US President Elect Address

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Building the Four Powers Alliance

Building The Four Powers Alliance Vs. London's New Dark Age

December 12, 2008 (LPAC)--Lyndon and Helga Zepp LaRouche have just completed a visit to India to promote the Four Powers Alliance to defeat the British imperial drive for a new global dark age. In an exhaustive series of seminars and private talks, Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly focused on the already onrushing systemic collapse of the post-Bretton Woods financial system, and the urgent need to establish an alliance of sovereign nation-states, led by the four powers, the United States, Russia, China and India, to replace the current system of British imperial monetary looting and perpetual conflict, with a new system based on the American concept of credit.

The LaRouches' visit to India occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Nov. 26 asymmetric warfare attack on India's financial capital and largest city, Mumbai, an attack aimed at destabilizing the entire Indian subcontinent, and provoking a military confrontation between India and Pakistan. Lyndon LaRouche systematically exposed the role of British intelligence and their Saudi allies in orchestrating this attack, and challenged the leadership of both India and Pakistan to join forces in defeating this common enemy.

On Dec. 3, Lyndon and Helga Zepp LaRouche, along with EIR counterintelligence director Jeffrey Steinberg, addressed a seminar in New Delhi, sponsored by the Forum for Strategic Security Studies (FSSS), a leading military think tank. A partial transcript of that event, featuring the opening remarks by the three speakers, and closing comments by Lyndon LaRouche, appears immediately below. The next issue of Executive Intelligence Review will feature a more comprehensive report on the LaRouches' visit to India, and its aftermath.

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Lyndon LaRouche:

The Time Has Come for a New System

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Lyndon LaRouche made the following remarks at the Forum for Strategic and Security Studies in New Delhi on Dec. 3, 2008. The panel, which included EIREditorial Board member Jeffrey Steinberg and Gen. K.K. Hazari, was chaired by Vice Admiral K.K. Nayyar. The event's host was Brig. (ret.) Dr. Vijai Kumar Nair. The transcript has been edited, and subheads added.

Moderator: Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Mr. and Mrs. LaRouche again to the Forum, after a lapse of a few years. And also, he's been kind enough to agree to discuss with us, the various problems we've been thinking about, and how the new U.S. Administration will--shall I say--tackle them, or attempt to tackle these issues.

I've been talking to Mrs. LaRouche, about how the real problem, which is taking place after the financial collapse of the Bretton Woods system, is going to be the principal concern of Mr. Obama and his administration.

Secondly, Mr. LaRouche has been kind enough to speak to us on Indo-U.S. relations.

And third, if you [Mr. LaRouche] have the time, if you could take it on: What are the principal strategic issues, which are going to dominate the world for the next 30, 40, 50 years?

Lyndon LaRouche: There are two aspects to be considered here. First of all, let's assume that the incoming U.S. administration actually adopts the kinds of policies which I foresee as required. Secondly, what happens if that fails? So you have two completely different kinds of strategic perspectives, one for Plan A, and the other for Plan B; and Plan B is very messy, and, as most of you can already anticipate--I don't need to say that any further.

But, to talk frankly--and confidentially somewhat--about the new administration. The President-elect is a mess. He was actually created by George Soros, and George Soros is a British intelligence operative, of very nasty proclivities, who is running a lot of the problems that you face in various parts, India and elsewhere, today. He's the world's biggest drug pusher, and he also is a general menace. He actually is part of the Commonwealth Office.

Presently, he's been long associated with Lord Malloch-Brown, and is now working, nominally under Malloch-Brown. He's also the world's biggest dope pusher! He runs the drug operations in the Americas: Every state except one, in South America, that is, Colombia, is soft on drugs, under pressure from George Soros's money, and similar kinds of things.

He also is the drug runner of record in Europe, and also, as you know, in Asia. He's involved in all of it. A very dirty--he's a mass murderer, there's nothing good that can be said about him: As a young man in Hungary--he was an adolescent--he was employed by the Hitler machine in killing Jews, as an errand boy of the Jew-killing operation. The point about that, is not that he did it, but the point is that he never regretted the kind of role he played in doing that. He may have objected to the idea of killing Jews, but he didn't object to the process by which the killing was done, if applied to others. And he's become that kind service operation for the British monarchy ever since.

A very dangerous fellow, and most problems we have in Asia and other parts of the world are part of that. He's key in Africa, for example, the present thing in Congo; he's a key part along with his friend, Malloch-Brown, in trying to create a new wave of genocide in Africa. So: a pleasant fellow.

- A Response in the Institutions -

But the point is, that when you have someone with a great deal of money power, like that, coming out of Britain, running the U.S. elections, the fact is, there is a response in the institutions, which may act against the very success. And that's happened before in U.S. history; that's happened in the history of various countries: You get a government you don't want, and somehow institutions of government or around government may act, to try to correct that error, after the damage has been done of putting the fellow in power.

And so, in this case, you have the President-elect, who is a lawyer, which is not necessarily a recommendation these days--especially a U.S. lawyer; and he's not thoughtful, he does not understand much of anything. He's a man who has a strong opinion about himself, but not necessarily a very well-crafted opinion about other matters.

Now, what's happened is, despite his rivalry with Hillary Clinton in the recent campaign, the administration he has, in terms of his present appointments, is largely either Hillary people or people who would be friendly to Hillary. For example, you have Gen. James Jones, a very competent officer with a well-known history; we know his history from three successions. We know Gen. Joseph Hoar, who is his predecessor, and the predecessor of the predecessor--very clean fellows; we know pretty much how they think, and they're very reliable people. He's in, in a competent position.

We have other key positions: Hillary will be the Secretary of State, and she will have the active powers. Bill Clinton will not be in the government, but he will have some kind of acknowledgment of his existence by the government, and he will continue to play a key role on behalf of the United States.

If you look through the list as I see it, there are a few bad apples here and there, like Rahm Emanuel from Chicago, who is very close to the President-elect. But! What I see, is, in terms of operation of a government, under conditions of national and global crisis, it is the leaders of institutions which deal with the crisis which are crucial. Sometimes, the government runs the head of state, or the head of government, and we're in that kind of situation, where that is possible.

Now: For this situation, I'm in a very special kind of situation, where my influence, because I'm senior, among other things, and have been through many wars, and am well-known by many people in government--they're afraid of me, but they like me, and they like me when they have a problem they think I can help on. So, I will be playing a significant part, according to indications presently, probably, in this government.

- The Financial Mess Is Coming Down -

And the key thing, which is of primary concern, is the fact that the international monetary-financial system of the world is presently disintegrating. Many people like to pretend that's not true, but it is true. We have outstanding obligations, in the name of derivatives, which run to about $1.4 quadrillion. And this mess is coming down. The entirety of the crisis is not a bottom up crisis: It's a top-down crisis. From about 1987, we have built up this financial derivatives bubble, which has taken over more and more of the world. This system is now collapsing. This collapse, taking 1.4 estimated quadrillion dollars of obligations, short-term obligations of speculative nature, are coming crashing down, and there's no bottom to this crash. The only thing you can do--in a crash of this magnitude, which we have not seen in modern European civilization at any point, up to this time--the last time we saw something like that in Europe, was during the 14th Century, which was called the New Dark Age; that's the last time we saw something like this.

