/T0ITDNSI1D1U9EKOO