ICANN Might Pre-Register gTLDs To Placate Critics

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Anti-vaccine fear versus science

At this year's Autism One conference in Chicago, I flashed more than once on Carl Sagan's idea of the power of an "unsatisfied medical need." Because a massive research effort has yet to reveal the precise causes of autism, pseudo-science has stepped aggressively into the void. In the hallways of the Westin O'Hare hotel, helpful salespeople strove to catch my eye as I walked past a long line of booths pitching everything from vitamins and supplements to gluten-free cookies (some believe a gluten-free diet alleviates the symptoms of autism), hyperbaric chambers, and neuro-feedback machines.

To a one, the speakers told parents not to despair. Vitamin D would help, said one doctor and supplement salesman who projected the equation "No vaccines + more vitamin d = no autism" onto a huge screen during his presentation. (If only it were that simple.) Others talked of the powers of enzymes, enemas, infrared saunas, glutathione drips, chelation therapy (the controversial -- and risky -- administration of certain chemicals that leech metals from the body), and Lupron (a medicine that shuts down testosterone synthesis).

Offit calls this stuff, much of which is unproven, ineffectual, or downright dangerous, "a cottage industry of false hope." He didn't attend the Autism One conference, though his name was frequently invoked. A California woman with an 11-year-old autistic son told me, aghast, that she'd personally heard Offit say you could safely give a child 10,000 vaccines (in fact, the number he came up with was 100,000 -- more on that later). A mom from Arizona, who introduced me to her 10-year-old "recovered" autistic son -- a bright, blue-eyed, towheaded boy who hit his head on walls, she said, before he started getting B-12 injections -- told me that she'd read Offit had made $50 million from the RotaTeq vaccine. In her view, he was in the pocket of Big Pharma.

Hallowe'en is safe, your kids are safe, the only scary thing is the warnings

It's not that I'm cavalier about safety. I'm just a sucker -- so to speak -- for the facts. And the fact is: No child has been poisoned by a stranger's goodies on Halloween, ever, as far as we can determine. Joel Best, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware, studied November newspapers from 1958 to the present, scouring them for any accounts of kids felled by felonious candy. And...he didn't find any. He did find one account of a boy poisoned by a Pixie Stix his father gave him. Dad did it for the insurance money and, Best says, he probably figured that so many kids are poisoned on Halloween, no one would notice one more...

It's not just the fact that churches and community centers are throwing parties so that kids don't go out on their own. It's not just the fact that Bobtown, Pennsylvania has gone so far as to "cancel" Halloween altogether -- for the sake of "safety." (The authorities there were surprised to find this decision unpopular.) It's not even that those of us who'd like to hand out homemade cookies know they'll be instantly tossed in the trash.

No, the truly spooky thing is that Halloween has become a riot of warnings that are way scarier than the holiday itself. The website Halloween-Safety.com recommends that if your child is carrying a fake butcher knife, make sure the tip is "smooth and flexible enough to not cause injury if fallen upon."

Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of October 25, 2009

FROM GAMERTELL - Haven’t caught all of the Gamertell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! Netflix signs with Sony, service available through PS3 soon“Sony and Netflix have just teamed up. Soon, though Sony and Netflix don’t exactly state when, PS3 owners will be able… MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

10 Essential Windows 7 Downloads (PC World)

A Clever New Approach To Desalination

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bridge opens China's 'last virgin island' for development

Weekend Update 10.31.09—Heartbreaks, Heart Trobs and Heart Attacks [Digital Daily]

Boomtown’s week began on stage in front of thousands of chanting women. No, she wasn’t filling in for Oprah; Kara was doing something much cooler. She got snagged to moderate a panel entitled, “Changing the World Through the Web” at Maria Shriver’s 6-year-strong women’s conference. Her panel included a group of VIPs from Facebook, Kiva, Blue Slate Digital and the twitterific Ashton Kutcher. With Mission: Kutcher accomplished, Kara followed up with the complicated world of MicroHoo (MSFT, YHOO) and offered analysis on the STILL pending search deal. Moral of the story: Commentators should give it time, and Carol Bartz should quit with the Jerry Yang jabs. Boomtown rounded out the week at TEDMED. The conference covered the scalpel’s edge of med tech. And yes, in case you were wondering, synthetic skin feels gross.

Digital Daily covered the real-time search war early in the week when Microsoft’s Bing search folks announced a non-exclusive deal with twitter to feed on their data stream. The deal did put Bing out front for once, but no one knows if the new info source will turn into profits for either search group. In a post foreshadowing a grizzly murder, John posted results from a ChangeWave research study that placed the iPhone within striking distance of overtaking Blackberry in the Smartphone market. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that grizzly, but its Halloween. Digital Daily rounded out the week by adding iPhone to the pantheon of cat, dragon, rat and rooster that occupies the rim of your Chinese restaurant placemat. The iPhone officially made it to China this week, though without it’s signature wifi, and at a much heftier price point.

