LOTD for October 31

US Diplomats are upset that they are being sent to Iraq:
http://govexec.com/dailyfed/1007/103107ap5.htm

The Bush Administration is assigning the DoD’s US Regional Cooperation Offices to oversee Blackwater. I thought that the oversight was a great step until I read that the US Regional Cooperation Offices is outsourced…and notorious mercenary Tim Spicer will be in charge of overseeing Blackwater. Spicer’s people actually filmed a video of them shooting at Iraqi civilians and used an Elvis song as a soundtrack…and then put the video on the Internet! That is the organization that will be overseeing Blackwater?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/worlds-most-not.html

Tony Tether said that DARPA’s new spy plane will not be for the troops, but just for “the President”:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/071031-tw-darpa-spyplane.html

Google in active talks with Verizon to put Google applications on Verizon phones:
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN3058207720071031?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

The Wall Street Journal says that Google is in advanced talks with both Verizon and Sprint:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119377870431576706.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs

Google to offer an open system for social networking that may compete with Facebook…I wonder if that will chip away at the $15 bil valuation Microsoft gave it a few days ago:
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN3043165520071031?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

Mobile developers prefer Google over #2 Microsoft and #3 Nokia:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9807482-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Next-generation DVD format wars (HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray) seems to be hurting both standards:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=42127&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Who knew that Dennis Kucinich (he’s also still running?) claimed to have seen a UFO?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/kucinich.html

The ultimate war trophy from Iraq has been found: Saddam’s gold-plated AK-47 is at the Defense Intelligence Agency:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/best-war-booty-.html#more

LOTD for October 30

The Pentagon requested $1.4 bil of emergency spending to combat the growing threat of sniper attacks in Iraq, saying that sniper attacks are up 4x this year…and then it was pointed out to them that DoD data shows that sniper attacks have actually *dropped* this year:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-29-Sniper_N.htm

It turns out that the National Intelligence Program got $43.5 bil in FY 2007:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/10/dni_discloses_national_intelli.html

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson (he’s still running?) seems to agree to help the conspiracy theorists about Roswell:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5249582.html

Google is the biggest corporate user of solar electricity and plans to generate 50 megawatts from renewable forms by 2012. Google really is helping the economies of scale for solar energy and this further expansion is great leadership…and makes good business sense for Google too (they break even in 7.5 years):
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9807330-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Google is expected to announce their cellular software and services within the next 2 weeks, with open software including the operating system:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119369951717475558.html

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9807283-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Gmail is changing their internal code, so 3rd party extensions may not work after the code rollout:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/code-changes-to-prepare-gmail-for.html

With the start of NBC Universal-affiliated hulu ready to compete with iTunes, NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker talked about how Apple destroyed the pricing in the music business:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/10/nbc-exec-voices.html

Asian governments are driving demand for open source systems:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/25/Asian-governments-drive-demand-for-open-source_1.html?source=NLC-GOV&cgd=2007-10-30

Very interesting interview with Verizon. They detail their business goals and plans, discuss each prospective 4G technology, and are clear that they don’t regret passing on the iPhone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/hot-seat-verizon-wireless-ceo-lowell-mcadam/2007-10-30?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

The iPhones’ “unlimited” plans in Europe are actually limited in usage before they charge extra or cut the data rate down to 64 kbps:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/29/unlimited-iphone-data-plans-on-t-mobile-o2-and-orange-not-so/

IPMobile filed for bankruptcy, so they will not be using TD-SCDMA in Japan:
http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=15938

CBS reporter in South Florida sent 21,000 text messages in a week to win $5k for charity in a Sprint contest:
http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2007/10/017796.htm

Uruguayan kids will be the first to get the $100 laptops:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=42122&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Statistics show that illegals are not more likely to be involved in crime as citizens, contrary to certain claims:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/624913,CST-NWS-illegal29.article

LOTD for October 29

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) met with a government member of the UK on how to fight terrorism, then when they guy tried to take his flight home, DHS detained him!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/29/dhs_detains_uk_minister/

