IEEE Spectrum: Consumer Electronics

FCC to Tackle Internet Rules

FCC Chairman announces Internet rulemaking

IEEE Standards Board Member to Rejoin Iggy Pop and The Stooges

EE James Williamson returns to his punk rock roots

Britain Mulls Over Digital Radio Transition

The UK slouches toward DAB

Engineering Values in IT

New Study by The Royal Academy of Engineering, The Institution of Engineering and Technology and the British Computer Society on the Advantages of Engineering Approach to IT Projects

FINA Proposes Banning High-Tech Swim Suits

Supercomputing and Advanced Material Science Mix Too Well

Double Opt-In, Double Opt-Out?

also chutz·pa

Analog TV: End of an Era

Digital TV Transition Happens at Noon Today

Will A Monstrous Antenna Solve My DTV Reception Problem?

Receiving digital broadcasts isn't always easy-particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area

Patent Prowess

Click here for an animated list of the charts

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Comprehensive data for the past year reveal strong movement in electronic-book technology and new leaders in semiconductor manufacturing and vehicle safety

Is IBM Starting A New Nanotech Business Unit?

I have noticed a sudden rash of countries announcing new nanotechnology initiatives backed by IBM's expertise and know-how.

Obama Makes It Official: Picks Bolden to Lead NASA

Over the weekend, Pres. Barack Obama made official what many space watchers had expected for months by nominating Charles Bolden to lead NASA. The 62-year-old Bolden is a retired U.S. Marine Corps brigadier general who graduated from the United States Naval Academy (with a degree in electrical engineering) in 1968 and rose through the ranks from fighter pilot to test pilot to astronaut over a 35-year military career. …

Will the US Stimulus Bill Prove the Savior for Nanotech?

Last week in a column published by Nanotech Now Alan B. Shalleck chronicled the many business woes of nanotech companies in the current economic environment. While it seems I have been going on and on about how talk of nanotechâ¿¿s â¿¿gold rushâ¿¿ is clearly misinformed and the problem is not some rush to commercialization but rather the shocking lack of commercialization thus far, I am heartened that there are some like Shalleck who recognize that the commercialization of nanotechnology is struggling. Shalleck provides the evidence of this faltering business situation and offers a solution: the $787 billion …

Combination of Nanoparticles Extend Data Lifetime on Memory Cards

It seems that the documents and presentations you have stored on your memory stick could possibly be maintained for a billion years without degrading, according to initial reports of soon to be published research. Prof. Alex Zettl in the Department of Physics at U.C. Berkeley and in the Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory conducted the research. The research describes the use of an iron nanoparticle contained within a carbon nanotube in which when in the presence of electricity the nanoparticle slides back and forth along the nanotube. This serves as a memory device that can store digital …

Russia's Nanotechnology Initiative Comes Under Attack from Its Own Political Leaders

After devoting some ink to Russiaâ¿¿s peculiarities in its nanotechnology initiative, I was beginning to develop a begrudging respect for the idea of the government supporting the commercialization aspect of nanotechnology as much as, if not more than, it funded the research. I arrived at this sense after seeing how the US government officials were coming to the realization that the â¿¿next Industrial Revolutionâ¿¿ had not really met their expectations, with a seeming lack of job creation and other economic impacts. Maybe if someone acknowledged that the time, energy and money spent to get a research project to market …

Greetings

This is my first post on Tech Talk, so I should probably introduce myself for those of you who haven't followed my career as closely as I have. Congressman Rick Boucher, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet introduced me to his panel recently as "a network engineer and a blogger," and I can wear that label with pride; alternative viewpoints have also been expressed. I've been designing, implementing, and debating networks and network architectures for a few years now: if you use an Ethernet hub, a Wi-Fi access point, or a UWB system (unlikely,) …

East Meets West in Corporate Culture?

By Suhas Sreedhar Outsourcing jobs to third-world companies has been a fairly polarizing issue in the past, and those ardently in favor of it and against it will probably continue to debate its merits for many years to come. But for all practical purposes the issue is passÃ©. Outsourcing has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen. A more interesting question is, what impact can it have on corporate culture? At Paprikaas Interactive, an animation studio based in Bangalore, India, I found an interesting answer. Outsourcing has the potential to help to combine the best of eastern and western business practices, …

Astronauts Wrap Up Repair Work on Hubble Telescope

Astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis completed their work on the Hubble Space Telescope today, bringing new functionality to the aging platform. In a trying 7-hour spacewalk inside the shuttle payload bay, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel installed new batteries, replaced guidance sensors, and placed new thermal blankets around the telescope's electronics. Then they closed Hubble's compartment hatches and bid a personal farewell. The finished repair work marked the last time, in all likelihood, that anyone will ever touch the orbiting observatory. "This is a really tremendous adventure that we've been on, a very challenging mission," Grunsfeld said while …

The Business of Nanotechnology and Solar Energy...Such as it is

Last week Nanosys offered up an odd press release to announce its forming of a new wholly owned subsidiary called QD Soleil that would focus the companies nanotechnologies in the area of solar panel cell design. For those of you not familiar with the brief history of Nanosys they are known primarily for their â¿¿seminal estateâ¿¿ of intellectual property that includes over 500 patents. And likely to a lesser extent for their failed attempt to get a $100 million IPO on the back of $4 million in revenues a few years back. This distinctly biotech strategy of building a business …

IEEE 125th Anniversary: How It All Got Started (Part 2)

As mentioned yesterday, the IEEE is celebrating its 125th anniversary. The modern institute is a descendant of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, founded in 1884. So let's take a look at how it all began. The idea for such an enterprise was proposed in the spring of 1884 by N. S. Keith, of Philadelphia, an inventor and electrometallurgical engineer. Aware of the impending International Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia in the fall, Keith reasoned that professionals working in the electrical field should organize in time to officially welcome visitors from other nations on behalf of the United …

IEEE 125th Anniversary: How It All Got Started (Part 1)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) turned 125 today. Technically speaking, the IEEE arose from a merger of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) in 1963. Still, the older and bigger parent, the AIEE, held its first meeting on 13 May 1884 in New York City to become a professional society for electrical engineers, which were quickly growing in numbers in the wake of remarkable breakthroughs in technology in the late Nineteenth Century. To commemorate the occasion, the IEEE is carrying out a series of activities to promote the profession …