H-Prize for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Tech

U.S Rep. Bob Inglis wants to create the "H-Prize" to speed the development of technology to support hydrogen fuel cell technology.

via: WYFF-TV


Update: Jenny Munro also covers the story in the Greenville News.

The Great Robot Race

In January, Wired magazine ran a great article covering the DARPA challenge to have an unmanned vehicle autonomously navigate an obstacle course in the Mojave desert. If you'd rather see than read, then you're in luck. Tonight's NOVA is going to present it as documentary.

qv: NOVA: The Great Robot Race


Tags: DARPA, robot, NOVA, Wired

Reedy River Falls - Photo from the bridge

It seems like I can't help but shoot a photo of the falls each time I cross the bridge. It's quite a treat to have such a beautiful place in the middle of our downtown. I love that shot.

qv: Greenville, SC photos on Flickr

Greenville's downtown baseball stadium

We took a sunny Sunday walk down to the new stadium in downtown Greenville. It's really beautiful. Some of it you have to imagine because the construction is not quite complete. It does look like it will be a great place to take in a game.

qv: Greenville Drive

My first thirty minutes with Google Page Creator

I just spent my first thirty minutes with Google Page Creator. It goes without saying that I probably don't need yet another way to edit web pages. I was intrigued by the offering, however, so I gave it a spin. Report to follow...


qv: my googlepages test


Tags: Google, GooglePageCreator, GooglePages

Mela! An Indian Cultural Festival in Greenville

If there has been a mela in Greenville before, I must have missed it. I won't let that happen this year. This Saturday the India Association of Greater Greenville will be hosting a mela, an Indian Cultural Festival at the Palmetto Expo Center. The flyer and website promise food, music, and a shopping area with cultural items for sale.

qv: India Association of Greater Greenville

Business Buzz airing now...

I just got a note from Kim Cannon of Greenville Tech. He said that the interview we shot for Greenville Tech's Business Buzz TV Show will air on the GEN Channel 14 at the following times:

- Tuesday 2:30 PM & 7:00 PM
- Thursday 1:00 PM
- Saturday 2:00PM & 6:30 PM
- Sunday 10:00 PM

It will air each week until the end of March. That's quite a few chances for Mom to catch me at work on TV.

Google goes to Mars

Just as it previously went to the Moon, Google has gone to Mars, mapped it, and brought back a comprehensive map and links to all of the touristy things you should see when visiting the red planet. Hint: Search for the face made famous by supermarket tabloids.

qv: Google: Mars

Tags: Mars, Google, Moon

All your data are belong to Google's G-Drive

The blogosphere is abuzz with Google's slip of the Powerpoint in which they mention that they would like to offer space on the internet to anyone who would like to store files. Sure there are services like Box.net which currently let you store a gigabyte of files for free, or share them for cheap, but when Google does this, they will do it big, really big.

Tags: google, gdrive, g-drive

Podcast: Live Call-In helps parents cope with MySpace

Here's the podcast of today's live call-in show. We tried to help parents cope with having their children on the Internet. Social networking sites like MySpace and Friendster present new challenges to parents who may not always be familiar with what their children are doing on the Internet.

We mentioned the pledge on safekids.com which seems like a great way to have a conversation with your children about what is and is not acceptable behavior on the Internet.




Tags: MySpace, Yahoo360, YourDay, Clemson, SafeKids

No need to Rush, we're LIVE on Your Day at noon (thirty)

Looking for something different to do at lunch today? May I humbly suggest Your Day, which is broadcast across the South Carolina Public Radio Network?

Today, Eric Rodgers and I will do a live call-in segment taking questions about computers and the internet. We're going to lead off the segment talking about MySpace and social networking websites like Yahoo 360 and Friendster. If you have questions about these sites and want to submit them in advance, use this link. If you prefer to call, then get yourself to a high quality phone line and give us a ring at 12:30.

Snap, Crackle and Pop have evil twins
While the good Snap, Crackle and Pop live in your breakfast cereal, their nefarious counterparts live in your cell phone. I mention this only because we really want to hear your questions on the air. If you plan to call in, please help us help you by using the best quality phone line you can access and if that means you are on a cell, please find a spot that's got good signal and is quiet. We'd love to hear from you.

While you wait...
Wouldn't this be a fine time to listen to last month's live call-in.

Looking for a station near you?

> 90.1 Greenville / Spartanburg
> 89.3 Charleston
> 91.3 Columbia
> 88.1 Sumter / Columbia
> 89.1 Aiken /Augusta
> 89.9 Beaufort / Hilton Head
> 90.1 Conway / Myrtle Beach

or listen on the web at http://yourday.clemson.edu.


Tags: YourDay, Clemson, Radio, Friendster, MySpace, Yahoo360

Micsrosoft's Origami -- The Promise

Take a look at what Microsoft says you'll be doing with their new Ultra Mobile Portable PCs:



You wanna believe, don't you?


qv: origamiproject.com

Tags: Microsoft, Origami, UMPC

Microsoft can put your fingerprints online! (and you'll never know it.)

Using the Microsoft Fingerprint reader to log on to your computer should not be making you feel safe. It turns out that the reader takes a picture of your fingerprint and then transmits it to your computer unencrypted.

From PC World:

Because the fingerprint image is transferred unencrypted from the Fingerprint Reader to the PC, it could be stolen using a variety of hardware and software technologies....

