18 April 2009
Wolfram search engine goes live
A search engine hailed as a significant rival to web giant Google has gone live to the public. Wolfram Alpha is called a computation knowledge engine rather than a search engine and wants to change the way people use online data. It aims to give people direct answers to queries rather than send them to other sites where they may find what they are seeking.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8052798.stm
Jump Into The Stream
Once again, the Internet is shifting before our eyes. Information is increasingly being distributed and presented in real-time streams instead of dedicated Web pages. The shift is palpable, even if it is only in its early stages. Web companies large and small are embracing this stream. It is not just Twitter. It is Facebook and Friendfeed and AOL and Digg and Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop and Techmeme and Tweetmeme and Ustream and Qik and Kyte and blogs and Google Reader. The stream is winding its way throughout the Web and organizing it by nowness.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/17/jump-into-the-stream/
Silicon Valley Girds for New Antitrust Regime
Silicon Valley companies are bracing for a tough new phase of antitrust scrutiny, responding to signs of heavier enforcement by the Obama administration and continued pressure from abroad. A stricter stance against companies that dominate their sectors is likely to test government-relations strategies that technology giants adopted during the Bush administration. Google Inc., one of the most prominent companies under the watch of antitrust regulators, says its lobbyists and executives since March have met with about 40 groups, including lawmakers, regulators and advertising agencies, to argue that its business practices don’t reduce competition. A Google spokesman said the effort is a response to Google’s “size and success” not to the new administration.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260263059528447.html
‘People will get used to Street View’
Google’s privacy counsel Peter Fleischer has said people “will get used” to Street View. Last month, villagers in the Buckinghamshire town of Broughton surrounded a Street View car and forced it to leave, the Times reported. The villagers were worried that their houses may be targeted, following a spate of burglaries in the area. Fleischer said that people’s fears of burglary being facilitated by Street View had been stoked by the media.
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39432464,00.htm
South Korea tries recharging road to power vehicles
South Korea’s top technology university has developed a plan to power electric cars through recharging strips embedded in roadways that use a technology to transfer energy found in some electric toothbrushes. The plan, still in the experimental stage, calls for placing power strips about 20 cm to 90 cm wide and perhaps several hundred meters long built into the top of roads. Vehicles with sensor-driven magnetic devices on their underside can suck up energy as they travel over the strips without coming into direct contact.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE54G07U20090517
Nasa astronauts patch up Hubble
Nasa astronauts have performed one of the most challenging missions in the history of spacewalking by making complicated repairs to a camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. In a bid to extend the lifespan of the 19-year-old observatory on Saturday, astronauts from the Atlantis space shuttle ventured out into space 350 miles above Australia and succeeded in the intricate operation to restore power to the Hubble’s survey camera.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5339997/Nasa-astronauts-patch-up-Hubble.html
