Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor who inspired millions through his "last lecture", died at his home in Virginia on Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
(Credit: Randy Pausch)Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. And his popular "last lecture" at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 became an Internet sensation, viewed by millions throughout the world. The lecture was part of an ongoing series at many universities that asked professors to think deeply about important life lessons.
In his lecture titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch humorously recounted his efforts to achieve his childhood dreams, such as becoming a professional football player, experiencing zero gravity, and working with the Walt Disney Company's Imagineering department to develop virtual reality rides for the amusement park.
He clicked through photos of himself as a boy, one of which showed him at the beach in my hometown of Rehoboth Beach, Del. in 1965. He also shared pictures of his own PET scans depicting several large tumors devouring his organs. And there were pictures of past students, co-workers, and bosses who played major roles in his life.
Throughout the talk he shared insights about the power of helping others and always going after your dreams even when you're faced with obstacles. A graduate of Brown University and Carnegie Mellon's computer science Ph.D. program, he confessed that he had not originally been admitted to either school. But unwilling to accept these roadblocks, he managed to get in anyway.
Pausch went on to become an award-winning professor and helped pioneer virtual reality research. He was a key member of Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute and co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center, a master's degree program that brings artists and engineers together. He also helped create Alice, an interactive program that helps teach young people computer programming.
With the help of Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Zaslow, Pausch turned his words of wisdom into a best-selling book, which was published this spring.
Pausch is survived by his wife, Jai, and three young children: Chloe, Dylan and Logan.
I first heard about Randy Pausch last year when my older sister forwarded me The Wall Street Journal column written by Zaslow, who had attended Pausch's last lecture. We had lost our mother to pancreatic cancer almost exactly five years earlier, so Pausch's story hit particularly close to home for me and my sisters. As I read about Pausch's lecture, my heart immediately went out to him and his young family as I envisioned the struggle they faced.
Unlike my mother's battle with pancreatic cancer, Pausch's journey lasted nearly two years. This is incredible given the fact that only 20 percent of all people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer make it through the first year, according to the American Cancer Society. And only about 4 percent live five years post-diagnosis. My mother, who was diagnosed a week before my younger sister's college graduation in May 2002, died about three and a half months after her diagnosis.
While no one would ever doubt my mother's own passion for life, she was definitely in a different phase of her life than Randy Pausch. And thus, she decided to forgo palliative chemotherapy and let her illness take its natural course. She had beaten breast cancer nearly 15 years earlier at the age of 45 and was thankful to fulfill her greatest wish of seeing her youngest child graduate from college. (I joked with her when she was given her terminal diagnosis that she should have aimed for a higher goal, such as the marriage of her middle daughter. I'm 35 and still single.)
But Pausch, whose oldest child is only 6-years-old now, clearly had strong incentives to endure recovery from the painful surgery to remove tumors from the pancreas and grueling months of chemotherapy.
Pausch playing with his three young children.
(Credit: Randy Pausch)I am glad for Pausch and his family that they were given as much time as possible. But I am still saddened at the loss of such an incredible and inspiring man. And I am saddened even more that his children will grow up without him in their lives.
I can attest to the fact that it sucks to lose a parent at any age. But I was 29-years-old when my mother died. I have many wonderful memories of her that I replay in my mind almost daily. Unfortunately, Pausch's children will most likely not have any memories of their own of their dad. And that is tragic. While there could never be any replacement for the time they have lost with him, I hope the enduring legacy of his lecture and the book that followed will provide some comfort to his children as they grow up.
Pausch's family has requested that donations on his behalf be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund.
Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu have announced a quad-core version of the Sparc64 processor and servers to that will use the chip.
Fujitsu--which manufactures and designs the Sparc64 processor--along with Sun unveiled the M4000, M5000, M8000, and M9000 enterprise servers that use the new quad-core Sparc64 VII chip. The two companies claim the processor delivers 80 percent better performance using 44 percent less power than the previous Sparc64 VI processor.
Sun Sparc road map
(Credit: Sun Microsystems)The Sparc64 VII is made on a more advanced 65-nanometer process than the Sparc64 VI chip, which used a 90nm node.
