Week of Sun, 2007-03-18 00:00 to Sat, 2007-03-24 23:59

For the first time, physicists have devised a way to make visible light travel in the opposite direction that it normally bends when passing from one material to another, like from air through water or glass. The phenomenon is known as negative refraction and could in principle be used to construct optical microscopes for imaging things as small as molecules, and even to create cloaking devices for rendering objects invisible.

If you thought intelligent cars capable of negotiating a city centre with no driver behind the wheel were just the dream of Hollywood film writers you could be wrong. Researchers at the University of Essex think their work developing an autonomous model car could pave the way for intelligent driverless cars.

The project, led by Dr Simon Lucas of the Department of Computer Science, will see researchers build an autonomous model car which will be tested on a race track at the Colchester campus during the summer. It will provide a prototype for researchers around the world to develop their own smart model cars.

Microsoft Corp. issued the following statement, attributable to Kevin Johnson, President, Platform and Services Division, after the announcement today that Microsoft would join forces with a newly formed Fox/Newscorp and NBC/Universal joint venture to distribute a vast library of online video content to MSN consumers:

“Today’s announcement is a great win for MSN’s more than 460 million consumers and for online video more broadly. When launched, this new venture will provide free access to an unprecedented library of high-quality video content.

The YAL-1A Airborne Laser, a modified Boeing 747-400F, successfully test fired its target illuminator laser March 15 during a five-hour test flight.

The mission and test firing represented the Airborne Laser's first in-flight external laser firing, and used the NC-135E "Big Crow" test aircraft to verify the ABL's ability to track an airborne target and measure atmospheric turbulence.

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and SanDisk Corporation have reached an agreement for a patent cross license covering the Flash memory components of both companies and an agreement for product supply. Concurrently, the companies signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines a joint venture contemplated between the two companies which will manufacture memory components and sell NAND memory system solutions.

The U.S. Department of Justice together with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children ® (NCMEC) and the Ad Council today announced a new phase of their Online Sexual Exploitation public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to educate teenage girls about the potential dangers of posting and sharing personal information online.

BEA Systems Inc., BMC Software Inc., CA, Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Inc., EMC Corp., HP, IBM Corp., Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. have submitted a specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for review as an industrywide standard. Called the Service Modeling Language (SML), the specification defines a consistent way to communicate how computer networks, applications, servers and other IT resources are described — or modeled — in extensible markup language (XML) and can help businesses more seamlessly manage the services that are built on these resources. In addition to the base SML specification, a companion specification was submitted to the W3C. Called the SML Interchange Format (SML-IF), it defines how to exchange SML models between applications.

Classmate PCs are shipping in volume to emerging markets. These affordable yet fully functional PC based on the Intel® Celeron® M processor is the first education-oriented mobile computer to ship in volume to Brazil and Mexico.

The classmate PC supports collaborative learning environments primarily for K-12 schools and is part of an on-going commitment and dedication to equip children around the world with technology that will help advance learning and development.

HP has signed an agreement to acquire Tabblo Inc.

Tabblo’s technology allows people to simply and efficiently arrange and print text, graphics and photos from the web. This is made possible by Tabblo’s custom template engine, using an AJAX-enriched interface.

HP plans to make this simple-to-use web-printing broadly available to people by working with other companies to integrate the technology into their websites. Together, HP and its partner companies will provide customers with a vastly improved web-based printing experience to meet the ever-growing need for simplified Internet-based printing.

General Motors announced its goal to reduce CO2 emissions from its North American manufacturing facilities by 40 percent by 2010, based on 2000 levels. GM is setting this target as part of its voluntary partnership in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Leaders program. This reduction would equal 4.5 million metric tons and equate to annual emissions from the power consumed by 432,692 U.S. households.

Air Force Office of Scientific Research-funded scientists at the University of Bath, England, are using radiation to detect dangerous materials.

To detect the materials – biological agents, chemical explosives, imperfections, contamination and hidden compartments found in confined spaces – scientists combine terahertz radiation and metamaterials technology. Terahertz radiation interacts with substances such as light and other radiation types. The interaction occurs in ways different from naturally occurring materials known as metamaterial technology. Terahertz radiation and metamaterial technology work together to guide wavelengths into narrow spaces or holes where they can detect explosives as they absorb the radiation. Up to now, research has been unable to prove the usefulness of this kind of radiation because the components to conduct experiments – such as lenses, polarizers, beamsplitters, and mirrors – were not readily available.

