Week of Sun, 2007-09-16 00:00 to Sat, 2007-09-22 23:59

Seven servers on eDonkey were shut down this week after court injunctions in Germany.

This follows on from similar eDonkey server closures in Netherlands and France. Combined, these represent a major disruption to one of the top three file-sharing networks.

eDonkey is a peer-to-peer file sharing network widely used to swap copyright infringing music files. The network relies on servers for its effective operation. The servers are run by one or more individuals using software to enable users to find other users connected to the same server that have files the user wants to download.

BAE Systems shot two guided Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rockets from a U.S. Marine Corps Cobra helicopter.

The tests mark the first flights of the APKWS precision-guided weapon from an aircraft.

The flights, held in partnership with the U.S. Navy program office, were designed to confirm the APKWS rocket’s compatibility with the Cobra's carriage and launch systems, and to demonstrate that APKWS can be launched from the platform without requiring aircraft integration or modifications. The tests also proved again the weapon’s ability to acquire, track, and hit a laser-designated target.

Revolutionary high-tech play equipment to engage the ‘Playstation generation’ has just been launched in a bid to tackle childhood obesity by encouraging exercise that’s both challenging and fun.

With one in four children in the UK already overweight or obese1, finding new ways of encouraging children to get fitter has never been so important. The inventors of i.play believe that the fast-paced feedback and constantly changing goals of electronic gaming hold the key to children enjoying challenging physical activity without realising how hard they are working.

Visitors to Manhattan’s ECOFEST 2007 will witness the first of a fleet of fuel-cell Chevrolet SUVs that will soon be driving across metropolitan New York, fueled by hydrogen and emitting nothing more than water vapor.

Real drivers will participate in the world’s biggest fuel-cell test, involving more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell SUVs. The two-year pilot will begin in the New York metropolitan area at the start of calendar 2008.

Just as we get used to the idea of watching television over a phone line, along comes a new idea: broadband internet, TV and phone services delivered through ordinary power cables. European researchers have solved the formidable challenges of this new technology, and are leading the race to an international standard that could give us cheaper, easier broadband access.

A group of computer scientists, mathematicians, and biologists from around the world have developed a computer algorithm that can help trace the genetic ancestry of thousands of individuals in minutes, without any prior knowledge of their background. The team’s findings will be published in the September 2007 edition of the journal PLoS Genetics.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is examining several features on Mars that address the role of water at different times in Martian history.

Features examined with the orbiter's advanced instruments include material deposited in two gullies within the past eight years, polar ice layers formed in the recent geologic past, and signs of water released by large impacts when Mars was older.

The National Governors Association (NGA) has committed to promoting clean energy policies across the country as NGA Chair Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius officially launched the Securing a Clean Energy Future initiative.

Securing a Clean Energy Future will enlist the efforts of all governors to enact meaningful clean energy policies at the state level. The initiative has the potential to significantly alter the landscape of clean energy policy in the United States by serving as the first bipartisan, governor-led effort of this magnitude to address these critical issues. Its efforts will be guided by a task force comprised of forward-looking governors, representing a cross-section of the country, that share a common desire to advance clean energy ideas (full list appears below).

Researchers in the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science are building a robotic prospector for NASA that can creep over rocky slopes and then anchor itself as a stable platform for drilling deep into extraterrestrial soils.

Called "Scarab," this four-wheeled robot will never leave the Earth. But it will demonstrate technologies that a lunar rover will need to find concentrations of hydrogen, possibly water and other volatile chemicals on the moon that could be mined to produce fuel, water and air that are essential for supporting lunar outposts.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) has been awarded a contract to provide the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division with Hewlett Packard Superdome and Uplift Kits. The award will have a total package value of more than $16 million over five years, if all options are exercised.

Fresh fruits and vegetables have been in demand by orbiting astronauts since the early days of the space shuttle. But fresh produce can create a queasy bouquet in a closed space environment as it ages past its prime.

NASA has helped develop a product that thoroughly cleanses fruits and vegetables being sent into space, helping to increase their shelf life. Meanwhile, this product is ripe for the picking for consumers on Earth.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) today announced that it has filed the first ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) on behalf of its clients, two principal developers of BusyBox, against Monsoon Multimedia, Inc. BusyBox is a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities commonly used in embedded systems and is open source software licensed under GPL version 2.