Peter Kafka lives at the crossroads of media and tech, and that’s exactly where he was almost run down by the Windows 7-Family Guy episode. Microsoft apparently bailed out of the deal when they took a closer look at what was actually inside. From the “not-so-fast” files, Peter covered Interpublic Group’s (IPG) report that ad revenues aren’t quite as sunny as some might have suggested. Those grim economic times trickled down to AllThingsD’s big brother late in the week, when The Wall Street Journal closed its Boston bureau. The move resulted in nine job losses, despite the significant resources being poured into the paper by News Corp. (NWS).

The leaves are changing color over at Personal Technology, and Walt sensed that chill in the air meant it was time for his annual fall computer-buying guide. OS choice was a big discussion; but he also touched on the latest must-haves in the memory, graphics, processor and form-factor categories. With a cup of earl grey to fend off Autumn’s chill, Walt trudged out to Mossberg’s Mailbox this week and came back with a fistful of letters. He dutifully replied to question about migrating Microsoft files to a Mac running windows, as well as clarification on the Windows 7 upgrade process and the rumor of a pending Apple device below a laptop but above an iPhone.

Katie finished it all off with a deep dive on the two latest netbooks. The HP Mini 31 (HP) and the Nokia (NOK) Booklet 3G both offer high style compared to their competitors, and each boast much higher screen resolutions than previous models. Though she came down on the side of the Nokia, Katie remarked that neither option would disappoint.

Bundle up as you head out for tricking and treating, and learn from weekend update’s mistakes. Remember to check and make sure that is actually a mask before you take that new friend home.

Wi-Fi-free iPhone officially lands in China - CNET News

China Daily

Wi-Fi-free iPhone officially lands in China CNET News A saleswoman introduces Apple's iPhone to customers in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday. It could be the Year of the iPhone in China, as Apple officially started selling its iconic smartphone in the world's ... Apple Launches iPhone in ChinaThe Money Times GyPSii On-Deck for Apple iPhone Launch in ChinaWELT ONLINE UPDATE 1-China Unicom Q3 pft weak, trend to continueReuters ChannelWeb -Apple Insider -TopNews United States all 319 news articles »

What Happened To the Bay Bridge?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lawmakers Caught Again By File-Sharing Software

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For The Future Of The Media Industry, Look In The App Store

The following guest post was written by Edo Segal (@edosegal).

Media scarcity is dead. In the future my son will have a flash drive that he will pay $29 for that will have the capacity to hold all movies and music ever released by a major label, studio or tv/cable network. It will take 30 seconds to clone the data over the network to a friend who will pay $14.99 for a device with double capacity a year later. How does the media industry survive such a coming disruption?

For many of us that have been in this game for a while, the word “convergence” harbors some shameful vibes. It conjures up many false hopes, dashed dreams and misfires. Nevertheless, I would contend that convergence is upon us and it has arrived from an unexpected delivery man: Steve Jobs. Apple has created a media consumption experience that has reduced friction to such a point that soon the consumer will not know if he is buying music, a movie or a game. The notion of App is changing. The lines between these different forms of media are quickly blurring and soon will be completely artificial. Already these distinctions are merely fossilized conventions that stem from consumers’ discovery habits. As those evolve, like learning that it is easier to go to Amazon and search to find a product than going to aisle 9 at the store. The coming confusion of the consumption experience where a user won’t care or know if what they are buying is a movie, a game or a music track presents vast opportunity.

The prospects for the old media industry appear bleak, as the rest of the media industry follows the music industry into decline. Indeed in my discussions it is apparent that the smart money in Hollywood already sees the writing on the wall. While the trend will take longer, it is clear which direction the wind is blowing. The main lesson to learn is that the market will punish you if you don’t deliver the goods.

But the entertainment industry has a vested interest in the success of this new type of convergence, as within it lies the secret to its continuing prosperity. The only way to block the incredible ease of pirating any content a media company can generate is to couple said experiences with extensions that live in the cloud and enhance that experience for consumers. Not just for some fancy DRM but for real value creation. They must begin to create a product that is not simply a static digital file that can be easily copied and distributed, but rather view media as a dynamic “application” with extensions via the web. This howl is the future evolution of the media industry. It has arrived from a company that is delivering the goods. Apple has made it painless for consumers to spend money and get the media they want where they want it, proving that consumers are happy to pay for media if delivered in ways that make it easy and blissful to consume. For all the criticism Apple draws on the walled garden nature of its business, it has even come around to stripping DRM and allowing users to download mp3 files.

Even today if you look in the iTunes App Store you will see a myriad range of “Apps” that are just evolved ways to package media. While the traditional part of iTunes still mirrors the product taxonomy of a Tower Records, the App Store is creating a folksonomy of media products. It is where new ideas evolve, thrive and go instinctively based on market power. The App Store is where the action is. This is where evolution is unfolding as direct consumer spending spurs media development.