One might expect a doctoral student conducting research on BlackBerry usage to own one or more of the handheld devices. But Melissa Mazmanian, a fourth-year MIT Sloan doctoral student, doesn't own one, and she prefers it this way.

Mazmanian's study of how people use the BlackBerry in their everyday lives has already drawn attention in the Wall Street Journal and The Independent and on National Public Radio. Her research won an Academy of Management award in its division last summer.

Oracle to acquire Tangosol Inc. Tangosol's product, Coherence Data Grid, is a fundamental enabler for the rapidly growing space of extreme transaction processing (XTP), typical in, among others, Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Travel and Logistics industries.

Tangosol is widely adopted among tier-one Global 1000 customers and has been successfully deployed at more than 1,500 implementations.

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a "hyperlens" that brings them one major step closer to the goal of nanoscale optical imaging.

The new hyperlens, described in the Feb. 23 issue of the journal Science, is capable of projecting a magnified image of a pair of nanowires spaced 150 nanometers apart onto a plane up to a meter away.

At the IEEE Semi-Therm Conference 2007, IBM researchers unveiled details of a new technique to significantly improve capabilities to cool computer chips.

The technique, developed by a team of scientists at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in cooperation with Momentive Performance Materials, formerly GE Advanced Materials, overcomes a barrier in chip cooling by improving the application of the "glue" that binds chips to their cooling systems. The new technology could allow faster computer chips to be cooled more efficiently.

Micron Technology, Inc., has officially opened a new manufacturing facility in Xi’an, China. The facility, Micron’s first manufacturing facility in China, is designed for assembly and test operations for semiconductor products, including dynamic random access memory, NAND flash memory and CMOS image sensors.

Siemens VDO now offers a navigation processing unit for fleet management on which the complete European road map database is stored on a compact SD card. The new unit for professional use on company cars or commercial vehicles thus does entirely without CD ROMs. This trend-setting system change has a number of benefits for fleet operators: the unit is cheaper than comparable DVD or CD systems and takes up a lot less space. Moreover, by dispensing with a conventional CD or DVD drive, the device is far more robust.

The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry is always on the move and changing. Technologies and processes that worked yesterday might not work today. That is why A&D companies are constantly seeking better ways to manage complexity, cut costs, and boost productivity. Enter RFID technology. There are scores of supply-chain and asset-management applications where RFID is being used, tested, and deployed to solve real-world business problems within A&D markets. A multitude of recent announcements from the likes of the US and allied militaries, Boeing, Airbus, and NASA bear witness to the technology's growing popularity.

NASA released on Wednesday never-before-seen images that show the sun's magnetic field is much more turbulent and dynamic than previously known. The international spacecraft Hinode, formerly known as Solar B, took the images.

Hinode, Japanese for "sunrise," was launched Sept. 23, 2006, to study the sun's magnetic field and how its explosive energy propagates through the different layers of the solar atmosphere. The spacecraft's uninterrupted high-resolution observations of the sun will have an impact on solar physics comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope's impact on astronomy.

The FPGA Supercomputer “Maxwell”, based on technology invented in Scotland and constructed by the FPGA High Performance Computing Alliance, is launched today. The system, built at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, uses Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) as an alternative to conventional microprocessors. More powerful than a conventional system of a similar size and using ten times less power, Maxwell is delivering new levels of computational performance for real-world industrial applications.

The latest semi-annual release of "The Web CMS Report" finds that, despite recent innovations in the marketplace, web content management vendors and enterprise buyers alike are struggling to incorporate Web 2.0 features and interfaces into web publishing regimens.

The Report was released today by CMS Watch, an independent analyst firm that evaluates content technologies and strategies for prospective solutions buyers.

If you think you are spending more each week at the supermarket, you may be right. The escalating share of the U.S. grain harvest going to ethanol distilleries is driving up food prices worldwide.

Corn prices have doubled over the last year, wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years, and rice prices are rising too. In addition, soybean futures have risen by half. A Bloomberg analysis notes that the soaring use of corn as the feedstock for fuel ethanol “is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain.”

