Tech 101 - Episode 1

CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0087, 02/07/2009

Title/Description: Tracking Your Friends, News from TED, and other Tech News Headlines

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 87, recorded February 7th, 2009. 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 - Tracking your Friends

Google released a new product called Latitude this week to the moans and groans of numerous privacy organizations. The software detects the user's location via the user's cell phone, and shares that information with select friends. Using the software, you could see your friends as photos overlaid on a map showing their current location. The Web site suggests that businesses can use the new tool to track employee movements around the world, country, city, or property. Journalist Ann All of ITBusinessEdge points out that location can be faked by users making people think that you are someplace else. She believes that the only business advantage the software provide is for marketing and advertisers.

For the most part the new software seems to be creeping people out. One consumer advocacy group describes latitude as a "gift to stalkers, prying employers, jealous partners, and obsessive friends". Google has countered that it puts the user in control, with opt-in policies and robust privacy controls. Privacy International claims to have uncovered major security flaws in the software and considers the service to be more like phone tracking, than location sharing. It will be interesting to see how the Web 2.0 generation reacts to the new location aware technology.

Google launches software to track mobile users [Reuters]
Google Latitude Is for Business, if Your Business Is Advertising [ITBusinessEdge]
Google Latitude Spurs Privacy Backlash [Information Week]

Story 2 - News from TED

The annual TED conference is in progress in Long Beach California. TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design, and features the leading innovators in these fields presenting their most brilliant "ideas worth spreading".

Among the speakers at the conference was Bill Gates, who made an impression on the audience by freeing a jar full of mosquitoes as he discussed mosquito-spread malaria. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation works to fight diseases such as malaria around the world.

Juan Enriquez, chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy, impressed the audience with his view of the future of humanity. Enriquez believes that humanity is on the verge of becoming a new and unique species: Homo Evolutis. He believes that through advanced technologies humans will be able to take direct and deliberate control over the evolution of our species.

World-renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil announced a partnership between himself, Google, NASA, and the X-Prize Foundation, to create the SIngularity University. The university will collect the smartest and most passionate future leaders and arm them with the tools and network needed to tackle humanity's greatest challenges. The theory of the singularity is that advances in technology occur at exponential rates leading to a point in time in which massive changes will take place for humanity through technology. In his book "The Singularity is Near", Kurzweil explains why he believes the singularity will take place in the next few decades. The Singularity University is being created to apply the power of the singularity to challenges such as energy and the environment, disease and poverty.

Videos of all of the TED presentations are available at ted.com and definitely worth a look.

Google, NASA, Kurzweil take tech into the future with new university [Computerworld]
We are becoming a new species, we are becoming Homo Evolutis [Ars Technica]
Bill Gates playfully frees swarm of mosquitoes [Yahoo! News]
Google Backs Singularity University Vision for Leaders [NewsFactor]

And now for News Briefs.

India has unveiled a prototype laptop to bridge the digital divide that it claims can be manufactured and sold for $20. Analysts are skeptical.
Doubts over India's $20 Laptop [Technology Review]
It's official! The retirement of analog signal TV has been postponed until June 12. People still using rabbit-ears or old house-top antennae have another four months to switch over to digital.
Congress approves digital TV delay [Reuters]
A human error at Google resulted in every search result on the search engine to be flagged as a dangerous site for nearly an hour Jan 31st. The glitch caused a huge buzz on social networks as users tried to figure out what was going on.
Human error at Google sends the wrong message [Reuters]
Ebooks are coming! Ebooks are coming! Google has released a mobile version of its Google Book Search for the iPhone and other smart phones, while Amazon announced that it will be making its Kindle ebooks available for access by smart phones.
Google pushes e-books onto iPhone, Android devices [Computerworld]
Elgan: Here comes the e-book revolution [Computerworld]
The global recession continues to spread as Panasonic announces its plans to cut 15,000 jobs and close 27 factories.
Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs as it forecasts $4.3B loss (Computerworld)
In brighter news, Forrester Research is predicting that e-commerce sales should bounce back from the recession in 2010.
U.S. e-commerce comeback seen by 2010 [Reuters]
The British Government has announced plans to bring high-speed Internet to every home in Britain by 2012.
Britain Plans To Bring Broadband to Every Home by 2012 [NewsFactor]
According to privacy research firm, Ponemon Institute, data breaches cost US businesses $6.65 million in 2007, up 2.5 percent from 2006.
Data Breaches Cost U.S. Companies $6.65 Million [NewsFactor]
MySpace has booted 90,000 registered sex offenders off its site in response to pressure from attorneys general from Connecticut and North Carolina.
MySpace Turns Over 90,000 Names of Registered Sex Offenders [NYTimes]
Google Earth no longer stops at the seashore. Users can now explore the ocean floor, access undersea photos and video, and track geographical changes over time. Environmentalists like Al Gore who back the new technology hope that it will help people become aware of the effects of global warming.
Google Earth users can dive in the sea, fly to Mars [Reuters]
IBM has announced that it is working an the next most powerful supercomputer. The new supercomputer, Sequioa, will have the power of 2 million notebook computers - around 20 petaflops.
IBM computer will have power of 2 million laptops [Reuters]
Those who use Yahoo! Search will be excited by a new feature called Search Pad. The embedded application allows users to store search results, type notes, and copy and paste content from Web sites in order to more easily organize online research.
Yahoo Tests an Online Notepad for Its Search Engine [PCWorld]
Here's a new twist on hacking and malware. Residents of Grand Forks North Dakota discovered traffic tickets for parking violations slid under their windshield wipers. The ticket instructed them to visit a Website for information. At the official-looking Web site, were photos of numerous cars violating parking laws, and a prompt to download a tool to find their parking violation record and photo. Upon clicking the link, their computers were infected with malware.
Parking ticket leads to a virus [BBC]
At long last it appears that IPhone users will soon be able to view Flash content on the Web. APple and Adobe are working to create a Flash player that is both robust and light enough to run on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Apple teams up with Adobe for iPhone Flash at long last [Engadget]

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!