Sun is no stranger to multicore--putting many processing cores on one chip. Its UltraSparc T2 processor can place up to eight cores on a single piece of silicon. This allows the UltraSparc T2 to run up to 64 threads--parts of a program that can execute independently--or eight threads per core. It's a feat processor giant Intel still hasn't accomplished.
Sparc Enterprise servers using the Sparc64 VII processor are targeted at high-availability, mission-critical enterprise applications, including large-scale databases, data warehousing, and enterprise resource planning.
Current Sparc Enterprise servers can be seamlessly upgraded by swapping out older processors with the new Sparc64 VII chips, the two companies said. Sparc VI and Sparc VII chips can also be mixed and matched within a "single domain."
Pricing and availability information is here.
In the wee hours of August 1, the moon and the sun will pass each other for a breathtaking full solar eclipse, but U.S. residents won't be able to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon because of their location on the planet.
San Francisco's Exploratorium science museum is broadcasting the eclipse to the masses, however, combining science and technology by streaming the eclipse on virtual world Second Life.
In the real world, a team from the Exploratorium science museum will be traveling to the Xinjiang Province in Northwestern China, close to the Mongolian border, to stream a Webcast of the eclipse. The museum is staying open all night to bring the Webcast to museum visitors, as well as its online viewers and members of Second Life.
Second Life avatars view the 2006 full solar eclipse in the virtual world.
(Credit: Exploratorium)Total solar eclipses happen usually only every 18 months or so, and the team must travel to China because the full eclipse is only visible on a narrow slice on the surface of Earth.
Second Life users can view the 45-minute Webcast, starting at 3:30 a.m. PDT August 1, on the virtual world's so-called Exploratorium Island. Avatars can also gather at the Pi Day Theater at the Sploland Sim, at the Science School Sim, and at the Spindrift Sim. The eclipse will be accompanied by video and commentary of Exploratorium and NASA scientists.
Starting July 1, Second Life members and their real-life makers can use Exploratorium Island to learn about solar eclipses, Chinese culture, and solar science.
The Exploratorium has previously paired with Second Life and NASA to deliver space news. In 2006, for instance, the team traveled to Turkey to broadcast the solar eclipse, and NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander team has created an avatar for the exploring robot in the virtual world.
Non-Second Life users can view the Webcast on the Exploratorium Web site, and the CNET News.com multimedia team will provide coverage of the event after viewing the live video in the Exploratorium.
The fact that both California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have added their names to the Tesla Roadster waiting list shows a serious Golden State commitment to the green technology behind the $100,000 sports car. On Monday, the company returned some of the love by announcing that it would be building its sedan manufacturing plant somewhere in Northern California. According to CNET Car Tech Senior Editor Wayne Cunningham, whom I spoke with in the Daily Debrief, this move is a win for both the company and the state.
Tesla Motors is currently headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and, logistically, it just makes sense to keep its manufacturing close by (versus New Mexico, which was originally listed as a plant location). For the state, this decision will provide more green-tech jobs and reiterates its position as a green-tech leader. California has some of the most ambitious emissions legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020. Tesla doesn't plan on rolling out the second-generation cars until 2010, but in the state's eyes, the move to keep the plant local is a significant step in the right direction.
On July 25, 2000, an Air France Concorde ran over a piece of titanium debris while taking off from Charles de Gaulle International Airport. Minutes later 113 people perished in a ball of fire.
Most airports rely on visual inspections to keep runways clear of foreign objects and prevent what happened in France, but Heathrow International Airport, the world's busiest, has now installed a permanent dual radar system called the Tarsier, which scans 3,658 meters of runway in search of junk 24 hours a day.
(Credit: QinetiQ)The Tarsier uses networked high-frequency, high-resolution radar and integrated digital signal processing to pinpoint anything from a pigeon to a cellophane sandwich wrapper (PDF).
Foreign object damage, or "FOD," is responsible for $60 million worth of damage a year, an average of $15,000 per aircraft for each major airline in the U.S. alone, according to the FAA (PDF).
