Category: Uncategorized | Page 4

March 26, 2014

Can ICANN keep control?

ICANN Foundation Foments Future Flux

NSA cyber spying fallout that pushed China and Russia proposals to take over Internet foundations now performed through the US Department of Commerce’s contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has fomented further discussion. Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) news anchor Judy Woodward interviewed present and former ICANN leaders to discuss coming changes. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/who-should-oversee-the-web/

HFS initiated this conversation in a recent article, and now attention to the subject has reached higher levels. From the New York Times discussion to the Washington Post arguments, across the US pundits have raised an alarm. This week Woodward started with a quote from former US president, Bill Clinton, who opines predictably that other governments want to gag the Internet, and quickly moved to more substantive discussions from the current and the former leaders of ICANN, Fadi Chehade and Vint Cerf, along with Randolph May, founder of a free-market-oriented think tank called the Free State Foundation. In essence, they repeated the HFS report from last week, that China, Russia, and Iran want to take control of the Internet through a UN committee, and the US resists that plan, but from a weakened position as the NSA spy scandal has unfolded and continues to unfold. ICANN itself has kept the conversation alive through its website at this link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-11jan14-en.htm

Numerous other sites have offered additional opinions, but the central point remains that no one knows the future of the Internet except that the US shot itself in the foot with its NSA scandal, which will probably cause the Internet to change…somehow. No one has any clear thoughts about just how to make the Internet better for everyone else.

What do you think?

March 25, 2014

Sleeping Computers Support Science

Virtual Super Computing Cracks Protein Model for Cancer

Using 239,000 private computers located in homes across the world, scientists have formed an accurate model of how Src Kinase folds, the protein associated with growing cancerous tumors. The private computer network, a virtual super computer known in computer science as a distributed computational platform, operated under the Stanford University program called Folding@Home generated over 33 petaflops of computing power to produce the first ever model of the target cancer protein. http://txchnologist.com/post/80690503190/200-000-computers-tapped-to-crack-cancer-protein

The model of Src Kinase protein had never been made before due to the complexity of computations that required hundreds of hours of expensive computer access. Volunteers provided online access to their private computers during times of non-use, as an alternative to unavailable or unaffordable computer resources. https://folding.stanford.edu

Analysts at HFS say that future science breakthroughs will likely depend more heavily on private resources, as has been discussed by HFS analysts in other articles. Nonetheless, use of private but sleeping systems appears to offer a novel way to fund expensive computer time through private donation. These analysts wonder aloud whether such donations might be tax deductible for some people.

What do you think?

March 25, 2014

SolarCoin Pays Homeowners Digital Coins For Sending Extra Solar Electric Energy to the Grid

Turning Solar Energy into SolarCoins for the Environment

You’ve heard of solar electric energy, and you’ve heard of cryptocoins such as Bitcoin. But have you heard of generating digital money by generating solar electric energy back to the grid? That’s the pitch of SolarCoin, a form of digital currency paid when registered members send extra energy from their solar cells back to the grid. http://txchnologist.com/post/80589093058/digital-currency-looks-to-charge-up-solar-electricity

Sounds counter intuitive for someone to pay for you to generate solar electricity and send it, not to them but to the grid, which already pays standard money for that energy in most places as a matter of law. http://solarcoin.org

The promise of the organizers of SolarCoin is that for the next 40 years, any residential home owner signed up, large or small generator, will be paid one SolarCoin per megawatt of power they can document that has been returned to the grid, regardless of whether someone else, such as an energy company, pays for surplus returned to the grid. http://solarcoin.org/faq-frequently-asked-questions/

Analysts at HFS say the deal gives incentive to only those already interested in investing in solar electric equipment but who need a small push to take the next step. No guarantees can be offered for the future of any digital currency, including SolarCoin, but if the coins help produce more electricity at homes, the SolarCoin Foundation wants to help. That sounds like a good cause, to us.

What do you think?

March 25, 2014

Alaska Petition To Secede and Join Russia Sounds Incredible

Alaska Up for Russian Repatriation?

Crimea moves daily towards its status as part of Russia, not Ukraine, despite European and US protests and punitive actions. Russia’s justification remains today: We must protect our Russian family wherever they may be.

