[bbmf]

We all know this a year of change in the video game market place. The future of the industry is very much at a crossroads with the big 3 bringing out their new platforms and many questions remain unanswered. Maybe it's time to say "the Emperor Has No Clothes." The video game business is clearly broken and is in desperate need of fixing. This is not just another console transition—we are 6 years away from the last one and in a totally different world. Here are my observations on the problems with the current model.
1. Perception, Games as Media - Publishers and retailers still talk about video game "product" as if it's the inanimate DVD boxes that sell. A fundamental shift has happened and we need to look at video games as Media, not as products. Think about how the entertainment landscape has shifted since the last console transition—then there was no iPod, no MySpace.com and online gaming was still very limited in scope to hardcore gamers. Today games are competing for timeshare almost more than dollars. If your key demo is 15-34 there is a lot more choice of activity where they can spend time and money. Last year there were only 10 million people on MySpace, this year it's 100 million. If you don't think this is competing for the same entertainment time as a game then you're fooling yourself. If you think of "games as media" you get a new perspective on what's important for the product and ultimately the franchise. The key words of successful game products (like World of Warcraft) and new platforms (like Xbox 360) are community, participation and engagement. As games involve users more, they grow more attached and participation drives community, which in turn builds value. Think about ABC's Lost series and the almost rabid communities built around that and the fierce loyalty it's driven.
2. Upside Down Metrics - Will rising costs mean increased sales? Almost every technology driven business relies on the bell curve of early adopters at the front end with high costs and small demand then a transition into the mainstream with dropping costs, increased product supply and broad adoption. Think of anything from PCs to cell phones to DVDs. The game business has the opposite trends now. Currently a minority of released titles are profitable. With the next generation development costs are increasing rapidly, which means more units must be sold of each title to turn a profit. The PS3 requires a level of financial investment that clearly puts it beyond the impulse buy of a mainstream entertainment enthusiast. Will Blu-ray be enough to drive its sales to the mass market?
3. Increased Risk Means Decreased Creativity - The next-gen systems require publishers to place very large bets with each title. This will mean decreased risk taking and just regurgitated sequels of big brand franchises. How many publishers will take risks with multiplatform original IP? This is clearly not good news for the consumer as innovation has driven our industry from the beginning. The irony is that the amazing tools, capabilities and quality of the new systems may very well doom what is most important, which is the game itself. Reconciling what a creative team wants and what the executive suite needs in terms of profits will be a growing challenge for many companies.
4. Pricing - Talk is that games will be more expensive for next-gen systems. [They already are on Xbox 360 and will likely be similarly priced on PS3 - Ed.] Increasing prices is never a good stimulant of demand, especially when thinking about the cost of games vs. the cost of the competitive landscape of Internet services, music and other entertainment. This is a very sensitive subject for publishers and retailers and I'll dive deeply into it in the final column.
5. Growing the market - Where will the growth come from? Will the size of the hardcore audience suddenly double and triple or do we need the broad base of the mainstream to grow the business? The answer is obvious and so far the winners seem to be Microsoft with Xbox Live Arcade and possibly Nintendo with its easy to use and enjoy Wii games.
At a recent trade event, a game retail representative said that video games are "not a business but an industry." There is a lot of nervousness out there as to what's around the corner. Recently investor Stewart Alsop of Alsop Louie Partners said that this is not just another console transition but a fundamental change of market. What are the publishers' and retailers' strategies to react to the new landscape? Will online distribution be additive to the retail model or directly competitive? Is there a business model for many game publishers or is there just room for a few gorillas who ultimately consolidate everyone else?
The good news is that consumers love games and new markets have been opened with casual games appealing to women. The industry needs to rethink the fundamental premise of create a game, replicate disks, ship to retail, advertise and hope for the best.
Will our industry be able to adapt to make games into a growing business?

sa: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=13236

[bbmf]

The following is a response to what could indeed be described as extreme technology. Usually I am inpressed with new applications of hardware, computer systems, even some military hardware is fascenating in its engineering and form...however, while I am not sure that it is possible to leave new war tactics unanswered with new defence mechanisms, if this kind of pettition becomes necessary, we must ask ourselves two questions immediately;
1. What kind of weapon outweighs its effectivness with its potentilall for human destruction?
2. What kind of precidents do todays actions create for future conflicts.
One might say that there are some who would not ask such questions...I would respond that neglect of questions such as these direct Humanity squarely at the Exit.


