VOL III No 50 May 23, 2004: CYBERZONE/BIOZONE CALENDAR

A SERVICE OF CREATIVE RESOURCES, INC. by MARTY PLOTNICK

HAWAI'I CALENDAR:

****Thursday, May 27-- 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. UOP Brown Bag Seminar:
PauSpam - A Tech-preneur Success Story. University of Phoenix, Downtown Honolulu Campus, 828 Fort Street, Rooms 101/102. Free.  Local technology entrepreneurs, Hoala Greevy and Gordon Bruce, of PauSpam, Inc. will share how they started with a concept, developed it into a product, and became global software players in the anti-spam marketplace.

****NEW****Friday, May 28--11 a.m.--2 p.m. HTTA Annual Luncheon Topic: What happened to Act 221 during the 2004 Legislative session? How do these changes affect Hawaii's technology industry?
Waialae Country Club Donation: $75 HTTA/HVCA members, $100 non-members RSVP by May 24--1) Email to <mailto:annc@htta.org>annc@htta.org 2) Fax to 547-5880 OR simply mail with Check payable to "HTTA", HTTA, 1099 Alakea St., Suite 1800, Honolulu, HI 96813 For more information call Ann Chung at 547-5835 or go to http://www.htta.org/

****NEW****Tuesday, June 1-- 5:45 p.m. CYBERPIZZA -- U.H. MARINE SCIENCES AUDITORIUM.
Speakers: Two experienced Applications Engineers from Canoga Perkings (http://www.canoga.com)
Topic: Ethernet Extensions , Fiber Modems , WDM and Video transport over Fiber (both h.323 and MPEG).
http://www.cyberpizzahawaii.com/upcoming.html for details and parking information.

****Friday, June 4, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. "The Future of Information Security: Strategic Insights from Steve Northcuttî.  Presented by Infragard Honolulu, the Hawaii FBI field office, and the SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute. Sheraton Waikiki Hotel FEE: $20.00 payable to Infragard Honolulu Registration confirmed upon receipt of payment.  Registration Deadline: Register and pay by Wednesday, May 26, 2004.
No refunds will be made but substitutions will be allowed by notifying the program coordinator, Wayne (931-8288).
 

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

THINK ZONE

"DIGITAL PEOPLE": THE HUMANOID CONDITION "Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids" is a comprehensive yet compact survey of robotics and bionics. Author Sidney Perkowitz, a physicist at Emory University, cites heart pacemakers, cochlear implants and insulin pumps as proof that there are cyborgs among us, and describes "animal cyborg" builders....
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/books/review/16TERESIL.html

IRRATIONAL INVESTORS' ZONE

SWARMS OF IRRATIONAL INVESTORS EMERGE AFTER FOUR-YEAR SLUMBER CYCLE Irrational exuberance is in the air again, just four short years after The Dark Times. This according to MarketWatch columnist Paul B. Farrell, who feels that Google's forthcoming IPO has caused some hysterical amnesia among investors who should know better. "All you have to do is look at the Google phenomenon to see a perfect example of the irrational investor in action," Farrell writes. "For example, we know 2003 was a good year. But the irrational investor can't see past that short-term horizon to learn from the past. ...

 

Today's irrational investor has a new form of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder -- very little long-term memory function. ... As a result, the wisdom gained from history quickly disappears from the minds of irrational investors. They have not learned the harsh lessons of the nineties bubble. Nor the even harsher lessons of the bear market of 2000-2002. And if they have, they block or minimize what they learned. Long-term planning is unimportant to the irrational investor.