So if Alaskans petition for repatriation back to Russia because a few thousand signatures appear on a White House website, will Russia be tempted to move against the US? http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/03/24/Alaska-petition-seeking-secession-back-to-Russia-gets-10000-signatures-in-three-days/4791395684800/

Sounds crazy, right? Despite Alaska’s very small Russian ethnic population, about 1 percent, over 17,000 signatures on http://WhiteHouse.gov have registered so far on a petition to give Alaska back to Russia. http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/just-crimea-alaskans-want-join-russia/

When Czar Alexander II, desperate for funds in 1867, agreed to sell Alaska to the US for $7.2 M, no one then seemed to complain. Yet, today, whether because ethnic Russians in Alaska truly want repatriation to the largest country on the planet or because more mysterious forces have started pushing, something weird in Alaska has been uncovered as the ice thaws with the coming Spring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska

Perhaps one source of the repatriation push arises from disillusioned Christians in Alaska, if Godlike Productions prophecies can be believed. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message602788/pg1

Others accuse Palin or her sympathizers. http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2014/03/petition-to-have-alaska-secede-back-to.html

Analysts at HFS say that the originator of the petition for Alaska to secede from the US to join the Russian Federation, “unnamed Anchorage resident,” sparks many imaginations. The HFS favorite is rabid bots unleashed by megalomaniac Putin activists. However, from a rational standpoint, HFS suggests that reaching the required number of signatures, 100,000, by 20 April 2014 seems a long way away, and that date gives anti-secession activists time to find out who is really behind the big push.

What do you think?

March 24, 2014

Religious Freedom verses Right to Birth Control Put to Test Tomorrow in US Supreme Court

Tomorrow for 90 minutes, the US Supreme Court will hear cases that question whether business owners may, based on their religious beliefs, opt out of Obama-care provisions that require employers to provide health insurance that includes birth control such as the day after pill and sterilization services. To some, it will be one of this year’s biggest legal events in the US. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/24/us-usa-court-contraception-idUSBREA2N1HZ20140324

All seats in the small marble venue have been reserved for lawyers that represent dozens of businesses in support of the two small businesses at the heart of the case. One of the businesses is a family owned conglomerate consisting of Christian bookstores plus several franchises of Hobby Lobby Inc. an arts and crafts retailer. The family owners all claim evangelical Christian beliefs. The other case combined with the first was brought to court by a Pennsylvania family made up of a couple and their three sons, all of whom profess to be Mennonites, and who own Conestoga Wood Specialties, a wood crafts shop and supplier. http://vitaminw.co/news/supreme-court-hears-cases-on-mandatory-birth-control-coverage

The business owners argue that providing the legally mandated morning after pill is tantamount to abortion and that sterilization also violates their religious faiths. Other cases related to this issue also have been placed on hold pending the outcome of tomorrow’s case, which will likely produce a decision by June this year. http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/01/02/315899.htm

HFS analysts note that impact on business owners may not be as significant as the impact on Obama-care, as more cases arise to chip away at the comprehensive health care law. For example, on the same day arguments will be heard about the birth control case, another potentially more far-reaching case about federal subsidies will also be heard. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/24/the-contraception-case-is-big-but-another-challenge-could-really-hurt-obamacare/

With so many important US Supreme Court decisions pending with impact on Obama-care, uncertainty over the health care law increases, with myriad economic impacts. What do you think?

March 24, 2014

Cisco’s Cloud Gets More Silver Lining

Cisco Systems Inc, a world leader in network hardware, announced today plans for the coming two years to spend $1 Billion to upgrade its fledgling cloud services. http://www.binarytribune.com/2014/03/24/cisco-systems-inc-share-price-down-shifts-focus-towards-cloud-computing-services-to-join-the-competition/

The key initial outlay for the Cisco’s ‘Cisco Cloud Services’ enterprise involves constructing state of the art data centers, the old fashioned brick and mortar structures that house boxy hardware, cables, and a few work-spaces for a handpicked collection of human technicians that oversee the mix. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/24/us-cisco-systems-cloudcomputing-idUSBREA2N09T20140324

To HFS analysts, the more interesting problem a new entrant such as Cisco faces concerns who it will likely meet in competition for customers who pay for the privilege of using the cloud’s services. Today in the first quarter of 2014, the top ten cloud competitors include a few well-knowns, but mostly a collection of never-heard-ofs. Here’s a top-10 list from Secpoint.com:

Amazon Web Services

3Tera

Force.com

Appistry Cloud Computing Middleware

Microsoft Live Mesh

AppNexus

Flexiscale

Google App Engine

GoGrid

Terremark

With its big dollar investment virtually upfront, Cisco expects to be added to lists such as this one within two years, just in time to tap into an exploding new business model. HFS analysts point out that the model actually arose in the 1960’s when computing first twinkled in some future geeks’ eyes and visions of how it might someday come together kept them talking with one another through the night. In other words, it’s what computer planners have considered the basic model from the beginning, and finally after a few decades of rapid maturation, that basic model has become recognizable.

