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Shipping container is your new disaster-zone home

Forget the zombie apocalypse for a moment. What if a real disaster struck your neighborhood? Where would you, or relief workers, take shelter?

As thousands of Japanese are still coping with the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku quake and tsunami, Osaka-based Daiwa Lease recently showed off this shipping container, a home for disaster zones. … Read more

Feds to mobile users: Drop dead

WASHINGTON--The federal government is slinking away from a promise by President Obama to free up badly-needed radio spectrum for mobile users and the already over-taxed networks that serve them.

Just months after the publication of the National Broadband Plan in early 2010, the president issued a memorandum ordering the FCC and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to "make available a total of 500 MHz of Federal and nonfederal spectrum over the next 10 years" for mobile users.

The goal was to clear unused or underutilized spectrum the FCC could then auction off for use … Read more

Zillow brings real-estate research to Android

Popular real-estate research site Zillow.com now has an Android app, which you can use to check real estate and home values while on the go. The app even syncs with your Zillow.com account to give you access to all of your saved homes and searches, from anywhere.

If you've never used Zillow, it's a powerful service that tracks current real-estate listings, rentals, and even recently sold properties. What's more, it uses local data and its own set of algorithms to come up with estimated values, or Zestimates, of just about any home in the U.… Read more

Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know

Note to readers: I originally published the article back in 2008 and have updated it a few times, most recently on June 13, 2012. This article primarily addresses self-publishing a print book, though many of the tips apply to e-books as well. For specific information about publishing an e-book, see my companion article, " How to self-publish an ebook."

I know, I know. This is a column about cutting-edge electronics. So, apologies to gadget-heads as I take a brief sojourn into the land of self-publishing, which has become a lot more high-tech than a lot of people realize.

A few years ago I wrote a book. A novel. "Knife Music." Contrary to what you might think based on my day job, it's not a cyber-thriller, though it is a mystery/thriller with a medical/legal slant.

Its short history is this: I worked on it for several years, acquired a high-powered agent, had some brushes with major publishers, then, crickets.

I could have tried to go for a small publisher, but I was told mine was "a bigger book" with more commercial aspirations and prestigious small publishers were interested in more literary tomes. I also learned that many small publishers were being wiped out by the "self-publishing revolution," a movement that's not so unlike the "citizen journalism" or bloggers' revolt of recent years that's had a major impact on mainstream media, including this publication. The basic premise is anyone can become a small publisher. You call the shots. You retain the rights to your book. And you take home a bigger royalty than you'd normally get from a traditional publisher--if you sell any books. … Read more

Creepy! Lego unveils first-ever Haunted House set

It's not Halloween yet, but don't tell Lego that.

The global toymaker has unveiled its $180 Lego Haunted House set, which will be part of its Monster Fighters line, and which it plans to launch in September. The new set has three floors of "creepy creations and ghastly ghouls," according to the company, and features a hidden staircase, an attic gramophone, spider webs, and broken floorboards. … Read more

How the White House is aiming the X Prize model at big problems

On October 4, 2004, the idea of incentive prizes hit the mainstream when Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites launched SpaceShip One into orbit for the second time and won the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Since then, prizes like that have become more and more common, and though the X Prizes are still the gold standard, there are now similar competitions from medical research to science to business, and beyond.

Not long ago, however, the U.S. government got into the business (PDF) of using competitions like these to come up with new ways to solve existing … Read more

United Nations views Flame as cybersecurity opportunity

The United Nations has seized on the appearance of the Flame worm, which targeted computers in the Middle East, to argue that it should have more authority to deal with cybersecurity threats on the Internet.

Last week, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union circulated a statement about Flame saying the malware "reinforces the need for a coordinated response" that could come from "building a global coalition." It took credit for Flame's discovery, saying Kaspersky Lab identified it "following a technical analysis requested by the ITU." (See CNET's FAQ.)

ITU spokesman Paul Conneally … Read more

White House prepares to convene anti-botnet summit

The White House is planning to convene a cybersecurity summit Wednesday morning to discuss ways to counter botnets, which have emerged as the leading Internet security threat.

Industry representatives are planning to announce a nine-point plan that includes sharing more information about identifying botnets -- and how to help their customers remove the malware from their computers.

The forum, which will be closed to the press but Webcast on the White House Web site starting at 5:30 a.m. PT, will be hosted by Howard Schmidt, who said earlier this month he will retire after three years as cybersecurity … Read more

White House cracks whip on move to mobile

Barack Obama might be the head of state, but smartphones and tablets increasingly rule the world -- and the White House says the feds need to embrace that reality.

The president yesterday issued a directive to make key government services accessible through the mobile devices toted by much of the citizenry, and charged the federal CIO with developing a plan for a "21st century digital government."

"For far too long, the American people have been forced to navigate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need," Obama wrote … Read more