 

So it's no wonder Google's IPO appeals to seemingly logical, technologically-savvy, left-brained investors. Not only is their external world chaotic and unpredictable, their internal world is so preconditioned to short-term optimism that a Google looks like a great investment."
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B37D24E5F%2D702E%2D4399%2DADCD%2DDFD51184E2D3%7D&siteid=mktw

ARCANE KNOWLEDGE ZONE

WHEN BOSONS BECOME FERMIONS
There are two fundamentally distinct families of particles in nature: bosons and fermions. Being a boson or a fermion has profound consequences on the 'social behaviour' of a particle when it meets other partners. Whereas bosons tend to socialize and want to be as close to each other as possible, fermions are very independent and like to be on their own.  http://www.spacedaily.com/news/physics-04n.html

MAC ZONE

OPEN-SOURCE PROJECT TO OFFER MAC OS ON PCS A team of open-source developers has released software which emulates the PowerPC processor architecture and enables users to run Mac OS and some Unix OSes on PCs powered by Intel Corp. x86-architecture processors.
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=68BD2C:1F8551F

CYBERZONE

RIDING THE THIRD WIRE--ISPs PARTNER WITH POWER LINE PROVIDERS Some energy companies planning to offer broadband service over their power grids want to market technology and lease their infrastructure to Internet service providers, phone companies and other utilities.
http://www.phoneplusmag.com/articles/451carrier01.html

FCC ASKED TO EXAMINE A la CARTE CABLE TV Key members of the House Commerce Committee have asked the Federal Communications Commission for a detailed study on the feasibility of cable and satellite companies offering their subscribers the ability to pay for the individual channels they want. Most satellite and cable companies require their customers to subscribe to packages of channels, arguing the system allows them to maintain robust lineups at affordable rates.

 

But a la carte pricing, which would allow subscribers to pick and choose the channels they want, has been gaining momentum among some lawmakers and consumer groups as costs have risen and concerns have grown over televised indecency. Several parents groups have complained that consumers should not have to pay for channels that air content they find offensive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40996-2004May19.html

MACHINES ROLL IN TO CARE FOR THE ELDERLY "It's just a collection of bloody nuts and bolts." That was the damning reaction of a 69-year-old resident at a Scottish nursing home - let's call him William Brown - when asked if he would like a robotic pet as a companion to help relieve his boredom and loneliness. But once he realised that the robot could play games with him, he quickly changed his mind.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-04j.html

WHAT SCIENTIST SHORTAGE?
Obscured by the alarmist rhetoric are the repeated false alarms, erroneous forecasts and gluts of unemployed scientists -- rather than shortages -- that have been the reality in the scientific marketplace for decades.  http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W4RT0585CF5240E3B2B653FDE96E8

THE DIGITAL PAD AS ARCHIVE & PAGE TURNER Specialized software turns tablet computers into 21st-century sheet music. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/technology/circuits/20musi.html?8cir

BIO/MEMS/MEDICAL ZONE

SAN JOSE BIOSCIENCE CENTER
San Jose and the San Jose State University Foundation are launching a bioscience business incubator. Number of companies to be housed: Up to 15, in 13 offices and 21 laboratories. Types of companies:
Biotechnology, medical devices, nanotechnology and biological applications of information technology. Special features: Laboratory centrifuges, sterilizers, de-ionized water, compressed air and facilities for growing cells. Rent: $2 per square foot per month for office space; $5 per square foot for labs. Open to tenants: July 1 Full Story [San Jose Mercury News]

BIO BRIEFS ZONE

Phoenix--Europe, Canada looking to TGen for partnerships
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/855726

San Francisco--County Supervisor pushes tax break to lure life science firms
http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/855727

CHINA ZONE

THE WORLD's HOTTEST COMPUTER LAB
Half a world away from the calm beauty of Seattle and Puget Sound, there's a lab where software dreams come true. At Microsoft Research Asia, the drive to succeed is as intense as the traffic that roars by the front door in unbridled, chaotic fury. If Microsoft's other facilities around the globe seem idyllic, this one, in Beijing, China, is pure street. Nearby high-rises compete with smokestacks for skyline supremacy. Run-down buildings sit next to bustling consumer electronics markets and the Beijing Satellite Manufacturing Factory, where China conducts its spaceflight research.

