I used to love reading Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics magazines ... [they] were a great introduction to the mysterious workings of the electron. ...

In 1965, the first project I built from those magazines was a theremin. ... I discovered that having both a theremin and a guitar amplifier let me do some interesting experiments.

This document discusses IAB concerns that ongoing research is needed to further the evolution of the Internet infrastructure, and that consistent, sufficient non-commercial funding is needed to enable such research.

... Current funding levels for Internet research are not generally adequate, and several important research areas are significantly underfunded. This situation needs to be rectified for the Internet to continue its evolution and development.

... if commercial funding is the main source of funding for future Internet research, the future of the Internet infrastructure could be in trouble.

... for most of the topics in this document, relying solely on commercially-funded research would not be adequate.

... The net result of reduced U.S. Government funding and profit-focused, low-risk, short-term industry funding has been a sharp decline in higher-risk but more innovative research activities. Industry has also been less interested in research to evolve the overall Internet architecture.

... The DNS system, while it works well given its current constraints, has several stress points.

More than 1,500 public companies, grappling with the slow economy, cut their research and development budgets last year. Tech companies made the biggest cuts, slashing research spending an average 9% from 2001.

The biggest declines were at companies with some of the largest research departments, which had more to cut.

The cuts could slow innovation at corporate research departments that have created the transistor, laser and personal computer.

Lucent budgets about 12% of its revenue for Bell Labs and for other development. But when Lucent's revenue plummeted nearly 50% last year, it trimmed more than $1 billion from research spending.

Lucent rivals Ericsson, Nortel Networks, Alcatel and Motorola have also been battered by the telecom industry's bust, so are making big cuts in many departments -- including research.

A project to develop a promising new astronomy imaging technique that can also denude a fully clothed human or see through thick fog has generated its first picture.

The National Strategy for Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets serves as a critical bridge between the National Strategy for Homeland Security and a national protection plan to be developed by the Department of Homeland Security. The strategic objectives that underpin the national infrastructure and key asset protection effort include:

* Identifying and assuring the protection of those infrastructure and assets we deem most critical;

* Providing timely warning and assuring the protection of those infrastructures and assets that face a specific, imminent threat; and

The Knowledge Web (K-Web) is an interactive tool for understanding and inspiring the creation of ideas ...

By flying through its unique 3D nested globes, which combine space and time into a single intuitive construct, users can explore how seemingly unrelated people, places and disciplines interrelate in unexpected and unpredictable ways ...

... people are creating things having no idea what [others are] up to ... we clearly need to think systemically ...

... sometimes an idea will lie fallow for a while until a piece comes along to enable it ...

... doodling away, diagramming people and things [and] their connections ... "spaghetti diagrams" ...

... instead of my building the thing, hoping some community would adopt it, why not let a community build it?

... The K-Web is being built by a community, but is also a community building tool which can reintegrate people and schools.

... the ability to create material, not just passively consume it, is key.

The user can get the kind of information she wants in the way she wants it; moreover, the user can see how ideas of a given text evolved (or even mutated) through time, how they were situated in varying contexts, and their effects on our lives today.

The explosion of information continues to accelerate. Even in limited domains, the amount of available knowledge is usually too great for any one person or group of persons to grasp and utilize effectively.

Mapping of knowledge domains is a new scientific discipline aimed at using the developing speed and power of computation to chart, mine, analyze, sort, and display interesting and important aspects of (electronically available) knowledge.

If the Spanish Armada had had distributed information for shared awareness, we'd all be speaking Spanish now.

I witnessed one of the most exciting technologies in years ... GfK, Germany's largest market research firm, has a new device for measuring TV watching and radio listening habits.

It's a wristwatch!