In preparing this post, Erick asked me, “Is Apple is a media company?” I thought about that and the answer is really that Apple is what media companies are missing. The missing part of the puzzle is what made media conglomerates such juggernauts in the past. Namely, distribution. The internet is stripping them of their control over the how their products are distributed. Media companies used to be able to create scarcity merely by delaying the distribution of their products across different channels—theaters, pay-per-view, DVD, cable channels, network TV, and so on. The internet disrupts this ability to create media scarcity. It is such a huge disruption, in fact, that it threatens the fundamental profit engine of the media business.

Both during my time interacting with senior management at Time Warner (where I worked at AOL after it acquired the company I founded, Relegence) and with some of my current portfolio companies that are working with the film and music industries, it is clear to me that many of the smart people running these media companies understand which way the wind is blowing. The music industry, as the one that has suffered most of the carnage, is ripest for change. Executives there are receptive to new ideas and move forward quickly, leaving me somewhat optimistic. It is also clear to me that it is hard for the industries which have not endured their level of pain to flee the golden cage of media’s past. But for those firms which rise to the occasion, there will be vast rewards. People’s hunger for good content will not subside. It will continue to grow, but so shall the unbearable ease of pirating it. The premise of extending the media experience to the cloud is a core necessity for the survival and growth of the media industry. It is the only way to for media companies to weather the coming tsunami of increased bandwidth and the ever open web. Hybrid media packaging with both files and an application layer in the cloud is core to a lucrative future.

For a great example of how change is happening see what Britney did today at @BritneySpears. It was, I believe, the first time a major artist premiered a music video on Twitter. This drives people to Amazon or iTunes to buy the track but in the not too distant future it could be the start of much more than that. A complete experience will unfold that will be interactive and convert to new revenue streams. Not just a purchase of a track but of an app that pulls consumers into an experience and further promotes user engagement and virality. Media becomes a platform with a funnel of traffic and conversions to alternative revenue streams. All boosted by the frictionless billing that Apple has created in the App Store. Media executives will have realtime metrics for their success as it maps to revenue and in turn this will accelerate innovation and help redefine media.

If you are a media exec and you look at your product and at the end of the day it’s a digital file that can be copied, then you have a serious problem with your format. Think of your product like a pie chart of the value you are giving the consumer. If 100% of the value is in that file, it is not a sound approach for defending the future of your business. However, if a portion of the experience is derived thorough an integration with a Web component that will yield additional value in functionality or social elements, then it will be more sustainable. There are many such examples emerging in the app store (I am T-Pain, TapTap and many more). Applications that let consumers interact with the media. Create things and share them with their friends. These will not only make the consumer the one who markets your product, but also create an unprecedented level of engagement. That level of engagement will directly map to reduction in piracy as consumers will pay for this experience and wont be able to copy it. Sell access and experiences, not media files.

Guest author Edo Segal (@edosegal) has launched and sold several companies. In 2000 he founded eNow, which he sold to AOL in 2006 (after it was renamed Relegence). Today, he runs his Incubator/Investment vehicle Futurity Ventures, which recently launched a new search engine for wisdom.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Saturday Morning Science Experiment: B.F. Skinner Makes A Pigeon Do His Bidding

Another fun experiment you can try at home! Although, given pigeons' tendency to carry disease, I'd recommend training a cat, spouse or younger sibling. The video, sadly, winks out right as the expert is being brought in to explain Skinner's research. So, instead, enjoy this explanation of the pigeon experiment and its practical value, courtesy PBS:

With pigeons, he developed the ideas of "operant conditioning" and "shaping behavior." Unlike Pavlov's "classical conditioning," where an existing behavior (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (ringing of a metronome), operant conditioning is the rewarding of a partial behavior or a random act that approaches the desired behavior. Operant conditioning can be used to shape behavior. If the goal is to have a pigeon turn in a circle to the left, a reward is given for any small movement to the left. When the pigeon catches on to that, the reward is given for larger movements to the left, and so on, until the pigeon has turned a complete circle before getting the reward. Skinner compared this learning with the way children learn to talk -- they are rewarded for making a sound that is sort of like a word until in fact they can say the word. Skinner believed other complicated tasks could be broken down in this way and taught. He even developed teaching machines so students could learn bit by bit, uncovering answers for an immediate "reward." They were quite popular for a while, but fell out of favor. Computer-based self-instruction uses many of the principles of Skinner's technique.

Scuba Diver Unearths Ancient Mayan Temple

Controlling Games and Apps Through Muscle Sensors

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fox News: Watch John mumble about gadgets while wearing orange socks

Enjoy. We did.

Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: World Wide Web grows wider, more worldly

Rachel Maddow, host of all that is worth watching on television, very kindly invited me back to The Rachel Maddow Show tonight for a "Moment of Geek" on the big ICANN news today: starting soon, domain name extensions will be available in non-Latin character sets. Chinese, Greek, Arabic, or any one of the more than 20 official languages in India. In other words, the alphabet you're reading this blog post in will no longer be the default for web addresses.