To: U.S. Congress & Department of Defense
Whereas offensive weapons based on directed energy / high-powered microwave technology are reportedly capable of unspeakable inhumane acts, such as causing humans to instantaneously explode;
And whereas offensive weapons based on directed energy / high-powered millimeter wave technology are reportedly capable of grossly inhumane acts, such as causing humans to experience excruciating pain, without leaving physical evidence of exposure or torture, and are designed for the specific and sole purpose of inflicting pain, which is a direct violation of international laws and norms;
And whereas offensive weapons based on directed energy / high-powered microwave and millimeter wave technology are reportedly being developed by the U.S. military and, as some evidence seems to indicate, may have already been deployed by U.S. forces in Iraq, in direct violation of international laws and norms;
And whereas these offensive weapons based on high-powered millimeter wave technology are reportedly designed for the purpose of dispersing crowds by inflicting excruciating pain, and therefore pose a potential and dire threat to U.S. civil liberties, such as our First Amendment rights of peaceable assembly and to petition the government for a redress of our grievances;
And whereas these offensive weapons based on high-powered millimeter wave technology could potentially undermine the norms expressed within Sixth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment;
And whereas the development and deployment of these weapons could lead to the beginning of a new global arms race based on directed energy weaponry:
We the undersigned hereby call on the U.S. Congress to immediately enact an outright ban on the continued development or deployment by the United States of any offensive weaponry, other than those used for intelligence gathering and dissemination, based on directed energy and high-powered microwave or millimeter wave technology.
Furthermore, We the undersigned hereby call on the U.S. Department of Defense to immediately withdraw to U.S.-based secure storage locations any of these weapons which may have already been deployed on foreign soil or international waters.
Sincerely,

The Undersigned


sa: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/DeathRay/petition.html

[bbmf]

Researchers at Microsoft are working on an ambitious new project to hunt down and neutralize large-scale search engine spammers.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant's Cybersecurity and Systems Management Research Group has taken the wraps off Strider Search Defender, an experimental project that automates the discovery of search spammers through non-content analysis.
The project integrates technology from two previous Microsoft Research prototypes—Strider HoneyMonkey and Strider URL Tracer—and promises a new approach to removing junk results from search engine queries.
"The Web is so badly spammed, you can find a spam site on just about every search query," said Yi-Min Wang, the researcher heading up the project at Microsoft, in an interview with eWEEK. "We think this approach can pinpoint the big spammers and use their own tactic against them."
According to data from Automattic Kismet, a tool that helps bloggers thwart comment spammers, a whopping 93 percent of all blog comments are spam. With Strider Search Defender, Wang's team is taking a context-based approach that uses URL-redirection analysis to pinpoint spammers.
"For the spammers to be successful, they have to post millions of fake comments on message boards and blogs. That's the only way to get picked up by search engines. If we can find a way to pinpoint them before they get indexed by search engines, the problem is solved," Wang said.
"They want to be found by search engines, that's why they're spamming. Well, now we're finding you," he added.
The problem is tied to the use of spam blogs, or splogs, to earn money from pay-per-click advertising programs offered by Google, Yahoo and MSN. Content on fake blogs often contain text stolen from legitimate Web sites and include an unusually high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator. The sole purpose is to boost the search engine rank of the affiliated sites and cash in on ad impressions from unsuspecting surfers.
During the early stages of the Microsoft research, Wang discovered that successful large-scale spammers create a huge number of "doorway pages" on reputable domains to trick search engine users into clicking on a fake site. It is well-known that Google's BlogSpot, Yahoo's GeoCities and AOL's Hometown services are all used by spammers to create doorway pages.
The doorway pages are then spammed to millions of forums, blog comments and archived newsgroups, pushing the page up the search engine results for certain target keywords. A user clicking on a doorway-page link in search listings gets redirected to a target page controlled by the spammer or, in some cases, Wang explained, the browser is instructed to either redirect to or fetch ads listing operated by the spammer.

sa: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1988674,00.asp

[bbmf]

