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Media sources such as CNN, and also several questionable academics have come out with a multi-pronged attack on John McCain's knowledge of the "Information Economy" this week. Amongst those is a media professor from American University named Steinhorn Comments By L. Steinhorn, Prof of Communications Steinhorn claims that McCain's funny syllogism of "A Google", his desire to avoid email, and lack of a MySpace webpage prove that McCain does not understand the Information Economy. He points to Barrack Obama's use of YouTube and MySpace to win over young voters as proof that he understands modern economics. This is false on...

While an 11-year old, Louisville, Kentucky boy is using a toy radar gun to get drivers to slow down through his neighborhood, the police are finding that real radar guns might not be a match for GPS--at least not when contested in court. According to a press release issued by Rocky Mountain Tracking, an 18-year old man, Shaun Malone, was able to successfully contest a speeding ticket in court using the data from a GPS device installed in his car. This wasn't just any old make-a-left-turn-100-feet-ahead-onto-Maple-Street GPS; this was a vehicle tracking GPS device--the kind used by trucking fleets--or in...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2008 – War fighters from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are testing new battlefield systems that can discern friend from foe during the “Bold Quest Plus” joint military demonstration conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The demonstration’s purpose is to provide warfighters with combat-identification technologies that maximize mission effectiveness while minimizing the chances of fratricide, John Miller, operations manager for coalition combat identification at U.S. Joint Forces Command, based at Norfolk, Va., said today during a conference-call interview with reporters. The command is sponsoring the demonstration at Eglin, which began July 11. Miller...

PARIS (AFP) - Soaring oil prices are an "opportunity" which will speed up orders for new aircraft which consume less fuel, the chief executive of US aircraft giant Boeing James McNerney said in an interview published Sunday. "The high price of oil is speeding up the process of the oldest, least efficient planes being taken out of service because they are no longer profitable," he told the weekly Journal du Dimanche.

Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has admitted that he never uses email and that his staff has to show him websites because he is only just "learning to get online myself"..........

Another National Security Threat by: Melinda Zosh, July 08, 2008 With the Olympics quickly approaching, the world’s eyes are on China and its rising power as a world influence. Experts at the Heritage Foundation recently said that China now has the third largest economy in the world; it is the second largest after the U.S. In addition, 2003 marked the first year China’s GDP reached over one trillion dollars; it hit 1.4 trillion dollars, to be exact. China is a top steel, aluminum and fine copper producer. It has the world’s second largest auto market. But even more importantly, China...

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senators Debbie Stabenow, Amy Klobuchar and David Sandalow, an energy expert from the Brookings Institute, held a press conference today to showcase new automotive technologies that can help reduce our dependence on oil. With oil and gas prices expected to remain at record highs in the near future, rapid technological innovations in the transportation sector are critically important to help reduce energy costs, end our nation’s addiction to oil and reduce global warming pollution. “We need a clean energy revolution to unleash our brightest and most creative scientists, engineers and corporate leaders because we cannot...

MANILA, Philippines, June 30 (UPI) -- The Philippines is pushing for clean coal technologies. Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes is calling for incentives supporting new technologies including "bridge fuel" to help avert a power crisis in the near future. Reyes said the government is supporting coal projects that use new technologies that will help to eliminate greenhouse gases. "I understand that this technology is widely used in many countries, like Korea, Germany, U.S. and Japan. Until such time that the renewables will come in and kick in and really be available on a commercial basis, then we still have to use...

We asked technology innovators, luminaries, and users what the Web might be in five to ten years. Sir Tim Berners-LeeDirector of the World Wide Web Consortium and inventor of the Web; Cambridge, MA"I would like to see the Internet reach people in rural areas and help alleviate poverty. I would like to see more people reaching the Web from devices big and small, fixed and mobile. I look forward to more voice technology--in hands-busy scenarios such as driving, and also to increase accessibility (e.g., for people with low vision). The long tail of video on the Web is creating a...

Aren't all of those tech gadgets great? PDA's, cell phones, laptops and so on have all had a beneficial impact on our lives. However, not ALL innovations have this effect! See for yourself in this latest installment of "Geeks On Caffeine!"

UK IT students are hiring coders in India to complete their coursework for as little as £5 a go. A-level and university pupils are logging onto computer coding websites and farming out their work to foreign IT graduates. Academics at Birmingham City University have detected 1,000 students cheating worldwide since they began monitoring the websites in 2004. The majority of these students are studying an IT-related course and about one third are from the UK. Students contract their work to the lowest bidder, with prices ranging from £5 for simple undergraduate coursework, to £100 for postgraduate dissertations. Birmingham City computing...

She's big-busted, petite, very friendly and she runs on batteries.

