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VOL III No 43 April 4 2004: CYBERZONE/BIOZONE CALENDAR
A SERVICE OF CREATIVE RESOURCES, INC. by MARTY PLOTNICK
HAWAI'I CALENDAR:
****NEW****Friday, April 2 --11:30 am - 12:30 pm. UOP Brown Bag Seminar:
"Globalizing Your E-Business" Speaker: Mr. Debasis Bhattacharya, 16-year veteran of the software industry. Participants will learn how mall and medium-sized e-businesses can cost-effectively serve global customers with the same high level of quality that they reserve for local customers. University of Phoenix, 828 Fort St., Rooms 101/102. Free. For more information, call 536-2686 ext. 108 or e-mail Steven.Schoen@phoenix.edu.
****NEW****Tuesday, April 6--5:45 p.m. CYBERPIZZA -- U.H. MARINE SCIENCES AUDITORIUM.
Speaker & Topic: Bob Sigall
Author of The Companies We Keep: Amazing Stories about 450 of Hawaii’s Best Known Companies http://www.cyberpizzahawaii.com/upcoming.html
for details and parking information.
****May 10-12, Asia Pacific Conference on Emerging
Technologies: The Challenge of the Mobile Revolution and the Digital Divide. Sponsors: East-West Center and the Korea Information Strategy Development Institute (KISDI). Renaissance Hotel in Seoul, Korea.
Early Registration Deadline April 26,
For more information and registration materials:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/sem-bp.asp
Registration Online: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/index.asp
General East-West Seminar information: Marilu Khudari, khudarim@eastwestcenter.org, or phone 944-7384.
UH CALENDAR http://dbserver.its.hawaii.edu/calendar/
HTDC CALENDAR
http://www.hitechhawaii.com/webevents.asp
IF YOU HAVE CALENDAR ITEMS, SEND THEM TO martycri@lava.net
HONOLULU JOBS AVAILABLE
Decision Research Corporation has open positions for Business Analysts and Software Developers in their Honolulu offices.
BUSINESS ANALYSTS are needed. Experience in the P/C insurance industry preferred.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS are needed for internet enabled application.
Experience with .NET, Java, VB, SQL Server, Oracle, COBOL and Windows platform are highly desirable. Working knowledge of ASP, JSP, HTML, JavaScript, ActiveX, XML, PERL, web services, and object technology.
A bachelor's degree in ICS or MIS preferred
Email resumes to hr@decisionresearch.com. Please include the position and "CZ-0319" in the subject line.
OLD BLACK MAGIC ZONE
CONTRACT AWARDED FOR NEW ERIC DATABASE
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $34.6 million contract to build a new database system for ERIC, the world's largest education database. ERIC dates back to 1966 and provides access to educational content for educators, researchers, and the general public. The new system, to be built by Computer Sciences Corporation of Rockville, Md., will be designed to provide fast, direct, online access to ERIC's more than one million bibliographic records. Users will be able to search on a single Web site for journal articles, abstracts of documents, and, where possible, the full text of articles. The site will also include links to commercial sites where users can purchase full texts.
Information Today, 29 March 2004
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd040329.shtml
LOVE ZONE
THE BRAIN IN LOVE
Most people think of romantic love as a feeling. Helen Fisher, however, views it as a drive so powerful that it can override other drives, such as hunger and thirst, render the most dignified person a fool, or bring rapture to an unassuming wallflower.
http://cl.extm.us/?fe8c1270776d02797d-fe20167073670d7c7c1c79
THINK ZONE
RESEARCHERS QUESTION I.T. SUB CULTURAL VALUES Blaming complexity, usability, and the fickle nature of new technology when I.T. projects fail may be inaccurate, say researchers at Syracuse University. The I.T. subculture could be the real culprit.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/23563.html
LOOK, LISTEN, WALK
You've seen them. Maybe you're one of them. They're the zombies of the New Media Era: the unthinking, the unseeing, the undead. They are all around us. The guy who sits on the subway, his headphones obscuring his hearing, so closed off from the people next to him that he starts singing out loud. The woman talking on her cell phone walking down the street, her eyes half shut, her thoughts miles away, until she sinks up to her ankles in a puddle of melting snow. These people are using mobile technology to cut themselves off from the world. What if we could use these same technologies to engage with the world more fully? That, writes columnist Henry Jenkins, is the goal of "augmented reality"--the concept of heightening our awareness of the real world by annotating it with information conveyed by mobile technologies.