So if you were one of the billions of people who wished they had gotten in on the ground floor of plastics in the 1960’s or computers in the 1980’s or dot-coms in the 1990’s and you missed the investment opportunity, now is the time to set aside a small investment for cloud computing. Some day it might grow quite large. The only problem is, who should one invest in from the list of leaders? Maybe Cisco would be a good candidate, or maybe not.

What do you think?

March 22, 2014

Chinese Civil War Brews in Xinjiang with Militant Muslim Separatists

Dissident Muslim Militants in China Seek Separation

China may become the next Al Qaeda target if militant Uyghur separatists in the Xinjiang region’s Islamic clergy keep protesting.

Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India border the Xinjiang region. Its separatists prefer to call it East Turkestan. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414016

The Xinjiang Province, China’s largest geographically, includes a population of almost 22 million, with more than half Muslim and about 43 percent of which share Uyghur ancestry. It holds undeveloped oil and gas reserves China sorely requires. In the 2,500 year written history of the region, it has been exchanged between numerous political dynasties, and since 1949 it has survived as an autonomous region within the Chinese empire.

Today many Uyghurs claim discrimination by other Chinese based on Uyghur ancestry . Two weeks ago at Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan, China, 10 black-clad militants wielding knives and machetes slashed and stabbed 164 people, of whom 34 died. http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/kunming-terrorist-attack-a-residents-perspective/

Uyghurs have been implicated in the Chinese press because East Turkestan flags found in the railway station and a video by Uyghurs before the attack warned Buddhists they were coming. Other brutal attacks in the region over the past 18 months have also been blamed on Uyghurs, despite protests from Islamic clerics alleging conspiracy. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/515882-china-blames-extremists-for-xinjiang-violence-with-sketchy-report/

Most recently the lost Malaysian Boeing 777 MH370 flight from Kuala Lampur to Beijing has been tied by Chinese investigators to Uyghur hijackers who have used similar tactics in other more local flights in the region. http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/

To HFS analysts, the potential for civil war between separatist Xinjiang Muslims and majority government forces may produce unpredictable economic disruptions across China, particularly in the energy production sector.

What do you think?

March 21, 2014

Big Private Donations to Science

Yesterday here at HFS we posted an article about how money to fund new science might be drying up from government sources, but private sources such as rich individuals and companies seem to be coming of age in a big way. http://hamiltonfinanceservices.com/?p=2082

Today we note some specific names of those private funding sources.

The top three on our list today are Google, Microsoft, and IBM.

The first two, Google and Microsoft, have offered support for the US government’s climate initiative.

Google has donated a petabyte of cloud storage and 50 million hours of Google Earth run time to the intiative. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/20/google_microsoft_tackle_climate_change_as_ibm_seeks_cancer_cure/

Microsoft has given 800 terabytes and 180,000 hours of Azure run time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Azure

Not to be forgotten, IBM also has stepped up to the private funding plate with donations of Watson run time to match clinical data with genome data in efforts to find cures for cancers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer)

If you have heard of other noteworthy science donations from rich individuals or wealthy companies, tell us about them here at HFS.

What do you think?

March 21, 2014

Memex To Hunt Human Traffickers

Memex … Have You Heard of It?

The US Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) has put out a solicitation for Internet searching tech. Why? Its heart is set on one thing: Track down and eliminate human traffickers, meaning people who sell other people as property.

Chilling, right? On one side of the equation, the Darth Vader of Internetdom, the US government, seeks greater power through bigger and better technology to find bad people, as DARPA defines ‘bad.’ On the other side of the equation, the Scum Of the Universe steals babies, overdoses sex slaves, and crates humans as sardines to transport them on ships that never seem to reach predictable ports. Almost makes one a little … uncomfortable about our world. And it’s really happening.

You can read the DARPA solicitation for yourself, but remember that some very big companies will offer their best and brightest in order to win the purse of $45 millions for offering the most effective machine.

Did you notice the name of the DARPA machine, by the way? Read the 1945 article by Vannevar Bush (a government scientist from an earlier age), As We May Think, to find the origins of a reference to advanced machines with fantastic functions. ‘Memex’ must have stuck in a DARPA clerk’s mind all these years as he or she dreamed of some application some day for that weird new name from an old science-fiction writer. Christopher White, the master scientist leading the DARPA effort to find Memex might even have come up with the name himself. Who knows? Chris promises that whatever machine they make and call ‘Memex,’ it will not be used to spy on the rest of us.

Do you believe Chris, the scientist over at DARPA? What do you think?