We just had a very strong earthquake which fiercely rocked and rolled the main Island of Honshu in Japan. TV broke with news on all channels IN ADVANCE OF EARTHQUAKE, warning people to "get ready". 8:43 a.m. local time Saturday (just about 10 minutes ago). 7:43 p.m. Friday Eastern Time. Then, sure enough, the long, rolling shaking began, and increased in intensity. I estimate the shaking to have gone on for at least 45 seconds. It hit here at 8:45 a.m. It literally gave us 2 minutes to prepare. I have never experienced an advance earthquake warning. The epicenter is...

Security scanners which can see through passengers' clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 US airports, the US Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

A transformation in the pace of economic growth can be achieved even without nanofactories. These pre-nanofactory methods would transition well to a world with nanofactories when they do arrive. A coordinated effort by research, companies and government could be made to plan and develop Rapid Automated Manufacturing by 2030. There could be an increase in economic growth into the 10-20% per year range even for developed countries like the USA. Technology roadmaps and planning would be needed to perfect materials, supply chains, real time monitoring, approval processes and deployment of the technologies and methods listed below, the world could transition...

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

Washington, D.C. (June 1, 2008) -- Toshiba will soon launch an upconverting DVD player that purports to offer a picture that will rival Blu-ray's high-def disc. That's according to a report from the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. Toshiba was the chief backer of HD DVD, the high-def disc rival to Blu-ray. But the company pulled the plug on HD DVD at the end of March due to disappointing sales and overwhelming studio support for Blu-ray. At the time of the exit announcement. Toshiba executives hinted that it would soon release a standard-def DVD player that could compete with Blu-ray rather...

As the FCC auctions off an unused spectrum of airwaves, the winner may be forced to provide free wireless internet for most of the country. No date or terms for the auction have been set, but the government's deal requires that free service on the 25 MHz spectrum reaches at least half the in five years and 95 percent within ten years. The agreement, proposed by FCC chairman Kevin Martin, also stipulates that the bidder must filter out obscene content for allowing the winner to use the remaining portion of the spectrum for commercial purposes. "We're hoping there will be...

"...just by walking down the street you could be subject to a personal biometric system, you could be scanned by the gateway of the transit system, there could be something embedded in the street or in the flooring beneath you... you could be touching other tangible interfaces in the environment around you... the lamp posts and the other features of the streetscape could have informational services... and last but not least there's the surveillance element, there's a UAV, a robotic helicopter which is also surveying the cityscape and communicating with all of these devices... This is really what I mean...

MIT researchers point to potential economy-boosting technologies As the economy appears to falter and as more Americans fear that the country is on the wrong track, here's something to keep in mind: There is hope on the horizon. History is filled with examples of how technology helped usher in new eras of prosperity. The rise of the Internet is a good case in point: Few people who experienced the economic recession of the early 1990s could have foreseen how the Web and related information technologies would improve their lives and unleash whole new industries within a few short years. To...

BEX, Switzerland - A Swiss pilot strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane Wednesday for the first public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure eights and soaring high above the Alps.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ― In a flash, a police officer draws a handgun from its holster. Less than two seconds later, a red laser and bright light shine at whatever is in the gun barrel's path while a mini-camera records it all. That's how mini-cams on police handguns would work under a proposal gaining support in New York, which would be the first state in the nation to require the technology. State police were briefed on the technology and are reviewing it for a possible pilot program, said Michael Balboni, the state's deputy secretary for public safety. The device could...

Researchers said Windows XP Service Pack 3 delivers a measurable performance boost when compared to Windows XP with Service Pack 2.Windows XP runs some applications up to 10% faster with the latest service pack installed, a research firm has found. "We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (v.3244) delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS," wrote staff at exo.performance.network, in a blog post. The researchers found that a PC loaded with Microsoft's XP SP3 completed the OfficeBench test suite in less than 50 seconds. A similarly configured system running Windows XP with...

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it: FIRST: Emergency The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobiles is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it...

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003. "When we got it, it was two hunks of metal stuck together. We couldn't even tell it was a hard drive. It was burned and the edges were melted," said Edwards, an engineer at Kroll Ontrack Inc., outside Minneapolis. "It looked pretty bad at first glance, but we always...

The technological and economical development of Scandinavia (including Finland) is today more groundbreking than anywhere else in the world. The investments being made in relation to population size is mind-boggling. Despite a mere population of 25 million inhabitants, the combined GDP of the Scandinavian countries today ridicules that of a Russia often viewed to be a "reborn" super power "on the go" (combined Scandinavian GDP is actually 125% that of of Russia - and the gap is widening!!) But, let's focus on telecommunications here; Five bidders have paid €226 million ($346 million) for fourth generation (4G), super-fast mobile telephony licences,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — More than 1500 Iraqi farmers attended the Mada’in Agricultural Technology Exposition in al-Wahida, Iraq, recently. The expo resulted from efforts by the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, attached to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, to revitalize farming and agribusiness. The 3rd HBCT ePRT leaders emphasized agricultural initiatives in the qada to provide long-term economic stability in the primarily agrarian district east of Baghdad. Fifty-eight percent of the Mada’in citizens are farmers, and another 15 percent are in farm-related businesses, said Col. Bud Jameson, from Sherwood, Ark., ePRT deputy team leader. During the expo, Baghdad PRT...