<http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=5fo,5xjx,4rw,hedc,1yrc,21tx,ixhf>http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_jenkins040204.asp?trk=nl
CAPITAL ZONE
BOOM TO BUST: FUTURE CLODY FOR MANY VC-BACKED STARTUPS Across Silicon Valley, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs filing IPO registrations are slapping each other on the back, congratulating one another on surviving the bust. But the CEOs of some 5,000 other startups may not be in such a celebratory mood.
A total of 560 startups formed during the boom went out of business in 2003 - but 5,350 remain, according to a new study by VentureOne and Ernst & Young. Closures, acquisitions and some public stock offerings have pared that overhang from 5,858 companies at the beginning of last year.
GLOOM LIFTS FOR VENTURE CAPITAL
The past two years have been brutal for emerging technology companies seeking venture capital investments. But venture capitalists are loosening up their purse strings for the next batch of startups.
<http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=5fo,5xjx,4rw,lp9n,kvz,21tx,ixhf>http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/innovation30404.asp?trk=nl
CYBERZONE
YOU HAVE CLEAN LAUNDRY
Technology is taking laundry from the clothesline to online. Carnegie Mellon University is testing a Web-based system that sends e-mail to students when their laundry is done and allows them to log on to an Internet site to check the status of machines.The e-Suds system, developed by USA Technologies of Malvern, is being used in three dorms this spring. The school expects to offer it to its nearly 4,000 students who live on campus by the fall semester. Because Carnegie Mellon doesn't charge by the load - instead, it increased housing fees by $75 per year, which is about $45 cheaper than a student's estimated yearly laundry costs - worries people may be more likely to wash single items.
http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=6713
NEW MARKING PROCESS TRACES SPAMMERS, PIRATES AND HACKERS Penn State researchers have proposed a new marking process for Internet messages to make it easier to trace the originators of spam, illegal copyrighted material or a virus attack. The new marking scheme produced less than one percent false positives per 1000 attacking addresses in simulated distributed denial of service attacks and even fewer false positives and zero missed detections tracing addresses transferring copyrighted material in another simulation.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cyberwar-04f.html
GATEWAY TO CLOSE ALL RETAIL STORES
Gateway to Lay Off 2,500 With Closing of 188 Retail Stores The announcement comes a month after Gateway completed its $290 million acquisition of eMachines, a value-oriented PC maker. Sales to Be Online, Via Other Retailers
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W3RT0596CD10D0E3B2B653E152FC5
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/technology/02gateway.html?th
SUN SETTLES WITH MICROSOFT & ANNOUNCES 3,300 JOB CUTS Struggling server maker Sun Microsystems Inc. reached a sweeping,
$1.6 billion settlement with Microsoft Corp. and said Friday it plans to cooperate with its longtime nemesis, a company it had branded an unrepentant monopolist. The surprise agreement was accompanied by Sun's announcement that it is cutting 3,300 jobs and that its net loss for the fiscal third quarter will be wider than expected. The cuts represent 9 percent of Sun's work force of more than 35,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Sun-Microsystems.html
SAN FRANCISCO STUDENT BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION Students to showcase business plans / USF competition draws 25 teams from around world Napster founder Shawn Fanning, whose online music-sharing firm shook up the recording industry before lawsuits forced it into bankruptcy, will help judge a University of San Francisco international.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/01/BUG7H5UL5H1.DTL
BIO/NANO/MEMS ZONE
LIQUORICE DRUG BOOSTS MEMORY IN ELDERLY
The modified extract improves the verbal memory of older people within a few weeks, a new study finds
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994829
HEARTBEATS WARN OF SUDDEN DEATH RISK
How do you tell a healthy heart from one that could stop without warning? By measuring variations in the length of the heartbeat, according to a team of researchers in Greece. The finding could provide a way to screen for people at risk of sudden cardiac death.