You can watch the video here.

When Ms. Maddow's team invited me in earlier today, the first thing I did was phone Hong Kong-based journalist and global 'net culture researcher Rebecca MacKinnon (Twitter: @rmack), who was in Seoul attending the big ICANN meeting. She has written extensively on this topic, and helped me parse the news.

First up for the "non-Latin" extensions? Country-specific domain names (.cn for China, for instance). Later on, everything else (.com and the like). Don't expect to see "dot china" in Chinese characters right away, explained Rebecca: starting November 16, registrars can begin to apply, but it'll be a while before the domains show up in the wild.

Some US tech reporters covering the news ran with but what about meeee! headlines. "This is a bad day for the English language," wrote one. Well, someone call the whaambulance -- it's an awesome day if you read in Farsi or Hebrew. It's not about our language, it's about the languages spoken by the next billion people to come online, and most of them don't speak English or write in a language based on our Latin character set.

As MacKinnon reminded me from Seoul, today's announcement follows earlier news that ICANN, formed ten years ago under the auspices of the US Dept. of Commerce, will no longer answer directly to the US, but to a sort of congregation of world governments.

Many groups around the world from non-governmental organizations and civil society still have concerns about ensuring their voices are heard.

"What if a human rights group in Canada wants to register a domain name in Chinese or Arabic, in the native-alphabet country extensions for China or Saudi Arabia," she said, "Can the countries involved deny that request? Those are the sort of challenges to free speech that lie ahead."

More online:

• Web Addresses Now Can Be All Greek to You, ICANN Rules (Wired)
• Latin to lose its domain over Internet addresses (Reuters)


• At last, the web goes truly worldwide (Independent)


• Making 'net global (Arab News)
• A more connected and equal world (Independent)

Hebrew, Hindi, other scripts get Web address nod (AP)





Previously:
• Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: John McCain vs. the Internet - Boing Boing


• Yet another reason McCain's "Internet Freedom Act" is dumb, Net ...


• Ralph Lauren's Photoshop of Horrors







Source: Boing Boing | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:58 am

Gore 'certain' Obama will attend climate talks

Al Gore is confident that US President Barack Obama will attend key UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, the former US vice president and Nobel peace laureate said in a German magazine...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:56 am

What’s Next For Some Of the Biggest Gadgets Of 2009?

It's time to put on the Swami hat and predict just what we have in store for 2010 and beyond. Considering all of the movement in the gadget world in the past few months, I'm fairly sure most of this going to be accurate. Given the current status of some of these technologies, it's hard to prognosticate very far out but there are a few things that have become apparent over the past year, especially the rise of Android and our expectations for the iPad. Without further ado... the envelope please: Apple TV -> 27-inch iMac -> Wall Mount for 27-inch iMac It's sad but true: Apple doesn't care about Apple TV. All the real brain power is going to the desktop and laptop and probably onto the iPad. They've made it clear with the 27-inch iMac that they can make a high-resolution screen and powerful computer inside of a case the thickness of a college textbook. Who needs a TV, let alone an Apple TV? The obvious conclusion here is that the 27-inch iMac becomes a real Apple TV. The Mac Mini already makes a great multi-media system and a quick update to FrontRow, now considered abandonware, may make it a great 10-foot interface.




Source: TechCrunch | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:38 am

What’s next for some of the biggest gadgets of 2009?



It’s time to put on the Swami hat and predict just what we have in store for 2010 and beyond. Considering all of the movement in the gadget world in the past few months, I’m fairly sure most of this going to be accurate. Given the current status of some of these technologies, it’s hard to prognosticate very far out but there are a few things that have become apparent over the past year, especially the rise of Android and our expectations for the iPad.

Without further ado… the envelope please:

Apple TV -> 27-inch iMac -> Wall Mount for 27-inch iMac

It’s sad but true: Apple doesn’t care about Apple TV. All the real brain power is going to the desktop and laptop and probably onto the iPad. They’ve made it clear with the 27-inch iMac that they can make a high-resolution screen and powerful computer inside of a case the thickness of a college textbook. Who needs a TV, let alone an Apple TV?

The obvious conclusion here is that the 27-inch iMac becomes a real Apple TV. The Mac Mini already makes a great multi-media system and a quick update to FrontRow, now considered abandonware, may make it a great 10-foot interface.

iPhone 3GS -> iPhone 3GS++ -> The Return of His Noodly Majesty


I don’t even know what to say about this. All I can say is the iPhone 3GS++ had better be amazing and encourage the second coming of the FSM or else I may go Android.

Touchscreen Laptops/Desktops -> No Touchscreen Apps -> Nothing

Touchscreen devices are a way to show off Windows 7’s multi-touch capabilities but I haven’t had much luck using them or luck finding apps to run on them. Obviously folks like Sony and HP have been making bespoke media and recipe box applications but, as we all know, the world doesn’t run on dreams and rainbows. Tablets have a better chance of taking off than partially stationary devices like desktops and, to an extent, non-convertible laptops.