PORTLAND, Ore. — The much-ballyhooed movie, "Iron Man," opens in theaters worldwide today (May 2), but the real "iron man" is already under construction at Raytheon Company (Salt Lake City, Utah). Raytheon's Exoskeleton project is the brainchild of project leader Stephen Jacobsen and is being funded by the U.S. Army. The project, according to the company, permits soldiers to don an Exoskeleton suit that amplifies their strength--enabling them to lift 200-pound payloads without tiring. The "Iron Man" exoskeleton being worked on by Robert Downey Jr. in the movie (left) is eerily similar to the real Exoskeleton (right) being developed at...

General Motors announced today it would be entering into a strategic relationship with Mascoma Corp., a second-generation biofuel company with the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol from non-food sources via a single-step biochemical conversion. The undisclosed equity share aims to contribute to joint research and development along with technology exchange, plant siting, and rapid commercialization of cellulosic ethanol technology and infrastructure. This is GM’s second investment in a cellulosic ethanol company, after announcing partnership with Coskata back in January. Mascoma is a 3 year old energy biotech company based in Boston. Their proprietary production process, called Consolidated Bioprocessing, limits the...

New research shows that a majority of churches use some type of emerging technology in their services, but the pace of technology adoption has slowed in recent years. Although 65 percent of Protestant churches now have a large screen projection system, that number is just slightly higher than in 2005 when 62 percent had such a system, according to The Barna Group. The use of large screens had jumped from the year 2000 when only 39 percent were using them. Since 2005, there was only a 5 percent increase in the adoption of a large screen projection system. The Barna...

Doom-filled warnings arrive from AT&T this week. The company says that without substantial investment in network infrastructure, the Internet will essentially run out of bandwidth in just two short years. Blame broadband, says AT&T. Decades of dealing with the trickle of bandwidth consumed by voice and dialup modems left AT&T twiddling its thumbs. The massive rise of DSL and cable modem service in the 2000s has had AT&T facing a monstrous increase in the volume of data transmissions. And that's set to increase another 50 times between now and 2015. That's enough, says AT&T, to all but crash the system....

OTTAWA -- Employees at Dell Canada's Ottawa operation learned Wednesday morning that the customer contact centre - once one of the city's fastest growing employers - will close its doors. More than 1,100 employees will lose their jobs. Only about 100 of the site's employees walked out of the morning's meeting with a job. They will remain in Ottawa to support the computer maker's sales division. "It's surreal, but there have been signs along the way," said one employee, who did not want to give his name. Some of the job cuts are immediate, while others will be phased out...

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers have agreed to make it illegal for employers and insurance companies to deny applicants jobs and health care coverage because DNA tests show they are genetically disposed to a disease. Supporters of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act said Wednesday that the Senate planned to vote on it Thursday. The House also is likely to give quick approval to the bill, sending it to President Bush for his signature. A similar bill passed the House by a 420-3 vote a year ago. The White House, at the time, indicated its support for the legislation. Sponsors reached an agreement...

4/22/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- The average professional types 50 to 70 words per minute. Lt. Col. (Dr.) John Mansfield, a urologist at the Air Force Theater Hospital here, claims he falls within that range. "Not bad, but I can talk at about 120 words per minute," Doctor Mansfield said, wearing a headset that he carries with him to his 10 workstations throughout the area. At each clinic and operating room, Doctor Mansfield and his colleagues are recording patient care and capturing surgical procedures electronically using the DOD's Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care, or MC4, system...

Recently while wandering around the net in search of various game news I came across this reply to a post on Kotaku.com. The reply was in the form of a letter allegedly sent from Jack Thompson to the mother of Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick. Here is that letter: John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law 1172 S. Dixie Hwy., Suite 111 Coral Gables, Florida 33146 April 21, 2008 Mrs. Zelnick Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Chairman’s Mother New York, New York Via e-mails to intermediaries Re: Your Son, Strauss Zelnick Dear Mrs. Zelnick: Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don’t...

Novell Inc. and Microsoft Corp., trying to expand the reach of their unusual alliance, say they plan to put a bigger emphasis on the Chinese market. The companies say they will make an extra investment to sell more support subscriptions for Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system in China. The idea is to court companies currently using Linux without any software support, often for free. China is "quite a large and growing market in terms of Linux," said Susan Heystee, Novell's vice president and general manager of global strategic alliances. There is "a very large nonpaid Linux market" in...

