Already a mainstay of commerce in Japan and South Korea, cell phones that contain credit card information are gradually making their way into US markets. Pilot projects are underway in which cell phone users can pay for items by aiming their phones at a infrared data reader.
Ideally, cell phone credit cards would be a fast and convenient way to pay for purchases, particularly for small transactions. Mastercard, Visa and American Express have "contactless payment" initiatives underway. McDonald's and CVS are among the retailers experimenting with the systems. Most of the major cell phone manufacturers are developing models with IR ports and that can hold credit card data.
The product trials now underway are revealing problems with the technology, which the companies involved have vowed to fix. Among the most serious is the occasional difficulty in getting the readers to register signals coming from the phones, negating the convenience factor. Security, of course, is another critical element. Every point in a transaction must be fail-safe from a security standpoint, as the first major vulnerability or hack could permanently destroy confidence in the technology.
Even after all the bugs are worked out, don't worry about rushing out to buy a credit-card-enabled phone just yet. Even advocates of the technology concede that widespread adoption in the US is years away, simply because of the time needed for retailers to deploy the necessary reader and back-end equipment.
Source: New York Times
Monday, January 10, 2005
Verizon Offers Video Clips for Phones
In February, Verizon Wireless will start a videocasting (VCAST) service for its cell phones. Content from its EVDO (Evolution Data Only) network includes news clips from CNN and NBC, weather forecasts from AccuWeather, and entertainment from VH1 and Comedy Central.
Verizon will offer three phone models -- from LG, UTStarcom and Samsung -- that are VCAST compatible, which will cost approximately $199 each after rebates. The EVDO service will cost an additional $15 per month over regular charges.
No one is sure exactly how many consumers will subscribe to the service. The most likely early adopters may be frequent travelers who want up-to-the-minute news updates without having to go to the Web. But it's an intriguing first step toward bringing videocasting into the mainstream.
Sources: PC Magazine, TheFeature
Verizon will offer three phone models -- from LG, UTStarcom and Samsung -- that are VCAST compatible, which will cost approximately $199 each after rebates. The EVDO service will cost an additional $15 per month over regular charges.
No one is sure exactly how many consumers will subscribe to the service. The most likely early adopters may be frequent travelers who want up-to-the-minute news updates without having to go to the Web. But it's an intriguing first step toward bringing videocasting into the mainstream.
Sources: PC Magazine, TheFeature
Industry Experts Ponder Internet's Future
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released its findings from a survey it sent out to 1,200 noted futurists and technology industry leaders in September, asking them their thoughts on the future of the Internet. Perhaps the most interesting finding of all is that few agreements were evident. Among the survey questions and answers:
Two topics yielding consensus were the rising impact of blogging on publishing and the media, and the likelihood that the Net will suffer "at least one devastating attack" in the next decade.
Pew has posted details of its findings on the "Imagining the Internet" database maintained by Elon University in North Carolina. In addition to these findings, the database contains predictions made in the early '90s, and a place where visitors can enter forecasts of their own.
Source: New York Times
- On the question of whether the Internet will foster or hinder civic involvement, 42% believed that it would foster involvement; 30% disagreed.
- Forty percent believed that the Internet will have a positive effect on healthcare; 30% disagreed.
- Fifty percent see no end in sight to illegal file-sharing.
Two topics yielding consensus were the rising impact of blogging on publishing and the media, and the likelihood that the Net will suffer "at least one devastating attack" in the next decade.
Pew has posted details of its findings on the "Imagining the Internet" database maintained by Elon University in North Carolina. In addition to these findings, the database contains predictions made in the early '90s, and a place where visitors can enter forecasts of their own.
Source: New York Times
Friday, January 7, 2005
January a Big Month for NASA
This is shaping up to be a big very positive month for NASA, as several exciting events are on the front burner -- two of which will occur next week:
Source: NASA.gov
- The Deep Impact mission that will send a probe into Comet Tempel 1 is scheduled for launch next Wednesday, Jan. 12. The probe will arrive in July and penetrate the comet's interior to help provide a better understanding its composition -- especiall interesting since scientists believe comets are made up of primordial material from the solar system's formation 4.5 billion years ago.
- After having been released on Christmas Eve by the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn, the Huygens probe will land on Saturn's moon Titan on Friday, Jan. 14. Huygens is expected to survive only a brief time in Titan's harsh environment, but hopefully long enough to gather and relay back insightful information.
- The Mars Rovers are celebrating their one-year anniversary on the Red Planet, still sending back valuable data and exceeding all expectations (their primary mission ended in April).
- Yesterday, NASA rolled out the Space Shuttle's redesigned external fuel tank -- a critical milestone for the Shuttle's return to service planned for this spring.
Source: NASA.gov
The Super-Sized Generation
Health professionals are in increasing agreement that childhood obesity will become one of the top future health crises in the US. Today, two-thirds of all Americans -- and one-third of American children -- are overweight. Obesity, as we all know, leads to a host of serious health problems, like diabetes and hypertension, as well as secondary socioeconomic problems such as escalating healthcare costs and lower workplace productivity. In fact, it will soon overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death. For young people, obesity has become such a problem that some are undergoing surgeries to help them lose weight. For obese kids, it's not a matter of vanity; they're literally trying to save their lives.
So how did we get to this state, and how can we turn things around? Health reporter Lisa Tartemella suggests that the problem has many root causes, including:
Tartemella also says that low-income households are more at risk of obesity, because they are often in neighborhoods where it's not safe for kids to go out and play, and rely on less-expensive fast foods.