FOD can be caused by wildlife, stray tools, pieces of rubber, or any other imaginable debris strewn across a runway. A rock sucked into a jet engine can "shred turbine blades in a matter of seconds," the FAA says.
The system allows automated runway inspections around the clock, rain or shine, and with no disruption to airport traffic, according to the manufacturer, QinetiQ. It can be further enhanced with cameras that allow remote visual confirmation of debris.
The smallest item detected to date is a 10-millimeter metal fitting in an area the size of 30 football fields, the company says. Once an object is found, Tarsier reports its latitude and longitude to within 3 meters via GPS.
The system has also been tested in Dubai, Amsterdam, Vancouver, and Sydney, according to QinetiQ. The U.S. Air Force has used the equipment as well.
"I believe that this system will become the international standard in the next 5 to 10 years and other airports will follow suit," said Brett Patterson of the Vancouver International Airport Authority.
On earth, people are beginning to use the sun's light to power their houses, office buildings, and even gadgets. Now, outside of our planet, the sun's energy is going to be utilized for something else--space travel.
If NASA can successfully implement solar sails, which have been referenced in some sci-fi books of the past, using the sun's energy for space exploration may become a reality this summer.
The NanoSail-D team shows off their solar sail, after a deployment test in April.
(Credit: Science@NASA)According to a report by NASA Science, the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Ames Research Center have teamed up to make history, by deploying its first solar sail, the NanoSail-D.
The solar sail, made of aluminum and space-age plastic, has the ability to harness the radiation of the sun for movement. Since outer space is frictionless, the sail could potentially accelerate forever, traveling much faster and much farther than a rocket running on fuel. Travel back to Earth would require a turn of the sail.
This technology isn't the first of its kind. In 2005, The Planetary Society launched a solar sail spacecraft, hoping to be the first successful launch. However, later that day, there was no confirmation that the craft, names Cosmos 1, had entered orbit, and the mission was deemed unsuccessful.
If NASA's spacecraft makes it into orbit, it will unfurl the solar sail from its pod, and "use solar pressure as a primary means of attitude control and orbital maneuvering," said Sandy Montgomery of the Marshall Space Flight Center, housed in Huntsville, Ala.
NASA said it means big things for space travel. According to Montgomery, the speed of the solar sail would make it feasible for a spacecraft to leave our solar system in a decade, instead of the 30 years it took for the Voyager missions to get to the edge of the solar system. In theory, rockets would be used for short missions and sails would be used for longer missions.
The power of the sun has also been used on NASA's recent mission to Mars. The Mars Phoenix Lander gets its energy to explore the planet from two solar panels built into the robot.
The NanoSail-D will travel to space onboard the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, launching from the Pacific Ocean as early as July 29. It will be brought on board in a 10-pound suitcase, and if successfully unfurled, it will measure at 100 square feet.
The sails will not harness enough energy to carry passengers in space, but Montgomery said with solar sails at thousands of square feet, "a number of interesting scientific missions are possible."
Zappos.com, the online retailer with free shipping both ways, has hired little orange robots to carry your shoes.
Actually, the company, which now sells more than just shoes, has just finished outfitting it's Kentucky warehouse with a robotic army to help fill orders, the company supplying the system announced Tuesday.
Zappos is now using Kiva robots to helps its workers fill orders.
(Credit: Kiva Systems)The Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System from Massachusetts-based Kiva Systems, is basically a team of autonomous, stout, orange robots that sort, store, and move inventory in warehouses. The robots essentially bring the assembly line to the warehouse worker to fill orders more quickly.
Instead of having people walking around a warehouse with a cart and looking for ordered items to put into boxes, the robots automatically bring the items to them.
Retail items are kept in crates or moveable shelves, which Kiva calls pods, instead of on conventional warehouse shelves. Once you place your order, a robot is notified by a Kiva server over a Wi-Fi network. It then autonomously drives around the warehouse, picking up the pods containing your items and stacking them as part of its load. The robot then brings those pods to a warehouse worker at an assembly station who fishes out your items from each pod and places them in a box. The person then places your box on another robot that automatically knows where to go to have the box shipped from the warehouse. Another robot with other pods is already then waiting in line for the worker to pack the next order.
