Semantic Search for Corporate E-Mail

IBM Labs is releasing OmniFind Personal EMail Search for free which uses UIMA and provides semantic searching of Outlook/Notes email archives. Announced here in InformationWeek. Since I use IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition (free version) which works great, this should be another high-quality search product.

300MPG Hybrid Gas-Electric in 2009 ?!

This has been all over the internet the past few days. I first saw this in this TomsHardware article which normally just covers computer hardware technology. Also, see this Engadget article. Aptera, a small electric vehicle startup from California, will be releasing an electric vehicle (Typ-1) in late 2008. Then in 2009, they plan to produce a gas-electric hybrid that will get a whopping 300MPG! This sounds a bit skeptical until I saw the PopularMechanics test drive article and video.

Auto-Drive is Geting Closer Thanks to Nissan

Nissan is integrating "Intelligent Cruise Control" which uses GPS to control the car's speed when approaching curves. See "Nissan's GPS enabled cruise-control foreshadows robot car". So when do we get auto-drive is my question. It is not a matter of technology but more a matter of when. The technology is already here. Come on Honda or Toyota, you can do it!

Sickle Cell Cured by Stem Cells

Using stem cells derived from skin, scientists have cured sickle cell in mice. This was only announced a month after the ground-breaking technique for generating stem cells from skin cells. "Scientists Cure Mice of Sickle Cell using Stem Cell Technique".

LIBS Identifies Elements From a Distance

This sounds like science fiction but apparently is here today. "LIBS sniffs out explosives" mentions some technology that the U.S. Army Research Labratory is doing. Whoa!

Google Android

Google bought this small company called Android back in 2005 (BusinessWeek article). Very little was known about it at the time. Now we have the mobile platform strategy that Google is pushing called Android. Ah, that's what happened. The world will be changing soon.

Were North America's First Inhabitants Japenese Fisherman?

There is an alternative viewpoint based on anthropological research I found online, here. They mention that these seafarers made the journeys 12-16000 years ago following fish and the kelp highway in the Pacific.

Wind-up (kinetic) PMP

Here is an alternative energy (kinetic) Personal Media Player (PMP). "Ecodigital's windup PMP". This is very cool and can't wait to get into these alternative energy devices. Now Sony or Nintendo need to make their PSP and DS work this way.

Navy Preparing Unmanned Combat Aircraft

This is inevitable. Nice picture.

Scaled Composites Now Owned by Northrop Grumman

I was this over at Space.com. "Northrop Grumman Buys Builder of SpaceShipOne". This is interesting, Scaled Composites, the company that Burt Rutan and Richard Branson formed to create SpaceShipOne and are currently working on SpaceShipTwo is now 100% owned by Northrop Grumman. "SpaceShipTwo Development Benefits By New Equity Deal". Northrop Grumman previously had a 40% equity ownership.

Water Found on Extrasolar Planet

You knew this was inevitable. Astronomers have evidence on an extrasolar planet. Still waiting for the discovery of the first Class M planet.

SpaceShipTwo

I just found these great conceptual pictures of SpaceShipTwo at Gizmodo. Check them out, very detailed and shows relative size to SpaceShipOne. Additionally here is a pretty cool YouTube video animation of SpaceShipTwo (13 mins).

Irish Company Claims Energy Breakthrough

I am not sure how to take this one but here is the article anyway. Yet another free energy claim. If it works, would be awesome. I saw this while perusing my Google News.

D-Link First Draft 2.0 802.11n Certified Products

D-Link has the first with draft 2.0 802.11n certified products. Enough said. We just got the DIR-655 802.11n router a few days ago and it rocks!

Thermoacoustic engines and the future

Some grad students at the University of Utah have built prototypes that turn heat into thermoacoustic engines that generate electricity. See this Engadget article. They call these 'screaming gadgets'. Looks like another promising technology we might see.

Breakthrough Flexible Color Display OLED Technology

Sony just announced a major breakthrough in flexible color OLED displays. See the CNN article. What is more impressive is this short YouTube video. The possibilities are intriguing and I can't wait to see the wearable gadgets they come up with in the near future.

Tiny, Power Efficient, Super Cheap Computers

While online looking at Gizmodo (article), I stumbled upon these Norhtec computers. They have a family of efficient and small computers. One of them is the MicroClientJr that costs about $100. Really cool.

Japan to Create Wireless Island

This is actually ambitious. "Wireless Island". Target island is Hokkaido or Okinawa. The Japanese want to create a wifi zone that covers the entire island and links everything. This is definitely a 21st century vision.

Antibody That Detects Only Known Cause of ALS Developed

Progress in the ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) research. I saw this article, "First Antibody That Only Known Cause of Lou Gehrig's Disease Developed", at the ScienceDaily site. My aunt has ALS so this is good news.

Radical New Engine Design, No Pistons

This is pretty cool.. would save about 15-20% over current internal combustion engines based on pistons. Check this out! Wonder if we will ever see this on the market?