Techcordance

Trucks

Ford Motor and Opera Software have announced a collaboration to add Web browsing to the Internet-enabled in-dash computers that Ford is installing in some of its trucks and vans.
The built-in Ford Work Solutions computer, which is being marketed to contractors, farmers, construction workers and business owners, is equipped with Microsoft Auto, a version of the Windows CE operating system.
In addition to accessing the Web through the Opera browser, the computer can run LogMeIn to enable remote access to office and home PCs. The computer also includes Garmin GPS navigation and is integrated into the vehicle cell phone. Internet access, through Sprint’s 3G network is available for $25 a month for a 25-megabyte plan or $50 for up to 5 gigabytes of data, which should be more than enough for the vast majority of users.

Growing Older

Facebook and Twitter users have wrinkles, torn hamstrings and many, many fillings. And increasingly, they’re beginning to complain about chillblains, varicose veins, and the Social Security system.
In just the last two months, the number of Facebook members over 35 has doubled. And the biggest demographic grouping isn’t 12-18. It’s 35 to 44.
While ComScore reported this week that 10 percent of Twitter users are between 55 and 64. That’s the same percentage as are 18-24. In fact, the majority of Twitter users are 35 or older.
And here’s Reuters telling us that 18- to 24-year-olds are 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter.
Which might mean that young people are groping their way back to some sort of physical bonding experiences. While older people, thinking that, perhaps, they are younger people, are diving into social networking like large Chicagoans on their first trip to a Kauai beach.

Battery Virus

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated how a genetically modified virus can be used to construct both the cathode and anode of a lithium-ion battery.Virus-built rechargeable batteries would have the same power capacity as the batteries used to power hybrid cars, project leader Professor Angela Belcher said in an MIT press statement on Thursday. In a paper published in the journal Science, the research team explained that they manipulated two genes of the M13 virus to equip the bacteriophage with peptide groups that attract single-walled carbon nanotubes at one end, while the other end of the virus was equipped with peptides that nucleate amorphous iron phosphate.
Combining the nanotubes with the iron phosphate created a highly conductive material that was used in a cathode, said the MIT statement. Battery energy was transferred in “a very short time”, as electrons could travel along the carbon nanotube networks and percolate throughout the electrodes.

Virus

The dreaded Conficker Windows worm phoned home as ordered Wednesday — but so far hasn’t launched a full-scale attack on the Internet.
Computer security experts breathed sighs of relief and satisfaction that their predictions that nothing would happen had proven true.
“One thing we’re not seeing is any mass malicious activity,” said Joris Evers, an analyst with McAfee. “The Internet today is working just as well as it was working yesterday.”

IBM-SUN

IBM is on the verge of acquiring Sun Microsystems, as we discussed last week. The pricetag is reportedly $7 billion. According to the NYTimes’s sources, “People familiar with the negotiations say a final agreement could be announced Friday, although it is more likely to be made public next week. IBM’s board has already approved the deal, they said.” After the demise of SGI, one has to wonder about the future of traditional Unix. If the deal goes through, only IBM, HP, and Fujitsu will be left as major competitors in the market for commercial Unix. And reader UnanimousCoward adds, “Sun only came into the consciousness of the unwashed masses with the company not being able to get E10K’s out the door fast enough in the first bubble. We here will remember some pizza-box looking thing, establishing 32 MB of RAM as a standard, and when those masses were scratching their heads at slogans like ‘The Network is the Computer.’