Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Chip Prices Jump; Global Manufacturing Chain Disrupted
March 15th, 2011Here we go. Via: Reuters: Prices for key technology components extended gains on Tuesday, as damage at Japanese plants and infrastructure caused by Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami threatens to disrupt the global manufacturing chain longer than many had expected. Dozens of Japanese firms from component makers to electronics firms and automakers are keeping their […]
Some Airport X-Ray Body Scanners Radiation Levels Are 10 Times Higher Than Expected
March 13th, 2011Via: WSTP: The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation – 247 machines at 38 airports – after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected. The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all […]
How About a Master’s Degree in Twitbook Arts, Crafts and Sciences?
March 10th, 2011Via: Wall Street Journal: Big consumer-products companies are going back to school. Businesses including Sprint Nextel Corp., Levi Strauss & Co. and Mattel Inc. are sponsoring college classes and graduate-level research to get help with their online marketing from the young and hyperconnected. Sprint, for example, supplies a class at Boston’s Emerson College with smartphones […]
The Television Watches You
March 10th, 2011Via: Wall Street Journal: The television is channeling you. Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people’s TV-viewing behavior with other personal data—in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers—and using it to help advertisers buy ads targeted to shows watched by certain kinds of people. At the same time, cable and satellite companies […]
Libraries May Lend HarperCollins E-Books Just 26 Times… Before Having to Pay Again
March 9th, 2011Via: ABC News: In what is shaping up to be a major battle over e-book lending, librarians across the country have banded together to boycott HarperCollins after the publisher decided it would limit the number of times an e-book can be checked out. Under a new policy started Monday, HarperCollins will allow libraries lend out […]
U.S. Air Force Launches Second X-37B Autonomous Spacecraft
March 7th, 2011Via: Cnet: A second mysterious, robotic space plane was launched into orbit by the U.S. Air Force today, after the first craft safely returned to Earth late last year following a secretive months-long mission and speculation about its potential military or intelligence uses. The second Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, left Cape Canaveral, […]
Computer Expert Says U.S. and Israel Behind Stuxnet Worm
March 4th, 2011For your news-not-news file folder. Via: AFP: A German computer security expert said Thursday he believes the United States and Israel’s Mossad unleashed the malicious Stuxnet worm on Iran’s nuclear program. “My opinion is that the Mossad is involved,” Ralph Langner said while discussing his in-depth Stuxnet analysis at a prestigious TED conference in the […]
Is Apple Going to Turn Mac OS Into a Tamperproof Vending Machine?
March 4th, 2011Via: Engadget: Apple’s not saying that it beats other tablets on the market. It’s saying “we do one thing, and these guys do something else altogether.” They’re not competition — they’re not even playing the same game! That’s not to say Apple has given up on PCs, and in fact, the company’s laptop sales are […]
Chinese Military Trains Messenger Pigeons
March 4th, 2011Via: Telegraph: China is training 10,000 messenger pigeons to deliver vital military communications in the event of the country’s communication systems breaking down. According to the Chinese state media, the pigeons are being trained by a special unit of the People’s Liberation Army in the central city of Chengdu. “They will be primarily called upon […]
CENTCOM Tries to Pull the ‘Persona Management Software’ Fat Out of the Fire
March 3rd, 2011Mmm hmm. Via: Washington Post: The U.S. Central Command says its new “Persona” social media “infiltration” software is designed to cozy up to extremist bloggers overseas, not law-abiding Americans chatting on Facebook or similar sites. Earlier this month, the Web buzzed with a report that the software was designed to “manage ‘fake people’ on social […]