Security researchers have infected a Radio Frequency ID tag with a computer virus to show how the technology is vulnerable to malicious hackers.
The researchers warn that RFID tags could help mount many different types of attacks on computer systems.
Makers of radio tag systems were urged by the group to introduce safeguards to guard against RFID-borne bugs.
"This is intended as a wake-up call," said Andrew Tanenbaum, one of the researchers in the computer science department at Amsterdam's Free University that did the work revealing the weaknesses on smart tags.
"We ask the RFID industry to design systems that are secure," he said.
RFID tags are essentially smart barcodes that replace the familiar lines with a small amount of computer memory, a tiny processing unit and a radio. Information is downloaded into the tag and read off it via radio.
Many large companies are keen to use the RFID tags because they will help keep track of the goods they are shipping from warehouses out to stores or regional offices. Currently RFID tags are relatively expensive so most are used to log what is in boxes of goods rather than to label individual items.
However, many expect the smart tags to become ubiquitous as the price of making the devices falls.
In their research paper Mr Tanenbaum and his colleagues Melanie Rieback and Bruno Crispo detail how to use RFID tags to spread viruses and subvert corporate databases.


sa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4810576.stm

[bbmf]

Previously Intel had differentiated its "Extreme" line of processors by giving them larger caches, a faster FSB, Hyper Threading support, and/or higher clock speeds. With the Core 2 processor family, the Extreme version gets a higher clock speed (2.93GHz vs. 2.66GHz) and this time around it also gets an unlocked multiplier. Intel officially describes this feature as the following:
Core 2 Extreme is not truly "unlocked". Officially (per the BIOS Writers Guide), it is "a frequency limited processor with additional support for ratio overrides higher than the maximum Intel-tested bus-to-core ratio." Currently, that max tested ratio is 11:1 (aka 2.93G @ 1066 FSB). The min ratio is 6:1. However, do note that the Core 2 Extreme will boot at 2.93G unlike prior generation XE processors which booted to the lowest possible ratio and had to be "cranked up" to the performance ratio.
In other words, you can adjust the clock multiplier higher or lower than 11.0x, which hasn't been possible on a retail Intel chip for several years. By shipping the Core 2 Extreme unlocked, Intel has taken yet another page from AMD's Guide to Processor Success. Unfortunately for AMD, this wasn't the only page Intel took.
Complete review

sa: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2795

[bbmf]

I met with Wayne Wang andJacky Wu first, to discuss the company as a whole, its strategy for retail, their current product line and the basics of the R&D process for a new PSU product.
Sporting R&D teams in Virginia Tech, Harbin, L.A., Taoyuan, Shanghai and Shenzhen, each is helping research and develop the technologies helping FSP currently grow their PSU business faster than the market itself is.
A combined total of more than 300 engineers work across those R&D labs around the world, each sharing their developed technology with the other in the pursuit of better ways to make a supply. Wayne was keen to point out that FSP Group works as well as it does because the company puts investment in its people before anything else, including investment in technology.
One begets the other, so they say, and without the strong people the company claims it wouldn't have what it has. Always good to hear! It's claimed (and it seems) that the personnel investment and the tech sharing that happens between the R&D teams is what FSP are relying on to take them to the top of the PC retail space. With a new team coming on tap as we speak just to service that market, we wouldn't bet on it not happening over time, if FSP stay focussed.
They're number 3 in the desktop PC market right now, sat behind Lite-On and Delta (in a combination of all desktop sales from OEM to retail), and they're quite happy with that. They don't mind Delta and Lite-On scrapping over tiny margins to move serious volume, rather they'll take 3rd place from a combination of a very solid OEM business while they build up their retail presence and go after a market with much higher margins, and one that's entirely more receptive to innovation and quality than the OEM space is.
So their stance and intent is clear, and they're looking for their people, technology and R&D, and focus on different markets to take them where they want to be.
They use the upcoming Booster X3 VGA Power product as an example of how shared technology between the R&D teams has created a great product.
More

sa: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5975

[bbmf]

Intel adds another socket to the lineup, 800MHz FSB notebook processors and much more

Intel has announced its plans through Q2'07 for mobile platforms. The new roadmap includes many details about the upcoming 65nm Merom processor, also called Core 2 Duo for notebooks. Merom, the successor to Yonah, will come in two main waves, or "refreshes."
The first refresh, expected this August, will primarily be used for the Napa Centrino platform already available. The second refresh of Merom is slated for the Q2'07 launch of Santa Rosa Centrino -- the eventual successor of the Napa Centrino platform. AMD is also using the Santa Rosa code name, but for a completely unrelated Opteron Socket F processor due this July. Intel first announced details of Santa Rosa at the Intel Developer Forum this past March. Intel's roadmaps do not confirm the use of Robson NAND technology, although it was outlined during the forum earlier this year.
The initial batch of 65nm Merom processors, part of the Core 2 Duo family, will run on a 667MHz front side bus. The second batch will use an 800MHz front side bus and another new socket design: Socket P. At the heart of this Santa Rosa platform is the Crestline series core logics. Crestline is essentially the same as Intel's 965 chipset, but specifically tailored for notebooks and low power applications. Like the 945 chipsets shipping in Napa platforms, Crestline will have a "GM" and "PM" component; one for integrated graphics and one without, respectively.
The Centrino platform will get a new WiFi chip to replace the 3945ABG chipset used in Napa platforms today. The chip, dubbed Kedron for now, will integrated 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n in the final production. The 802.11n commission is still working its way through final draft specifications, but by the time Santa Rosa is ready in 2007, the finalized specification should not be a problem.
A ship date has not been set for the new Merom CPUs yet, but we do know the pricing slated for launch. Intel has added a fifth bin CPU to the lineup since our last roadmap, giving Merom seekers the ability to snag the Core 2 Duo processor for under $210.

Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Launch

Processor Clock FSB
Cache Price
Intel C2D T7600
2.33GHz 667MHz 4MB $637
Intel C2D T7400
2.16GHz 667MHz 4MB $423
Intel C2D T7200
2.0GHz 667MHz 4MB $294
Intel C2D 5600
1.83GHz 667MHz 2MB $240
Intel C2D 5500
1.66GHz 667MHz 2MB $209

Intel partners have confirmed to us that the Merom processors will require a BIOS update for the notebook when upgrading from a Core Duo Yonah system. Furthermore, Intel will still launch a Core Duo (Yonah) CPU this June 25th with a 2.33GHz clock. Notebook manufacturers will continue to use Core Duo processors in notebooks even after Core 2 Duo's introduction.
Intel's projections claim that by December of 2006 Merom will account for 35% of all Intel shipped mobile CPUs, and that dual core processors will account for 90% of all notebooks.

[bbmf]

Santa Rosa May Support CDMA-2000, WCDMA, EDGE
Intel Corp.’s next-generation mobile platform may get support for high-speed cellular networks, according to slides, which presumably came from Intel roadmap. While the support for additional communication capability is not compulsory, it is interesting to note that Intel did not decide to support looming WiMAX technology by the platform code-named Santa Rosa.
According to slides published by Chinese web-site HKEPC, Intel has a code-named Windigo technology that allows substitute to expensive proprietary cellular network cards. The Windigo is a set of chips as well as radio antenna that provide notebooks opportunity to connect to 2.5G (EDGE, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and 3G (CDMA-2000/WCDMA) networks without using specially designed cards, such as Vodafone Mobile Connect. End-users will have to plug-in their SIM cards into computers to connect.
Cellular networks that support EDGE technology, which are currently very wide-spread, can transfer data at the speed of up to 384kb/s, while CDMA-2000 and WCDMA have peak transfer speeds of up to 2.4Mb/s.
Earlier this year Lenovo said that select models of ThinkPad T60- and X60-series notebooks will feature integrated high-speed wireless support for VerizonWireless in the U.S. Additionally, customers in U.K., France and Germany will be able to get 3G connectivity from Vodafone, the world’s biggest carrier. Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess provides download speeds between 400-700KB/s. In future Lenovo ThinkPad laptops will feature High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology that allows up to 1.4Mb/s speed.
Lenovo is among the first companies to offer built-in broadband connectivity in its laptops. Nevertheless, such laptops are tied to a particular network operator and not all notebook users can enjoy wireless wide area network (WWAN) connectivity. Intel’s initiative is likely to help broader audience to get high-speed Internet virtually anywhere. Intel has been working on support of WWANs by mobile platforms for several years now.

SA: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/...718073705.html

[bbmf]

Researchers prepare an airship for a test flight of the “paint-on” antenna technologyAdvanced technology will transform communication, surveillance platforms
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- "Paint-on" antennas, designed to establish new high-altitude communications and surveillance platforms, successfully transmitted voice and data links as well as teleconferencing capabilities during test flights in the Nevada desert June 21 on board an SA-60 spherical airship.