Kiva's claim to fame is that its software is expert at calculating which robots should pick up which pods, in what order it should pick them up based on their location at the time, which worker it should deliver them to, and which paths it should take to do all of that in order to maximize time and efficiency.
Supporters of the robotics industry have said that using robots controlled by U.S. workers to cut costs could provide a viable alternative to outsourcing jobs from the U.S. The Zappos decision may be an example of that predicted trend.
In addition to an expected increase in sales to the U.S. military, iRobot says it will see growth in its unmanned robot platforms from foreign buyers.
iRobot's Warrior robot can be modified to support chemical sensor devices or functioning weapons.
(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET News.com)The "Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032," a report put out by the Department of Defense last year, outlined a strategy to increase spending in unmanned technology for the air, sea, and ground.
iRobot, which has already been supplying the U.S. military with unmanned robots for use in ground reconnaissance and combat, has repeatedly said it will benefit from the military's increased need.
But the company now says that as its robots have proven themselves useful in Iraq and Afghanistan, interest from foreign armed forces has also increased.
iRobot has sold robots from its line of unmanned military drones internationally to 13 allied countries, including Australia, Gemany, Israel, and the United Kingdom, since 2006, Joe Dyer, president of iRobot's Government & Industrial Robots division, told reporters in a Web conference Wednesday.
The international market consisted of only a handful of robots sold in 2006, but about 8 percent or 9 percent of iRobot's total revenue for unmanned robots in 2007. This year, iRobot estimates that its foreign market will increase to about 15 percent of its total revenues for its government and industrial division, according to Dyer.
But how do export license approvals work when a company is a supplier of dual-use technology to the U.S. military? Admittedly, iRobot's unmanned platforms are just as suited to benign first-responder search-and-rescue functions as they are to lethal combat. But either way you look at it, iRobot is still selling hardware with high-tech military capability to foreign entities.
"It's on a country-by-country basis. If country X desires to purchase iRobot robots, we take it to (the State Department) for approval. If we receive it, we proceed," Dyer said.
XX25 powers a MiTAC V100 rugged laptop.
(Credit: UltraCell)A California company has introduced a 25-watt mobile fuel cell system designed to power a ruggedized laptop computer for up to 14 hours at a time using a single 250cc cartridge.
The XX25, as it is called, internally generates fuel cell-ready hydrogen from a highly concentrated methanol solution, providing power to a field computer and communications equipment at weight savings of up to 65 percent, according to Livermore, Calif.-based UltraCell.
(Credit: UltraCell)Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, and continue to produce it as long as the fuel lasts. This is not only ecologically correct, but it also weighs less. The company calculates that on a typical 72-hour mission, each soldier requires 27 pounds of rechargeable military batteries.
The Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) and DARPA (PDF) have extended UltraCell's development contract so that tests can continue. A year ago, CERDEC deemed the 25-watt model safe enough to be worn by soldiers in the field and used to power portable devices, a first for this type of fuel cell.
(Credit: darpa)DARPA has released some tidbits of information in a briefing on how one might build a propulsion system that combines a Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engine and a full-scale turbine engine to accelerate a hypersonic jet to multiple Mach.
It's called the Vulcan, and it's a demonstration program designed to power a full-scale reusable hypersonic cruise vehicle like the Falcon HTV-3X, and to do it by 2012. The key, according to the DARPA briefing, is to integrate a currently produced turbine engine like the F110-129 or the F119, with minimal modifications and a CVC (PDF).
The CVC, or "scramjet," will operate only at supersonic speeds. It's basically a constricted tube with few or no moving parts through which air is compressed at high speeds, with fuel combusted along the way. The exhaust comes out the nozzle faster than the air came in.
The turbojet engine is needed for runway takeoff and to push the plane from zero to Mach 4, where the CVC would accelerate it to Mach 6 and beyond. Ideally, both would share a common inlet and nozzle.
Bottom line for the military is a hypersonic jet capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload up to 9,000 nautical miles from the continental United States in less than two hours. It would also be used for reconnaissance, strike, and other critical national missions, like ferrying Tom Clancy characters to emergency meetings at the Kremlin.