2D TV content -> Avatar -> 3D TV Content

You may not know it or want to accept it, but 3D TV is coming. After James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D hits the big screen and then the small screen, everything will be coming up 3D.

You’ll have to wear sad, sad glasses but many Blu-Ray disks will soon ship with 3D content on the disk and require you to wear those sad,sad glasses. Add in 3D content for gamers and you’ve got a movement. We’ll have to quietly accept this until we have true holographic systems.

I personally think this will ruin the process of watching movies and playing games with friends and family as everyone without glasses is left out.

iPod Touch -> iPad -> Countless imitators

The iPod Touch and iPhone will obviously evolve into something like a Tablet? But then what? Manufacturers have been trying to sell tablets for years and Apple will show them how its done. Once the iPad drops, expect countless-iPad-alikes until someone hits the low price and high feature sweet spot that Apple tends to ignore.

A few weak Android phones -> Droid -> Lots of Great Android Phones, Death of Symbian and WinMo


While I’m not as high on the Droid as others at CG/TC/MC, I’m actually quite interested in what Droid means for Android. The phone is strikingly well-made, the OS is solid and clean, and the keyboard is usable. This means that Android is ready for prime time and that Symbian and Windows Mobile had better watch out.






Source: CrunchGear | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:36 am

Automotive Dealers Learn How to Leverage Google's Secrets to Achieve Google-Like Success in Online Vehicle Advertising

FirstLook Executive Applies Google Relevance Model to Automotive Internet Business CHICAGO, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimizing relevance for consumers has been the key to...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

Australian oil spill 'putting animals at risk'

A massive oil leak off Australia's northwest coast poses an "immediate risk" to dozens of marine species, with untold numbers possibly dying and sinking to the Timor Sea floor, a report has
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:23 am

Greenland, Canada Commit To Polar Bear Protection

Canada and Greenland are taking steps to protect populations of polar bears that live between the two countries, officials announced on Friday.Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced this during a conference call after he signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) along with Greenland's Minister of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture, Ane Hansen and Prentice's Nunavut territory representative Daniel Shewchuk.The deal suggests the writing of a partnered committee that would advocate a total yearly number of polar bears to be harvested and an equal separation of the hunt.Hunting polar bears has been illegal since 1973, but the Arctic's indigenous peoples do not follow this ban due to reverence of their traditions, regardless of scientists' oppositions over how the pelts have been separated.The committee will also align science, conventional information and outreach programs."The government of Canada is committed to working collaboratively to protect one of Canada's true natural, and national, symbols.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:20 am

Lessons From Oil Industry May Help Address Groundwater Crisis

Although declining streamflows and half-full reservoirs have gotten most of the attention in water conflicts around the United States, some of the worst battles of the next century may be over groundwater, experts say – a critical resource often taken for granted until it begins to run out.Aquifers are being depleted much faster than they are being replenished in many places, wells are drying up, massive lawsuits are already erupting and the problems have barely begun.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:18 am

We Read it So You Don't Have to: 'Superfreakonomics' - Newsweek

Treehugger

We Read it So You Don't Have to: 'Superfreakonomics' Newsweek Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, the authors behind Freakonomics, are back with a sequel, inevitably titled superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. Four observations from the ... Book review: 'SuperFreakonomics' — It all adds upSan Jose Mercury News Hardcover: US: Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's sophomore slumpTaipei Times Jon Stewart Endorses Geoengineering, Scares Audience (VIDEO)Treehugger True/Slant -Hillsboro Times Gazette -The AtlanticWire (blog) all 33 news articles »


Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:08 am

Leaf Beetles Show Environment's Role In Formation Of New Species

Image Caption: This is Scott Egan, left, and Daniel Funk with willow leaf beetle, left, and maple leaf beetle. Credit: Composite by Michael Smelzer, photos by John Russell, Vanderbilt University
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:05 am

The Valley of My Dreams: Why Silicon Valley Left Boston’s Route 128 In The Dust

No one disputes that Silicon Valley is the global capital of the tech world. But this wasn’t always so. It is the Valley’s dynamism and networks which have given it an unassailable advantage. Silicon Valley has simply left rivals like Boston’s Route 128 in the dust.

I mentioned a little bit about my first Columbus Day in California in a previous column. But I didn’t tell you the whole story. I was invited to three amazing events on the night of October 12. Venture capital firm Alsop-Louie—known as one of the wackier and unconventional VC firms—invited me to their legendary Columbus Day party. On that same evening I had an invite from Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director of the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California-Berkeley to attend a dinner party for his forum. Down in Silicon Valley I also had an invite to speak at an event with India’s former Minister of Disinvestment, Arun Shorie—the guy who was once in charge of privatizing the country’s moribund nationalized firms and who is as close as you can get to financial royalty in India.

