Category: Technology

Burt Rutan Inteview

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SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan is interviewed by George Nemiroff:

Question: Considering your motivation to innovate and design futuristic air/spacecraft, are you attracted to the Centennial Prizes offered by NASA to develop new craft designs?
Answer: Oh no, I don?t believe NASA can properly put out a (developmental) prize like the Orteg Prize or the Kramer Prize, or either the X Prize. NASA has a real habit of trying to help sub-contractors and contractors by monitoring risks that NASA wouldn?t take themselves. What NASA needs to do is to put out a very difficult goal to achieve and then not monitor it at all and let those that go after it take their own risks. I don?t see NASA doing that. Possibly they will. Maybe they will put someone in charge that knows the benefits of running a prize properly. I haven?t seen that yet.

Slashdot Discussion

Politics & Money

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Governor Doyle’s recently announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on biotech initiatives evidently faces a small problem – the money must be found. Paul Gores digs in.
I think the state should focus on basically two things:

  • True broadband (2 way at 100mbps plus speeds – 100X today’s dsl/cable modems)
  • Simplify the taxes/paperwork for small businesses.

iPod photo

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I’m giving the latest iPod photo a try. This mp3 player also includes the ability to store and display photos (including the optional storage of the large, original image files – which makes it a handy backup device). It also will playback slideshows through your TV, along with music.
I also have the first iPod (5GB). It’s rather amazing to think that the latest ipod is a bit smaller, yet holds 12X the music and/or photos. So far, I’ve been quite impressed with it (I’ve dropped it a few times, including on a tradmill). It just works 🙂

10 Reasons to Shy Away From Venture Capital

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Peter Ireland on antiventurecapital:

The decision to chase venture capital is often a tempting distraction from the much more complex and important entrepreneurial tasks of creating something to sell and persuading someone to buy it. The pursuit of venture capital is sometimes a means by which to postpone the day of reckoning when the marketplace finally decides if the idea will fly.

Wisconsin Institution for Discovery

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Nathaniel Liedl on Governor Doyle’s plans to build a $375M research institution on the UW Campus:

The facility would include specialists in biochemistry, nanotechnology, computer engineering and bioinformatics, which would ease collaboration between scientists of different backgrounds, Doyle said during the press conference.
According to UW Chancellor John Wiley, the facility would occupy the entire block between University Avenue, West Johnson and North Charter streets and North Randall Avenue.
?We are replacing one of the ugliest blocks on campus,? Wiley said during the conference.
The Psychology Department will likely be moved to Sterling Hall. The UW Physical Plant would be relocated to the space Lot 51 currently occupies.

The Empire Strikes Back

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We certainly don’t need additional reasons to stop supporting Microsoft, but here’s another: Groklaw:Step Into My Parlor, Said the Spider to the Fly

Last year, Microsoft had 4,000 patents in total. This year, they applied for another 3,000. They are now planning at least twenty IP cross-licensing deals with other large corporations, and have made it clear that they are seeking similiar alliances with even their worst enemies. This April, they quietly offered a “Royalty Free Protocol License Agreement” on their site. It generously allows the license of “any intellectual property rights Microsoft may have in any or all of [the following] protocols”. The 130 protocols listed included Appletalk, most of TCP/IP – and everything else, from DNS to Zmodem, from DHCP to the port 9 discard service (whose sole function is to drop packets). Signing this license frees developers from being sued for IP infringements by Microsoft, but prevents you from working on GPL software (Samba already warns its contributors not to sign it). This week, Microsoft indemnified all their customers from the legal fallout of any court cases revolving around their IP. Which implies there is either about to be such a battle: or at least Microsoft wants everyone to think there’ll be one. Put this week in your diaries, ladies and gentlemen of the Internet: you don’t need Yoda to tell you that the Patent Wars have begun.

Via Dave Farber’s IP