Recent posts and comments

• Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on U.S. Broadband Efforts

  Microsoft’s chief strategic thinker, Craig Mundie, believes the United States’ situation with broadband access represents a “total policy failure.” In an interview with the Washington Post, Mundie decries the fact... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Hydrogen Sponge, Coke Contraception, High-Speed Wireless, & More

  Millimeter Waves Promise Faster Wireless

  While fiberoptic cables can carry data at speeds of 10 gigabits per second, or even higher, the fastest wireless communications top out at a few hundred megabits. But... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Tree Power, Special Delivery, Dead Zones, & More

  Technique Predicts Wi-Fi Dead Zones

  A graduate student at Rice University has developed a technique to predict holes in a city’s Wi-Fi coverage. Ars Technica reports that Joshua Robinson found that dead zones could... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Greener Buildings, Faster Flu Tests, Deadly Voting, & More

  DOE Plan Would Cut Emissions from Buildings

  The U.S. Department of Energy says that, with proper building techniques and renewable energy installations, a majority of commercial buildings could reach zero emissions of greenhouse... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Stupid Cloud Computing, Lying E-mail, Laughable Politics, & More

  Cloud Computing: Stupid or Genius?

  Richard Stallman, a computing expert and founder of the Free Software Foundation, thinks that cloud computing—running applications over the Internet using distant machines—is a lot of hype and poses... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Downtown Farms, Invisible Islands, Water from Air, & More

  Doubts Raised About Broadband Competition

  The Federal Communications Commission is in the midst of figuring out how to allocate spectrum for wireless broadband transmissions, while Google and M2Z Networks push for... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Obama’s Science Plan, Boeing’s Fuel Search, World’s Malaria Effort, & More

  Boeing Begins Jet Biofuel Initiative

  Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has teamed up with 10 airlines, including Air France, Continental, and Virgin Atlantic, to form a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group. Flightglobal reports that the... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Cash for Ideas, Hydrogen for Cars, Internet for Everything, & More

  Obama Addresses Questions About Science

  The British science journal Nature posed 18 questions related to science and policy to the two presidential candidates, but received written answers only from Democrat Barack Obama.... Read more »

• Daily TIPs, Online Egotists, Cloud Collaboration, Gaming the Future, & More

  Narcissists Easy to Spot on Facebook

  Psychologists at the University of Georgia wondered if they could use online profiles to identify the personality traits of the people who posted them and found... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Blogging for Bucks, Power Waves, Core Strength, & More

  Suniva Promises Cheap, Efficient Solar Cells

  An Atlanta, Ga-based startup, Suniva, says it can make solar cells that are more efficient than existing devices and do it much more inexpensively. Technology Review ... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Hungry Microbes, War of AdWords, Scarless Surgery, & More

  Simple Process Converts Biomass to Gasoline

  Several companies are trying to engineer microbes that will turn biomass into hydrocarbon-based fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Now scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Intelligent Clouds, Ultracapacitors, Adopter Shortage, & More

  Chicago Plans to Cut Greenhouse Gases

  The City of Chicago wants to cut its emission of greenhouse gases to three-quarters of 1990 levels by 2020, and one-fifth of 1990 levels by... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Spin Detector, Science Advice, Designer Pigs, & More

  National Academy Advises Candidates on Science

  The National Academy of Sciences has issued a report advising the presidential candidates on how to deal with science-related issues. According to Ars Technica, the NAS says... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Porn Decline, Powdered Gas, Open Arms, & More

  The Internet is For…Facebook?

  More people are using the Internet for social networking than are surfing for porn, says the author of a new book that analyzes the type of Web searches... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: DNA for Doctors, Self-driving Prius, Google High on the Seas, & More

  Berners-Lee Creates Web Foundation

  The man who invented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has launched a new foundation to promote open and expanded access to the Web. Ars Technica reports that the... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Broadband Bottleneck, Green Chemistry, Spammer Freed, & More

  Most Countries Unready for Future Broadband Needs

  A group of MBA students has developed a Broadband Quality Score for 42 countries and found that the only country with enough bandwidth capacity to meet... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Pot vs. MRSA, Wine vs. Heart Trouble, Podcars, & More

  Marijuana Could Fight Resistant Staph

  Substances found in marijuana plants may provide a new weapon to fight drug-resistant bacteria, Technology Review reports. Scientists in England and Italy discovered antibacterial compounds in the plants... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Wind Bubble, Stronger Steel, Climate Cooperation, & More

  Is There a Wind Bubble Coming?

  Wind power is booming, with capacity last year growing by 45 percent and wind power companies being bought and sold. The Atlantic displays an interesting map showing... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: Hurricane Software, Stem Cell Fights, Animal Dating, & More

  Software Could Aid in Hurricane Evacuations

  Researchers at MIT are testing new software that uses vast amounts of information to guide officials in planning how and when to evacuate a city if... Read more »

• Daily TIPs: New Bugs for Ethanol, Satellite Internet, Cloud-Spewing Ships, & More

  Debate Continues on Biofuels Versus Food

  Some critics of biofuels contend that the growing demand for ethanol made from corn is helping to drive up food prices and could divert farmland from... Read more »