CARLSBAD, Calif.--Humanity is perhaps teetering on the verge of a pandemic that could make millions of people ill. It could also lead to the popularity of the socially distant handshake, according to Bill Joy, a partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, speaking at PC Forum taking place here. The socially distant handshake basically involves bumping elbows. This way, you can stay distant and avoid exchanging germs over a handshake.

Joy is known for his gloomy view of the future (as well as his just-rolled-out-of-a-sleeping-bag hairdo). At various times, he's warned about nanotechnology, bioterrorism and the … Read more

Those who live in North America and Western Europe have more options in terms of food, careers, consumer items and everything else, said Barry Schwartz, Swarthmore professor and author of "Why Less is More" at PC Forum taking place in Carlsbad, Calif. this week. And that's the problem.

The bewildering number of choices is paralyzing people with fear, unrealistic expectations, self-blame and regret. As a result, a trip to the electronics store becomes an opportunity to make a decision you could easily regret. The phenomenon is a big contributor of the significant rise in clinical depression, he … Read more

Reading a book could one day involve a joystick.

At O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference this week, Maribeth Back showcased results of experiments that emerged from her research group at the Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory, or FXPAL. Computer scientists developed more than 10 prototypes of reading devices years ago, and then began focusing on the human experience of reading through these new technologies.

One design, called the Speeder Reader, combined a computer protocol for speed reading with video game controllers like the joystick, letting readers "drive" through a book. The built-in technology called RSVP, for rapid … Read more

If the DVD trading activity on Peerflix is any indication, Keira Knightley and Terrence Howard could walk away with Oscars at this year's Academy Awards. The company, which runs a service that lets consumers swap their old DVDsfor $1, looked at the list of nominees for best actor and actress and checked whose movies are actively sought out by their users.

Knightley was the most popular actor with consumers seeking out "Pirates of the Caribbean", "King Arthur" and "Pride and Prejudice." Meanwhile, they wanted "Ray" "Crash" and "… Read more

Yahoo has settled a trade secrets lawsuit with Nuance Communications, one of the leading speech recognition software companies. Yahoo, the suit claimed, "gutted" Nuance's research and development unit, when it hired away 13 of its engineers.

Terms were not disclosed.

Long the next big thing, speech recognition is becoming more mainstream due to advances in the technology and a change in where and how the technology gets used. All the search giants are looking at ways to incorporate it into their offerings. Kai-Fu Lee, the engineer that Google lured from Microsoft, has conducted extensive research in the … Read more

In the 19th Century, you might have studied three Rs, but Richard Newton, dean of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, says that the three Es are the ones to watch in the 21st Century.

They are energy, epidemics and education.

If we figure out the first one, avoid the second, and get as much of the third as possible we should be OK. Synthetic biology, in which microrganisms churn out methane or medicines, could become key fields in controlling epidemics and solving the energy crisis.

Newton, speaking at an all-day symposium on campus designed to highlight work going on … Read more

A lot of people talk to their TVs, but they usually say things like "What's gone wrong this time?" That might change with the growing sophistication of digital video recorders (DVRs) and set-top boxes, according to Ken Morse, vice president of Scientific Atlanta speaking at the IPTV 2006 conference taking place in San Jose on Wednesday.

Voice recognition may become one of the options for navigating through the long video menus that will become more prevalent in the near future as video-on-demand becomes more popular, he said.

Another likely feature for living room entertainment will be burn-to-order … Read more

Attention Canadians. If you just trudged in from a blizzard, you may want to take a look at ToastyFeet. The company sells shoe insoles that can keep feet warm despite snow and ice. You can stand on a block of dry ice, chilling at minus 106 Fahrenheit, and your feet will still be 72 degrees.

The technology for the insoles comes from Aspen Aerogels. Aerogels essentially are blankets of air: five percent of a sheet of insulating aerogel material might be fiber but the rest will be air. Because air insulates better than most materials, a thin layer of aerogel … Read more

Scientists at UC Berkeley have accelerated evolutionary development of a common, but largely harmless, virus in humans in hopes that these designer organisms could help provide gene therapy.

The adeno-associated virus, or AAV, contains two genes and is found in about 90 percent of the population. Although largely benign to humans, antibodies inside our bodies recognize the capsid protein shell of the virus and quickly throttle it. David Schaffer, associate professor of chemical engineering, along with Narendra Maheshri, James T. Koerber and Brian Kaspar, directed the process of genetic mutations. In two generations of accelerated evolution, requiring about two months … Read more