Joint source channel coding (JSCC) is an unwieldy mouthful delivering hefty gains in wireless video transmission, potentially offering a 50% boost in bandwidth. The wireless world is sitting up and taking notice.

In grossly simplified terms, wireless data consist of a source which needs to be coded for transmission, and a channel code for error correction, which is set by the physical device, with both linked by a network.

For nearly 150 years, scientists have been puzzled by the bicycle. How on earth is it possible that a moving bicycle can, all by itself, be so stable? Researchers of the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), working with colleagues from Cornell University and the University of Nottingham, UK, believe they have now found the ultimate model of the bicycle. The researchers discuss their findings in the new edition of Delft Outlook, the science magazine of TU Delft.

Three new low power AMD Athlon™ 64 processors added to the embedded product lineup, giving embedded systems designers the benefits of AMD64 technology in a thermal envelope as low as 8 watts.

The AMD Athlon 64 processor Models 2000+, 2600+, and 3100+ feature power envelopes of 8, 15, and 25W maximum thermal design power, respectively. They support ECC memory for high reliability data applications and are especially applicable for systems such as Network Attached Storage (NAS), Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMCs) for the telecommunications market, and various single board computing and industrial implementations. These models will be generally available in Q4.

Ford's Aachen advanced research centre is part of a European research project which presented ideas such as 'path prediction' to help vehicles best deploy safety features on frequently driven routes.

Path prediction technology links a satnav system's historic data on most frequently driven routes with active safety features such as adaptive headlamps – which would be optimally controlled for known journeys' bends and corners.

As the PC industry experiences additional consolidation and concerns about the global economy are expressed, worldwide PC shipments are still on track to grow 12.3 percent in 2007 and 11.0 percent in 2008, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

Mobile PCs remain the PC market's principal growth driver, due to falling average selling prices, enhanced performance and the continuing spread of wireless access, all of which have improved the value proposition of mobile PCs relative to that of desk-based PCs.

MontaVista® Software, Inc. has joined the non-profit LiMo Foundation to help LiMo's mission of increasing the adoption of Linux operating system software in cell phones and other mobile devices.

Leading handset manufacturers such as NEC, Motorola, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, and others have made MontaVista the most widely used provider of Linux software to the mobile telephony market, and the fastest-growing commercial operating system (OS) provider in that market, according to analyst firm VDC. MontaVista Mobilinux provides an embedded Linux operating system optimized for mobile devices and a rich development environment. Mobilinux enables developers and manufacturers to deliver new handsets to consumers more quickly and with greater functionality, fast performance, and battery-extending power management. More than 35 million smartphones, cell phones, and other mobile devices run on MontaVista Mobilinux, far more than any other commercial Linux.

Development of Talisman M, the BAE Systems unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), is surging ahead following its inaugural sea trials in August. This new Talisman variant, designed specifically for mine clearance operations, undertook its first sea trials at the Royal Navy’s Defence Diving School on Horsea Island, Portsmouth.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Network General Corporation, in a combined cash, stock, and debt transaction currently valued at approximately $205 million. The acquisition, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed by early November. Network General employees will become NetScout employees, and the newly combined entity will be headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.

Commercial paid support offerings for Freespire users, paid support options are now available at http://support.freespire.org and offer commercial support services for Freespire.

Available from as low as $24.95 for a single support incident, paid support services assist users with such issues as OS installation support, networking, email set up, browser configuration, peripheral set up, and other important support issues.

A former computer systems administrator for Medco Health Solutions, Inc. pleaded guilty today to planting a “logic bomb” in Medco’s computer systems that was designed to wipe out critical data stored on more than 70 servers, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

During a plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares, Yung-Hsun Lin a/k/a “Andy Lin,” 51, of Montville, N.J., admitted that while he was employed as a system administrator at Medco’s Fair Lawn office he modified existing computer code and added additional code designed to wipe out computer servers on Medco’s network. Lin admitted that he scheduled the code to “detonate” on his birthday.