Now we can deal with a New Dark Age type of crash. What it means is going to the principle of bankruptcy: You put the system into bankruptcy, by governments, and you sort out what you know must be paid, because it's needed, it's needed to keep the society functioning and going. And you know what is trash. And you put the trash to one side, and create a new monetary-financial system, or a new financial system, and start from there.

And you have to do it quickly, because we're in a world crisis: China is collapsing now, in a chain-reaction collapse of its export economy, which is a disaster for it, and portends a potential political crisis inside the country, a major strategic political crisis. That's the threat. We have similar kinds of situations throughout the world. Europe is about to collapse, western and central Europe are about to collapse. Russia is going through an existential crisis: It thought that it was going to be exempt from a crisis in the United States and elsewhere, and it now has found out that's not the case. When this system goes, everybody goes.

India, of course, is in a relatively favorable position, because of the lower ratio of dependency on foreign exports, and dealing with the internal population, the lower 63%--at least there's an element of stability in the process, so you're starting from an advantageous relative position, in terms of internal security and general security for dealing with the crisis. But other countries are in a much more precarious situation. Russia's situation is less precarious than China. China's situation is very precarious. And the entire Southwest Asia is a mess.

So, in this situation, we have to solve the problem immediately.

Now, what I propose, which is rather unique, in the sense that it's unique to the United States: We have a Constitution unlike any other nation on the planet. Our Constitution says that money can not be created, except by the will of government. We are a credit system, not a monetary system. Most of the world--including the United States--is a partner in a monetary system. We don't own the monetary system. We have agreements with a monetary system as nations, but we don't control it, it's not ours. And because it's not ours, it was possible to do this derivatives speculation: That is, to create fantastic credit, on the basis of 11:1 and things like that, of debt. You issue some phony money, you call it a debt, you capitalize it at a rate of 11 times or so the price; you create a vast market of debt, which is greater than the entire world's debt, otherwise. And this comes crashing down on you. There's only one thing you can do: You have to put the debt into bankruptcy, bankruptcy reorganization.

Now, to do that, you have to make one change, which we made a long time ago in principle, constitutionally. The United States is not a monetary system. Our system is, by our Constitution, not a monetary system--it's a credit system. That is, the creation of money, or the creation of government obligations tantamount to money, can not be established, except by the consent of the Congress--by the Presidency, with the consent of the Congress. This credit can be uttered for government support for investments, public works, that sort of thing. Or, it can also be simply monetized. But in the end, it is monetized, because that's when you use this stuff for loans, you put this credit out as loans, and the stuff becomes matured, then it comes back into the system as a monetary aggregate, in repayment of those loans under government conditions.

- A Four-Power Nucleus To Change the World -

What we can do is this: There are four nations on this planet, which are significantly large and important enough, that they could, if willing, could make a decision which would eventually change the direction of affairs on the planet. These four nations are: The United States, itself, because of our Constitution, which is advantageous; Russia, because of its particular position, which is not merely its financial position, but the northern part of Eurasia, contains raw materials resources, which have not been developed, but could be developed. These are absolutely essential for development, and it can not be done by simply ripping the ground; you have to go in there and develop the resources. As for China: China has a real crisis. The majority of its population is extremely poor, and there is no hope for much improvement without a development program in China. Under the present rate, there is not enough development to stabilize the country. India is more stabilized, but it also has a similar problem, long term, of a lot of very poor people, who are going to be a growing population, and they're going to have demands, and legitimate demands.

So therefore, we all have this problem, of how do we expand the capacity for carrying the world's population in a stable, growing way, which can't be done under the present monetary system. So therefore, if these four nations agree, to form a nucleus, in recognition of defense against this crisis, then we can change the world.

Now, we require a U.S. government which is willing and has the understanding of what its responsibilities are in a such a system of cooperation. For example: Those four nations in cooperation--well, Japan will come in right away; Korea will come in right away; some nations in South Asia will come in right away; Africa will welcome this development; some countries in South America will welcome it. The United States population will welcome it, very quickly--maybe not immediately, but very quickly. And we simply have to have a government that'll do that.

Now, because of the internal crisis in the United States now--that is, we've had a breakdown crisis of the U.S. system, the monetary-financial system, and economic system, since the end of July 2007. I happened to forecast this thing, and therefore, since it's happened, I get a lot of credit for having forecast disaster, which usually is not the way to become popular. But, so, more and more bankers, including Federal bankers and Federal Reserve System bankers, and others, have realized I'm right. And people inside the incoming administration, who will be officials or leading advisors to the administration, agree with me.

The question is how. There are two views of this: My initial view was, go directly to these four governments, the United States itself, India, Russia, China, and sponsor the idea of an agreement to deal with this particular crisis in this way, by creating a new credit system to replace the present bankrupt monetary system. Everybody needs it, and it's not a matter of liking the other fellow; it's a matter of, you need his support, to get the job done.

If we do that, and if we get this administration to what it has to do to make that work--and we'll know that by January-February, whether we're in that direction or not--in that case, I'll be playing a key part in this. And if this policy is actually adopted, by the incoming administration, then my role will be defined accordingly, and therefore, I can say certain things about what's going to happen, with that understanding: that if my policy is adopted, my role is rather indicated, and I'll be working through regular channels in the new government, as a private individual in dealing with this problem.

- Threat of a Dark Age -

Now, if this does not happen, then we're looking at the equivalent of a 14th-Century Dark Age in European history. We're looking the possibility of a collapse of the world population--we're now approaching 7 billion people--to about less than 1, within about two generations. And when that's understood, then the impetus for doing the job, I think, is supplied by the threat. We can do it.

We all know projects that are needed, in our countries, respectively--and in other countries, that are needed. We know the essential role of nuclear power, for example in the case of India. This is probably a fairly well-outlined and charted policy by now.

But the only way--for example, when you have a country where 63% of the population is extremely poor and unskilled, how do you increase the productive powers of labor rapidly? Well, you can't do it by suddenly educating them as labor. You can do that in that direction, but you can't do it in that way. You have to go to infrastructure. The marker of infrastructure, mass transportation and so forth, actually is determined by power. The relevant power for India, is nuclear power, as signaled by the importance of thorium, in the spectrum of the future developments here in India. So therefore, by using infrastructure development, large-scale infrastructure development, as capital improvements, capital development, you can increase the productive powers of labor, without changing the character of labor itself. Because you've increased the productive power of the individual by an inventory, by a factor of that type. And that's the positive side.

The other side of this, strategically, is, you have to control the planet. Now, the planet's out of control, and the planet went out of control when the United States went out of control. And we went out of control in various degrees.

We were in control on the day in which United States entered the war against Nazi Germany. At that point, we did not win the war because of our military prowess: Our soldiers were not better than German soldiers, or French soldiers, or others. But our soldiers had more infrastructure. Where they had hundreds of pound, we had tons. When we moved into a country, we oversupplied the country with logistics: And we won the war, because of our logistical capabilities.

But at that point, we established a logistical system, which changed with the death of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was committed to a post-war world based on a credit system, not a monetary system. That was his Bretton Woods system, which I'm proposing we essentially look at and return to. What happened under Truman, we went to a monetary system, rather than a credit system. The issue was clear, and you felt it immediately in India. When I was still here, with the death of Roosevelt, and the accession of Truman, the policy toward the independence of India changed fundamentally. The immediate Roosevelt perspective was the independence of India, as such. What happened with the death of Roosevelt, was, the liberation of India was postponed, through London. And in the meantime, the Pakistan split-out was organized. So that you had the same people who, in my experience in Calcutta, in the spring of 1946, who were shouting "Jai Hind! Pakistan Zindabad!'' in the same tune, a little over a year later were killing each other! And this was a key part of this whole process.

