Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 COMPUTEX Taipei, the largest trade fair since its inception in 1982, featured several seminars and forums, expansions on show spaces to TWTC Nangang, great transformations for theme pavilions, and WiMAX Taipei Expo, mainly promoted by Taipei Computer Association (TCA). Besides of ICT industry, “design” progressively became the critical factor for the future of the other industries. To promote innovative “Made In Taiwan” products, pavilions from “Best Choice of COMPUTEX”, “Taiwan Excellence Awards”, and newly-set “Design and Innovation (d & i) Award of COMPUTEX”, demonstrated the power of Taiwan’s designs in 2008 COMPUTEX Taipei.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Jeremy Hanke, editor of MicroFilmmaker Magazine. The magazine, which is free to read online, was started as a resource for the low budget moviemaker and features book, independent film, equipment and software reviews as well as articles on film distribution, special effects and lighting.

He says that one of the goals of the magazine is to “connect low-budget filmmakers via a feeling of community, as many…..often compete so viciously against one another in film festivals for coveted “shots” with Hollywood, that they can quickly forget their similarities.”

When asked if films made on a shoestring budget can really compete with those made for millions of dollars, he replied, “no…yes…and absolutely. Allow me to explain.” And so he does in the interview below.

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, May 7, 2007.

A 30 meter section of a gas pipeline in Luka (near Kiev) in Ukraine has been destroyed by an explosion. Although supplies to Europe via this pipeline have stopped, Ukrainian Energy Minister Georgi E. Boyko said that supplies to Europe would not be affected.

“There are no changes in volumes of gas being transported,” Yuri Korolchuk said. “Volumes due to pass through the damaged section are being redirected through the Soyuz pipeline.”

Normal flows are reported in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

Sources

• “Blast damages pipeline in Ukraine” — Russia Today, May 8, 2007
• Natalya Zinets, Reuters. “Blast hits Ukraine gas pipeline” — The Scotsman, May 7, 2007

Copper prices are rising. Between record copper imports from China, and a mining strike in Peru, the prices have climbed to over $8100 (United States dollars) a tonne, for a gain of $575 dollars over the last week. However the upward trend is not new, it has been climbing for quite some time. In April 2003, the price of copper was under $2000 a tonne.

The metal market has been tending up due to growth in the Chinese industrial production. This trickles down to the local level, where the buying price at scrap yards is ever climbing, making scrap metal collection a more profitable endeavour for individual people using pick up trucks or other such vehicles to collect and cash in the scrap metal at metal buying yards. It can be collected via agreements with businesses, from the garbage, or, sometimes, by theft.

Copper prices fell today on the NYMEX commodity exchange from US$3.7545 per pound to US$3.7125 based on the July futures contract.

Sources

• “Copper up but crude oil down” — Financial Express, May 6, 2007
• Millie Munshi. “Metals Bubble Poised to Burst on Increasing Supplies” — Bloomberg L.P., May 7, 2007
• “Commodity Futures” — Bloomberg L.P., accessed May 7, 2007

One man was killed and another injured by an exploding backpack in the parking lot of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The explosion happened at 4 a.m. PDT when the victim tried to remove a the object left on top of his car.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are on the scene. Aerial images did not show any apparent damage.

“We believe the victim was the intended target of this,” Bill Cassell said, spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “This is being treated as a homicide in which the weapon used to cause death is a non-traditional weapon.”

Both of the victims worked at the Luxor.

Sources

• Associated Press. “1 dead, 1 hurt in Las Vegas parking lot blast” — MSNBC, May 7, 2007
• “Explosion kills man in Vegas outside Luxor hotel” — Reuters, May 7, 2007

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Government Accountability Office on June 18 called for a re-run of the bidding for the U.S. Air Force $40 billion tanker contract, citing major flaws in the procurement process. This imperils the Northrop Grumman and EADS North America plan to assemble the planes in Mobile, Alabama.

When the Air Force selected Los Angeles based Northrop Grumman on February 29 to build the aircraft, Boeing challenged the award in a formal protest before the GAO, claiming the evaluation was skewed towards Northrop.

The GAO upheld Boeing’s protest, though not all of their individual claims were upheld.

“Our review of the record led us to conclude that the Air Force had made a number ofsignificant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a closecompetition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman,” said Michael R. Golden, the GAO’s managing associate general counsel for procurement law.