The WorldView-1 satellite for DigitalGlobe aboard a Delta II rocket have been successfully launched by the Boeing Company [NYSE: BA].

Lift-off occurred at 11:35 a.m. Pacific time from Pad SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Delta II rocket deployed the spacecraft approximately 73 minutes after lift-off.

Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for the Department’s Antitrust Division, issued the following statement after the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (CFI) issued its decision affirming the substance of the European Commission’s (EC) March 2004 decision against Microsoft:

“In light of the United States’ own antitrust case and judgment against Microsoft, and the importance of the computer industry to consumers and to the global economy, the United States has a particular interest in today’s CFI decision. The decision is both lengthy and complex, as befits the importance and difficulty of the issues raised by the EC’s case against Microsoft. It will therefore be some time before the full impact of today’s decision on antitrust policy in Europe will be apparent. We are, however, concerned that the standard applied to unilateral conduct by the CFI, rather than helping consumers, may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition.

What do video games and seismic explorations have in common? Both require very demanding computer applications that call for the ability to process massive quantities of data rapidly. Using computer technology originally co-designed by IBM for video-game consoles, University of Houston seismic researchers are employing this extremely fast technology to more effectively target oil reserves.

Jay Leno has become the latest person to receive keys to a BMW Hydrogen 7. Leno received his BMW Hydrogen 7 at his car garage in Burbank, California, which is fittingly a “green garage” that receives a great deal of its energy from steam power.

Running in hydrogen mode, the BMW Hydrogen 7 essentially emits nothing but water vapor, representing a major step in reducing harmful CO2 emissions. It is not a concept car, but a production model vehicle that has successfully completed the entire Product Development Process. While the BMW Hydrogen 7 is not for sale, it is considered to be a milestone in bringing forward hydrogen as the sustainable fuel for individual transportation.

GRDDL (pronounced "griddle") software can automatically extract information from structured web pages to make it part of the Semantic Web. Structured data with microformats in XHTML can can be ported to the Semantic Web, at very low cost.

GRDDL is the bridge for turning data expressed in an XML format (such as XHTML) into Semantic Web data. With GRDDL, authors transform the data they wish to share into a format that can be used and transformed again for more rigorous applications.

The F-15 Eagle test pilot settled into the cockpit of the fighter jet at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., awaiting takeoff with a 2,700 pound, 18-foot long missile mounted to the jet's centerline.

The mission, dubbed the "Celestial Eagle Flight," called for a nearly vertical ascent to 35,000 feet and firing the missile through earth's atmosphere to kill a satellite more than 2,000 miles away at an altitude of 300 miles.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has been formed to create a superspeed personal USB interconnect that can deliver over 10 times the speed of today's connection. The technology will target fast sync-and-go transfer applications in the PC, consumer and mobile segments that are necessary as digital media become ubiquitous and file sizes increase up to and beyond 25 Gigabytes.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0 will create a backward-compatible standard with the same ease-of-use and plug and play capabilities of previous USB technologies. Targeting over 10x performance increase, the technology will draw from the same architecture of wired USB. In addition, the USB 3.0 specification will be optimized for low power and improved protocol efficiency. USB 3.0 ports and cabling will be designed to enable backward compatibility as well as future-proofing for optical capabilities.

Each year, more than 200,000 car accidents occur in Germany. Car manufacturers devote much time, effort, and cost to developing new ways of protecting drivers and passengers. Along with the design of the car body, the steel grades used are of prime importance. In the event of a crash, the steel components must combine two different characteristics: they should be ductile to absorb most of the collision energy and at the same time have sufficient shape stability to protect the passenger cabin. At the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH (MPIE) in Düsseldorf, Germany, a joint venture of the Max Planck Society and the German Steel Institute (VDEh), scientists have developed a new type of steel for such future requirements. In case of a crash, this so called TWIP-steel (twinning induced plasticity) deforms but a forming capability (ductility reserve) remains. Each part of the steel elongates, then strengthens and passes on the remaining deformation energy to the surrounding parts, which then also starts to deform. Hence, by dispersing energy over the whole surface, the collision momentum is absorbed more efficient and the passengers stay safe.