- Post World War II: Return to Imperialism -

But the policy of the Truman Administration, which was practically a stooge for Winston Churchill's policy, the policy was, to save the Empire! So we have freed Indo-China, to become an independent state, and the British and Truman turned it over to reoccupation by the French colonials. We did the same thing in Indonesia, the same kind of thing. We did similar kinds of things in Africa, not always the same thing, but similar kinds of things. So in effect, we recolonized the world.

And on this basis, we recreated a British-style monetary system, in place of a credit system: This was the significance of John Maynard Keynes. John Maynard Keynes, who, in 1937, professed himself to be a fascist--and he was a fascist. I fought some of his supporters, back in 1971: He was a fascist! He changed his flag, but he didn't change his trousers. He was the same thing.

So, we had an international monetary system, which was essentially imperialist in its character, based on a specific orientation to re-colonialism in many parts of the world, but essentially of a monetary system, which became then the entity--which became known as the Anglo-American-Dutch monetary system--and this entity became, actually, the force of an empire.

In 1968, 1971-73, the United States lost its controlling position in this empire, and the British took over. And they took over largely through a fake called an oil hoax, the petroleum hoax of 1973, in which the Saudis and the British formed a special organization. And if you look at this Saudi-British operation of 1973, on the oil hoax, you have the genesis of what you call the "Islamic problem'' in this region, today. I mean, you had these religious conflicts, already, but you didn't have this problem, this Islamic problem that's popping up today. It started in 1973 with the oil hoax.

So, that's essentially our situation, that we have the prospect of a solution. And I think my proposal on this thing is clear; it's clear to many people in what will be my own government. And if it doesn't go, then we'll have a disintegration.

- We're in a Deadly Situation -

Then, you'll have, for example, a collapse of the present government of China; it will be not sustainable in its present form, under this condition. You will have a crisis in Russia. You will have the spread of chaos in all of these areas, and therefore, you're back on emergency rations of trying to set up various kinds of defenses, which are internal defenses against chaos spreading internally, and also protecting borders. You're simply going to have to have a kind of imperialist environment, in which you're fighting and maintaining forces and measures, just to survive!

Because, when you're under conditions of a general breakdown crisis, when you look at the world food supply. Look at the vulnerabilities in the world food supply, and look at the basis this represents for threats, for instability in every part of the world, then your concern for India will be: ``How do we defend ourselves?'' And every hand can be the hand of a potential enemy. Which is all the more reason to wish that the other alternative works beforehand.

But, we're in a deadly situation. We're in a breakdown crisis. And this is the only thing we have in European experience, that's well-documented to correspond to this, is what happened in the 14th Century, with the so-called New Dark Age: How do you defend yourself under a condition of a threatened New Dark Age? I think the present policies of India, in terms of the endemic policies about maintaining stability, would still hold. But then, you would have the question of much-increased emphasis on internal security--you've seen it already; what we saw just in Mumbai is a typical example of that: Here, the British Empire, with its assets, deploys all over the place. The Indian government makes protests about this character who's London-based, who's being deployed doing this, like Dawood Ibrahim, and nobody pays any attention, because no one wants to cause resentment by the British Empire. And these guys run around, and the world is peopled with this.

The world is ready for international terrorism, in a form we have not seen before. And your major security problem is not going to be conventional warfare, though that is possible. The major security problem is instability and chaos in neighboring countries, and among neighboring populations. I don't think it's a pretty picture. I think the solutions are a little complicated, to try to describe them. But I think on the other hand, what we have to be concerned is to try to prevent this process.

We have to have a coalition of forces, on the planet, which is strong enough, and understands its mutual self-interest sufficiently, to restore the kind of control which the United States attempted to promote under Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt, in dealing with China, and dealing with the Soviet Union, and other countries, toward the end of the war, said, you don't have to like the other country; you don't have to like its government; you don't have to like its policy. What you have to do, is establish an international system of control, under which you don't have things running loose, which are menaces. Simply having treaty organizations or similar things tantamount to treaty organizations, where people have such an interest in maintaining the treaty organization that they will regulate themselves and their own country. And you can get cooperation on this.

- Needed: A Good Intelligence Program -

I think under Option A, as I would describe it, we have a successful case. Under Option B, I think we have a terrible case. But, one we'll fight if we have to. But your fighting capabilities are going to have to be much more sophisticated, than they have been so far. And the most important fighting capabilities are going to be in the domain of intelligence. A more effective intelligence operation, because the problem you're dealing with in this terrorist operation is largely an intelligence problem! If you have a good intelligence program, you have a better chance of coping with it. And the functioning of your intelligence services will be crucial. And most military operations, will be actually adjuncts: Since you're not looking for wars, you're looking for control of hostile situations, which means you're looking primarily for an intelligence defense, which may have a military augmentation to it.

So, I'm essentially--with that said--quite optimistic. I think, knowing the problems, I have to be also realistic, but I'm optimistic. And it doesn't make any difference, because, after all, what am I going to do? I'm 86 years of age, I have some rather lively character, for my age; and I'll be around, I think, for some time, and doing these kinds of things for some time. But I have to think about doing what I have to do now: And that is, to anticipate the future, which I won't live in, but I have to anticipate it, and I have to think about the ideas, and plans, and schemes, and whatnot which we need to have in place in order to deal with whatever the future is going to donate to the coming generation. And I think we have a shot with the United States--I can't guarantee it.

But the idea of this Four Power initiative, I can only say on that, right now, I've said we should do it immediately. From the incoming administration, the suggestion to me is: Well, the people don't trust the United States enough after two terms of George W. Bush, Jr., to make such agreement. But maybe if we do it first, make the proposal publicly first, and state it as U.S. policy, maybe then, other countries will join in such an agreement.

And I'm sure that the rate of increase of the international financial crisis will encourage people, quickly, to say, "Let's have a new system, because the present one is finished.''

source: ekbtv.blogspot.com

Xbox 360 portablized

Xbox 360 portablized, ruggedized and Ben Heckified into Pelican case

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Dec 24th 2008 at 2:04PM

It seems that our man Benjamin Heckendorn has elevated the laptop Xbox mod into something of an art form. Remember the boxy white model that looked like a way outclassed Toshiba Portege (ca. 1995)? Or how about the sci-fi stylings of the Xbox 360 Elite laptop? If you're looking for something a little more rugged, the newest addition to the menagerie sees the console mounted in a Pelican case. The rest is the usual Ben Heck artistry: 17-inch widescreen LCD, speakers, top loading DVD-ROM, removable hard drive, USB and ethernet ports -- all set in brushed aluminum. And the best part? This isn't a consignment job, so if you're going to be working on an Alaskan pipeline or find yourself shipping out with the military, you might want to consider making an offer. Video after the break.

source: engadget.com

Obama & Biden to protest Bush Administration Criminals

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Obama & Biden To Protect Bush Administration Criminals

Nuremberg trials also judged “a waste of time”

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com

It’s par for the course for Obama and Biden, the men who promised “change” but in every step of their preparations for assuming office have pursued nothing but continuity, to acknowledge that they will protect criminals in the Bush administration from prosecution for authorizing torture, a complete violation of both the U.S. constitution and the Geneva Conventions.