The GAO issued a non-binding recommendation that the Air Force re-open the competition, allow the competitors to submit revised bids, and completely re-evaluate the new bids. This process could take a year or more to complete.

The Air Force has 60 days to respond to the GAO.

Northrop said that they needed time to consider the ruling, but their spokesman, Randy Belote, said “we continue to believe that Northrop Grumman offered the most modern and capable tanker for our men and women in uniform.”

Boeing supporters on Capital Hill urged the Air Force to scrap the contract and start a new competition as soon as possible.

“I believe the Air Force should set aside the agreement it improperly reached with EADS/Northrop Grumman and we should proceed expeditiously to build the best aircraft – the Boeing KC-767” said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash, in whose state the Boeing aircraft would be built.

Alabama politicians were disappointed and surprised by the GAO’s ruling. Northop and EADS were to assemble their tankers in Alabama at a new assembly plant at Mobile’s Brookley Industrial Complex.

“I don’t believe this ruling signals the end of Alabama’s hopes for building tankers for the Air Force,” said U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile. “Like everyone else, I look forward to hearing from the GAO and meeting with the Air Force on how we move forward. For the sake of our airmen and women, we must find a way to do so quickly.”

The 69 page GAO decision was not made public, due to sensitive information about the aircraft, but a 3 page press release stated the main points of the ruling:

• The Air Force did not correctly apply its own criteria when assessing the aircraft.
• They miscalculated the costs associated with the Boeing tanker, and incorrectly concluded that Northrop’s would be cheaper.
• They wrongly gave Northrop’s tanker extra credit for exceeding key performance objectives.
• They did not back up their claim that the Northrop tanker could refuel all current Air Force fixed-wing aircraft.
• They told Boeing that its aircraft met a key performance objective, before deciding this was only partially true.
• The Air Force “unreasonably” favored Northrop after the company refused to help set up maintenance depots within two years of the first airplane delivery.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005In a report from the Department of Homeland Security released on Friday, March 25, they allege the US Transportation Security Administration “made inaccurate statements” about its management of personal data belonging to passengers. The report claims, “TSA did not ensure that privacy protections were in place” as it handled data transfers to private contractors for use in the development of a computerized passenger screening application, called CAPPS II. While the report criticizes TSA for its inaccurate statements, it notes the “misstatements were apparently not meant to mischaracterize known facts,” but were instead “premised on an incomplete understanding” of the truth.

According to the report, the data at issue described passengers flying on the following airlines: America West Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, and JetBlue Airways. In most of the problematic transfers, the privacy violation occurred by allowing third parties to access passenger data that was not anonymized. In one case, passenger information was made public on the internet through a presentation prepared by Torch Concepts. According to the report, “Torch Concepts’ subsequent efforts to remove the presentation from the internet have failed.”

In an AP report, Yahoo! News notes that TSA announced the launch of its “Secure Flight” system, saying, “Congress has said the agency can’t proceed with Secure Flight unless the Government Accountability Office reports that the technology ensures privacy and that the data are protected.” The report from the GAO was to be released Monday, March 27, 2005.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

The Indian Railways (IR) has tied up with the Canadian transport solutions major Bombardier Transportation to produce electronic freight locomotives in the country for the proposed Rupee (Rs) 22,000-crore (one crore is 10 million) dedicated freight corridors on the eastern and western routes.

Bombardier produces regional aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment.

Bombardier Transportation officials have met Railways’ officials for exploring the option of setting up a greenfield electronic freight locomotive manufacturing facility and an assembling unit in India.

Analysts feels that IR will need at least 500-600 electronic freight locomotives, besides the same number of diesel locomotives for dedicated freight corridors in the first phase. “Conservative estimates for a normal locomotive are between Rs 13 crore and Rs 15 crore. The investment required for manufacturing electronic freight locomotives is around Rs 10,000 crore,” the analysts said.

It is also been learned that IR would also pick up a stake in this project.

Bombardier President, Transportation, Andre Navarri confirmed talks with IR, “We are keen to take part in the dedicated freight corridor project, but the nature of the agreement with the Indian government is yet to be finalized.”

IR will come up with a detailed plan and tenders for the proposed corridor by mid-November.