Researchers have made an important advance in the emerging field of 'spintronics' that may one day usher in a new generation of smaller, smarter, faster computers, sensors and other devices, according to findings reported in today's issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The research field of 'spintronics' is concerned with using the 'spin' of an electron for storing, processing and communicating information.

Douglas Adams Engineers at Purdue University have designed and tested a "structural health monitoring" system to detect flaws that could hinder the performance of new types of military missiles made of composite materials instead of metal.

Missiles are sometimes damaged when struck by rocks and debris kicked up by helicopter rotors or when mishandled during shipping or maintenance.

Vast, yet remote; frigid, yet teeming with life; stark and barren, yet serenely beautiful -- these are just a few of the contradictions of Earth's polar regions. Within their frozen confines lie secrets -- clues scientists believe can help unravel some of the mysteries that drive Earth's climate. That's because Earth's poles are sensitive barometers to climate change. They react quickly to a warmer environment, and the effects of these reactions are felt on a global scale.

Entropic Communications, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Arabella Software Ltd, a privately-held software company based in Israel, specializing in the design and development of highly optimized embedded Linux software.

Arabella provides a complete range of integrated open-source applications that are ideally suited for many embedded applications. These span areas such as security (IPsec, firewalls, etc), management (SNMP, HTTP and other), high-availability frameworks (including full system redundancy schemes) and powerful diagnostics tools, all based on our customization of standard open-source tools.

The rapid growth of wind power in the United States has resulted in two new factories to manufacture wind turbine blades. Knight & Carver opened its wind blade manufacturing and repair facility in Howard, South Dakota, on March 6th. The new facility will serve as the wind blade headquarters for Knight & Carver, which was previously better known for building yachts. The 26,000-square-foot facility will employ as many as 25 full-time employees in 2007, with plans to expand to a 25-person workforce within two years.

Mobility aircrews now have a new tool which uses Global Positioning System, or GPS, to help them deliver cargo more accurately and safely in deployed theaters of operation.

The Joint Precision Air Drop System, or JPADS, allows airdrops to be conducted from higher altitudes with improved accuracy, which allows deployed aircrews to remain out of harm's way while delivering important supplies and equipment to the troops that need them, said John Hayes of the Air Mobility Command JPADS mobile training team at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

The Earthrace vessel collided with a fishing boat off the coast of Guatemala, March 18, 2007 - At 1:30 a.m. local time. This left one fisherman lost, presumably drowned, and a second fisherman on aboard Earthrace with possible injuries.

Immediately following the incident, three fishermen were seen in the water off the stern of Earthrace. Two quickly swam to Earthrace. The third was thrown a life buoy, but failed to grab it. Earthrace Skipper, Pete Bethune, dove into the water to rescue the third person; however the fisherman disappeared by the time Bethune reached him.

The Federal Trade Commission today told the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security that “the government and the private sector must continue to work together to reduce the opportunities for thieves to obtain consumers’ personal information and make it more difficult for thieves to misuse that information if they obtain it.” Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said government and the business community should evaluate whether they need to collect and maintain the data they have about consumers, better-protect the data that they do possess, and develop better ways to authenticate customers to keep identity thieves from using the information they steal.

Argonne scientists helped lead the superconducting revolution 20 years ago this month with their landmark solution of the structure of the most widely known high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7. Now, they have solved another tantalizing superconductivity mystery: how a subtle change in the structure of so-called electron-doped superconductors switches the phenomenon of superconductivity on and off.

Scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory announced today a new tool to monitor changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by region and source. The tool, called CarbonTracker, will enable its users to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts to reduce or store carbon emissions.

According to the latest research on smartphone markets from ABI Research, Nokia has maintained its leadership position with a 56.4% share of the 70.9 million units shipped in 2006. Nokia sold 40 million smartphones in 2006, compared to 28.5 million in 2005. Motorola also had a strong 2006 and occupied the second position with 8.5% market share, driven by the success of its Linux-based devices in China, most notably the MING. At the same time, Symbian's strong position in the smartphone operating system market is under continued and increasing threat.