When asked by ABC host George Stephanopoulos if top level Bush administration officials would be prosecuted for mandating prisoner abuse, Biden said that he and Obama would be “focusing on the future,” adding “I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”

Such rhetoric goes to the very heart of the gigantic con job the “Obama change” hoax has wrought upon millions of befuddled Americans who naively presumed that voting for the lesser of two evils would result in anything other than more evil.

Perhaps Göring, Ribbentrop and the rest of the Nazis prosecuted at Nuremberg for their war crimes were following the wrong line of defense when they claimed they were merely “following orders,” they should have just proclaimed that the world should be “looking forward not backwards” and according to the Biden/Obama view of justice, they would have got off scot free.

Likewise, pedophiles and rapists who abuse children and women in ways not far removed from what was approved at Abu Ghraib should merely tell police that since the abuse and rape occurred in the past, everybody should just move on, “looking forwards not backwards”.

Obama and Biden, with their de-facto pardons of the Bush administration torture masters, are ensuring that what happened at places like Abu Ghraib, including beating people to death, raping people with acid covered batons and sexual abuse of children, will continue to happen in future without consequence.

Of course, those that protect war criminals from prosecution should be treated no better than the war criminals themselves, and when real “change” comes to America, Obama and Biden will face the same justice as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

source: ekbtv.blogspot.com

Dashboard Devices to debut ENV line of in-car computers at CES

Dashboard Devices to debut ENV line of in-car computers at CES

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 25th 2008 at 9:06AM

While we can't quite decide whether the carputer is a dying breed or simply a niche that never really took off, Dashboard Devices is hoping to revive it either way come January. The outfit will reportedly debut its ENV (Entertainment and Navigation for Vehicles) line as a two-part system. First comes the ENV-XC, which houses the main processor, graphics unit and other basic functionality; said brain can be paired with a choice of head units, including the double-DIN ENV-100 or the single-DIN ENV-50. Word has it that the double-DIN package will ring up at a staggeringly high $2,700, but we're also hearing that it'll offer "true dual zone" control, meaning that your robustious youngsters can have their own set of preferences in the rear while the grown-ups keep things comfortable up front. It'll also pack a WiFi module, voice activated functions, navigation, DVD playback, a 160GB hard drive, iPod compatibility, satellite radio support, Windows XP, a 7-inch touchscreen and optional WWAN. We'll be keeping an eye out for this one at CES -- but for $2,700, we're totally not going to be satisfied without a bona fide autopilot system.

source : engadget.com

Leaked Rogers slide about Blackberry 82xx

Leaked Rogers slides make us want to move to Canada

by Chris Ziegler, posted Dec 25th 2008 at 1:22PM

We're not really sure where to begin with this one, because the awesomeness is so thorough and so intense that we're basically at a loss for words; we'll see what we can do here, though. In brief, a HoFo poster has thrown up what appear to be slides from a Rogers event detailing the carrier's release plans for the better part of 2009, and seriously, if you name a badass handset, odds are it's here. Samsung will apparently be bringing the 8.1-megapixel Pixon, for starters, and Sony Ericsson will be throwing its name into the huge-cam hat with the C905. Turning our attention to Windows Mobile, the X1 is scheduled for release "around August if not sooner," Motorola brings the lowly Q11, and HTC adds the Touch Pro, the Touch Viva (an unusual choice considering HTC's intention to send it to emerging markets), and possibly the Touch 3G. Nokia will be offering the 5800 XpressMusic in the middle part of the year, Moto will be bringing a pair of 5-megapixel phones in the VE66 and ZN5, and finally, it seems RIM is signed up to bring the all-GSM 9520 Storm with WiFi -- a feature sorely missing from the Verizon and Vodafone versions -- and a 3G remix of the 8200 Pearl series flip that'll have a front-facing cam for video calling (yeah, no joke, they offer it up there). So look, AT&T, you have two options here: either crib off this presentation and make it happen, or we hope you get bought by Rogers. Your choice.

source : engadget.com

VUDU movie set-top-box

Engadget HD's Holiday Giveaway: win a VUDU movie set-top-box!

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 25th 2008 at 6:17PM

The giving souls over at Engadget HD aren't done yet, as they've got a VUDU movie set-top-box awaiting a new owner. If your unwrapping ceremony this morning wasn't all gumdrops and lollipops like you had hoped, there's hardly a better way to remedy the situation than to bring home an on-demand movie box. Head on over and drop your name in the hat -- Kris Kringle just might have a little somethin' (more) for ya.

source: engadget.com

Serving the Rear Echelon

Serving the Rear Echelon

With Planned U.S. Pullout, Agility Looks to New Areas

By ANTONIE BOESSENKOOL
Published: 15 December 2008

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Kuwaiti logistics company Agility has grown exponentially in the last five years, from $161 million in revenue in 2003 to $6.3 billion last year. Most of the company's income comes from its commercial business, which offers warehousing, distribution, inventory management and even relocation services for employees of companies that hire Agility.

Agility's defense work also focuses on warehousing, distribution and logistics, but with one particular emphasis: providing meals to about 140,000 troops and at least 100,000 defense contractors a day in Iraq and Kuwait. The firm supplies the service under a U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) contract that Agility values at $1.4 billion.

Agility's Defense and Government Services division provides the food through more than 100 dining halls and mobile kitchens through a prime vendor contract with DLA. Houston-based KBR runs these facilities and cooks and serves the food under a separate contract with the U.S. Army, known as Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) III.

Operations in Iraq have spurred the growth of the Defense and Government Services division, and most of its revenue comes from the food delivery contract. Agility's other two divisions include Global Integrated Logistics, which serves the commercial sector, and Investments, a much smaller operation that handles real estate and private equity deals.

With plans by the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq, the Defense and Government Services division is looking to diversify into other markets and other Pentagon contracts. The goal for the division is to draw 70 percent of its revenue by 2011 from contracts other than the food delivery contract, said Dan Mongeon, Agility's president and chief executive.

The division has bid or may bid on logistics contracts with the United Nations for operations in Africa, particularly in Sudan, and for contracts with the U.S. State Department and NATO forces.

"What we have been fairly successful at doing is analyzing the defense market and looking for opportunities and building a business development pipeline," Mongeon said.

Future Looks Bright

Aside from the food delivery contract, Defense and Government Services' other major work includes a Defense Reutilization and Marketing contract with DLA, valued at up to $98 million over five years, to process and dispose of unserviceable excess military equipment and materiel at sites in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

The division also is expanding work with the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and defense ministries in France and other countries, Mongeon said. In addition, it inventories and stores personal gear at all U.S. Marine bases worldwide.

These contracts help make Mongeon optimistic about future growth, despite the planned Iraq pullout.

With the Defense Reutilization contract, "as you draw down those units, [Agility's] workload just really increases three to ten-fold," he said. "As the units draw down, they turn in their scrap, their unserviceable items. So our business just goes up, dramatically."

Agility also has set up an internal group to look at business opportunities with the Iraqi government and Iraqi companies, including the possibility of playing a shipping or warehousing role in trade between Iraq and other countries, Mongeon said. That group's work is still in the early stages, he said.