The FTC today told the Maryland Task Force on Identity Theft that public organizations, including federal, state, and local governments, “play a critical role in guarding against misuse and unauthorized disclosure of the personal information they collect and maintain.”

Speaking before the Maryland Task Force to Study Identity Theft, Betsy Broder, Assistant Director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection said, “To succeed in the battle against identity theft, federal, state and local governments, working together with the private sector, must make it more difficult for thieves to obtain the information they need to steal identities, make it more difficult to use that information if they do obtain it, and assist victims when thefts occur.” The Maryland Task Force was established in 2005 to study the problems associated with identity theft in Maryland, consult with various entities, including the FTC, survey state agencies for compliance with laws regarding uses of Social Security numbers, and make recommendations for possible remedies to identity theft.

The latest Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XII released by Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) concludes that cyber criminals are increasingly becoming more professional – even commercial – in the development, distribution and use of malicious code and services. While cybercrime continues to be driven by financial gain, cyber criminals are now utilizing more professional attack methods, tools and strategies to conduct malicious activity.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced the addition of AMD Phenom™ triple-core processors. Offering state-of-the-art platforms and a next-generation architecture with expected availability in Q1 2008.

AMD Phenom processors with three cores are a response to demand for increased performance delivered by multi-core processors when running state-of-the-art applications. According to Mercury Research, quad-core processors represented less than two percent of desktop shipments in Q2 2007. AMD believes this suggests a need for a wider selection of multi-core solutions. Triple-core AMD processors may stimulate broader multi-core adoption with a product family that scales to more points-of-entry for the customer.

At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Intel Corporation President and CEO Paul Otellini showed the industry's first working chips built using 32 nanometer (nm) technology, with transistors so small that more than 4 million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Intel's 32nm process technology is on track to begin production in 2009.

Mozilla plans to develop Internet communications software based on the Thunderbird product, code and brand. The new initiative also aims to nurture a developer ecosystem in order to drive improvements through open source and community innovation, in the tradition of the Firefox web browser.

Dr. David Ascher, currently CTO and VP Engineering of ActiveState, will join Mozilla to establish a new company focused on mail. Ascher has been an active member of the Mozilla community since 2000, initially as the lead of Komodo, a Mozilla-based integrated development environment (IDE). He is an established leader in the open source community, including his role as a director of the Python Software Foundation.

A federal jury in San Francisco today convicted a former sales representative in California for her role in schemes to defraud the federal E-Rate program, the Department of Justice announced. Judy Green, of Temecula, Calif., was convicted on all charges in a 22-count indictment involving fraud, collusion, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy in connection with E-Rate projects at schools in seven states –Arkansas, California, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

Officials representing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Southern Company, KBR Inc. and the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) broke ground to begin construction of an advanced 285-megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facility near Orlando, Fla. The new generating station will be among the cleanest, most efficient coal-fueled power plants in the world.

Southern Company will operate the facility through its Southern Power subsidiary, which builds, owns, and manages the company's generation assets. It will be located at OUC's Stanton Energy Center in Orange County, Fla. Commercial operation is scheduled for June 2010.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a miniature sensor that uses polymer membranes deposited on a tiny silicon disk to measure pollutants present in aqueous or gaseous environments. An array of these sensors with different surface coatings could be used during field-testing to rapidly detect many different chemicals.

Ford's European Research Centre based in Aachen, Germany, today presented its results for PReVENT, a joint research project co-funded by the EU Commission for improved road safety by means of innovative active safety systems.

Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, opened the PReVENT conference and exhibition on the MOVEO test track in Versailles, France. More than 800 representatives from the fields of politics, the media and industry were expected to join this five-day event to experience and test a range of innovative active safety systems.

UCLA chemists working at the nanoscale have developed a new, inexpensive means of forcing luminescent polymers to give off polarized light and of confining that light to produce polymer-based lasers.

The research, which could lead to a brighter polarized light source for LEDs in laptop computers, cell phones and other consumer electronics devices, currently appears in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

An operation that downloaded onto consumers’ computers software that spawned pop-up messages claiming consumers had signed up for a “free trial” that had expired, and demanding payment to make the messages go away, has settled Federal Trade Commission charges that its practices violated federal law. The consent agreement requires the defendants to provide a way for consumers to remove the software, bars future downloads without consumers’ consent, and requires the defendants to pay more than $500,000 for consumer redress.