TSI stands for maximum power with minimum fuel consumption

There are two versions of the TSI engine, equipped with both a supercharger and a turbocharger. Volkswagen currently offers TSI engines in the Golf, Golf Plus, CrossGolf, Jetta and Touran. By the end of this year, the new Tiguan will also be starting with a version of the TSI engine. Even a natural-gas powered TSI is being tested on board a Passat – a reflection of the great potential of this unique new economical and "torquey" engine generation.

Astronomers have woven NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn, its rings, and several of its moons into three movies. Each movie highlights unique times in the planet's 30-year waltz around the Sun. Two of the movies show the motion of several of Saturn's moons when the planet's rings were tilted nearly edge-on to Earth and to the Sun. These edge-on alignments of the rings occur roughly once every 15 years. Another movie presents a clear view of Saturn's Southern Hemisphere when the planet's rings were at maximum tilt toward Earth. Hubble snapped only about a dozen images during each of these three events, so astronomers created software to extend the photos into the hundreds of images needed for a movie. The images were taken with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in 1995 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2003.

A team has successfully demonstrate the ability of Transformational Satellite (TSAT) laser communications system to deliver high-power operations at three data rates during recent U.S. Air Force tests.

The tests, which built on the capabilities and performance verified during three previous demonstrations, validated the system's performance to, and interoperability with, government laser communications standards.

Limited supplies of fuel for nuclear power plants may thwart the renewed and growing interest in nuclear energy in the United States and other nations, says an MIT expert on the industry.

Over the past 20 years, safety concerns dampened all aspects of development of nuclear energy: No new reactors were ordered and there was investment neither in new uranium mines nor in building facilities to produce fuel for existing reactors. Instead, the industry lived off commercial and government inventories, which are now nearly gone. worldwide, uranium production meets only about 65 percent of current reactor requirements.

An Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) designed to endure physical stress and withstand harsher environmental conditions than a standard computer, the eo TufTab™ v7112XT, from TabletKiosk™, is a solution for field work and other jobs in which a computer endure excess handling. Its rugged construction complements the 7" UMPC form factor when used for accessing touch screen applications, taking handwritten notes, entering data and communicating over a wireless network.

Using lasers and tuning forks, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a chemical weapon agent sensing technique that promises to meet or exceed current and emerging defense and homeland security chemical detection requirements. The technique, called Quartz Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing, or "QPAS," is now ready for prototyping and field testing.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual Internet Fraud Crime Report. From January 1 through December 31, 2006, the center received 207,492 complaint submissions. These filings were composed of fraudulent and non-fraudulent complaints primarily related to the Internet and included many different fraud types to include auction fraud, non-delivery, and credit/debit card fraud, as well as non-fraudulent complaints, such as computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited email, and child pornography.

UCLA scientists have designed and mass-produced billions of fluorescent microscale particles in the shapes of all 26 letters of the alphabet in an "alphabet soup" displaying "exquisite fidelity of the shapes."

The letters are made of solid polymeric materials dispersed in a liquid solution. The research will be published March 29 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, where it will be illustrated on the cover. The scientists anticipate that their "LithoParticles" will have significant technological and scientific uses.

The rapid emergence of multicore architectures and virtualization technologies is significantly restricting worldwide x86 server shipments. According to IDC's updated forecast, multicore and virtualization will cost the x86 market more than 4.5 million shipments and $2.4 billion in customer spending between 2006-2010. Overall, x86 shipments that were once projected to increase 61% by 2010 are now facing just 39% growth during that same period.

Generating electricity from renewable sources will soon become as easy as putting a brush and a tube in a tub of wastewater.

A carbon fiber, bottle-brush anode developed by Penn State researchers will provide more than enough surface for bacteria to colonize, for the first time making it possible to use microbial fuel cells for large scale electricity production. In addition, a membrane-tube air cathode, adapted from existing wastewater treatment equipment, will complete the circuit.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) reported its first quarter ended March 2, 2007.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2007, Adobe achieved revenue of $649.4 million, compared to $655.5 million reported for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 and $682.2 million reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. Adobe's first quarter revenue target range was $640 to $670 million.