It was a really hard decision which one to pick. And I found myself wondering, where else in the world would I have to face such a decision? The answer is nowhere. Silicon Valley, which has expanded to embrace the entire Bay Area as an engine of entrepreneurship and innovation, is a unique place of powerful and concurrent overlapping networks. As a new arrival to Silicon Valley and San Francisco, I had read about this and did believe it. But it was hard to understand to what degree these types of concentric circles of connections were pervasive in the Valley. I am now studying how some of these networks develop and their influence on success rates in entrepreneurship.

I am focusing on what is possibly the largest of these networks, an organization called The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). This started as an Indian network and served as a mechanism for those from the Subcontinent to help each other. Silicon Valley is the birthplace of TiE and remains its stronghold. But at the latest TiE Global Conference, held in Silicon Valley a few weeks ago, an interesting debate broke out among the Board of Directors. While the organization remained largely Indian in composition, a significant number of non-Indians had joined TiE and become very active members (some had risen to the role of chapter president). Some members of the board thought it was time to change the name of TiE from The Indus Entrepreneurs to The International Entrepreneurs. They eventually agreed to drop the “Indus” from the name and to just call the organization TiE. The fact that such a debate even took place illustrates both the power of networks to embrace outsiders and draw them in, as well as the power of these networks, when unconstrained by convention or conservative establishment rules, to grow in unexpected ways. It’s a metaphor for Silicon Valley.

Which brings me to Boston. Ever heard of Route 128? To my surprise, neither have any of my students at Duke or the entrepreneurs I’ve met in Silicon Valley. I’m surprised because it wasn’t so long ago that Silicon Valley was considered a poor cousin of Boston’s tech center—a cluster of technology companies located along this freeway which partially rings the city. Starting in the 1960s and on through the 1980s, Route 128 was, if anything, more closely associated with tech than Silicon Valley. Today few young technology workers even know where Route 128 is located, let alone its importance in the tech world. Silicon Valley has simply left Boston’s tech center behind.

In the 1980’s the Silicon Valley and Route 128 looked very similar—a mix of large and small tech firms, world class universities, venture capital, and military funding. If you were betting on one you’d have been wise to bet on Route 128 because of its longer industrial history and proximity to a large number of high quality educational institutions (Harvard, Yale, Brown, MIT, Tufts, Amherst) and proximity to Bell Labs and other large corporate research centers. You remember Bell Labs, right? It’s where the transistor was invented. Now, aside from big biotech breakthroughs, Boston is a distant second nationally to Silicon Valley in technology entrepreneurship. So, what happened to Boston?

A young professor at UC-Berkeley, AnnaLee Saxenian, wrote a book in 1994 which answers this question. At a time when Boston still thought it was the powerhouse of the tech industry, Saxenian declared Boston the loser in the tech race and explained why it would only fall further behind. This book was titled Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. It kicked off a firestorm of criticism from the Boston elite. Saxenian also alienated friends at her alma mater, MIT.

She noted that Silicon Valley had an amazing dynamism about it. There were extensive professional networks, job hopping was the norm, information was exchanged openly, and the culture encouraged risk taking. The Silicon Valley ecosystem supported entrepreneurial experimentation and collective learning. In other words, Silicon Valley was a very open network—a giant social networking site working in analog before the concept of such a thing even existed.

This organizational mechanism was in sharp contrast to that of Route 128. Dominated by large, vertically integrated, and secretive minicomputer producers such as DEC, Wang, Prime, and Data General. Technology, skill, and know-how were trapped within the boundaries of the large corporations.

The differences were evident at many levels: venture capitalists in Silicon Valley had deep roots in local networks and were far more nimble than their east coast counterparts; educational institutions and research labs in the West partnered with local startups as well as more established firms, while those in the East worked only with the largest corporations; and the meritocratic openness of Silicon Valley made it a magnet for non-traditional talent and immigrants.

By the mid-1990s the east had missed the shift from minicomputers to personal computers as the flexible Silicon Valley ecosystem sped ahead with innovation across a diversifying range of components and systems going from chips, routers, and application software to ecommerce and search engines. Today Silicon Valley is the leading location for cleantech venture activity, an area widely considered to be the next big value creation engine for the U.S. and the world.

Boston, however, is no slouch. The Route 128 community remains the second biggest in the U.S. in terms of venture funds committed. Boston has powerful research institutions, still, and lots of very strong companies. In some areas, such as biotech, Boston may even rival Silicon Valley. But overall, its pretty clear that the Valley has not only won but is racing further ahead.

Most entrepreneurs and engineers that come to Silicon Valley, come to experience this network and to embrace the culture it has created. That’s why I came, too. Network effects don’t just work for fax machines. But then again, most of them knew that intrinsically. University guys like me need to do a bunch of surveys to figure it out. They voted with their hearts and feet.

Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors






Source: TechCrunch | 31 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 10-25-2009

Section:



We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does!  Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…

• App it Up: Ping!
• Appletell reviews the DoubleSight Smart USB Monitor DS-70U
• Google Maps Navigation to make its way to the iPhone?
• Apple to “vigorously” defend itself in its lawsuit with Nokia
• First iPhone firewall soon to be in Cydia

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 31 Oct 2009 | 8:42 am

New Dinosaur Species From Montana

A husband and wife team of American paleontologists has discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived 112 million years ago during the early Cretaceous of central Montana.The new dinosaur, a species of ankylosaur, is documented in the October issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Oct 2009 | 8:08 am

The Macalope Weekly: Everyone’s got an opinion (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - Apple will never lack for opinions about how it should be running its business. Unfortunately almost all of it’s bad. Retrevo is still working the netbook thing (netbooks are so last year!) and a collection of tech pundits weighs in on whether the iPhone will win the mobile wars, causing metaphors to run wild. And, as Microsoft tries to copy Apple’s retail experience, Apple starts running serpentine!
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Oct 2009 | 8:00 am

Typhoon Mirinae Raining On The Philippines

Image 1: This infrared image from NASA's AIRS instrument on the Aqua Satellite shows the extent of Mirinae's high clouds (purple and blue) on Oct. 30 are colder than -63F. Notice the clouds were already over the northern and central areas of Luzon, the Philippines. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed OlsenImage 2: When Tropical Storm Ketsana moved over the Philippines in late September it produced very heavy rain causing deadly mudslides and flooding in Manila. This graphic shows the track of Tropical Storm Ketsana in black and the predicted path of Typhoon Mirinae in white. Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal PierceImage 3: This microwave image of Mirinae on Oct. 30 shows its center just east of making a landfall. Cold areas (yellow-green) indicate precipitation or ice in the cloud tops. The purple area (around the eye) has the coldest cloud temperatures. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Oct 2009 | 7:55 am

Facility Will Coordinate Nation’s Cybersecurity

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cut the ribbon Friday on a high-security, state-of-the-art unified command center that will coordinate the nation’s cybersecurity efforts.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Oct 2009 | 7:45 am

Apple Updates iTunes, Apple TV; Changes Are Subtle - PC World

PC World

Apple Updates iTunes, Apple TV; Changes Are Subtle PC World Apple TV 3.0's new main menu adds shortcuts to recently rented or purchased movies — TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube are also front and center. Apple has dusted the cobwebs off of Apple TV with a new software upgrade that introduces a ... Palm Loses Its iTunes Sync Workaround, Yet AgainChannelWeb Apple's itunes 9.0.2 Breaks Pre's itunes SyncPC Magazine Apple itunes update disables Palm syncTG Daily Wall Street Journal -the iPhone Blog (blog) -Bizjournals.com all 319 news articles »


Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 31 Oct 2009 | 7:31 am

Bing Mobile is better than Google Mobile?

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web Apps

Mobile search isn’t anything new, Google’s had m.google.com for years now and it works well on mobile devices that need info fast without all the glamor of the standard Google site (sarcasm).  Bing has been rising in the charts but needs to find a way to continue to grow; its answer: mobile Bing.

I have to keep reminding myself this is a Microsoft product because the Bing team keeps offering something new for users.  For example, in making Bing mobile, they added some mobile-specific features that will perk your interest.  The first is flight info, simply go to Bing and enter in your flight number and you’ll be given gate info, departure and arrival info.  That is super handy for mobile users that actually are mobile as they dash across the airport.

Another new feature is what Bing calls the NFL Feature.  Simply enter the name of your team or player and you’ll receive info on schedule, standings, and while the game is on you’ll get real-time stats.  Super handy for data freaks and fantasy leaguers.

Bing has added a special version for mobile touchscreen devices such as iPhone, Zune HD, T-Mobile G1, Verizon Imagio, or Samsung Omnia.  Not a big list but the Bing team will be adding support for more devices in the near future.

I used the touchscreen version of Bing mobile to search for movies and compared to the same search on Google, the Bing Mobile search was much better looking, more complete and offered trailers without any extra work from me.  It is worth checking out and with clear, concise data you may find you don’t need a full featured browser on your mobile device.  Bing Mobile might even look good on a Windows Mobile device.  Yikes.

You can find Bing Mobile at m.bing.com

Read: [Bing Blog]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 31 Oct 2009 | 7:26 am

The Barnes & Noble Nook is popular, according to Barnes & Noble

Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks

Sure the title may be a little sarcastic, but given that we have not yet seen any stats and do not have any sort of general ‘top selling list” such as what we can find on Amazon, it makes it hard to judge just how popular the nook is. Sure, the nook landed with a big fanfare and the excitement spread throughout the blogosphere, but we are geeks and get excited about early adoption.

Given that we take the details that we can get, which in this case comes in the form of an email that was received from someone who has actually placed their order already.