A review of data removed from Connecticut’s CORE-CT computer system by Accenture – a consultant to the Office of the State Comptroller and other state agencies – shows an “unfathomable” violation of information security, including nearly all state government bank accounts.

The information was contained on a backup computer tape stolen in Ohio in June. CORE-CT is the computer system that performs all the state’s payroll, personnel, purchasing, accounting, inventory and other functions. The stolen tape was being used in the development of a similar state government information system in Ohio.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has developed the industry’s first 60 nanometer (nm)-class 2 gigabit DDR2 DRAM and will begin mass producing it later this year.

Compared with 80nm 2Gb DDR2, the 60 nanometer (nm)-class with a speed of 800 megabits per second has improved DRAM performance up to 20%. Moreover, production efficiency for the new 2Gb DDR2 will be enhanced by about 40 percent using the finer 60nm-class process technology.

Nokia to acquire Enpocket (www.enpocket.com). Enpocket is a leader in mobile advertising; providing technology and services that allow brands to plan, create, execute, measure and optimize mobile advertising campaigns around the world.

Enpocket is a privately-owned company, established in 2001 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The technology that drives the Enpocket platform is a mobile advertising campaign management and delivery system distinguished by advanced consumer insight, targeting, and measurement. The platform can deliver mobile advertising across multiple formats including SMS, MMS, mobile Internet advertising, and video.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) reported an increase in malware volume and sophistication, the rise of exploit leasing and a lower number of vulnerability disclosures versus the first half of 2006 as part of its security statistics report for the first half of 2007. So far for the year, the IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) X-Force® research and development team has identified and analyzed more than 210,000 new malware samples, already exceeding the total number of malware samples observed over the entirety of 2006.

Future technologies for green, environmentally friendly vehicles and a sustainable transport infrastructure will be discussed this Friday (21 September 2007) at a one-day conference at Imperial College London.

The event, part of the European 'Mobidays' - Sustainable Mobility Days - project, will see leading experts from across Europe meet to outline current research aimed at reducing the environmental impact of road transport.

ALBERT BRYNDZA, also known as “Kortelio,” age 35, of Parlin, New Jersey, was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to three years of probation, the first six months of which BRYNDZA must serve confined to his home. Judge Chatigny also ordered BRYNDZA to pay a fine in the amount of $7500 and to perform 120 hours of community service. On March 8, 2005, BRYNDZA waived indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. This matter stems from a multinational software piracy investigation known as “Operation Higher Education.”

T-Mobile USA, Inc. and SunCom Wireless Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TPC) have entered into a definitive merger agreement for the acquisition by T-Mobile USA of all of the outstanding shares of common stock of SunCom, for an aggregate of approximately $2.4 billion in cash and assumed debt. This includes cash payment of approximately $1.6 billion and $0.8 billion net debt. T-Mobile USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT).

The second successful test flight of the Small Diameter Bomb I (SDB I) Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) has been conducted by the Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] on Sept. 14 at White Sands Missile Range.

The flight, along with an autopilot performance flight on July 11, is part of the first phase of a $27 million U.S. Air Force Joint Capability Technology Demonstration contract.

Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania have developed nanowires capable of storing computer data for 100,000 years and retrieving that data a thousand times faster than existing portable memory devices such as Flash memory and micro-drives, all using less power and space than current memory technologies.

Ritesh Agarwal, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and colleagues developed a self-assembling nanowire of germanium antimony telluride, a phase-changing material that switches between amorphous and crystalline structures, the key to read/write computer memory. Fabrication of the nanoscale devices, roughly 100 atoms in diameter, was performed without conventional lithography, the blunt, top-down manufacturing process that employs strong chemicals and often produces unusable materials with space, size and efficiency limitations.

Idearc Inc. (NYSE: IAR) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Switchboard.com and other online directory assets from InfoSpace Inc. (NASDAQ: INSP) for $225 million.

The addition of Switchboard.com and other InfoSpace directory assets will significantly increase the scale of Idearc’s online directory platform, Superpages.com.