RTI International and its research partners at Unitech, Applied EM, the International Communications Group, and TechSphere Systems International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cyber Defense Systems, successfully tested the antennas from several positions on the airship. The experiment provided the first opportunity to test and evaluate the electrical, electromagnetic and mechanical properties of the "paint-on" antenna technology during an actual flight.

sa: http://www.rti.org/page.cfm?nav=84&o...1FEA00CB5CADC3

[bbmf]

Foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and processor licensor ARM Holdings plc have said they have worked together on making a low-power ARM processor in 65-nanometer process technology.
The companies applied dynamic voltage and frequency scaling techniques to an ARM926EJ-S test chip implemented in the TSMC 65LP process.
ARM (Cambridge, England) and TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) claimed that the test chip achieved a dynamic power reduction of more than 50 percent compared with the same design in the same process without the benefit of dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. "We measured a dynamic power saving of just over 50 percent when scaling the ARM926EJ-S design from 1.2-V down to 0.8-V using our Intelligent Energy Manager implementation techniques," a spokeswoman said.
ARM and TSMC added that advanced power-gating technology reduced standby leakage by a factor of eight compared with the same circuit in the same process without the benefit of power gating and state retention.
ARM and TSMC are partnering on 65-nm and 45-nm technology development, and this project demonstrates the significant leakage and dynamic power reductions that we can achieve through close technical collaboration and implementation of fully functional silicon, said David Flynn, ARM Fellow, in a statement.
Power management features developed through the test chip program include multi-threshold voltage CMOS including dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) to reduce dynamic and standby (leakage) power for different operating conditions.
ARM's Intelligent Energy Manager software already supports dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, and is now being extended to include leakage control using power gating and state retention under software control, the companies said.

sa; http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=190500434

[bbmf]

S-LCD Corp., the liquid crystal display (LCD) joint venture between Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp.,
agreed on Tuesday (July 18) to take part in a bid by the government of the South Korean province housing the company's production base to create the world's largest LCD manufacturing cluster.
In a report, Samsung said S-LCD signed a memorandum of agreement with the government of Chungcheongnam-do Province. According to the MOA, S-LCD has agreed to invest $1.9 billion, with $950 million in foreign investment, by the end of 2007 to build a Generation 8 LCD production line on a 58,000-square meter site next to the company's Generation 7 fab in Tanjeong.
Meanwhile, the provincial government agreed to designate the Tangjeong area as a foreign investment zone and to support the project with a wide range of incentives, aiming to develop the world's largest LCD manufacturing cluster. Complexes for subcontracted suppliers will be located in the area, according to Samsung.
The local government is expected to create more than 1,000 new jobs in the region, generating yearly sales of 2.2 trillion won ($2.32 billion) by 2008.
When the Tangjeong complex is completed in 2015, it is expected to produce $30 billion worth of products and employ 50,000, the provincial government stated.

sa: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=190500477

[bbmf]

ipIQ, an independent technology analysis firm, has ranked Micron Technology Inc. the top semiconductor supplier in its 2006 Patent Scorecard, an annual industry-by-industry qualitative analysis measuring corporate innovation.
Micron (Boise, Idaho), which makes CMOS image senors and memory products, was ranked by the firm among the top companies worldwide securing patents, as well as generating premium quality patents. Micron has secured more than 15,500 issued patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other international patent offices, ipIQ noted.
In 2005, Micron maintained its position in the top 10 for the sixth consecutive year for annual issuances by receiving 1,561 U.S. issued patents, according to ipIQ.
The ipIQ Patent Scorecard tracks the U.S. patent portfolios of more than 2,500 of the world's top technology firms, and the largest of the 15 industries it tracks is semiconductors with an average of more than 20,000 patents per year. To identify each industry patent leader, ipIQ uses what it calls patent-quality indicators to analyze patent quality, technical power and breadth of impact for the year ending Dec. 31, 2005. For more information about the ipIQ 2006 Patent Scorecard, visit the website.

sa: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=190500619

[bbmf]

The Nanotech semiconductor
Nanotechnology the science of small things is becoming really big. On July 13, 2006 it was reported that researchers at the University of Toronto have produced a semiconductor device by painting a liquid carrier onto a piece of glass, which they claimed out performs conventional crystal-based devices. According to eetimes.com the Toronto team, heated nanometer scale particles of lead-sulfide (PbS) in a flask containing oleic acid (the main ingredient in olive oil). A drop of that solution was placed on a glass slide patterned with gold electrodes. After which the sample was spun around to spread the drop out to create a homogeneous continuous semiconductor film. The sample was then given a two-hour bath in methanol to prepare a 0.8-micron thick layer of the light-sensitive particles. The researchers said it was the first time a so-called "wet" semiconductor device beat a crystalline device showing that higher performance could be achieved with what is intrinsically a lower-cost process for preparation. You can view the full article on www.eetimes.com.
Nanotechnology to improve groundwater
Another interesting development that happened early this week involves nanotechnology to improve groundwater. According to labcanada.com a new research facility at the University of Western Ontario will help researchers improve groundwater through the use of technologies developed on the nanoscale.
"There is considerable interest in pumping nanomaterials into the ground where they can flow with groundwater to a contaminated region and convert hazardous chemicals into benign products like ethane and butane," says Denis O'Carroll, professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Current remediation technologies are rarely able to reduce contaminant concentrations below drinking water limits, but nanomaterials hold significant promise in achieving these goals, he adds. (www.labcanada.com)
Nanomaterials, promising a bright future
According to Nanovic (www.azonano.com) Nanomaterials are finding their way into consumer products more and more. Consumer product manufacturers will gain a huge benefit by introducing small amounts of nanomaterials in their products. The introduction of such nanomaterials enhances the existing properties and gives rise to new properties.