"We're focused on Iraq for the long term," he said. "Our commercial footprint and our commercial capabilities lend itself to that kind of a scenario. It's work both inside Iraq but also [work] that connects Iraq with other trading partners and other companies within the region."

Agility says it has 550 offices in 100 countries. In the Middle East, its largest warehouse is in Kuwait City, and it also has a major logistics hub in Aqaba, Jordan.

Contracts like the Defense Reutilization deal are carried out by Taos, a Defense and Government Services unit. Taos has a Special Security Agreement with the Pentagon, giving some employees the facilities clearances needed for certain work.

Defense and Government Services also contracts out its own security forces under its Threat Management Group (TMG), established to provide security for Agility's own trucks, Mongeon said.

Agility has from 700 to 1,200 trucks moving in Iraq every day, the CEO said. Given the amount of company assets on the road, "It was only in our best interest to have this kind of capability."

There have been 31 deaths and more than 200 casualties for the company in Iraq since 2003, according to Agility. Those incidents occurred mainly in the early part of military operations in Iraq, Mongeon said.

Taos and TMG are relatively small parts of the Defense and Government Services business, Mongeon said.

The Agility defense division and CH2M HILL, an engineering services firm based in Englewood, Colo., are part of a team led by Falls Church, Va.-based DynCorp that recently won the right to compete for task orders from the Army under LOGCAP IV, a broad logistics contract to follow LOGCAP III. KBR, which held the LOGCAP III contract, also won the right to compete for task orders under LOGCAP IV, along with a third company, Irving, Texas-based Fluor.

The DynCorp team recent-ly won a task order to provide services in Kuwait, a decision KBR has protested.

Jeff Roncka, an analyst with CRA International, Boston, said that opportunities are good for logistics firms like Agility as the U.S. military prepares to decrease troops in Iraq.

"Even though the force structure is going down, for logistics companies there is an 18-month, two-year uptick to move [equipment] all back" to the United States, he said. "With these large-scale movements that are likely to go on over the next couple of years, the market is going to be, at a minimum, stable."

But the nature of the logistics work may change, Roncka added. "The guys who just do food service are likely to see a decrease," he said. "The people who move equipment, package it, break down and set up the sites, should see an uptick."

Agility is publicly traded on the Kuwaiti stock exchange and an exchange in Dubai. ■

source: defencenews.com

$40B Price Tag for Larger Army

$40B Price Tag for Larger Army

U.S. Service Predicts Cost of 1.1 Million-Soldier Force

By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 15 December 2008

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The U.S. Army projects it will need $40 billion annually above current spending levels once a planned 74,200 troops are added, according to a draft service report for the Obama transition team. The report says the planned force of 1.1 million soldiers would require a budget of "$170 billion to $180 billion per year to sustain," well above the 2009 budget of about $140 billion.

Defense News obtained a draft copy of the 43-page document, labeled "predecisional" and dated November 2008.

The Bush administration in early 2007 proposed swelling the Army, as well as the Marine Corps, by early next decade. Congress approved the plan. Army officials have hinted for months that a larger force will require a bigger annual budget.

But if service officials have previously estimated the full costs of sustaining the proposed increase thereafter, they have not released the figures.

Independent defense budget analysts have estimated that just recruiting and training 10,000 soldiers costs $1.2 billion a year. Carrying out the entire proposed increase is expected to cost about $80 billion through 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and independent budget analysts.

The Army paper, which outlines a broad range of service plans, strategic insights, future needs, goals and potential threats, does not spell out how service officials arrived at their $170 billion to $180 billion estimate.

One Army official familiar with service planning said the extra funds would go toward personnel costs and gear.

The CBO has estimated that sustaining the extra forces will cost about $14 billion per year, far less than the Army report suggests.

At press time, an Army spokes-man had yet to respond to requests for further details.

Several analysts declined to speculate about the discrepancy with the CBO figures.

Why the Need?

The document does explain why senior military officials want a bigger Army: more brigade combat teams. The end-strength increase is "an important element of building resilience back into our force, restoring strategic flexibility," it says. The extra active, reserve and National Guard troops are needed to meet a service goal of fielding a total of 15 brigade combat teams and "to deal with the most uncertain strategic environment we have ever faced."

The planned 1.1 million-soldier force could support 20 brigade combat teams and support forces, assuming 12-month active-component deployments and nine-month reserve-component deployments with a 12-month mobilization, the document says. If active and Reserve component units are given three years to five years between deployments, "the planned 1.1 million-soldier force could continuously supply 15 brigade combat teams and their support forces," it says.

The document is largely a reflection of current status and plans, not a call for changes to be made under a new administration, said Andrew Krepinevich, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Studies, Washington.

"Remember, with [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates' reappointment, the Army still has the same leadership at the Pentagon. The transition team is not Gates. And the members will not necessarily have positions in the Pentagon. In fact, most will not," Krepinevich said. "The transition team is there to gather information useful to those who will assume senior positions under Gates. So there does not appear to be a reason for the Army to modify its position from that which it had prior to the election. If it has, I don't see it here."

Procurement Warning

The document says the service is "making progress, but there are [two to three] rough years ahead" in the ongoing effort to repair and restore its war-worn vehicles, helicopters, and other gear. "We have an achievable plan to restore balance to the Army by the end of fiscal 2011. The next two years are critical."

The document calls the service "out of balance," meaning the ground force is "feeling the cumulative effects of more than seven years of war in which the demand for forces exceeds the sustainable supply."

The document mentions almost no specific weapons, save in a few paragraphs and in one chart that lists programs central to Army modernization plans. The most in-depth discussion of its prized Future Combat Systems comes on a page that describes the service's modernization plan.

"Our combat fleet is aging and will require replacement in the next 20 years," the report says. FCS is "designed to ... meet that goal with an integrated system of systems, and ... enhance the capabilities of our combat formations with 'spinouts.'"

Service sources said the FCS program office has prepared its own paper about the multibillion-dollar initiative for the transition team.

Some defense analysts have placed the program, run by Boeing and SAIC, on a list of high-dollar defense programs the Obama administration may cut.

Threat Picture

The document predicts that the current global fiscal slowdown likely will complicate global security, and predicts a threat picture shaped by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, globalization, demographic shifts, resource competition among nations, climate change, natural disasters, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The service predicts the next administration will primarily face "hybrid threats," which the document describes as "dynamic combinations of terrorist, irregular, conventional and criminal elements." But a war against another nation, as opposed to groups like al-Qaida, "cannot be ignored," it says.

For that reason, the report says, the Army's force must have "utility across the spectrum of conflict."

While the Army report points to failed and failing states as another top threat, one former Army official discounts such notions.

"The world is full of failed states and always has been. Trying to rectify this situation by governing and developing failed societies, and with American military power, will bankrupt us and change nothing of substance in these regions," said Douglas Macgregor, a retired Army colonel who writes on military reform for the Center for Defense Information, Washington. "It's time Americans woke up and recognized that so-called [counterinsurgency] in Iraq, along with the nation-building it implies, is a euphemism for territorial imperialism, an economic, military and political loser." ■

Kris Osborn contributed to this report
source: defencenews.com

Motorola Hope for Brighter 09

Motorola Hopes for Brighter ‘09

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 22nd, 2008

Motorola, beset by bad news this year, said today it will expand Long Term Evolution (LTE), WiMAX and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployments in 2009.

