Analog Cable not Dead Yet, and More Impacted by Backup Tape Theft

FCC MAKES RULING
The FCC made a ruling regarding the switchover of analog to digital on February 18th, 2009. Because the FCC estimates that there are currently 40 million households still receiving analog service, provisions were made that those customers should still receive that service until at least the year 2012. Therefore, cable companies must receive digital signals over the airwaves and then convert them to analog for consumers. The cable industry has launched a $200 million dollar ad campaign to reassure customers.

APPROXIMATELY 1.33 MILLION AFFECTED BY BACKUP TAPE THEFT
A computer backup tape was reported stolen from a Ohio state intern's car back in June. The initial response on how many were affected was incorrect, and since then the number of people who's personal data was stolen rose an addition 67,000. Tax payers information, state employees, and business data were stored on the backup tape. Screw-ups like this makes me want to buy stock in companies such as Intelius.

Nano Manufacturing, Firefox DL'ed 400 Million, Phone Displays, and Cheaper Solar

CHEAPER, MORE PRACTICAL WAY OF MANUFACTURING ON THE NANO SCALE
Research led by Teri Odom of Northwestern University has determined a method of manufacturing on the nano scale that adjusts the optical properties of the material without having to start from scratch. Long story short, by adjusting the pattern by which particles are arranged allows researchers to change the optical performance of the material. That method of changing patterns is more cost effective than previous methods of starting over with a new batch of materials.

FIREFOX HITS 400 MILLION DOWNLOADS
Looks like Firefox has hit another milestone. 400 Million downloads!

STARTUP UNIPIXEL CLAIMS %60 MORE EFFICIENT PHONE DISPLAY
Unipixel has developed a new way of arranging a display where the LEDs are placed along the edges of the screen rather than behind. With such an arrangement light is trapped within the screen. %60 more efficient means 2x more battery life! I hate charging my phone so this is good news for me. Unipixel has greater ambitions than just phone displays however; just take a look at what they perceive the difference their product will make in the future.


CHEAPER SOLAR CELLS ON THE HORIZON
Heliovolt, another startup that began in 2001, has secured funding to build a new solar cell manufacturing plant in Texas. When everything becomes operational, the plant will manufacture solar cells that will be efficient enough to compete with the power grid. Heliovolt's FAQ answers a lot of questions regarding their technology and how it will be cheaper to manufacture and high in quality.

Apple and IBM

APPLE, AS GOOD AS APPLE PIE
Apple, Apple, Apple. Apple just announced that the company has sold 1 million iPhones, accomplished in just 74 days. Not bad. Techno-geeks have been drooling over an all-in-one electronic device for years. The announcement came just days after Apple dropped the price of the iPhone from $599 to $399. Speculation is also brewing about Apple in terms of hard-drive size and the upcoming wireless spectrum sale by the US Government. Toshiba has been working on a 120 hard drive disk, which if doubled, then it could drop into an iPod with a total of 240 gigs. Wow. On the wireless front, Apple has positioned itself to possibly make a bid for a portion of the wireless spectrum up for sale. BusinessWeek goes through the pros and cons of such a move by Apple.

IBM MAKES IT SMALLER, AND SMALLER, AND SMALLER
IBM just announced that researchers have developed a process to arrange particles more efficiently than past efforts by 'printing' on a nano scale. The researchers demonstrated the process by printing Robert Fludd’s 17th-century image of the sun. The newly printed artwork took approximately 20,000 gold particles. The printing process comes just days after IBM announced two other advancements in nanotechnology: developing a method for measuring the information storage capacity of particles and the creation of the first functioning single molecule switch. OH YEA! Miniaturization, here we come. [PICTURED RIGHT: Graphic representation of IBM's single molecule switch]

New Search Engine on the Horizon

INDEXING FASTER THAN GOOGLE? CUILL
It is being reported that a new search engine on the horizon can index at 1/10th of the cost and speed of mainstream search Goliath, Google. Cuill was founded by Tom Costello and Anna Patterson. Webmasters who spot a Twiceler robot crawling their sites will know that Cuill has paid them a visit. As of September 10th, 2007, user features (such as actually searching, etc) are unavailable.

New AMD Chip, Ringles, and Online Reputations

AMD RELEASES SERVER CHIP
Today AMD announced its release of the new quad-core opteron server chip based on x86 form. One neat little feature added to the hardware release is the AMD CoolCore™ Technology. The added software allows administrators to toggle off/on specific unused parts of the processor to conserve energy. AMD is boasting that the new chip is the fastest and most efficient x86 on the market today. Dell CEO Michael Dell weights in the differences of AMD and Intel with the recent releases.

RINGLES? WHAT'S THAT?
The RIA has found another snazzy way to repackage the single. Just in time for the holiday season major music publishers are adding remixes and ringtones, yes, ringtones, to newly released singles. The price tag will be around $5.98 to $6.98.

ONLINE REPUTATION: TRUSTPLUS START-UP
The new start-up TrustPlus intends to allow users to rate different sellers/buyers on sites such as Amazon.com, eBay.com, CraigsList, et. al. By combining the information of multiple sites users will have a broader look at the reputations of others. Will this really work and be profitable?

Chips for China, New Virtual Maps, and Human Implants

INTEL: ANOTHER CHIP MANUFACTURING PLANT GOING TO CHINATOWN... er CHINESE CITY

Intel announced the ground breaking of a new chip manufacturing plant that will be located in Dalian, China. The $2.5 billion dollar construction project will allow Intel to manufacture 300mm wafers in China. The new plant will be one of many IT ventures in Dalian, which boasts the Dalian HiTech Zone and Dalian Software Park. Other industry leaders with a presence in Dalian include: GE, IBM, HP, Dell, Matsushita, Sony, Toshiba, Accenture, and SAP.

EVERYSCAPE: A NEW COMPANY ENTERS THE VIRTUAL MAPPING WORLD

Everyscape will launch this fall with the intent to give a real world feel to the old virtual world; the 3D immersion type of thing. Sounds more interesting than Google Earth. The Everyscape website is currently running a demo of sorts of Union Square of San Francisco.

CHIP IMPLANTS AND TUMORS... NEVER MIND THE ETHICS QUESTION

Old research brought back to light by the Associated Press indicated that implanted chips produced tumors in test animals. Fastforward to today: VeriChip Corp manufactures FDA-approved chips that can be implanted into humans for "identification, tracking, and protection of people, their assets, and their environments." To date, approximately 2,000 people have been implanted with the chip. Interesting enough, VeriChip will be featured on Mythbusters in regards to the product's safe use with MRI scanners. Apparently people were scared the strong magnetic force of a MRI would rip the chip right out of their skin (who wouldn't be?). The Mythbuster host Kari had one implanted for the show. The ensuing discussion thread might become a little interesting; I wonder if she'll have that thing taken out now.