GAAP Results

Oracle Corporation announced that fiscal 2007 Q3 GAAP earnings per share were up 36% to $0.20, compared with the same quarter last year. Third quarter GAAP revenues were up 27% to $4.4 billion, while quarterly GAAP net income was up 35% to $1.03 billion. Total GAAP software revenues were up 25% to $3.5 billion with GAAP database and middleware new license revenues up 17% and GAAP applications new license revenues up 57%. GAAP services revenues were $916 million, up 36% compared to the same quarter last year.

At age 32, Maggie Fermental suffered a stroke that left her right side paralyzed. After a year and a half of conventional therapy with minimal results, she tried a new kind of robotic therapy developed by MIT engineers. A study to appear in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation shows that the device, which helped Fermental, also had positive results for five other severe stroke patients in a pilot clinical trial.

While many artillerymen get the opportunity to fire artillery pieces only in training, Soldiers from the 82nd Field Artillery Regiment's Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, have already fired more than 1,100 rounds in real-world missions to engage enemy targets in support of combat operations in theater.

Since the first calibration of the M109A6 Paladin howitzers in early December, Alpha Battery has supported combat operations every day by firing their Paladins. The unit has supported operations with everything from counterfire to suppressive fire, as well as striking pre-planned targets. They have also cleared routes for combat missions along and provided base camp security.

Engineers in the city of Hong Kong have introduced an innovative wind energy technology than can help both rural and city residents protect the environment and cut down on energy costs - without having to spend a fortune on an expensive device. Claudia Blume reports.

A large wind turbine on a small outer island is one of Hong Kong's few sources of renewable energy. One of the reasons not more are being built is that the wind in the city is simply not strong enough, a problem it shares with many places worldwide.

Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to total 255.7 million units in 2007, a 10.5 percent increase from 2006, while PC revenue is projected to reach $213.7 billion, a 4.6 percent increase, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

Gartner analysts said PC shipments will enjoy, at best, a limited boost from the release of Microsoft’s new operating system (OS), Vista.

Analysts at Gartner said they expect a minor increase in sales to the small number of consumers and SMBs that put off replacing their older systems in anticipation of Vista’s release. However, the vast majority of consumers and SMBs are expected to adopt the new OS as they gradually replace existing machines during the next several years.

The Cyclone® III family, the industry’s first 65-nm low-cost FPGAs, from Altera Corporation. Cyclone III FPGAs consume 75 percent less power than competing FPGAs and deliver 5K to 120K logic elements (LEs), up to 4 Mbits of memory and up to 288 digital signal processing (DSP) multipliers. At 20 percent lower cost per LE than the previous generation, the Cyclone III family enables designers to use FPGAs in more cost-sensitive applications than previously possible.

Broadcast International is currently implementing the IBM® BladeCenter® QS20 "Cell Blade" in a test environment as a means to significantly improve performance and reduce costs associated with video compression, while delivering high quality video at low bandwidths.

As the first step in the new relationship, the two companies have established the Broadcast International-IBM Joint Development Center to collaborate with IBM engineers on integrating BI's patented CodecSys multi-codec encoding system on IBM's multi-core Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) based BladeCenter QS20.

A team from Imperial College London, led by Professor Donal Bradley New Window, received the Royal Society's annual GBP 250,000 Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in the field of nanotechnology, given for the best proposal to develop a nanotechnology concept into a commercial opportunity.

Professor Bradley and his colleagues received the award for their plans to commercially develop two production processes for plastic electronics. Plastic electronics uses novel organic, carbon-based semiconductors, instead of the traditional silicon, gallium arsenide and related inorganic materials. These new organic semiconductors combine solubility, allowing solution coating and printing to be used in the fabrication of devices, and properties such as flexibility and toughness, with the key functional characteristics of traditional semiconductors.

Ford Motor Company today will showcase the world’s first drivable fuel cell hybrid electric plug-in vehicle at the Kansas City Assembly Plant during a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The vehicle combines an onboard hydrogen fuel cell generator with lithium-ion batteries to deliver more than 41 mpg with zero emissions. It is built on a flexible powertrain architecture that will enable Ford to use new fuel and propulsion technologies as they develop without redesigning the vehicle.

If you think shipping freight from Cincinnati to El Paso is challenging, imagine trying to deliver an oxygen generation unit from the Earth to a remote location on the moon.

By 2020, NASA plans to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, potentially centered on an outpost to be built at the rim of the Shackleton crater near the lunar South Pole.