Motorola’s LTE unite says it was the first company to demonstrate handoff between CDMA EV-DO Rev-A and LTE technologies in a with VoIP calls and streaming video. Motorola’s handoff demonstrate how service providers using CDMA-based networks today can smoothly integrate broadband OFDMA and LTE.

According to a new report from West Technology Research Solutions, regulatory conditions are looking bright for the mobile WiMAX growth and adoption. As for the fixed WiMAX market, Forrester sees Africa and Eastern Europe as key areas for telecom growth.

Motorola’s WiMAX business unit is currently engaged in 49 countries including a $165 million contract with Saudi Arabia’s Atheeb, and contracts with Embratel in Brazil and Axtel in Mexico. Other developments occurred in previously underserved areas of the world, including Jordan, East Malaysia, and Pakistan. Wateen Telecom in Pakistan placed one of the world’s largest WiMAX device orders in 2008, with 198,000 units.

Nearly 600 Motorola WiMAX base stations are on the air in Chicago and 300 in the Portland metro area, ready for commercial service.

On the wireline side, Motorola says its FTTH service passes through 14 million homes and connects 3.75 million homes in North America.

Hotwire Communications has selected Motorola’s FTTH, MPEG-4 high definition (HD) encoder and IP set-top solutions for the delivery of both residential and commercial broadband services. Smaller telecoms will benefit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Program for Motorola’s gigabit passive optical network (GPON) FTTH solutions.

In other news, Airspan Networks, announced today the release of a new 700 MHz WiMAX product suite targeted at rural markets (pdf). It builds on the the company’s current 700 MHz product line, and adds to the broad Airspan WiMAX portfolio.

“700MHz license holders in the USA and internationally have been waiting for a credible WiMAX solution to upgrade their service offering to their customers,” said Declan Byrne, Airspan’s Chief Marketing Officer. “The combination of excellent signal propagation and robust Airspan equipment will enable operators to offer high speed Internet to a broad population in a wide network coverage area at a very low cost-to-market.”

“We believe that this new product, coupled with our products in the 1.5 and 3.65 GHz frequency bands, provides the perfect ‘trifecta’ of solutions in support of rural broadband access in the United States,” continued Declan Byrne.

For added flexibility, the Airspan equipment is designed to operate in a range of channel sizes, from as small as 1.5MHz to as wide as 10MHz.

source: dailywireless.org

Android G2 Rumors

Android G2 Rumors

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 22nd, 2008

Android G2 Rumors Blaze, reports PC World.

The Boy Genius Report says the new smartphone running the Open Handset Alliance (Android) operating system was rumored to be available somewhere between late February and April.

The specs for the G2 are reportedly almost the same as the G1 with some notable exceptions.

• The G2 will not have a physical keyboard of any kind, instead favoring a full touch keyboard more akin the iPhone.
• the track ball will remain on the phone for those who prefer it for navigation.
• a VGA camera in addition to the existing 5-megapixel camera. The new camera should support better video calling, which would help differentiate the G2 from competitors like the iPhone.
• The launch was delayed from late February to April due to software issues.

Supposedly the G2 will also be available through other carriers than just T-Mobile. T-Mobile still owns the G1, G2, and G3 names, so it is unknown what other carriers will be calling it.

A Garmin Android Phone is Coming in 2009, says Phandroid. Garmin announced their entry into the mobile market almost a year ago with the still unreleased Garmin Nuvifone and then they joined the OHA earlier this month. AndNav2 is Android’s first ever navigation application.

Garmin expects to ship 18 million GPS navigation devices in 2008.

source: dailywireless.org

AT&T/Verizon Swap Frequencies

AT&T/Verizon Swap Frequencies

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 22nd, 2008

AT&T announced today that they have finalized a swap of wireless assets with Verizon Wireless, following regulatory approval from the FCC and Department of Justice. The asset swap extends AT&T Mobility’s coverage in New York, Vermont, Washington State and Kentucky while Verizon got cash and some AT&T frequencies

Under the terms of the agreement, AT&T Mobility acquired some properties owned by former Rural Cellular Corporation and acquired by Verizon Wireless. They are in Burlington, Vt. and in rural service areas (RSAs) in New York (RSA-2), Vermont (RSA-1, RSA-2) and Washington (RSA-2, RSA-3). AT&T also acquired a cellular license from Verizon Wireless in portions of Kentucky RSA-6.

The former Dobson Communications, now a part of AT&T, traded some properties with Verizon, including licenses, network assets and subscribers, in Kentucky RSA-6 and RSA-8. Verizon Wireless also acquired 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in a number of areas for cash.

These transactions satisfy the divestiture requirements related to AT&T Mobility’s acquisition of Dobson last year. This agreement was signed on Dec. 3, 2007, and received final regulatory approval on Dec. 18, 2008.

Verizon Wireless announced earlier this year that it will buy the fifth largest cellular operator in the United States, Alltel for $5.9 billion.

Alltel has 13.2 million subscribers in 34 states, mainly in rural areas away from the coasts which would be added to Verizon Wireless 67.2 million subscribers. The size of the combined company would have more than 80 million customers, surpassing AT&T, currently the largest U.S. cellular provider, with some 71.4 million subscribers.

AT&T has mostly held the lead for total wireless subscribers since merging with Cingular back in 2004. AT&T bought Dobson for $2.8 billion last year. Dobson had 850MHz spectrum in rural areas. Verizon Wireless bought Rural Cellular Corp. for $2.67 billion in 2007. Verizon Wireless also plans to expand its wireless coverage in rural areas.

Both AT&T and Verizon may plan on getting subsized by U.S. taxpayers using the Universal Service Fund and their new 700 MHz frequencies.

source : dailywireless.org

Scientists Named to President's Science Council

Scientists Named to President’s Science Council

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 22nd, 2008

“The truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry,” said President-elect Obama in his weekly video chat.

President-elect Obama announced his appointment of Dr. John Holdren as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

He also announced Dr. Harold Varmus (Rose Interview) and Dr. Eric Lander (Rose Interview) as the other co-chairs of PCAST, which the President-elect said he hopes will be “a vigorous external advisory council that will shape my thinking on the scientific aspects of my policy priorities.”

Addtionally, he named Dr. Jane Lubchenco as his choice to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Obama’s transition team is planning to scrap NASA’s Ares program, the successor to the Space Shuttle, say NASA advisors. The transition team is investigating whether EELVs such as the Delta IV and Atlas V could be used in place of Ares. NASA [contractors] want a permanent moon base by 2020, followed by a manned mission to Mars; which the agency says require the Ares rocket.

The United States Space program is known for legendary waste, cost overruns and criminality:

• The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High program, originally estimated to cost about $4 billion, is at least 400% over its original budget and significantly behind schedule.
• The Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite program (AEHF) went from $6.1 billion to $8.7 billion.
• The NPOESS weather satellites went from from $6.8 billion to $13.8 billion
• The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, initially a $17B heavy lifter program, has ballooned $14 Billion over budget (and counting).
• Boeing’s $5 billion Future Imagery Architecture was killed in September 2005, when cost estimates ran as high as $18 billion.