The fingerprint reader is not a security device, just a very small, not very useful scanner.


qv: PCWorld.com

Tags: fingerprint, biometrics, Microsoft, hacked

A free pass to CeBIT

Sure, there's the CES in Vegas, but CeBIT is the world's show for technology.

A grand total of 6,262 exhibitors (1995: 6 246) from 71 countries will occupy 310,412 sq. m. of display space. Attendees will be able to tune into the key current trends and lay the foundations for future corporate success. This year the focus is on systems, software, hardware, network computing, Internet applications, multimedia, telecommunications and - last but not least - home computing.

This year there will be lots of mobile computing and the expected unveiling of Microsoft's Origami device.

Forget to buy a ticket? No worries. John Dvorak posted the insider's link to the show.

via: Dvorak Uncensored

Tags: CeBIT, Dvorak, PressPass

Something to do: Take a Joyride

VW has released yet another clever video which they hope bloggers will link to and post all over the internet. I obliged.



The real payoff for me was to follow to the website, click on a few features and then have the website serve up a video of my simulated joyride. It's very funny.

qv: VW Joyride

Phil Yanov and Dr. Ric Routh -- Live!!!

Strange, but true -- I got invited to be a speaker at my own organization. I invited the very clever Dr. Ric Routh to speak on the topic of What are CIO's Thinking? at the next GSA Technology Council meeting. Ric last spoke to our group on the topic in April of 2003. He works with a lot of CIOs and has something of an insider's track on the subject. When prepping him for the meeting, he asked me if I would speak with him. I declined. He insisted. I acquiesced.

qv: Tag team to present at GSATC

Tags: GSATC

Scalable Learning and Inference in Hierarchical Models of the Neocortex

It turns out that if you work at Google, you can listen to all kinds of really bright people talk about all kinds of cool things in a series of training sessions called from the Googleplex. Now the folks at Google are offering a number of these sessions to the public through Google video.

Now, I can microwave some chichi PVR dinner for lunch and learn about something while I chomp. My first video will be Scalable Learning and Inference in Hierarchical Models of the Neocortex, then I might watch Crime: The Real Internet Security Problem.

via: Official Google Blog

Tags: google, googleplex, googlevideo, neocortex

Sony rootkit draws fire of Homeland Security

It sounds like the guys at DHS think there ought to be a law against rootkits.

The recent Sony experience shows us that we need to be thinking about how we ensure that consumers are not surprised by what their software programs do...

- Jonathan Frenkel, director of law enforcement policy, Department of Homeland Security.

qv: TechNewsWorld


Greetings to Your Day listeners. Be sure to join us LIVE and ready to take your questions next Thursday, March 9. You can even submit a question online today, and we'll try to answer your question on the air next week.


Tags: Sony, rootkit, Frenkel, YourDay, Clemson

Cell Phones Pose Greater Risk to Airplane Navigation Than Previously Believed

A study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) has found that cell phones and other portable electronic devices, like laptops and game-playing devices, can pose dangers to the normal operation of critical electronics on airplanes. The study will be featured in an article appearing in the March issue of IEEE Spectrum.

qv: Carnegie Mellon Researchers Report

Tags: CMU, FAA, cellphone, blackberry

Blinky lights reveal mouse brain at work

It looks like researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have actually watched a mouse's brain learn something new. Their announcement:

Through a clever experimental design, Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientists have validated decades of experiments to show how learning and memory may be encoded in a living animal. The research, published in the March issue of Neuron, identifies for the first time the specific neural connections that strengthen as an animal's brain responds to new experiences....

The novel tool they used to watch the brain learn was one they created themselves. They used a special "transgenic mouse that couples the green fluorescent protein (GFP) with the gene c-fos, which turns on when nerve cells are activated."

The mouse's brain cells "light up" as it becomes involved in processing sensory input.


qv: Carnegie Mellon Study

Tags: brain, cmu, pinky, mouse

Kathryn's Calendar - March 2006

Kathryn Calendar 200603
Originally uploaded by Yanov.

Today is baby's first Half-Birthday.

Half a Birthday to you.
Half a Birthday to you.
Half a Birthday dear baby.
Half a Birthday to you!

The calendar is also available in PDF.

Also see:
http://baby.yanov.com

When it comes to cell phones, the US is the third world...

The US digerati are getting very little satisfaction out of the big bucks they spend on monthly cell service. Luckily, there may be hope...

Read: Wired

Podcast: Where to see the best Tech in Upstate SC

If you are in the business of technology and you live anywhere near the upstate of South Carolina, the best annual showcase of that local technology is clearly InnoVenture. The show's focuses on events that bring tech companies together in a loose networking environment in hopes of making something happen.

The event draws organizations of all sizes, many of which are looking for funding or partners. Some of them even bring along samples of the cool stuff they are working on.

Last year, after the show, I interviewed the InnoVenture's idea man, John Warner, and asked him how it went. His comments and observations of InnoVenture 2005 are the subject of this podcast.

Look: Podcast42: John Warner

Listen: Podcast42: John Warner

Rocket Racing looks like a blast!

Not only is a Rocket Racing League forming, but they are looking for people to field teams and looking for locations for events! This seems like a tech event that would be great fun in the upstate. Maybe we could use it to replace the air show we haven't had in the last few years.

qv: Rocket Racing League

via: Ken