Technology currently used to prevent infection in medical implants and to prepare microcapsules for drug delivery may also one day help ease concerns about global warming. To investigate this possibility, a novel collaboration has been formed linking a medical school, a university department of chemical engineering, and the DOE Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

Long-term climate records are a key to understanding how Earth's climate changed in the past and how it may change in the future. Direct measurements of light energy emitted by the sun, taken by satellites and other modern scientific techniques, suggest variations in the sun's activity influence Earth's long-term climate. However, there were no measured climate records of this type until the relatively recent scientific past.

The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), has awarded Lockheed Martin a $376 million contract, for hardware and services associated with the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile program. The contract includes production of 112 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, launcher modification kits, spares and other equipment, as well as program management and engineering services.

From now through April 19, people can visit www.intelchallenge.com and vote for their favorite concept PC design. Voters get to choose from designs submitted by companies competing for $1 million in the industry Intel® Core™ Processor Challenge. A group of computer and design experts will award the winners in April, but consumers can now pick their favorite designs in a separate online People's Choice Award contest that also features a random $100 certificate giveaway to eligible voters.

NASA and Houston Technology Center today announced the signing of a Space Act Agreement from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The agreement provides the framework for expanding a multi-year partnership between the two organizations.

NASA and HTC will work together to advance their respective missions by pursuing activities in the areas of technical, educational and human resource disciplines. Both organizations have an extensive history of collaborating to advance the awareness of new technologies developed for use in space and for the benefit of emerging commercial enterprises in the greater Houston area.

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and Toshiba Corporation have signed patent cross licensing and product supply agreements covering semiconductor technology.

The agreements settle all pending patent-related litigation between the companies in the U.S. and Japan, including that before the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Mr. OC Kwon, Senior Vice President, Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said, "We believe the agreements will become a good foundation for our two companies to build a mutually beneficial business relationship in the future."

The Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report, from DisplaySearch, reports that the notebook PC market grew 27.7% Y/Y to 78.802 million units. At the DisplaySearch US Flat Panel Display Conference in March 2006, John Jacobs, Director of Notebook PC Market Research, forecast that the notebook PC market would grow to 77.943 million units. The actual notebook PC shipment number was just 1.1% higher than the early 2006 forecast, for an accuracy of 98.9%.

Even in the digital world, people respond to the expression of a computerized face.

New Ohio State University research suggests that the simulated emotions of digital characters on web sites might have a real impact on the potential customers that view and interact with them.

The study, appearing in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, found that digital characters might be better merchants if they act consistently happy, even if the products they're selling—such as novels—are heart-wrenchingly sad.

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Thin Client, a solution consisting of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and an image-creation tool kit that channel partners will use to provide a finished thin-client solution to customers.

The thin client solution is a enterprise-quality Linux solution that provides easy configuration and management of desktop images. It simplifies desktop management tasks such as application updates by maintaining applications on the server, while increasing security with central storage of sensitive data.

The new ASUS EN8800GTX AquaTank/HTDP/ 768M graphics card. With an all-in-one watercooled module, this graphics card is able to push performance by 11% and still be 12°C cooler than generic GF8800GTX cards.

The EN8800GTX AquaTank/HTDP/768M can bear higher clock speeds. Add in new sets of overclocked configurations that are stable yet surpass conventional settings, and users can enjoy up to 11% faster graphics performance when compared to the already cutting-edge standard of GF8800GTX graphic cards.

Ohio State University scientists have created software that can identify traffic accident hotspots on state roadways.

The software is publicly available and can be adapted for use by any state, said Christopher Holloman, associate director of the Statistical Consulting Service in Ohio State's Department of Statistics. Currently, the Ohio State Highway Patrol is using it to help position its cruisers during major holidays.

NASA's Glenn Research Center will conduct integrated environmental testing of the Orion crew exploration vehicle in the Space Power Facility at the center's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

The environmental tests are designed to demonstrate the ability of Orion hardware to meet specified performance requirements in simulated environmental conditions such as those experienced during launch, in-orbit operations and re-entry. Thermal, acoustic and mechanical vibration and electromagnetic compatibility testing will be conducted on Orion's full assembly. The launch abort system, crew module, service module and spacecraft adapter will be tested.

