CourseCast of the Week
Episode 0076,
11/22/2008
Title/Description: Electric Brains, Storm Arrives, News
Briefs
Welcome to Course
Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 76, recorded November 22nd, 2008. This
is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast
is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology
for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - IBM Working on
Electric Brains
IBM is collaborating with
five universities to create computing systems that simulate and emulate the
brain's abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition.
The group received $4.9 million as part of DARPA's Systems of Neuromorphic
Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics initiative, or SyNAPSE for short. The new
research project in cognitive computing will create a computing architecture
that simulates the biological functioning of the human brain to
"intelligently" solve problems in information management. With the
amount of digital data growing 60 percent annually, it is surpassing the human
ability to manage it. IBM and its partners hope to come to the rescue. An AI
system would be able to analyze vast amounts of data from many sources in the
blink of an eye, empowering businesses and individuals to make rapid decisions
in time to have a significant impact, the article at NewsFactor says. The
universities involved are Stanford, University of Wisconsin Madison, Cornell University, Columbia University Medical Center, and University of California-Merced.
IBM,
Partners Aim to Build Brain-Like Computer Systems [NewsFactor]
Story 2 - The Storm Has
Arrived
Customers were lined up
outside Verizon stores Friday in efforts to be among the first to get Verizon's
new iPhone competitor. The Blackberry Storm has arrived and includes a number
of firsts for the company. This is the first Blackberry product without a
keyboard. Instead it has a soft keyboard used via a patented clickable display.
It is also the first iPhone-like handset that Verizon has carried. Pent up
demand for an iPhone-style handset from Verizon customers created long lines
and many Verizon stores selling out of the Storm. The Storm costs $200 with a
2-year plan and includes a media player, full browser, 9 GB of storage,
world-roaming capabilities, GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and all of the
Blackberry services to which so many business users have become addicted. The
phone is so far receiving good reviews, with many declaring it a win for its
manufacturer RIM. Still many reviewers find it lacking when compared to the
iPhone 3G, complaining about an interface that does not respond as smoothly as
the iPhone's and the lack of Wi-Fi support --- but it is after all RIM's first
venture into this new arena.
Customers
line up for new BlackBerry Storm [c|net]
BlackBerry
Storm review [Engadget]
BlackBerry Storm
Rolls Out, But It's Not an iPhone [NewsFactor]
And that brings us to News
Briefs.
- The
MacArthur foundation has completed an in-depth study of how the Internet
effects teens. The study discovered that the Internet extends traditional
teen social interactions to a new medium, and enhances teen's ability to
communicate effectively, and engage in self-directed studies. Lead author
Mizuko Ito says behavior that parents see as wasting time is actually not
much different from what the parents did themselves at that age, but more
productive.
Study:
time kids spend online not wasted after all [Ars Technica]
Study
Finds Online Activities Help Teens' Development [NewsFactor]
- The state
of Tennessee has passed a law that requires colleges and universities to
implement measures to prevent copyright infringements and illegal music
and movie downloads over campus networks. It is estimated that complying
with the law will cost Tennessee students and taxpayers $13 million.
Tennessee
anti-P2P law to cost colleges over $13 million [Ars Technica]
- Google VP
and Internet founder, Vinton Cerf, collaborated with NASA engineers to
take Internet technologies into space. A deep-space network modeled after
the Internet was successfully tested last week by space shuttle
astronauts, and promises to provide faster, stronger communications
signals across the galaxy, and perhaps someday, will deliver YouTube to
Mars.
NASA
Successfully Tests 'Interplanetary Internet' [NewsFactor]
NASA
Successfully Tests First Deep Space Internet [NASA]
- Yahoo
founder Jerry Yang is stepping down from his CEO position in the company
as Yahoo faces dramatically falling stock prices and serious financial
troubles.
Jerry
Yang’s Entire Memo to His Employees on Stepping Down as CEO
[BoomTown]
- Think
Google Docs is all the rage? A recent study from Clickstream Technologies
puts the market in perspective. It shows only one percent of Internet
users in the study use Google Docs. More than 50 percent use Microsoft
Office exclusively. Of the one percent that used Google Docs, most also
use Microsoft Office. Five percent of the group used Open Office.
Most
users don't office in the cloud: 1% use Google Docs [Ars Technica]
- Microsoft
will be ditching its OneCare security software in favor of a No-Cost
anti-malware solution.
Microsoft
Announces Plans for No-Cost Consumer Security Offering [Microsoft]
- IBM's
Roadrunner supercomputer has retained its position as the world’s
fastest computer, narrowly beating out Cray's XT Jaguar high-performance
computer system. With a processing speed of 1.105 petaflops, more than 1.1
quadrillion calculations per second.
Roadrunner
Retains Supercomputer Crown [Headline Watch]
- Barack
Obama has earned the title of being the first president or president-elect
to deliver his weekly addresses via YouTube. Watch it at change.gov.
Obama
to deliver weekly address via YouTube [CNET]
Obama
appoints YouTube (Google) as secretary of video [CNET]
- Obama
will also be the first president to bring mobile technologies into the
White House. He and his transition team are debating on how he might be
able to retain use of his Blackberry and MacBook Pro while complying with
the transparent lifestyle and policies that are required of the president.
Obama May Have
to Surrender His BlackBerry [Headline Watch]
- Obama has
named two long-time advocates of Net Neutrality to head his Federal
Communications Commission Review Team. Analysts are predicting big changes
in the FCC under the new leadership.
Net
Neutrality Advocates In Charge Of Obama Team Review of FCC [Wired]
- Obama has
also named three members of a team that will decide on the technology
priorities of the new administration. The technology, innovation and
government reform policy working group will consist of former FCC staffer
Blair Levin, former chief council to the FCC Julius Genachowski, and Sonal
Shah, head of Google's philanthropic arm Google.org.
Obama
appoints US technology team [vnunet]
That's it for this week's CourseCast.
Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are
provided at the CourseCast Web site at coursecasts.course.com.
E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com.
Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power
-- of Technology!