Such people's heartbeat often looks perfectly healthy by conventional criteria.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994832
CORNELL GETS INSTITUTE FOR NANOSCALE SCIENCE A $7.5 million grant to Cornell University from Fred Kavli and the Kavli Foundation of Oxnard, Calif., will endow the newly established Kavli Institute for Nanoscale Science at Cornell. The institute will be based on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, N.Y. The Kavli think tank will aim to address the major challenges and opportunities for science at the atomic and molecular scale: to bring together the world's seminal thinkers in nanoscale science; to foster a collaborative, multidisciplinary research community at Cornell; and to define a path for progress in creating significant new science.
http://www.nanoelectronicsplanet.com/nanochannels/funding/article/0,4028,10499_3324591,00.html
MILLENNIAL NET HOPES TO HOOK UP 21ST CENTURY SENSOR NETWORKS While sensors have countless uses within devices, Millennial Net Inc.
of Cambridge, Mass., is looking at the bigger picture as it gets hundreds of sensors to self-organize into wireless networks.
Together, they serve as commercial and environmental nervous systems.
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7629
BIO BRIEFS ZONE
Boston--Critical Therapeutics files for $100M IPO
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787588
Columbus--IT focus replaced by life sciences
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787589
San Francisco--USDA licenses Bio-Rad test to combat mad cow disease http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787590
Seattle--Deal diary: Xcyte not alone in unexciting results
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787591
Seattle--Biotech investors show more interest this year
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787592
Washington--Virginia gives university bio researchers a little help
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787593
Washington--Some relief for biotech's financial headaches: While many young firms still hurt for money, those with well-advanced products are getting a healthy dose of cash
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/787594
CHINA ZONE
SHANGHAI PROPERTY GOES ONLINE
Shanghai Real Estate Exchange Center launched an online trading system, aiming to improve transparency and efficiency in the sector.
The new system requires that developers provide information about their projects for sale, including the number of available apartments, their prices and locations. Liu Jilai, official of the Shanghai Real Estate Exchange Center, said the system will put a stop to market speculation caused by unbalanced information.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/BAT/91725.htm
TV SHOPPING BEAMS INTO SHANGHAI
As of April 1, Shanghai residents have received a five-hour TV shopping program every day through the movie channel of Shanghai Oriental TV. The broadcasts are the result of the newly established joint venture between Shanghai Media Group, the parent company of Oriental TV, and CJ Home Shopping of South Korea.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/BAT/92007.htm
CHINA RETALIATES FOR U.S. VISA PROGRAM
China decided to take countermeasures against the US decision to fingerprint most Chinese who will go to the United States. The measures include granting ordinary visas and levying a visafee for US personnel who hold diplomatic or service passports who are traveling for personal purposes according to their intention and requiring interviews with some US citizens who are applying for visas to China in the Chinese embassy and consulates. The decision also banned US citizens from applying for visas upon their arrival, noting that the visa application must have been granted before they enter China.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200403/31/eng20040331_138977.shtml
WIRELESS ZONE
SBC & UPS TO SET UP 3,000 Wi-Fi HOT SPOTS
SBC Communications said it would set up WiFi networks in more than 3,000 UPS retail stores through 2005, according to the Wall Street
Journal. The company charges $19.95 a month for the service, but
analysts expect the price to drop as more "hotspots" come online.
The company said its goal is to rollout 20,000 WiFi hotspots in 6,000 locations in the next three years.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/23575.html
FIGHTING FOR SEATTLE's COFFEE HOUSES
Telerama's CEO has left his company's home town of Pittsburgh to take on Starbucks, Cometa and others in what may be hotspot central for the country.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,t4j,1,kesb,jz3p,jcj3,9ffi
HOTSPOT HITS
The latest in public access Wi-Fi: Libraries in Long Island and England get free wireless; Sprint users can roam at Truckstops; Pasco, Washington, gets a Wi-Fi antenna; and more.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,t16,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi
RFID ZONE
WAL-MART HITS SNAGS IN PUSH TO USE RADIO TAGS TO TRACK GOODS Wal-Mart has been forced to revise its timetable for requiring suppliers to put radio frequency tags on their shipments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/technology/29radio.html?th
SITE CITES
GET CYBERZONE ON THE INTERNET
Effective today, the CYBERZONE/BIOZONE CALENDAR is posted on the internet.
http://www.pacific-tier.com/cyberzone/marty_plotnick_cyberzone.htm