IEEE Spectrum Tech Alert - 11/12/2009FYI kind regards neil Dr Roger Neil Barton http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/ ----- Original Message ----- From: IEEE Spectrum Tech Alert To: neil.barton@uclmail.net Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:29 PM Subject: Veterans Rebuild IBM 1401, Patent Case of the Century, and more To view this e-mail as a web page, go here. ADVERTISEMENT Forward to a Friend Print this Issue Search Back Issues November 12, 2009 Rebuilding the IBM 1401 More than 30 retired computer engineers worked together to resurrect an antique IBM 1401 for the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Unlike today's computers, this 1960s-era model actually lets you see all the moving parts that make it work. This photo essay documents the team's work with the machine, which was donated to the museum by computer enthusiasts who bought it for US $21 000 from the German eBay site. Read more. The Future of Robotics Nov 12, 2009 Reducing Physical Verification Cycle Times with Debug Innovation ADVERTISEMENT Podcast: Business Patents Up for Grabs Oral arguments started in Bilski v. Kappos this week, in what some have called "the patent case of the century." Could Isaac Newton have patented calculus under U.S. patent law and created an insurance-industry monopoly? Patent attorney Kirk Teska describes the barrage of such questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices and considers what it bodes for the future of business-method patents. Listen now. New MEMS for Monitoring Bridges HP boosted the sensitivity of MEMS acceleration sensors 1000-fold without increasing the cost. The secret was borrowing technology from inkjet printers to make chunkier MEMS. Read more. Push-Button Books Google's deal to digitize books may be in legal limbo this week, but a New York City-based start-up has pressed ahead. On Demand Books' one-off bookmaking technology is pressing pages in bookstores and libraries around the world. Read more. Video: Capturing Sound with Smoke and Lasers A father-and-son team thinks they've discovered the next stage of microphone evolution: replacing the vibrating mechanical diaphragm with a stream of smoke. They measure changes in the stream's shape with a laser and a photodetector. Watch and listen as the inventors give a demonstration of their latest prototype. View now. The Air Piano Omer Yosha's home-brew musical interface is like an invisible multilevel keyboard that floats in the air in front of you. It goes on sale early next year. We've included video of the instrument in action. Read more. IEEE Spectrum Emerging Technology Forum Learn about Enabling Electronics for Smart Grid Technologies & Beyond. What are the opportunities, and what engineering challenges must be met to seize the day successfully? The forum scheduled on Nov 30th in Santa Clara, CA is free for all local members. The video recording of the event will also be available later for all IEEE members. Seats are limited. Learn more. Blogs Risk Factor: British Government: We Want Access to Your Every Phone Call, E-mail and Web Search In England, your home may be your castle, but the government will soon be able to get a rather good idea of what is happening inside it. The British government has decided to go ahead with its Intercept Modernisation Programme, which would force every telecommunication company and Internet service provider to keep a record of all of its customers' personal communications, showing whom they have contacted, when and where, as well as the Web sites they have visited. Read more and comment. Nanoclast: Has China Surpassed the U.S. in Nanotech? At his Metamodern blog, Eric Drexler has been examining the position of China in nanotechnology development. The data seems to suggest that the most prolific authors are based in China. But there is a giant chasm between research projects and commercial products and that probably remains the single biggest obstacle to nanotechnology having a greater impact on our economies. Read more and comment. Automaton: How To Make a Humanoid Robot Open a Door As it turns out, opening a door-in this case, a swinging door-is actually pretty hard, though we humans don't even have to think about it. Hitoshi Arisumi's experiments with an HRP-2 humanoid have shown that the best approach is for a robot to use its whole body, just as you use your hip and shoulder to open a door while carrying groceries. Read more and comment. ADVERTISEMENT Aerospace BioMedical Computing Consumer Electronics Energy GreenTech Robotics Semiconductors Telecom At Work Geek Life Nov 2009 Issue ADVERTISEMENT To ensure delivery of the IEEE Spectrum Tech Alert, please add techalert@ieee.org to your e-mail address book or Safe Sender List. If you are still having problems receiving our communications, see our white-listing page for more details. Interested in other IEEE Newsletters? Sign up here. To unsubscribe from future e-mails, click here. Copyright 2009 IEEE Inc. 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor New York, NY 10016-5997 Tel +1 212 419 7760 Fax +1 212 419 7589 www.spectrum.ieee.org IEEE Media, 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016