Intel Corporation released a new implementation guide, developed in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The new implementation guide provides large and small system integrators with key understandings on how to specify and test desktop PC, notebook PC, workstation computer and desktop derived server configurations that can best meet the required power levels of the new specification.

The new 2007 Aura Green Line, from Saturn, hybrid’s MSRP will start at $22,695 (including destination charge), making it the lowest-priced hybrid on the market for 2007.

In addition to its value-focused price, the Internal Revenue Service has certified that Aura Green Line buyers will qualify for a tax credit of $1,300.

Nokia has filed complaints against Qualcomm in Germany and the Netherlands requesting declarations that Qualcomm's European patents are exhausted in respect of products placed on the European Union (EU) market with a Qualcomm license, in this instance chipsets supplied by Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments and Qualcomm are publicly known to have entered into a so called Patent Portfolio License in 2000.

Two Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) weapons, each equipped with an Australian-designed and -built modular wing kit, were successfully released from a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18 Hornet during recent flight tests.

Flying at 20,000 feet over the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia, a RAAF F/A-18 released the 500-pound Mk-82 JDAM Extended Range (ER) weapons and scored a direct hit on their respective targets. Each weapon demonstrated extended range flyout performance well exceeding that of a baseline JDAM.

France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Siemens Networks, Sony, and Telecom Italia have founded the Open IPTV Forum, an industry consortium that will work to define an interoperable end-to-end specification for delivery of IPTV services.

The forum, which is fully open to participation across the communications and entertainment industries, will focus on development of open standards that could help to streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies, and help to maximize the benefits of IPTV for consumers, network operators, content providers, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and infrastructure providers.

Nanotechnology may unlock the secret for creating highly efficient next-generation LED lighting systems, and exploring its potential is the aim of several projects centered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Seen everywhere today from traffic signals, taillights and cell phone displays to stadium JumboTrons, light emitting diodes fluoresce as electrical current passes through them. The most developed LED technology is based on crystals, typically made from indium gallium nitride. However, researchers at ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the University of Tennessee are working to develop technology that will improve a new generation of LED devices composed of thin films of polymers or organic molecules.

ARRIS Technology (Shenzhen) Company, Ltd., has opened a Research and Development Center in Shenzhen, China. The Center's mission is to support ARRIS in providing innovative, reliable and cost-effective technology solutions for the Asia-Pacific region's cable operators. This is the fourth R&D Center operated by ARRIS, with substantial lab facilities also operating in Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; and Cork, Ireland.

The University of Kentucky has acquired a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) supercomputer that places the university's research capability among the nation's leaders for public and private university research computing.

The state-of-the-art IBM System Cluster 1350 offers a theoretical peak performance of 16 teraflops of calculation capacity, offering both greater speed and broader access for scientific research in a broad range of academic disciplines. This means the new machine can handle up to 16.3 trillion calculations per second.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. showcased the high-class Bluetooth® Headset (WEP 420), designed by Bang & Olufsen, for the first time at CeBIT 2007 in Hanover , Germany .

The latest Bluetooth® headsets are elegantly designed and have superb sound quality. At CeBIT 2007, Samsung's designated a special booth do showcase Bluetooth® headsets, including the new products WEP 420 and WEP 500.

ICANN has issued a letter to RegisterFly [PDF, 902K] indicating that it will cease operating as an ICANN-Accredited Registrar on March 31, 2007. Under the terms of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), ICANN must provide 15 days written notice to RegisterFly of its intention to terminate.

Effective immediately ICANN has terminated RegisterFly's right to use the ICANN Accredited Registrar logo on its website.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Corp. have jointly announced the start of a new service that allows drivers to access Yahoo! Gourmet online via the Nissan CARWINGS navigation system in Japan. The collaboration is the first time Yahoo Japan’s internet services has been made available on-board a vehicle. Nissan CARWINGS users become the first in Japan to receive navigation assistance to find restaurants and complete information including images, reviews by other diners, and barcode coupons through Yahoo! Gourmet.

Two A380s will fly into two US destinations on 19th March, allowing both the East and West Coasts of North America to simultaneously welcome the world's largest commercial airliner, which is also the most technically advanced and environmentally friendly civil aircraft in the skies.