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2008 – When 20 recruits gathered yesterday at the Baltimore Military Entrance Processing Station to sign their enlistment contracts, none needed a pen. U.S. Army recruit Krista N. Hearne, 19, of Salisbury, Md., poses with the electronic Army enlistment contract she signed with her fingerprint as she became the first person to enlist in the U.S. military using biometric signatures. Photo by Army Lt. Col. Robert S. Larsen   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Instead, they read their contracts on a computer screen, then pressed their index fingers onto an electronic pad next to it,...

The Internet is even more useful than you think. As more and more programmers and developers race to create the next killer app, some end up gaining momentum while others haven't quite caught on yet. We've slogged through the undiscovered masses to bring you ten websites that are informative, handy, or simply downright cool -- before they enter the zeitgeist.

If there's a recession going on, someone forgot to tell Silicon Valley. Yes, the region's economy has slowed noticeably in recent months. Yes, unemployment is up from a year ago. Yes, credit is tight. And yes, there is a severe dip in the housing market. Despite those problems, the dynamics of Silicon Valley's technology sector have buffered the South Bay from the worst effects of the national downturn. Observers point to a host of reasons for this strength. The valley's largest companies have tons of cash, limiting their need to borrow. Much of their business is overseas, where spending remains...

THEY spend their days devising technology that eats away at privacy but when it comes to disclosing their own personal information the people behind Google's prying mapping systems are less than co-operative. Google Australia is expected within months to launch an application that will publish highly detailed, street-level photos of much of Australia, in a move that has drawn strong criticism from privacy advocates. Google's picture-snapping cars have been cruising Australia's suburbs since late last year, with pictures of thousands of homes expected to be uploaded to the internet with Street View's launch. While Google has defended the project, the...

During the War of Independence, America learned the painful lesson of reliance on foreign nations. The newborn United States had to rely on France and the Netherlands to supply everything from iron and gunpowder to blankets and clothing, and Britain routinely cut America’s supply lines. Seeing this weakness, America’s founders implemented a national strategy promoting industrial and military self-sufficiency in order to establish the nation’s security. It seems America has forgotten that lesson. One specific example is in mineral production. America’s leaders have allowed the nation’s once formidable mining industry to erode. Many minerals—including some that are strategically important for...

MA: What is your position on H1B visas in general? Do you believe the number of H1B visas should be increased? BO: Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent...

THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds. The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video...

LOS ANGELES - Two men attempting to board a plane to China with nearly a dozen sensitive infrared cameras in their luggage were arrested on Saturday, a federal official said...

By Katherine Hannaford Tech Digest Thursday, April 3 03:30 pm How many clowns can you fit in a car? I'm still not sure, but supposedly we'll soon all be able to compress the sh*t out of our MP3s and get 20 million onto an iPod. Good luck finding 20 million songs you actually like... If the evil anti-audiophilic professors at the University of Rochester manage to release their new compression technology without Arcam and Denon product managers hacking into their PCs and deleting the relevant witchcraft files. They're working on technology which will shrink MP3 file size down to a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it will take a $104 million pre-tax charge in the first quarter related to severance charges for 2,600 employees. The company said the charge included $113 million in severance costs, offset by $9 million in reversals of accruals from previous periods. Motorola has been trying to revive its business after losing market share to rivals such as Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research). It said all of its business segments will be affected by these...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A government crash test of the 2008 Smart Fortwo micro car, the fuel- sipping vehicle that made its debut in the United States this year, found a safety concern in side-impact testing, officials said Thursday. During the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration side test on the Smart two-door, the driver door unlatched and opened. The government said that could increase the likelihood of a driver or passenger being ejected from the 8-foot, 8-inch vehicle. NHTSA, however, still gave the car its top score of five stars in side testing because of the ability of the car to...

US aircraft maker Boeing flew a plane earlier this year that was powered by a hydrogen battery in a first for the aviation industry that could herald a greener future, senior company officials said in Spain on Thursday. But the company said that although hydrogen fuel cells could be used to power small planes it did not believe they could become the primary power source for large passenger planes. "For the first time in the history of aviation, Boeing has flown a manned airplane that was powered by a hydrogen battery," Boeing chief technology officer John Tracy told a news...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The battle over patent reform, a sleepy sounding subject that affects new, cheaper medicines, Chinese counterfeits and BlackBerry addicts, has always sent high-tech companies and drugmakers to their respective corners. But now organized labor is getting in the fight, using its lobbying muscle to stop—or at least shape—proposed changes to patent law. Spurred by concern about overseas piracy of U.S. goods, unions have stepped up their opposition to patent reform legislation pending in the Senate. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition, a group of seven unions that includes the Teamsters, argued in separate letters recently...