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Full Story At CNN.com

(CNET) — Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing.
Under a Microsoft proposal, consumers would receive heavily discounted PCs, then pay fees for usage.

Under a Microsoft proposal, consumers would receive heavily discounted PCs, then pay fees for usage.

U.S. patent application number 20080319910, published on Christmas Day, details Microsoft’s vision of a situation where a “standard model” of PC is given away or heavily subsidized by someone in the supply chain. The end user then pays to use the computer, with charges based on both the length of usage time and the performance levels utilized, along with a “one-time charge.”

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Full Story At  Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) - As Detroit’s Big Three automakers flirt with collapse, punished for years of over-dependence on gas-guzzlers, the future of the motor industry would seem to belong to energy conscious rivals such as Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd.

Not necessarily, say Japanese auto executives.

Honda Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo says “the game is still open” as car-making enters a new phase in which alternative energy sources and power systems will become mainstream, re-writing the rules of a century-old business.

“So far, the majority of cars still run on internal combustion engines,” Kondo told Reuters in a recent interview.

“Sure, there’s all kinds of hype about electric vehicles and hybrids and fuel-cell cars, but no one has the breakthrough technology to bring them into the mainstream.”

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Full Story At CNET News

The Department of Homeland Security has failed to ensure the nation’s cybersecurity, a new report to be released Monday concludes, because the threat of cyberattacks is too vast for any one agency to tackle and must be addressed by a new White House office, as well as revised laws and government practices.

As President-elect Barack Obama fills the remaining cabinet positions in his administration, a Center for Strategic and International Studies commission is recommending Obama create a new office in the White House: the National Office for Cyberspace, headed by an Assistant to the President for Cyberspace. The Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency, an independent, nonpartisan group, releases its final report Monday after more than a year of exploring how to address the country’s cybersecurity threats.

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Full Story At  Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Repairing the giant particle collider built to simulate the “Big Bang” could cost up to 35 million Swiss francs ($29 million), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said on Friday.

Announcing a further delay to the Large Hadron Collider’s resumption, now expected in summer, CERN spokesman James Gillies said repairs will cost 15 million Swiss francs, and spare parts would cost another 10-20 million Swiss francs.

The massive collider, the largest and most complex machine ever made, has already cost 10 billion Swiss francs to build, supported by CERN’s 20 European member states and other nations including the United States and Russia.

“We will not be going to our member states asking for more money, we will deal with it within the current CERN budget,” Gillies said.

The collider was designed to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang, believed by most cosmologists to have created the universe 13.7 billion years ago.

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Full Story At  Wired.com

SAN FRANCISCO -– The Bush administration on Tuesday urged a federal judge to dismiss lawsuits against the nation’s telecommunications companies accused of complying with the government’s once-secret spy program adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

“That was designed to protect from a terrorist attack,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Carl Nichols told U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.

Walker was hearing oral arguments on whether to uphold legislation barring lawsuits against the telecoms for violating Americans’ privacy if they forwarded electronic communications to the government. “I don’t think it would be appropriate for this court to look back and second-guess the administration,” Nichols added.

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Full Story At CNN.com

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Each November, auto-industry reps descend on the L.A. Auto Show with flashy displays, loud music and stylish new cars.
Embattled Chrysler has not unveiled any new vehicles at this week’s L.A. Auto Show.

Embattled Chrysler has not unveiled any new vehicles at this week’s L.A. Auto Show.
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As the first big auto showcase of the North American model year, the event traditionally has been a chance for automakers to generate buzz for their shiny new vehicles and head-turning concept cars.

This week’s show, which runs through Sunday, is attracting buzz all right — but not for its roadsters. The offerings inside the Los Angeles Convention Center have been overshadowed by events last week on Capitol Hill, where executives from the struggling “Big Three” U.S. automakers pleaded with Congress for a lifeline.

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Full Story At  detnews.com

MYSTIC, Conn. — Energy independence is still only a hypothetical goal for the U.S., but the owner of a tiny island off the coast of Connecticut says he has already achieved that feat and is offering his work as a model.

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and numerous medical devices, jokingly refers to his North Dumpling Island as an independent nation and himself as Lord Dumpling. Kamen claims to have his own currency and offers visas to visitors to the tiny island a few miles from Mystic, where he is the only resident.

But Kamen, who bought the three-acre island in the 1980s as a retreat, is serious about energy independence and the lessons it offers at a time of volatile gas prices and fears about global warming.

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“The rest of the world will eventually catch up if the Dumplonians can get their message out,” Kamen said.

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Full Story At Wired.com

Pentagon mad-science division Darpa is helping build thought-controlled robotic limbs, artificial pack mules, real-life laser guns and “kill-proof” soldiers. So it comes as no surprise, really, that the agency is now getting into the flying-car business, too.

Darpa hopes its “Personal Air Vehicle Technology” project, announced yesterday, will ultimately lead to a working prototype of a military-suitable flying car — a two- or four-passenger vehicle that can “drive on roads” one minute and take off like a helicopter the next. The hybrid machine would be perfect for “urban scouting,” casualty evacuation and commando-delivery missions, the agency believes.

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