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) head Michael Chertoff criticized FEMA (which is part of the DHS) says that FEMA’s fake press conference showed “extraordinary poor judgement”. The head PR guy for FEMA actually started today as the head of public affairs for the director of national intelligence…unless they decide to pull the job offer:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/29/fema.newser/index.html

And it turns out that the DID pull his job offer!
http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/organizer-of-fake-fema-press-conference.html

Global warming plus population increases are expected to result in *36* US states having water shortages in the next 5 years!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21494919/

Analysts say that Microsoft overpaid for their stake in Facebook because they wanted to keep Facebook away from Google…valuing Facebook at $15 bil when it has never made a profit and makes just $150 mil per year reminds me of the tech deals done around 2000.
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=42111&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Verizon had a net 1.6 mil customer increase this past quarter, showing basically no effect of the iPhone on them! They increased by the same number of customers each quarter (1.6 mil per quarter) this year even though the iPhone has been attracting customers to AT&T:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/verizon-reports-continued-success-3q-2007-0?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Cool table showing the average revenue per user, churn (those that left their service), and net customer subscriber additions. I guess almost all of AT&T’s iPhone customers came from Sprint and T-Mobile since they do not want to reveal their churn this past quarter…but Sprint did admit that they decreased by 337k subscribers:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/carrier-metrics-arpu-churn-net-subscribers?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Customers who leave Sprint do not have to buy a new phone–in order to settle a class-action lawsuit Sprint had to agree to unlock all phones when subscribers leave them. Those phones will work on Verizon and
Alltell. Note that T-Mobile and AT&T (from iPhone users) face similar lawsuits:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119343744695373397.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs

Apple is limited iPhone purchases to 2 per buyer, mainly because people were buying them to resell after unlocking the iPhones:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071027/ap_on_hi_te/apple_iphone

UK cellular operator 3 just released a phone that allows for free calls over the internet via Skype:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=42115&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Vonage settles its dispute with Verizon–Verizon gets either $80 mil or $120 mil (with $2.5 mil going to charity) depending on whether or not Vonage wins a rehearing:
http://www.wirelessweek.com/Vonage-Verizon-Settle-Dispute.aspx

Japan’s IP Mobile has switched from TD-CDMA to TD-SCDMA after getting a $100 mil investment from a Hong Kong company:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071024/141207/

Taiwan Mobile says that HSDPA will overtake WiMAX in Taiwan in the next 2-3 years:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/26980.php

Shortage of beer ingredients will lead to 10%+ increases in prices and shortages of some types of beer:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20071026-1802-beertears.html

LOTD for October 27

Satellite photos show that Syria has wiped away all traces of the compound that Israel blew up that was a suspected secret nuclear reactor site. Instead of complaining that Israel invaded their territory and blew up a building, they have kept quiet about the attack and wiped away the evidence of the building so that nobody can find out what they were actually doing there. More than any satellite photos or other intelligence, Syria’s reaction to the attack seems to me to be the best indication that they were doing secret nuclear research at that site:

It is amazing to me that satellite photos show that Syria was actually building that secret nuclear reactor since 2001 or earlier, supposedly with help from North Korea since 1999. In fact, the US apparently knew about this at least since 2003. So, when we invaded Iraq because we worried they might be trying to work on their nuclear program (which was not the case and the Nigeria info that Bush mentioned was completely disproven), Syria actually HAD an active nuclear program that we had real evidence about!

The FBI admits that it cannot afford e-mail addresses for 8000 of its 30,000 employees. They also wasted $170 mil on a software package before figuring out they couldn’t use it. They can’t even run a multiple keyword search for suspects! They pass along tips via FAX machine!
http://www.slate.com/id/2139274/

Only 1/3 of FBI employees have the ability to access the internet at their desks! No wonder the article in the AOTD recently mentioned that FBI agents go to the public library to do their Google searches! It is also sad that the FBI was authorized to hire 24 senior intelligence analysts in 2004, but over the past 3 years has only filled 2 of those 24 positions!:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/few-fbi-employe.html