A380 development aircraft MSN7 will fly some 500 passengers to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, as part of the Commercial Route Proving jointly performed with Deutsche Lufthansa over a 12 day period. Simultaneously, A380 test aircraft MSN1 will land at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as part of an airport compatibility trial, which will be performed on the spot with the assistance of Qantas Airways.

École Polytechnique de Montréal researchers successfully control and navigate a wireless device inside an artery using a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, paving the way for novel, minimally invasive and more accurate surgeries

Some 40 years after the release of the classic science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, researchers in the NanoRobotics Laboratory of École Polytechnique de Montréal's Department of Computer Engineering and Institute of Biomedical Engineering have achieved a major technological breakthrough in the field of medical robotics. They have succeeded for the first time in guiding, in vivo and via computer control, a microdevice inside an artery, at a speed of 10 centimetres a second.

The oldest operational satellite in the GPS constellation has broadcast its signal for more than 16 years, during which time that signal's mission applications -- and the people who make sure the signal is available -- have changed dramatically.

When Satellite Vehicle Number 15 launched Oct. 1, 1990, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the 2nd Space Operations Squadron's mission was markedly different from what it is today, the 2nd SOPS commander noted.

The latest Internet Security Threat Report released by Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) reveals that the current Internet threat environment is characterized by an increase in data theft, data leakage, and the creation of targeted, malicious code for the purpose of stealing confidential information that can be used for financial gain. Cyber criminals continue to refine their attack methods in an attempt to remain undetected and to create global, cooperative networks to support the ongoing growth of criminal activity.

The public alpha version of Apollo is now available for developers on Adobe Systems Incorporated. Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system application runtime that allows web developers to leverage their existing skills in HTML, JavaScript and Ajax, as well as Adobe® Flash® and Adobe Flex™ software to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop. The alpha version of the Apollo application runtime and the Apollo Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) can be downloaded for free from www.adobe.com/go/apollo .

The MathWorks has two new MATLAB® builders that let application developers create algorithms in MATLAB and then incorporate them royalty-free into enterprise applications based on Java or .NET technologies. The new builders eliminate the time-consuming and error-prone process of recoding an algorithm created in MATLAB into Java or a .NET language.

MATLAB® Builder for Java™ converts MATLAB algorithms into standard Java classes that can be called from any Java application. MATLAB® Builder for .NET converts MATLAB algorithms into standard .NET or Common Object Model (COM) components. With both builders, engineers and scientists can leverage the high-level language, technical functions, and visualization tools in MATLAB to efficiently prototype and develop their algorithms, which can then be distributed to users without MATLAB as components of desktop or Web applications.

Physicists at the University of Bath will be looking at developing attosecond technology – the ability to send out light in a continuous series of pulses that last only an attosecond, one billion-billionth of a second.

The research could not only develop the important technology of photonics, but could give physicists that chance to look at the world of atomic structure very closely for the first time.

One of the most powerful implements in GM Racing's toolbox is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) - a mathematical simulation of the airflow around a vehicle. This emerging technology is influencing the design of both racing and production automobiles. CFD played a key role in GM Racing's analysis and development of a racing version of the Impala SS, the new-generation NASCAR race car that will make its competition debut in Bristol, Tenn., on March 25.

On April 12, two technologies developed at NASA for America's space program will be inducted into the Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of Fame. NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, receives the honor for its development of the Microbial Check Valve used in water purification. NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla., is recognized for the development of Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron technology used to clean contaminated ground water.

The Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Office has received 143 pre-applications requesting more than $27 billion in loan guarantee protection as of the December 31, 2006, submission deadline. These pre-applications, representing project costs of more than $51 billion, were submitted in response to a Department of Energy solicitation issued in August 2006. The pre-applications currently are under preliminary review.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has announced it will revoke an illegitimate patent held by Clear Channel Communications after a campaign by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The patent -- owned by Instant Live, a company formerly owned by Clear Channel, and now owned by Live Nation -- covered a system and method of creating digital recordings of live performances. Clear Channel claimed the bogus patent created a monopoly on all-in-one technologies that produce post-concert digital recordings and threatened to sue those who made such recordings. This locked musical acts into using Clear Channel technology and blocked innovations by others.