Key benefits from nanotechnology are seen in materials such as:
· Adhesives
· Lubricants
· Abrasives
· Manufactured devices
· Surface treatments
· Architectural surfaces
· Glasses

It's not just consumer products, nanotechnology today covers a wide range of other industries too. Thus, the potential benefits of the technology is also widespread. Telecommunications and Information technology could benefit in terms of faster computers and advanced data storage. Healthcare could see improvements in skin care and protection, advanced pharmaceuticals, drug delivery systems, biocompatible materials, and nerve and tissue repair. Other industry benefits include catalysts, sensors and magnetic materials and devices. It will soon be the cornerstone of every manufacturing industry says a Deloitte research trends report. For example, the vastly increased ratio of surface area to volume opens new possibilities in surface-based science, such as catalysis.
Nanotechnology promises breakthroughs that will revolutionise the way we detect and treat disease, monitor and protect the environment, produce and store energy, and build complex structures as small as an electronic circuit or as large as an aeroplane. It will have a fundamental impact on many sectors of the economy, leading to new products, new businesses, new jobs, and even new industries.
R&D magazine cited a survey of the global nanotechnology market. It showed that the market size for nanomaterials was roughly $7 billion in 2003 and it is projected to grow to over $20 billion by 2008. A few years back the market for nano devices was almost non-existent. "There is practically nothing that you could buy today," said Williams. "But the market will grow from nothing to over $5 billion dollars per year by 2008."
Political Patronage
Nanotechnology received huge patronage under former US President Bill Clinton. Neal Lane, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under Bill Clinton, said "If I were asked for an area of science and engineering that will most likely produce the breakthroughs of tomorrow, I would point to nanoscale science and engineering." Carrying forward the legacy, in 2003 Bush approved the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which authorizes expenditures for five of the participating agencies totalling $3.63 billion over four years.
The little big technology
Nano is being billed as the next big thing that's going to impact our lives, business and much more. Just this morning there was news that Mr Sabeer Bhatia plans to launch a "Nano City" in Haryana with an investment of $2 billion. The nano materials market itself is being projected at $20 billion by 2008.


sa: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/1...0200170001.htm

[bbmf]

The world's first bus service using a regular hydrogen fuel cell will begin on Saturday at a Japanese airport.
A 65-seat bus, manufactured by Toyota and Hino, will transport passengers to and from the Central Japan International Airport (Centrair) near the city of Nagoya in southern Japan, according to sources at Toyota.
"The airport was built on environmentally friendly principles, such as efficient use of energy and low pollution, so we have been happy to cooperate with Toyota on this project, and we hope we can use more vehicles like this in the future," Yuki Hasegawa, of Centrair's general affairs division, told vnunet.com.
The airport, completed last year, makes extensive use of solar panels and other green concepts.
The new bus is particularly notable because it uses pure hydrogen as fuel. Typically, fuel cells have used hydrogen in an intermediate format, such as methanol, because it is difficult to store and handle in its gaseous state.
In the bus, the gas is absorbed and later released by an alloy honeycomb inside the vehicle's fuel tank.
The fuel cell generates electricity which drives the vehicle's electric motor. The bus also uses a secondary battery for storing and reusing energy generated during braking.
Continued

sa: http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/216...enters-service

[bbmf]

to them and their peace
to their work, their power and their unity
it is dedicated to the collective quest for
knowledge, community, friendship, career;
and conquest...
this space is dedicated to goals, short and long term,
to success and to the people with whom we share
our successes
to greater aspirations and expectations
to all that could be, and becomes;
when we have worked hard and kept faith with
our dreams
this space...
is for everyone we meant to thank but did not
even though we felt it inside
and this space is especially dedicated to those
who caused us to reach out beyond
what was in front of us
to find something more