This female blogger (see the video) volunteered to be shot twice by the “pain ray”, officially the Active Denial System, that the Air Force has been working on for years:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/the-active-can-.html#more

Costco has a great recycling program for electronics where they disassemble everything and keep everything out of landfills, and pay you in Costco gift cards:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11230482

Nintendo is going to sell the Wii in China and South Korea next year…they don’t have enough supply right now to sell it in more countries:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6215611.html

Hippie levitates in front of the White House:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/video-fix-dutch.html

LOTD for October 26

I cannot believe that FEMA actually had their employees pose as reporters to make FEMA seem better in their response to the Southern California fires!
http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/agency-employees-play-role-of-reporters.html

Japan will require all non-citizens to be fingerprinted and photographed when entering Japan, even permanent residents who have lived in Japan for 40 years:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=4917

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff talked at length about preparation against IEDs in the US:
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/speeches/sp_1192831792023.shtm

Nice coincidence that the cellular carriers have given 10x the campaign contributions to the Senator supporting the bill that would give them immunity from being prosecuted for turning information over to intelligence agencies:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=42099&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

Blog posts can be more important than actual product reviews for companies because Google picks up the blogs:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9804447-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Google may partner with a company the 7000 MHz spectrum auction:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200710242034DOWJONESDJONLINE001093_FORTUNE5.htm

Major changes in the way AP charges newspapers for their stories:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071025/ap_pricing.html

LOTD for October 24

Satellite photos show that the facility that Israel blew up in Syria looks like it was a secret neclear reactor, looking suspiciously like the one built in North Korea–remember, there were a number of North Koreans in Syria and the rumors were that North Korea was transferring nuclear technology to Syria before shutting down their nuclear program:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302577.html

EDO seems to have won the CREW funding that I know other companies were trying for also. It is nice that all of the work will be done in California–I had a lot of friends from Thousand Oaks when I worked for JPL:

JCREW: ITT Wins Contracts for Land Mine Jammers

Call for papers for the first IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (May 2008 in Waltham, MA):
http://www.ieeehomelandsecurityconference.org/authors.htm#CFP

Interesting discussion about a report about international science collaboration in the age of heightened security:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071022-national-academies-tackles-international-science-in-the-age-of-terrorism.html

In the next 1-2 days either Google or Microsoft will end up with a huge Facebook deal:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10242007/business/online_faceoff.htm

Wii Sports basically swept the British Academy Video Games Awards:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL242303320071024?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Parrot imitates a fire alarm to wake up his family, saving their lives:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21443309/?gt1=10450

LOTD for October 25

Nintendo tripled its profit and boosted its annual earnings outlook, its second upwards revision this year, due to Wii and DS sales:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSKUA52864720071025?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Microsoft outbid Facebook, takes $240 mil equity stake that values Facebook at $15 bil:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003662967

The SMART Alliance has been formed (Smart Antenna RF Test Alliance):
http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_wireless/news/smart-antenna-rf-test-alliance-1025/?cid=rfd102507

http://mobilebroadbandnews.com/2007/10/24/smart-alliance-launched-by-navini-beceem-fujitsu-runcom/#more-401

Economical noise source available…this might be of use to an application I have in mind…
http://rfdesign.com/microwave_millimeter_tech/noisewave-nw2g-cs-coaxial-1025/?cid=rfd102507

This analyst used to think that AT&T was giving Apple $3 per month for each iPhone user, but now he thinks Apple is getting $18 per subscriber!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/25/AT&T-paying-Apple-$18-per-iPhone-per-month_1.html?source=NLC-WIRELESS&cgd=2007-10-25

China says that TD-SCDMA will be used during the Beijing Olympics:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/25/China-to-use-TD-SCDMA-during-Olympics_1.html?source=NLC-WIRELESS&cgd=2007-10-25

Motorola’s 94% profit decline is actually considered a sign of *progress*:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119330045101471127.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs

Verizon pays $1 mil to settle the lawsuit over dropping customers on their “unlimited use” plan for using too much bandwidth:
http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071024/FREE/71023010/1002