The first flight by the United Launch Alliance, which combined the redundant and wildly over budget EELV programs by Boeing and Lockheed, was in December 2006. The classified NROL-21 payload instantly transformed into a multi-billion dollar brick.

source : dailywireless.org

Samsung Android:2nd Quarter

Samsung Android: 2nd Quarter

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 19th, 2008

Samsung will release its first Google phone in the second quarter of the next year via Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA, say industry insiders. The Google phone will feature the Google Map based location information service, messenger G-Talk, the G-mail application and Google Search.

Sprint organized a task force team a year ago to develop a Google phone. The company is predicted to select a full touch screen phone similar to the one that it adapted to Omnia and Instinct.

An official of Samsung Electronics said, “We are accelerating the development process for Google phone in order to meet the specific need of local carriers. We will be able to release Google phone in the second quarter of the next year in the US market.”

Meanwhile competition in the smart phone market is likely to become fierce with Symbian and Windows Mobile losing its shares to Apple with its Mac OS X and Android emerging. Beside’s the Android Open Handset Alliance, other open mobile platforms include Nokia’s Symbian Foundation and LiMo.

The iPhone now commands over 30 percent of the U.S. smartphone market.

source: dailywireless.org

Video Search

Video Search: Big Time

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 19th, 2008

Video search on YouTube accounts for a quarter of all Google search queries in the U.S., according to the latest search engine numbers from comScore. If it were a standalone site, YouTube would be the second largest search engine after Google. More searches are done through YouTube than through Yahoo.

In an interview with CNET News this week, Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s eLabs, said the largest of the top recording companies is bringing in “tens of millions of dollars” from YouTube.

“YouTube is not like radio, where it’s just promotional,” said Caraeff, who heads up Universal’s digital group. “It’s a revenue stream.” Of the top 10 channels on YouTube, 7 are music related. They include channels from Warner Bros. Records, Soulja Boy, and Disney’s Hollywood Records.

Android phones will soon be updated with several new features including support for a video recording mode that also lets users upload and share content, reports Read/Write Web. The update, code-named “Cupcake,” has many speculating what that video sharing feature will actually look like.

You Tube now lets you “watch in HD”. If you click on that option, the video will automatically play in widescreen – so you can find out Where Matt Is in glorious HD, if you so wish.

YouTube doesn’t comment on how much money individuals can earn through advertising, partly because advertiser demand varies for different kinds of videos. But a NY Times article said “hundreds of YouTube partners are making thousands of dollars a month.”

source: dailywireless.org

Satellite Phones geting WiMaxed

Satellite Phones Getting WiMAXed

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 19th, 2008

TerreStar Europe, a European mobile communications company and a subsidiary of TerreStar Corporation, announced that its application with the European Commission (EC) for a Pan-European 2GHz MSS S-band spectrum authorisation has been accepted.

TerreStar Europe plans to create a pan-European integrated satellite and complementary ground component network that is designed to provide wholesale mobile voice, data and video services across both a satellite and terrestrial based mobile broadband network. It will be available to government, emergency responders, enterprises and consumers for ubiquitous connectivity across urban, rural and remote regions of Europe.

TerreStar is a giant geosynchrous satellite phone system designed to provide next-generation, 2-GHz mobile voice and data communications, monitoring and messaging services throughout the United States and Canada. The TerreStar broadband network can use both traditional land-based wireless networks and the satellite network. The terrestrial repeaters use the same frequency as the satellite, enabling small, inexpensive mobile phones with a direct to satellite capability.

Last month the FCC granted an extension of its U.S. satellite launch milestone from September 30, 2008 to June 30, 2009. TerreStar requested the extension because of issues experienced during construction of its satellite reflector. In September 2008, Industry Canada (IC), the federal government department in Canada which is responsible for radio spectrum licensing and telecommunications policy, granted a similar request by TerreStar Networks.

“TerreStar greatly appreciates the grant of the extension requests by both the FCC and IC,” said Jeffrey Epstein, President of TerreStar Networks Inc. “We will continue to maintain momentum and focus on realizing our vision of North America’s first IP-enabled integrated satellite-terrestrial mobile broadband network.”

Progress on the construction of the TerreStar-1 satellite (TS-1) has reached a very advanced stage at Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California.

The S-Band feed array has recently completed final testing and is being integrated onto the satellite. The S-Band reflector, being constructed by Harris Corporation in Palm Bay, Florida, recently completed its first hands-free deployment. Likewise, ground support systems are also progressing, including acceptance of the North Las Vegas, Nevada feeder link facilities and construction of the Telemetry Monitoring, Tracking, and Control facilities in Allan Park, Ontario.

TerreStar plans to launch its TerreStar-1 satellite in the second quarter of next year. Earlier the company had planned on a Dec. 2008 to Feb. 2009 launch. TerreStar-2, scheduled for delivery in 2009, features a large unfurlable reflector similar to TerreStar-1. The satellite will generate hundreds of spot beams covering the Continental U.S., Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Meanwhile, ICO Global Communications today announced changes to the boards of directors for both ICO Global and its subsidiary, ICO North America.

Nicolas Kauser has joined the board of ICO Global Communications. Mr. Kauser is a principal of Eagle River Holdings, LLC and he serves on the boards of RadioFrame Networks and Triquint Semiconductor. He has previously held the position of chief technology officer at both AT&T Wireless Services and Clearwire Corporation, and served as president of Clearwire International.

ICO Global directors R. Gerard Salemme, Donna Alderman and Benjamin Wolff have resigned from the board of ICO Global, and will remain on the board of ICO North America. Craig McCaw has resigned from the board of ICO North America, and will remain on the board of ICO Global. All other directors for ICO Global and ICO North America will continue to serve in their respective existing capacities.

ICO is the elephant in the room for Clearwire. It will deliver mobile television via DVB-SH.

ICO G1 was successfully launched on April 14, 2008. G1 is now on station at 92.85 degrees West Longitude in geosynchronous orbit.

In September, ICO announced that WiMAX provider Clearwire will join as a service partner for its alpha trial in Raleigh Durham, North Carolina, and that an additional trial will take place in Las Vegas, NV. ICO will use DVB-SH for mobile video, delivering 10-15 channels of premium live TV content for 7–15 inch screens. Harris also built the reflector for TerreStar Networks’s geostationary TerreStar-1 mobile communications satellite; and two reflectors for XM Satellite Radio’s XM-5 radio broadcast satellite.

Both ICO and TerreStar have 20 MHz each in the MSS band (2.0/2.1 GHz). They’ll deliver spotbeam satphone services from geosynchronous space, supplemented with terrestrial repeaters.

Meanwhile, Globalstar, which operates a LEO-based satellite phone system (similar to Iridium), is also talking about sharing terrestrial frequencies and towers.

Globalstar has won approval from the FCC to incorporate WiMAX in the ATC with the help of terrestrial partner Open Range Communication. The two will offer WiMAX to more than 500 rural communities–with the help of a $267 million loan from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Utilities Program. Globalstar said it will be looking for other partners too.

But satellite mobile television service failed in Japan, even though the country has a concentrated population footprint with gadget-loving citizens.

Toshiba is shutting down its four-year-old, satellite-based digital multimedia broadcasting service in Japan, which it offers through their Mobile Broadcasting Corporation unit.

The MBSAT from Mobile Broadcasting Corporation is a three-axis attitude stabilized geostationary satellite designed and manufactured by Space Systems / Loral, based on the SS/L 1300 bus and featured a 12m-aperture (40 foot) S band high gain antenna.

