Tech Bones

A 1965 internal paper written by Gordon Moore, Director of R&D for Fairchild semiconductor entitled, "The Future of Integrated Electronics" predicted "the development of integrated electronics for perhaps the next ten years." Based upon an extrapolation that relied upon data from 1959 to 1964, Moore projected that the number of components per integrated chip would double every 12 months. A decade later, integrated circuit technology had advanced by leaps and bounds to the point that these predictions were validated at an IEEE conference. At the 1975 conference, Moore, who had become co-founder and President of Intel, revisited the data and slowed the progression to doubling every 18 months, resulting in his findings being dubbed "Moore's Law." Upon reviewing his projections again in 1995, Moore commented "The current prediction is that this is not going to stop soon." Moore was right in each case. The initial projection Moore

[Comment: I received the following from Wally Kinney, a friend who I highly respect. In his capacity as Chairman of the Audit Committee for the Texas State Securities Board, Wally is extremely knowledgeable about investing. He felt the following information was well worth sharing, regardless of whether you live in Texas or not. After reading it, I agree wholeheartedly.] SECURITIES COMMISSIONER WARNS ENTREPRENEURS ABOUT POTENTIAL HAZARDS OF RUSHING INTO ‘CROWDFUNDING’ AUSTIN, Texas - Securities Commissioner John Morgan today urged small businesses and entrepreneurs to be aware of the potential regulatory pitfalls in "crowdfunding," an online money-raising strategy sanctioned by the federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Through crowdfunding, individuals will be able to invest in start-ups through a broker-dealer or a "funding portal," which is a website that advertises the investment offering and facilitates payment from investors to the company i

Without announcing prices or release dates, Microsoft recently introduced a pair of tablets named Surface. Leaving the analysis of the technical details of each tablet to those who attended the announcement, the most striking element of this announcement to me is the dramatic departure from Microsoft's 37 year old tradition of avoiding direct competition with their hardware partners. Considering Apple's success, one might argue a Microsoft tablet is long overdue but too late to have an impact. Microsoft Surface http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx In reality and despite the substantial lead forged by Apple with the iPad, a huge untapped market for tablets exists. As even more functionality is added, the prospects for overtaking the low end netbooks and notebooks market increase. Besides, everything new today becomes dated within 18 months, so the upgrade market will always loom on the horizon. Microsoft's entry will up the ante in the tablet market by

An upsetting trend looms over proposed national legislation and international agreements that threatens First Amendment rights on the internet. While public outcry has successfully hindered the advancement of such measures so far, attacks to our freedom of speech on the internet continue to increase according to Google. A Fox News article entitled "Google sees 'alarming' uptick in government censorship' outlines several recent examples of governments submitting requests to have material it finds "illegal, hateful, terrorism-promoting, or offensive" removed from the internet. While Google has refused the requests in some cases, they have been forced to comply in others. Fox News: Google sees 'alarming' uptick in government censorship http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/06/18/google-sees-alarming-uptick-in-government-censorship/ Dorothy Chou, Google's senior policy analyst, wrote in a Sunday blog post, "It's alarming not only because

Prior to the proposed legislation of the Senate's PIPA (Protect IP Act of 2011) and House of Representatives' SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), an international effort to enforce Intellectual Property (IP) rights, known as ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), was already in the works. Though PIPA and SOPA were both left to languish as a result of negative response from the IT user community, ACTA remains alive and well. Public scrutiny over the extent and regulations of both PIPA and SOPA thwarted congressional approval of either act. However, the ACTA effort is not subject to such openness. Negotiations for its enactment continue behind closed doors. With minimal industry or user input allowed, representatives from major industrialized nations continue to negotiate the terms of ACTA. Based upon leaked copies of drafts, the combination of broader controls and even more vague wording will compromise the First Amendment on the internet and erode privacy concerns far beyond

If you think battling all the viruses, trojans, malware, and other perpetrators in the internet world is tough enough, imagine trying to defend against someone with a passkey to your backdoor. Virtually everything used on a daily basis is computerized and networked. The latest gadgets, alarm clocks, appliances, houses, cars, and virtually everything else we use for entertainment or work, are computerized and inter-connected. Imagine a nefarious entity, such as Austin Powers' Dr. Evil, who intends to control the world and force his way of life on the rest of us. What if Dr. Evil covertly, over time, gained control of the manufacture of technology by replicating creations throughout the world and selling them at a fraction of the price, thanks to lower labor costs and a willingness to take a short term loss to gain long term control of the market? What if Dr. Evil succeeded in not only becoming the manufacturer of a majority of all electronics produced in the world including mili