New Sophos facial recognition technology uses webcams to stop hackers and virus writers in their tracks Sophos appeals for computer users to send in pictures to increase accuracy of new RAPIL system
Bell Labs Transfers DVD In 2.3 Milliseconds By David A. Utter - Wed, 03/05/2008 - 7:22pm. We need a new word for fast Imagine downloading the remake of Casino Royale in the time it takes to blink. One experiment by Bell Labs managed to accomplish some astonishing speeds. Just don't wait for your friendly neighborhood ISP to offer comparable speeds anytime soon. The Royal Pingdom blog said Bell Labs managed a transfer rate of 2.05 terabytes per second. You won't find the equipment to handle that for sale on the shelves of big-box electronic retailers. Even more impressively, Bell Labs accomplished the transfer speed over a distance of some 1,584 miles. This is a harbinger of 100Gbps Ethernet, according to Information Week. Royal Pingdom also noted how Google transfers data retrieved by the Hubble Space Telescope by FedEx rather than through electronic transmission. It would take longer for Google to move 120 terabytes of data over the Internet than shipping it by overnight delivery.
2008 Digital Future Report The Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School is pleased to present the results of the seventh year of our project, "Surveying the Digital Future." The seven years of longitudinal research comprise an absolutely unique data base that completely captures broadband at home, the wireless Internet, on-line media, user-generated content and, now, social networking. This year's report contains a large module looking at on-line communities and social networking in great detail. Readers can compare the social networking data and correlate it to seven years of attitudes and behaviors on-line. As usual, the report continues to track off-line media use, purchasing both off-line and through e-commerce, social and political activity and a wealth of other data.
THE PORTABLE LIGHT PROJECT Portable Light is an interdisciplinary research, design and engineering project to create and implement new models for energy efficient electrical power and lighting. Portable Light applies creative processes and strategic integrative thinking to optimize existing semi-conductor technologies and create new applications to serve the large number of people—more than 2 billion—who do not have access to electric light or power. Portable Light is based upon the principle that global needs for technology development are inevitably interconnected.
Key Trend Alert: Nanotechnology - Knowledge Gap for Policy Nanotechnology offers radically new ways of doing things but there are widespread concerns that the risks are not being adequately assessed and hence suitable regulations being put in place to protect the public. The scientists themselves are profiling the largely unknown nature of the risks of a technology that is to do with controlling matter at near-atomic scales. An article in the prestigious journal Nature highlighted the challenges of developing new ways of measuring the exposure to nanomaterials, and in assessing the health and environmental impact of that exposure. Authors noted that "Fears over the possible dangers of some nanotechnologies may be exaggerated, but they are not necessarily unfounded."
Bill Gates Predicts End Of Yellow Pages Technology will advance so far for local advertising that when voice and data truly combine on mobile phones, the usage of venerable yellow page directories to find businesses will be near zero for anyone under 50.
Comcast CEO shows off 150 megabits per second download on next-gen modem. Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled a cable industry audience Tuesday, showing off for the first time in public new technology that enabled a data download speed of 150 megabits per second, or roughly 25 times faster than today's standard cable modems. The cost of modems that would support the technology, called ''channel bonding,'' is ''not that dissimilar to modems today,'' he told The Associated Press after a demonstration at The Cable Show. It could be available ''within less than a couple years,'' he said.
Sheets of Stretchable Silicon Researchers have shown that ultrathin sheets of silicon can stretch in two dimensions--opening up the possibility of electronic eyeballs and smart surgical gloves.
A Better Picture of the Brain A new imager that performs simultaneous MRI and PET scans could, among other applications, speed up the study of Alzheimer's disease. Siemens has developed a prototype brain-imaging machine that can perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) simultaneously. This will save patients in clinical trials time and allow researchers to make more-accurate correlations between activity at different regions of the brain and at the cellular level. The device is the first to combine MRI, which gives information about the structure of the brain and about blood flow to brain regions, with PET, which allows researchers to monitor metabolic activity at the cellular level. The combined imaging method may help research into the basis of Alzheimer's disease and provide a more accurate picture of drugs' effects on the brain.
Can Technology Save the Planet? Our opposable thumbs got us into this mess, and they can help get us out, says futurist and science fiction writer Bruce Sterling. Massive technological change is coming. Are we ready? Given the pace of technological innovation we have experienced in the past 50 years, by mid-century we will have an infrastructure as radically different from today's as industry in 1900 was from that of 1700.
Battelle is a global science and technology enterprise that develops and commercializes technology and manages laboratories for customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle has a vast science and technology reach. Battelle, with the national labs it manages or co-manages, oversees 19,000 staff members and conducts $3.7 billion in annual research and development. Battelle provides solutions and develops innovative products, helping commercial customers leverage technology into a competitive advantage. We also team with more than 800 federal, state and local government agencies, providing cost-effective science and technology in the areas of national security, homeland defense, health and life sciences, energy, transportation and environment.
Defense Today - Where the World Finds Its Information on military weapons technology. News on the latest cutting edge systems
McDonald's to offer free Wi-Fi in restaurants Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent, The Guardian - Saturday October 6 2007 The fast food chain McDonald's is to introduce free high speed wireless internet access at most of its 1,200 restaurants by the end of the year in a move which will make it the UK's biggest provider of such a service. Customers will be able to go online via their laptops, compatible mobile phones and games consoles for hours on end if they wish. The initiative goes a step further than existing services offered by some coffee shops and cafes, which provide Wi-Fi hotspots but charge users a fee. McDonald's said its service would benefit a wide range of customers, from business people making a "pit stop" to check email between meetings to those looking for a leisurely break at the weekend to download music. It claimed a hotspot user who pays to log on for just an hour a week in a coffee shop could stand to save as much as £260 a year on premium Wi-Fi charges by using McDonald's free service. It has already introduced the free scheme in 8,000 of its 13,000 outlets in the US.
Ultrahigh-speed Internet2 gets 10x boost in anticipation of particle collider for physicists By Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- The ultrahigh-speed Internet2 network just got 10 times faster, partly in anticipation of rising demand for capacity after the world's largest particle collider opens near Geneva next year. Until recently, the Internet2 had a theoretical limit of 10 gigabits per second, which is thousands of times faster than standard home broadband connections. By sending data using 10 different colors, or wavelengths, of light over a single cable, operators are boosting the network's capacity to 100 Gbps. That means a high-quality version of the movie ''The Matrix'' could be sent in a few seconds rather than half a minute over the old Internet2 and several hours over a typical home broadband line