In 2005, South Korea began a similar mobile TV service using Satellite-DMB (S-DMB) and terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) service. Since launching in May 2005, South Korea’s TU Media has signed up more than one million subscribers, uses the S-DMB (satellite digital multimedia broadcasting) standard, offering 15 video and 19 audio channels.

Toshiba said the Japanese service has failed to attract sufficient customers in the face of demand for free mobile broadcasting services that are targeting mobile handsets. Toshiba said it will dissolve the company and end services by March of next year. It is expected to cost Toshiba about $232 million. The company launched the service in Oct. 2004.

source : dailywireless.org

Bullet Train WiFi

Bullet Train Wi-Fi

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 19th, 2008

NTT Communications says it will offer Wi-Fi service on high speed rail between Tokyo and Osaka . The service will be an extension of the company’s HotSpot service, which already offers access in shops, restaurants, hotels and other locations across Japan.

The service was delayed due to late arrival of their new N700-type trains that offer the fastest rail link between Japan’s two biggest cities of Tokyo and Osaka. The 2M bps service will be provided by a “leaky coax” — a wire travelling alongside the bullet train track. At the same time, NTT will also launch access in waiting lounges on all 17 stations along the route. The service will cost from ¥500 per day to ¥1,680 (US$5.73 to $19.25) for a monthly subscription.

A similar delayed shipment of railcars has slowed WiFi on Portland’s new communter rail system, reports investigative reporter Les Zaitz of The Oregonian. Construction is finished for the first commuter rail line in Oregon but the cars weren’t ready.

The Westside Commuter Rail (WES) will use a ruggedized mobile router system called the Cira (Cellular Internet Routing Appliance) designed by Eugene, Oregon-based Feeney Wireless. It uses EVDO for the backhaul.

Everything is working as promised and ready to go, reports the company. They just need a working commuter rail service.

The Washington County Commuter Rail will carry passengers between Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville when the line opens in February, 2009. The self-propelled diesel trains, which delayed the opening, will travel 14.7-miles between Beaverton and Wilsonville — with free Wi-Fi.

The CIRA mobile router has been battle tested in New York City taxicabs. Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT) provides New York City taxicabs with credit and debit card processing, media and advertising content, text messaging, interactive passengers maps, GPS and electronic trip sheets. Today, CMT is the nation’s leading provider of total taxi technology solutions across the United States.

Emergency medical vehicles can also use the Cira box to communicate to wifi enabled portable emergency equipment, such as EKG, blood pressure, etc., so first responders can transmit real time patient data to the hospital in transit.

source : dailywireless.org

Percentage Change in S&P Since 1935

Percentage Change in the S&P Since 1825
December 10th, 2008 by Mike

I found this chart interesting:

S&P since 1825
via boing boing via dailykos

source: uglycharts.com

Web site-based crimeware hits all-time high

Web site-based crimeware hits all-time high (CNET)

* Posted on Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:44AM EST
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- The use of malware on Web sites to steal passwords and other sensitive information is skyrocketing, according to a new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

The number of URLs with hidden code for stealing passwords nearly tripled between July 2007 and July 2008, to a record high of 9,529, while the number of malicious-application variants hit a high of 442 this May, the APWG reports in its quarterly report (PDF) issued this week.

The increase is primarily due to malicious code being used in SQL injection attacks, in which a small malicious script is inserted into a database that feeds information to the Web site. Typically, the host site is legitimate such as BusinessWeek's, not a phishing site created for the sole purpose of stealing consumer data.

The financial-services industry is the most targeted sector for phishing attacks, followed by those focusing on auctions and payment services, the report found.

"Cybercriminals continue to increase their activities to levels never before seen in the five years since the APWG has been monitoring phishing and crimeware," APWG Chairman Dave Jevans said in a statement.

The recession is prompting even more malicious activity online, he said.

"The current financial crisis has also been used by phishers to create new scams that try to scare consumers into entering their usernames and passwords into sites that mimic those of well-known distressed financial institutions," Jevans said. "As the economy degrades, we are seeing a continual increase in malicious and criminal activity on the Internet."

Another report issued this week shows that IT security professionals view cybercrime and data breaches as the top security risks, followed by mobility, outsourcing, cloud computing, mobile devices, peer-to-peer file sharing, Web 2.0 services, and malware.

Meanwhile, respondents who work in IT operations listed outsourcing as the biggest risk, followed by mobile devices and cybercrime, in the 2008 Security Mega Trends Survey conducted by The Ponemon Institute on behalf of Lumension Security. In the survey, 577 respondents work in IT security, and 825 work in IT operations.

Of those surveyed, 83 percent of the IT security workers and 79 percent of IT operations professionals reported that their organization had a data breach due to customer or employee information being lost or stolen. Overall, 92 percent of the organizations have experienced a cyberattack.

Another survey, released on Thursday by CA, looks at behaviors and perceptions among American adults and teens of their safety online.

Fifty-seven percent of adults fear that they may become victims of identity fraud online within the next two years, and 90 percent worry about the security of their personal data. Meanwhile, 35 percent of teens leave their social-networking profiles open to viewing by strangers, 38 percent post their education information, 32 percent disclose their e-mail addresses, and 28 percent reveal their birth date.

source: cnet

SecureRF to Develop Secure RFID for US Air Force

SecureRF to Develop Secure RFID for US Air Force

By John Burnell

Secure RF has received a grant from the US Air Force (USAF) to develop secure RFID tags that can report asset locations to the Air Force but can't be read or electronically detected by enemies. SecureRF is developing active tags that can authenticate readers that attempt to communicate with them and encrypt all data communication under terms of the Small Business Information Research grant.

"The original scope is to develop active tags that can be put in places where you don't want to reveal your position," SecureRF CEO Louis Parks told RFID Update "That means the tags can't be located by an enemy beacon or reader."

Designs could be completed by May and prototype development could begin this summer. The grant allows the development phase for up to two years, which if successful would be followed by commercialization.

The USAF wants to use active RFID tags in combination with GPS tracking and sensors so it can monitor the location and conditions of assets. The combination of technologies could be used to create location histories for tagged items and to report asset locations when sensor conditions change, for example, if motion is detected.

SecureRF has embedded similar security capabilities into microcontrollers and battery-assisted passive RFID tags, according to Parks. Much of its development efforts will focus on integrating with USAF's legacy satellite-based tracking system, and in optimizing authentication and encryption functionality so it does not degrade the tag read speed or battery life.

"You can put strong security protocols on active tags today, but it eats up the battery. You see the life for multiple-year batteries going down to three to four months," Parks said.

"One of the innovative parts of this project is that security will actually run on the tag," Parks said. "The tag itself is an active participant in the security process. It's something like a cell phone, which makes active decisions on who to accept signals from."

The US Air Force will not have exclusive rights to any commercial technology that results from the project. Parks said there are potential commercial uses for the technology, including cargo tracking and high-value asset monitoring. There is clear commercial interest in such systems. EPCglobal is currently managing an international shipping trial that uses RFID to secure cargo containers and report locations (see EPCglobal Plans Multi-technology RFID Pilot).

SecureRF is not participating in the EPCglobal trial. However the company is a founding member of the RFID Security Alliance (RFIDSA), an industry group that formed earlier this year to promote understanding of RFID security needs and the development of appropriate technologies and practices (see New Association Highlights RFID Security Issues).

source: rfidupdate.com