CBS spins off a show from the Dr. Phil show:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003662882

LOTD for October 23

Bush’s $3 bil request for the Global War on Terror makes it seem like the money is for Iraq and Afghanistan…but $550 mil is for “narcotics control” for Mexico and Central America, $106 mil for buying fuel for North Korea, $723 mil for peacekeeping in Darfur, and $375 mil for the Palestinian Authority. So, how much of the $3 bil is actually going to Iraq and Afghanistan efforts?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/state-war-fundi.html#more

Suburban Mom in Montana poses as terrorists and discovers valuable info and foils terrorist plots…I posted news about her in an AOTD 6 months or so ago, but this article goes into more depth about her:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-11/ff_rossmiller

Note: I can’t believe how behind the times the FBI is. A surburban Mom has better Arabic translation software than the FBI? The FBI agents have to go to the public library for internet access? FBI agents cannot create Yahoo accounts to pose as other people?

Can a katana actually be effective at deflecting bullets from a machine gun? This goes against what I’ve seen in a movie or two…
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/video-fix-katan.html

Tank rentals available for corporate events, Sweet 16 parties, and even gay pride parades?
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/video-fix-rent-.html

LOTD for October 22

IEDs are looked at as a big threat inside the US, not just in Iraq and other places. Who knew that the Department of Homeland Security already gave out $1.7 bil in grants for protection vs. IEDs?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101902703.html

The $1 bil for Bell Helicopter UAVs for the Coast Guard seems to have been scrapped…the Coast Guard is looking to get more value for their $1 bil:
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/coastguard_uav_071019w/

The ITU approved WiMAX as a 3G IMT-2000 standard. So, WiMAX is an official 3G standard, just as the WiMAX Forum has been lobbying hard for these past years…but I guess that means that WiMAX proponents can’t call WiMAX a 4G standard now:
http://www.telecoms.com/itmgcontent/tcoms/news/articles/20017471285.html;jsessionid=108C2900B1640572DA6EB2EF9F4E40E2

Dubai Ports World (in the news last year for their US port deal) is now floating a $20 bil IPO!
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article2709685.ece

IBM has a wireless transmission protocol at 60 GHz that has a data rate of 2.5 Gigabits/sec:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9800868-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

ADC bought LGC Wireless for $169 mil. I met with the LGC guys when I was doing PieStorm and they had an interesting niche in the WiFi market (specific technology for airport WiFi, some other stuff), and they were really struggling back then. I’m glad they survivied their difficulties in 2002/2003 and hope that money is spread around the employees and not just the VCs:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/adc-announces-agreement-acquire-lgc-wireless?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Going green is actually profitable for wireless companies:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=42080&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10

It appears that one of the guys that played orcs and goblins in the Lord of the Rings movies was able to prove that most of Amazon’s patent claims were invalid!
http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2007/10/click_on_this_a.html?source=NLC-NOTES&cgd=2007-10-22

Apple estimates that 250,000 iPhones have been unlocked, 17% of iPhones sold!:
http://9to5mac.com/node/277

Cisco bought Navini for $330 mil in cash:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0318757.htm

YouTube and Wikipedia are curently blocked in China, Blogspot and Flickr are not available in China:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/18/YouTube-blocked-in-China_1.html?source=NLC-GOV&cgd=2007-10-23

Microsoft is launching the Xbox 360 Arcade, just $280 and limited in capability, aimed towards competing with the Wii::
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2221358620071023?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

This robber tried to ransom a stolen cell phone for $185k! He eventually was negotiated down to $200 while the police traced the call and arrested him:
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/210891

LOTD for October 21

It is amazing how Apple went from a valuation of 700 mil 10 years ago to 150 bil now. During the same period Dell went from 4 bil to about 70 bil. Lots of other info in this article about Apple’s products:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aekh6rI3r3Ao&refer=news

This woman spent 50 days in jail…but the meth the cops thought she had was actually dried urine:
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/10/Hillsborough/Inmate_freed_after_te.shtml