All Blog Posts from Tech Talk

A Seattle-area tech company called Veratect is being given a lot of credit when it comes to early warnings about the spread of swine flu or H1N1. Using a combination of real and virtual intelligence-gathering, Veratect reportedly sent the first alerts to the Emergency Operations Center and Global Disease Detection Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's a theory that's echoed in an article from the Associated Press and a timeline of the outbreak in the Washington Post. In the latter example, the system designed to detect for such outbreaks is criticized for not reacting fast enough. It begs the question -- is there a bigger role for technology to play in these types of medical emergencies and how can the reliability be improved?

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I'm sure we all feel a sense of information overload at times, from Twitter to texting to telephones. As I like to say: freedom of speech is a wonderful thing -- it can just be a tad overwhelming. But all that data has spawned a rich resource for law enforcement who are increasingly gathering evidence for criminal cases from sites like MySpace and Facebook. Some police and fire departments are even using Twitter to write short updates about an emergency in the local community. Tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric we explore that growing trend, and even talk to one woman who took it upon herself to use MySpace to track down the boys who beat up her son. I hope you'll tune in to watch.

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Google Earth is getting a facelift. If you're a regular user, then you've noticed that about 70 percent of the Earth's surface has been, well, missing from the exploratory features. But with the latest update, Google Earth 5.0, people will now be able to dive into the deep blue from their desktop.

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This may come as no surprise to folks like me who play on a regular basis (some say TOO regular), but a new study finds that more than half of American adults play video games. And it's both men and women delving into digital worlds -- nearly an even split with 55 percent to 50 percent respectively. And while there's a higher percentage of younger adults playing, older adults are playing more often. There's still some social stigma attached to being an avid gamer (though I'm not ashamed -- far from it), and who can deny the satisfaction of such escapism? We'll have the story on tonight's CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Put down the controller long enough to watch.

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Breaking news in the video game world: BioWare, part of Electronic Arts, announced details today on an upcoming massively multiplayer online game based on the "Knights of the Old Republic" (KotOR) title called "Star Wars: The Old Republic." From the BioWare press release: "...players will explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Players can choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force."

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Massively multi-player online (MMO) games are increasingly popular these days. They all ask players to assume a new identity whether it's a sword-fighting warrior (e.g. "Warhammer Online") or simply an "alternate you" (e.g. "Second Life"). Among other companies, just this week game executives meeting in Japan announced that both Sony and Microsoft will get into the act by providing virtual worlds for owners of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But a new game from designer Jane McGonigal seeks to be quite different. With "Superstruct" McGonigal wants players to imagine their actual self in the year 2019. It's all part of a larger project for the Institute of the Future that aims to see where we're all headed and how we can handle the challenges.

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Our energy sources, they are a changin'. With apologies to Bob Dylan, it's absolutely true. Alternative ideas abound from solar to biomass to nuclear to wind and more. But which is best for the environment AND the most practical? Earlier this week, the CBS Evening News featured a story about solar options, Katie Couric did an interview with tycoon T. Boone Pickens about his porposed wind "farm," and tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric I'll have a story about some of the hidden complications and promises with wind power. We traveled to the town of Sweetwater, TX, and even climbed up inside a massive wind turbine to see firsthand what's happening in that state -- now the country's biggest user/generator of wind energy. I hope you'll tune in.

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I’ve written a lot about online safety including my latest article about Myths and Tips but I don’t pretend that my writings on this subject are all that much fun.

However a very creative groups of video producers, directors and actors have found a way to lighten up this subject with two new videos at ConnectSafely.org, the non-profit Internet safety forum I help operate.

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It's hard to imagine what's going on behind the scenes at peer-to-peer download site Qtrax, but it can't be good. Last week the media was quick to echo Qtrax's claim of a massive catalogue of free downloadable music. But by Monday night several record labels including Sony BMG, Warner, EMI Music, and Universal Music were reportedly hitting the pause button. Evidently these deals had either not been finalized, had expired, or had not been signed. The key stumbling block was the new ad-based (free) model that Qtrax is proposing. Where does the initiative go from here?

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Within an hour I found out through an e-mail circulated within the newsroom. I then contacted my wife (who is a fellow Australian) via Gmail on her iPhone. She already knew. Minutes later I was chatting with two of my friends online, and the word continued to spread within my immediate sphere of contacts and colleagues. Heath Ledger was dead at age 28. It's another reminder of how many people are plugged into their digital data wherever they are, and just how rapidly news can travel.

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