FBI may abandon bank robbery cases [USA TODAY]

What if the FBI were to serve as an information clearning house for crimes, investigating where they saw fit, but mostly serving as, well, crime librarians in local cases, and maintaining a cadre of people whose job it was to look for patterns in area crimes that have a similar MO. By having the data feed both ways, local law enforcement can benefit from the knowledge base that the FBI has set up, and the FBI then has their ear to the ground in local communities to aid in tracking criminal responsible for federal crimes.

12:21:43 PM    

Great gadgets at CeBIT [Slashdot]

VKB: a keyboard that works by projecting itself onto any flat surface with a laser, giving you the ultimate in portable KBs. Assuming that you can set the size of the KB, this will allow for more of that biometric based custom sizing that I am so fond of.

12:09:52 PM    

Eden Project celebrates first birthday. Tourism leaders hail the success of the ecological attraction which has brought almost two million visitors to Cornwall. [BBC News: sci/tech]

This is a great idea, to start building high tech greenhouses that will serve to research better technologies for soil management by serving as a test bed. Project timeline.

I would love to see greenhouses/arboretums in rust belt environments as a means to supply high quality topsoil, to rehab superfund waste sites as well as a means of providing jobs in economically depressed communities. This could also serve as a means of helping to recreate tropical environments that are being destroyed, so that we could research and preserve the ecologies in a controlled space.

Lastly, this could help us establish a test bed for terraforming planets that are similar to earth, save for the planet's atmosphere.

12:06:02 PM    

Iomega Zips off to file first NAS attempt [IDG InfoWorld]

Is a consumer level product around the corner? Tie this in with the Moxi media server via Firewire, and you can have custom programming for yourself when you are at home, watching shows at your own convenience, not at the dictates of the network.

9:34:30 AM    

Living on the edge [IDG InfoWorld]

[Buzzword Warning!] Content delivery network acts to redirect users to a local server that is closer to their location, insuring that the main server does not get overloaded, and mimimizing the server hops to the user. this speeds content delivery and minimizes the amount of overall network traffic.

Business Application: Give the latest and greatest content for free, but subscribers get the content from the nearest server to their home, allowing them to get it faster.  Offer time locked content: Paid users get content earlier and it will eventually be available from the site for free.

Live audio/video content you can get right away, but again, subscribers get the choice local servers, higher quality/more bandwidth intensive feeds, while the general public gets FM quality sound and lower resolution images/video feeds.

Alternate Media Corp Revenue Stream: Modified version of the MS active desktop that allows the users to get the latest wallpaper of their favorite bands, with links to bonus tracks etc that are only available by buying the CD and registering on the band's site. Let these early adopters spread the word to their friends, and let the aftermarket goodies drive CD sales.

Bands as Hello Kitty: You are not selling a musical band, you are selling an idea, a lifestyle. Mike D of the Beastie Boys has a clothing line. So does Chester from Linkin Park. In so doing, you offer everything that you can branded as a product of the band. Sanrio has some guidelines for what can and can't be branded with their franchise, and what cannot. Britney Spears should be hawking Pepsi (oops) Clarol, Old Navy, Tiffany jewlery, and anything else she can, assuming that she is not already.  Learn from Michael Jordan and Jackie Chan, once you reach iconic status, market the idea of you, and rake in the cash.

I know this is being done already by a mojority of artists and recording compamies out there, but smaller independent artists need to start doing this as well, in addition to keeping the rights to their music and images, so that they can then insure that they can maximize the profits from their efforts.

9:10:46 AM    

Platforms news briefs [IDG InfoWorld]

Given the amount of time that I spend in Europe, it should not interest me this much, but the thought of being able to use the same cell phone in both the States and overseas is a selling point for me. Having one number that I can be reached at would be nice, as well as not having to buy and dump a phone while on a two week vaction.

8:54:07 AM    

Pinpoint weather forecasts on horizon. Future forecasts will cover zones of just one square kilometre - enough to predict rain within 500 metres of Wimbledon's Centre Court, for example [New Scientist]

Britain: Better computer modelling of the weather systems will lead to improved accuracy of where it will rain. They are accounting for both gravity and the thermodynamics of the area in question as well, which will lead to still more accurate measurments over time. Now they can track and predict the hits of large scale storms, but with the faster machine they will have in place in 2003, they expect to be able to narrow it down to a 1 km grid.

Planning your weekend barbeque just got a lot easier.

8:47:04 AM    

FCC Petitioned to Restrict 2.4GHz Band [Slashdot] [Wireless News] 

Sirius, a satellite radio provider, is petitioning the FCC to stop the use of the 2.4  spectrum inside of cars will interfere with their broadcasts. This would effect everything from microwave ovens to digital TVs to the various wireless 802.11 standards as well as Bluetooth.

Given the far reaching impact that this would have, I sincerely hope that the FCC does not allow this to happen.

Aside: This is like claiming that a broadcast signal at 105.5 FM is going to interfere with a broadcast at 50.5 FM. Last I'd checked, that covered more than all of the broadcast spectrum for FM in the US. Also, Sirius is not yet to market, and they are trying to do this, as they have a reported $3 billion investment in technology. NOTE TO SELF: Make sure, when investing large sums of money in any new technology, that pre-existing tech will not break it.

8:26:53 AM