The transaction will be financed with a mix of cash and borrowings under Idearc’s existing revolving credit facility.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) will license unique 2D and 3D graphics technology to Freescale Semiconductor.

Freescale will incorporate AMD’s industry-standard OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.0 graphics core technologies in its i.MX applications processors. AMD’s graphics technology is optimized to deliver superior battery life and visually stunning performance for key mobile applications such as gaming, navigation and user interfaces. i.MX processors with this graphics technology will be available for portable media players, portable navigation, home electronics and automotive infotainment applications.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has developed an ingenious system called SiSi (Say It Sign It) that automatically converts the spoken word into British Sign Language (BSL) which is then signed by an animated digital character or avatar.

SiSi brings together a number of computer technologies. A speech recognition module converts the spoken word into text, which SiSi then interprets into gestures, that are used to animate an avatar which signs in BSL.

These days, a drive across a bridge is not always a pleasure cruise. Mindful of the war on terrorism, it can often be a cautious experience.

In one scenario, a terrorist sets off a series of bombs to weaken the cables and the key structural connections of a major city bridge, all during rush hour. Not easy to do, but now thinkable. This summer, the possibility of sabotage was quickly examined -- then dismissed -- when the I-35 West bridge in Minneapolis tragically collapsed into the Mississippi River.

A system of smart sensors that can automatically inspect structures for damage, potentially saving millions in servicing and support costs, has made its first flight on a BAE Systems Hawk.

The flight trial has demonstrated for the first time, the operation of a fully integrated automated damage detection system within a flight environment. This is an important step towards the eventual goal of self-inspecting aircraft.

Ion propulsion involves the ionization of a gas to propel a craft. Instead of a spacecraft being propelled with standard chemicals, xenon gas (which is four times heavier than air) is given an electrical charge, or ionized. It is then electrically accelerated to a speed of about 25 miles per second. When xenon ions are emitted at such high speed as exhaust from a spacecraft, they push the spacecraft in the opposite direction.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 33 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) which bans teenage drivers from using all electronic devices – such as cell phones, pagers and laptops – while behind the wheel.

According to the California Highway Patrol, cell phone use is a leading cause of distracted-driver accidents in California. A study conducted by Ford Motor Company revealed that teenage drivers are four times more distracted than adult drivers by cell phone use.

The World Wide Web Consortium issued a critical Web standard for extending the features of Web services and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications. Web Services Policy enables developers to meet requirements for secure transactions, reliable messaging, addressing metadata, and other scenarios, in modular fashion. With Web Services Policy 1.5, SOA developers can enable extensions to a service without disruption or requiring changes to lower level service descriptions. The extensions themselves (consisting of what are called "policy assertions") are defined by other specifications.

The E-Disk® Altima™ Flash SSD series, from BiTMICRO Networks, is a comprehensive set of solid state disk technologies for mainstream enterprise, commercial, industrial and military storage. Featuring the company’s cutting-edge EDSA™ flash I/O controller and LUNETA™ memory flash interface ASICs, E-Disk® Altima™ SSD brings high-capacity and high-performance yet cost-effective solid state storage to servers, storage networks, as well as other storage applications that are subjected to extreme operating conditions.

Kyocera Corporation is the sole supplier of photovoltaic (“PV“) modules for a super-large-scale solar electric generating system in Salamanca, Spain, that will meet the needs of about 5,000 private households. The facility, known as Planta Solar de Salamanca, incorporates about 70,000 Kyocera PV modules in three separate arrays on a 36-hectare (89-acre) site. Its peak rated output of 13.8 megawatts makes it the largest PV system ever created using Kyocera PV modules exclusively, and one of the largest PV systems in the world.

A December 2006 graduate of Texas A & M University has been convicted of recklessly accessing and causing damage to the protected computer system of his former alma mater, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew R. Bland, III, announced today.

At a hearing this afternoon before U. S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, Luis Castillo, 23, who graduated with a Bachelor's degree in computer science from Texas A & M University in December 2006, admitted to recklessly gaining unauthorized access to the University's domain controller, code named "Ajax," a protected computer system, and capturing 133,000 Net ID's and passwords of unsuspecting students and employees of the University.