 

 Microsoft's mantra: work hard to get in the door; work harder to survive; then work even harder because the real work-that of an information technology world leader-is just beginning. The buzz of Mandarin conversations, the window views of Beijing's sprawl, and the ever present hint of cigarette smoke provide a constant reminder: you're not in corporate USA anymore. The Beijing lab has already paid dividends in speech recognition, graphics, wireless multimedia-and the training of future Microsoft executives.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/huang0604.asp?trk=nl

APPLE iTUNES GOING TO CHINA
Apple Computer Inc., making a move into the potentially vast digital music market in China, said Tuesday it has struck a deal to have the iTunes jukebox program pre-installed in new PCs...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/19/BUG2S6O49E1.DTL

SHANGHAI TO BUILD "UNDERGROUND CITY"
Shanghai will build a 60,000-square-meter "underground city", the Jiefang Daily reported The Shanghai-based newspaper said that the multi-level "underground city", four-stories high in some places, will be equipped with stores, garages, restaurants and all kinds of entertainment centers and facilities. The "underground city", to be completed in 2006, has been listed as a major scientific and technological program by the Shanghai Municipality and is inviting public bidding, the paper said.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn//200405/18/eng20040518_143615.html

CHINA BECOME WORLD's SECOND LARGEST RADIO BROADCASTING MARKET China has become the worldís second largest radio broadcasting market with more than 1,000 broadcasters for the 1.3 billion people in 340 million families, next only to the United States, according to a recent rating by Nielsen Media Research. The rating reveals half of Chinaís population above the age of 15 listen to radio broadcasts every week. In the nationís capital Beijing, nearly 50 percent of the residents listen to the radio for 14.5 hours a week on average.

In its biggest city Shanghai, 93 percent of the citizens tune in radio programs for an average 14 hours a week. The figure is close to that of other international metropolises such as Sydney and Singapore.
(Source: CEIS New Service, 05/11/2004- Translated by Qiu Jing)

CHINA DEVELOPING ITS 1st SIGN LANGUAGE SYSTEM FOR ETHNIC DEAF MUTES
A sign language system especially for Tibetan deaf-mutes, had been developed and spread to various parts of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
This is the first sign language system designed for deaf-mutes of a minority ethnicity in China, which has 55 ethnic groups whose combined population account for about six percent of the national total.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn//200405/20/eng20040520_143860.html

WIRELESS & HOTSPOT HITS ZONE

Wi-Fi NETWORKS CAN BE JAMMED FROM PDAs
It was thought jamming would require powerful and expensive equipment, but Australian students have proved this wrong http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995000

COMETA SHUTS DOWN Wi-Fi NETWORK
Cometa Networks, a high-profile wireless venture backed by IBM, AT&T, Intel and others, has announced that is shutting down its Wi-Fi network. The company said it did not have sufficient capital to continue to execute its business plan.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/173933_cometa19.html

DEAL CELL PHONES LIVE AGAIN IN KOREA
With a massive turnover of mobile phones being discarded as subscribers upgrade to the latest polyphonic, photographic, personal communicator, what will become of the old but still functioning devices?
http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=11918&si=6417340513

Hotspot Hits

A St. John resort says families are bringing their own Wi-Fi; GRIC adds Air-Q locations; Austin parks get free Wi-Fi; http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,wjh,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

Broadreach research shows 3 out of 4 would use Wi-Fi on the train; Earthlink's wireless broadband is live; Airpath and STSN take the highroad; http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,wtt,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

SITE CITES

WIRELESS 911
Every year, more than 50 million 911 calls are made in the U.S. from mobile phones. This series of illustrations explains, step by step, how emergency services will locate 911 callers who are using mobile phones.
<http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=5fo,6npu,4rw,e821,hz8o,21tx,ixhf>http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/visualize0604.asp?trk=nl

REGULAR MINI DOSES OF CAFFEINE MORE ENERGIZING THAN MORNING MUG Many people start their day with a big cup of coffee, hoping that the jolt of caffeine will invigorate them. But there might be a better way to stay awake for long periods. Scientists say low doses of caffeine administered at regular intervals provide improved pick-me-up benefits.
http://cl.extm.us/?fe8e12797165037977-fe20167073670d7c7c1c79
 

 

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