us

Mitt Romney talks tech

Techcrunch had the chance to interview Governor Mitt Romney, US presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. The good news is that his views on taxation of venture capital and the Internet seem reasonable. The bad news? He's a PC user (though a few of his sons run the blessed Mac).

Of particular note to the tech industry is his view on H1B visas, which allow qualified candidates to come to the US to work:

I like H1B visas. I like the idea of the best and brightest in the world coming here. I'd rather have them come here permanently rather than come and go, but I believe our visa program is designed to help us solve gaps in our employment pool.… Read more

Tech to the rescue

I was working on this when I read this CNET News.com post. Apparently, Bill Gates believes that a strong technology sector will help keep America's economy healthy. I couldn't agree more. But I have a somewhat different take on the role tech has played in the U.S. economy.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. technology industry has had a number of "the sky is falling" moments, and every time we've managed to work through it and come out stronger than before.

For example, when I entered the job market in 1980, … Read more

Prototype for military Hummer replacement is on the way

Despite the pickup truck and cow catcher styling, the prototype of the military's new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) from Oshkosh Truck and Northrop Grumman promises better maneuverability, survivability, and payload capacity over the HMMWV it's designed to replace.

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps want something that comes armor-equipped, fuel-efficient, and air-droppable. It also wants a vehicle that can run on two flats and endure sustained small-arms fire. But most of all, performance must "exceed" that of the HMMWV, better known as the Humvee--which means it has to be more mine-resistant and ambush-proof than … Read more

iRobot rival succumbs in court battles

Established defense contractor iRobot has prevailed in courtroom battles against Robotic FX, effectively gaining an unconditional surrender from the upstart military-industrial wannabe.

Late on Friday, Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot said that two federal courts had ruled in its favor. The U.S. District Court in Massachusetts determined that Robotic FX and founder Jameel Ahed--a former iRobot employee--had misused trade secrets belonging to iRobot, while the U.S. District Court in Northern Alabama determined that Robotic FX had deliberately infringed on patents.

As if that weren't enough, a related settlement requires the disbanding of Robotic FX, with certain assets to … Read more

3,000 robots, coming right up

In the world of robot makers--specifically, those making small, versatile, ground-hugging bots--for quite some time there were just two main contenders for Pentagon dollars: Foster-Miller and iRobot. Then along came an upstart named Robotic FX, which a few months back up-ended things by winning a $286 million deal from the Army to supply some 3,000 robots. And then, wouldn't you know it, iRobot took Robotic FX to court. The upshot? Today, that $286 million is headed iRobot's way.

Read about it on Wired's Danger Room blog: "'Unmanned Surge' Deal Reversed"

Open source in the US Department of Defense: the Opticks story

It's a bit surprising that we're barely into the real commercial potential of open source, and yet it's so widely adopted already. The next few years promise to offer open source hugely explosive growth.

Take this news from the US Department of Defense's intelligence community, which was recently gifted Ball Aerospace & Technologies' Opticks software as open source. Open source is widely used throughout enterprises. Now governments and military increasingly depend upon it:

Opticks is used by scientists and analysts within the Department of Defense Intelligence Community to analyze remote sensing data and produce actionable intelligence. Opticks supports Imagery, Motion Imagery, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and multi-spectral and hyper-spectral remote sensing data. Ball Aerospace expects Opticks to increase the demand for remote sensing data and broaden the features available in existing remote sensing software.… Read more

Rewiring the Army for the future

Go ahead, call it a boondoggle--you wouldn't be the first. The U.S. Army's massive, ambitious Future Combat Systems project aims to create a fully networked military force of robotic aircraft, hybrid-engine ground vehicles, ultra high-tech weapons systems, and battlefield sensors to bring soldiering into the 21st century. Faced with the Herculean effort of getting everything together for deployment in the middle of the next decade (maybe), the Army is just now starting some low-level spin-outs of some of the technologies it's been working on for years now already. Yes, it's costing a lot of money.… Read more

Underexposed blog: Links of the day

YouTube--Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III First Hands-on Review DigitalRev.com: The 1Ds Mark III "has a bolder, more masculine shape." Adobe Forums--v1.3 and Nikon D100 NEF files--Not so good!: Lightroom 1.3 magenta-izing photos from Nikon D100, D1H, D1Hs, and D1X compressed NEF files. Perfection Paralysis or the Joy of Mediocrity @ DSLRBLOG: Reasons why a shooter stops shooting. The Online Photographer: wishlist: The four things Mike Johnston would like for Christmas in the digital photography industry. Photoshop Insider--My Photo Editing "Code of Ethics" - What NAPP honcho Scott Kelby will and won't do to … Read more

High tech doesn't really help with oil spills

Just under two weeks ago, I was sitting at my desk here at CNET when I saw a bulletin online that a ship had hit the Bay Bridge. The bulletin was very short and to the point, and really just said that there was no structural damage to the bridge. We laughed about it for a few minutes and moved on.

I didn't think more about it until the next morning when I logged onto SFGate. There, I read that, in fact, the damage that had been done by the so-called Cosco Busan accident had been to the extremely … Read more

Protector all set to go against pirates

Pirates have grown mighty bold around the Horn of Africa of late--so bold that the Navy is reportedly considering the deployment of 30-foot, armed robo-boats to challenge the dusty buccaneers. Surely they'll mend their ways.

The Navy began testing the Israeli Protector unmanned surface vehicle (USV) last year. There is a civilian version of these rigid-hulled inflatables built by Rayglass Boats in New Zealand, a common enough sight around any harbor that's even used as the official chase boat for the America's Cup. But you'd hardly equate these with the unmanned version.

Extensively tweaked by defense … Read more