One of the major debates about obesity in the coming years will be how to approach it. Traditionally, body weight has been a matter of personal responsibility. After all, no one can force you to work out or go on a diet. But there are growing calls for more of a national policy on the issue, especially in areas where government has the most clout, such as schools. More awareness is also in order, although most of us have supposedly been taught healthy eating habits from childhood, and we can all read the nutrition facts on the foods we buy.
Will obesity become such a public health crisis that we'll hear calls for regulating the food industry, controlling fast-food advertising, or even for banning certain food types? Not in this decade... or at least in this administration. But things could change if the perception grows that obesity -- and the strain it puts on society at large -- is out of control.
Source: Newsweek
So how did we get to this state, and how can we turn things around? Health reporter Lisa Tartemella suggests that the problem has many root causes, including:
- Larger portions served at fast food outlets and convenience stores (some large sodas are close to a half-gallon in size)
- TV viewing, which leads to less exercise and more exposure to commercials for junk foods
- Families with two working parents, who don't have time to cook balanced meals
- Schools, where food quality is often poor, and physicial activities such as gym and recess have been cut back
Tartemella also says that low-income households are more at risk of obesity, because they are often in neighborhoods where it's not safe for kids to go out and play, and rely on less-expensive fast foods.
One of the major debates about obesity in the coming years will be how to approach it. Traditionally, body weight has been a matter of personal responsibility. After all, no one can force you to work out or go on a diet. But there are growing calls for more of a national policy on the issue, especially in areas where government has the most clout, such as schools. More awareness is also in order, although most of us have supposedly been taught healthy eating habits from childhood, and we can all read the nutrition facts on the foods we buy.
Will obesity become such a public health crisis that we'll hear calls for regulating the food industry, controlling fast-food advertising, or even for banning certain food types? Not in this decade... or at least in this administration. But things could change if the perception grows that obesity -- and the strain it puts on society at large -- is out of control.
Source: Newsweek
Butthead Lake
For our Friday afternoon diversion, we take you to Washington State, where Census Bureau record now list the name of Bevis Lake, 25 miles north of Seattle, as "Butthead Lake."
OK, so Beavis and Butthead was one of television's great accomplishments... But c'mon now!
It's not all bad, though. Who wouldn't want to spend their vacation fishing and swimming in beautiful Butthead Lake?
OK, so Beavis and Butthead was one of television's great accomplishments... But c'mon now!
It's not all bad, though. Who wouldn't want to spend their vacation fishing and swimming in beautiful Butthead Lake?
"Someone at the Census Bureau must have gotten bored and made a joke out of naming the lake, said Ken Brown, a land surveyor with the state Department of Natural Resources."
Your tax dollars at work...
Source: NWCN.com
The 2038 Bug
Depending on your point of view, the Year 2000 (Y2K) "bug" was either a lot of hot air, a shining example of crisis prevention, or a major disappointment (especially if you sold your home to buy dehydrated food and guns). But now, there's another data "bug" on the horizon.
It's being called the "2038 bug," and it's caused by how computers measure Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a global time standard. Modern computers calculate UTC by counting the number of seconds that have elapsed since Jan. 1, 1970 (sometimes called the "Unix epoch," as this method was originally developed for Unix), storing it as an integer instead of a calendar date. As of the moment of this posting, 1,105,118,249 seconds have elapsed since the Unix epoch. This is a stable and reliable way of keeping time... and is one reason why most computers were unaffected by Y2K.
But what happens when the date integer grows too large for computers to manage properly? There was some concern that this would be a problem on Sept. 9, 2001, when the Unix epoch passed the one-billion-second point. The next milestone, however, will occur when the amount of memory allocated for the integer is exhausted and the date could be corrupted.
Using this calculation, 32-bit computers will reach this date at precisely 3:14 AM GMT on Tuesday, January 19, 2038. The bug could cause the date integer to flip to a negative number, yielding a date of Friday, Dec. 13, 1901 (hence the bug's other name, the "Friday the 13th bug").
The good news, however, is that the bug is easily corrected by increasing the number of bytes dedicated to storing the date (already done in 64- and 128-bit architectures). Also good news is that we have 33 years to upgrade our systems.
To check your computer's vulnerability to the 2038 bug, run this script.
Sources: Lockergnome, GSP.com
It's being called the "2038 bug," and it's caused by how computers measure Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a global time standard. Modern computers calculate UTC by counting the number of seconds that have elapsed since Jan. 1, 1970 (sometimes called the "Unix epoch," as this method was originally developed for Unix), storing it as an integer instead of a calendar date. As of the moment of this posting, 1,105,118,249 seconds have elapsed since the Unix epoch. This is a stable and reliable way of keeping time... and is one reason why most computers were unaffected by Y2K.
But what happens when the date integer grows too large for computers to manage properly? There was some concern that this would be a problem on Sept. 9, 2001, when the Unix epoch passed the one-billion-second point. The next milestone, however, will occur when the amount of memory allocated for the integer is exhausted and the date could be corrupted.
Using this calculation, 32-bit computers will reach this date at precisely 3:14 AM GMT on Tuesday, January 19, 2038. The bug could cause the date integer to flip to a negative number, yielding a date of Friday, Dec. 13, 1901 (hence the bug's other name, the "Friday the 13th bug").
The good news, however, is that the bug is easily corrected by increasing the number of bytes dedicated to storing the date (already done in 64- and 128-bit architectures). Also good news is that we have 33 years to upgrade our systems.
To check your computer's vulnerability to the 2038 bug, run this script.
Sources: Lockergnome, GSP.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)