According to the email, the nook has “exceeded all expectations” and the good news is that anyone that already ordered seems to be on track for the delivery they had originally expected.

Those that have not yet ordered may however be in for a slightly longer wait. It looks like any new orders will still be in time for the holidays, but are going to be coming in a second shipping wave. Of course, its not much of a delay, just about a week after the original date of “on or around November 30.”

So far it is looking like we can consider the nook a success. That said, once again I am feeling the desire to upgrade from my original Kindle, but am going to wait until I see either Amazon or Barnes & Noble offer an ebook reader app for Android. Whoever does that first will be the winner, but not-so-secretly I am hoping that Barnes & Noble will deliver because the Nook would make a nice Christmas gift from me to me.

Via [android and me]

Dear nook Customer:

Congratulations on being among the first to order nook!

Demand for nook has exceeded all expectations and we’re really excited about the enthusiastic response. The good news is that you should expect your device to ship on or around November 30th, as previously communicated. Starting today, October 30th (12:01am ET), anyone pre-ordering a nook should expect their device to ship on or around December 7th, still well in time for the holidays.

We expect the demand to continue to be heavy through the holiday season, and we are operating strictly on a first-come, first-serve basis.

We’re committed to updating our customers on expected nook availability and will do so through our stores, online at nook.com, and by email.

Thank you for being one of the first to order!

 

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 31 Oct 2009 | 7:16 am

US Coal Plant Considers French Carbon Capture Solution

The world’s largest carbon capture facility at a coal factory was introduced Friday by French firm Alstom, AFP reported.Backers of the new technology hope the invention will spark a new multi-billion dollar industry in profitable markets like China, India and others.Assuming that coal power plants will endure legal and financial pressure to lessen emissions as part of world efforts to reduce global warming, the pilot facility catches and contains around 20 megawatts of carbon dioxide from West Virginia’s Mountaineer plant.Since the unit can handle only a portion of Mountaineer’s 1,300 megawatt capacity, the remaining captured carbon dioxide is buried 7,200 feet underground.  But if carbon taxes are enforced as part of eventual climate change legislation, the same technology could be enhanced and applied to any modern coal plant, reducing emissions and cutting costs for plant owners."Mountaineer is the first example of carbon capture that you can feel and touch.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Oct 2009 | 7:05 am

Nokia’s N-Gage Fails

Nokia Ovi will end its gaming service N-Gage next year, the companies first unsuccessful run of a major service, Reuters reported.At the top of the list, Nokia plans to pursue revenue from online services - specifically games and music.  Its proven handset market will continue to mature.  However, the handset maker faced serious challenges with its mobile gaming launch.  First, consumers rejected its dedicated gaming phones, followed by a flop of its major global advertising campaign.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Oct 2009 | 6:55 am

iPhone Halloween Costumes (PC World)

PC World - Why do so many people want to dress up as an iPhone for Halloween? Can't nerds dress up as something normal like Steve Jobs or the Linux Penguin? In recent years more and more Halloween party goers are choosing to dress up like an iPhone.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Oct 2009 | 6:04 am

The Back Burner: Things we didn’t post this week



A big thank you to everybody for filling our tips-at-crunchgear-dot-com inbox with wonderful, unique, and newsworthy items. Here are a few that we missed.



Oh hey there, Cherry.

I see you’ve blocked me on Facebook yet you’re not above dropping a hint as blatant as this one. So that’s why you haven’t been returning my calls, emails, twoots, pings, AIMs, or DMs.

That was a one time thing, Cherry. And if I may say so, you weren’t much help in that department. We Can Do It? Well, you didn’t. Not even close, as you’ll recall.

Anyway, I’ll send you a check just in case.



Dear Mike,

Boy am I glad to hear from you. We have multiple loads per day that need to be shipped all over North America. We’ll need you to hand deliver each of our articles to rural areas with slow or non-existent internet access. If fewer than 50 people live in a given geographical area, you may simply thumbtack each post to the town’s centrally-located “Readin’ Tree” but otherwise we’ll need you to stop at each individual house in areas containing more than 50 residents. We’ll need these shipments to go out roughly once every 30 minutes.

Please get back to me with a quote as quickly as possible. FYI, we can’t afford to pay you in actual dollars but we can provide a link to your company on our web site as well as semi-regular payments in thumb drives and iPhone screen protectors.



God dag, Isaak!

Did Cherry put you up to this? To be honest with you, she’s been a real tough nut to crack lately. But it’s like, lady, come on! If you’re going to ignore me, ignore me! Don’t string me along like this. And definitely don’t make poor Isaak send out emails like this! God dag!

I do appreciate the poem you included, though. The part about “lovers spooning and some children gathering” might rub people the wrong way but the stuff about the Compuserve user ID and my fishingrod getting rayther is spot on. Spot god dag on.

Click here to read previous Back Burner posts…






Source: CrunchGear | 31 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am
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